the alleged ethical payload underpinning all these movements is just pretext for plutocratic power.
bastiat (to my mind one of if not the greatest economist in history) really nailed this one.
you develop a culture of plunder.
legal codes are made to defend it.
and moral codes are made to lionize it and call it duty.
in the end, you are literally being told it is your duty to be fed into crony corporatist maw.
i am exceedingly pro free markets, free business, capitalism, and cooperation. but when this goes coercive, it all goes bad and you will ALWAYS land here.
I am largely in agreement with the 'one issue voter' paradigm (and in fact have been one for some time), but I fear that we are past the point of voting ourselves out of the particularly virulent strain of socialism that afflicts us.
First, it is said that money is the root of all evil. I disagree with the generality, but this is certainly true in the case of leviathan, which simply would not be possible without the dual engines of mass theft known as the income tax and (especially) the Federal Reserve.
These two infernal spigots are the lifeblood of the beast and we will never again be free until they are abolished, because should they remain, even were the State substantially reduced, the means for its resurrection would remain in place.
The regulatory state is the symptom. Legalized mass theft is the cause.
Which brings us to the electorate. Even if the substantial plurality of voters laboring under the delusion that "taxation is the price we pay for civilization" could somehow be enlightened, given the ruthlessness of our rulers, there is little doubt in my mind that leviathan would do anything - and I do mean anything - to protect its jugular.
Should anyone think that the demonization and persecution of our lot that is occurring now is bad, just wait until there is real traction behind starving the succubus.
As BTO once so wisely sang, "you ain't seen nothin' yet".
All this said, however, and as daunting as it may be, this is the fight of our time, it is the good fight, and is absolutely necessary for both ourselves and our posterity to fight it.
Great libertarian argument, far as it goes. I'm a libertarian, a real one IMHO, i.e. recognizing that "Libertarianism" inevitably yields socialism & tyranny unless it recognizes the citizenry's full property rights & control, including indirect ownership of property "owned" by *our* nation, our right to voting control as laid out in the Constitution, and the right to deny dilution of that control & ownership via mass immigration, invasion-occupation, and anchor-baby & birth-tourist abuse of the 14th Amendment - which the vast majority of "libertarians" falsely & dogmatically claim to be harmless, even beneficial, and essential to "free markets" & liberty. Hard to forget the head of a Left "Libertarian" dogma tank accused me of promoting "slavery" & "racism" when I made a case for immigration limits.
Unlimited immigration is like the board of a corporation giving away "free" shares & voting control along the border to *billions* of new shareholders. Deluge immigration & invasion are destroying the USA as a free republic along with liberty & quality of life in too many obvious ways to list here, and I believe that's the globalists' intent.
Open-immigration "Left" Libertarian happy-meal immigration dogma - to the extent it influences US immigration policy - inevitably yields globalism, socialism, mass wealth redistribution, destruction of income, wealth, liberty & quality of life which in some ways far eclipses that of communism: Unlike the USA, Sovs & ChiComs had little wealth to redistribute/destroy. Contrary to "L" dogma, it would still be destructive if we had no welfare. Worse, since without socialism even *more billions* could be "economically" accommodated at the cost of *our* liberty, quality of life, voting control etc. "Ls" who parrot "if we had no welfare" are often those who say you're a racist nativist rube if you think immigrants come here for freebies, not just to do jobs lazy Americans won't do. To the extent they're sincere about unlimited immigration dogma & not just shills for "cheap labor" interests et ilk, Left-"Ls" are the globalists' useful idiots.
So I'd have to be like Curly's brother Duke in City Slickers II. Curly held up one finger, meaning the secret to life is focusing on only one thing.
Can't find the sequel clip, but Duke held up 2 fingers: "Curly was wrong, there are 2 things: Whatever the hell this is, and gold. Let's go get it!"
I have to be at least a 2-Issue Voter. What you said, and strictly-limited fully-enforced immigration limits. Really at least a 3rd: Organizing-volunteering-donating-sacrificing to make sure enough folks vote with me & our votes are not stolen by fraud (coup d'etat). Without those 3 you cannot get "what you said".
the former is, to be sure, an issue but we can push back on it with ends to unsupervised mail in and more citizen supervision. ultimately, this should be verifiable and electronic using some sort of 2 sided system (possibly blockchain) that allows votes to be indelibly and verifiably cast only by those with permission.
the second, however, is half the topic of the piece. i explicitly state that you cannot trust donkey or elephant or the puppet show of issues over which they purport to fight. i'm therefore sort of confused that you see this as an unaddressed issue when it was a full blown central point.
i might recommend that you read this again with a bit more care.
this is the whole underpinning of why i advocate one issue voting and one and only one question:
“what will you do to reduce the federal bureaucracy and free us from its yoke?”
But gato, time after time people vote for individual candidates who talk the right talk, only to find that that candidate, once elected, is quickly captured, or if not, is unable to make any headway against an entrenched system. Sure, we can say "don't vote for the party, but the candidate," yet the results are ALWAYS negative.
which, again, is why you need to stop paying attention to that puppet show and become a one issue voter on dismantling the technocratic levers of power and why we need to vote for this en masse and especially for president.
get a president determined to cull the federal agencies (and who knows how) and you could make A LOT of headway.
trump was a terrible failure in this regard. he fed the beast handsomely instead of starving it.
In Trump’s defense (I am no longer a supporter after his handling of abdication of all things WuFlu & “vaccines”), while I agree he put spending on steroids, he did get us out of WHO, the Paris Climate Accord, Iranian nuke deal & forced NATO members to kick in more for their own defense. He made us energy independent, raised all boats economically, tried to build the wall & had the remain-in-Mexico deal, no wars, baby step peace in the Middle East, & more. But he was in a constant battle w/ the left, media, tech, swamp, et al. He was never afforded the honeymoon period all presidents had been granted before. For all of his faults, he was absolutely America & Americans first. When I think of how much more he could’ve done if he hadn’t been piled on w/ all of that.... I do not want him to run. I want DeSantis, not because he’s in one of the 2 parties but because on virtually every corrupt, left-loon policy or idea, he stands up & says none of that is going through on his watch. I think he could do a lot (maybe) w/defanging the bureaucracy
Let’s see.... what crisis could develop that would force a a POTUS to rely entirely on the advise and expertise of government officials , have to trust them to be truthful and trust them of course to “do no (unnecessary) harm”? Can you imagine if Trump had just said “ No shutdown, the economic and possibly personal consequences could be too severe” ??? The media ( oh and now he thinks he’s a Doctor/Scientist) and Democrats would have had him charged with mass murder in 24. It’s the main reason I entertain arcane theories about COVID and the on going stone walling and censoring of any contrary theories confirm my skepticism. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
To what end though? Trump got us out of some stuff, culled a bit, but as soon as he's out of power, the next dude undoes it all. We don't need a curating of the swamp (like Trump gave us) but a slash and burn.
I don’t disagree, AM. It’s whiplash every 2 & 4 years w/ a changing of corrupt & less corrupt guards. Trump had the 1st 2 years of Repub congress & THEY fought him & prevented some of his stuff. What would slash & burn look like?
It would be good if this could happen all at once. But, maybe it cannot. Vote for only those who agree with this plan. If they waver, get rid of them. We need to build a group of like minded recruits. There are so many of us on the government dole in one way or another now that this is a mighty task.
DeSantis is more of an experienced politician than Trump was. However, he will also be constantly attacked by the rabid left, the media, tech and the swamp. The question is how long he can continue to fight back against an overwhelming wall of opposition and resist them, or will they block him at every turn forcing him to capitulate to them much like Trump did in order to get anything at all done.
Imagine what he could have done if he wasn't such a narcissist and instead checked his massive ego at the door. Of course he never would have been elected in the first place if that was the case.
I’m afraid people hang on to Trump out of a habit of binary thinking. “I idolize Trump simply because I so dislike the other party”. Come
on people, surely we deserve better than a dysfunctional clown persona like him. When you have to list things that he did well you are making excuses for a bad choice simply because you think it’s less bad than the other choice, whatever you imagine it to be, or because you lack the imagination to envision something much better. It’s time to respect ourselves and the country enough to demand good choices, not just the lesser of evils. The US is acting like a battered wife, defending the wrongdoer out of fear and a lack of familiarity with the idea of good.
From one Pollyanna to another...that ain’t gonna happen. And at this point, other than his hard core base, I don’t think anyone idolizes Trump.... but since he’s been run out of town , his accusations and assessments of corruption and duplicitous “plots” have and are continuing to be proven true. Now if the media would actually report truthfully on the state of American people longing for something better.... but they don’t. Especially their total disregard for the poor, lower class, homeless, veterans, drug crisis, etc. I don’t disagree with you, I just don’t see how we break the stranglehold control the msm has on the population
I said I do not want him to run & Im not at all hanging on or making excuses. Do you deny that all of those were good for the country? I’d take America circa 2019 over the hell we’ve been in since 2021.
The lesser of two evils is what has gotten us into this mess over and over again. The lesser of two evils is the lie that perpetuates the partisanship that creates the swamp that gives the Beast its place to hide. As far as Mr. Trump my feelings are that they failed to control him with bribes or threats, which puts him in the top 1% of leaders. But in the end they just tricked him.
In the US, reference ballotpedia.org -- search for your state and read through all information for candidates, as well as ballot initiatives (local news and MSM has failed at informing about initiatives). Active candidates may provide information, from survey results (Ballotpedia's questions) to providing links to public and private social media pages.
Somewhat fortunately, a lot of the third party candidates in my state this year are candidates I can support. I'm not optimistic about their chances of winning, but at least I can vote *for* someone and not against, thanks to doing some research.
Also, check out past candidate information on Ballotpedia. In one case, I'll be writing in a third-party candidate who has campaigned in previous elections, but is not running this year.
And yet, look how scared they were of him for his daring to reevaluate and look to change SOME of their regime. They do not take this sort of thing lightly.
Whoever takes on this role needs to be beyond brave and somehow beyond the manipulation of those who finally found the Achilles heel of Trump.
Excellent. Yes and amen....speaking of amen, what needs to be addressed is the spiritual. We in the west are suffering a deep spiritual malaise, which is part and parcel of this decline....And not solved by voting.
The tides are changing, Napoleon. Many sense a revival of traditional values including religion. So you might have been a crazy loon a few years back, but not now.
After Wokeism dies (which it will), people will be looking for something real that give their life meaning.
Replied to @Aaron Ferguson on this thread. Not sure you get thread breakout update notification? You might be interested in the mini meditation? See post.
I agree. This missing foundation is fundamental to meaningful change and growth in our systems on the planet.
I also feel as Napoleon does. And I wonder... lots of things. Few of my imagined precedent situations before a great consciousness shift occurs are pretty.
I’ve started to think dire is what it will take. Sad. But that is ego.
I don’t know if you guys are into Energy Is Everything / Everything is Energy? Thoughts included. (Quantum physics. The new science behind ancient truths re laws of nature and the universe. Fascinating. The mathematics is beyond me and it’s hard to wrap my head around English language explanations. But occasionally a “portal”(?) in my waking consciousness will open and an insight into something seemingly simple will be illuminated and clear. Unfortunately, almost as quickly clarity becomes obscured once more as the opening slams shut darn it!)
Anyway, an experiment for you, a quickie that meshes with both my waking consciousness and that part of my consciousness that is everything, one, everlasting and ineffable. If it works for you in a similar way or another beneficial way, great! If not, discard and move on.
A 10-second to one minute “meditation”. Longer if you wish. Picture mother earth 🌍 surrounded by and penetrated to her core with brilliant golden white light. That’s it.
The point: Light. The antithesis of dark. High vibration energy flooding the planet to counter the dark forces/low vibration energies. (Let’s face it, we know it’s/they’re here. Seen any attempts at stirring and sustaining fear recently? Mm hm.)
If’n it feels right, pass it on. It’s so simple. Imagine if 2 billion people (more!) did this quickie multiple times throughout their day. !!!
Open to ideas and discussion. Probably off this board. Lmk.
I think Linda is saying (point 2) that neither candidate is going to support your desired goal. There was no mention or plan for finding/recruiting viable candidates. I suspect citizens will need to step in, and run for office themselves (as Independents) at state and local levels.
I would add that re “the other party”...that they are not quite so lacking in common sense as the party that currently is succeeding at taking our rights away and fashioning the country into a bureaucratic gulag of “ we know best and you will be happy, even though that involves a lot of misery.” It’s why the majority of Independents migrate towards the party that doesn’t scold Independents...
It is a rare politician that wants to take on a truly "Constitutional" outlook on the government because it involves voting themselves out of power, and not many politicians are into that. What they should be doing is spending most of their time vetoing and rolling back laws rather than being "lawmakers." The irony is that the one job that government should be able to handle is making sure free enterprise remains unregulated in such a way as to allow max competition between businesses so we can all benefit from innovation and moving forward.
I won't touch election integrity, aside from saying that it's hard to believe Biden had more votes than Barack Obama, even factoring in Trump Derangement Syndrome. The fact that any questioning of the premise behind what is called the "Big LIe" is telling all by itself.
El Gato Malo did call the fight between the major parties as a "puppet show." What I think he was getting at is that we need to make it clear that whoever we vote for has to know that draining the swamp is very important. The swamp is the standing water that is the deep state,and dismantling it, the bloatware of government, is their primary job.
I share with you a sense of helplessness concerning our system. The officials voted in and out of office are far from effective at this. We need to run a relay race, on this, and need a lineup of officials willing to do the work over the long game of dismantling and keep dismantled these huge unwieldy mechanisms of government. We have managed to create a vast unelected state that is evergreen and functions in spite of the illusion of a democratic republic.
This is the trunk / ear / leg / belly / tail / small part of the elephant in the room. The Fed is a child of the bankers / families who have run the world with impunity for hundreds of years. My understanding is that the BIS is the institution that needs to be blown apart. Until that happens no election, selection, appointment or other political, financial or corporate office (facism defined, yeah?) will remain untouched by this influence. I don’t have the answer on how to accomplish this. If this is not the peak of the pyramid I suspect it is ever so close. As with blindness regarding this ongoing medical farce people/s need to learn the truth. First step. Heavens this process is achingly slow. Crazy optimist in me trusts that somehow, we’ll get it done. Triple tin foil hat stuff: I hear there are White Hats working from the inside. Deep inside. No details, all hearsay. I’ll gladly direct the Light of God their way though, Amen. Who the heck knows??
Bank of International Settlements, the central bank of all the central banks. The granddaddy of control mechanisms. The US could dismantle the Federal Reserve but I suspect a moot exercise because the tentacles of the upper tier institution penetrate so deeply. I don’t have an inside look, only an aerial view of the framework. I’m going to sound like a nut job but it almost feels like there needs to be some higher order intervention to get the system -multiple systems- on a humanity-supportive track. The cabal has no such interest. Apart from our numbers, 7+ Bn, they hold the controlling cards - every system infiltrated/captured. ?? No easy answers. No definitive answers here for sure! I send God-light to the planet 🌎 in the mind’s eye. Thought energy is a thing. Quantum. Light vs dark - and these f’ers are *dark*. Can’t hurt is how I see it!
To be a single issue voter in a two party system feels a bit meaningless, even though I don't doubt it's the best way to go.
Same donors, general consensus on many issues and time and time again anyone can see that little changes.
The big benefit Republicans have currently is that they are in opposition. So they get to point out more clearly what is broken and wrong. Whereas the democrats have to pretend things are going well, that we can trust them.
It's not like the Republicans don't receive the same funding or are emmeshed in the same corrupt system.
1. There *are* many "free and fair" elections in this country in the sense that the majority elects its candidate. But not all, not by a long shot, and not in the sense that the "final" vote count is the true one, since vote fraud is rampant and almost never punished in any way, let alone as the attempted or actual coup d'etat it is (which should deterred with hard prison time or the death penalty). "Free and fair" ones as described above include those so lopsided, watched & defended that they're in the traitors' interest not to steal. Too obvious, blows their ability to steal elections.
2. The other major party is *not* just as bad as the DemComs, and it *can* be captured IF people stop making & promoting demoralizing psyops and self-serving excuses for apathy, for doing nothing, for refusing to sacrifice, volunteer, organize and donate to save the USA. Same story for Tiger Talkers (often agent provocateurs) who yap about how "the ballot box failed so now it's time the bullet box". Another excuse to do nothing and shirk the duty of citizens to sacrifice. Those who are not agents have usually never really lifted a finger or donate a penny to save the USA.
1. The problem is that there is the perception of "one version of reality." What do you do when media, the entertainment industry, the education system, and what is perceived as "reality" is hijacked by the side that says the elections are "free and fair." As I am now often repeating, you can tell it's propaganda because there is a mantra associated with it "Safe and effective" "Free and Fair" "Stay home/Stay Safe." If something is governed by the truth, you don't need a mantra surrounding it. If I hear those things, I almost feel like adopting a "zombie-like" stance and saying things like "Milk, it does a body good" and "McDonalds, because you deserve a break today."
2. At the same time while Republicans are not as bad as Dems, how much are they really helping? This is like saying that Coca Cola Light isn't as bad as Coca Cola, yet both contain sugar. I am sure the diabetic would be happy to know his leg won't get amputated quite as quickly.
What do you define as "lifting a finger, sacrificing, or donating to serve the USA?" I wish Rand Paul lived in my district, as I would spend time and effort supporting him. But what about my senators and officials here in Georgia? Our governor here has been a big disappointment, he talked out of both sides of his mouth during Covid in order to placate both sides of the issue. I know that the pro Covid regulation people could not have been happy with him as it allowed many us unmasked and unvaccinated to continue in life without restriction or obstacle unless we wanted healthcare or an Uber Ride. And I am certainly not happy with Kemp saying "You don't have to wear a mask, but if you do, here is the correct way to do it." If I was governor, I would have placed the mask firmly on my head or worn it as a goté under my chin.
While "NOT" as bad, is better than BAD, shouldn't we be setting our sights much higher?
My question is, what do the Republicans offer? Less Tyranny? I agree that there has to be a reality-based solution to this. The libertarian ideal of no government is not realistic and I doubt many libertarians believe it anyhow, but there has to be a realistic version o this that is "At little government as possible." Certainly the idea that the people in government as public servants and not government overlords that believe they know better than you what is best for you, would be a step in the right direction.
One of the many problems with government is that when they do hand out entitlements, they get the mistaken impression that they know best who the recipients should be. THEY DO NOT.
As I said, clearly not all elections are "free and fair" in an honest sense. Not even close. Many are free and fair ENOUGH in the sense I've discussed.
Referring to Republicans as THEY, as if they're all in on the game, serves as a common excuse and rationalization for doing nothing, evades responsibility for failing to lift a pinky in primary elections to determine WHO "THEY" ARE.
"If only so an so lived in my district/state" is an invalid excuse used by many for not donating to candidates they trust & believe in. Any citizen in any district or state can donate to any federal candidate in any other district or state. And since they vote on issues that affect all states, electing them, or even just forcing the enemy to outspend us 10-1 and divert money that could've been used to elect other traitors is as critical to your liberty as donating to a good federal candidate who reps your district. This is even true for state candidates in other states, since they have indirect power over federal elections through redistricting, stopping theft of federal elections etc.
The problem is that once "free and fair" is called into question, it really doesn't matter "how much." This is like "mostly peaceful protests" while you see buildings being burned to the ground.
I don't think people on here think of Republicans as "they" but rather politicians as "they." You can tell a person is a "they" when "they" are coercing you to do something. While this can be an excuse, it can also be a frustration that invites invention. All I know is I had close family members come visit me back in April and both were wearing masks, and my private residence does not have any mask related mandates associated with it.
Politicians have been making unconstitutional laws and have yet to be held accountable for it. This needs to stop. The ballot box is not working, as every time new candidates are brought into office, very often they either do nothing, or enact more unconstitutional laws, or we have politicians that completely ignore the Constitution and go the executive order or other loophole route to enact more unconstitutional laws.
I am willing to vote for any candidate regardless of party who votes "LESS IS MORE" in terms of government. But I am of the belief that we can do more. I think throwing money at the issue is a rationalization not to do something more substantial. Really, what I could do is volunteer for a candidate if I feel strongly about it, or I could write a blog, or comment on posts about it, but money, in my opinion, is really not that effective. Right now in Georgia I Stacy Abrams has a ton of money backing from Hollywood. But no amount of funding is going to make me vote in Crazy.
The problem with your idea about voting in a candidate in a region that I am not part of is that our federalism government is not built to be like that. It is meant to be broken down into smaller regions to accommodate the population of hat given region. Who am I to say what is better for your area of the world? Do I know you? Imagine the hubris! The one exception to that is for politicians who think exactly in this manner. If you have a list and their voting record, I'll be glad to look at it.
Finally, your assertion is the problem. The Federal government needs to be decentralized, and dismantled. If you can show me where these candidates intend that, then I am behind them.
Also, it is a very real criticism of government that a lot of what is enacted is by unelected bureaucrats.
I suppose that money is a big deal for the masses that are easily swayed by mantras and campaign ads, but I don't care how much money you sink into a PSA that tells me vaccination is the perfect response to a hurricane natural disaster, I think your crazy.
I think there is a better answer than throwing money at the problem because we see so often in government how throwing money at the problem rarely does anything good. They keep throwing money at education, has that made the education system any better?
"The problem with your idea about voting in a candidate in a region that I am not part of is that our federalism government is not built to be like that. It is meant to be broken down into smaller regions to accommodate the population of hat given region. Who am I to say what is better for your area of the world?"
My idea? How is it my idea? That's what the federal government IS and always has been. Reps don't only vote on issues affecting the states they live in. Those that do are called STATE reps. Federal reps vote on issues that affect YOU whether you like it or not. That's called REALITY. Pretending they don't doesn't change it. If you don't think people should help good out-of-state candidates, you're shooting yourself and the rest of us in the foot.
Don't like it, want to change it, voting L will never do it. All that does is spoil races and elect even worse candidates - communists. Perhaps you think a RINO or conservative that doesn't keep all his promises is just as bad as a communist. If so, crack a history book.
Voluntarism is terrific. It's a good example of "sacrifice". Time = money. Have you ever done it?
But the notion that good candidates don't need money, just volunteers, that money makes no difference, reveals a lack of experience with campaigns and how things really work. A good candidate doesn't need to match the spending of a communist, but they need SOME funding. I've seen candidates like Dave Brat beat entrenched RINOs with a relatively small warchest, some of which I donated, but he did HAVE a warchest. In Arizona, Blake Masters is being outspent 8-1 by commies and RINOs, and he may beat the commie anyway, barely, but he HAS a warchest, probably $10 million by now. There's a reason so money goes into campaigns; it's necessary and it works.
You keep excusing things by asserting that's the way they are and have been. Then, sadly, the government has always been unconstitutional?
Just because reps vote on issues affecting not only the states they live in, does not mean they should, or that such a thing is constitutional. I certainly would not want California politicians voting on things that won't fly down her in Georgia and vice versa. Isn't it very clear after three years that one-size-fits-all is clumsy and a horrible way to run a country the size and scope as ours? Wouldn't more autonomy broken up into smaller areas and regions be better than more central control?
While federal reps do vote on issues that affect me whether I like it or not, and that is reality, that doesn't mean it is true. There are a lot of things in this life that are real but predicated on falsehood. I can say repeatedly that the vaccine is safe and effective..and that mantra is real, but it is not true. That more people adopt the idea that it is, also is not true. Truth has no bearing on the amount of people who believe it.
The problem here is misinterpreting reality as true. But I understand your world view, and that you want to use ad hominem attacks who do not believe as you do. I will accept the moniker of ignorant and a wishful thinker, and you can safely discard whatever it is I have to say based on it.
I noticed how you didn't engage with the definitions of the word "libertarian" and notice the dichotomy of what the "reality" of libertarian party is.
Both major parties are equally bought by predatory globalist corporations, and neither will do a thing to shut off that gravy train. Both parties do their damndest to make sure voting is not fair--it's just that they each have different methods of doing this. Sacrificing, donating and organizing do not do diddly squat to change anything, because the rot is much higher up than that. Our country is run by a shadow government controlled by our security agencies. It doesn't matter a damn who "wins" an election, including the presidency, because decisions are not made by elected officials, and the elected officials we do have are controlled and mollified by their own gravy train. Presidents are puppets, and if they try to go off script, they are quickly brought back into line. No candidate who cannot be controlled is allowed to progress past a certain point. Let me ask you something. When Pompeo laughed and said "We would never let that happen" to the notion of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister of the UK, do you think he was kidding? He was not. We control every election on earth. Did you think they neglected to think of controlling our own?
Tarring every single R with the same brush, e.g. Marjory Taylor Green & Steve Bannon, is a ridiculous, simplistic, self-serving excuse for doing nothing. Might as well be a Deep State psyop to demoralize as many loyal Americans as possible - if it's not one. Serves Deep State ends, so useful idiot's another option.
Demoralizing conservatives to do nothing ensures that DemComs don't even HAVE to steal elections. At least MAKE them steal them. At least TRY.
If you really believe there's nothing we can do, what are you DOING here? Why bother demoralizing everyone else? Does public rationalization & misery loves company make you feel better about selfish apathy?
Do you have a solution to save the USA that you're hiding from everyone?
Voting "Libertarian" sure won't do it. The "L" stands for Loser (and spoiLer). And if there's no free elections, "Ls" would never be allowed to win anyway.
You remind me of my mother, who only wanted to watch happy movies. The purpose is not to demoralize, but to tell the truth. I also demoralize plenty of liberals, believe me. If people do not know the truth, then they keep mindlessly following the narrative, which is "vote religiously, because that is the only way to change things." But that is just what deep state operatives want people to do, because then they do not overthrow the system. The solution is massive civil unrest and refusal to cooperate, along with shining a light on the way things run.
First, when speaking in generalizations, there will always be "What about" pushback.
Maybe we should do a line by line analysis of officials in office and see how they voted. My first indicator is, the one who votes "no" on the most legislation wins in my opinion. Second runner up is the official who wants to repeal the most laws. The response to "Build Back Bloatware" is "Build Back Basic."
So wait, you are against demoralizing (edited) those who vote for major parties, but demoralizing (edited) who vote for minor ones is fair game? If there was a Conservative that ran on the platform of less government, and at the very least stood by that by vetoing most legislation out of hand (this should be the default in my opinion) Then I would love to vote for that candidate. If the candidate ran on the platform of "Working toward removing myself from office" I could, if it were possible, vote for them every day and twice on Tuesdays.
The solution is dismantling government. If it happens through executive order, repealing legislation, or judicial ruling, so much the better, but it needs to happen. It can be done peacefully. We should be going through legislation on the books and simply eradicating and repealing laws that are unconstitutional. That would be a great idea. I imagine a great many laws are unconstitutional.
I think peaceful non compliance is also possible, and it has worked. I was ready to have my ass thrown out of Kroger if they pushed the mask issue on me. We should also record ourselves peacefully non complying as well. Because the media loves to hype the irrational screaming insane person who refuses to comply. Whereas most of us I believe are more into peaceful, polite, noncompliance. I know that I am.
"you are against demoralizing major parties, but demoralizing minor ones is fair game?"
Who's talking about demoralizing the party itself? I'm talking about demoralizing potential voters, donors, activists, organizers into doing nothing instead.
"Libertarians" are nothing but Losers and spoiLers for the reasons I laid out. They really don't even try to win. I ran a college Libertarian club long ago, was campaign manager for several libertarian campaigns, ran a Libertarian presidential office, and have followed "L" candidates closely over the decades, including New Mexico clown Gary Johnson and Massachusetts RINO gun grabber Weld, so I'm confident I know whereof I speak. And they're not real libertarians anyway. As discussed, they're de facto globalists and socialists. Is that what you want?
The only hope is for loyal conservatives to take over the Republican party, purge the corrupt RINOs, and align the party with true Republican principles.
It sounds like you are projecting. You are doing the very thing that you are against people who are critical of Republicans as doing. Replace Libertarian with Republican and it is almost an identical criticism.
I guess I am a loser then, not that I want to lose, I think if anything has demonstrated the need for less government it is the last three years.
Dave Smith, who strikes me as libertarian doesn't sound like he wants to lose, he also doesn't sound like a globalist or socialist. But then again, he isn't a candidate either. But it sounds to me like there has been a recent sea change in the libertarian party recently for the reasons you outlined. You're right in that the examples you mentioned are not libertarians. I would like to think most libertarians agree with you.
Your assertion sounds almost like the bandwagon logical fallacy. "Most people, or a majority of people act this way, so if you aren't going to join them, then your ideas don't matter at all."
How about no? No that I will not join a majority if that majority does not represent my views.
A big part of sacrifice is doing something on principle because it is the right thing to do regardless of how popular it is. I am sorry that your experience as a libertarian has left you so hopeless in that regards. It's not an easy road to have principles that go against the very way reality currently is. If I lived in China, I'd probably already be in a quarantine camp.
If I could, I would run for office, and continuously propose more and more absurd laws hopelessly clogging the system until people finally understood how arbitrary and capricious our current society has become. If enough lawmakers did this, maybe we would enact a law that made it difficult to create absurd laws.
I am sure you know of what you speak in terms of libertarians, but that doesn't mean that is all that is, or could be. If convincing people that wearing masks has taught me anything, it's that there is far more possible than we believe.
Loyalty has nothing to do with it. If you nail down most conservatives, you will find in a lot of ways they align with libertarian thinking. I think there was a recent podcast with Dave Smith who was doing this very bit of deconstruction over a criticism of libertarians by a conservative. The problem was they were criticizing libertarians but the points they were making were the very talking points of the libertarian party.
Finally, it is not a throw away vote to vote libertarian if the opposition makes the assertion that "If you vote libertarian it could cause the opposing side to win." That sounds like the libertarian vote in that case is very important. If a few percentage points make that much a difference, then I would say it is a great reason to vote libertarian.
If it is a throwaway vote, and does not matter, then why care at all what the libertarian or independent does?
Here's the rub though: we know the swamp that generated the tyranny enacted on us were not voted into powe and thus can equally be removed from power in a similar fashion. Aside from the one issue for voting, this is something that I would love to look into finding the answer to.
Also "Jury Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box" sounds suspiciously like a mantra, which means the truth again, is more nuanced and complex.
I've received more than one dose of gubmint bureaucratic bullspit in my life that had a profound impact on my life, person and property.
In the 90's, my rural TN lake home was next to my parent's home. Where we were, every property had a gully on the street for drainage, and all driveways were on a large concrete pipe covered with gravel or asphalt. I mean EVERY property.
Both our pipes were degrading and needed replacement. So we hired a local Bubba with a back hoe/front loader to dig them out and replace with a nice, new pipe, and they did an excellent job.
A couple of days later, a pencil-necked drone with a bad polyester tie shows up, a representative of the EPA, and red-tagged both our drives and mandated a $2000 fine. WHY? Because when it rains, water flows in the gully downhill into the lake, which was part of the Tennessee River, and therefore "navigable waters subject to EPA jurisdiction. He claimed the gully was navigable waters. Even when dry. Like a boat could float on a 6' wide gully.
It took $17,500 in lawyers fees, two years, and two "administrative hearings" in front of more bad polyester tied pencil-necked EPA bureaucrats to clear it all up in out favor, and to get a semblance of an apology from the EPA for overreaching. Even the County Building guys sided with us. THEY did not require a permit, but the EPA did? WTF? In the meantime we could not use the driveway, and when it rained, the water in the drainage gully flowed as normal.
I think the recent SCOTUS ruling against the EPA has a direct correlation with what we went through.
Back in The Day when my healthcare business was exploding, we added office space that included more restrooms. Keep in mind this industry is female dominate, and our office was 90+% female, that is nurses, LPN's, therapists, nurses aids, etc.
So the restrooms were installed, and suddenly in rolls a dude with an attitude in a wheelchair. He rolls to the restrooms with a frickin' tape measure, and announces the restroom doors are 5/8" too narrow, the stalls doors 1/2" too narrow, and sink 1/4" too tall. He blocks the doors, not allowing anyone to use the restroom, makes a call, and in 5 minutes an ADA "inspector" arrives, red tags the new restrooms, and files a complain for "discrimination" with the ONLY remedy full architectural plans from THEIR architect, full approvals from all manner of ADA boards, and complete tearing out and rebuilding of the restrooms. It cost me $30,000 to battle these ass#oles, six months, and then one construction laborer a day to make all the changes WITHOUT gutting the rest rooms.
In another of my businesses, we had a lease on a county GA airport property. We needed to least the empty land next to us for expansion, and that lease needed to be approved by the Airport Authority. Normally, this is a rubber stamp. But in this case, one of the Authority members was running for County Commission. This is a very large county in FL. This one member kept asking for more documentation before he'd approve the lease (which was really a nothingburger.) I was going to pave the area for more aircraft tie-downs, space the airport badly needed.
Suddenly, a campaign representative of the hold-out authority member showed up and pretty much implied approval would be a lot quicker if I made a substantial donation to his campaign. I refused, told a reporter friend at a large local news radio station, it caused a kerfuffle, the guy resigned his AA position, lost his election...and I finally got the lease approved.
I also has two encounters with the esteemed Anthony Fauci in this period, but that's an entirely different story.
These people can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.
I have friends with small businesses who spent $30K (20 years ago !) on fines and plans for similar ADA compliance. Often driving them out of business. In Los Angeles county the only people able to approve building permits are large, connected construction companies. Private land owners pretty much just don't build or improve their property. My Dad was driven out of private medical practice in the 90s by onerous Medicare billing regulations, it literally cost him more to comply than the amount he was billing.
I am absolutely a 1 issue voter on reducing the size of government. Every problem we have today can be traced to large, irresponsible lawless bureaucracies. They literally suck the life out of human society.
It was highlighted on the Adam Carolla podcast that even celebrities have issues improving their own property. Joel McCale of Community and Talk Soup fame talks about tall the issues he ran into while trying to install a pool on his property. Your property is your property, and government should serve to protect the integrity of private ownership rather than punish those who want to incur in the injustice of owning something.
I wonder if that recent manifesto about "owning nothing and feeling great about it" is in reference to how much of a hassle it is in certain states like California to actually own anything. They have regulated all the fun and joy out of owning anything and make it all the chore and hassle of owning things.
My company was one of the first and largest providers of home IV and high-tech nursing services to the HIV/AIDS community in the late 80's-early 90's, mainly because few wanted to be involved. My mom's business partners that I knew my whole life were Log Cabin gay men, so I had a front row seat to that particular crisis.
I sat on several HIV/AIDS community non-profit boards, one in particular very large and well-managed. Of course these organizations were always begging for money using whatever tactics available.
So in 1991 (I think) Fauci came down for a presentation to the Board. At the time he was pushing the idea that HIV was spread by contact, such as door knobs. Of course folks thought that was ridiculous, said so, but Fauci held his ground. Definitely community spread by contact, he said. Oh, he wouldn't shake any hands, even mine. He had a handkerchief to touch things, like doorknobs.
I'm 6'2". Not a giant, but a large human. Fauci was like a tiny dwarf.
I was not impressed one bit. I thought he was full of Pelosi.
The second encounter was a Board meeting of the same organization, maybe 1990. This time he was pimping for volunteers for a massive study of AZT. My company has 1200 patients at the time, so clearly we were a target-rich environment, and we agreed to give access to volunteer patients if their physician (there were only like 2-3 docs in the area who had an HIV/AIDS practice) agreed. I had no dog in the fight, but know how desperate these poor guys were, so had no problem in helping...even though I didn't trust that Fauci dwarf as far as I could throw him....but kept my thoughts and gut feelings to myself.
Turned out AZT was a killler, and Fauci and his cronies knew it long before. It was also $8000 a year at the time...then the most expensive drug EVER...and few insurance companies would pay for it. Fauci didn't care about the cost. Besides, he was bestest buddies with the Big Pharma Burroughs Wellcome outfit that produced AZT.
It was also very toxic, but the good ole' FDA said "the benefits outweigh the risk." Where have we heard that before?
So Fauci was out pimping a drug that was toxic...it depleted bone marrow in immunocompromised patients, and killed t4 white cells... killed thousands, gave marginal if any benefits, and was the most expensive drug ever produced at the time.
What I understand about the toxicity of Remdesivir is similar to that of AZT...and Fauci pimped both.
Fauci strikes me as a bit OCD, even haphephobic, or germaphobic, and I mean this in the actual sense like "an irrational fear of being touched." I would immediately note this about him and would have thought (Well, I am not about to listen to anything he says). We should all pitch in and buy him a hermetically sealed transparent ball he can roll around in like the hamster in the movie "Bolt."
100%. The current "democracies" are no longer fit for purpose. The entire establishment needs tearing down and building back SMALLER. Much, much, smaller and much less autonomous. Politicians needs to act like the public servants they are, acting in accordance with instructions from the people, not in their own self interest.
i see it as somewhat differently in that the real damage lies in the failure of the republic that placed the primacy of the rights of the individual above the state and the demos.
pure democracy is one of the nastiest and more irresistible forms of tyranny ever devised. it's just 3 wolves and a sheep voting about what's for dinner in which the oppressive instinct always has the backing of the mob.
you cannot base a system on presuming the "politicians will act well or be good people." they never will.
we must, to my mind, instead devise systems that keep these bad people from doing harm. no group can run a government this powerful well.
we must take this power away and reclaim the primacy of the rights of the individual.
If you have not already, I highly recommend Thomas DiLorenzo's *The Real Lincoln*, where he documents how "Father Abraham" destroyed the voluntary Union of the founders and birthed the leviathan welfare-warfare empire that now enslaves us at gunpoint.
He makes a compelling argument that the generally accepted and understood antebellum right of the States to nullify and secede stood as a bulwark against Federal usurpation.
I find it hopeful that even the blue totalitarians toyed with the idea during the reign of the Orange Menace, even if they quickly reverted to the "rebel slavers" rhetoric once the sceptre passed to Comrade Brandon.
“you cannot base a system on presuming the ‘politicians will act well or be good people.’ they never will.”
Ah, I think there was a time we had a better chance - not huge - but at least, better. This was a time when people policed themselves from within. They believed in God, in the afterlife, and that one should aspire to faith, family, morals, community. Of course we did not always live up to it, and oft did poorly, but it was the bullseye (actually, the real bullseye is a triple twenty), and effort was made with varying degrees of success. Community and family standards were subtly omnipresent in our minds (Ie: I don’t want to be the first in my family to get a divorce).
But now we are in a post-Christian era where there are fewer standards (I don’t want to be the first in my family to have 3 divorces). Many no longer police from within. Seals trained by TV, movies, social media, msm. What was unthinkable 60 years is now mainstream acceptable. And given our direction, what is unthinkable now will be mainstream 60 yrs from now (or 10 - or 2).
In the process we lost sight of who we are: Creatures fearfully and wonderfully made. With precious inalienable, sovereign rights. With freedom to live out our lives and allotted years without being manipulated, bullied, and lied to by those who have sought power and wealth and do not honour God. When will we have our Howard Beale / Greta moment, rising up, joining forces: HOW DARE YOU! We’re mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore!
Beautiful comment! There was a time lying was a sin and being known as a liar was shameful. Now a lie no longer exists. It's just mis/disinformation, misspeaking, the "narrative" or "fact checked."
Lies are the basis of EVERYTHING that is bad in life.
The Fed is the lynchpin. Without the spigot, none of it can be funded or enforced.
That issue, unfortunately, does not capture people's imaginations. And the flesh-eating bacteria of micro-regulation is honed for GoF one cottage industry at a time, so that there is never a single mass at a single moment of people realizing that they are being stripped to the marrow.
I see this as a two-fronted project. One, re-arrange the deck chairs (voting if you do that sort of thing, public haranguing on the single issue either way - there is a reason that Donkey and Elephant are willing to put aside all differences to destroy team Porcupine, and to infiltrate it relentlessly with black- and yellow-striped wolves who are "cool with just THIS regulation because it's really pro-self-actualization, bro, and that's, like, the TRUE freedom.")
Two - keep building, building, building, the better thing, no matter how hard the bastards try to get you down. Start companies that they destroy. Start homeschool groups that they attack. Start health practices that they ban. Show them that it is your children, and your children's children, that matter to you. And, as you do it, do the REAL thing: build the community. Trade in gold backs and BTC. Make the invisible markets. Give people a place to go when the system crumbles, so that they will not fear, so deeply, the disintegration.
Make sure there is something good on the other side of Chesterton's fence.
i think the schools may play a bigger role here than people realize.
they have become indoctrination factories for the conjured moral justifications and crusades that underpin so much of this plunder. taking them away from the state and placing choice in the hands of families fixes this.
and it's a real issue, simple, and one that actual leaders could win on. the benefits to learning and to freedom would be vast.
it's a longer game, but look how well the blob played it over the last 30 years.
I agree; they are poison. But, they rely on the teat. Dry up the milk and they will lose their power. If they had to operate purely on local, tax-generated budgets, cash flow only, they’d get responsive and lean real quick.
Saifedean Ammous does an excellent job of explaining to be the morally corrupting nature of fiat. If money were real, schools would be real, I believe. We have dishonorable people in charge of the money, and it has given us a dishonorable society.
In my more pessimistic moments, I muse that if voting could make a difference, it'd be illegal.
They seem to have chosen a different route to the same goal, though: instead of making voting illegal outright, they've opted to water it down with untold numbers of dubious ballots getting added in to the totals.
Criminals are generally lazy, so my guess is they would much rather lull us into complacency. We know that to some degree elections work if candidates are pushed off the ballot. After all, if voting is rigged. then why care who is on the ballot? Wouldn't it be better to allow them on the ballot and give the public the veneer of more choice?
There are libertarian candidates, but I share your thoughts on this one. If they truly are two parties represent distinction without difference, then a libertarian candidate is the answer as a vote on the two other parties is a "throw away" vote as they often cast such aspersions on those who would vote for the third party.
And in NY they managed to keep the Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe off the ballot in the upcoming race for governor. Because democrats want free and fair elections, or some such bullshit
It's a common thread that the title of something usually means the opposite. If it's "free and fair" elections, watch out for widespread fraud. If it's "safe and effective" vaccines they are unsafe and ineffective..or harmful. If it is "inflation reduction" then watch as prices keep climbing. Watch out for the day when there is a "government reduction act" because we might as well brace for the impact.
Great Post. But you offer only concepts. Great ones. but not a plan. R.Buckminster Fuller said: 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.' You suggest amending the existing system. I think it's too far gone for that. As you detail, the layer upon layer of corruption is total. So the real challenge is 'what's the new model ?' Certainly not 'Revolution's', as they are 'the complete turning of a wheel' (make a dot at the top off a wheel and revolve it one 'revolution'... and it's right back where it started from, isn't it ? AKA: the names change but the game remains the same. Out with the 'old boss', now meet 'the new boss') Maybe it's just everyday citizens choosing differently... creating a plan on the fly ? It would be great if there were Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton types to create a new road map. But they don't seem to be in evidence ? Certainly a quiet EVOLUTION with a nice roadmap would be most welcome. But to my most essential point: the US GOVERNMENT will not assist, lead or participate in such. They way it's all set up now, is that we are semi-slaves to it. And it doesn't want to see that change. So ? You have a great mind. Why not dedicate time to working with others to create the new model that makes the existing model obsolete ? Peace & Love...
good catch, Brother Richie... this is be bop jazz... now YOU do YOUR riff your answer your idea... Brother !EL GATO!s carrying more than enough... don't make him do all the lifting... share the load... isn't that a song? there is one in there somewhere. but YES... and keep going. ADD. don't passively wait watch and expect. that's too passive for a Richie Vieques, man with the balls to use his real full name...
I quote: 'Why not dedicate time to working with others to create the new model that makes the existing model obsolete'. You misunderstand what I said. I never said or implied that El Gato Malo take this on himself. I seriously suggest that this is the way to go. Creating the 'new model', the 'next reality', which would bypass all the mess, or most of the mess that is now. I would be happy to be a part of such a group effort if I was deemed worthy. As far as my life goes I'm already doing this to some extent. I have NO faith in the current system. Complete control of all media so that no contrasting info to the narratives can be experienced by folks through their trusted channels/sources. is only part of the mess. It's all Deeply bad news. Also... I'm Richie, and I live on a very beautiful tropical Island called Vieques. Hence, my moniker. Good luck to you Erika. Stay Jazzy !
Amazing essay! Now is the time to focus the people. Hopefully with the CDC voting for the shot to be on the child schedule, there will be a mass movement to home school. Bringing down the depth of ed would be a feat but imagine the unleased potential for the next generation if we can free their minds! Keep it up El Gato
I suspect that this will likely lead to states re-evaluating not just C19 but the entire CDC childhood vax schedule. After all if they got it so wrong on C19 (voted 15-0 to approve), what else have they gotten wrong?
That's the part of the story they want people to focus on. The real story is that once a vaccine is on the childhood vaccination schedule, the manufacturers of said vaccine have limited liability against any injury claims - irregardless of whether the vaccine is given to a child or adult.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 setup a 'no-fault' vaccine injury compensation program strictly to reduce big pharma/vaccine provider liability which might threaten vaccine production. Since 1988 <1/2 of the 25,000 petitions have been compensated - which for all intents means WE pay for it via the 'VICP Trust Fund'.
So this is really more about extending the indemnity for big pharma - previously provided by EUAs and PREP act - as they allow the pandemic 'emergency' to expire (so generously).
With the states starting to look into the whole mess though, this might be the beginning trickle of a sea change that could result in repealing the NCVIA 1986 -- see Gato's post this morning. Until now people have not paid much attention to CDC's schedule, just presume they have everyone's best interests at heart.
That is of course the way it should be -- but millions of people have been awakened by the C19 tragedy and the fact that CDC cannot be trusted. Why are there so many different vaccines required, and why so many boosters? When I was a child in the 1950s-60s, it was not that way. There were a few vaxes available but nothing like what is 'required' today.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, let us take encouragement from the news that states are waking up and questioning what is going on. And let's try to keep people on task here, not let this momentum slip away. Write your state officials and local school boards and ask them to do a deep-dive analysis of the CDC recommendations, at a minimum.
If politicians don't speak out against what the CDC just did, it's a signal they are on the wrong side. I mean, you absolutely have to be for the deep state beaurocracy to support yearly mandating school kids with a shot that has never been demonstrated to help one child, but has verifiable harmed or killed many.
I’ve been reading for over a year wondering what action could be taken for change. Thanks for spelling it out. You were right in a previous article that people are generally to busy/lazy/apathetic to engage in this stuff. It’s our culture— between work and the gym and family responsibilities, who has time to get involved in politics, or at the very least, gab with others to get them thinking about this stuff? I think this is how the nefarious folk have swooped in.
What I’ve gleaned from your writings has superseded my education at a once-good university. I want to know what you know and read what you’ve read because none of this was taught to me. I’m 36. My dad agrees with all these issues I’ve been bringing up from your substack, as if this is what decent hard-working people have always known. He didn’t know that my generation didn’t know it.
Indeed. But one example resides here: the Constitution provides no authorization for a Federal Police Force. None. Zero. Zilch. In fact, one can read the entire document, along with every word of the Federalist Papers, and every word of what was documented of the discussions among and between the Founders, and you will find nothing of a hint of the need or desire to have a Federal Police Force. And yet, that is what the FBI has become.
There is as much Constitutional authorization for the FBI as there is for a Constitutional ‘right’ to abortion. The FBI is a wholly unconstitutional body, a statuatory creation in full 100% violation of the Constitution. The same can be said of nearly every 3 letter agency that exists.
It's the best way to create effectively a market for things that traditionally we're hard to set up as a market - regulatory and police power.
It's why everyone is moving from NY and Calif. and Illinois to TX and Fla.
Rather than abruptly end all aspects of the regulatory state (maximum libertarianism), if you devolve as much as possible to the states then the competition between Newsom and DeSantis, between Hochul and Abbott, and between Pritzker and Kemp will perpetually prune back the tangle of regulation and leave us all with options we can live with.
The story about the kids clothes - onesies, same thing is happening to small farms. Ever read a farm bill? Loaded with stuff only corporate farms can comply with.
Farmers grow our food and small farms are being run out of business as well because of regulations.
Brilliant, one of your finest posts yet. All of the soy bugman and karen DEI/ESG commmissars must be fired from government and its labyrinth of 3 letter agencies. Here’s a voter guide for midterms: https://open.substack.com/pub/yuribezmenov/p/how-to-win-an-election?r=12n5dp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
the alleged ethical payload underpinning all these movements is just pretext for plutocratic power.
bastiat (to my mind one of if not the greatest economist in history) really nailed this one.
you develop a culture of plunder.
legal codes are made to defend it.
and moral codes are made to lionize it and call it duty.
in the end, you are literally being told it is your duty to be fed into crony corporatist maw.
i am exceedingly pro free markets, free business, capitalism, and cooperation. but when this goes coercive, it all goes bad and you will ALWAYS land here.
I am largely in agreement with the 'one issue voter' paradigm (and in fact have been one for some time), but I fear that we are past the point of voting ourselves out of the particularly virulent strain of socialism that afflicts us.
First, it is said that money is the root of all evil. I disagree with the generality, but this is certainly true in the case of leviathan, which simply would not be possible without the dual engines of mass theft known as the income tax and (especially) the Federal Reserve.
These two infernal spigots are the lifeblood of the beast and we will never again be free until they are abolished, because should they remain, even were the State substantially reduced, the means for its resurrection would remain in place.
The regulatory state is the symptom. Legalized mass theft is the cause.
Which brings us to the electorate. Even if the substantial plurality of voters laboring under the delusion that "taxation is the price we pay for civilization" could somehow be enlightened, given the ruthlessness of our rulers, there is little doubt in my mind that leviathan would do anything - and I do mean anything - to protect its jugular.
Should anyone think that the demonization and persecution of our lot that is occurring now is bad, just wait until there is real traction behind starving the succubus.
As BTO once so wisely sang, "you ain't seen nothin' yet".
All this said, however, and as daunting as it may be, this is the fight of our time, it is the good fight, and is absolutely necessary for both ourselves and our posterity to fight it.
But we all need to clearly see the target.
End the Fed.
Actually, it is "the love of money" that is the root of all evil. (according to the saying)
Or the love of the things money can buy.
What would happen if… we all just stopped paying taxes?
Shared this but on another post:
https://deflationland.blogspot.com/2014/03/currency-collapse-is-agency-of-reform.html
Great libertarian argument, far as it goes. I'm a libertarian, a real one IMHO, i.e. recognizing that "Libertarianism" inevitably yields socialism & tyranny unless it recognizes the citizenry's full property rights & control, including indirect ownership of property "owned" by *our* nation, our right to voting control as laid out in the Constitution, and the right to deny dilution of that control & ownership via mass immigration, invasion-occupation, and anchor-baby & birth-tourist abuse of the 14th Amendment - which the vast majority of "libertarians" falsely & dogmatically claim to be harmless, even beneficial, and essential to "free markets" & liberty. Hard to forget the head of a Left "Libertarian" dogma tank accused me of promoting "slavery" & "racism" when I made a case for immigration limits.
Unlimited immigration is like the board of a corporation giving away "free" shares & voting control along the border to *billions* of new shareholders. Deluge immigration & invasion are destroying the USA as a free republic along with liberty & quality of life in too many obvious ways to list here, and I believe that's the globalists' intent.
Open-immigration "Left" Libertarian happy-meal immigration dogma - to the extent it influences US immigration policy - inevitably yields globalism, socialism, mass wealth redistribution, destruction of income, wealth, liberty & quality of life which in some ways far eclipses that of communism: Unlike the USA, Sovs & ChiComs had little wealth to redistribute/destroy. Contrary to "L" dogma, it would still be destructive if we had no welfare. Worse, since without socialism even *more billions* could be "economically" accommodated at the cost of *our* liberty, quality of life, voting control etc. "Ls" who parrot "if we had no welfare" are often those who say you're a racist nativist rube if you think immigrants come here for freebies, not just to do jobs lazy Americans won't do. To the extent they're sincere about unlimited immigration dogma & not just shills for "cheap labor" interests et ilk, Left-"Ls" are the globalists' useful idiots.
So I'd have to be like Curly's brother Duke in City Slickers II. Curly held up one finger, meaning the secret to life is focusing on only one thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k1uOqRb0HU
Can't find the sequel clip, but Duke held up 2 fingers: "Curly was wrong, there are 2 things: Whatever the hell this is, and gold. Let's go get it!"
I have to be at least a 2-Issue Voter. What you said, and strictly-limited fully-enforced immigration limits. Really at least a 3rd: Organizing-volunteering-donating-sacrificing to make sure enough folks vote with me & our votes are not stolen by fraud (coup d'etat). Without those 3 you cannot get "what you said".
I agree philosophically, but you do not address two things:
1. there are no free and fair elections in this country
2. the other major party is just as bad and just as captured
this seems a puzzling comment.
the former is, to be sure, an issue but we can push back on it with ends to unsupervised mail in and more citizen supervision. ultimately, this should be verifiable and electronic using some sort of 2 sided system (possibly blockchain) that allows votes to be indelibly and verifiably cast only by those with permission.
the second, however, is half the topic of the piece. i explicitly state that you cannot trust donkey or elephant or the puppet show of issues over which they purport to fight. i'm therefore sort of confused that you see this as an unaddressed issue when it was a full blown central point.
i might recommend that you read this again with a bit more care.
this is the whole underpinning of why i advocate one issue voting and one and only one question:
“what will you do to reduce the federal bureaucracy and free us from its yoke?”
But gato, time after time people vote for individual candidates who talk the right talk, only to find that that candidate, once elected, is quickly captured, or if not, is unable to make any headway against an entrenched system. Sure, we can say "don't vote for the party, but the candidate," yet the results are ALWAYS negative.
which, again, is why you need to stop paying attention to that puppet show and become a one issue voter on dismantling the technocratic levers of power and why we need to vote for this en masse and especially for president.
get a president determined to cull the federal agencies (and who knows how) and you could make A LOT of headway.
trump was a terrible failure in this regard. he fed the beast handsomely instead of starving it.
In Trump’s defense (I am no longer a supporter after his handling of abdication of all things WuFlu & “vaccines”), while I agree he put spending on steroids, he did get us out of WHO, the Paris Climate Accord, Iranian nuke deal & forced NATO members to kick in more for their own defense. He made us energy independent, raised all boats economically, tried to build the wall & had the remain-in-Mexico deal, no wars, baby step peace in the Middle East, & more. But he was in a constant battle w/ the left, media, tech, swamp, et al. He was never afforded the honeymoon period all presidents had been granted before. For all of his faults, he was absolutely America & Americans first. When I think of how much more he could’ve done if he hadn’t been piled on w/ all of that.... I do not want him to run. I want DeSantis, not because he’s in one of the 2 parties but because on virtually every corrupt, left-loon policy or idea, he stands up & says none of that is going through on his watch. I think he could do a lot (maybe) w/defanging the bureaucracy
we need to show our strength and power. We need to hold them accountable. The left is indeed the devil. The right just has their nose out of joint.
Honestly, I think Trump had good intentions, but was lured into bad decisions. It was a terrible situation to watch. The left is evil
Let’s see.... what crisis could develop that would force a a POTUS to rely entirely on the advise and expertise of government officials , have to trust them to be truthful and trust them of course to “do no (unnecessary) harm”? Can you imagine if Trump had just said “ No shutdown, the economic and possibly personal consequences could be too severe” ??? The media ( oh and now he thinks he’s a Doctor/Scientist) and Democrats would have had him charged with mass murder in 24. It’s the main reason I entertain arcane theories about COVID and the on going stone walling and censoring of any contrary theories confirm my skepticism. 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
I agree, Rose Mary
To what end though? Trump got us out of some stuff, culled a bit, but as soon as he's out of power, the next dude undoes it all. We don't need a curating of the swamp (like Trump gave us) but a slash and burn.
I don’t disagree, AM. It’s whiplash every 2 & 4 years w/ a changing of corrupt & less corrupt guards. Trump had the 1st 2 years of Repub congress & THEY fought him & prevented some of his stuff. What would slash & burn look like?
It would be good if this could happen all at once. But, maybe it cannot. Vote for only those who agree with this plan. If they waver, get rid of them. We need to build a group of like minded recruits. There are so many of us on the government dole in one way or another now that this is a mighty task.
DeSantis is more of an experienced politician than Trump was. However, he will also be constantly attacked by the rabid left, the media, tech and the swamp. The question is how long he can continue to fight back against an overwhelming wall of opposition and resist them, or will they block him at every turn forcing him to capitulate to them much like Trump did in order to get anything at all done.
Of course they will CMCM. I’m sure they have some “items” they hope are explosive in the event he runs
Imagine what he could have done if he wasn't such a narcissist and instead checked his massive ego at the door. Of course he never would have been elected in the first place if that was the case.
He is his own worst enemy when it comes to his ego & there was an exhausting lot of it during his term.
Yes! He just curated his own flavor of swamp, built around his own ego.
I’m afraid people hang on to Trump out of a habit of binary thinking. “I idolize Trump simply because I so dislike the other party”. Come
on people, surely we deserve better than a dysfunctional clown persona like him. When you have to list things that he did well you are making excuses for a bad choice simply because you think it’s less bad than the other choice, whatever you imagine it to be, or because you lack the imagination to envision something much better. It’s time to respect ourselves and the country enough to demand good choices, not just the lesser of evils. The US is acting like a battered wife, defending the wrongdoer out of fear and a lack of familiarity with the idea of good.
From one Pollyanna to another...that ain’t gonna happen. And at this point, other than his hard core base, I don’t think anyone idolizes Trump.... but since he’s been run out of town , his accusations and assessments of corruption and duplicitous “plots” have and are continuing to be proven true. Now if the media would actually report truthfully on the state of American people longing for something better.... but they don’t. Especially their total disregard for the poor, lower class, homeless, veterans, drug crisis, etc. I don’t disagree with you, I just don’t see how we break the stranglehold control the msm has on the population
I said I do not want him to run & Im not at all hanging on or making excuses. Do you deny that all of those were good for the country? I’d take America circa 2019 over the hell we’ve been in since 2021.
Most of the time - we are voting for lesser of 2 evil. When was the last time we had a candidate that you really wanted to vote for?
The lesser of two evils is what has gotten us into this mess over and over again. The lesser of two evils is the lie that perpetuates the partisanship that creates the swamp that gives the Beast its place to hide. As far as Mr. Trump my feelings are that they failed to control him with bribes or threats, which puts him in the top 1% of leaders. But in the end they just tricked him.
Ron Paul. But alas...
Great comment! We get "shit or shineola" and most shineola turns into shit anyway 😒!
To me, Ronald Reagan in 1984.
In the US, reference ballotpedia.org -- search for your state and read through all information for candidates, as well as ballot initiatives (local news and MSM has failed at informing about initiatives). Active candidates may provide information, from survey results (Ballotpedia's questions) to providing links to public and private social media pages.
Somewhat fortunately, a lot of the third party candidates in my state this year are candidates I can support. I'm not optimistic about their chances of winning, but at least I can vote *for* someone and not against, thanks to doing some research.
Also, check out past candidate information on Ballotpedia. In one case, I'll be writing in a third-party candidate who has campaigned in previous elections, but is not running this year.
If I recall, JFK was one of those presidents who would actually hold federal agencies accountable. Sadly, we saw how that worked out for him.
It was June 4, 1963 when he signed XO 11110. The bankers wouldn't stand for that movement off their planned path.
And yet, look how scared they were of him for his daring to reevaluate and look to change SOME of their regime. They do not take this sort of thing lightly.
Whoever takes on this role needs to be beyond brave and somehow beyond the manipulation of those who finally found the Achilles heel of Trump.
Excellent. Yes and amen....speaking of amen, what needs to be addressed is the spiritual. We in the west are suffering a deep spiritual malaise, which is part and parcel of this decline....And not solved by voting.
The biggest part of this. But to talk about it makes you a crazy loon. So I've heard, often.
The tides are changing, Napoleon. Many sense a revival of traditional values including religion. So you might have been a crazy loon a few years back, but not now.
After Wokeism dies (which it will), people will be looking for something real that give their life meaning.
I do hold out hope that the Wokeists will self destruct soon.
Replied to @Aaron Ferguson on this thread. Not sure you get thread breakout update notification? You might be interested in the mini meditation? See post.
Blessings.
I agree. This missing foundation is fundamental to meaningful change and growth in our systems on the planet.
I also feel as Napoleon does. And I wonder... lots of things. Few of my imagined precedent situations before a great consciousness shift occurs are pretty.
I’ve started to think dire is what it will take. Sad. But that is ego.
I don’t know if you guys are into Energy Is Everything / Everything is Energy? Thoughts included. (Quantum physics. The new science behind ancient truths re laws of nature and the universe. Fascinating. The mathematics is beyond me and it’s hard to wrap my head around English language explanations. But occasionally a “portal”(?) in my waking consciousness will open and an insight into something seemingly simple will be illuminated and clear. Unfortunately, almost as quickly clarity becomes obscured once more as the opening slams shut darn it!)
Anyway, an experiment for you, a quickie that meshes with both my waking consciousness and that part of my consciousness that is everything, one, everlasting and ineffable. If it works for you in a similar way or another beneficial way, great! If not, discard and move on.
A 10-second to one minute “meditation”. Longer if you wish. Picture mother earth 🌍 surrounded by and penetrated to her core with brilliant golden white light. That’s it.
The point: Light. The antithesis of dark. High vibration energy flooding the planet to counter the dark forces/low vibration energies. (Let’s face it, we know it’s/they’re here. Seen any attempts at stirring and sustaining fear recently? Mm hm.)
If’n it feels right, pass it on. It’s so simple. Imagine if 2 billion people (more!) did this quickie multiple times throughout their day. !!!
Open to ideas and discussion. Probably off this board. Lmk.
Brightest blessings.
I think Linda is saying (point 2) that neither candidate is going to support your desired goal. There was no mention or plan for finding/recruiting viable candidates. I suspect citizens will need to step in, and run for office themselves (as Independents) at state and local levels.
I would add that re “the other party”...that they are not quite so lacking in common sense as the party that currently is succeeding at taking our rights away and fashioning the country into a bureaucratic gulag of “ we know best and you will be happy, even though that involves a lot of misery.” It’s why the majority of Independents migrate towards the party that doesn’t scold Independents...
I am asking everyone running that question. I wonder who will respond
It is a rare politician that wants to take on a truly "Constitutional" outlook on the government because it involves voting themselves out of power, and not many politicians are into that. What they should be doing is spending most of their time vetoing and rolling back laws rather than being "lawmakers." The irony is that the one job that government should be able to handle is making sure free enterprise remains unregulated in such a way as to allow max competition between businesses so we can all benefit from innovation and moving forward.
I won't touch election integrity, aside from saying that it's hard to believe Biden had more votes than Barack Obama, even factoring in Trump Derangement Syndrome. The fact that any questioning of the premise behind what is called the "Big LIe" is telling all by itself.
El Gato Malo did call the fight between the major parties as a "puppet show." What I think he was getting at is that we need to make it clear that whoever we vote for has to know that draining the swamp is very important. The swamp is the standing water that is the deep state,and dismantling it, the bloatware of government, is their primary job.
I share with you a sense of helplessness concerning our system. The officials voted in and out of office are far from effective at this. We need to run a relay race, on this, and need a lineup of officials willing to do the work over the long game of dismantling and keep dismantled these huge unwieldy mechanisms of government. We have managed to create a vast unelected state that is evergreen and functions in spite of the illusion of a democratic republic.
Difference between the 2 parties? Huey figured that out the minute he went to congress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKb35NK0F0
cut the legs off the fed, move the power to the states, as the originators designed.
This is the trunk / ear / leg / belly / tail / small part of the elephant in the room. The Fed is a child of the bankers / families who have run the world with impunity for hundreds of years. My understanding is that the BIS is the institution that needs to be blown apart. Until that happens no election, selection, appointment or other political, financial or corporate office (facism defined, yeah?) will remain untouched by this influence. I don’t have the answer on how to accomplish this. If this is not the peak of the pyramid I suspect it is ever so close. As with blindness regarding this ongoing medical farce people/s need to learn the truth. First step. Heavens this process is achingly slow. Crazy optimist in me trusts that somehow, we’ll get it done. Triple tin foil hat stuff: I hear there are White Hats working from the inside. Deep inside. No details, all hearsay. I’ll gladly direct the Light of God their way though, Amen. Who the heck knows??
When I wrote "fed", I meant the whole federal apparatus, not just the FED. Sorry for the confusion.
When you say BIS, is that the Bank of International Settlements, or Bureau of International Security?
Anyway, there is only one way to dismantle, and that is the old fashioned analog way as described in the writings of the founders.
Sorry for confusion from my side as well.
Bank of International Settlements, the central bank of all the central banks. The granddaddy of control mechanisms. The US could dismantle the Federal Reserve but I suspect a moot exercise because the tentacles of the upper tier institution penetrate so deeply. I don’t have an inside look, only an aerial view of the framework. I’m going to sound like a nut job but it almost feels like there needs to be some higher order intervention to get the system -multiple systems- on a humanity-supportive track. The cabal has no such interest. Apart from our numbers, 7+ Bn, they hold the controlling cards - every system infiltrated/captured. ?? No easy answers. No definitive answers here for sure! I send God-light to the planet 🌎 in the mind’s eye. Thought energy is a thing. Quantum. Light vs dark - and these f’ers are *dark*. Can’t hurt is how I see it!
Yes, but how?
Without mercy.
Not an answer. How is this accomplished?
by a merciless and overwhelming application of the 1st amendment.
if that fails, then the same process using amendment #2.
sometimes violence IS the answer.
To be a single issue voter in a two party system feels a bit meaningless, even though I don't doubt it's the best way to go.
Same donors, general consensus on many issues and time and time again anyone can see that little changes.
The big benefit Republicans have currently is that they are in opposition. So they get to point out more clearly what is broken and wrong. Whereas the democrats have to pretend things are going well, that we can trust them.
It's not like the Republicans don't receive the same funding or are emmeshed in the same corrupt system.
Well, almost as bad. There are a few real people in it, but they get squelched.
1. There *are* many "free and fair" elections in this country in the sense that the majority elects its candidate. But not all, not by a long shot, and not in the sense that the "final" vote count is the true one, since vote fraud is rampant and almost never punished in any way, let alone as the attempted or actual coup d'etat it is (which should deterred with hard prison time or the death penalty). "Free and fair" ones as described above include those so lopsided, watched & defended that they're in the traitors' interest not to steal. Too obvious, blows their ability to steal elections.
2. The other major party is *not* just as bad as the DemComs, and it *can* be captured IF people stop making & promoting demoralizing psyops and self-serving excuses for apathy, for doing nothing, for refusing to sacrifice, volunteer, organize and donate to save the USA. Same story for Tiger Talkers (often agent provocateurs) who yap about how "the ballot box failed so now it's time the bullet box". Another excuse to do nothing and shirk the duty of citizens to sacrifice. Those who are not agents have usually never really lifted a finger or donate a penny to save the USA.
1. The problem is that there is the perception of "one version of reality." What do you do when media, the entertainment industry, the education system, and what is perceived as "reality" is hijacked by the side that says the elections are "free and fair." As I am now often repeating, you can tell it's propaganda because there is a mantra associated with it "Safe and effective" "Free and Fair" "Stay home/Stay Safe." If something is governed by the truth, you don't need a mantra surrounding it. If I hear those things, I almost feel like adopting a "zombie-like" stance and saying things like "Milk, it does a body good" and "McDonalds, because you deserve a break today."
2. At the same time while Republicans are not as bad as Dems, how much are they really helping? This is like saying that Coca Cola Light isn't as bad as Coca Cola, yet both contain sugar. I am sure the diabetic would be happy to know his leg won't get amputated quite as quickly.
What do you define as "lifting a finger, sacrificing, or donating to serve the USA?" I wish Rand Paul lived in my district, as I would spend time and effort supporting him. But what about my senators and officials here in Georgia? Our governor here has been a big disappointment, he talked out of both sides of his mouth during Covid in order to placate both sides of the issue. I know that the pro Covid regulation people could not have been happy with him as it allowed many us unmasked and unvaccinated to continue in life without restriction or obstacle unless we wanted healthcare or an Uber Ride. And I am certainly not happy with Kemp saying "You don't have to wear a mask, but if you do, here is the correct way to do it." If I was governor, I would have placed the mask firmly on my head or worn it as a goté under my chin.
While "NOT" as bad, is better than BAD, shouldn't we be setting our sights much higher?
My question is, what do the Republicans offer? Less Tyranny? I agree that there has to be a reality-based solution to this. The libertarian ideal of no government is not realistic and I doubt many libertarians believe it anyhow, but there has to be a realistic version o this that is "At little government as possible." Certainly the idea that the people in government as public servants and not government overlords that believe they know better than you what is best for you, would be a step in the right direction.
One of the many problems with government is that when they do hand out entitlements, they get the mistaken impression that they know best who the recipients should be. THEY DO NOT.
As I said, clearly not all elections are "free and fair" in an honest sense. Not even close. Many are free and fair ENOUGH in the sense I've discussed.
Referring to Republicans as THEY, as if they're all in on the game, serves as a common excuse and rationalization for doing nothing, evades responsibility for failing to lift a pinky in primary elections to determine WHO "THEY" ARE.
"If only so an so lived in my district/state" is an invalid excuse used by many for not donating to candidates they trust & believe in. Any citizen in any district or state can donate to any federal candidate in any other district or state. And since they vote on issues that affect all states, electing them, or even just forcing the enemy to outspend us 10-1 and divert money that could've been used to elect other traitors is as critical to your liberty as donating to a good federal candidate who reps your district. This is even true for state candidates in other states, since they have indirect power over federal elections through redistricting, stopping theft of federal elections etc.
The problem is that once "free and fair" is called into question, it really doesn't matter "how much." This is like "mostly peaceful protests" while you see buildings being burned to the ground.
I don't think people on here think of Republicans as "they" but rather politicians as "they." You can tell a person is a "they" when "they" are coercing you to do something. While this can be an excuse, it can also be a frustration that invites invention. All I know is I had close family members come visit me back in April and both were wearing masks, and my private residence does not have any mask related mandates associated with it.
Politicians have been making unconstitutional laws and have yet to be held accountable for it. This needs to stop. The ballot box is not working, as every time new candidates are brought into office, very often they either do nothing, or enact more unconstitutional laws, or we have politicians that completely ignore the Constitution and go the executive order or other loophole route to enact more unconstitutional laws.
I am willing to vote for any candidate regardless of party who votes "LESS IS MORE" in terms of government. But I am of the belief that we can do more. I think throwing money at the issue is a rationalization not to do something more substantial. Really, what I could do is volunteer for a candidate if I feel strongly about it, or I could write a blog, or comment on posts about it, but money, in my opinion, is really not that effective. Right now in Georgia I Stacy Abrams has a ton of money backing from Hollywood. But no amount of funding is going to make me vote in Crazy.
The problem with your idea about voting in a candidate in a region that I am not part of is that our federalism government is not built to be like that. It is meant to be broken down into smaller regions to accommodate the population of hat given region. Who am I to say what is better for your area of the world? Do I know you? Imagine the hubris! The one exception to that is for politicians who think exactly in this manner. If you have a list and their voting record, I'll be glad to look at it.
Finally, your assertion is the problem. The Federal government needs to be decentralized, and dismantled. If you can show me where these candidates intend that, then I am behind them.
Also, it is a very real criticism of government that a lot of what is enacted is by unelected bureaucrats.
I suppose that money is a big deal for the masses that are easily swayed by mantras and campaign ads, but I don't care how much money you sink into a PSA that tells me vaccination is the perfect response to a hurricane natural disaster, I think your crazy.
I think there is a better answer than throwing money at the problem because we see so often in government how throwing money at the problem rarely does anything good. They keep throwing money at education, has that made the education system any better?
"The problem with your idea about voting in a candidate in a region that I am not part of is that our federalism government is not built to be like that. It is meant to be broken down into smaller regions to accommodate the population of hat given region. Who am I to say what is better for your area of the world?"
My idea? How is it my idea? That's what the federal government IS and always has been. Reps don't only vote on issues affecting the states they live in. Those that do are called STATE reps. Federal reps vote on issues that affect YOU whether you like it or not. That's called REALITY. Pretending they don't doesn't change it. If you don't think people should help good out-of-state candidates, you're shooting yourself and the rest of us in the foot.
Don't like it, want to change it, voting L will never do it. All that does is spoil races and elect even worse candidates - communists. Perhaps you think a RINO or conservative that doesn't keep all his promises is just as bad as a communist. If so, crack a history book.
Voluntarism is terrific. It's a good example of "sacrifice". Time = money. Have you ever done it?
But the notion that good candidates don't need money, just volunteers, that money makes no difference, reveals a lack of experience with campaigns and how things really work. A good candidate doesn't need to match the spending of a communist, but they need SOME funding. I've seen candidates like Dave Brat beat entrenched RINOs with a relatively small warchest, some of which I donated, but he did HAVE a warchest. In Arizona, Blake Masters is being outspent 8-1 by commies and RINOs, and he may beat the commie anyway, barely, but he HAS a warchest, probably $10 million by now. There's a reason so money goes into campaigns; it's necessary and it works.
You keep excusing things by asserting that's the way they are and have been. Then, sadly, the government has always been unconstitutional?
Just because reps vote on issues affecting not only the states they live in, does not mean they should, or that such a thing is constitutional. I certainly would not want California politicians voting on things that won't fly down her in Georgia and vice versa. Isn't it very clear after three years that one-size-fits-all is clumsy and a horrible way to run a country the size and scope as ours? Wouldn't more autonomy broken up into smaller areas and regions be better than more central control?
While federal reps do vote on issues that affect me whether I like it or not, and that is reality, that doesn't mean it is true. There are a lot of things in this life that are real but predicated on falsehood. I can say repeatedly that the vaccine is safe and effective..and that mantra is real, but it is not true. That more people adopt the idea that it is, also is not true. Truth has no bearing on the amount of people who believe it.
The problem here is misinterpreting reality as true. But I understand your world view, and that you want to use ad hominem attacks who do not believe as you do. I will accept the moniker of ignorant and a wishful thinker, and you can safely discard whatever it is I have to say based on it.
I noticed how you didn't engage with the definitions of the word "libertarian" and notice the dichotomy of what the "reality" of libertarian party is.
Both major parties are equally bought by predatory globalist corporations, and neither will do a thing to shut off that gravy train. Both parties do their damndest to make sure voting is not fair--it's just that they each have different methods of doing this. Sacrificing, donating and organizing do not do diddly squat to change anything, because the rot is much higher up than that. Our country is run by a shadow government controlled by our security agencies. It doesn't matter a damn who "wins" an election, including the presidency, because decisions are not made by elected officials, and the elected officials we do have are controlled and mollified by their own gravy train. Presidents are puppets, and if they try to go off script, they are quickly brought back into line. No candidate who cannot be controlled is allowed to progress past a certain point. Let me ask you something. When Pompeo laughed and said "We would never let that happen" to the notion of Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister of the UK, do you think he was kidding? He was not. We control every election on earth. Did you think they neglected to think of controlling our own?
Tarring every single R with the same brush, e.g. Marjory Taylor Green & Steve Bannon, is a ridiculous, simplistic, self-serving excuse for doing nothing. Might as well be a Deep State psyop to demoralize as many loyal Americans as possible - if it's not one. Serves Deep State ends, so useful idiot's another option.
Demoralizing conservatives to do nothing ensures that DemComs don't even HAVE to steal elections. At least MAKE them steal them. At least TRY.
If you really believe there's nothing we can do, what are you DOING here? Why bother demoralizing everyone else? Does public rationalization & misery loves company make you feel better about selfish apathy?
Do you have a solution to save the USA that you're hiding from everyone?
Voting "Libertarian" sure won't do it. The "L" stands for Loser (and spoiLer). And if there's no free elections, "Ls" would never be allowed to win anyway.
You remind me of my mother, who only wanted to watch happy movies. The purpose is not to demoralize, but to tell the truth. I also demoralize plenty of liberals, believe me. If people do not know the truth, then they keep mindlessly following the narrative, which is "vote religiously, because that is the only way to change things." But that is just what deep state operatives want people to do, because then they do not overthrow the system. The solution is massive civil unrest and refusal to cooperate, along with shining a light on the way things run.
Fascinating
First, when speaking in generalizations, there will always be "What about" pushback.
Maybe we should do a line by line analysis of officials in office and see how they voted. My first indicator is, the one who votes "no" on the most legislation wins in my opinion. Second runner up is the official who wants to repeal the most laws. The response to "Build Back Bloatware" is "Build Back Basic."
So wait, you are against demoralizing (edited) those who vote for major parties, but demoralizing (edited) who vote for minor ones is fair game? If there was a Conservative that ran on the platform of less government, and at the very least stood by that by vetoing most legislation out of hand (this should be the default in my opinion) Then I would love to vote for that candidate. If the candidate ran on the platform of "Working toward removing myself from office" I could, if it were possible, vote for them every day and twice on Tuesdays.
The solution is dismantling government. If it happens through executive order, repealing legislation, or judicial ruling, so much the better, but it needs to happen. It can be done peacefully. We should be going through legislation on the books and simply eradicating and repealing laws that are unconstitutional. That would be a great idea. I imagine a great many laws are unconstitutional.
I think peaceful non compliance is also possible, and it has worked. I was ready to have my ass thrown out of Kroger if they pushed the mask issue on me. We should also record ourselves peacefully non complying as well. Because the media loves to hype the irrational screaming insane person who refuses to comply. Whereas most of us I believe are more into peaceful, polite, noncompliance. I know that I am.
"you are against demoralizing major parties, but demoralizing minor ones is fair game?"
Who's talking about demoralizing the party itself? I'm talking about demoralizing potential voters, donors, activists, organizers into doing nothing instead.
"Libertarians" are nothing but Losers and spoiLers for the reasons I laid out. They really don't even try to win. I ran a college Libertarian club long ago, was campaign manager for several libertarian campaigns, ran a Libertarian presidential office, and have followed "L" candidates closely over the decades, including New Mexico clown Gary Johnson and Massachusetts RINO gun grabber Weld, so I'm confident I know whereof I speak. And they're not real libertarians anyway. As discussed, they're de facto globalists and socialists. Is that what you want?
The only hope is for loyal conservatives to take over the Republican party, purge the corrupt RINOs, and align the party with true Republican principles.
It sounds like you are projecting. You are doing the very thing that you are against people who are critical of Republicans as doing. Replace Libertarian with Republican and it is almost an identical criticism.
I guess I am a loser then, not that I want to lose, I think if anything has demonstrated the need for less government it is the last three years.
Dave Smith, who strikes me as libertarian doesn't sound like he wants to lose, he also doesn't sound like a globalist or socialist. But then again, he isn't a candidate either. But it sounds to me like there has been a recent sea change in the libertarian party recently for the reasons you outlined. You're right in that the examples you mentioned are not libertarians. I would like to think most libertarians agree with you.
Your assertion sounds almost like the bandwagon logical fallacy. "Most people, or a majority of people act this way, so if you aren't going to join them, then your ideas don't matter at all."
How about no? No that I will not join a majority if that majority does not represent my views.
A big part of sacrifice is doing something on principle because it is the right thing to do regardless of how popular it is. I am sorry that your experience as a libertarian has left you so hopeless in that regards. It's not an easy road to have principles that go against the very way reality currently is. If I lived in China, I'd probably already be in a quarantine camp.
If I could, I would run for office, and continuously propose more and more absurd laws hopelessly clogging the system until people finally understood how arbitrary and capricious our current society has become. If enough lawmakers did this, maybe we would enact a law that made it difficult to create absurd laws.
I am sure you know of what you speak in terms of libertarians, but that doesn't mean that is all that is, or could be. If convincing people that wearing masks has taught me anything, it's that there is far more possible than we believe.
Loyalty has nothing to do with it. If you nail down most conservatives, you will find in a lot of ways they align with libertarian thinking. I think there was a recent podcast with Dave Smith who was doing this very bit of deconstruction over a criticism of libertarians by a conservative. The problem was they were criticizing libertarians but the points they were making were the very talking points of the libertarian party.
Finally, it is not a throw away vote to vote libertarian if the opposition makes the assertion that "If you vote libertarian it could cause the opposing side to win." That sounds like the libertarian vote in that case is very important. If a few percentage points make that much a difference, then I would say it is a great reason to vote libertarian.
If it is a throwaway vote, and does not matter, then why care at all what the libertarian or independent does?
Here's the rub though: we know the swamp that generated the tyranny enacted on us were not voted into powe and thus can equally be removed from power in a similar fashion. Aside from the one issue for voting, this is something that I would love to look into finding the answer to.
Also "Jury Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box" sounds suspiciously like a mantra, which means the truth again, is more nuanced and complex.
I've received more than one dose of gubmint bureaucratic bullspit in my life that had a profound impact on my life, person and property.
In the 90's, my rural TN lake home was next to my parent's home. Where we were, every property had a gully on the street for drainage, and all driveways were on a large concrete pipe covered with gravel or asphalt. I mean EVERY property.
Both our pipes were degrading and needed replacement. So we hired a local Bubba with a back hoe/front loader to dig them out and replace with a nice, new pipe, and they did an excellent job.
A couple of days later, a pencil-necked drone with a bad polyester tie shows up, a representative of the EPA, and red-tagged both our drives and mandated a $2000 fine. WHY? Because when it rains, water flows in the gully downhill into the lake, which was part of the Tennessee River, and therefore "navigable waters subject to EPA jurisdiction. He claimed the gully was navigable waters. Even when dry. Like a boat could float on a 6' wide gully.
It took $17,500 in lawyers fees, two years, and two "administrative hearings" in front of more bad polyester tied pencil-necked EPA bureaucrats to clear it all up in out favor, and to get a semblance of an apology from the EPA for overreaching. Even the County Building guys sided with us. THEY did not require a permit, but the EPA did? WTF? In the meantime we could not use the driveway, and when it rained, the water in the drainage gully flowed as normal.
I think the recent SCOTUS ruling against the EPA has a direct correlation with what we went through.
Back in The Day when my healthcare business was exploding, we added office space that included more restrooms. Keep in mind this industry is female dominate, and our office was 90+% female, that is nurses, LPN's, therapists, nurses aids, etc.
So the restrooms were installed, and suddenly in rolls a dude with an attitude in a wheelchair. He rolls to the restrooms with a frickin' tape measure, and announces the restroom doors are 5/8" too narrow, the stalls doors 1/2" too narrow, and sink 1/4" too tall. He blocks the doors, not allowing anyone to use the restroom, makes a call, and in 5 minutes an ADA "inspector" arrives, red tags the new restrooms, and files a complain for "discrimination" with the ONLY remedy full architectural plans from THEIR architect, full approvals from all manner of ADA boards, and complete tearing out and rebuilding of the restrooms. It cost me $30,000 to battle these ass#oles, six months, and then one construction laborer a day to make all the changes WITHOUT gutting the rest rooms.
In another of my businesses, we had a lease on a county GA airport property. We needed to least the empty land next to us for expansion, and that lease needed to be approved by the Airport Authority. Normally, this is a rubber stamp. But in this case, one of the Authority members was running for County Commission. This is a very large county in FL. This one member kept asking for more documentation before he'd approve the lease (which was really a nothingburger.) I was going to pave the area for more aircraft tie-downs, space the airport badly needed.
Suddenly, a campaign representative of the hold-out authority member showed up and pretty much implied approval would be a lot quicker if I made a substantial donation to his campaign. I refused, told a reporter friend at a large local news radio station, it caused a kerfuffle, the guy resigned his AA position, lost his election...and I finally got the lease approved.
I also has two encounters with the esteemed Anthony Fauci in this period, but that's an entirely different story.
These people can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.
I have friends with small businesses who spent $30K (20 years ago !) on fines and plans for similar ADA compliance. Often driving them out of business. In Los Angeles county the only people able to approve building permits are large, connected construction companies. Private land owners pretty much just don't build or improve their property. My Dad was driven out of private medical practice in the 90s by onerous Medicare billing regulations, it literally cost him more to comply than the amount he was billing.
I am absolutely a 1 issue voter on reducing the size of government. Every problem we have today can be traced to large, irresponsible lawless bureaucracies. They literally suck the life out of human society.
It was highlighted on the Adam Carolla podcast that even celebrities have issues improving their own property. Joel McCale of Community and Talk Soup fame talks about tall the issues he ran into while trying to install a pool on his property. Your property is your property, and government should serve to protect the integrity of private ownership rather than punish those who want to incur in the injustice of owning something.
I wonder if that recent manifesto about "owning nothing and feeling great about it" is in reference to how much of a hassle it is in certain states like California to actually own anything. They have regulated all the fun and joy out of owning anything and make it all the chore and hassle of owning things.
My company was one of the first and largest providers of home IV and high-tech nursing services to the HIV/AIDS community in the late 80's-early 90's, mainly because few wanted to be involved. My mom's business partners that I knew my whole life were Log Cabin gay men, so I had a front row seat to that particular crisis.
I sat on several HIV/AIDS community non-profit boards, one in particular very large and well-managed. Of course these organizations were always begging for money using whatever tactics available.
So in 1991 (I think) Fauci came down for a presentation to the Board. At the time he was pushing the idea that HIV was spread by contact, such as door knobs. Of course folks thought that was ridiculous, said so, but Fauci held his ground. Definitely community spread by contact, he said. Oh, he wouldn't shake any hands, even mine. He had a handkerchief to touch things, like doorknobs.
I'm 6'2". Not a giant, but a large human. Fauci was like a tiny dwarf.
I was not impressed one bit. I thought he was full of Pelosi.
The second encounter was a Board meeting of the same organization, maybe 1990. This time he was pimping for volunteers for a massive study of AZT. My company has 1200 patients at the time, so clearly we were a target-rich environment, and we agreed to give access to volunteer patients if their physician (there were only like 2-3 docs in the area who had an HIV/AIDS practice) agreed. I had no dog in the fight, but know how desperate these poor guys were, so had no problem in helping...even though I didn't trust that Fauci dwarf as far as I could throw him....but kept my thoughts and gut feelings to myself.
Turned out AZT was a killler, and Fauci and his cronies knew it long before. It was also $8000 a year at the time...then the most expensive drug EVER...and few insurance companies would pay for it. Fauci didn't care about the cost. Besides, he was bestest buddies with the Big Pharma Burroughs Wellcome outfit that produced AZT.
It was also very toxic, but the good ole' FDA said "the benefits outweigh the risk." Where have we heard that before?
So Fauci was out pimping a drug that was toxic...it depleted bone marrow in immunocompromised patients, and killed t4 white cells... killed thousands, gave marginal if any benefits, and was the most expensive drug ever produced at the time.
What I understand about the toxicity of Remdesivir is similar to that of AZT...and Fauci pimped both.
Fauci strikes me as a bit OCD, even haphephobic, or germaphobic, and I mean this in the actual sense like "an irrational fear of being touched." I would immediately note this about him and would have thought (Well, I am not about to listen to anything he says). We should all pitch in and buy him a hermetically sealed transparent ball he can roll around in like the hamster in the movie "Bolt."
I just watched Part 1 of Robert Kennedy, Jrs. "The Real Anthony Fauci."
Spot on, from my experience, especially about AZT and community transmission of HIV/AIDS.
If you have not seen that video yet, you should. It's free for another week or so.
100%. The current "democracies" are no longer fit for purpose. The entire establishment needs tearing down and building back SMALLER. Much, much, smaller and much less autonomous. Politicians needs to act like the public servants they are, acting in accordance with instructions from the people, not in their own self interest.
i see it as somewhat differently in that the real damage lies in the failure of the republic that placed the primacy of the rights of the individual above the state and the demos.
pure democracy is one of the nastiest and more irresistible forms of tyranny ever devised. it's just 3 wolves and a sheep voting about what's for dinner in which the oppressive instinct always has the backing of the mob.
you cannot base a system on presuming the "politicians will act well or be good people." they never will.
we must, to my mind, instead devise systems that keep these bad people from doing harm. no group can run a government this powerful well.
we must take this power away and reclaim the primacy of the rights of the individual.
If you have not already, I highly recommend Thomas DiLorenzo's *The Real Lincoln*, where he documents how "Father Abraham" destroyed the voluntary Union of the founders and birthed the leviathan welfare-warfare empire that now enslaves us at gunpoint.
He makes a compelling argument that the generally accepted and understood antebellum right of the States to nullify and secede stood as a bulwark against Federal usurpation.
I find it hopeful that even the blue totalitarians toyed with the idea during the reign of the Orange Menace, even if they quickly reverted to the "rebel slavers" rhetoric once the sceptre passed to Comrade Brandon.
“you cannot base a system on presuming the ‘politicians will act well or be good people.’ they never will.”
Ah, I think there was a time we had a better chance - not huge - but at least, better. This was a time when people policed themselves from within. They believed in God, in the afterlife, and that one should aspire to faith, family, morals, community. Of course we did not always live up to it, and oft did poorly, but it was the bullseye (actually, the real bullseye is a triple twenty), and effort was made with varying degrees of success. Community and family standards were subtly omnipresent in our minds (Ie: I don’t want to be the first in my family to get a divorce).
But now we are in a post-Christian era where there are fewer standards (I don’t want to be the first in my family to have 3 divorces). Many no longer police from within. Seals trained by TV, movies, social media, msm. What was unthinkable 60 years is now mainstream acceptable. And given our direction, what is unthinkable now will be mainstream 60 yrs from now (or 10 - or 2).
In the process we lost sight of who we are: Creatures fearfully and wonderfully made. With precious inalienable, sovereign rights. With freedom to live out our lives and allotted years without being manipulated, bullied, and lied to by those who have sought power and wealth and do not honour God. When will we have our Howard Beale / Greta moment, rising up, joining forces: HOW DARE YOU! We’re mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore!
Beautiful comment! There was a time lying was a sin and being known as a liar was shameful. Now a lie no longer exists. It's just mis/disinformation, misspeaking, the "narrative" or "fact checked."
Lies are the basis of EVERYTHING that is bad in life.
Thought provoking
The Fed is the lynchpin. Without the spigot, none of it can be funded or enforced.
That issue, unfortunately, does not capture people's imaginations. And the flesh-eating bacteria of micro-regulation is honed for GoF one cottage industry at a time, so that there is never a single mass at a single moment of people realizing that they are being stripped to the marrow.
I see this as a two-fronted project. One, re-arrange the deck chairs (voting if you do that sort of thing, public haranguing on the single issue either way - there is a reason that Donkey and Elephant are willing to put aside all differences to destroy team Porcupine, and to infiltrate it relentlessly with black- and yellow-striped wolves who are "cool with just THIS regulation because it's really pro-self-actualization, bro, and that's, like, the TRUE freedom.")
Two - keep building, building, building, the better thing, no matter how hard the bastards try to get you down. Start companies that they destroy. Start homeschool groups that they attack. Start health practices that they ban. Show them that it is your children, and your children's children, that matter to you. And, as you do it, do the REAL thing: build the community. Trade in gold backs and BTC. Make the invisible markets. Give people a place to go when the system crumbles, so that they will not fear, so deeply, the disintegration.
Make sure there is something good on the other side of Chesterton's fence.
i think the schools may play a bigger role here than people realize.
they have become indoctrination factories for the conjured moral justifications and crusades that underpin so much of this plunder. taking them away from the state and placing choice in the hands of families fixes this.
and it's a real issue, simple, and one that actual leaders could win on. the benefits to learning and to freedom would be vast.
it's a longer game, but look how well the blob played it over the last 30 years.
I agree; they are poison. But, they rely on the teat. Dry up the milk and they will lose their power. If they had to operate purely on local, tax-generated budgets, cash flow only, they’d get responsive and lean real quick.
Saifedean Ammous does an excellent job of explaining to be the morally corrupting nature of fiat. If money were real, schools would be real, I believe. We have dishonorable people in charge of the money, and it has given us a dishonorable society.
everyone go sub to the dept of edu emails.. you will be amazed the money drip
go look into your local schools and what they "tradeoff" in exchange for federal dollars/programs ..cash for kids
Yes! The natural health community and bitcoin enthusiasts are good examples of this shift.
Absolutely the best piece you've done.
Even as a one issue voter I have no-one to vote for as our two parties represent distinction without a difference.
In my more pessimistic moments, I muse that if voting could make a difference, it'd be illegal.
They seem to have chosen a different route to the same goal, though: instead of making voting illegal outright, they've opted to water it down with untold numbers of dubious ballots getting added in to the totals.
Or as my Dad used to say in his later years “ don’t vote, it only encourages them.”
Criminals are generally lazy, so my guess is they would much rather lull us into complacency. We know that to some degree elections work if candidates are pushed off the ballot. After all, if voting is rigged. then why care who is on the ballot? Wouldn't it be better to allow them on the ballot and give the public the veneer of more choice?
There are libertarian candidates, but I share your thoughts on this one. If they truly are two parties represent distinction without difference, then a libertarian candidate is the answer as a vote on the two other parties is a "throw away" vote as they often cast such aspersions on those who would vote for the third party.
And in NY they managed to keep the Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe off the ballot in the upcoming race for governor. Because democrats want free and fair elections, or some such bullshit
It's a common thread that the title of something usually means the opposite. If it's "free and fair" elections, watch out for widespread fraud. If it's "safe and effective" vaccines they are unsafe and ineffective..or harmful. If it is "inflation reduction" then watch as prices keep climbing. Watch out for the day when there is a "government reduction act" because we might as well brace for the impact.
Great Post. But you offer only concepts. Great ones. but not a plan. R.Buckminster Fuller said: 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.' You suggest amending the existing system. I think it's too far gone for that. As you detail, the layer upon layer of corruption is total. So the real challenge is 'what's the new model ?' Certainly not 'Revolution's', as they are 'the complete turning of a wheel' (make a dot at the top off a wheel and revolve it one 'revolution'... and it's right back where it started from, isn't it ? AKA: the names change but the game remains the same. Out with the 'old boss', now meet 'the new boss') Maybe it's just everyday citizens choosing differently... creating a plan on the fly ? It would be great if there were Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton types to create a new road map. But they don't seem to be in evidence ? Certainly a quiet EVOLUTION with a nice roadmap would be most welcome. But to my most essential point: the US GOVERNMENT will not assist, lead or participate in such. They way it's all set up now, is that we are semi-slaves to it. And it doesn't want to see that change. So ? You have a great mind. Why not dedicate time to working with others to create the new model that makes the existing model obsolete ? Peace & Love...
good catch, Brother Richie... this is be bop jazz... now YOU do YOUR riff your answer your idea... Brother !EL GATO!s carrying more than enough... don't make him do all the lifting... share the load... isn't that a song? there is one in there somewhere. but YES... and keep going. ADD. don't passively wait watch and expect. that's too passive for a Richie Vieques, man with the balls to use his real full name...
say YES... AND..... (keep it going).
x
I quote: 'Why not dedicate time to working with others to create the new model that makes the existing model obsolete'. You misunderstand what I said. I never said or implied that El Gato Malo take this on himself. I seriously suggest that this is the way to go. Creating the 'new model', the 'next reality', which would bypass all the mess, or most of the mess that is now. I would be happy to be a part of such a group effort if I was deemed worthy. As far as my life goes I'm already doing this to some extent. I have NO faith in the current system. Complete control of all media so that no contrasting info to the narratives can be experienced by folks through their trusted channels/sources. is only part of the mess. It's all Deeply bad news. Also... I'm Richie, and I live on a very beautiful tropical Island called Vieques. Hence, my moniker. Good luck to you Erika. Stay Jazzy !
VIEQUES itself? wow... i need to hush the hell up and pay attention.
(smile)
x
I'm 100% with you.
I have made similar comments.
Well said
Thanks... good luck...
Amazing essay! Now is the time to focus the people. Hopefully with the CDC voting for the shot to be on the child schedule, there will be a mass movement to home school. Bringing down the depth of ed would be a feat but imagine the unleased potential for the next generation if we can free their minds! Keep it up El Gato
As of 8 AM today, 21 states have said they would not require C19 vaxx for students:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/safe-states-children-list-republican-governors-wont-comply-cdc-mandates-force-vaccinate-kids-school/
I suspect that this will likely lead to states re-evaluating not just C19 but the entire CDC childhood vax schedule. After all if they got it so wrong on C19 (voted 15-0 to approve), what else have they gotten wrong?
That's the part of the story they want people to focus on. The real story is that once a vaccine is on the childhood vaccination schedule, the manufacturers of said vaccine have limited liability against any injury claims - irregardless of whether the vaccine is given to a child or adult.
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 setup a 'no-fault' vaccine injury compensation program strictly to reduce big pharma/vaccine provider liability which might threaten vaccine production. Since 1988 <1/2 of the 25,000 petitions have been compensated - which for all intents means WE pay for it via the 'VICP Trust Fund'.
https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/faq
https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/data
So this is really more about extending the indemnity for big pharma - previously provided by EUAs and PREP act - as they allow the pandemic 'emergency' to expire (so generously).
Yes, you are right.
With the states starting to look into the whole mess though, this might be the beginning trickle of a sea change that could result in repealing the NCVIA 1986 -- see Gato's post this morning. Until now people have not paid much attention to CDC's schedule, just presume they have everyone's best interests at heart.
That is of course the way it should be -- but millions of people have been awakened by the C19 tragedy and the fact that CDC cannot be trusted. Why are there so many different vaccines required, and why so many boosters? When I was a child in the 1950s-60s, it was not that way. There were a few vaxes available but nothing like what is 'required' today.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, let us take encouragement from the news that states are waking up and questioning what is going on. And let's try to keep people on task here, not let this momentum slip away. Write your state officials and local school boards and ask them to do a deep-dive analysis of the CDC recommendations, at a minimum.
If politicians don't speak out against what the CDC just did, it's a signal they are on the wrong side. I mean, you absolutely have to be for the deep state beaurocracy to support yearly mandating school kids with a shot that has never been demonstrated to help one child, but has verifiable harmed or killed many.
I’ve been reading for over a year wondering what action could be taken for change. Thanks for spelling it out. You were right in a previous article that people are generally to busy/lazy/apathetic to engage in this stuff. It’s our culture— between work and the gym and family responsibilities, who has time to get involved in politics, or at the very least, gab with others to get them thinking about this stuff? I think this is how the nefarious folk have swooped in.
What I’ve gleaned from your writings has superseded my education at a once-good university. I want to know what you know and read what you’ve read because none of this was taught to me. I’m 36. My dad agrees with all these issues I’ve been bringing up from your substack, as if this is what decent hard-working people have always known. He didn’t know that my generation didn’t know it.
Indeed. But one example resides here: the Constitution provides no authorization for a Federal Police Force. None. Zero. Zilch. In fact, one can read the entire document, along with every word of the Federalist Papers, and every word of what was documented of the discussions among and between the Founders, and you will find nothing of a hint of the need or desire to have a Federal Police Force. And yet, that is what the FBI has become.
There is as much Constitutional authorization for the FBI as there is for a Constitutional ‘right’ to abortion. The FBI is a wholly unconstitutional body, a statuatory creation in full 100% violation of the Constitution. The same can be said of nearly every 3 letter agency that exists.
Can't heart this post enough, but here is my question: where are all the one-issue politicians?
Running on the unlimited right to abortion.
Right problem, wrong conclusion.
If you think voting can fix this, you're not paying attention.
Big believer in Federalism, personally.
It's the best way to create effectively a market for things that traditionally we're hard to set up as a market - regulatory and police power.
It's why everyone is moving from NY and Calif. and Illinois to TX and Fla.
Rather than abruptly end all aspects of the regulatory state (maximum libertarianism), if you devolve as much as possible to the states then the competition between Newsom and DeSantis, between Hochul and Abbott, and between Pritzker and Kemp will perpetually prune back the tangle of regulation and leave us all with options we can live with.
We’re working on dissident solutions, ways outside the system.
The Amish are on track to overtake the US population if rates continue.
They did it with horses and bad haircuts.
You can resist.
They can raise a barn like nobody's business!
Best group of people I’ve ever done business with.
They voluntarily do things that cost them money, earn them less profit.
The story about the kids clothes - onesies, same thing is happening to small farms. Ever read a farm bill? Loaded with stuff only corporate farms can comply with.
Farmers grow our food and small farms are being run out of business as well because of regulations.
it's the story of everything.
it's every single industry that has a regulator.
Farm bills are really insidious and no one pays attention. Boomer farmers will be gone one day and there will be a Wall-e world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kdRdzxdZQ