Category: Current Events

More On US Sanctions – Will This Knee-Jerk Reaction Lead toward USD/Empire Demise?

From Iceland (where it is much safer to say the truth), The Saker article “Sanctions, Sanctions, Sanctions – the Final Demise of the Dollar Hegemony?” by Peter Koenig takes on this trend from all angles and states the obvious:

They [sanctions] are made to punish countries, nations, that refuse to bend to a world dictatorship.

Even ZeroHedge said back ten days ago:

… the relative surge in China’s ‘petroyuan’ futures contract overnight could suggest a shift away from the petrodollar to avoid US sanctions on Iranian oil..

A picture of USD hegemony:

.. and a picture of a significant shift:

So what is Peter Koenig saying? Here are a few interesting clips:

… Looks like everybody accepts this new economic warfare as the new normal. Nobody objects. And the United Nations, the body created to maintain Peace, to protect our globe from other wars, to uphold human rights – this very body is silent – out of fear? Out of fear that it might be ‘sanctioned’ into oblivion by the dying empire? – Why cannot the vast majority of countries – often it is a ratio of 191 to 2 (Israel and the US) – reign-in the criminals?  ..

You see, sanctions ARE effectively the first strike in most every war, from Gulf War I and II back to WWII with both Germany and Japan. It is rare when sanctions do not result in war because of the stress it brings on a nation’s people that causes politicians to panic into “doing something”.

Now doing something might not mean specific military actions, but maybe just imprisoning some criminals (US’s CIA) that are in various countries:

What if Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China – and many more countries not ready to bow to the empire, would jail all those spies embedded in the US Embassies or camouflaged in these countries’ national (financial) institutions, acting as Fifth Columns, undermining their host countries’ national and economic policies? – Entire cities of new jails would have to be built to accommodate the empire’s army of criminals.

Interesting times ahead for sure. But when a bully empire operates on lies, the patience of these nations will be tested. What of the American people? Well, the last line of this paragraph shows what we have become:

Imagine Russia – more sanctions were just imposed for alleged and totally unproven (to the contrary: disproven) Russian poisoning of four UK citizens with the deadly nerve agent, Novichok – and for not admitting it. This is a total farce, a flagrant lie, that has become so ridiculous, most thinking people, even in the UK, just laugh about it. Yet, Trump and his minions in Europe and many parts of the world succumb to this lie – and out of fear of being sanctions, they also sanction Russia. What has the world become? – Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, would be proud for having taught the important lesson to the liars of the universe: “Let me control the media, and I will turn any nation into a herd of Pigs”. That’s what we have become – a herd of pigs.

Actually, I have known pigs, and they are even smarter than dogs. Suffice it to say, the American people in general are sheep .. stupid and aimless, scared to be without someone telling them what to do every day or every hour (daddy / mommy government and its media).

So if the American people are dumb, what about its leaders? Well, there is a history there .. and if you knew it all you would NEVER trust the US government again. Consider just one parallel, Venezuela = Chile:

… Venezuela is struggling to get out of this dilemma which has people suffering, by de-dollarizing her economy, partly through a newly created cryptocurrency, the Petro, based on Venezuela’s huge oil reserves and also through a new Bolivar – in the hope of putting the breaks on the spiraling bursts of inflation. This scenario reminds so much of Chile in 1973, when Henry Kissinger was Foreign Secretary (1973-1977), and inspired the CIA coup, by “disappearing” food and other goods from Chilean markets, killing legitimately elected President Allende, bringing Augusto Pinochet, a horrendous murderer and despot to power. The military dictatorship regime brought the death and disappearance of tens of thousands of people and lasted until 1990…

I think the CIA would love to get back into South America this way .. as they are getting back into Africa after too much attention has been drawn to its Middle East collusion with Israel, Saudi Arabia and UK with ISIS. Peter Koenig goes on to state the facts about Iran, North Korea and China and the inability for the US to ever abide by treaties it is involved with for any real length of time .. just ask the American Indians:

The bottom line is a rot that is the swamp:

… What is really transpiring is that Washington is isolating itself, that the one-polar world is moving towards a multipolar world, one that increasingly disregards and disrespects the United States, despises her bullying and warmongering – killing and shedding misery over hundreds of millions of people, most of them defenseless children, women and elderly, by direct military force or by proxy-led conflicts – Yemen is just one recent examples, causing endless human suffering to people who have never done any harm to their neighbors, let alone to Americans. Who could have any respect left for such a nation, called the United States of America, for the people behind such lying monsters? ..

Our national character is mud. Our legacy means once the empire starts dying there will be a piling on of other countries demanding revenge on this nation who by then will be led by our kids and grand-kids. We will not have followed Thomas Paine’s advice:

SF1

 

 

When Social Media (Like MSM) Starts to Censor Speech

I do hope that you are all aware by now the way large social media corporations are falling in line, as MSM has done, with the government narrative in marginalizing anything that might make the people in the nation doubt government’s intentions. It would have been one thing if only one of these companies (i.e. Google, Facebook, YouTube, etc) would have done this to various speechwriters, but for ALL of them to do this you now know who the puppets are.

There are options you know, not as popular, but using a non-Google e-mail like ProtonMail or a non-FB social media like MeWe and so on would help things readjust (for now) until the whole Internet is regulated like they do in China.

It is always refreshing to wait for clearer minds to process the events of the past week or two before forming an opinion that has some research behind it .. and so today I ran across an interview that involved Doug Casey as he offers his two cents on what is really happening. The quotes below are from his article on the Alex Jones Ban

Justin: Doug, Infowars has been banned from just about every major media platform. What do you make of this?

Doug: It’s interesting that they zeroed in on Alex. I know Alex personally. I’ve been on his show a couple times, and he spoke at one of our conferences.

It’s certainly true that he’s a rabble-rouser. He often makes allegations that may not be well substantiated, he puts forward a lot of rumors, and he’s partial to conspiracy theories that may or may not be true. His style is closer to that of a carny barker, a revival preacher, or an infomercial pitchman than a university professor. But so what? His style certainly rubs the elite and liberals the wrong way—but that’s got nothing to do with why he was deplatformed.

He was kicked off because he not just implicitly, but explicitly, challenges what the Deep State thinks “loyal Americans” are supposed to believe.

I’m not familiar with everything he questions. But it’s things like what really happened at the Murrah Building, Waco, the Twin Towers, and the recent wounding and killing of over 500 people in Las Vegas. He asks who might have really been responsible, and why. Why is Russia accused of having undue influence, but not Israel? How and why did the IRS, the Fed, and other agencies become as powerful as they are? Who really are the people in the Deep State? Worse, he supports Trump.

Yes, but why now? Alex has been saying these things for years with various degrees of accuracy. His research is not always accurate, and he comes off as a salesman or a revival preacher at times going for the emotional over the logical like how “The Corbett Report” might handle things.

.. Alex isn’t the only person who got banned, though. Twitter also suspended Daniel McAdams, who runs the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, and Scott Horton of Antiwar.com. These guys take a calm, scholarly approach to many of Alex’s topics. They’re libertarians that often question the premises that underlie the very existence of the State as an institution…

So, is the State becoming a snowflake and flexing its muscles for this “hate speech” LOL? BTW, I do agree with Doug Casey that the whole “hate speech” thing is a cover:

I don’t even believe in the concept of hate speech. It’s a recently fabricated concept, promoted by groups that actually just dislike free speech. I might add that lots of things are worthy of hate, and should be called out as such.

Although it’s unpleasant, and may be in bad taste, there’s nothing wrong with so-called hate speech. Why? It allows you to judge the character, intentions, and intelligence of the speaker. It gives you the data you need to judge who you’re dealing with—good or bad, rational or irrational. Further, suppressing speech is comparable to tightening the lid on a pressure cooker.

All speech, and all words, should be allowed. Sometimes it will be in bad taste, or stupid. But so what? It’s not something a busybody or bureaucrat should decide for you.

Bingo. Should there ever be the day that others decide what is “free” to say, we are NO LONGER FREE.

But these companies are in fact private entities that should be allowed to discriminate .. RIGHT? That is in fact what is going on because only certain types of “hate speech” are being censored. I love it that discrimination (a right of private individuals) and freedom of association is coming back into style! Why? Because the MARKET can adjust this much better than government. If FB discriminates too much they will experience a loss of revenue and then adjust their policies accordingly. Just as if a business discriminates based on the color of skin they might see a decrease in sales and have to adjust. This is SOCIETY at its best. Government can’t possibly police all that obviously as since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 there is actually much MORE racial tension in the USA than there was in the 1960s. In addition to that, the race that was supposed to benefit from that actually has the highest unemployment of youth AND the highest percentage of homes with no fathers. Not even the KKK could have done that to black culture .. and then you add in the millions killed by abortions. We should all be weeping for all the innocent lives lost this way for selfish reasons!

Facebook has every right to kick Alex off from that point of view. They have a right to kick everyone or anyone off if they want, and for any reason. That said, however, you can make the case that these companies have become creatures of the government…

Correct, MSM has expanded to include social media giants and are now in fact part of the State, the Rubicon has been crossed and there is no going back. It is time for individuals to take action in moving to alternative social media that resists the temptations that come from the State as it works in a paranoid way to protect its reputation.

The best place to start your journey beyond state propaganda is with this site .. and its search engine. There you will find the truth that the State does not want you to know .. frickin’ SNOWFLAKES!

Think About It: Liberty or Equality

This post will make you think .. and if it is too much for your busy day, bookmark this so you can get back to this late some night or early in the morning when the world is a little more still.

Based on a brilliant 1952 work ( “Liberty or Equality the Challenge of Our Time”) by EvKL ( Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn ), this Mises resource is utilized by Bionic Mosquito to unpack thee insights that measure liberty and equality in light of early century’s as well as the last few century’s experiences.

In this treatise, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn argues that it reduced to one simple and very dangerous idea: equality of political power as embodied in democracy.

He marshals the strongest possible case that democratic equality is the very basis not of liberty, as is commonly believed, but the total state. He uses national socialism as his prime example. He further argues the old notion of government by law is upheld in old monarchies, restrained by a noble elite. Aristocracy, not democracy, gave us liberty. On his side in this argument, he includes the whole of the old liberal tradition, and offers overwhelming evidence for his case. In our times, war and totalitarianism do indeed sail under the democratic flag…

Bionic Mosquito’s article does a good job of summarizing this work so please pay this site a visit for some deeper digging. What I hope to do is merely tease you with some truth and let you do with it as you may.

As Dostoyevski writes in The Possessed:

“Shigalyov is a man of genius. He has discovered “equality.” He has it all so beautifully written down in his copy-book. He believes in espionage. He wants the members of society to control each other and be in duty bound to denounce their neighbours. Everybody belongs to all and all belong to each single one. All are slaves and equals in slavery. As a final resort there will be calumny and murder; but the most important thing remains equality.”

If equality is the objective, which task is easier – and certainly more likely: turn all men into Jesus Christ, or turn all men into the devil?

So the title of Bionic Mosquito’s post, “The Words of the Prophets” must refer to a Simon and Garfunkel song ‘The Sound of Silence” as a challenge to listen to the marginalized or ignored members of society .. (partial lyrics follow) .. or from the “Bible” in the book of ‘Daniel’ chapter 5 .. or BOTH .. your call!

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls”
And whispered in the sounds of silence
Daniel chapter 5 in the paraphrase called “The Message”:

King Belshazzar held a great feast for his one thousand nobles. The wine flowed freely. Belshazzar, heady with the wine, ordered that the gold and silver chalices his father Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God’s Temple of Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his nobles, his wives and concubines, could drink from them. When the gold and silver chalices were brought in, the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank wine from them. They drank the wine and drunkenly praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

At that very moment, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the lamp-illumined, whitewashed wall of the palace. When the king saw the disembodied hand writing away, he went white as a ghost, scared out of his wits. His legs went limp and his knees knocked. He yelled out for the enchanters, the fortunetellers, and the diviners to come…

One after the other they tried, but could make no sense of it. They could neither read what was written nor interpret it to the king. So now the king was really frightened. All the blood drained from his face. The nobles were in a panic…

The queen heard of the hysteria among the king and his nobles and came to the banquet hall. She said, “Long live the king! Don’t be upset. Don’t sit around looking like ghosts. There is a man in your kingdom who is full of the divine Holy Spirit. During your father’s time he was well known for his intellectual brilliance and spiritual wisdom. He was so good that your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, made him the head of all the magicians, enchanters, fortunetellers, and diviners. There was no one quite like him. He could do anything—interpret dreams, solve mysteries, explain puzzles. His name is Daniel, but he was renamed Belteshazzar by the king. Have Daniel called in. He’ll tell you what is going on here.” ..

So all the intellectuals, the court jesters, the main stream media of the day, government officials, deep state testifiers, etc. had nothing to give the king.

.. So Daniel was called in. The king asked him, “Are you the Daniel who was one of the Jewish exiles my father brought here from Judah? I’ve heard about you—that you’re full of the Holy Spirit, that you’ve got a brilliant mind, that you are incredibly wise. The wise men and enchanters were brought in here to read this writing on the wall and interpret it for me. They couldn’t figure it out—not a word, not a syllable. But I’ve heard that you interpret dreams and solve mysteries. So—if you can read the writing and interpret it for me, you’ll be rich and famous—a purple robe, the great gold chain around your neck—and third-in-command in the kingdom.”

Daniel answered the king, “You can keep your gifts, or give them to someone else. But I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means…

.. you treat with contempt the living God who holds your entire life from birth to death in his hand.

Some serious telling of truth to power right there. This king could have had Daniel killed on the spot.

“God sent the hand that wrote on the wall, and this is what is written: mene, teqel, and peres. This is what the words mean:

“Mene: God has numbered the days of your rule and they don’t add up.

“Teqel: You have been weighed on the scales and you don’t weigh much.

“Peres: Your kingdom has been divided up and handed over to the Medes and Persians.” ..

That same night the Babylonian king Belshazzar was murdered. Darius the Mede was sixty-two years old when he succeeded him as king.

So as you search for truth in high and official places, know that sometimes it is the marginalized and obscure in this world that actually have a better handle on an unpopular truth.

Remember:

Savvy?

SF1

Is It Too Early to Evaluate Trump’s Impact on the USA/World?

In some ways, the Constitution did us all a disservice by giving us an “almost king” government office called the president of the United States. While some believe that office can right the wrongs of the last president or even the last decade or so of bad decisions, others believe that there are forces that remain hidden in government structure and other power structures in and outside of this country that use this position as a puppet of theirs. It was evident from our first president that the power of the office would be abused, and abused often.

From The Burning Platform comes an interview with Doug Casey that reflects on the good, the bad and the ugly from the latest president and what it means for us going forward. Just a few snips from this article I would like to highlight as you could go to the link above and see what you think:

Let me start by saying that I’m very pleased that Trump was elected because, first and foremost, he’s not Hillary. In addition, he’s never been in political office. So he lacks some of the vices common to professional politicians. Even better, all members of the Deep State reflexively hate him.

That’s a good thing, because there’s some truth to the meme “the enemy of my enemy just might be my friend.”

I also like some of the things Trump’s done since he’s been in office—besides driving liberals and Deep Staters insane. He’s done some deregulating—not nearly enough, but he’s moved in the right direction. Of course, he did this not because he understands Austrian economics, but simply because he’s a businessman. He has some personal experience with the destructiveness of regulations.

So he has disrupted politics to a degree, which is good, but to inact long-term change requires more than just randomly hitting some things. He is missing something at his core which has been obvious all along in the way he approaches problems and seeks solutions almost “off-the-cuff”.

I do like that at the end of the day he would rather talk to the Russians than escalate things, but it is obvious he is limited by his deep state handlers as far as how far he can take this. Sanctions are stupid and are in fact usually the first step towards conflict. At the end of the day there seems to be no overarching philosophy for foreign policy. Trumps knee jerk firing of Tomahawks at sites in Syria a year ago after accusations of Assad using chemical warfare on his own people was an epic stupid move on the part of Trump .. but maybe there was a gun heald to his head like was held to JFK’s?

On the negative side, Doug Casey focuses on the obvious:

…. starting with running a trillion-dollar deficit. Where does he think that money’s going to come from? The Russians and the Chinese aren’t buying US debt anymore. Foreigners are looking to offload US paper.

Americans aren’t buying much, either. The only real alternative is to sell it to the Federal Reserve. Which is a real problem when the Federal Reserve is not only trying to deleverage, but has to refinance hundreds of billions of short-term paper coming due. Recall that almost all the $20 trillion of Treasury debt is very short term. Interest rates are going to rise, a lot. And so will the interest portion of the government deficit. Interest payments alone will be a trillion a year by the end of Trump’s second term—assuming he gets one.

Trump also—like all red-blooded Americans—loves the military. So, he’s adding to the already bloated military budget. It’s ridiculous, dangerous, and provocative. The United States already spends more than the next 10 or 12 biggest nations in the world put together. And most of that money is wasted and misallocated. It’s being spent on dinosaur technologies. What he’s doing there is very foolish. It’s accelerating the looming bankruptcy of the Government. And of course the Government will drag the country down with it.

He’s foolishly antagonizing the Russians by placing troops in the Baltics. He’s doing the same with China by sending ships to the South China Sea, which is their equivalent of the Gulf of Mexico.

But my biggest problem with Trump is that he has no philosophical core. He’s not by any means a libertarian. He’s a pragmatist, and an authoritarian. He’ll do whatever seems like a good idea at the time.

He’s got no background in or understanding of economics or history. I think it’s true that, as his critics say, he hasn’t read a book in 50 years. He goes strictly on gut instinct.

Exactly. So what we have is someone that keeps kicking things and reacting but never solidifying long-term change. But at the same time, the swamp is huge and he can’t be the only one draining it. While Congress remains inept at doing anything productive (like dismantling spending programs that have outlived their usefulness and mission) because that might keep them from getting re-elected. With an 11% approval rating, incumbents get re-elected at a 95% rate. If voting changed anything they would NOT let us do it!

So basically, this is essentially entertainment that your tax money pays for, the bread and circus distractions that empires do in their dying days.

At the end of the day all we can really do well is love our families, love our neighbors and pray that God has a plan to keep our kids and grand-kids is His care as this American Empire spins down.

SF1

 

Guess I Will Always Be a Sailor at Heart: Domestic Transport Solutions

In this past week I have commuted to my employer’s headquarters twice and was shocked yet again in 2018 on how bad the highways were in terms of potholes and bridge expansion joints still impacted from the previous winter. I mean, come on, it is the end of July and there seems to be a huge delay in government getting their act together for the necessary maintenance and repairs. I have come to expect this in states that seem to always struggle with its infrastructure like Michigan and Illinois but this was in a high growth area near Indianapolis, IN.

Five and ten years ago it seemed that Indiana always not only maintained their roads the best in the Midwest, but also was able to upgrade the highway system. However, for whatever reason it is becoming evident that the wheels might be coming off the complex federal/state/county/municipality bureaucracy, and before you know it we will have another round of precipitation and freezing temperatures that will work its way into all the highway cracks and do even more damage this winter.

From the Cato Institute is an article that suggest some possible reversals that might take the weight (literally) off this aging infrastructure by using once again our waterway systems in this country to facilitate freight transportation. Seems that in researching why waterways were not prioritized in the last half century or so the author came up with a piece of government regulation that seems to have stifled any entrepreneurship of this option:

Passed in 1920, this law mandates that ships transporting cargo between two points in the United States be domestically flagged, owned, crewed, and built. Intended to bolster the U.S. maritime sector, the Jones Act has instead been a case study in the failures of protectionism. Absent foreign competition, U.S. shipbuilders produce vessels whose price is as much as eight times higher than those built abroad. This disincentive to the purchase of new vessels means we have fewer ships and a fleet that is old and inefficient.

High costs have inevitably followed and, along with them, increased demand for transportation alternatives such as trucking and rail.

Again, government interference in the market means distortions that might benefit some industries for a time but long term causes ineffective options for the customers (personal and business) that utilize any transportation system domestically. The proof of this is below:

From 1960 to 2014, the amount of freight placed on railroads increased by 48 percent while intercity trucks saw their loads grow by an impressive 217 percent. In sharp contrast, the amount of cargo carried by ships sailing around the coasts during this period decreased by 44 percent. And Great Lakes shipping declined by 43 percent.

Obviously, the government is inept at keeping the transportation infrastructure up to code (let alone, up to speed) as a monopoly always provides substandard service. The shift to waterways also will cause many to suspect environmental abuses from entrepreneurial endeavors that don’t have government oversight (even though our own government, especially the DoD is the largest polluter on the planet). I think that some Dutch expertise could be sought out as they have had plenty of experience of dealing with waterways WHILE balancing ecological impacts with automated systems for loading and off-loading:

A Dutch consortium of nearly 20 partners launched a project this month to study and demonstrate the technical possibilities for autonomous shipping, in the framework of the Smart Shipping Challenge 2017.

While there are attempts at innovation in the waterways of the US, the leader of this can not be the status-quo based government that is usually ony worried about their “cut” (revenue) instead of providing the market with some technological solutions that not only improve efficiencies but actually disrupt the market enough with some brilliant technologies that drop the cost of transport while being sensitive to the environment.

This can be done

SF1