Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Monopoly "Money "


























"Everyone knows that the State claims and exercises [a] monopoly of crime ... and that it makes this monopoly as strict as it can. It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants, whether the property of citizen or alien." --

Albert Jay Nock, reducing the matter to its undeniable essentials, in his indispensable work Our Enemy, The State.



One of the most enduring tidbits of economic pseudepigrapha is this incontestable statement dubiously attributed to Ludwig von Mises: "Government is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper and make it worthless by applying ink." The same principle holds true with respect to the debasement of the official coinage.


Owing to the Regime's relentless debasement of the dollar, pennies and nickels are actually worth more as metal than as U.S. currency. In late 2006, the United States Mint -- an agency with no legislative authority -- issued a rule forbidding people, on pain of imprisonment, to make economically sensible use of coined "money" they had earned through legitimate commerce.


Americans who possessed large quantities of pennies and nickels were informed that it was a federal offense punishable by a $10,000 fine or five years in prison to melt them down and extract the marketable metals from those government-issued slugs.



This is a "crime"? Three pennies, one of them a pre-1983 97% copper coin, were melted in a science experiment intended to separate the zinc from the copper. According to the U.S. Mint, this was a federal offense.

The same penalties apply to Americans who travel abroad with more than $5 worth of the coins in their possession, or ship more than $100 in pennies and/or nickels out of the country (for purposes deemed "legitimate" by the criminal syndicate headquartered in Washington, D.C.).


Those penalties, which were imposed Soviet-style by way bureaucratic ukase, rather than legislative action, are a portent of much more draconian currency controls to come.


In a recent interview, economic analyst Doug Casey addressed what he calls "the grim reality of impending currency controls" -- that is, punitive measures imposed by the Regime to prevent Americans from moving their money abroad in order to protect it from official theft through direct taxation and the more subtle pilferage called inflation.


"I don't know what form the exchange controls are going to take, but there are two general possibilities: regulation and taxation," observed Casey. "The regulations might take the form of a rule prohibiting you from taking more than X-thousands of dollars abroad per year without special permission. No expensive vacations, no foreign asset purchases without state approval."


Such Foreign Exchange (FX) controls "have been used since the days of the Roman Empire," Casey continues. "A country debases its currency, raises taxes beyond a certain level, and makes regulations too onerous -- and productive people naturally react by getting their capital, and then themselves, out of Dodge. But the government can't have that, so it puts on FX controls. They're almost inevitable at this point."


Shortly before the Soviet empire collapsed, its ruling elite imposed the death penalty for violations of its currency exchange laws, Casey recalls. It's not impossible to imagine a similar state of affairs taking hold as Washington's globe-straddling collectivist Empire implodes. It shouldn't be forgotten, of course, that every government imposition on the rights and property of the individual is a contingent death sentence for those who dare defend themselves against the State's criminal aggression.



Redeemable in real money: A 100,000 gold certificate of the kind used in "sovereign" transactions before Washington closed the "gold window."








Casey's analysis is sound, but he is insufficiently alarmist. The regulations put in place by the U.S. Mint in early 2006 are currency controls of exactly the kind he describes -- a fact noted in the title of the agency's news release announcing the final version of the restrictions ("United States Mint Limits Exportation and Minting of Coins," April 17, 2007). In keeping with the kleptomaniacal impulses that characterize every public policy inflicted on us by Washington, the Mint announced that coins that were melted or exported in violation of its rule would be "forfeited" -- that is, stolen -- on behalf of the Regime.


As Casey pointed out, the Regime will promote FX controls by depicting those who seek to protect their earnings as "unpatriotic," and demonizing those who try to get their money out of the USSA as greedy, unscrupulous enemies of The People -- "wreckers," to use the appropriate Stalinist epithet.


It's difficult to depict people who melt down pennies and nickels as Plutocrats. However, the Mint did make a feint in the direction of faux patriotism by denouncing those "few individuals" who would extract valuable metal from state-issued slugs as selfish clods determined to "take advantage of the taxpayer."


Never forget: In the collectivist lexicon, the adjectives "greedy" and "selfish" apply only to those who wish to keep what they have honestly earned, rather than to those who wish to steal that property through the use of officially sanctioned criminal means.


Individuals who wish to melt down coins they have legitimately earned -- coins that are their property to be used as the owners see fit -- face kidnapping and imprisonment at the hands of the same government that tirelessly steals the value of the same currency in order to serve the interests of the parasite class. And now the same Regime appears to be poised to "solve" this problem by removing every vestige of value from its coinage.


The Obama Junta's FY 2011 budget contains a provision incorporating the so-called "Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act," which was first proposed two years ago. The purpose of that measure -- which would effectively repeal Art. I, section 8, line five of the United States Constitution -- is to authorize the Treasury Department to develop and use "new metallic content for circulating coins...." This is necessary, according to the bill, because "international demand along with market speculation for commodity metals has, over the past several years, increased the cost of producing circulating coins in the United States...."


That statement is a reeking pile of unfiltered Bolshevik: The costs and market value of copper, zinc, and nickel appear to be going up because the dollar -- under the pressure of Washington's incontinent profligacy -- is losing its purchasing power. This is why minting pennies currently costs 1.62 cents a copy, and the unit cost of forging a nickel is nearly six cents.


The "solution" to this, of course, is to permit the Secretary of the Treasury -- the charming fellow presiding over the redistribution of what remains of our aggregate personal wealth into the hands of Wall Street's corporatist criminal elite -- to issue new government-approved slugs made entirely of trash metal, which we will be compelled by "law" to use as currency.


Sometimes it's just that obvious: Notice of FDR's 1933 executive order demanding that Americans surrender their gold to the regime. Westbrook Pegler was exactly right.

While Washington prepares for the terminal debasement of its currency, the rulers within its seraglio of collectivist soviets (sometimes amusingly referred to as "states") are contemplating currency exchange restrictions of their own.


The government afflicting the otherwise lovely state of Washington, for example, is considering the imposition of a sales tax on gold and silver coins and bullion. This amounts to a government-inflicted surcharge on a currency transaction. It would also punish those who choose to invest in gold and silver rather than the stock market.


While sensible people (including a few relatively decent legislators) in the Evergreen State have thrown up impediments to the proposed currency exchange tax, the state legislature is pursuing a similar end through indirect means: The state's Department of Revenue seeks an increase in the business-and-occupation tax paid by bullion dealers.


This tax penalty wouldn't apply to people who throw away their money in the stock market, as the architects of our corporate socialist system would prefer. It would likely drive business to dealers in other states not foolish enough to impose such liabilities on coin and bullion dealers -- until similar penalties are imposed on currency exchanges by the tax-consumers in other states, of course.


There is no reason rooted in logic, history, or the Constitution for the government to retain its monopoly on issuing currency. For most of America's history prior to the advent of the Federal Reserve (aka the Focus of Evil in the Modern World), there were no legal tender laws requiring the use of government-issued currency. The constitutional provision referring to the power to "coin" money refers to standardizing the weight and purity of currency made from real money -- that is, gold and silver (or even, if the market approves, copper).


Representative Ron Paul (R-Constitution) has proposed a measure that entitled the "Free Competition in Currency Act" that would repeal the legal tender laws that created the Regime's monopoly on the issuance of currency. Section 3 of that bill would impose a nation-wide ban on taxing "the sale, exchange, or other disposition" of coins, bullion, or any other monetary instrument used in free commerce.


Rep. Paul's freedom in currency act is an organic and necessary compliment to his bill to audit the Federal Reserve System (as a first step toward abolishing that engine of fraud and mass bloodshed). Since ruling elites do not consent to being deposed by legislative means, it's impossible for me to believe that either of those bills will ever be enacted. But they may provide useful guidance when -- not "if" -- the current system collapses under the insupportable weight of its accumulated corruption.


Be sure to tune in for Pro Libertate Radio each weeknight from 7:00-8:00 Central Time on the Liberty News Radio Network.


















Dum spiro, pugno!







29 comments:

  1. US to Impose 'Significant Regime of Sanctions' Against Iran, Obama Says
    FOXNews

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/09/white-house-disappointed-irans-response-overtures/

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  2. Patriots Must Take Command By Means Of CONCRETE IDIOMATIC
    (Apollonian, 9 Feb 10)

    William: I'm gonna tell u, old comrade, u and we are up against conspiratorial psychopaths bound and determined to kill masses of folks by means (ultimately) of mass-starvation, as Stalin's Ukraine example of early 30s.

    And there are yet other little modernistic wrinkles to be added, as for example, plague contagions enabled by means of gov. mandated mass innoculations, according to Alex Jones of InfoWars.com.

    Organized psychos are succeeding brilliantly by means of the recent bailouts by which collapse of USA economy will happen ALL AT ONCE--rather than in stages which would otherwise work to alert ever-greater numbers of people as and if they take place incrementally.

    Eventually, perhaps sometime next year, Obama/Soetoro will declare emergency measures, martial law, etc., bringing on the overt police state--which will work when everything is collapsed, stores empty of food supplies, gasoline prices sky-rocketing, even the electricity rationed. For HYPER-inflation is in the works--in the pipeline, even as we speak now, all part of the New World Order (NWO) plan.

    But note economics is truly such a "dismal" science as IT IS SO ABSTRACT--which then puts it permanently out of the reach of, oh, about 90-95% of the population. Thus the real trick, culturally, is PSYCHOLOGIC, hence a matter of rhetoric and propaganda--gaining control of the popular idiomatic.

    So u see comrade William, WE MUST GET CONCRETE--AWAY fm this debilitating abstractness and "intellect." Not that intellect is bad--it's just relatively ineffective and even irrelevant for immediate mass purposes.

    Forget "capitalism" or "inflation," for these are abstracts which NOT ONE IN TEN PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND in any meaningful way. For if by some miracle u think people might have "caught-on" to some CONCEPT, just wait five minutes when they will be CONFUSED again by some clever manipulator.

    "Intellect" is only for a very few, brother William--U GOTTA TAKE COMMAND OF THE CONCRETE to get anything seriously done and accomplished.

    U and we must use that most poignant and meaningful CONCRETE terminology in order to gain the imaginations and confidence of the masses. Hence therefore u and we must make liberal use of the specific word, "COUNTERFEITING," as this is CONCRETE, again, and it's something EVEN CHILDREN CAN UNDERSTAND.

    For that's what the Fed is, in simplest terms--A COUNTERFEITING SCAM/racket/operation/mechanism. And it's "conspiracy" by essence and definition, as counterfeiting is obvious and necessarily FRAUD by its intrinsic nature--which again, EVEN CHILDREN UNDERSTAND.

    [--------see below for part two to above entry---------A.]

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  3. [------here's part two to above entry------------A.]

    * * * * *


    Thus u see, my good patriot comrades, once we've CAPTURED THE PEOPLE'S IMAGINATION by means of this CONCRETE terminology--evading the pretentious and evanescent "intellect," which most people naturally and understandably mis-trust--we've essentially then solved the problem and GAINED THE VICTORY. The rest is mere matter of course and "mopping up."

    For at the root of it all (culturally), our problem is simply a conspiracy of CRIMINALS who are running a "continuing enterprise," as the saying goes. See RealityZone.com and TheMoneyMasters.com for expo/ref. on US Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) fraud.

    By means of this (Fed) COUNTERFEITING, criminals have taken control of everything, having SIMPLY BOUGHT everything political, judicial, electoral, bureaucratic, "educational," and including the critical mass-corporate "Jews-media."

    Why do politicians pass bills they haven't even read?--because they've been BRIBED and extorted. For remember, once u've accepted one bribe, now u're subject to black-mail and crass extortion easy to exert when u control the "Jews-media," the corrupted police forces, and the utterly crooked law profession.

    Why do politicians pass INCREDIBLY UN-POPULAR LAWS, as in guise of "comprehensive immigration reform," like regarding the on-going illegal alien invasions?--because, again, they're BRIBED with masses of COUNTERFEITED funds. After all, COUNTERFEIT conspirators only have to have enough paper and ink, don't they? If criminals need money, well by golly, they just run the printing presses, eh?

    And if politicians don't co-operate w. criminals, well then there's plenty of money to pay for "enforcement"--in way of assassination by MOSSAD or their underlings at the CIA.

    So bro. William, u've well proven u have the intellect, BUT NOW u gotta exert it most practically by means of APPLICATION in way of BEING CONCRETE.

    Thus again, (a) first, we emphasize the COUNTERFEIT nature of the essential CRIMINAL problem by which then they absolutely control EVERYTHING ELSE--and I mean everything--even then the nominally "Christian" establishment "Churches."

    (b) Second, then it's EASY, again by means of the CONCRETE methodology as I've described, showing how this COUNTERFEITING affects and controls LITERALLY everything else--CONSPIRACY demonstrated in CONCRETE terminology, language, lingo, and esp. then, IDIOM. For that's what we're doing--TAKING CONTROL OF POPULAR IDIOM by means of this CONCRETE terminology and method.

    CONCLUSION: So there's NO TIME TO LOSE for patriot heroes and dedicated soldiers of Christ: We must simply and forthwith TAKE CONTROL of the popular IDIOMATIC, decisively gaining the people's confidence by down-to-earth CONCRETE terminology which thus is immunized fm confusion by such as "Jews-media" and phony "intellectual" poseurs. Honest elections and death to the Fed. Apollonian

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  4. Apolloinan, I wonder if based on you accusation of the so-called "Jew media", if you would not implement your own "Final Solution" after you dispose of the "old boss" with you as the "new boss".

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  5. Thanks "anon" at 4:12 pm: if there's anyone who doubts existence of "Jews-media" here's definitive expo--

    http://www.natall.com/who-rules-america/index.html

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  6. Ugh, is it just me, or am I the only one who gets tired of the anti-Jewish rants that seem to show up in the comments on this blog all to often?

    I'm not Jewish, will never be Jewish, and I am no supporter of the state of Israel, but give me a break - can we please have a substantive discussion without blaming all of the world's ills on Jews?

    Thanks!

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  7. Anon at 6:24,

    You're not the only one who thinks such screeds are as irritating and rational as those made by a drunken Mel Gibson.

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  8. Great post Will, I personally have been saving the 1982 and earlier pennies for the last few years...the poor mans silver I suppose. I also suspec they will soon change the nickels composition as it currently is 25% nickel I believe. Coinflation.com is where to go to see the values of the coins based upon their metal contents.

    A 1982 penny is worth over 2 cents right now. A nickel is worth 5.016 I think last I checked. On ebay people are purchasing the pre 83 pennies right now.

    Just as it would have been a good idea when the feds announced they would get rid of the silver coins to go and get as much as possible from the bank before the crummy ones came out so it would be a good idea to get as many nickels as possible when they announce the plan to change the nickel composition. That time will come, and in anticipation I have already exchanged paper for nickel while I can at an advantageous exchange rate.

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  9. I just checked coinflation.com as their calculators go by the daily metal spot price and right now a pre 1983 copper penny is at 0.019798 and a 1946-2010 nickel is 0.0466. So I wasn't quite up to date as these metals spot price have dipped a bit. Post 1982 Zinc pennies spot at .0055 so they have a way to go still.

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  10. "Some Midlands residents are debating whether an Irmo police officer used extremes measures or just caused, when he tased a dog last week." http://www.midlandsconnect.com/news/story.aspx?id=413474

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  11. "I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire, ...The man that controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire. And I control the money supply."

    Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild

    When a regime controls the value of money, wages paid, health care, retirement funds and education, THERE IS NO NEED FOR CHAINS to keep the slaves in their place. This is amerika today.

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  12. Great piece, Will. Nothing really relevant to add to the topic at hand that hasn't already been mentioned by your article or by commenters here.

    But, have you heard that Leviathan can assassinate Americans while they are overseas?

    Excerpt: Blair insisted that under no circumstances would Americans be assassinated overseas for criticizing the government, adding “we don’t target people for free speech.” Rather they are subject to assassination when the government decides they are a threat and when they “get specific permission.” (emphasis mine)

    "When the government decides..." to my mind would logically include "free speech" or anything else the government decides is "a threat," this Leviathan servant's "reassurances" notwithstanding.

    It was news to me - although not particularly surprising given our grotesque societal decay of today - until I ran across this piece.

    Well, we've clearly crossed the Rubicon dividing the long faux Republic perception from the tyrannical reality when these barbarians in suits can reveal this kind of candor seamlessly, without the slightest tic and no public outrage.

    Death to THIS cursed, broke, and broken America! I knew it would self-implode and was rotting from within, just not to this amazing degree.

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  13. Jews, Recipients Of Gentile Charity, Must Be Confronted And Examined Forthrightly
    (Apollonian, 10 Feb 10)

    Mr. Grigg: I think it's appropriate and prudent to answer these Jew-defenders, for they "protesteth too much," this without even addressing the issue, for example, regarding "Jews-media," which is a simple fact fact, among others, u may notice they don't want to address.

    After all, USA was instituted a Christian, hence an anti-semitic (anti-Talmud, as Gosp. MARK 7:1-13) country, a union (federation, NOT a "nation") of states. Jews are nothing but recipients of white Christian gentile charity even as they pretend they own the land.

    And when Mel Gibson complained so righteously about Jews, who persecuted and harassed him for his movie, "The Passion," Gibson's alleged "drunkenness" was merely what stimulated that truthfulness which Jews strive to prevent by their typical intimidation, Gibson a gentile who works within an industry absolutely dominated by Jews (see Neal Gabler's "An Empire of Their Own").

    And never forget Christ never feared or hesitated to characterize, describe, and define Jews, "vipers and serpents," in Gosp. MATT, see entire 23rd chapt. In Gosp. JOHN 8:44, Christ noted Jews are "sons of [their] father the devil, father of lies, whose work [they] do."

    TRUTH, which is what Christianity is all about in the very first place (Gosp. JOHN 14:6), is inimical to Jews. Thus it's no wonder Jews absolutely dominate the US Federal Reserve COUNTERFEIT conspiracy, Bernanke a Jew; Greenspan a Jew, Geithner and Paulson Jews, the very first Fed Chairman (1914), Warburg, a Jew.

    The Jew scholar, Bernard Lazare, in his epochal work, "Antisemitism" (published in 1896), noted Jews have dominated banking in the West since 14th cent.

    And observe the purest chutzpah, effrontery, and presumption of these creatures who pretend Jews must be held sacrosanct, not even to be examined, defined, or analyzed.

    For who and what are Jews anyway?--this is a good place to start, I submit. Thus Jews are Talmudists by definition--and then those genetically related--they're the race of the religion. And note the racial Jews always, with only fewest exceptions, defend the religion. Ask any authority, Jew or Christian.

    And so the next issue is analysis of the Talmud--see RevisionistHistory.org, TruthTellers.org, and Come-and-hear.com for best Talmudic expo/ref.

    So what is the Talmud?--it's a war plan/strategy which the Jews collectivistically prosecute against the rest of humanity--this is the fact which then is confirmed in all history and reality. Thus Jews constitute simply an extended crime-family (only a few of the not-so-bright on the outer fringes) which prosecutes its warfare by means first and most of LIES, Jews lying even to themselves, top-level Jews lying to the lower-levels (but which is accepted willingly by these lower-levels), Jews creating their own little subjectivist/collectivist realities within their minds as they consider most useful to their misanthropic ends.

    CONCLUSION: Thus I propose to call the Jews' bluff: they must be analyzed, assessed, and examined, and the Talmud is the necessary, logical key and starting pt. to such analysis. Honest elections and death to the Fed. Apollonian

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  14. I'd like to offer a brief reminder/disclaimer here regarding the comments section.

    Owing to the fact that an unattended comments section is a spam magnet, I do moderate posts, albeit with the lightest touch I can exercise.

    This means that I interdict spam and obvious, intentional blasphemy. Apart from that I operate on the principle of caveat lector.

    Not surprisingly, comment threads sometimes either branch off into tangents, or become entangled in them.

    This can be troublesome, but since I assume that readers can exercise discernment - and since the content of posts in this section are solely and entirely the responsibility of the poster -- I'm not going to change my policy.

    Thanks for indulging me!

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  15. Dear william,

    Regarding your article on monopoly money, there is one thing i did not agree with, and that is your comment about the collapse of the soviet union. The soviet union did not collapse, the soviets are masters of DISINFORMATION. HAVE YOU READ (NEW LIES FOR OLD AND THE PERESTROIKA DECEPTION) BY ANATOILY GOLITSYN.

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  16. Mr. Grigg,
    Might I suggest one more amendment to your moderation? It would be useful if you disallowed "Anonymous," and required posters to make up a name for themselves, be it John Doe, Captain Alpha, ABCDE, #12345, or #54321. You have so many Anonymouses posting here that one does not know if it's one person, two of them, or fifteen different people.

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  17. Anon 12:08, I think you're correct to a certain degree. The old USSR didn't "collapse" as much as it "re-morphed", the tyranny that was its chief characteristic having renamed itself, decentralized through ethnic devolution, and the corrupt Nomanklatura-based kleptocracy that was the old Politburo's dominant feature having spread itself out over the new nationalist landscape.

    Here in Amerika much the same thing is, sadly, likely to happen once the UFSA breaks up. While I would like to think that new nation-states that spring up out of the ruins will run toward libertarian-style minarchy, history would seem to suggest that the corruption and tyrannical violence characteristic of the current USA fedgov will simply trickle down to the various state and regional capitols (possibly exacerbated by the return "home" of those congresscritters and militarycrats who don't perish in the Second Revolution and who want a shot at a new fiefdom closer to home).

    I hope I'm wrong here, but I can't help but see dark clouds. I do, however, think that the one silver lining to the future will be the renunciation of the fiat greenback as currency in any of the new political creations that emerge from the UFSA's remains.

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  18. Story available at:
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/35237324

    WASHINGTON, Feb 04, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee duplicated a stolen classified US government policy document before returning it under order of the US Trade Representative.

    The newly released FBI form FD-302 is available for download at http://IRmep.org/ila/economy/FD302.pdf .

    Testimony about AIPAC's executive director and top lobbyist reveals AIPAC duplicated the classified report "Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty Free Treatment for U.S. Imports from Israel" after covertly receiving it from Israeli Minister of Economics Dan Halpern: "REDACTED immediately called REDACTED at the USTR to make arrangements to return the document. The report was subsequently returned to the USTR by a member of the AIPAC office staff. Prior to returning this document, REDACTED asked to have a duplicate copy made so that the staff of the AIPAC could further examine the report....He stated that REDACTED retained the duplicate copy of the report and that the original report was returned to the USTR." The classified 300 page report contained business confidential information and trade secrets provided by 76 American industry and worker groups lobbying against a bilateral intergovernmental managed trade pact with Israel. The fight pitted Monsanto, the U.S. Bromine Alliance, Sunkist Growers Inc., the American Farm Bureau and the AFL-CIO against the Israeli government, AIPAC, and the American Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry. After the trade deal passed, the US cumulative trade deficit with Israel grew to $71 billion; equivalent to 100,000 lost US jobs each year over the past decade. The report is still considered so sensitive neither the USTR nor the International Trade Commission will release it under the Freedom of Information Act.

    This warrants close public scrutiny according to IRmep director of research Grant Smith: "AIPAC is again pushing legislation that undermines American industries, workers, shippers, financial institutions and our most valuable trading partners. These startling AIPAC testimonials to law enforcement officials, published online for the first time, reveal the subordination of US interests and our advice and consent democratic process of governance to the AIPAC and its foreign principals." The Israel Lobby Archive, http://IRmep.org/ila, is a unit of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington. The Archive digitizes declassified documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act filings with law enforcement, economic, diplomatic and intelligence agencies. IRmep is a Washington-based nonprofit that studies U.S. Middle East policy formulation.

    SOURCE: Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) CONTACT: Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) Grant Smith, 202-342-7325 info@irmep.org
    Copyright Business Wire

    ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO GODDAMN COMMENT.....
    Lemuel Gulliver

    ReplyDelete
  19. THIS IS ALSO RICHLY HUMOROUS:

    Story Available at US Miint website::

    http://usmint.gov/consumer/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=hotitems#bmImitation1950

    The United States Mint is aware of recent reports that some companies in China are producing unmarked imitations of pre-1950 United States coins and are selling them on-line. This practice not only exploits unwary consumers and collectors, but also may violate Federal law. Both consumers and coin collectors should be aware of this practice and should exercise vigilance and good judgment when purchasing pre-1950 coins.

    The Hobby Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 2101–2106) outlaws manufacturing or importing imitation numismatic items unless they are marked in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Specifically, any such imitation numismatic item intended to be introduced or distributed in commerce must be plainly and permanently marked "copy." To read the FTC's 1998 Consumer Alert on Investing in Rare Coins, visit the Better Business Bureau's webpage, http://www.bbb.org/us/article/4740

    In addition, these imitation coins may violate Federal counterfeiting laws (18 U.S.C. §§ 485, 489 & 490). The United States Mint has no Federal criminal enforcement authority. Rather, it refers such matters to the United States Secret Service, which is lawfully authorized to detect and arrest any person who violates any Federal law relating to United States coinage (18 U.S.C. § 3056(b)(2)). For more information on counterfeit coins, visit the United States Secret Service's webpage, http://www.treas.gov/usss/money_coins.shtml

    He!He!He!He!He!
    Lemuel Gulliver

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  20. Anonymous, however we characterize post-Soviet Russia, it simply cannot be considered the same empire it was prior to the events of 1989-1991.

    I'm very well acquainted with Golitsyn's work; a decade and a half or so ago, I spent a lot of time in the company of Christopher Story, who is still (I think) the only Western writer who has access to Golitsyn.

    The Soviet intelligence apparatus was skilled at strategic deception. But there are limits to what they can do to control events they've set in motion.

    Cunning, ruthless, and capable as they were, I don't think the Soviet strategists dictated all of the critical political and cultural developments in Russia and the FSU during the past two decades.

    Sure, the Russian nomenklatura remains largely intact; that's a point I've made quite frequently. Some of the former SSRs (such as Uzbekistan) are ruled by utterly bestial veterans of the Soviet system. What is really interesting is that the worst elements of the Soviet system are now allied with Washington, often over Moscow's objections.

    In some ways, Russia is freer than the USA. Some former Soviet-dominated countries, such as Estonia and the Czech Republic, are much freer.

    Russia itself has less onerous tax rates, a lighter regulatory burden, and a much smaller military budget than the U.S. Its global posture is one of defending its own interests, rather than exporting revolution.

    Russia is a big country with an evil government (to say the latter is to assume the former). But I cannot see how Moscow, rather than Washington, should be considered the chief agent of military aggression and subversion in the contemporary world.

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  21. The bullion tax is probably the stupidest tax proposal I've read about lately. It's obvious that the bureaucrats in Washington know nothing at all about buying bullion. The price of a 1 oz. American Gold Eagle is currently about $1140. Washington has a 6.5% sales tax, so this would increase the cost to $1214.10 - a difference of $74. Shipping and handling on online purchase from Apmex, Bullion Direct, or Kitco is around $25. If this passes, the bullion dealers in Washington will probably have to close eventually, except maybe those who deal in coins in general.

    Also, as noted in the Seattle Times article, the margins are extremely small in the bullion business. Just because the price of gold has gone up since 2008 does not mean the dealers are suddenly super-rich, as the tax-hikers probably think they are.

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  22. Mr. Grigg: you say,

    "The Soviet intelligence apparatus was skilled at strategic deception."

    No doubt about it. But, after all I have posted here, how can you as an American point a finger at the KGB while not mentioning the CIA and FBI and all the other agencies of the USGOV? I would venture to suggest that only in the last 15 years with the development of Internet sources of information and opinion has the US public even BEGUN to realize how corrupt and evil our government is.

    This evil did not just now happen. And it has nothing to do with the two political parties. (Although the Republican Party, especially, has been taken over, since ex-CIA Director G.H.W. Bush became President, by the darkest forces of evil.)

    Roosevelt knew in advance about Pearl Harbor. The CIA killed John Kennedy. They engineered the Watergate fiasco that brought down Nixon. The FBI killed Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. They blew up airplanes to get one person, assassinated the UN Secretary General, fomented wars, revolutions and vicious insurrections, and more.

    All the while we were told in our Government-controlled media that this was a virtuous nation, a shining city on a hill, the light of the free world, and the Soviets were the Tonton Macoutes and Satan-worshippers of the world. (Dig into your pockets! Pay your taxes and put your money in the collection plate, folks, so we can defeat the forces of Satan!) And we believed it, until the Internet came along to disillusion us. Some of us, witness above, still have not gotten the message, but are still living in the past of the Easter Bunny and Leave it to Beaver.

    I encourage your readers to spend $8.99 to buy the E-book, "Conversations with The Crow," available here:

    http://www.conversationswiththecrow.com/

    "The Crow" was Robert Trumbull Crowley, Assistant Deputy Director (or second-in-command) at the CIA's Directorate of Operations, the department that assassinated Kennedy, assassinated one Pope and conspired in the attempt to kill another, and murdered hundreds of innocent people as collateral damage in other expedient operations. They even murdered their own ex-Director William Colby. In the book, Crowley explains why, also why Kennedy took us to war in Vietnam, and why the CIA and others killed him. Crowley joined the CIA at its inception in 1947 and retired in or about 1986.

    Disclosure: I have absolutely no financial interest whatsoever in this book or with the people putting it out. However, on enquiry, I was told no publisher in the US or any English-speaking country would touch it with a ten-foot pole, and thus it is being published only as an E-book. It will never be reviewed by Oprah or the New York Times; in fact, you will probably never hear about it anywhere, except perhaps on the Web. I encourage everyone to download it before it is possibly forcibly removed from the Internet. It is ten times more devastating than Smedley Butler, Eustace Mullins, and Benjamin Freedman, combined.

    When you have read it, then you may come back and point fingers at the Soviet Union, which, (breaking news, folks!!) died 20 years ago.

    As you yourself say, "What is really interesting is that the worst elements of the Soviet system are now allied with Washington, often over Moscow's objections. In some ways, Russia is freer than the USA."

    If you know that, why don't you correct the writers who post their nonsense about Russia here?

    Lemuel Gulliver.

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  23. Mr. Grigg and fellow libertarians,

    Knowledge is power. These links below I am about to give you and your readers are probably the most important I have ever posted here. They speak for themselves, and there is no need for me to elaborate on them. If one reads these articles and watches the videos and absorbs their message, the entire fabric of lies and subversion of the common will to resist Leviathan will become clear. This is the foundation on which everything that is happening in our world rests - economics, militarism, crisis, anger, brutality, apathy, fear, ignorance, stupidity, exploitation, violence and political theater. Here they are:

    "Disinformation Tactics: The Methods Used To Keep You In The Dark"

    http://dprogram.net/2010/02/08/disinformation-tactics-the-methods-used-to-keep-you-in-the-dark/

    Video: "How Mass Media Control You" (Includes a frank exposition on the diabolical 25-year process of intentional corruption of a national culture, by a former KGB defector):

    http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/video-how-mass-media-control-you/

    "Controlling The Minds Of The Masses: How It Is Done And Why" - A fairly long technical and historical discussion of the psycho-emotional power of Symbolic Archetypes, and more:

    http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/controlling-the-minds-of-the-masses-how-it-is-done-and-why/

    "Why Propaganda Trumps Truth" - A discussion of irrational belief in "Facts" presented by "Authority" as "Truth" (more extensively investigated in Eric Hoffer's book, The True Believer.)Quote from article: "The problem faced by truth is the emotional needs of people" - will encourage us to separate emotion from belief:

    http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/why-propaganda-trumps-truth/

    I know in the past I have offended some of your other readers with my rabble-rousing rants. However, this is now serious. We need to understand what is going on. I encourage everyone to expand their awareness - carefully read and watch these. Especially the 3 videos ending with the interview with the KGB spy, which is so prescient it will make your jaw drop.

    Lemuel Gulliver.

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  24. "[A]fter all I have posted here, how can you as an American point a finger at the KGB while not mentioning the CIA and FBI and all the other agencies of the USGOV?...

    As you yourself say, `What is really interesting is that the worst elements of the Soviet system are now allied with Washington, often over Moscow's objections. In some ways, Russia is freer than the USA.'

    If you know that, why don't you correct the writers who post their nonsense about Russia here?"


    Lemuel, with respect, the point I make above is one I've repeatedly made before, albeit most likely in installments I published before you became aware of my blog.I devoted much of a recent radio broadcast to this theme as well; I'll try to find the program in the archives and post the relevant link.

    As I noted in an essay posted just yesterday in another forum --

    http://jbsrip.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-does-jbs-want-war-with-russia.html

    -- there are conservatives (including some I know very well) who adamantly refuse to recognize that the past twenty years have happened, and are cynically promoting a pointless, unnecessary, and potentially catastrophic conflict with Russia:

    There is a government that behaves in much the same way the Soviets did circa 1979, but it's headquartered in Washington, not Moscow. I tried to make that point in a "Last Word" essay for The New American back in March 2005, but that column -- which noted some interesting parallels in the respective official personality cults being created on behalf of Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush -- was spiked by the JBS editorial collective.


    "For all the superficial parallels that can be drawn between Mssrs. Putin and Bush, they made an oddly matched pair during their February 24 meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia," I wrote. "After all, it could be said, one of them heads an increasingly authoritarian and lawless government that is pursuing a radical vision of global revolution rooted in the teachings of the Soviet Union’s founders. The other is merely the president of the Russian Federation."

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  25. " The other is merely the president of the Russian Federation.".... WG

    LOL..!!! I nearly spit out my coffee while reading this. How funny but sadly true.

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  26. "After all, it could be said, one of them heads an increasingly authoritarian and lawless government that is pursuing a radical vision of global revolution rooted in the teachings of the Soviet Union’s founders. The other is merely the president of the Russian Federation."

    PRICELESS!

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  27. Mr. Grigg,
    Thank you. As you surmised, I was not aware of these opinions and past writings of yours when I pointed MY finger at you. You are indeed a wise observer of our condition, with a talent for a devastating quip. I endorse the amusement and applause for your last paragraph above. I like what you say, and appreciate the opportunity to put in my own 2 cents as well. Sometimes I do it in terms calculated to stir passions and provoke thought, as I feel America could use more passion and less complacency. I apologize if it sometimes offends. Anyway, I gave some truly priceless links above in this series of comments, and I do hope folks will follow them. Thanks again.
    Lemuel Gulliver.

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  28. The same forces behind what happened in Russia in 1917 are the same forces behind what is happening in the good old USA right now.
    It's the banksters! I don't know why we have to get esoteric about it or argue about Soviet infiltration of our government.

    George Bush and Barack Obama work for the same people who employed Lenin and Stalin.

    Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution
    http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/

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  29. Anonymous @ 11:55 am,
    Thank you. I bookmarked that site.
    - LG

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