Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has introduced legislation that seeks to extend Fourth Amendment protection to electronic communications, which if successful would be a major move to protect online privacy.
This comes after it was revealed that both the IRS and the FBI claimed they did not need a warrant to spy on the electronic communications of Americans.
Nonetheless, Paul has made some much needed statements about the lack of protection given to the private electronic communications of the American people.
“In today’s high-tech world, we must ensure that all forms of communication are protected,” Paul said in a press release. “Yet government has eroded protecting the Fourth Amendment over the past few decades, especially when applied to electronic communications and third party providers.”
The Fourth Amendment is supposed to protect the American people from unreasonable search and seizure, though that has been undermined quite a bit.
“Congress has passed a variety of laws that decimate our Fourth Amendment protections,” Paul said. “In effect, it means that Americans can only count on Fourth Amendment protections if they don’t use email, cellphones, the Internet, credit cards, libraries, banks or other forms of modern finance and communications.”
Paul’s legislation, the Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act, or S. 1037, would require law enforcement to obtain warrants when seeking access to personal data online including emails, chat logs, online banking records and more.
“Basic constitutional rights should not be invalidated by carrying out basic, day-to-day functions in a technologically advanced world, and this bill will provide much needed clarity and reassert Fourth Amendment protections for records held by third parties,” he said.
“Unlike Leahy’s bill, however, Paul’s bill would ensure all online data held by third parties is protected by the Fourth Amendment,” according to Zach Walton of WebProNews.
This type of reform seems to be gaining steam, with Attorney General Eric Holder even supporting an update of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Paul also introduced the Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2013, a bill that aims to “protect an individual’s right to privacy against unwarranted governmental intrusion through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones.”
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCY.TV from 7 pm — 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com
If you ever wanted to be a hero and save the world, today is the day to do it.
You don’t need a cape, a pair of snazzy tights, or magnificent powers to be a superhero.
You just need to get out there and join your nearest March Against Monsanto, the bioterrorist company that is trying to take over the world’s food supply.
By uniting and standing together, whatever our political values, whatever our race or sexual orientation, whatever our differences, we can build a powerful momentum that can’t be stopped.
Today, let Congress and the whole world know how you feel about the toxins that line our grocery store shelves, and about who the biggest culprit is, Monsanto.
As for us, we’ve made our t-shirts and our signs. I’m just about to go make our picnic lunch and fill some water bottles. We are driving 3 hours and then, my children and I will make our stand. I hope that you will too.
450 Marches in over 55 Countries. Pick one and join over 2 million Marchers. Help to make this whisper of resistance into a roar that cannot be ignored.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
The Monsanto Company likes to proclaim that they are the good guys, here to selflessly feed the world, help with sustainable agriculture, and, as if those lofty goals are not enough, champion human rights across the globe. All you have to do is look at their commitments page to see how worthy they are of a shiny corporate halo:
At the heart of Monsanto is a very clear and principled code of conduct – one we expect all employees, contractors and management to live by every day. We operate under a genuine value system—our pledge—that demonstrates integrity, respect, ethical behavior, perspective and honesty as a foundation for everything we do.
A key part of fulfilling the promise of our value system is by engaging our communities in a significant and positive manner. Not only do we work hard to support the family farmer in a variety of ways, but we also:
provide extensive educational programs – particularly in science and agriculture – for students around the world
fund numerous research grants for graduate students
work in partnership with government bodies, non-profit agencies and advocacy groups to make agriculture more sustainable
If you happen to have your hip-wader boots on, you can delve even further into their purported goodness by reading, in it’s entirety, The Monsanto Pledge:
The Monsanto Pledge is our commitment to how we do business. It is a declaration that compels us to listen more, to consider our actions and their impact broadly, and to lead responsibly. It helps us to convert our values into actions, and to make clear who we are and what we champion.
At the risk of your breakfast, click HERE to learn more about Monsanto’s commitment to integrity, dialogue, transparency, sharing, benefits, respect, acting as owners to achieve results, and creating a great place to work.
Monsanto’s CEO, Hugh Grant, has long been of the opinion that the company is deeply misunderstood.
“From his point of view, the company is working on the side of angels, helping to create commodity crops to feed today’s population and the 2 billion more people who might occupy the planet by 2030. He is proud that Monsanto scientists were among the first to have a patented genetically modified plant on the market—Roundup Ready soybeans were introduced in 1996—and he is excited about new efforts to bioengineer wheat and vegetables, too, as well as the next generation of super beans and corn.” (source)
So why does such a noble, benevolent company require the services of the most notorious mercenary army of modern times? Why did Monsanto dish out half a million dollars to an arm of Blackwater called Total Intelligence (which now operates under the acronym OODA)?
What is Blackwater?
Blackwater is now known as Academi. According to Wikipedia, the company:
“…previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark. Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department’s three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis. Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company’s headquarters is located in Arlington County, Virginia.”
They have made numerous attempts to rebrand their hit squads, changing the company name (Xe and Academi) and creating subsidiaries (Total Intelligence, The Terrorism Research Center, and Greystone, to name a few). They have reportedly done business under the names of at least 30 shell companies.Because of Despite their tarnished reputation gained from, for one example, gunning down civilians, in 2010, CIA head Leon Panetta awarded them a classified $100 million dollar security contract.
How are Blackwater and Monsanto connected?
While rumor had it that Monsanto had actually purchased Blackwater, that is not the case. Monsanto contracted with the mercenary group for “security services”. In 2010, an illuminating report called Blackwater’s Black Ops, written by Jeremy Scahill, of The Nation, revealed that Monsanto had given a contract worth up to half a million dollars to Blackwater.
According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09. The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with Kevin Wilson, Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.
After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives, including to Prince and Prado at their Blackwater e-mail addresses. Black wrote that Wilson “understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.
Reached by telephone and asked about the meeting with Black in Zurich, Monsanto’s Wilson initially said, “I’m not going to discuss it with you.” In a subsequent e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto “with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate entity from Blackwater.”
How does this affect the current wave of activism against Monsanto?
Although there is no clear evidence that Monsanto and Blackwater are working together against current activists, a recent spate of odd activity indicates that Monsanto is taking surreptitious action against the movement, whether on their own or through the use of “contractors”. They have engaged in a social media war against activists. Mysterious things have been occurring on the social networks: posts have disappeared, some posts are hidden from the timelines of readers, and trolls abound on pages promoting this weekend’s March Against Monsanto, happening worldwide on May 25.
After I wrote the article yesterday regarding the odd issues with social media, I was flooded with emails and comments from readers, verifying they, too, had difficulty sharing information related to the March. Accounts had been banned and blocked by Facebook. Videos had vanished from Youtube. I even heard from the editor of From the Trenches World Report, who had intercepted a comment that was allegedly from me, saying that the March had been cancelled.
Monsanto has a history of hiring an unscrupulous mercenary army. Be aware during this weekend’s activism that agent provocateurs may be afoot, particularly at the larger events. Don’t rise to the bait of those who would try to deflect protesters from their goal. The goal remains clear – we are there to peacefully spread awareness about Monsanto and about the health and environmental hazards of GMOs. Around the world, the movement for real food has created an enormous global awakening. Through the power of social media and alternative news, we are cresting a wave with this event. We must maintain our unity and momentum, and stay focused on the goal, because with every attack made against us, we may be reassured that Monsanto is on the run.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
One of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of the grass roots food freedom fight is social media. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and many more networks allow people to instantly connect and provide a platform for information to be passed on exponentially. Facebook and Google are the two biggest websites in the entire world, and their reach is nearly unlimited.
Last week, the Monsanto Company made it very clear that they were under the gun via social media, and they went on the defense, weakly claiming that those who object with their toxic seeds and deadly farming methods were “elitist,” thereby attempting to undermine us as snobbish people who don’t see the big picture and who don’t care about world hunger.
This week, they’ve upped their game. Mysterious things have been occurring on the social networks: posts have disappeared, some posts are hidden from the timelines of readers, and trolls abound on pages promoting this weekend’s March Against Monsanto, happening worldwide on May 25.
Like any cornered rat, the leviathan seed company can see the very large threat coming their way, and it appears that they are pulling out all the stops to fight as dirty as they can. But the movement against the company is so powerful, that despite paid-off politicians and billions of dollars in the war chest, Monsanto knows that they’ve been outmatched. What we’re seeing now are the last, desperate attempts to keep the general public from learning about the man-made global disaster that was created by Monsanto.
On my own page, I found an interesting anomaly. I posted this yesterday:
My children’s first protest march!!! Any ideas for our signs?
Everything you need to know and more about the March Against Monsanto. Don’t forget to subscribe to our email updates while you’re there: http://bit.ly/106qja2
The thing that was very strange about this is that, at the bottom, you can see, it only got 67 views nearly 14 hours after I posted it. The posts that I shared above and below it all had hundreds of views. I asked some friends to check their timelines, and this particular post did not show up. They had to actually go to the page and look for it to find it tucked in near the bottom.
If I hadn’t heard from Tami Canal, the driving force behind the March Against Monsanto’s Facebook page, I would have thought it was merely a fluke. But mysterious things have been happening there as well.
“Events are disappearing, posts are being put on city event pages that say events are cancelled. In no way, shape or form, has ANY event been cancelled. I believe Monsanto is behind this. Some of the people on the page that are commenting have newly made profiles and seemingly these profiles were made strictly to cause problems and get a rise out of our participants on the page.”
Monsanto has openly carried on an internet war with anti-GMO activists for years. Back in 2002, Jay Byrne, the former director of Monsanto’s Internet outreach, had some advice for colleagues:
“…’think of the Internet as a weapon on the table. Either you pick it up or your competitor does, but somebody is going to get killed.’
While he was working for Monsanto, Byrne told the internet newsletter Wow that he “spends his time and effort participating” in web discussions about biotech. He singled out the site AgBioWorld, where he “ensures his company gets proper play”. AgBioWorld is the site on which “Andura Smetacek” launched her campaign.
The biotech companies know that they will never conquer new markets while activists are able to expose the way their operations damage food security and consumer choice. ” (source)
The Monsanto Company’s current overt tactics are to try and polish their very tarnished image by portraying themselves as do-gooders set on feeding the world, while painting anti-GMO protesters as uncaring, selfish individuals that haven’t given hungry Third World residents a passing thought. Less overt are these guerrilla internet shills, causing divisiveness in the movement by starting arguments on forums and in comment threads on social media, and outright passing on misinformation.
Unfortunately, Facebook seems to have the back of the trolls. Occupy Monsanto‘s page was actually banned for three days when the owner publicly outed an abusive PM from a troll. The person who wrote the letter faced no repercussions from Facebook. Other anti-GMO activists have announced that their posts have been hidden or otherwise censored, just like mine was.
Despite the rumors started that events for this Saturday’s March Against Monsanto have been cancelled, or that times have been changed, this is absolutely untrue. Canal reiterated, “In no way, shape or form, has ANY event been cancelled.” If you are planning to go to an event, rest assured, the events will go on as planned, despite the sneaky tactics of a desperate company.
Keep calm and don’t allow yourself to be provoked on Saturday. Anti-GMO activists are on the side of “good” in this battle, so it’s important to keep to the high road. Expect the presence of agent provocateurs, lots of law enforcement, and devious tactics to try to discredit the movement. The keys to successful resistance are unity, information, and public perception.
According to an article on Natural Society, Monsanto has allied with the notorious mercenary security group, Blackwater (now known as Academi) in the fight against anti-GMO protesters:
Monsanto and Blackwater are indeed working together to target anti-Monsanto activists and organizations. Known as far back as 2010, it was unveiled that Blackwater’s client list included Monsanto, Chevron, Walt Disney and many more. According to documents obtained by Scahill, it was also revealed that Monsanto was willing to pay upwards of $500,000 in order for Blackwater to join anti-Monsanto activist groups and infiltrate the ranks. Furthermore, a number of internet-based tactics could be utilized as incognito PR for Monsanto, who undoubtedly knew opposition would mount against their GMO crops as more individuals became aware of the dangers.
Don’t expect Monsanto to play fair. Tami Canal doesn’t.
“I’m not really surprised by Monsanto and their tactics….their bottom line is at stake and as they have demonstrated time and again, profit is their main objective at any expense, whether it be humanity or the environment. I encourage our participants to remain peaceful on Saturday. Do not let the paid shills entice you to violence. March Against Monsanto is a peaceful campaign and our voices will resonate much more loudly if we remain calm.”
Saturday promises to be one of the biggest worldwide protests that has ever taken place, with over two million people signed up to attend marches all over the globe. My children and I will absolutely be taking part in the historic event. Make a sign and join in – there is sure to be a March near you!
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
The grassroots March Against Monsanto movement is spreading across the nation, and the initiative spells out an increasingly massive number of activists and concerned citizens who will ultimately be responsible for ending the GMO juggernaut through peaceful protest and the spread of information.
It really comes down to the basic understanding that what we want is real food — not chemical-laden junk that is riddled with genetically modified organisms. And of course Monsanto is responsible for the majority of such junk, holding a monopoly over the GM seed market with 90% of staple crop seeds under Monsanto control. Seeds that are sold to ignorant farmers who oftentimes end up killing themselves after they find that the seeds produce decreased yields and milk the farmers financially dry through the enforceable patents that come along with the seeds. Patents that Monsanto goons carefully enforce, preying upon small farmers through devious lawsuits and farm stakeouts.
Even organic and natural farmers are subject to such legal attacks, since it’s possible for the patented seeds (which India calls biopiracy) to blow over to such farms and begin to grow. This is also how widespread GMO contamination begins, to which the USDA simply responds ‘get insurance’. We can even go back decades to find that Monsanto was integral in the creation of the infamous Agent Orange, a Vietnam-era chemical warfare weapon which estimates say killed or maimed around 400,000 people and caused a startling 500,000 birth defects.
But the days where this information could hide as footnotes within the media are over.
March Against Monsanto Is Just The Beginning
The March Against Monsanto, which is a worldwide movement encouraging everyone to start their own local get together (here’s the Google document with all the organization info for every area) in defiance of the GMO juggernaut, is generating massive success. And with this success and media coverage comes awareness, which is absolutely essential. It was back in 2011 that I declared Monsanto be the worst company of 2011 in what became a media blitz campaign to spread awareness. Ultimately, it even led to one of my articles becoming the most highly shared articles of that year — something that I am extremely grateful to readers for.
March Against Monsanto is a lot like that campaign, as it is simple, accessible, and absolutely making waves in the media. Just wait until several thousand protesters converge on major cities demanding that our politicians enact legislation to combat Monsanto — a company which has numerous employees and former employees stationed within government.
But what’s more? Whatever comes after the March Against Monsanto will likely be even larger and more open source. It will likely take what worked with the March Against Monsanto campaign, enhance it, and apply it to more than just Monsanto as well. This is how we get our voices heard, through massive awareness movements like this. I encourage everyone to checkout the Google document and get involved in your area. Be friendly, pass out some articles from NaturalSociety, and spread the word — personable individuals are the most effective in communicating a message of truth to others.
About Anthony Gucciardi: Google Plus Profile Anthony is the Editor of NaturalSociety, producer, consultant, and seeker of truth. Anthony’s work has been read by millions worldwide and is routinely featured on major alternative and mainstream news website alike, like the powerful Drudge Report, NaturalNews, Infowars, and many others. Anthony has appeared, oftentimes routinely, on programs like Russia Today (RT), The Alex Jones Show, Coast to Coast AM, and others. Anthony is also a founding member of Natural Attitude and the creator of the independent political website Storyleak
In an interview Thursday, on the Rusty Humphries Show, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) talked about the Benghazi cover-up and officially started the impeachment buzz.
Senator Inhofe proclaimed that “of all the great cover-ups in history” Benghazi “is going to go down as most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history.”
He later noted that,”We may be starting to use the I-word before too long.”
“The I-word meaning impeachment?” Humphries asked.
“Yeah,” Inhofe responded.
When Rusty Humphries questioned the wisdom of impeaching Obama now, Inhofe noted it wouldn’t be immediate.
“I’m not talking about it now, this is something that could endure until after the ’14 election — this is not a short story, this is something that was re-discovered after eight months…this is clearly an orchestrated cover-up,” the Senator responded.
Inhofe seemed to confirm what many are thinking. With a Democratic majority in the Senate (officially 53-45 with two independents who caucus with the Democrats) there is not much chance of obtaining a conviction at this point. However, with 35 open seats in 2014, there is a chance to swing that majority.
The House of Representatives impeaches a public official with a simple majority vote, but to obtain a conviction the Senate must concur with a two-thirds majority (67 votes). It is unlikely that 67 votes could be gathered to convict the President of any charges at this time, but it appears that the GOP is looking forward to the 2014 elections to try to gain momentum.
The 2014 class of newly elected Senators will begin their terms on January 3, 2015. Inhofe seems to hint that this is the date that Republicans are looking toward. It seems that impeachment proceedings for political posturing is not the goal, at least not for Senator James Inhofe. He echoes the sentiments of uncounted millions who want Barack Obama removed from office.
We would naturally assume that the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is representative of other Republican Senators who look to him for leadership.
This is not what conservative Americans want to hear, but it is the only way to get a conviction. Party lines will be drawn and you will not find enough Democratic votes to convict, no matter how overwhelming the evidence may be. Not in 2013.
With new accusations from the families of Seal Team 6 and much to be learned about Benghazi, and other controversies, a little time might just do wonders for the chances of getting that conviction.
Let the impeachment talk begin! Jim Inhofe has just dropped the “I-word.”
You might also enjoy reading an article that we published a couple of days ago. Do Not Ask Your Representatives to Impeach Obama…Not Yet Anyway The article goes through the process of impeachment and explains why moving too quickly may jeopardize the chances of a conviction.
This is a short but urgent warning: A false flag event, an act of war, a bombing or some other headlines-grabbing orchestrated event is very likely to occur in the next seven days precisely because the Obama administration is under intense fire right now and needs a quick distraction. In stage magic, it’s called the “art of misdirection.” In politics, it’s called the “Clinton method.”
This is exactly what Bill Clinton did over and over again during his administration: Any time he was about to be raked over the coals for some political scandal, he would simply order the bombing of another “terrorist factory” somewhere around the globe. Magically, the Clinton News Network (CNN) would shift coverage to this heroic act of “national defense” and stop asking questions about his scandal back at home. That would give the Clinton administration enough time to intimidate, threaten or murder whoever might have been involved. (Vince Foster, remember?)
Right now, Hilary Clinton and President Obama are facing the possible downfall of their political careers over the Benghazi cover-up. Thanks to recent testimony, we now know that the Obama administration actually ordered the stand-down of U.S. military forces, directly causing the death of a U.S. ambassador as well as those in the embassy who attempted to save his life.
This is a scandal many times more explosive than Watergate. As the Benghazi investigation unfolds, it may very well end up in the forced resignation of Obama himself.
“Greenlighting” a pre-planned operation
To avoid that from happening, Clinton, Obama and all the other globalist minions in Washington D.C. are trying to figure out what false flag scheme they have ready to go right now. They desperately need to pull the trigger on something: a bombing, a mass shooting, a hundred dead kids bleeding out on public sidewalks or something that can distract the media (and the public) from asking too many questions on Benghazi.
Hence the red zone of the False Flag-O-Meter. It’s now sitting in very dangerous territory, and the worse the scrutiny gets over Benghazi or the recent revelations that the IRS targeted conservative groups and Jews for punitive scrutiny during the 2012 elections, the more likely a false flag event becomes.
Just so you understand real history here, false flags are the primary way governments affect sweeping policy changes. They are acts of political theater played out for the purpose of causing enough real mayhem and carnage — and blaming the right culprits — so that the public will demand government action. This plays right into the hands of government which incessantly wants to concentrate power and destroy civil liberties. Every crisis that unfolds allows it to move one step closer to its goal of dictatorial police state control.
Watch for a major event in the next 7 days
Understanding this, there is a high probability of a false flag event occurring within the next seven days: A staged terror attack on a U.S. embassy, a shooting on U.S. soil, a bombing of a government building, someone blowing up a bridge… anything to get the attention off Benghazi-gate.
FBI agents are no doubt scurrying across the country right this very minute, taking inventory of all their pre-planned terror plots and trying to determine which one they can make “real” at short notice. The FBI, in case you didn’t know, openly plots and carries out terror attacks all across the USA in order to show that it’s “stopping terrorism.” This has been confirmed by the New York Times, which rarely admits anything true about terror plots.
Whatever it is, this false flag event needs to be visually and emotionally shocking. So expect children to be sacrificed as part of it. Nothing grabs headlines on CNN faster than the blood of children, and that’s what Hilary Clinton needs right now more than anything else: a powerful, revolting distraction from her own abject criminality.
And believe me, these people would order a thousand children killed if it was necessary to save their political careers. Have no illusions about the kind of power-addicted monsters who are running the U.S. government today. There is nothing they won’t do to weasel out of being caught in a devastating lie.
I hope I’m totally wrong about this prediction, but just in case you may want to be extra vigilant for the next week or so, and if something does happen, don’t believe the White House narrative which is almost 100% guaranteed to be complete fiction.
The NaturalNews Network is a non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed skepticism. The NaturalNews Network operates without a profit incentive, and its key writer, Mike Adams, receives absolutely no payment for his time, articles or books. The NaturalNews Network is not for sale, and does not accept money to cover any story (or to spike it). NaturalNews Network is what the news industry used to be, before it sold out to big business.
GMOs are in more than 75% of foods in the US now, and the number continues to increase year after year. Not only are they in almost everything, but since labeling isn’t required they remain hidden and you have to research all the potential ingredients that are likely to be GMO (which is also constantly increasing). Recent research has shown that GMOs are carcinogenic, toxic to people’s livers, kidneys, and blood, and their related herbicide partner RoundUp contributes to birth defects, a number of brain disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Autism in addition to a number of other effects which are only now beginning to come to light.
Now the question is this, are you going to sit back and accept this or are you going to do something about it? There are many ways to take part, but at this time we have finally gotten enough support to get people out in the streets protesting…
Please take the time to check out the March Against Monsanto event(s) on May 25th, there are more being planned for the Fourth of July, as well as some others that have yet to be publicly announced. And if none of these events work for you, start your own in your neighborhood, town, or city. Pass out informational flyers, share info on your social media pages, educate and rabble rouse your friends, family, and even co-workers. There’s much to be done and many ways to go about achieving these changes, please take part in whatever ways you can!
Activist Post Note: Definitely visit the March Against Monsanto Facebook event page for more information and to see where it’s at in your area.
Fritz Kreiss is the founding administrator of Occupy Monsanto and has run it since its inception in October 2011. He is experienced in holistic health with expertise in massage, exercise, nutrition, stretching techniques, kinesiology, psychological counseling, life coaching. He has had years of experience through his massage practice working on hundreds of clients and giving thousands of very successful treatments.
Jefferson City, Mo (May 8, 2013) – Tonight, the Missouri State House voted to send Governor Jay Nixon what could arguably be the strongest defense against federal gun control measures in American history. The vote was 116-38.
HB436, introduced by Representative Doug Funderburk in February, was initially passed by the House in April by a vote of 115-42. Last week, the State Senate approved the bill with an amendment which did not change any of its nullification aspects. The vote there was 26-6. The bill then needed one final vote in the house which happened just before 10pm local time this evening.
The votes in both the House and Senate are by a strong veto-proof majority. Local activist Matt Radcliffe acknowledged as much when he said, “Governor Nixon can do nothing and it will automatically become law July 1st. Or he can sign it into law. Or he can veto it then his veto will be overridden in the house and it will become law anyway!”
As law, HB436 would nullify virtually every federal gun control measure on the books – or planned for the future. It reads, in part:
All federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state.
(2) Such federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations include, but are not limited to:
(a) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1934;
(b) The provisions of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968;
(c) Any tax, levy, fee, or stamp imposed on firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition not common to all other goods and services which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(d) Any registering or tracking of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(e) Any registering or tracking of the owners of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition which could have a chilling effect on the purchase or ownership of those items by law-abiding citizens;
(f) Any act forbidding the possession, ownership, or use or transfer of any type of firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition by law-abiding citizens; and
(g) Any act ordering the confiscation of firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition from law-abiding citizens.
The legislation also includes misdemeanor criminal penalties if agents of the federal government attempt to enact gun control measures that violate the Constitution of the United States and State Constitution of Missouri.
The immediate effect of the law would be as follows:
1. All state and local law enforcement would be required to stop enforcing, or even providing any assistance in enforcing, federal gun control measures – all of them.
2. Grassroots activists should immediately start pressing local governments – county, city and town – to pass an ordinance which a) states an unwavering dedication to the new law passed, and b) requires all local law enforcement and all government assets to immediately cease in the enforcement of federal gun control measures.
There is absolutely ZERO serious dispute about the fact that the federal government cannot “commandeer” the states to carry out its laws. None. Even the Supreme Court has affirmed this multiple times.
In the 1992 case, New York v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress couldn’t require states to enact specified waste disposal regulations.
In the 1997 case, Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not command state law enforcement authorities to conduct background checks on prospective handgun purchasers.
In the 2012 case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court ruled that a significant expansion of Medicaid was not a valid exercise of Congress’s spending power, as it would coerce states to either accept the expansion or risk losing existing Medicaid funding.
In each of these cases, the Supreme Court made is quite clear that their opinion is that the federal government cannot require the states to act, or even coerce them to act through a threat to lose funding. Their opinion is correct. If the feds pass a law, they can sure try to enforce it if they want. But the states absolutely do NOT have to help them in any way.
LOS ANGELES — Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today filed an enforcement action against JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Chase) alleging that the bank engaged in fraudulent and unlawful debt-collection practices against tens of thousands of Californians.
The suit alleges that Chase engaged in widespread, illegal robo-signing, among other unlawful practices, to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers over at least a three-year period.
“Chase abused the judicial process and engaged in serious misconduct against California credit card borrowers,” Attorney General Harris said. “This enforcement action seeks to hold Chase accountable for systematically using illegal tactics to flood California’s courts with specious lawsuits against consumers. My office will demand a permanent halt to these practices and redress for borrowers who have been harmed.”
From January 2008 through April 2011, Chase filed thousands of debt collection lawsuits every month in the State of California. On one day alone, Chase filed 469 such lawsuits in California. The Attorney General’s complaint against Chase alleges that, to maintain this pace, Chase employed unlawful practices as shortcuts to obtain judgments against California consumers with speed and ease that could not have been possible if Chase had adhered to the minimum substantive and procedural protections required by law.
“At nearly every stage of the collection process, Defendants cut corners in the name of speed, cost savings, and their own convenience, providing only the thinnest veneer of legitimacy to their lawsuits,” the complaint states.
Chase used California’s judicial system as a mill to obtain default judgments, the suit alleges, using illegal tactics to flood the state’s court system in order to secure default judgments and garnish wages from Californians.
The alleged misconduct includes:
Robo-signing: Chase illegally robo-signed various litigation filings, including sworn documents, declarations, and verified complaints, without reviewing the relevant files or bank records or even reading the documents before signing.
“Sewer Service”: Chase failed to properly serve notice of debt collection lawsuits against consumers while claiming they had been served as required by law. This practice, known as “sewer service,” deprives the consumer of any notice of the lawsuit.
Filing Irregularities: Chase haphazardly assembled its official legal filings. For example, Chase failed to redact consumers’ personal information in attachments to filings, potentially exposing them to identity theft and in violation of California law. In addition, when asking courts to enter default judgments against consumers, Chase consistently swore under penalty of perjury that the consumers were not on active military duty. In fact, Chase never checked. This deprived service members of important legal protections to which they are entitled while on active duty.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and a copy of the complaint is attached to the online version of this release at http://oag.ca.gov. Or click here to directly access the complaint.
Consumers who believe they have been victims of this misconduct may submit a complaint online at http://oag.ca.gov/consumers.
District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier says she will arrest Adam Kokesh and any other protesters who violate the district’s gun laws.
“Passing into the District of Columbia with loaded firearms is a violation of the law and we’ll have to treat it as such,” she told NewsChannel 8.
Kokesh plans to have 10,000 open carry activists march on the Capitol. Over 2,000 have so far pledged on Kokesh’s Facebook page to attend the July 4th event.
Adam appeared on the Alex Jones Show on Monday to explain the march.
In an experimental bid to determine whether wider gun ownership could lead to a decline in crime, a University of Houston graduate student and the Armed Citizens Project are looking to give away shotguns to residents of fifteen cities.
Kyle Coplen, 29, is the founder of the Armed Citizens Project, a group which announced that it will seek to expand its program into the Chicago Metropolitan Area at a recent National Rifle Association convention in Houston, Texas.
According to Coplen, the idea is to give out free, 20-gauge single-barrel shotguns to residents living in mid- to high-crime neighborhoods to see whether the presence of armed homes would cause a drop in crime.
“Gun-control advocates often argue that an increase in guns in an area will lead to an increase in crime, while gun-rights advocates often believe that fewer guns result in more crime. While both sides often argue that their opponents’ policies will result in more crime, gun-control proponents have largely been the victors when it comes to policy implementation,” explains the Armed Citizens Project’s website.
New measures in Congress to enact federal background checks for gun owners and the defeat of various other gun control measures indicate that in reality, gun control supporters do not have the upper hand in policy implementation.
While states such such as Connecticut and Colorado have recently passed new controls on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, elsewhere, such as in Texas and South Carolina, state legislatures are lobbying to attract gun industry investment and working on legislation to further bolster access to guns.
One Texas bill that would ban state and local police from working with federal authorities on new gun control regulations was recently passed by the state House.
As for the Armed Citizens Project, according to Coplen the group intends to both screen participants for its shotgun give-away project and provide training for those selected.
“We’re not just tossing a bunch of shotguns into a community and walking away,” Coplen told Fox 26.
“What we’re doing is finding residents who are interested in protecting themselves. We’re not forcing guns on anyone,” he added.
AFP Photo / STR
In addition to offering free guns, the Armed Citizens Project is setting its sights on local gun buyback programs. The group hopes to dissuade those looking to hand over their guns with training sessions, or even have those weapons traded in for 20-gauge shotguns.
City and county-sponsored gun buybacks have recently become a point of contention for gun rights advocates. In Arizona, for example, Governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill prohibiting cities and counties in that state from destroying guns collected through such programs, instead mandating that they be sold to licensed dealers.
The Armed Citizens Project hopes to distribute guns to hundreds of people living in major American cities by the end of the year. The program is already active in Houston and Tucson, Arizona, and in addition to Chicago they are also setting their sights on New York and Detroit. In Houston, local news channel WGN reports that 100 people have already signed up for the project.
Despite early success, Copley anticipates that getting his project started in a city such as New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a staunch proponent of gun regulation, will be a hurdle.
“I really don’t care what [Bloomberg] thinks. I can’t think of one thing he’s ever done besides being a successful businessman that I can agree with,” said Coplen to the NY Daily News.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has already shown skepticism of Copley’s project.
“You need a permit … so obviously you won’t be able to do it here,” Kelly told the Daily News on Monday.
In addition to broad discretion over gun permits, the New York Police Department requires a $140.00 shotgun permit fee, in addition to a fingerprinting charge of $91.50.
Coplen intends to request donations to help low-income city applicants secure the necessary permits.
“I guess the Bloomberg administration doesn’t want poor people to be able to defend themselves. I guess that right is left to the elites,” Coplen told Daily News.
By my clock it’s five minutes past midnight. We are into unchartered territory. Territory where only bravery and vision can hope to cut through the torpor and stupor which is bringing about the designed obsolescence of the human race and the transgenic re-engineering of the common gene pool of our planetary biodiversity.
As I write this, the technocrats in Brussels are lining up to enforce an Act designed put an end to our seeds. The saving and resowing of ‘real’ seeds. Those in high places believe we need to ‘move-on’ concerning the control of the food chain. It’s time for total control. Only seeds registered and licensed by the State will be legal. And only those with money will be able to afford to do this exercise. The corporations will own the seeds and fulfill their ambition to have ‘full spectrum dominance’ of the food chain. “He who controls food controls the people”. Checkmate.
They have decided that its time to cease the perpetuation of a pattern of life on planet Earth that goes back to the birth of agriculture – and before.
That is what they are doing in Brussels 6 May 2013 and beyond. From now on, unless we cut free of obeysance to the centralised, totalitarian regimes whose take-over of our planet is almost complete, we will have only ourselves to blame. For we are complicit in allowing ourselves to become slaves of the Corporate State and its cyborg enforcement army. That is, if we continue to remain hypnotized by their antics instead of taking our destinies into our own hands and blocking or refusing to comply with their death warrants. This ‘refusal’ is possible. But it will only have the desired affect when, and if, it is contemporaneous with the birthing of the Divine warrior who sleeps in us all. The warrior who sleeps-on, like the besotted Rip Van Winkle in the Catskill mountains.
We have arrived at the optimum point to draw a line in the sand. I say optimum, because the need for food faces everyone of us every day – so it’s not possible to run and hide when it comes to eating. Its a bottom line necessity. It’s a bottom line that is now one step from being removed from our control. I say ‘one step’ because we can turn around , draw our swords and say “No”.
Artists and spiritually inspired human beings are not exempt. In fact they will have a critical role to play in the great fight-back which is our one and only genuine resource at times of extreme crisis. And, in case some think otherwise, I want to state that this is such a time. No artist or spiritually inclined individual can claim to be such unless he or she is willing to enlist in the cause of protecting the sacred nature of life itself.
What the technocrats and their Illuminati masters cannot do is defy the power of the spirit – once its lit-up. And we must get it lit up – or die of starvation. Starvation of the spirit is just as prevalent as starvation from lack of food, on this tragic planet; perhaps more so. It’s an artists job to light-up the starving spirit by feeding it something that will bring it to life and steer it towards victory, not something that will encourage it to remain sleep.
I am a farmer, actor, activist and writer. I see no contradiction here. They are each mutually reinforcing elements of one life force. Of the gift of life which brought us here. And this gift of life starts as a seed. When lit-up – it presents the one power that can ultimately defeat the tunnel vision technocrats, the power besotted politicians, the blind Bilderbergers and the non-human will of the Illuminati overlords. They will all fall to our Excalibur once we remember how to use it.
Remember we must. To put an end to that darkly scheming little cabal which is, at this very moment, dipping the ancient sacred seed into the patented petri-dish of a genetically engineered holocaust. Attempting to forever remove it from its origins in the subtle soil of a thousand lands. Fight this with a thousand shining swords, for it is we who are being engineered.
Those subverter’s of the sacred are convinced they will succeed in locking this seed away from the light – for ever, and enlisting all humanity into their sinister power games. But, brave souls, nothing can stir us like a challenge to kill us off. Nothing can set the red corpuscles racing faster than the thought of an insentient trans-humanist cyborg future for us and our children. For the human race.
So let us use this occasion – the funeral preparations for the passing of the seed – to surprise and shock our opponents. Let us use this attempt at absolute enslavement to pledge to take back control of our destinies and that of this Universe. And by so doing, realize that our oh so long sleeping potentiality can wait no longer to see the light, and must go forth to fight in its defense.
We can push back the encircling Brussels’ vultures and all their prying ilk, once we are sufficiently stirred. Just as we warriors of the heart can also defeat the tyrants and madmen of Washington, Rome, Moscow, Berlin and London. Everywhere.
Let ‘saving the seeds’ serve as a symbol of defying all life threatening acts. We cannot just leave it to the farmers and growers to push back such a momentous and callous global theft. Just as we can’t leave it only to ‘artists’ to reveal the creative nature that exists in all human beings. ‘Doctors’ to tell us when we are sick and how to get cured. ‘Bankers’ to tell us where to put our money.
Saving the seeds is up to all of us. Make a point of demanding an end to the tyranny. Refuse to comply with any demands that lead to the death of nature. Shun the hyper stores. Grow your own foods. Join hands with your local growers. Link-up with local friendly farmers. Inspire them to grow ecologically sound ‘real’ food for you. Pay them a fair price and offer to help them harvest it. Only connect. Connect. Never allow yourself to be just another number at the stupor-market check-out desk. Life begins when we turn and face our enemy and say NO.
Julian is an organic farmer, international activist and author of Changing Course for Life – Local Solutions to Global Problems: www.changingcourseforlife.info . His next work “In Defence of Life” will be published later this summer.
A number of Missouri lawmakers are supporting an amendment to the state constitution that essentially formalizes the fundamental right of parents to raise their children as they see fit.
In late April the House gave its approval to a measure, House Joint Resolution 26 (HJR26) that says parents have the right to make all decisions regarding the “discipline, education, religious instruction, health, medical care, place of habitation, and general well-being” for their own minor children.
Laying out the law – parents over the state
The measure says, in part:
Section 35. 1. That parents have a fundamental right to exercise exclusive control over the care, custody, and upbringing of their minor children, including all decisions involving the discipline, education, religious instruction, health, medical care, place of habitation, and general well-being of such minor children.
2. Parents have the right to choose to educate their children in public schools, private schools, or in-home education to prepare them for future obligations in life.
3. Neither the state nor any political subdivision, nor any agency, entity, or person acting on behalf of the state or any political subdivision, shall act to deny or impair the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children. However, the fundamental right of a parent to control and direct the care, custody, and upbringing of a minor child may be modified by a court of law when a parent has been found guilty of or pleads guilty to a crime of violence against a child, abuse of a child, kidnaping of a child, abandonment of a child, sexual abuse of a child, sexual conduct or any other sexual offense against a child, criminal nonsupport, or endangering the welfare of a child; or when a parent has been found by a court of law by clear and convincing evidence to have committed child abuse, child neglect or medical neglect; or as a result of adoption, child abandonment, mental incompetency or marital dissolution proceedings, or through the voluntary consent of the parent of a child.
The amendment would not prohibit law enforcement agencies or courts to move to protect at-risk children.
Enshrining a basic right
State Rep. Todd Richardson, a Poplar Bluff Republican, said the amendment was prompted in part by a desire to protect the rights of parents who home-school their children.
In March, Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-O’Fallon, introduced legislation that would essentially accomplish what Richardson’s amendment would.
“HB 513 would put into statute that the state, or state agencies, cannot violate those parental rights without due process,” Bahr said in a statement.
“We must make sure children are protected in emergency situations but balance that with serious action of the state,” he added. “To formally terminate parental rights of a child is only eclipsed as the most extreme measure civil government can wield, with the imposition of the death penalty being the only other more extreme measure.”
‘God-given’
A second House vote will be needed to send Richardson’s legislation to the Senate. If it passes there, the proposed amendment would be sent to the voters in 2014.
If the presumption of Richardson’s amendment seems apparent – that parents should have the final say in raising their own children, barring committing criminals acts against them, parental rights have actually been under attack for years, and often over the issue of home schooling.
“Parental rights are under siege. Parents, in many ways, are becoming ‘second class citizens’ as lower courts elevate the power of the state to supersede the wisdom of parents,” says a 2004 issue analysis by the Home School Legal Defense Association. “Parental choice is in jeopardy. Freedom is at stake. The basic fundamental freedom of parents to raise their children hangs in the balance. Have we forgotten whose children they are anyway? They are a God-given responsibility to parents.”
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The Arizona state senate concurred with the house on Senate Bill by a vote of 18-0, sending the legislation to Governor Jan Brewer’s desk for a signature. SB1439, the Constitutional Tender Act, allows businesses and the state government to accept payments in gold or silver. It specifies that legal tender in Arizona consists of all of the following:
Legal Tender authorized by Congress.
Specie (containing gold or silver) coin issued at any time by the U.S. government.
Any other specie that a court of competent jurisdiction rules by a final, unappealable order to be within the scope of state authority to make legal tender.
The bill previously passed the state senate by a vote of 17-11. Since there was a House amendment which tightened up some of the language, constitutionally, the bill needed one final vote on the floor of the State Senate before going to Jan Brewer’s desk for a signature.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Currently all debts and taxes in Arizona and the rest of the United States are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.
The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” The Constitutional tender act is a big step towards that constitutional requirement which has been ignored for a long time in every state of the country. Such a tactic would achieve the desired goal of abolishing the Federal Reserve system by attacking it from the bottom up – pulling the rug out from under it by working to make its functions irrelevant at the State and local level.
Passage of the Constitutional/Legal Tender Act would introduce currency competition with Federal Reserve Notes. Professor William Greene explains further:
Over time, as residents of the State use both Federal Reserve Notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve Notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve Notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the State’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the State – as people in other States carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve Notes for any transactions.
Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state by state level is what will get us there.
Without a single act of Congress, the Federal Reserve system can be brought to its knees by passing such bills in states all over the country.
HOUSE AMENDMENT
The amendment passed by the house makes two technical revisions to the bill on the same Constitutional principle. They are as follows:
1. Strike “and taxes” from line 11 – ”LEGAL TENDER” MEANS AN AUTHORIZED MEDIUM OF EXCHANGE FOR THE PAYMENT OF DEBTS AND TAXES.
This part of the amendment is constitutionally-sound. It makes sure the bill is in line with Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution, which makes reference to debts, but not taxes. It reads, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”
2. Strike line 25-26: B. ANY TAX THAT IS DUE AS A CONSEQUENCE OF A TRANSACTION THAT INVOLVES SPECIE LEGAL TENDER SHALL BE PAID PROPORTIONATELY IN THE SAME LEGAL TENDER.
The is constitutionally-sound for the same reason as above. Taxes, however, can be debts, so at best, this text was redundant.
ACTION ITEMS for Arizona
1. Contact Governor Brewer. Strongly, but politely, let her know that you want her to SIGN SB1439 into law. It is strongly recommended that you CALL rather than email.
(602) 542-4331
800-253-0883 (outside Maricopa County only)
2. Share this information widely. Please pass this along to your friends and family. Also share it with any and all grassroots groups you’re in contact with around the state. Please encourage them to email this information to their members and supporters.
1. What can a State – or several States – do to resist encroachments & usurpations by the federal government?
2. Federalist No. 46 (7th para) discusses how individual States or several States carry out resistance to the federal government’s unconstitutional encroachments. If a particular State takes an action which the federal government doesn’t like, but which has the support of the People of that State, the federal government can’t do anything about it unless it is willing to use force.
When several States oppose an unconstitutional encroachment by the federal government, Madison says they have powerful means of opposition: the disquietude of the people, their repugnance (e.g., baby-killing enshrined into public policy), the Peoples’ refusal to co-operate with the officers of the federal government; the opposition of the State officials; and all those legislative devices State Legislatures can invent to thwart & impede the federal government in its unconstitutional schemes.
So, in para 7, Madison contemplates that not all States will oppose unconstitutional encroachments by the federal government. But he shows that this need not impede the States who do. Such States need not implement in their States the federal government’s lawless usurpations. Have we forgotten how to just say, “NO! You have no authority under the Constitution to do this, and the Sovereign State of X and the Sovereign People of the State of X won’t permit this.” If we have taken the Oath to support the Constitution (Art. VI, clause 3), then we are bound by Honor to support it!
3. Note that Madison doesn’t say the States should file lawsuits in federal court. And WHY would Sovereign States, which formed a federation for the limited purposes enumerated in Art. I, Sec. 8, U.S. Constitution; ask one branch of the federal government (judiciary) to opine on whether a “law” approved by the two other branches (legislative & executive) exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress or encroaches on the reserved powers of the States and the People (10th Amendment)? All three branches of the federal government have been unified against The Constitution, the States, and the People for a very long time! Why do States put themselves in the position of supplicants to a Court which has already shown itself to be contemptuous of the Constitution, and of the States’ and The Peoples’ reserved powers?
Furthermore, the Supreme Court is not even the ultimate authority on the meaning of the Constitution! Alexander Hamilton said federal judges may be impeached & removed for usurpations (Federalist No. 81, 8th para); the People are “the natural guardians of the Constitution” as against federal judges “embarked in a conspiracy with the legislature”; and the People are to become “enlightened enough to distinguish between a legal exercise and an illegal usurpation of authority.”(Federalist No.16, 10th para).
4. In para 8, Madison discusses a “general alarm” among the States as to encroachments by the federal government. Here, Madison contemplates concerted “plans of resistance” among the States; and Madison says it may come to a “trial of force” if a crazed federal government doesn’t back down. In para 10, Madison says that the federal government’s “schemes of usurpation will be easily defeated by the State governments, who will be supported by the people”.
5. In para 9, Madison discusses the federal government’s initiation of a “trial of force”. But who would fight for the federal government? Madison spoke of the regular Army as the force used by the federal government. But that has been the Army of our children and neighbors’ children! [We need not fear them unless we permit aliens to serve in our armed forces.] The federal government does have, here & there, those heroic, noble, and brave men who shoot nursing mothers in the forehead, young boys in the back, and gas & apparently incinerate men, women & children. How many are they? Then there is Obama’s personal “civilian national security force”. Has it been established? Even so, would they be honorable men, or another collection of thugs? In any event, Madison said, “…it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger.”
6. When we quote James Madison and The Federalist Papers on what States may do when the federal government has encroached upon the powers reserved by the States and the People; we quote a high Authority on The Constitution. James Madison is the Father of the Constitution, and the author of many of the Federalist Papers. States act lawfullywhen they follow such guidance of James Madison. When the federal government descends into lawlessness & tyranny, The States and The People may protect and preserve their Constitution – as they are already sworn to do.
7. Yes, the ultimate authority resides in The People. But this does not mean that The People should – or need to – initiate a show of force. Remember the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King! He put on his clerical collar and went out into the streets with others to protest State LAWS which enforced segregation. They used non-violent civil disobedience: Black people sat down at “white’s only” lunch counters! Black people sat in the front of the buses. They did not initiate force. The moral superiority of their position could not be denied, and they won.
8. We have Our sacred Constitution. The most important concepts for you to learn are these: (1) ENUMERATED POWERS (2) Why neither the “GENERAL WELFARE“, the INTERSTATE COMMERCE nor the “NECESSARY & PROPER” [see linked paper at para 13] clauses authorize Congress (or the President or the FEDERAL COURTS ) to exceed their enumerated powers (3) The true meaning of the “RULE OF LAW” and how that differs from the “Rule of Men”; (4) What is “FEDERALISM“, and (5) The origin of our Rights and why you must NEVER speak of “constitutional” rights. My papers on RIGHTS explain the moral superiority of our position. You must learn why our position is morally superior to that of the statists. And you must be prepared to explain it at all times.
May God be merciful and grant us national repentance and a peaceful political resolution.
A lot of Americans know that the US government is out of control. Anyone who has cared enough to study the US Constitution even a little knows this. Still, very few of these people are taking any significant action, and largely because of one error: They are waiting for “the good guys” to show up and fix things.
Some think that certain groups of politicians will pull it together and fix things, or that one magnificent politician will ride in to fix things. Others think that certain members of the military will step in and slap the politicians back into line. And, I’m sure there are other variations.
There are several problems with this. I’ll start with the small issues:
It doesn’t happen. A lot of good people have latched on to one grand possibility after another, waiting for a good guy to save the day, and it just doesn’t happen. Thousands of hours of reading, writing and waiting are burned with each new “great light” who comes along with a promise to run the system in the “right” way, and give us liberty and truth. (Or whatever.) Lots of decent folks grab on to one pleasant dream after another, only to end up right back where they started… but poorer in time, energy and finances.
Hope is a scam. It’s a dream of someday, somehow, getting something for nothing. People who hope do not act – they wait for other people to act. Hope is a tool to neuter a natural opposition: they sit and hope, and never act against you. Even the biblical meaning of hope is something more like expectation (or sometimes waiting) than the modern use of hope.
Petitioning an abuser for compassion. The “good guys” are considered to be a few people inside the abusive government. But if the good guys were really good, wouldn’t they have dissociated themselves with an abuser some time ago? By pleading for the good guys to rise up, people are asking one sub-group of the abusers to save them from the rest of the abusers. However, they all work for the same operation; they all get paid out of the same offices; according to the same rulebook. And if the good guys are so willing to turn against their employers, why would they have waited until now?
Movies. We all grew up in the company of movie heroes who rode in at the last minute to save the noble victims. From John Wayne to Star Trek to Bruce Willis, the story line differs little. These are pleasant stories, of course, but cinema is not reality, and hoping for it to become reality is something that we should get over prior to adulthood.
But, as I say, those are the smaller issues. Let’s move on to the serious ones.
The Magic System
A lot of Americans believe that the American “Founders” created a system that automatically fixes itself. They talk about the “balance of powers,” and think that it will always save them from a tyrant. The balanced powers of the US Constitution, however, were trashed within fifteen years and doubly-trashed just a century ago.
In the Constitution, the states balanced the power of the national government (the one now in Washington, DC.) Not only did the states control half of the legislature, but they decided if and how they would implement the edicts of the national government. And that included deciding whether a law was constitutional or not.
This changed in 1803 with the Marbury v. Madison ruling. This ruling – taught as a work of genius in American schools – was a fraud against the US Constitution. In it, the Supreme Court held that they understood the Constitution better than James Madison, the man who wrote it!
But worse than even this, they held – with absolutely no basis – that it was they who would decide what was constitutional or not. The states were tossed aside. Even the sitting President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, called it “a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.”
Marbury’s Judicial review (the Supremes ruling on constitutionality) merely involves one branch of the national government providing a check on the other branches of the national government. After Marbury, no one could check the national government.
Washington DC was unleashed with Marbury v. Madison. What made it almighty was the 17th Amendment of 1913, which took the powers of the states and transferred them to Washington, by mandating the popular election of senators.
With senators being elected directly by the populace, the states were cut-out of the equation. In their place, political parties gained massive power, and nearly all power was consolidated in the city of Washington.
And so it is today. Washington is an unfettered beast. The system will NOT fix itself; the mechanisms to do that were lost a long time ago.
The Easy Way Out
Standing up against a beast like Washington DC is scary, to be sure. Understandably, not many people want to do such a thing. But if the beast is abusing you, what other choice do you have? You can certainly avoid or evade the beast, but we all know that the beast hurts people it catches avoiding it, so the risk of doing this isn’t zero either.
So, what’s a person to do? They hate their abuse, but outright disobedience would be scary. Unfortunately, many people have come up with a third option: Get someone else to do it for you.
Lots of writers have done this, for example: Write flamboyantly about the abuses people face and stir them to “rise up against the power.” Fairly seldom does the writer take big risks himself – he just stirs up others to do the scary stuff.
Something very similar happens to basically moral people who don’t want to risk pain and suffering: they imagine good guys riding in to save them.
But, as I say, these are genuinely decent people, and they are willing to take smaller risks to help the good guys: They will spend time and money promoting them, and they will even accept name-calling in many cases. They just don’t want to become full-blown rebels and outcasts.
The result of this is predictable: abuse by the political class. If the politicians show them a viable possibility every election cycle, they’ll keep voting their way forever… and the hero never really has to show up.
The Sad Truth
Let’s just say it:
No one is going to ride in and save you.
If you want things to get better, then YOU will have to make them better. YOU will have to stand up and take the arrows, yourself. Liberty, at this stage of human development, requires risk and pain.
I trust that you will remember the end of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount: That it is not those who call upon his name who will be saved, but only those who DO the things he said.
Likewise in this situation, our only hope of salvation lies in DOING.
Earlier this month, entertainers Jay-Z and Beyoncé were given a license by the US government to travel to Cuba. Because it is not otherwise legal for Americans to travel to Cuba, this trip was only permitted as a “cultural exchange” by the US Treasury Department. Many suspect that the permission was granted at least partly due to the fame, wealth, and political connections of the couple.
Some Members of Congress who continue to support the failed Cuba embargo, demanded that the Administration explain why these two celebrities were allowed to visit Cuba. The trip looked suspiciously like tourism, they argued in a letter to the White House, and American tourism is still not allowed in Cuba. They were photographed eating at the best restaurants, dancing, and meeting with average Cubans, which these Members of Congress frowned on.
Perhaps it is true that this couple used their celebrity status and ties to the White House to secure permission to travel, but the real question is, why can’t the rest of us go?
The Obama administration has lifted some of the most onerous restrictions on travel to Cuba imposed under the previous Bush administration, but for the average American, travel to the island is still difficult if not impossible.
However, even those who are permitted to go to Cuba are not allowed to simply engage in tourist activities — to spend their money as they wish or relax on a beach.
The US government demands that the few Americans it allows to travel to Cuba only engage in what it deems “purposeful travel,” to “support civil society in Cuba; enhance the free flow of information to, from, and among the Cuban people; and help promote their independence from Cuban authorities.” They must prove that they maintain a full-time schedule of educational activities, according to Treasury guidelines for “people-to-people” travel.
Leave it to the federal government to make the prospect of visiting that sunny Caribbean island sound so miserable.
The reason the US so severely restricts and scripts the activities of the few Americans allowed to travel to Cuba is that it believes travel must promote the goal of taking “important steps in reaching the widely shared goal of a Cuba that respects the basic rights of all its citizens.”
Although I have no illusions about the Cuban government – or any government for that matter — it is ironic that the US chose to locate a prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba because the indefinite detention and torture that took place there would have been illegal on US soil. Further, the US government continues to hold more than 100 prisoners there indefinitely even though they have not been found guilty of a crime and in fact dozens are “cleared for release” but not allowed to leave.
Does the administration really believe that the rest of the world is not annoyed by its “do as we say, not as we do” attitude?
We are told by supporters of the Cuba embargo and travel ban that we must take such measures to fight the communists in charge of that country. Americans must be prohibited from traveling to Cuba, they argue, because tourist dollars would only be used to prop up the unelected Castro regime. Ironically, our restrictive travel policies toward Cuba actually mirror the travel policies of the communist countries past and present. Under communist rule in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere it was only the well-connected elites who were allowed to travel overseas – people like Jay-Z and Beyoncé. The average citizen was not permitted the right.
Although the current administration’s slight loosening of the restrictions is a small step in the right direction, it makes no sense to continue this nearly half-century old failed policy. Freedom to travel is a fundamental right. Restricting this fundamental right in the name of human rights is foolish and hypocritical.
Ron Paul has been retired from Congress for only a few months, but he’s certainly not shying away from politics. The former US representative has already announced his new project: the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
In a press release sent to the media Friday afternoon, the Ron Paul camp confirms that the long-time Texas representative will launch a think-tank of sorts in order to carry on his ideologies after his time in office has ended.
“After decades in and out of the US House of Representatives leading the call for a non-interventionist foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties, Dr. Paul is launching a revolutionary new vehicle to expand his efforts. The Institute will serve as the focal point of a new coalition that crosses political, ideological and party lines,” the statement begins.
According to the press release, the Ron Paul Institute will focus mainly on two issues: education and coming generations.
“It will fill the growing demand for information on foreign affairs from a non-interventionist perspective through a lively and diverse website, and will provide unique educational opportunities to university students and others,” his office says.
“The neo-conservative era is dead. The ill-advised policies pushed by the neo-cons have everywhere led to chaos and destruction, and to a hatred of the United States and its people. Multi-trillion dollar wars have not made the world a safer place; they have only bankrupted our economic future. The Ron Paul Institute will provide the tools and the education to chart a new course with the understanding that only through a peaceful foreign policy can we hope for a prosperous tomorrow.”
Ron Paul, 77, says he will formally unveil his latest endeavor next Wednesday at a conference in Washington, DC, only a stone’s throw from the congressional office he occupied for nearly three decades. Slated to attend the conference are the members of the Institute’s board of advisors, which contains a number of high-profile names including noted economist Lew Rockwell, the CEO of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and a longtime collaborator of Paul’s — he served as the congressman’s chief of staff from 1978 to 1982, and later advised the politician as he vied for the presidency.
Also on the Institutes board is Rep. Walter Jones, Jr. (NC), Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (TN), former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH) and Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Just earlier this month, Ron Paul unveiled his own homeschooling curriculum for students, which he describes as a program aimed to provide “education in liberty like no other.”
“Students will be exposed to thinkers they would never encounter in a government school. They will know history and economics better than anyone their age,” Rockwell wrote in an editorial announcing the start of the “Ron Paul Curriculum” published in The Daily Bell.
Dozens of states and local jurisdictions continue to move toward nullifying the unconstitutional National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Yesterday we announced that Montana has taken the next step with Senate approval by a margin of 43-7 to protect its citizens from indefinite detention, and the measure is only awaiting signature from Governor Steve Bullock.
Now California has taken a much-needed step toward rebuking federal overreach. And, once again, the protections afforded by the Liberty Preservation Act are seeing support from a wide spectrum of political interest.
The 2012 NDAA applies broad detention power, using terms such as “associated forces” and “substantially supported,” allowing the federal government to detain and even execute any person, including an American citizen, on U.S. soil without due process. Sections 1021 and 1022 are particularly onerous.
The author of the California bill, Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly stated:
The NDAA gives the executive branch—under not only President Obama, but also every future president — unprecedented power to detain US citizens without due process . . .
This runs counter to the very principles that make America great, and violates our nation’s commitment to the rule of law. . .
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution authorizes the United States federal government to exercise only those powers specifically delegated to it in the United States Constitution.”
The Daily Caller notes that even though the bill was introduced by a Republican, it received a unanimous vote across party lines
The bill passed the Democrat-controlled committee 6-0 with the support of a wide-ranging coalition that included the American Civil Liberties Union, Tenth Amendment Center, San Francisco 99% Coalition, San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Libertarian Party of California.
Grassroots movements everywhere should be commended for the surge toward liberty, as well large activist centers such as People Against the National Defense Authorization Act, the Tenth Amendment Center, and the People’s Blog For the Constitution. Please lend your support by clicking the links above and donating if possible. Is your community or state taking action? Please use the model legislation linked to beneath the image above to help restore liberty to where you live.
A wave of states and local jurisdictions have now advanced anti-NDAA legislation. Montana has taken the next step with Senate approval by a margin of 43-7 to protect its citizens from indefinite detention under the federally proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The 2012 NDAA applies broad detention power, using terms such as “associated forces” and “substantially supported,” allowing the federal government to detain and even execute any person, including an American citizen, on U.S. soil without due process.
Since more than two-thirds of the statehouse and senate have already voted in favor of restoring due process, there may be enough votes to override a veto.
In Montana, H.B. 522 passed its House Judiciary Committee hearing overwhelmingly by a unanimous vote of 20 – 0, which was then followed by another sweeping vote of 98-0 which sent it off to the Senate.
People’s Blog highlights the bipartisan support for this protection:
First introduced by freshman representative Nicholas Schwaderer, a 24-year-old Republican, HB 522 has been backed by groups all across the political spectrum, including BORDC, the ACLU, and the Tenth Amendment Center. In fact, grassroots pressure even helped convince six senators to change their votes, since on the second reading of the bill, 13 senators had voted against HB 522. The fact that a mere seven Montanan lawmakers did not vote in favor of defending civil liberties is a welcome contrast to the U.S. Senate, where only 13 senators voted against enacting the NDAA in 2011.
The momentum is clearly swinging in favor of restoring liberty, with dozens of states and local governments proposing legislation to thwart federal intrusion and tyranny.
This legislation now heads to Governor Steve Bullock. Regardless of what state you live in, please CONTACT HIM HERE and politely, but firmly, urge him to side with liberty and reject the federal government’s Orwellian notion that somehow the elimination of Constitutional rights and basic civil liberties means more freedom.
Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said that Congress may need to step in on behalf of the American people due to “legitimate concern about insufficient safeguards in place to make sure drones aren’t used to spy on American citizens.”
Grassley, who is currently Iowa’s senior senator, has been quite critical of drone use in the United States in the past, saying that the government’s use of drones for domestic surveillance “runs contrary to the nation of what it means to live in a free society.”
“The prospect of drone use inside the United States raises far-reaching issues concerning the extent of government surveillance authority and privacy in the digital age,” the report from Grassley’s office stated.
However, according to Adam B. Sullivan of the Press-Citizen, “Grassley has made clear he doesn’t oppose the use of drones outright, saying he supports the technology for certain military and police operations.”
Yet still, Grassley said, “There’s legitimate concern about insufficient safeguards in place to make sure drones aren’t used to spy on American citizens, perhaps unfairly enforce criminal law, and unduly infringe on individual privacy.”
“Congressional action may be needed to reconcile privacy and legitimate domestic drone use,” he added.
“As this technology develops, the sky is the limit on how drones could be used in our society, so it’s important that Congress be vigilant in addressing the balance of legitimate drone use and drone use that unduly interferes with private lives,” Grassley said.
In the past, Grassley has pointed out that when he asked the Attorney General last June if the Justice Department was using or planned on using drones for law enforcement purposes, he never received an answer.
He didn’t receive an answer “even after another appearance before us earlier this month,” Grassley said in March.
“It is very important that the American people know whether or how the Justice Department is using drones,” Grassley said. “And failing to provide answers about the use of this technology is concerning. It may well be a necessary subject for future legislation.”
Hopefully individuals like Grassley will be able to push for at least some degree of increased scrutiny of domestic drone use as well as drone use abroad.
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCY.TV from 7 pm — 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com
As a parent, sometimes I’ve asked my kids to do things they don’t want to do. (Haven’t we all?) The biggest key to their success in the endeavor is their attitude.
Scenario #1:
Me: Kiddo, it’s time to swap your winter clothes for your spring clothes. Please go through your closet, sort through your winter clothes and get rid of the stuff that’s too small or that you don’t want anymore.
Kiddo: I don’t want to! I hate this! It’s not fair!!!
Kiddo goes through the closet, angrily shoving things in a garbage bag without taking a good hard look at things. She sulks, pouts and is otherwise miserable. She gets the job done but makes sure that it is unpleasant for all of us.
Scenario #2:
Me: Kiddo, it’s time to swap your winter clothes for your spring clothes. Please go through your closet, sort through your winter clothes and get rid of the stuff that’s too small or that you don’t want anymore.
Kiddo: Okay – this gives me a chance to see if there’s anything I can re-purpose, too!
Kiddo goes through the closet, eagerly sorting items into piles. She comes up with a good stash of ‘new’ materials for craft projects, a bag of donations, and 2 shirts that were buried at the back that she forgot she had. The job is done and the end result is its own reward.
Switching over to a more frugal lifestyle can be just like the above scenarios. You can embrace it and relish the challenge of it, or you can sulk, pout and be absolutely miserable.
Sometimes a reader comments on my website or sends me an email telling me that by preaching a frugal lifestyle, I am, in fact, giving in to the global elite and The Powers That Be. They feel that I should be recommending other types of resistance. They say, “Why should I have to do that when THEY have trashed our economy? Why should I do without?”
I understand, truly, where these readers are coming from. They’re right – we should’t have to be thrifty because the “elite” have trashed the economy for everyday people. However, I choose to. I opt to live a frugal, non-consumer lifestyle because of my personal experiences. Disengaging from the uncaring financial machine has provided me with a freedom I never had when I was pulling down close to six figures.
The Story Behind My Advent into Cheapskatery
I suffered some great financial losses back in 2010. I lost my house, my car, and my business. We had been living frugally in comparison to many people, but not frugally enough to counteract that personal economic disaster. Looking back, I’m not sure if any amount of frugality could have really made a difference.
It was a devastating blow, and it came right on the heels of the loss of my dear father. We became even more thrifty of a necessity, and I resented the need to do so every single time I stepped into a mall, purchased groceries, or emptied my bank account on payday to keep the utilities on and a roof over our heads, with nothing extra left over for fun, or even secondary needs. It was a very grim time for our family.
When the depression began to lift, I saw that getting out from under that mountain of debt had actually provided me with a gift of enormous freedom. I realized that my life could take a different turn. I was no longer tied to anything.
And that’s when I began to embrace my cheap side.
I realized that I no longer needed to buy into the system that had been the source of my economic collapse. By supporting them, I wasn’t supporting us. By being as self-sufficient as possible, by cutting my spending, and by not needing “the system”, I was winning. I was becoming truly free.
When an entity has nothing to hold over your head, all the options are your own. You can make your decisions based on what is good for you and your family, not on what terrible things might happen to you if you don’t “toe the line.”
Embrace your cheap side
Hard-core frugality is not just making a choice to buy the generic brand of laundry soap instead of a jug of Tide with scent beads. Hard-core frugality is buying the ingredients to make 5 times the amount of laundry soap for half the price of that name-brand detergent, all the while LOVING the fact that Proctor and Gamble are not getting your money.
When you can cross that line between resenting the fact that you have to strictly budget to embracing the fact that by being as frugal as possible, you have a freedom you never dreamed of before, then you have begun to embrace your cheap side.
Being a black belt in frugality takes creativity and an optimistic outlook. It should never be some grim, sad thing that you have to do. It should be something that you choose to do. By finding joy in your non-consumerism, you will be far more successful at it. It becomes a game that you win if you can do something for free that others spend money on.
When you feel like you require less, then you are happy with less. This means that you have to spend less time working at things you may not truly enjoy to pay for the things that you never actually needed in the first place. This means that the money that you have goes a lot further.
You might be a cheapskate if….
Here are some surefire signs that you are embracing your cheap side:
Before throwing anything in the garbage you take a few seconds to ponder how it might be reused, and then either compost it, put it aside for a re-purpose, or you turn it into a homemade “log” for your fire.
You have an ice cream tub in your freezer nearly full of odd bits of leftovers, awaiting their reincarnation into “leftover casserole” or “leftover soup”.
It’s physically impossible for you to drive past an interesting-looking garbage pile at the curb during somebody else’s spring cleaning frenzy.
Your first stop at the grocery store is the “last day of sale” rack in each department.
Your kid looks at a necklace or pair of earrings at the “cool” store and scoffs, “We could make this”. Then she puts it back and asks you to take her to the thrift store for items to disassemble for the supplies to make her own accessories.
A day of yard-saling is planned out like a military invasion: you have a Mapquest route of at least a half dozen sales, a thermos full of coffee, a wallet full of small bills, and a list including measurements of all empty spaces in your home that need to be filled, kitchen items you are seeking, books your daughter wants to read, and upcoming birthdays. Your alarm is set the night before, a blueberry muffin is wrapped up and ready to go on the counter, and your comfy clothes are laid out.
If something must be replaced or purchased, you always look for a used version first before doling out the money for a new one.
You know how to darn socks….and you do it.
You wash and re-use sandwich baggies, and you’ve even rigged up a little drying rack for them beside your sink.
You are outraged at the idea of spending $18 on a jug of laundry detergent because you could make a year’s supply for that amount of money.
You have recently advised your child to cut off that teeny bit of mold on the brick of cheese because the other side is just fine.
You don’t carve the Jack-o-Lanterns until the day before Halloween so that you can cook, puree, and can the pumpkin the day after Halloween.
You have (and use) a clothesline. Year round.
You know how to repair a plastic clothes hamper by “welding it” with a bread tag and a hot glue gun.
The dish soap beside your sink is actually 50% dish soap and 50% water.
How to Become a Happy Non-Consumer
Be grateful. An “attitude of gratitude” is the most vital part of embracing your cheap side. If you’re happy with what you’ve got, you will find that you “need” far less than you did before. That’s because you aren’t seeking some momentary hit of joyous adrenaline by purchasing something. That rush rarely lasts and you’re just left with more stuff and less money.
Be creative. How can you make something, save something, or repair something in a totally original way? Embrace the challenge and tap into your creativity – you may just discover that, in your originality, you’ve come up with something far better than the purchased alternative. (We’ve found this to be especially true with fashion accessories, home decor, and birthday parties!)
Give. Don’t let your pursuit of frugality make you stingy. There are always people who are worse off than you. It’s important to give a hand up to those people. If your kids were hungry, or cold, or without shelter, wouldn’t you hope that some kind person would help them? Even at our absolute rock bottom financially, we donated one can of spaghetti sauce and a package of noodles to the food bank every week, which hopefully provided a warm comforting meal for someone who needed it. It isn’t really necessary to debate whether people are truly in need or just milking the system. That is a subject for them and their consciences. Just give. You are responsible for your intentions, not theirs.
Spend your money where it really matters. We opted to move to a very small community into a drafty little cabin in the woods. We made this decision as a family, in order to reduce our monthly output. By getting rid of “city rent” and all of the bills that came with it, we cut our monthly output in half. This means that I can spend a little extra on high-quality meats and dairy, for example. When my daughter needs new glasses, it’s not a problem to pay for them. It means my older daughter can get through college without crippling student loans.
Less need equals more time. Not only does a thrifty lifestyle mean that I can refocus where my money goes. It means that I can refocus where my time goes. I don’t have to work quite as hard on stuff outside the home and can focus on farm and family. I have the time to make hats and scarves instead of purchasing them. I have time to garden and can the harvests. I have time to perform money-saving tasks like cooking from scratch, which goes into a big happy circle of having more money to put towards important things.
Stay home. When you stay home more, you are tempted less. You aren’t thirsty, requiring a beverage. You aren’t hungry, requiring a snack. You aren’t using the car, requiring gas. You aren’t tempted by all the colorful and wonderful things in the stores.
Hang out with like-minded people. It is so much easier to embrace your cheap side if you don’t have people telling you how deprived you are all the time, or berating you for being too cheap to spend $27.85 on a movie ticket, popcorn and a soda pop. Most of my closest friends are thrifty. We swap clothing, we borrow and lend tools, and we cheerfully hang out without spending a dime. Instead of going out to sit in a boutique coffee shop sipping a $6 latte with whipped cream, we sit in the garden at one of our houses sipping a coffee that one of us made, along with a nice fresh blueberry muffin. We enjoy the same conversation we would have had at that coffee shop too. Instead of heading to the mall, we chat on Skype. When your nearest and dearest are on the same page, life is a whole lot easier.
Turn off the TV. People go to school for years to study how to make people want what they don’t need. That great big brainwash box sitting in the living room is a direct pipeline into your brain. From the beautiful homes on the TV programs, the fancy clothes and cars, and the ads for food, recreation and new cars, the whole racket is designed to make you feel like what you have now is inferior to what you could have. Kids are the biggest target of product placement advertising in popular shows. If you watch TV, limit it. Become aware of the scams and discuss them with your kids so that they can easily identify how marketers are attempting to manipulate them. (Confession: we do watch a little bit of TV in our home, and when we do, it’s a big game to identify the hidden ads. While this may sound contrary to the advice to turn the TV off, I believe that some limited viewing coupled with an awareness of the marketing techniques inoculates my children against the sales pitch.)
The Two Week Challenge
Okay….do you want to get started on your journey to frugality, freedom, and fun?
Make a list of the things that you absolutely require over the next two weeks. This, for most of us, is the distance between one paycheck and the next. So, if you need some milk and other supplies, pick that up. (If you are already a prepper, you probably have enough food to get by for several months!)
Then – lock up your bank card, your cash, and your credit cards (if you use them). For the next two weeks, I don’t want you to spend a dime.
(Obviously, the bills that must be paid, must still be paid – I’m not suggesting you stiff your landlord or skip a car payment!)
But for EVERYTHING ELSE…..put it off for two weeks.
Every time you have the urge to spend money, write it down. (You can cheer yourself along by promising to make this purchase when the two weeks are over, if you still want it.) You are going to be AMAZED at the things you spend money on, as well as the amount that you would have spent.
Come up with creative solutions for your “needs” and most likely, you will discover that they were actually “wants.”
So for two weeks you will NOT be purchasing….
Additional groceries
Drive-thru coffee
Take out pizza
Movie tickets
New clothes
Books and magazines
That adorable pair of shoes – you know, the ones that are ON SALE!!!!
Gasoline (unless this is absolutely necessary for work – but try to get by on one tank of gas if you aren’t a commuter)
A candy bar or a pack of gum (easy since you won’t be at a checkout stand - right?)
Music downloads
Greeting cards
Special ingredients for a meal
A sweater for the dog
A throw pillow for the sofa
You get the idea. If you cannot go for two weeks without spending money on any of the above, it might be time to take a critical look at how you’re living your life. What will you do if you lose your job? If the economy gets worse? If all of your money goes to keep a roof over your head and you have nothing left for discretionary spending, it’s going to be far worse to have that lifestyle forced on you by circumstances.
At the end of the two weeks, take a look at your handy-dandy notebook and tally up the money you would normally have spent. Are you surprised?
*******
To switch over to a frugal lifestyle successfully, you really have to want to do it. If you’re constantly bemoaning what you don’t have, you’ll be miserable. If you are resentful that you can’t have “stuff” then you won’t stick to your frugal plan. The most important thing of all is to switch off your personal “want” button. When you don’t want or need the things that the “elite” and the big corporations are selling, then you are suddenly free of their restrictions. You are no longer a slave to the wages you must earn to pay for the things they tell you that you should have. You don’t have a lifestyle built on expectations, debt, and the never-ending search for happiness bought from a store.
I know that lots of you are already doing all of these things, and more…what are your suggestions for people who are new to the cheap side? How has the art of thrift changed your life and set you free?
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
A genetically modified rose by any other name may smell sweet, but it could still have frankenthorns that might independently detach themselves and lop off your finger while you’re smelling it. That’s not unlike a trip to the grocery store these days. There are a lot of ugly surprises in pretty, charmingly-named packages.
Note: please see updated information for Heinz- Hain Celestial
It seems like no matter how hard you try to avoid them, GMOs and toxic foods creep into your life.
Take for example, the earthily-packaged “natural” foods that are showcased in your grocery store aisles. They cost twice as much, have obscure brand names, and tout their health benefits and natural sources. You can almost smell the freshly tilled soil when you pick up the box.
Unfortunately, this is nothing more than corporate sleight-of-hand.
Many of the products that seem so good are actually just subsidiaries of the companies that were most complicit in blocking GMO labeling, aided and abetted by everyone’s favorite purveyor of death, Monsanto. (Monsanto, incidentally, donated $7,100,500.00 to the fight against the labeling of GMO-containing products.) Don’t forget that Monsanto is now above the law due to the Monsanto Protection Act, a traitorous rider that Senator Roy Blunt managed to attach to a bill that was subsequently signed into law by President Obama. (you know, that guy in the White House, who made the labeling of GMOs one of his 2007 campaign promises?)
I wish I could make a comprehensive list, but there are more stealthily labeled toxins on the shelves every single day. It all boils down to a these big companies that own nearly all of the foods sold in the United States. Some of the quietly owned subsidiaries may surprise you. Included is the amount that the company (and its subsidiaries) donated to defeat California Proposition 37 which would have required GMO labeling.
Not every item on this list contains genetically modified ingredients. The list is based on the duplicitous marketing of the companies. More consumers are trying to make healthy choices at the grocery stores, but it’s difficult when companies push their toxic wares and dress them up as health food. Young people in particular fall victim to these schemes. You have to give a kid credit for purchasing something called “Vitamin Water” over a soda pop, and it’s infuriating that the kid, trying to make a good choice, has been tricked into the purchase by deceitful advertising and marketing.
Some of the products listed, may in fact be exactly what they are portrayed to be, but I choose not to financially support the corporations behind them.
Protect your health and help starve the beast by avoiding products distributed by these companies and their subsidiaries:
Campbell’s - $250,000.00
Healthy Request
Wolfgang Puck Soups
Pace Foods
Pepperidge Farms
V-8
Cargill, Inc - $202,229.36
Truvia Natural Sweetener
Shady Brooks Farms
Diamond Crystal Salt
Liza
Nature Fresh
Peter’s Chocolate
Wilbur Chocolate
Honeysuckle White
Rumba Meats
Good Nature
Coca Cola - $1,164,400.00
Vitamin Water
Smart Water
Dasani
Nestea
Minute Maid
Honest Tea
Odwalla
Vitaminenergy
Con-Agra - $1,076,700.00
Orville Redenbacher’s Organic
Hunt’s Organic
Lightlife
Alexia
Healthy Choice
Hebrew National
Dean Foods - $253,950.00
Horizon
Silk
White Wave
General Mills - $908,200.00
Nature Valley
Fiber One
Cheerios
Cascadian Farm
Muir Glen
Lärabar
Gold Medal Organic
Food Should Taste Good
Heinz- $500,000.00
ABC
Bagel Bites
Complan
Daddies
Delimex
Farex
Greenseas
HP Sauce
Heinz
Lea & Perrins
Ore-Ida
Smart Ones
Tater Tots
TGI Friday’s
Wattie’s
Weight Watchers
Wylers
UPDATED TO ADD: Heinz has divested itself of Hain-Celestial stock over the past couple of years. Two sources report that the primary investors for Hain-Celestial are companies of extremely dubious consideration for our health: Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin. (Farmwars and Home for Health)
It isn’t all bad news. There are a few companies you can still count on – keep in mind that corporate mergers take place every day. When businesses change hands, there is no obligation to notify the public. One such cautionary tale took place with the company Dean’s, which acquired Horizon foods. They quietly phased out the use of organic products without making any changes to the label and used non-organic milk produced under factory farm conditions. As well, they dropped the quality of their organic soy and began purchasing cheaper harvests from Asia. Meanwhile, unwitting retailers had no idea that the company had ceased producing the items organically, and continued to promote the products as they had previous to the acquisition.
Right now, these are some labels to look for.
7th Generation
Amy’s Kitchens
Apple and Eve
Applegate
Azumaya
Blue Diamond
Bob’s Red Mill
Bossa Nova
Cal Organics
Cedarlane
Cell-nique
Choice Organic Teas
Clif Bar/Nectar Fruit
Coombs Family Farmers
Cosorzio All Natural
Country Choice
Crystal Geyser Alpine Water
Doctor Kracker
Dr. McDougall’s
Dr. Praeger
Eat Raw
Echo Farms
EcoMeal
Eddie’s Pasta
Eden Foods (The only company NOT
using harmful plastic in the lining of their
cans as bonding agent!)
Edward and Sons
Endangered Species Chocolate
Ener-G
EnvironKiz
Fantastic Foods.
Giving Nature
Golden Temple
Go Naturally
Greenway Farms
Harvest Bay
Hawthorne Valley
Ian’s Natural Foods
Koyo Organics
Lakewood
Lesser Evil
Let’s Do…Organics
LifeStream
Living Harvest
Lundberg Family
Madhava
Murray’s Chicken
Nasoya
Native Forest
Natural by Nature
Nature Factor
Nature’s Path
Newman’s Own Organic
Organic Prarie
Organic Valley
Pacific Naturals
Pamela’s
Peace Cereal
Petalumi
Rapunzel
Real Foods
Republic of Teas
Road’s End Organics
San J
Sensible Foods
Seven Star Farms
Sunergia
Tasty Bite Indian
Terra Nostra
Texmati
Theo chocolates
Think Organic
Turtle Mountain Toferky
Vermont Mystic Pie
Vitasoy
Vita Spelt
Vivani Chocolate
Wizard’s Saucery
Woodstock Farms
XOXOXO chocolate
Yogi Tea
Zija
Zoe’s Granola
Another way to avoid unscrupulous food producers is through an App called Buycott. If you happen to have an iPhone, this App can be used to check a product that you see in the stores to see what corporate links exist. You can find it HERE. (Thank you to Miranda for this link!) If I had a cellphone, I would definitely download this tool.
Of course, the best ways to avoid GMOs and toxic additives are to avoid packaged foods altogether.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
The need is clear for anarchists to become productively independent in the effort to cut the necessity to remain in the constructs of capitalism and hierarchy. The reason why black bloc has failed to accomplish autonomy from the state is because, this tactic requires being somewhere in which that voice can be heard. But in these major cities, there are rules that you must follow, form legal pressure and natural pressure. In these environments, what ever goods, that must be surcharged out of necessity, must come from exploitive capitalism because there is no other way of obtaining needed goods in places where protesting is worth doing. Protesting can not provide a solution because protesters have to be sustained by the products of capitalism. Cyclical consumption is then, not the enemy of activists, it is the means.
The action to take when coming to this understanding is to create the means to break away from cyclical consumption. The proposal is to establish in remote locations and make it possible for individuals to join one another and mutually aid each other to preform independently of capitalism.
To create necessities as close as possible and boycott capitalist products 100% is a true means for a general strike. The only way to stop capitalism is to no longer support capitalism of any kind and this is not possible without a replacement. To completely boycott capitalism, individuals need to pool skills and resources to work on independent horticulture, alternative energy, building with natural materials, but most importantly building the communities in which social construct is possible.
So, the outcome is an indefinite general strike. The idea is to COMPLETELY refuse to support capitalism and government all together. There are no demands of this general strike, only that capitalism and hierarchy come to a complete stop without compliance, or at very least lose power over those who remove themselves from capitalism and hierarchy through these means. This is then an extreme implementation of the general strike proposed by the anarchists of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Let’s go over some examples of things that can be done to thrive in this general strike proposed.
With horticulture…
Let’s say for example that there is a remote section of land designated to accommodate the needs of 24 people. That is assessed by the amount of food that can be grown in so much acreage. Each individual is involved in the effort to sew, maintain and reap that farm. Each individual, then, benefits from the fruits of production. The benefit is not a distant capital benefit in which the workers of that farm, receive capital in exchange for `what could equally sustain the needs of those workers. You can call this collectivist communism if you want, but all previous occasions in which “communism” has been implemented, there has always been the exchange of useless paper for real goods. It is than only capitalism by another name.
With alternative power…
This, if ignoring the environmental advantages of alternative power, has a large political advantage.
If we’re going to ignore the illegitimacy of hierarchy and capital, then there has to be a replacement for the oil coal and nuclear power used to power communications. Seeing the necessity of communications in this kind of community, solar and radio linked with Linux software, can provide text communication without the use of the Internet as we know it.
These are just rudimentary examples of creating the means for independence to make a true general strike possible.
A term coined in 1985 by an unnamed staffer of the Reagan administration was “Starve the Beast”. This referred to a fiscally conservative political strategy to cut government spending by paying less in taxes. So, in the original sense, “the Beast” was the government, and people were to starve the beast by spending less and using loopholes, therefore paying less in taxes.
These days the Beast has a lot more tentacles than just the government. The system now consists of the government and all aspects of Big Business. Big Agri, Big Pharma, Big Medicine, Big Food, Big Banking and Big Oil, to name a few. It seems that now it’s the Beast doing the starving, as small businesses close because they can’t compete with Wal-Mart, the family farm is on it’s way out because it can’t compete with the huge, subsidized Monsanto mega-farms, people are going bankrupt because they can’t pay the outrageous medical bills…
Perhaps it’s time for another financial revolution – one where people group together and use the power of the boycott to starve all the arms of this Beast that would swallow us whole. If we vote with our dollars, eventually there will, of a necessity, be a paradigm shift that returns us to simpler days, when families that were willing to work hard could make a living without selling their souls to the corporate monoliths.
Every penny you spend with small local businesses is a penny that the big box stores won’t have. Everything that you buy secondhand or barter for is an item on which you won’t pay sales tax. Disassociate yourself completely with “the system” that is making Western civilization broke, overweight and unhealthy. Starve the Beast by taking as many of these steps as possible…
Grow your own food (this starves Big Agri and Big Pharma both)
Shop at local businesses with no corporate ties
Use natural remedies instead of pharmaceuticals whenever possible
Homeschool your children
Walk or bike instead of driving when possible
Get care from naturopaths and healers instead of doctors
Make paper logs from scraps for free heat if you have a wood-burning fireplace or stove
Boycott all processed foods
Shop at local farmer’s markets
Boycott corporate stores: Wal-Mart, Costco, Best Buy, Home Depot
Give vouchers as gifts for an evening of babysitting, a homemade meal, walking the dog, doing a repair, or cleaning
Join a CSA or farm co-op
Ditch television (and all the propaganda and commercials)
Participate in the barter system - if no money changes hands, no tax can be added
Buy secondhand from yard sales, Craigslist and thrift stores
Sell your unwanted goods by having a yard sale or putting an ad on Craigslist
Repair things instead of replacing them
Avoid fast food restaurants and chain restaurants
Dine at locally owned establishments if you eat out
Buy heavy, solid, handmade furniture instead of the flimsy imported stuff
At the holidays, focus on activities and traditions instead of gifts. Go for a walk or drive through the neighborhood to look at lights, get into your PJs and watch a special movie together on Christmas Eve and make certain treats that can always be expected
Make your own bath and body products using pure ingredients like coconut oil, essential oils, and herbal extracts
How do you Starve the Beast? Please share your suggestions below…
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
Pepper spray can be made at home and very potent. This will give one an ethical & portable measure of defense against rioters intruders or can be used in any defense that requires a deterrent that will give you time and a window to escape and or evade a circumstance.
Potent Pepper Spray Recipe Ingredients:
2 tbsp Cayenne Pepper
Rubbing Alcohol
Baby Oil
Small Glass
Clean cloth
Second small glass
Spray bottle
Directions:
First, you will need to put the cayenne pepper into the small glass and then cover with rubbing alcohol until it is about 2cm above the pepper. Stir the alcohol and pepper for three to five minutes. Add an ounce of the baby oil to the glass and stir for two minutes.
Place the small thin cloth over the top of the glass and pour the contents through the cloth into the other glass, allowing the cloth to catch any large pieces of pepper that remain. This will keep the spray bottle from becoming clogged. What is in the second glass is your homemade pepper spray. It is usually a dark brown or red color and doesn’t have a pleasant odor. Once you have completed this process you need to pour the liquid into an empty spray bottle. Put the cap on and then you are ready to use your pepper spray whenever you feel the need to protect yourself.
This pepper spray works well because it is not water based. Water based products generally don’t work as well as the cayenne pepper breaks down in the water. The oil and the alcohol ensure that this does not happen. When the substance gets into the eyes of the attacker, it will sting bad enough that they will be stopped in their tracks.
Todd Walker is married to the lovely Dirt Road Girl, proud father and grandfather, a government school teacher, a lover of the primal lifestyle and liberty. You can check out his website at Survival Sherpa with a vision of helping each other on the climb to self-reliance and preparedness…the Survival Sherpa way…One step at a time. Follow him on Twitter. Send him mail: survivalsherpa@gmail.com
Jennifer Montalto, owner of Jenny-Lu’s bakery in Middlebury, CT is receiving some backlash for baking a pro 2nd Amendment cake for a local Friends of NRA birthday dinner.
Elizabeth Mais wanted to order her husband Bill an AR-15 crafted cake for his 51st birthday, but she was turned down by a number of local bakers who didn’t approve of her idea. Determined to find someone to create the highly detailed dessert, Mais came across Montalto who said she had no problem creating the sporting rifle cake with a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag draped on top. “I don’t think about politics when I’m doing my cakes,” she said Tuesday. “A friend contacted me about it because they couldn’t find anyone to make it… It was a challenge.”
After creating the cake Montalto received some hate online via Facebook and Yelp reviews (which have since been removed). She was labeled “insensitive” and guilty of “ridiculing the tragedy in Newtown.”
Shaken by the backlash Montalto stated, “I cried for three days straight when everything happened. But in my mind, it wasn’t the gun that killed people, it was a very sick individual.”
Montalto and Jenny-Lu’s bakery has since received some positive attention from local gun owners — feel free to head over to her Facebook page and show her some support.
There are two types of people in this world; those who worship the ideal of centralized command authority, and those who do not. Those who value freedom regardless of risk or pain, and those who value slavery in a desperate bid to avoid risk and pain. When I consider the ultimate folly of man, in the end I look to the meek and unquestioning masses who strive to avoid risk, because it is they who always end up feeding the machines of war, despair, and tyranny. The power thirsty halls of elitism surely instigate and manipulate the tides of this wretched ocean of quivering souls, but ultimately, the weak-hearted and weak minded make all terrible conquests possible.
They live by the rule of fear, and their fear drives them to seek control; control of their environment, control of others, and by extension they believe, control of the future. They attempt to mitigate their overwhelming fear by containing the world and sterilizing it of everything wild, untamed, and unknown. They dream of a society of pure predictability, and zero responsibility. They are willing to sacrifice almost anything to attain this position of artificial comfort.
The concept of “big government” appeals to such people for many reasons…
Government in most cases is nothing but an abstraction. It is merely a tool that serves the interests of a particular group of people at any given time. Modern politics is an expression of the foolish cat fight between factions of people to decide who gets to wield the weapon of government and impose their ideology on the rest of us. At least, that’s what it almost always devolves into. The great illusion of the system, though, is that ANY group of average people ever actually wields any power. The truth is, big governments are always operated by very small and exclusive clubs of root beneficiaries out of the sight of the population.
The smaller this dominant group becomes, the more corrupt and criminal the government generally is. A government reaches a state of despotism whenever its functions are twisted for the sake of an elite few to the detriment of the common man, and when it ignores the natural inborn rights of the individual for the sake of some fabricated collective . If one were to closely examine the birth of every iron-fisted oligarchy throughout history, they would find a cyclical pattern of centralization; the removal of checks and balances, the removal of legitimate public involvement in the political process, a dependent and infantized citizenry, and the rise of a “bureaucratic class” which regards itself as superior and born to lead. All steps taking place within Western societies today.
Unfortunately, the masses tend to view big government as an inevitability of life; as a natural extension of culture. Rarely if ever do they ask what tangible purpose it serves. Are they really getting what they want out of their government? Or, is the government taking what it wants from them?
I have always found the worshipful attitude that some citizens ascribe to government simultaneously fascinating and disturbing, because these people are not bowing down to a wise and benevolent entity. Rather, they are bowing down to their own delusions of what they believe that entity to be. The most dangerous and insidious of governments present themselves as a kind of social vanity mirror. They allow the citizenry to project their collective desires, biases, shortcomings, and fears, and reflect back an image that entices and placates the majority. The lies and manipulations of big government are designed to satiate our basest fantasies, but what we see as a concrete edifice of political and legal might, in the end, is a mirage mired in the fog of our own naïve expectations.
So, the question again arises; if the structure of big government is built upon deceit and misrepresentation, what tangible purpose does it really serve?
The answer is no purpose…at least, no purpose that elevates and enriches the public at large.
Big government is not a “necessary evil”. It is just evil. Like the ring of Sauron, it lures in the weak with promises of power, but this power is a ruse. Each side of our false left/right paradigm, Democrat and Republican, thinks that if only THEY were the bearers of the ring they would “finally use it for good”. But once in their possession, they are overtaken, overwhelmed, and corrupted by personal temptation.
The Democratic Party, with all of its proclamations of humanism and respect for civil liberties, is a perfect example. How quickly did the rank and file Democrats turn away from their anti-war, anti-torture, anti-banker, anti-surveillance, anti-tyranny stance once Barack Obama, a self proclaimed Democrat, was placed in office? Very quickly!
And what about the common Republican? How many of them utterly abandoned their ideals of limited government, reduced spending, Constitutional rights, and Christian understanding as soon as Bush and the Neo-Con regime was installed? Most of them!
And when all is said and done, who has reaped profits and gained dominance during both disastrous administrations? The corporate high priests and international banking cartels, not the oblivious participants of the fake political theater. Yet, a masochistic cycle of misplaced trust in the system on the part of the masses continues…
If these latest signs of big government corruption aren’t enough to make the public question the validity of the establishment, I’m not sure what will…
The Rape Of Cyprus
Even in the face of unmitigated government theft, I still hear the occasional rationalization of the Cyprus debacle. Defenders of the bailout measures (which the EU demanded) allowing the confiscation of private citizen savings to pay off government mismanaged debt, argue two things:
1) The banks that were targeted contained “Russian blood money” and hidden funds, so confiscation really amounted to a “punishment of rich criminals” rather than the Cyprus public.
2) It is “better” that the citizens go along with the confiscation of a percentage of their accounts, rather than lose everything through collapse.
Just to be clear, any sizable Russian funds being stored in Cyprus were removed before the bailout measures were instituted. Therefore, the assertion that such people were “punished” is a lie and a distraction. The Russian scapegoat was merely being promoted by global financiers and political elites in order to con people around the world (not just those in Cyprus) to accept the concept of government theft of private funds as being “moral” under “certain extraneous circumstances”. When a government wants you to set aside your conscience in support of an immoral action that serves their interests, they will almost always conjure a false villain and engineered consequences for you to direct your fear and anger at. Once they can convince you to abandon your own principles to smite an imaginary enemy or avoid a manufactured threat, even if only one time, it will be much easier for them to convince you again a second time.
Large and corrupt governments love to use the magic of the false choice. For instance, “…it is better to sacrifice some of your money and your principles to the establishment than it is to live through total collapse of the nation…” This false choice process, though, never ends. The offending government will demand more property and more freedom from the citizenry everyday while constantly warning that if we do not submit, the alternative will be “far worse”.
The truth is, Cyprus is not the issue. What the disaster in Cyprus reflects, however, concerns us all. It is a moment of precedence; an action which sets the stage for the final destruction of the idea of private property. It dissolves one of the final barriers to total government control. Governments and elitists have always stolen from the public through misspent taxation and rampant inflation, but with Cyprus, we see a renewed feudalistic paradigm. The EU and the banking hierarchy are sending a message to the Western world: You are now their personal emergency fund, and nothing you own is actually yours anymore.
When an institution confiscates property and capital at will from a subdued and frightened populace without consent, they are essentially exploiting the labor of that populace. In any culture or language, this is called “slavery”.
Private Corporations Openly Dictating The Law
As most in the Liberty Movement know, the seeds of Fascism germinate in the soil where the corporate world meets the political world. This is one of the primary reasons why we will stop at nothing to eliminate entities like the Federal Reserve; a privately run banking cartel that mingles with government yet answers to no one, including Congress or the people. The Fed has existed since 1913, and has dominated the value and circulation of our currency ever since. However, today, they are taking on new powers…
As a part of the recent bailout bonanza and the legislation surrounding it, the Fed has begun writing operational policy for other private banking institutions:
The transition has been subtle but the implications are dangerous. The Fed is becoming a regulatory body with expanding influence outside of the electoral process. It is preparing the ground for other private central banks to become fully unaccountable governing structures. Right now, they are limited to the banking sector, but eventually, this dynamic will poison every aspect of the financial world until every economic decision will be made without any oversight from the public.
Moving in a slightly different direction, the Federal Government is beginning to establish law which removes the ability of the public to have any means of redress against particular corporations. The ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ hidden within the pages of the HR 933 spending bill creates special circumstances that protect the GMO producer from litigation and public examination over the dangerous genetic products it markets. This legislation, in essence, builds a coalition between Monsanto and the government, and even allows Monsanto in some cases to dictate what the government can and cannot do when dealing with GMO’s.
The Obama Administration’s support of this bill should be a shock to any environmentally inclined Democrat, and any Democrat who is still willing to defend Obama after learning of this legislation, in my opinion, is a lost cause.
This move on the part of our government is striking because of its open criminality. It shows that we have entered a new stage of the totalitarian process; one that will invariably lead us to catastrophe.
Legislation By Special Interest Group
In the halls of big government, politicians do not produce major legislation. Rather, bureaucrats and think tanks fashion policy while elected officials serve as mouthpieces and middlemen.
How often do we discover after the passage of particularly nefarious pieces of legislation that the politicians who voted for them NEVER read the bills themselves?
This past week, sources within NY governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration claimed that he didn’t actually read the NY Safe Act before championing it, and blamed the vast mistakes and unconstitutional oversteps of the bill on Mayor Bloomberg and the Brady Center.
Now, I do not believe that Cuomo was not aware of the implications of the Safe Act, even if he didn’t read the bill. But I do believe that the bill was drafted purely by special interest groups like the Brady Center without any oversight from actual state legislators, who then passed it overnight without a second thought.
In a big government system, legislative wrangling is non-stop. A bureaucracy thrives on the endless introduction of new laws and new restrictions, and so it makes perfect sense that political representatives, who now act merely as mascots, never have the time to read all the paperwork. Why would they read it, when they are no longer making decisions on such policies anyway? All they have to do is vote how they are told to vote by their handlers, and trust that they will be protected by the establishment from public anger.
Legislation by proxy is rampant in our government today, and it begs us to consider this – If our government has become so oversized and complex that our elected leaders can no longer oversee the actual writing of legislation and must use private think tanks to write it for them, perhaps we should cut the system down until their work load is manageable. The alternative is a legal and political structure that is engineered entirely by obscure interest groups with an agenda, and this is highly unacceptable.
Complete Disregard For Individual Rights
In the evolution of big government, there comes a point at which the oligarchy has attained enough power that it feels safe in admitting its true intentions. Usually, this is done in the name of the “greater good”. Sometimes, they don’t even try to sugar coat it.
This past week, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg in an unguarded moment stated the underlying philosophy behind the impositions of government control over the people. When questioned about the Constitutionality of the growing drone surveillance grid in American skies, Bloomberg had this to say:
“Everybody wants their privacy, but I don’t know how you’re going to maintain it. It’s just we’re going into a different world, uncharted, and, like it or not, what people can do, what governments can do, is different. And you can to some extent control, but you can’t keep the tides from coming in.”
“The argument against using automation, it’s this craziness– oh, it’s Big Brother. Get used to it.”
And there you have it. The new age (for Bloomberg and big government elites like him) is a place in which government is separate and above the people. The government does not exist to serve the citizenry; the citizenry exists to serve the government. Privacy is a privilege that governments can take anytime they wish. Citizens, being slaves, should not expect such privileges. And, this subjugated nightmare world is a place that we must accept as a natural extension of progress. Big Brother is the future, so grow up and “get used to it”…
I will not be “getting used to it”, and neither will millions of Americans like me. We’ll tear the whole monstrosity down first.
Institutions of law and order are supposed to reflect the highest inherent principles of humanity and defend those principles regardless of the nature of the times. Honor and conscience do not suddenly become obsolete simply because danger looms, or catastrophe strikes.
Big government bastardizes the original intent of the founders, who formed a small subservient central federal structure to fulfill one purpose – as a protector of the natural freedoms of the population. The federal system was never meant to have any domestic power beyond this task, nor should it. Today, as we have shown over and over again, the centralized political behemoth we live under is absolutely unnecessary and completely destructive to the freedom and prosperity of the culture it was originally tasked to defend. It can and must be dissolved, and it is time for average Americans to deeply and seriously ponder this option rather than ignorantly assume that because it exists, it should exist. Otherwise, like a weaponized cancer, it will devour what is left of the healthy fabric of our society and destroy whatever good remains within us.
You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com
Alt-Market is an organization designed to help you find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for mutual aid and defense. Join Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the system and build something better.
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Any ideas for our signs?
