Economic Devastation

[iamback]

I bet a lot of those guys in the video served in Vietnam. They were most likely upstanding young men who came back PTSD'd and shunned from their families. They fell in with some bad folks and here they are 20-40 years later.

Automation may wipe these people out from the job market, but most of America is not actually producing anything anyway. Money is being made on the transferring of money around and through its exportation to the World which is demanding USD. In years long ago, the US actually manufactured lots of things. Today it still does that, but on a very limited scale. People today are getting rich on the backs of others through financial markets with large lumps of cash and uneven odds.

B.A.S. again I detect an undercurrent of hatred (envy) for the wealthy in your writings (i.e. Socialist or Communist ideology). I am asserting we get wealthy by being productive and not associating with those losers who blame their problems on others (e.g. blaming the 1%).

Yeah government, finance, and fiat money systems are corrupt. So what? It still doesn't change the fact that self-discipline is what makes success.

The founders of Google didn't get there by whining, hiring losers, and farting around on the beach all day! They worked hard long hours.

It doesn't mean I don't have compassion for their plight and bad luck. And I surely wouldn't try to exacerbate their suffering. But I also know I can't invest in fixing their morass because it will drag me down with them.


P.S. I would not have served in Vietnam! No way I will be a slave of the corrupt who run governments. Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

[OROBTC]

...

@ iamback and above interested in wealth creation


Yes, unless you already have money, you must work for it.  Productive work is what it is all about.  Just digging a ditch (low-skilled jobs) in low demand are typically NOT a way to do that.  You must do something that people with money to pay actually want.

-- Educate yourself to the best of your ability in a worthwhile field
-- Work like a dog...  Stay positive, even when things look bad.
-- Avoid bad habits (drugs/alcohol, having children before marriage, etc.).  Stay out of jail, etc.
-- Be open-minded, you never know where the opportunities will come from
-- Keep learning (I am 58, and have been learning BTC for about a year)
-- Keep working hard
-- Did I mention keep working hard?

Luck matters, at least in the short-term.  Luck matters less (usually!) vs. persistence over time.  It took over 10 years for our company in Peru (my in-laws) to make our investment back.  Persistence pays.

Wealth preservation would be the next thing to think about once one is on a good trail to wealth creation...  CoinCube's thread here is a good place to discuss that too.

[OROBTC]

...

iamback & CoinCube

Jim Quinn is an uber-bear often featured at Zero Hedge.  He is a follower of macro-cycles (Howe & Strauss's "Fourth Turning"), but in a different space than Martin Armstrong.  You may very well have bumped into his material before, but if not, here is his latest piece:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/02/11/fourth-turning-the-shadow-of-crisis-has-not-passed-part-three/

snippet:

The American people have lost their ability to think, reason, question, do math, control their urges, defer gratification, or realize when they are being lied to by the people they elected to public office. A culture of ignorance, celebration of the absurd, salutation of stupidity, honoring of the inane, being mesmerized by electronic gadgets, and satiating their egocentric shallow impulses on social media, is a sure recipe for societal collapse. Victory in World War II and becoming a modern day empire created the dynamic Eisenhower warned about. An immense military industrial complex has created enemies around the globe in order to keep the profits flowing in this welfare/warfare empire of debt. War is a racket for the rich. The peasants who buy into the incessant patriotic propaganda and volunteer are nothing but cannon fodder for the .1%. Keeping the masses fearful of phantom enemies and portraying foreign leaders as evil, is essential for the oligarchs to retain their wealth, power and control. Truth, facts, and long-term consequences are of no interest to the sociopaths running the show and pulling the levers. The dissent into darkness has been gradual and unnoticed by a purposefully distracted populace.

Yow!

[iamback]

I was aware of Quinn, and he is spot on correct and a much superior writer than me. I never claimed to be gifted in the literary realm (85 - 90% percentile only on standardized test, 99+% percentile in the abstract realm).

He and our comments have also missed the fact that even those not suffering from those impulses, are financially complicit (and historically bound) in the decadent system and thus also biased towards not recognizing this reality.

As the USA was expanding as an industrial powerhouse, with the Mississippi river and the canals and rivers from the East coast, along with coasts on both the East and West hemispheres giving it a geographical advantage in physical trade over Europe, Asia, and Africa, then we needed this low education workforce. Now the low-IQ melting pot has become an albatross, and especially as we move into the Computer Age where tangible goods are devalued.

Even very smart Americans have not accepted that geographical fluke has reached the end of its utility, and that the ideals they were ingrained with (e.g. pay your fair share for a better society) is exactly what is going to cause the spiral into the abyss (until they wake up due to pain and start the shooting wars to break up the USA into non-productive 3rd world and productive regions).

When Google moves its main office to Asia or is superseded by an Asian internet company, that will be a watershed event that confirms the end of the USA empire. One of the founders of Facebook already gave up his USA citizenship and attained Singaporean citizenship. And he paid a huge tax penalty in order to do that sooner rather than delaying.

[B.A.S.]

I bet a lot of those guys in the video served in Vietnam. They were most likely upstanding young men who came back PTSD'd and shunned from their families. They fell in with some bad folks and here they are 20-40 years later.

Automation may wipe these people out from the job market, but most of America is not actually producing anything anyway. Money is being made on the transferring of money around and through its exportation to the World which is demanding USD. In years long ago, the US actually manufactured lots of things. Today it still does that, but on a very limited scale. People today are getting rich on the backs of others through financial markets with large lumps of cash and uneven odds.

B.A.S. again I detect an undercurrent of hatred (envy) for the wealthy in your writings (i.e. Socialist or Communist ideology). I am asserting we get wealthy by being productive and not associating with those losers who blame their problems on others (e.g. blaming the 1%).

Yeah government, finance, and fiat money systems are corrupt. So what? It still doesn't change the fact that self-discipline is what makes success.

The founders of Google didn't get there by whining, hiring losers, and farting around on the beach all day! They worked hard long hours.

It doesn't mean I don't have compassion for their plight and bad luck. And I surely wouldn't try to exacerbate their suffering. But I also know I can't invest in fixing their morass because it will drag me down with them.

P.S. I would not have served in Vietnam! No way I will be a slave of the corrupt who run governments. Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

I have no hatred for the wealthy; what I do have is a distinct appreciation for all walks of life and a defending spirit against others discrediting them because they have had different opportunities in life, a different background, look different, etc. This country was built by the hands of all types (more so the "underbelly" you speak of). It's disingenuous to write the things you do about people you have no idea about.

Don't be so naive. Sergio, the founder of Google, grew up with a decorated Mathematics professor father and a NASA researcher mother. He wasn't born in Harlem or Compton. This is not to say he wasn't a hard worker, but he went to a Montessori school for elementary education in the States. It's a $100 just to apply! This is elementary school.

You would not of had a choice to serve in Vietnam or not. There was a draft!
 
Exceptions from service:
- You ran away to Canada
- Defected as a conscientious objector (not likely for approval)

What you are is an entitled 20-something who grew up in suburban America in a nice part of town. You have or just may be finishing up a BA degree in econ/accounting or some business field which makes you feel confident enough to armchair regurgitation from some websites muddled with your thoughts. You are entitled to all your opinions and I can stomach that.

What you lack is respect for those who served our country, their thoughts/ways of life and a healthy appreciation of all walks of life. This I cannot stomach.

Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

Keep this statement in your back pocket. Life has a way of beating down everyone at some time or another. I think you will change your opinions as you grow a bit older and wiser.

[picolo]

I bet a lot of those guys in the video served in Vietnam. They were most likely upstanding young men who came back PTSD'd and shunned from their families. They fell in with some bad folks and here they are 20-40 years later.

Automation may wipe these people out from the job market, but most of America is not actually producing anything anyway. Money is being made on the transferring of money around and through its exportation to the World which is demanding USD. In years long ago, the US actually manufactured lots of things. Today it still does that, but on a very limited scale. People today are getting rich on the backs of others through financial markets with large lumps of cash and uneven odds.

B.A.S. again I detect an undercurrent of hatred (envy) for the wealthy in your writings (i.e. Socialist or Communist ideology). I am asserting we get wealthy by being productive and not associating with those losers who blame their problems on others (e.g. blaming the 1%).

Yeah government, finance, and fiat money systems are corrupt. So what? It still doesn't change the fact that self-discipline is what makes success.

The founders of Google didn't get there by whining, hiring losers, and farting around on the beach all day! They worked hard long hours.

It doesn't mean I don't have compassion for their plight and bad luck. And I surely wouldn't try to exacerbate their suffering. But I also know I can't invest in fixing their morass because it will drag me down with them.

P.S. I would not have served in Vietnam! No way I will be a slave of the corrupt who run governments. Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

I have no hatred for the wealthy; what I do have is a distinct appreciation for all walks of life and a defending spirit against others discrediting them because they have had different opportunities in life, a different background, look different, etc. This country was built by the hands of all types (more so the "underbelly" you speak of). It's disingenuous to write the things you do about people you have no idea about.

Don't be so naive. Sergio, the founder of Google, grew up with a decorated Mathematics professor father and a NASA researcher mother. He wasn't born in Harlem or Compton. This is not to say he wasn't a hard worker, but he went to a Montessori school for elementary education in the States. It's a $100 just to apply! This is elementary school.

You would not of had a choice to serve in Vietnam or not. There was a draft!
 
Exceptions from service:
- You ran away to Canada
- Defected as a conscientious objector (not likely for approval)

What you are is an entitled 20-something who grew up in suburban America in a nice part of town. You have or just may be finishing up a BA degree in econ/accounting or some business field which makes you feel confident enough to armchair regurgitation from some websites muddled with your thoughts. You are entitled to all your opinions and I can stomach that.

What you lack is respect for those who served our country, their thoughts/ways of life and a healthy appreciation of all walks of life. This I cannot stomach.

Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

Keep this statement in your back pocket. Life has a way of beating down everyone at some time or another. I think you will change your opinions as you grow a bit older and wiser.

Thanks for your post. Different ages and times induce very different points of views.

[iamback]

Success breeds success; failure breeds failure

- You ran away to Canada

I ran away from the USA to live in squalor in the Philippines, so that is likely what I would have done.
 

- Defected as a conscientious objector (not likely for approval)

Several times in my life, I've burned my bridges in order to restart without morass so I could maximize my future degrees-of-freedom in order to attain success (a.k.a. creative destruction).

What you are is an entitled 20-something who grew up in suburban America in a nice part of town.

You forgot where I wrote in my prior post that I grew up in squalor in Louisiana and was for a while one of only two white kids in the entire PUBLIC elementary school (my sister being the other one).

I actually grew up with those rednecks you see in the video. I know that life intimately.

Sorry but those weak people lack a backbone! And you can see that in the video. They don't have the capacity to stand up and fight their way out of their hole.

Keep this statement in your back pocket. Life has a way of beating down everyone at some time or another. I think you will change your opinions as you grow a bit older and wiser.

Hey I am about as beaten down right now as a human can be. A product of divorce at age 5 and my only sister murdered ostensibly by her drug addict husband. I am blinded in one eye, I have an apparently incurable debilitating disease, I have extreme family problems, I am nearly bankrupt, I am getting old turning 50 this June, etc..

But hell no, I am not going to blame my problems on others nor give up! It is time to get out there and win and go back to top. Fuck this situation I have! I will kill myself with Herculean effort trying to win, rather than stay mired in failure.


Everyone can learn from knowing Michael Jordan more intimately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cygBtiZY40A

Basta, when we surround ourselves with failure, we fail.

Even Michael Jordan learned that when he tried to play with crappy players when he came back in his 40s to play for the Wizards. He has been learning ever since that as team owner and general manager of an NBA basketball team, he is not as talented as he was as a player. He wanted to be in control of a team, because his main failure as a player was due to the owner of the Chicago Bulls letting his dream team break up after they won the 6th championship in 1998.

(Note luckily Jordan was not GM for the Bulls, because he wanted to acquire one of his old teammates from North Carolina, thus his loyalty clouded his analysis. And look how he screwed up numerous times such as drafting Kwame Brown for the Wizards.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Michael-Jordan-takes-on-Kwame-Brown-again?urn=nba-265111
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/07/kobe-bryant-tells-a-story-that-sums-up-kwame-brown/
http://www.atthehive.com/2010/8/23/1638364/the-kwame-brown-story-will)

All of us are products of circumstance. MJ had outstanding luck. He had one-in-million physical talents. He had great parents, a great team, the world's best coach the Zen master Phil Jackson, etc..

Each of us has to maximize the circumstance we have.

The greatest compassion of all is not helping people feel sorry for themselves, and showing them by example (not words!) how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

So if you find me not wasting too much time on people who can't get their shit together, read this email to understand why.

[iamback]

Feeling shit health. 6am. Just woke up. Haven't eaten.

Done with 300 pushups baby! 100 then 100 then 100. First time I could do 100 each time, since I did 600 pushups in 2010 one time (before I got so ill).

Off to run...

My backbone will break only the day I die! My football coach said you never fail, until you fail to stand back up.

One rule: no alcohol, no smoking, no sugar, no fruits or chemicals that are addictive (e.g. MSG and Durian).

[iamback]

390 baby!

90 more to show those who are making excuses.

Off to run...

[iamback]

Armstrong made a major error recently when he wrote that savers in bonds are penalized by lowering interest rates in Europe. As rates fall, the pre-existing holders of bonds see appreciation in the value of their bonds. He forgot a major point about the inverse relationship between interest rates and capital appreciation of bonds.

I wrote in my 2011 essay which CoinCube linked from the OP:

http://www.coolpage.com/commentary/economic/shelby/Understand%20Everything%20Fundamentally.html#europe
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article31717.html
http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/understand-everything-fundamentally

Europe will not disintegrate

Coase’s theorem says that an inefficient internal order will continue for as long as there remains an unavoidable frictional barrier insulating it from the more efficient external possibilities. The fundamental reason the EU crisis will not result in a disintegration of the union, at least not until its people significantly abandon collectivism, is that organisms which are unable to comprehend the mechanism by which they are consuming resources faster than their ecosystem can replenish, thus are unable to stop the mechanism before they perish. So the implosion of the friction and thus the order only occurs when they perish, because they will continue to repeat the mechanism which they do not understand to be a cause of their suffering. This can be verified in a petri dish, as an organism will reproduce until it consumes all of its food or oxygen. Due to the lack of a pre-frontal cortex, it is unable to comprehend the connection of reproduction to unsustainability. Unfortunately, even though humans have a pre-frontal cortex, they do not comprehend that debt, insurance, bonds, fractional reserve money, and centralized governance, cause the demand (and thus production) of resources to be overconcentrated in sectors of the ecosystem that create a less productive future. In the next section, I will explain that these financialization mechanisms cause collective failure and thus demand ever increasing centralization (i.e. “too big to fail”), because from their inception they all pool capital. Thus they are always collectivism.

“It amazes that otherwise bright people can’t understand the simple concept that economic collapse doesn’t convert collectivists into anarchists.”

Thus the people are blind to the mechanism which is enslaving them and reducing their prosperity. Thus, since they will not change the mechanism, centralization of governance will grow stronger from the current financial crisis, and will diminish only when the involved organisms perish. Entropy is continuously culling the center of the bell curve so that knowledge can advance. I make no political judgment when I state factually that these mega-death cullings take many forms, e.g. abortions kill 42 million annually, it is reasonable to assume birth control probably more than that, some statistics claim that governments and wars have killed a couple 100 million in the past century, totalitarianism (the political end of pooling resources) kills millions, drugs and medications probably kill millions, cancer rates are double in the ‘developed’ world (the countries with financialization), and arguably GMO food may add to that. I am not making a political judgment on reproduction, rather to state the fact that actuarial economics are constrained and politically intractable without a sufficient population of youth. And as will be explained with the entropic force, it is the antithesis of knowledge formation, to a have uniform (replicated) social action.

“Currency wars are like [...] slap wars, trade wars is where the knives come out.”

“Currency wars > trade wars > hot wars.”

Europe is predominantly retirees (low or negative birth rates exacerbate this), that own various european country bonds via their retirement plans. If interest rates go up, the bond values decline, and their retirement is toast. The politics is to appease subconscious denial, which is why you see Merkel talking tough and simultaneously making gradual steps towards centralized printing and fiscal controls. The savers want to penalize the non-savers, under some illusion that they can convert the non-savers, but they don’t accept culpability for causing the problem with a collectivist form of saving. If the collectivist non-savers were converted to collectivist savers, then who would borrow? Illogical.

Thus, the savers are blind to the fact they too are collectivists. Productive europeans (e.g. Germans) want to have a fixed interest rate return by loaning money to less productive sectors who can buy their exports. Now they want to deny they are subconsciously in support of money printing, because they also don’t want their fixed income to disintegrate (even though it will be debased either way). Due to the psychological phenomenon of ‘false attribution error’ (i.e. blaming the stone that one tripped on, a form of cognitive dissonance), they want to be the victim who will spank and control the bad PIIGS, via increased centralized control. Neither the savers nor the borrowers are the victim, they all are collectivists and being culled by the entropic force. Note, Germany’s debt ratio is as bad as the USA and Canada.

Fiscal centralization to come next (link explains how), with copious money printing and centralized rationing (i.e. austerity and/or price controls). The recent health care legislation in the USA, is price controls and rationing. The only prosperous fix for health care, was to eliminate insurance a priori so that individuals could maximize and individualize their preparations for aging. I will explain that pooled savings, i.e. insurance, is collectivism and thus automatically wasted.

My outlook is optimistic, in that those who understand how to avoid collectivism, facilitate maximum knowledge formation and efficiency of market fitness, will prosper and (they and their offspring will) survive entropic culling.

And my prediction continues to be true:

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/13/greeks-will-not-negotiate-with-the-troika-just-eu-ecb-imf/

Greeks will NOT Negotiate with the Troika Just EU, ECB, & IMF?

Politicians are the same everywhere. The new Greek government will now negotiate but they will not by any means do so with the hated Troika. Instead, they will only negotiate with the representatives of the EU, the ECB and the IMF (= sum in the Troika). They will negotiate restructuring Greek debt. That means a haircut for Greek debt holders.

[picolo]

Feeling shit health. 6am. Just woke up. Haven't eaten.

Done with 300 pushups baby! 100 then 100 then 100. First time I could do 100 each time, since I did 600 pushups in 2010 one time (before I got so ill).

Off to run...

My backbone will break only the day I die! My football coach said you never fail, until you fail to stand back up.

One rule: no alcohol, no smoking, no sugar, no fruits or chemicals that are addictive (e.g. MSG and Durian).

Good diet! Congratulations.

[iamback]

Nobody knows what my sickness feels like

Remember your worst headache.

Remember collapsing in bed when you are so sick because you feel so yucky and weak.

Imagine having that every day of your life.

Welcome to my life now. That shit is what I feel again now (in spite of grinding my teeth to do 390 pushups and run 2 kms in the hills).

I used to have perfect health and energy. I used to run 13 miles (20 kms)!

Those of you who are healthy, are so stupid to be wasting your life on nonsense. If I had your good health, I would be conquering the world! Damnit!

[OROBTC]

...

Health is extremely important.  Do what you need to to get better.

We'll all be here waiting for you!

And keep your eyes on the prize..., the long ball...

[CoinCube]

...

iamback & CoinCube

Jim Quinn is an uber-bear often featured at Zero Hedge.  He is a follower of macro-cycles (Howe & Strauss's "Fourth Turning"), but in a different space than Martin Armstrong.  You may very well have bumped into his material before, but if not, here is his latest piece:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/02/11/fourth-turning-the-shadow-of-crisis-has-not-passed-part-three/

Thanks for the link. I just read all four parts. An interesting read and pretty much in line with the discussion here. I will link all four parts for those interested.

The Fourth Turning Part I
The Fourth Turning Part II
The Fourth Turning Part III
The Fourth Turning Part IV

What struck me is once again we see a discussion of recurrent cycles. Much like the theory of economic Kondratieff cycles discussed upthread. The author cites a book published in 1997 called The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny

The theory proposed by the book is that a turning lasts about 20–22 years. Four turnings comprise a full cycle of approximately 80 to 90 years (4 generations), which the authors term a saeculum. 1997 is a long time ago and I am curious to see the degree this author predicted current events. I will have to set some time aside to read it.

[CoinCube]

I don't read the New York Times much anymore but this article is worth passing along as a cautionary story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-middle-span-region&region=c-column-middle-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-middle-span-region

As she made the long journey from New York to South Africa, to visit family during the holidays in 2013, Justine Sacco, 30 years old and the senior director of corporate communications at IAC, began tweeting acerbic little jokes. No one replied, which didn’t surprise her. She had only 170 Twitter followers.

Sacco boarded the plane. It was an 11-hour flight, so she slept. When the plane landed in Cape Town and was taxiing on the runway, she turned on her phone. Right away, she got a text from someone she hadn’t spoken to since high school: “I’m so sorry to see what’s happening.” Sacco looked at it, baffled.

Then another text: “You need to call me immediately.” It was from her best friend, Hannah. Then her phone exploded with more texts and alerts. And then it rang. It was Hannah. “You’re the No. 1 worldwide trend on Twitter right now,” she said.

Sacco’s Twitter feed had become a horror show.

If one bad joke can destroy your life actually advocating "wrong" viewpoints may someday bring even swifter retribution. It is quite possible that the Overton window will eventually shift to the point where even topics like economic devastation are forbidden.

[iamback]

CoinCube,

Make an escape plan while you still can.

http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/14/any-document-older-than-180-days-you-have-abandoned-for-legal-purposes/

Any Document Older than 180 days You Have Abandoned for Legal Purposes

Just why does government want to read everything you have ever written? They are obsessed with collecting data on everyone exactly as if this was George Orwell’s 1984. The people in charge are just insane. They have nothing better to do but act like Joseph Stalin who could not sleep at night worrying what others might be thinking. His solution – he murdered tens of millions far beyond Hitler. The Jews Hitler killed were economic based. Hitler was able to confiscate banks, business, and even collected gold teeth from dead corpses. Edward I threw all the Jews out of England and also got to keep all their assets. But Stalin killed not for money, but for fear of what people thought. He killed the smart ones who might create a counter-revolution against him. Stalin killed Kondratieff because his study of cycles said communism would fail. The Ukrainians hated the Russian because Stalin killed more than 8 million of them.

Human nature is not confined to borders. Stanley Milgram conducted his experiment with actors in the United States to see if killing the Jews was somehow just because the German people follow orders. He discovered that human nature is strange. He conducted his experiment in different cultures and concluded that humanity will simply obey authority to the point they will torture another if so directed. This is what governments depend on to maintain order. The unruly are the fearless who refuse to conform. With time, as governments always end up abusing the ruled, the unruly rise up in an organized manner. When they become the majority, revolution is born.

Today we have Stalinistic type people in the US government who are also obsessed with what the ruled think and do on top of do they have any spare change they can rob. Now, if you’ve been remiss in cleaning out your email in-box, they created the 180-Day Rule. The federal government can read any emails that are more than six months old without a court warrant. Human nature never chances. The rulers are also desperate to maintain power and fear the great unwashed that they rule because they know their abuse has limitations.

Buried inside the ambiguous language of the communications law passed in 1986, they simply self-determined that the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure will arbitrarily apply only to electronic communications sent or received fewer than 180 days ago. This is the whole problem with the US legal system.

Ever since Teddy Roosevelt, everything legally has changed. Teddy was the first President to stand the Constitution on its head.  Teddy’s interpretation was that he could do ANYTHING that was not expressly forbidden by the Constitution. Hence, instead of the Constitution being a NEGATIVE restraint upon government, those in government got to do whatever they desired and it became our BURDEN to prove in a court of law that we even have any rights. Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal based upon Marxism using this same family view – there should be no restraint upon government. Their view, society progressed beyond the 18th century views, which were outdated and primitive.

This was a MAJOR distinction for Congress can pass any law saying you must kill your first born or donate all female children to the government to give mass births to create armies. You actually have no STANDING to even argue in a court that this law is Unconstitutional. ONLY when the government orders you personally to kill your first born or come to take your daughter do you have even a right to go to court to argue. In other words, Congress can pass any law it imagines and UNLESS they try to apply it you someone personally, there will be no right to go to court and try to argue before a judge they appoint.

The entire American Revolution began with this very abuse imposed by the English King George III because he too needed money. In order to ascertain the nature of the proceedings intended by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution under the terms “unreasonable searches and seizures,” it is only necessary to recall the contemporary or then recent history of the controversies on the subject, both in this country and in England. The practice had obtained in the colonies of issuing writs of assistance to the revenue officers also searching for money or any derogatory remarks made against the government was the key. These writs of assistance empowered the the king’s agents, like today, to do whatever was necessary, in their sole discretion, to search suspected places for smuggled goods and money owed to the Crown. The famous defense lawyer argued against these writs where James Otis pronounced that they were “the worst instrument of arbitrary power, the most destructive of English liberty, and the fundamental principles of law, that ever was found in an English law book;” since they placed “the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer.”

Edward Snowden has come out and stated that people in the NSA wrote programs to collect nude photos of girls who they were sending to their boyfriends to show around the office. Nothing has changed. Officials back then abused their powers as they do right now. Those who claim they are protecting America and they have nothing to hide, well they are fools or liars. Human nature will never change and any agent of the government will always look upon those in the private sector as people have more than they do and this breeds contempt and corruption.

This is the fate of the United States and it is part of the natural cycle of Decline & Fall of Empires. The old saying the king is dead, long live the king is indicative of the problem. When the slave becomes king, he oppresses others no different for it is now his time to rule and to do to others what he hated himself. It is not Snowden who is the traitor, it is everyone who who justifies the surrender of all rights under the pretense of protecting our liberty. History repeats with incredible timing for it takes a specific amount of time to produce the same result.

[kitarohotono]

greek agreement deadline 28th this month grexit might start contagion

[iamback]

Thailand seems to be the least disciplined of the Asia countries, i.e. the least "Asian" in conservative values or let's say it is the "bad boy" of SE Asia, and perhaps that is why the foreigners flock to it in droves:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/799376-household-debt-keeps-thailand-southeast-asias-sick-man/

[rpietila]

If one bad joke can destroy your life actually advocating "wrong" viewpoints may someday bring even swifter retribution. It is quite possible that the Overton window will eventually shift to the point where even topics like economic devastation are forbidden.

Yes, and if they can't find you publishing the bad joke, they will make it up. Follow you for 4 days with a camera crew to cut and paste individual sentences, if needed. You may be flattered of such intimate interest, but the wife and business associates are typically not.

[CoinCube]

CoinCube,

Make an escape plan while you still can.

“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.” ― Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas 1976.

I do not dispute that twilight is upon us.



As discussed upthread the fee to renounce US citizenship was just increased by 422%. This means it costs more then twenty times as much to renounce US citizenship as it does in other rich countries.

In the future the Ex-PATRIOT Act (“Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” Act) or something like it will become law.

"Renouncing citizenship... is an insult to middle class Americans and we will not accept it." ― Senator Bob Casey 2012

The Ex-PATRIOT Act would presume that anyone with a net worth of $2 million or an average income tax liability of at least $148,000 over the last five years to have renounced their citizenship for tax avoidance purposes. The IRS would then prospectively impose a tax on the individual’s future investment gains, no matter where he or she resides or what new citizenship they have claimed. The rate of this capital gains tax would be 30 percent.

Even renouncing now for high net worth individuals may not get them the desired escape. For the Ex-PATRIOT would retroactively reclassify all people who lost citizenship or permanent residence in the decade prior to the law's passage as potentially having "tax avoidance intent" and subject them to the laws penalties.

The Ex-PATRIOT act is not currently law, but it was submitted to congress for consideration in 2012 and again as an amendment in 2013. Given the underlying trends in the economy a passage of this act or something worse seems inevitable. Compared to the potential threat of something like the Ex-PATRIOT act the 422% fee increase to renounce is peanuts. I fully expect 2015 to set a new record for US citizen renunciations.

We live in interesting times.