“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they cannot become conscious.”—George Orwell
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s a shell game intended to keep us focused on and distracted by all of the politically expedient things that are being said—about militarized police, surveillance, and government corruption—while the government continues to frogmarch us down the road toward outright tyranny.
Unarmed citizens are still getting shot by militarized police trained to view them as the enemy and treated as if we have no rights. Despite President Obama’s warning that the nation needs to do some “soul searching” about issues such as race, poverty and the strained relationship between law enforcement and the minority communities they serve, police killings and racial tensions are at an all-time high. Just recently, in Texas, a white police officer was suspended after video footage showed him “manhandling, arresting and drawing his gun on a group of black children outside a pool party.”
Americans’ private communications and data are still being sucked up by government spy agencies. The USA Freedom Act was just a placebo pill intended to make us feel better without bringing about any real change. As Bill Blunden, a cybersecurity researcher and surveillance critic, points out, “The theater we’ve just witnessed allows decision makers to boast to their constituents about reforming mass surveillance while spies understand that what’s actually transpired is hardly major change.”
Taxpayer dollars are still being squandered on roads to nowhere, endless wars that do not make us safer, and bloated government agencies that should have been shut down long ago. A good example is the Transportation Security Administration, which, despite its $7 billion annual budget, has shown itself to be bumbling and ineffective.
And military drills are still being carried out on American soil under the pretext of training soldiers for urban warfare overseas. Southeastern Michigan, the site of one of the many military training drills taking place across the country this summer, has had Black Hawk helicopters buzzing its skies and soldiers dressed for combat doing night combat drills in abandoned buildings around the state.
In other words, freedom, or what’s left of it, is being threatened from every direction. The threats are of many kinds: political, cultural, educational, media, and psychological. However, as history shows us, freedom is not, on the whole, wrested from a citizenry. It is all too often given over voluntarily and for such a cheap price: safety, security, bread, and circuses.
This is part and parcel of the propaganda churned out by the government machine. That said, what we face today—mind manipulation and systemic violence—is not new. What is different are the techniques used and the large-scale control of mass humanity, coercive police tactics and pervasive surveillance. As we have seen with the erection of the electronic concentration camp, there is virtually no escaping the invisible prison surrounding us. Once upon a time, one could run and hide or duck into a cave, but that is no longer feasible as caves are quite scarce, and those running the camp have their eyes watching everything.
Moreover, we are presented with the illusion that we act of our own volition when most of the time we are being watched, prodded, and controlled. “The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative,” Aldous Huxley stated. “The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible.”
In fact, with the merger of the Internet and the corporate state, unless you are alert and aware, it will be increasingly difficult to discern the difference between freedom and enslavement. With the methods of mind manipulation available to the corporate state, the very nature of democratic government has been changed. Again, as Aldous Huxley writes:
[T]he quaint old forms—elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of nonviolent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial . . . Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.
To many, the situation seems hopeless. But is it?
From the day you’re born until the day you die, the choices you exercise are very limited. You don’t choose to be born or choose what sex you are or who your parents are or where you live. When you are a child, you are told what to do, and when you enter school, you sit plastered to a desk and are taught what others demand you should know. Yes, the indoctrinating process begins on day one.
Then there are the rules, the endless rules. If you say the wrong word, write the wrong story or wear the wrong clothes, you can get thrown out of school or even arrested. You live where you are told and eat what others think you should eat. As you grow older, this list expands into employment, marriage and so on. In other words, your so-called reality is socially constructed. It is predetermined for you, and if you step out of line and disagree with what the current society deems proper, you will be ostracized. If you speak your mind to the governing authorities, you might find yourself behind bars.
The point is that in order to develop a compliant citizenry, people must be forced to live in a mental matrix of words, ideas, ideologies, and teachings that are designed to make us conform. “As the Matrix in the movie was used to facilitate the exploitation of humans,” writes author Henry H. Lindner, “so the current ideological Matrix was created for, and serves to exploit us, turning us into unthinking workers and consumers—slaves of the ruling elite who themselves are trapped in the Matrix.” In fact, “few of us are able to escape the Matrix. We do not even know it exists.”
For there to be any hope of real change, you’ll have to change how you think about yourself, your fellow human beings, freedom, society, and the government. This means freeing your mind, realizing the truth, and unlearning all the myths you have been indoctrinated with since the day you were able to comprehend language.
The following principles, taken from my new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, may help any budding freedom fighters in the struggle to liberate themselves and our society.
First, we must come to grips with the reality that the present system does not foster freedom. It denies freedom and must be altered. “Our authoritarian system is based on cruelty and control—it increasingly drives natural love and feelings from our society and produces violence and greed,” Lindner recognizes. “Our society is deteriorating morally and intellectually. This system cannot be reformed.”
To start with, we must recognize that the government’s primary purpose is maintaining power and control. It’s an oligarchy composed of corporate giants wedded to government officials who benefit from the relationship. In other words, it is motivated by greed and exists to perpetuate itself. As George Orwell writes:
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship. . . .. The object of power is power.
Second, voting is practically worthless. “In principle, it is a great privilege,” Aldous Huxley recognized. “In practice, as recent history has repeatedly shown, the right to vote, by itself, is no guarantee of liberty.”
We live in a secretive surveillance state that has virtually no accountability, transparency, or checks and balances of any kind. As Jordan Michael Smith, writing for the Boston Globe, concludes about the American government:
There’s the one we elect, and then there’s the one behind it, steering huge swaths of policy almost unchecked. Elected officials end up serving as mere cover for the real decisions made by the bureaucracy.
How many times have the various politicians, when running for office, lied about all they were going to do to bring hope and change to America? Once they get elected, what do they do? They do whatever the corporate powers want. Yes, the old boss is the same as the new boss. The maxim: power follows money.
Moreover, voting is a way to keep the citizenry pacified. However, many Americans intuitively recognize that something is wrong with the way the electoral process works and have withdrawn from the process. That’s why the government places so much emphasis on the reassurance ritual of voting. It provides the illusion of participation.
Third, question everything. Don’t assume anything government does is for the good of the citizenry. Again, that is not the purpose of modern government. It exists to perpetuate a regime. Remember the words of James Madison, considered the father of the U.S. Constitution: “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Power corrupts. And as the maxim goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Fourth, materialism is a death knell to freedom. While it may be true that Americans are better off than citizens of other nations—we have jobs, food, entertainment, shopping malls, etc.—these are the trappings meant to anesthetize and distract us.
Like the dodo, any “bird that has learned how to grub up a good living without being compelled to use its wings will soon renounce the privilege of flight and remain forever grounded,” Huxley warned. “Same thing is true of human beings. If bread is supplied regularly and capaciously three times a day, many of them will be perfectly content to live by bread alone—or at least by bread and circuses alone.” Free as a bird, some say, but only if you’re willing to free your mind and sacrifice all for a dangerous concept—freedom.
In other words, the hope is that the cry of “‘give me television and hamburgers, but don’t bother me with the responsibilities of liberty,’ may give place, under altered circumstances, to the cry of ‘give me liberty or give me death.’” This is indeed dangerous freedom.
Fifth, there is little hope for any true resistance if you are mindlessly connected to the electronic concentration camp. Remember, what you’re being electronically fed by those in power is meant to pacify, distract, and control you. You can avoid mind manipulations to a large degree by greatly limiting your reliance on electronic devices—cell phones, laptops, televisions, and so on.
Sixth, an armed revolt will not work. Although we may have returned to a 1776 situation where we need to take drastic actions to restore freedom, this is not colonial America with its muskets and people’s armies. Local police departments have enough militarized firepower to do away with even a large-scale armed revolt. Even attempting to repel a SWAT team raid on your home is futile. You’ll get blown away.
Seventh, be wise and realize that there is power in numbers. Networks, coalitions, and movements can accomplish much—especially if their objectives are focused and practical—and they are very much feared by government authorities. That’s why the government is armed to the teeth and prepared to put down even small nonviolent protests.
Eighth, act locally but think nationally. The greatest impact can be had at local governing bodies such as city councils. Join together with friends and neighbors and start a Civil Liberties Oversight Committee. Regularly attend council meetings and demand that government corruption be brought under control and that police activities be brought under the scrutiny of local governing bodies and, thus, the citizenry.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, for example, police were involved in 39 shootings dating back to 2010. After a 2014 police shooting of an unarmed homeless man camped out in a public park, residents engaged in nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to disrupt the normal functioning of the city government and demand that the police department be brought under control. Community activists actually went so far as to storm a city council meeting and announce that they would be performing a citizens’ arrest of the police chief, charging him with “harboring fugitives from justice at the Albuquerque police department” and “crimes against humanity.”
In Davis County, California, in August 2014, after a public uproar over the growing militarization of local police, council members ordered the police to find a way of getting rid of the department’s newly acquired MRAP tank. One man at the council meeting was quoted as saying: “I would like to say I do not suggest you take this vehicle and send it out of Davis, I demand it.”
Ninth, local towns, cities and states can nullify or say “no” to federal laws that violate the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. In fact, several states have passed laws stating that they will not comply with the National Defense Authorization Act which allows for the military to indefinitely detain (imprison) American citizens. Again, when and if you see such federal laws passed, gather your coalition of citizens and demand that your local town council nullify such laws. If enough towns and cities across the country would speak truth to power in this way, we might see some positive movement from the federal governmental machine.
Tenth, understand what freedom is all about. “Who were the first persons to get the unusual idea that being free was not only a value to be cherished but the most important thing that someone can possess?” asks Professor Orlando Patterson. “The answer in a word: slaves.”
Freedom arose from the hearts and minds of those who realized that they were slaves. It became a primary passion of those who were victims of slavery.
Some Americans are beginning to realize that they are slaves and that if they don’t act soon, they will find themselves imprisoned in the electronic concentration camp indefinitely. Mind you, there may not be any chains hanging from the dungeon walls, but it is a prison nonetheless, and we are, without a doubt, inmates serving life sentences.
This article contributed courtesy of The Rutherford Institute.
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Good article. The matrix is hard to see and anything that sheds light on it is a very good thing. Once realized, it’s really easy to think that the situation is hopeless. As individuals there is not much we can do except opt out and think and act in ways inimitable to the matrix. Getting a group of neighbors and friends to form a civic watchdog group to actually get involved in local politics is a wonderful idea but hardly realistic because too few people see the matrix and most do not have the free time or the will to be so proactive. Imo all efforts should go into helping others realize the matrix all around us, the many ways we are negatively affected by it and it’s source of power – bankers creating fiat currencies from nothing. Rather than depleting time and energy and possibly much more in opposing Goliath, work on exposing what is so carefully hidden into the light of day. We are under the spell of a massive con which will collapse once exposed. The current monetary system is ending due to the bankers greed in over indebting the world and their blunder in setting up a debt based system that creates the principle but not the interest. The real issue and greatest threat now is that like in the sixties when they used war, moon landings, race riots and hippies as cover for stealing the worlds silver, they will again distract us with wars and turmoil to bring in a new monetary system. Only those who can see the matrix and understand the source of its power will stand in opposition to this new system – we need numbers! Witness the dialog in the comments – the author blames government, Olde reb blames Wall Street, Bill Ross says it’s useless to assign blame, they are all crooks. No consensus here and there should be. Here is the bigger picture : the banking families that own the Fed have interlocking ownership stakes in all other central banks and own the banking industry. The primary job of bankers everywhere is to cultivate and fund political candidates along the entire political spectrum willing to promote their agenda. The worlds major corporations are owned by these same banking families. So banking, governments, and most corporations are owned and controlled by this small group. The matrix ends when honest money is restored to our world and no man or group of men have the sole right to create currencies from nothing.
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Hey some solutions, that don’t require violence. Excellent.
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Man, please stop crying you’re making my feet wet. ‘ Voting is practically worthless’. Really, if you have an inkling of understanding regarding American government, you’d know that an ELECTED Sheriff in a given county of a given state has the final say in law enforcement activity for said county. Theefore , if you are against so called militarization of your counties PD, support a different Sheriff. Could it be more simple?
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you sound like me nowmartin.
Did you study my Constitutional site or 912 Communique ?
Well Im headed to the Bilterberg meeting in Austria( you know the meeting of the elites not taking place). But to support what you said let me say this:
“My friend its peoples civics, city councils, county commissioners, mayors , law Enforcement (Sheriff elected all) This constitutes your Republic, and the federal government is by and through the US Constitution not part of the states Constitutions. remember The Constitution is and enumeration of rights for the US Federal government not for the people.
Now this places us in the true revolutionary position of those real foreigners in Washington DC who have infiltrated our Banking system and has robbed the people of their working rewards of life, their happiness and their security. Read the Declaration of Independence, within it lies the answer to tyranny which becomes too despotic in its nature. They want us to believe that we are the terrorists as they invade our nation with their foreign players. They have placed chemicals in our foods ,water and vaccinations. Their purpose is to euthanize over 280 million just in this nation alone.
Are we ready as a people, as a republic to prevent this operation? Look to the news, that which doesnt come through NBC ABC FOX CNN CBS etc look to alternative sources who are manned by patriots who do care for their Republic.
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Quisno, at your leisure, please drop a line for links to the sites. Thanks.
PS-nice new avatar
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My teaching site for the republics business is http://committee.org Michael Badnarik resides here.http://constitutionclub.ning.c… my personal site/ is the 912 Communique we are few but have much information and vet all. http://www.912communique.com/f…
Everybody understands there is a problem, Somebody has to identify the problem, therefore Anybody has the ability to have the answer to this problem, Let us not forget, actions by Nobody may well make the problem permanent.
Follow us: @912Communique on Twitter | TheConstitutionalConservatives on Facebook
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Wow, your so right why didnt we all think of this before?
No matter who you vote or dont vote for, the winner will always be bought off, blackmailed or killed. Why do you think these people are candidates in the first place? Do you think they would alow someone in power who dosnt have the same agenda?
We have a saying in England “no matter who you vote for, its pointless… the Goverment will still get in”.
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I find it so depressing when I visit England – the people look so beaten down
…and, don’t even try to discuss monarchy. Brits love to feed the hand that bites them.
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A fascinating article. Lots of food for thought. Being too caught up in the Matrix to see it and fully know it, it left me wondering: What is Freedom? How do we know when we have Freedom, and when we are trapped in a delusion or illusion of Freedom?
I am not sure if I could recognize True Freedom, versus Faux Freedom or delusion/illusion. Might make for an interesting follow-up article.
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Joelg, wish I had some words of wisdom, I don’t, but here goes. A line from an old Frank Zappa song is ‘freedom is when you don’t have to pay for nothing or do nothing’. Ole Frank (rest be to his soul) was a hard worker.
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The device by which freedom is seemingly lost is deceit believed and employed – as a result of which one suffers a seemingly unjustified loss that is then blamed on the other.
That such devices can in a sense trap attention in false identification is evident. That this is the predicate of what we take to be a unified independent consciousness called ‘myself’ is less evident.
The attempt to ‘solve’ what are essentially inner conflictedness masked by asserted self in external terms is the world of conflicting personal wills and agendas – but they ALL share the tacit agreement to keep hidden, and in that sense make unconscious, the true nature of our relation within Consciousness. Otherwise; the game of powers cannot persist or ‘survive’. Calling it a game is not to underestimate very serious investment, without which the game would not be experienced real.
Choices are made unconscious or are ‘forgot’ as part of engaging and unfolding the life-time, so though it is true to say that a personality construct did not choose to be born, it is also true to say that the personality construct is a result of choices that in some sense template the collective and individual themes of any particular relational expression.
The surface or screen ‘reality’ is overlayered – as a distortion filter – upon an actual movement of being within awareness, whose nature can be accepted and known in embrace and extension – but can never be separated from and objectified – EXCEPT in concept.
The idea of separation is the idea of being other than what you are. Investing in this idea in order to experience it necessarily requires the temporary forgetting of awareness that knows or Self-awareness – the rising of Thought by which Existence knows itself existing. This forgetting operates through an exclusive definition of WHAT we are – as a specific perspective of what we are.
Such a focus of reflection is distorted by the coercive force of an exclusive intent. For there is no limit on communication in what Mind is excepting an idea of limitation is believed in order to then use that as a focus. The tool of a specific focus might be likened to a virtual reality scenario. When one puts on the VR helmet – one is in ‘the matrix’ of experiencing a differentiation reflected back as an external reality in which to explore – and in a sense to be as gods. Plural because no separate power exists – it is always in relation to other.
But the coercive idea makes of Life, a fragmenting dissociative force that merely goes forth and multiplies itself as a divisive and destructive distortion of Life, and yet which is clearly fascinating and addictive to a trapped identifying investment of attention within it.
So what are the devices by which truth in plain sight is hidden and usurped with illusion but thinking!
The core tyranny under which one believes themself bound is a result of thinking. The power of conscious thought has been deliberately diminished – excepting of course by the awareness of template level consciousness from which all else is in a sense framed and formed. In its place is a sort of thought jamming device by which a kind of thinking pervades and directs the imagination of independent identity according to the template definitions that it accepted or chose as its adaptation to the physical existence.
Yet this device runs within and depends upon the very Life it appears to usurp. Identity in denial must first be the thing it then denies in order to seem independent or a power in its own right. But conceal this by diversion. By the incitement of inflammations and offence that re-enacts the coercive idea as the ‘survival’ of a seemingly separate self.
If you don’t consider it possible that an imagination could usurp your truth just look at how present with what is, you are in any given day or series of minutes. The mind makes all kinds of spin upon and around whatever actually is here to experience. It also seeks and finds reinforcement with others in social transaction both positively and negatively, to validate and maintain the personal capacity to be in control of one’s own life.
But the above is a sketch of the segregative movement within a Consciousness that does not stop being Itself, regardless that a spun off focus is operating within it within a belief of exclusion and rejection. Consciousness Itself hasn’t ‘gone anywhere’, it has simply been redefined in terms that seem to be different than it is, and while it did so, it was known and supported in its choices for what is the gift of free will but unconditional love? The true knowing of who you are can not be got rid of, and so is in a sense held in trust for you to come back into as the truth you know and love without any shadow of doubt and which seems lost, forfeit or beyond conception within the evidences of a world of fear and struggle and loss.
The integrative movement is in some sense like a rubber band that automatically comes back to its natural state of rest when the distorting force is no longer maintained. That is to say the willingness and desire to notice and desist from coercive thinking or reaction becomes an opportunity for the restoration of a joyful or truly connected presence – along with all that is called for in the practicality of the situation.
‘Creatives’ know that this is so – but often abuse it as a more subtle way to feed the ego from what is actually a living relationship – as if the Muse of true inspiration – was there to serve a self specialness. Well up to a point it may – but only to the purpose of reflecting the nature of your choice to you. For there is nothing blameworthy in learning by one’s choices to make better choices.
But few know the choices they are making – though they believe the are awake and free to choose as they will – because the framing of such choosing is itself a deeper choice of which we have by design desired to be unaware of. What is the ‘mind’ that frames our choices in only fear’s setting but fear itself?
The nature of un-owned or hidden fear is of a shadow power that sabotages or inhibits and disrupts what would otherwise naturally communicate and manifest and fulfil. What is such ‘shadow power’ but the beliefs and fearful or shameful definitions that we have accepted, believed true of us, and sought to deny, escape or overcome?
Fear of fear operates a negative loop – an unarticulatable tyranny from whose perspective there is no escape – but there is no truth there to escape from – if brought out into the open and looked at honestly. This in itself is a simplicity – but arriving at this may involve any kind of process of delay and procrastination as a result of identifying the fearful as protector.
But when anyone finally releases baggage that deprived them of their true lightness of being – they say “why didn’t I do this years ago”. Or they might attempt to communicate with others who are weighting for something they believe they lack and find they cannot – without a mutual willingness.
Raising one’s level or vibrational quality of consciousness is not in order to change others or the world, but it will reflect as a greater perspective in which to recognise everything with less fear and so uncover and transmute or undo the deeper fears that surface fears operate to conceal.
Its all about love and fear, Its all a matter of perspective within Consciousness of which you are an active and integral expression because you exist and make choices by which to experience your existence as you prefer – which can be guided by your joy or by a fearful sense of self-protective control that unlike joy must convince you to abide in it. It must use a carrot and stick to keep you from joy or you would abandon the idea of coercive control.
But of course Life leaks into even the most tightly controlled system, but is airbrushed, diminished and subverted so as not to break the continuity of the past into the future in which the presence of all that you are is sacrificed to feed and maintain a tightly controlled system.
Flip the switch.
see more
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Mr Whitehead entirely misses the point–and adds to the diversion of attention.
He blames government for the problems. It is Wall Street that decides who will be presidential candidates (by ownership of MSM), who it is that receives campaign contributions to be reelected to Congress (Ref. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/… )
, who runs the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the Justice Department, who uses the CIA to enforce economic control of the world (Ref John Perkins, Confessions of Economic Hit Man) including being responsible for the current economic chaos of Europe.
It is Wall Street that embezzles $3 billion daily from the government by having the FRBNY’s exclusive handling of auction accounts of Treasury securities (Ref. 31 CFR 375.3) that can have no other destination except Wall Street ( Ref. http://www.scribd.com/doc/1530… ).
These funds pay for the perfidy Wall Street inflicts on the world (Ref. http://farmwars.info/?p=12078 , NWO, Dead Ahead ).
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don`t like it?
then it is YOUR responsibility to oppose, else, by action / inaction YOU consent.
see my spiel regarding the fake “usefulness” of scapegoating in David Galland`s editorial today…
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It has been said” “To achieve any goal, you MUST know exactly what it REALLY is and the REAL obstacles to be overcome.”
I believe it. It came from your writing.
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Did I not attempt to point out the difference between the effect (as detailed by Mr. Whitehead) and the cause (created by Wall Street) ?
Is this not a responsible “action” to facilitate correction in the manner of educated society ?
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Yes, but you disputed the identity of the `perps`. IMHO, it is pointless to identify `THE PERP` because anyone unproductive exists on someone else`s dime, often stolen. They are ALL crooks and, it is absurd to `debate` which is more culpable. Sorta like the absurdity of democratically choosing our slavers.
THEY ARE all crooks. And will remain so for as long as `consent / tolerance of the slaves` ALLOWS this.
The ball is in our court to oppose. Is it `reasonable`to believe that predators will stop preying, by rational argumentation, when that IS ALL THEY KNOW, and, we are not human beings, to be respected but FOOD for their table, which was also stolen from us.
I re-iterate: If we don`t like it. It is OUR responsibility to defend ourselves. NO RIGHTS exist (in action / consequence reality) unless defended. And, according to THEM, if you comply / don`t defend, well, YOU consent.
It is responsible to facilitate correction, which I have done. You deflected blame away from root cause:
I have seen the enemy and, it is us – Pogo
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I applaud your activism and enthusiasm for patriotism. I am appalled by
your logic.
The irrationality of your position is apparent from your first paragraph
wherein you declare: “IMHO, it is pointless to identify ‘THE PERP’
because…”
This is the MO of the FBI to obtain pretend “terrorists,” it was used
to obtain provocateurs for Ferguson, Missouri, it was used to “occupy
Wall Street,” it has been used by the State Department to conceal
the perfidy of Benghazi, the list is endless. It is called false flag operations.
In my opinion, virtually every nefarious action by government is
orchestrated by Wall Street. The first such action is embezzling $3
billion daily by the FRBNY’s exclusive handling of auction accounts
of Treasury securities. Ref. 31 CFR 375.3
The profit from the operation of the Fed legally belongs to the
government. Ref.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1530…
.
To blame the voters/citizens for the corruption of government is to
condemn a homeowner for having a house that gets burgled. Granted,
citizens do have an obligation to be aware of government operations
and to act accordingly. Society would be greatly different if people
spent as much time watching D.C. as they do watching professional
sports and Hollywood fluff.
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My point IS: So long as we deal in identity politics, attempting to deal with “bad guys”, we will NEVER have a shortage of (many false flag) “bad guys” for arbitrary power to falsely claim to be the “good guys” and use their false podium to enslave everyone else.
IT WILL NEVER END so long as we the people tolerate it. We are THE ONLY possible final line in the sand against tyranny. If we do NOT oppose (make unprofitable), we create opportunities for tyrants.
THEY need to be in terror of us, not the converse.
Benjamin Franklin didn`t lie: “A republic if YOU can keep it”
So, I`ll throw “faulty logic” right back at you.
Your position is equivalent to a parent complaining their undisciplined children are, well, undisciplined and, ITS NOT THE PARENTS FAULT.
And, don`t bother claiming we are up against mature adults. We are not. THEY are sociopaths. To expect THEM to change and not prey when they are tolerated to is sheer folly.
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Bill,
point accepted. We must identify the “good guys” from the “bad
guys.”
Is it not in compliance with this logic that identifying the BOG and
FRBNY as running an embezzlement theft from the government for 100
years an effort to identify the error in what is currently accepted
as “good guys” in the Federal Reserve ?
It is the Federal Reserve that has corrupted Congress and the
administration for more than 100 years. Randomly removing congressional members does not
remove the cause of the problem. It is ONLY congress that can correct the perfidy of the Fed.
Can we accept the premise that congress cannot see the malfeasance of the Federal Reserve and they need education ?
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1EarthUnited 
Let farmers grow what they want to go on land they own. If the market doesn’t return their investment in time, labor and purchase of seed and maintenance of crop, they will probably choose to grow another crop. Quit artificially inflating the prices of goods and services. Let the market rule. People will pay what they feel is a fair price for the item or service and if people can’t produce for that price, then they just can’t. One more instance in government participating in something it knows nothing about. Government proves every single time that it has no business in business.
“A federal appeals court said the program was acceptable because the farmers benefited from higher market prices and didn’t lose the entire value of their crop.”
Perfect example of a corrupt government that will seek any kind of convoluted logic to justify its illegal activities, much like the NSA. With our federal government there’s always “national security” or some other bee-ess excuse.
“A federal appeals court said the program was acceptable because the farmers benefited from higher market prices and didn’t lose the entire value of their crop.” Well, there’s a federal court that is clearly part of the problem and is incapable of rendering a right and just ruling. Nice excuse… “It’s OK for us, your government, to forcibly take your products because you’re getting higher prices for what we leave you with and hey, we’re not taking it ALL…” Wow… what pristine logic.
Here the government says “the Hornes voluntarily chose to participate in the raisin market and have the option of selling different crops if they don’t like it.”
Well, no, they didn’t “volunteer”. They were forced. And what? You mean the government gets to say “Well, if you don’t like the (unconstitutional) regulations you can always just grow a different crop”?!? Governmental arrogance and illegal oppression at its best.
” Raisin Administrative Committee that would decide how much of the raisin crop handlers must turn over to the government each year.” The problem has been and still is in the case of the Raisin Board that it is corrupt. In the past members of the board have punished dissenters by singling them out for larger set asides than those that would just go along. For many years it was the same few families that controlled the Board, using it as a private fife and using its power to maintain their dominance.
A “Raisin Administrative Committee”? OMG how much do THESE utterly useless bureaucrats drain from the fund every year just to nitpick and grump and steal? Time to fire them all with no pensions and make them get REAL jobs working on raisin farms. Then end this program permanently and go looking for more bureaucratic waste. I’ve always thought that We the People should be given line item veto power over every budget and Congress go hang if they don’t like it. They’ve had enough decades of waste, graft, bribery, pandering, influence peddling and crony-enriching. Time to yank it all out of their hands, spank them for abusing the privilege, and take budget setting away from Congress since it’s three times what it needs to be, all just to support their cronies and “donors”.
Perfect example of democrats who will twist everything to make it more socialist. (I wanted to use the phrase “convoluted logic” but Joe Baby used it in post. That is the perfect way to word it, though, convoluted logic on the part of the dems)
i agree with the court decision, but your statement are goofy. first, you might define corrupt, then show how it applies in this case. yeah, yeah, corrupt – well then this “corruption” has been going on since 1949. of course the appeals court justices and other judges in the process are corrupt too. yeah, everybody is corrupt but you, mr. clean.
Exports
The United States is a net exporter (more exports than imports) of raisins. Only Turkey exports more raisins.
While the volume of raisin exports continued to fall in 2011, the value continued to rise because of higher prices. The value of raisin exports increased to a record-breaking $398.6 million, up from the previous high of $327.3 million in 2010. The top destination for U.S. raisins changed to Japan, which purchased raisins valued at $49.5 million, a 20 percent increase from the previous year despite a 6 percent decline in volume. Both the value and volume of raisin exports to the United Kingdom saw double-digit drops in 2011, while exports to Canada and Germany only experienced modest decreases in volume. Competition from Turkey and Iran is affecting the U.S. share of the market. (FAS 2012)
Imports
The United States imported raisins valued at nearly $28.5 million in 2011, down 5 percent from the previous year. Chile was again the leading supplier of raisins, as it has been since 2000, providing raisins valued at $18.2 million. Imports from that country jumped 24 percent, offsetting the double-digit decreases from Mexico and South Africa. (FAS 2012)
“Let farmers grow what they want to go on land they own. If the market doesn’t return their investment in time, labor and purchase of seed and maintenance of crop, they will probably choose to grow another crop.”
Sometimes what seems as unjust has a reason other than greed. Take for example that it takes at least SIX YEARS after you plant a grapevine that you begin to receive consistent crops that produce a profit.
In raisins farming it is imperative that crop prices remain stable year after year. Allowing for boom and bust cycles (what happened previous to the law) led to years of under supply when farmers gave up their vines and allowed foreigners into our market when production fell as farmers got out of the market.
You cannot simply pull up your vines and move onto another crop thinking that you will get back into the market when the price improves. Grapes normally produce their grapes after three years and begin to deliver consistent crops after about six years.
It is another point of view to consider.
Farmer’s lobbies mostly wanted this stuff back in the 30s and 40s, even though it could mean some of their constituents losing out. I don’t know if it’s unconstitutional, the politics seem to say more about it than the constitution does. The gov’t can indeed restrict what you do with your property, just look at zoning in cities. I doubt we need a raisin crop law, but really it should be up to Congress to repeal this program. The Court never found any such programs unconstitutional all those years between then and now.
” Writing for the court chief justice John Roberts said the government must pay “just compensation when it takes personal goods just as when it takes land away” Well Chief justice I hate to tell you this but you need to check around and you will see none of the gov’t. are paying compensation for anything look at all the property the cities in Ohio are taking and paying nothing, look at all the personal property the police are taking under the civil seizure laws with NO due process. The gov’t hasn’t paid people for the property they take now for years and when they do it’s pennies on the dollar.
It is absolutely unfair to seize a persons property without fair compensation and in this case the SCOTUS made it very clear that just compensation must be given for all seizures of private property. I would like to know who the dissenter was for the decision was, but I will go to the SCOTUS website for that information.
My knee-jerk guess is Ginsberg.
The State of NJ did it for years. They stole property to give to the richer to develop for the” common good” …. yes sure it was for the common good.
According to the LA Times, Sotomayer was the dissenter, saying that the government hadn’t taken all of his property but only regulated the price.
The other three liberals said it should go back to the lower court saying it should be determined how much they benefitted from higher prices before determining how much compensation they were due.
You can read the decision on the court’s website. Sotomayor dissented. She and Karl Marx must get along great.
@ Patrick. My guess would have been Sotomayer, the Puerto Rico rep for the US Territories. (Incidentally, PR teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Has not faired so well under socialism, though Sotomayer has done rather well.)
The article says it was Sotomayor
Uh, just read the article, it says who dissented.
I can’t believe this unconstitutional law was ever on the books in the first place. The ruling was just and fair.
“Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only dissenter. She said the program did not deprive the Hornes of all their property rights; it just limited the amount of potential income they could earn from it.”
LOL Nothing anti-free market about that (/end sarcasm).
The biggest problem we have with a lot of all of these old laws, regulations and government programs is that they’re never revisited with any serious analysis to determine if they’re still necessary, effective or even worthwhile. The government builds kingdoms with our tax dollars, and then does everything it can to continue them without any critical thought. Big business and big government are two sides of the same, greedy, power hungry coin.
How about making this a two way street and stop the farm subsidies for over production as well. We give farmers money to NOT produce or we use tax dollars to buy the product in over supply and then GIVE it to foreign countries. These practices were and are encouraged by the huge ag-corps and have essentially killed the small family farm which can’t compete with the ag-corps. I stopped buying anything that’s not locally produced. It was how things used to be done and we all survived. Living needs to return to that philosophy. Shareholders couldn’t give a flying flock what the quality of food they produce is. Local farmers have to look their customers in the eye every day.