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There Is No Legitimate Role for Any Government or Rule

Posted by M. C. on October 28, 2023

“The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress.”

~ Murray Rothbard

By Gary D. Barnett

“Government is for slaves; free men govern themselves.”

Albert Parsons, Autobiography

Recently I wrote about a “World Gone Mad,” and I now understand that my title was a gross understatement. Madness indicates psychotic behavior, but what is going on today, while most assuredly psychotic, is also intentional, completely planned, and being implemented with full consciousness by evil forces. To make matters worse, the pathetic masses are taking sides, fomenting hate, supporting their chosen masters, and tearing apart all that is right; thus allowing this insane tyranny and carnage to continue unabated. If one was to step aside, and take stock of this insanity, he would at once be faced with the reality of the heinous agendas being pursued, but few are willing to take that step. Most all continue to look toward the complicit and abhorrent State to save them from the premeditated and monstrous policies being pursued by all governments at the behest of their controlling overlords.

Religion has always been a control mechanism used to subdue the crowd, so it is no surprise that the worship of the State by its subjects is reverent in nature. The State and the church throughout time have acted as one; both seeking compliant and devoted followers. This was the plot all along, as history will certainly support. This is why the ruling class through its controlled government, has always been the people’s church, and the government agents have always sought to be seen as gods by the collective hordes of votaries. All power seekers have to destroy the idea of individualism, self-sufficiency, critical thinking, and independent sovereignty, in order to be seen as superior to the members of the dependent herd. This tenet is mandatory for rule of one over another to exist, and it has been accomplished throughout time.

One of the main goals of government is to place itself and its illegitimate authority above all others in ‘society,’ thereby eliminating the possibility of critical scrutiny or prosecution from immoral and illegal acts. Government does not only rule, they make and enforce all the ‘laws,’ laws that are meant only for the lowly people, not for those in power. Many of those who pretend to be anti-state, will preach that all in government should be held to the same standard as the plebiscites, but they completely disregard reality. Government always and forever protects itself at all costs by controlling every aspect of what is referred to as law and ‘justice.’ Government controls the Executive, (king) the Congress, the courts, including what is referred to as the “Supreme Court,” the police, the military, and all aspects of total regulation of people and commerce. Those involved in this fraud will rarely if ever be investigated, or held to account for criminal activity, because they own and control all the judicial systems.

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Some Insights into the Orban-Putin Meetup in China

Posted by M. C. on October 28, 2023

Hungary has been accused of “democratic backsliding” by EU counterparts more closely tied to Washington. Most honest experts consider this the height of hypocrisy, given drowning censorship, warmongering on pretense, and the economic and societal breakdown in many European nations.

https://journal-neo.su/2023/10/27/some-insights-into-the-orban-putin-meetup-in-china/

Author: Phil Butler

Some Insights into the Orban-Putin Meetup in China

The U.S., the EU, and NATO are freaking out over Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Orban is the first EU leader to hold personal talks with Putin since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a ludicrous arrest warrant for the Russian presenting. Hungary is also one of the few European countries that has not knuckled under U.S. pressure to condemn Russia for the special military operation in Ukraine.

U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman said was cited staying, “The United States is concerned about Hungary’s relationship with Russia.” Hungary opposing many EU initiatives to support Ukraine has infuriated the country’s puppet Dictator Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and photos of Orban and Putin meeting reportedly made Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas lose her lunch. At least, she admitted that “photos of EU member state Hungary’s prime minister shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin were “very, very unpleasant.”

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TGIF: Don’t Police the World

Posted by M. C. on October 28, 2023

On top of that misery, intervening in wars sets the stage for terrible events to follow: revolution, dictatorship, government control of everyday life, atrocious recriminations, and plain chaos. That’s the safe bet too.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-dont-police-world/

by Sheldon Richman

police

“We” — to be precise, U.S. policymakers and their quasi-private-sector, tax-nourished enablers-beneficiaries–  must not police the world, become directly involved in wars, covertly assist belligerents, or act as arms merchants and bankers.

The central government can’t be a benign policeman, even if its intentions were as stated (which they may be): international rules-based order and economic stability. But it can wreak havoc by trying. We know this because it already has. Pick your start date, but the last 30 years present evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of what U.S.-sponsored “order” really looks like, thanks to an unbroken bipartisan chain of presidents and a bunch of presumptuous bumblers who wear weighty political titles from the executive and legislative branches. (The judiciary isn’t off the hook either.)

The U.S. government’s inherent ineptness speaks volumes. “Ought” implies “can,” and the policy mavens cannot. Wishful thinking is no substitute for real thinking. Each new crisis is not so different from previous ones as to make it unique. We can and must learn from the past, even the past that is so recent it’s still the present.

Government “crisis management” is a contradiction in terms. War typically has calamitous results, however optimistic the prognostications and later assessments. Helping a belligerent bloodies the hands of the helper, even if only metaphorically. Fighting proxy wars, which the policymakers might prefer to direct war these days, or engaging in covert operations is no moral shield. The horrendous consequences are foreseeable. Pleading that “We didn’t intend the bad stuff” does not wash. Call it “collateral damage,” whatever the policymakers call it, they enable the ruin of innocent lives and entire societies. We should have no part of it.

We know what war brings. It brings the death and dismemberment of innocents, always including children. It brings the utter destruction of the things that make life possible, such as food, water, homes, hospitals, and infrastructure. The chance of killing only bad guys is zero. I think the government’s own war simulations would agree. Hypothetical rosy scenarios offered in somber tones from secure stateside arms chairs don’t count. Even moves intended as defensive may understandably be perceived as aggressive, bringing snowballing countermoves that threaten more innocents and risk turning a local conflict into a big-power confrontation. The danger of nuclear war always looms.

Before considering joining in a war, assume the worst. Then don’t join. It’s the safe bet.

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Europe Facing Civil War?

Posted by M. C. on October 28, 2023

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a “constitutional basis“.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/europe-facing-civil-war

Tyler Durden's Photo

by Tyler Durden

Saturday, Oct 28, 2023 – 07:00 AM

Authored by Drieu Godefridi via The Gatestone Institute,

In ViennaLondonParisBerlinBrussels and dozens of other European cities, demonstrations “in support of Palestine” were organised even before the Israelis responded the jihadist pogrom perpetrated by Iran-backed Hamas on October 7, while the corpses of more than 1,400 Israeli victims — tortured, raped, murdered and mutilated, babies decapitated or burned alive — were still warm. According to a JNS report:

“[T]he IDF on Monday [Oct 23] published two segments from the interrogation of Hamas terrorists who participated in the massacre..

“‘The purpose of entering Israeli territory… was to kidnap civilians; they want as many hostages as possible,’ one of the terrorists revealed. He added, ‘They [Hamas] promised us that whoever brings a kidnapped person will receive an apartment and $10,000.'”

All the same, each and every one of these demonstrations in Europe was the scene of hate-filled slogans against Israel and Jews.

In Brussels, those slogans were shouted, and the atmosphere of violence and blood-lust was everywhere. Around me, surrounded by about 2,000 hate-filled demonstrators, a group of a dozen young Arabs were shouting “Death to the Jews” and “Death to Israel”, all the while exchanging knowing smiles and a few jokes. One of them ordered me to stop filming. I did.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger explained in an interview recently that Europe had made a serious mistake by creating within itself, through mass immigration, populations that reject all its norms, values and a “constitutional basis”. He deplored the fact that in 2023 in Berlin, almost 80 years after the Holocaust, people, with complete impunity, are shouting “Death to the Jews” in the streets.
In the hours following the revelation of the butchery committed by Hamas, a wave of racist violence and attacks began in Europe, especially in France. Against Arabs or Muslims? Not at all. Against Jews, of course. In Europe, Jews are still the victims of hatred and violence. Apparently it is a way for our local pro-Hamas Europeans to celebrate the jihad pogrom of October 7.
Even though the media have been warning us for 30 years about the risk of violence against Muslims, in deeds and figures, our Jewish fellow citizens are infinitely more victims of violence and abuse than are Muslims living in Europe. Already in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg warned in The Atlantic: “In 2014, Jews in Europe were murdered, raped, beaten, stalked, chased harassed, spat on and chased for being Jewish.”
I feel a certain fatigue towards those who hold Israelis and Arabs equally responsible. Not just the European Left, which often no longer takes the trouble to hide its anti-Semitism. No, also those on the right who, out of cowardice or ignorance, tell us that Israel had it coming.

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Fighting the Surveillance State Begins with the Individual | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2023

It’s a simple fact of life that when the government is given a power—whether that be to regulate, surveil, tax, or plunder—it is nigh impossible to wrestle it away from the state outside somehow disposing of the state entirely. This is why the issue of undoing mass surveillance is of the utmost importance. If the government has the power to spy on its populace, it will.

https://mises.org/wire/fighting-surveillance-state-begins-individual

Joseph Lawrence

It’s a well-known fact at this point that in the United States and most of the so-called free countries that there is a robust surveillance state in place, collecting data on the entire populace. This has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by people like Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who exposed that the NSA was conducting mass surveillance on US citizens and the world as a whole.

The NSA used applications like those from Prism Systems to piggyback on corporations and the data collection their users had agreed to in the terms of service. Google would scan all emails sent to a Gmail address to use for personalized advertising. The government then went to these companies and demanded the data, and this is what makes the surveillance state so interesting. Neo-Marxists like Shoshana Zuboff have dubbed this “surveillance capitalism.”

In China, the mass surveillance is conducted at a loss. Setting up closed-circuit television cameras and hiring government workers to be a mandatory editorial staff for blogs and social media can get quite expensive. But if you parasitically leech off a profitable business practice it means that the surveillance state will turn a profit, which is a great asset and an even greater weakness for the system.

You see, when that is what your surveillance state is predicated on you’ve effectively given your subjects an opt-out button. They stop using services that spy on them. There is software and online services that are called “open source,” which refers to software whose code is publicly available and can be viewed by anyone so that you can see exactly what that software does. The opposite of this, and what you’re likely already familiar with, is proprietary software. Open-source software generally markets itself as privacy respecting and doesn’t participate in data collection. Services like that can really undo the tricky situation we’ve found ourselves in.

It’s a simple fact of life that when the government is given a power—whether that be to regulate, surveil, tax, or plunder—it is nigh impossible to wrestle it away from the state outside somehow disposing of the state entirely. This is why the issue of undoing mass surveillance is of the utmost importance. If the government has the power to spy on its populace, it will.

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The Dangers of a “Cashless” Economy | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2023

Your ability to hold real cash, not just bank balances accessible by check or electronic means, protects you from the inevitable infrastructure problems associated with any electronic system but also from the instantaneous seizure of at least some of your money. Cash is anonymous whereas a bank account is not. If something happens, you will still be able to function to the limit of the cash you happen to have on hand.

https://mises.org/wire/dangers-cashless-economy

Patrick Barron

Before delving into the dangers of eliminating cash and mandating that all transactions be conducted by digital means, let us briefly discuss the legal aspects of money. In the United States, as in all economies that have legal tender laws, only cash is recognized as money. Some may think that the balance of their bank accounts is money too, but that is not quite the case. Your bank balance is one step removed from legal money.

All banks must maintain minimum balances of reserves, in cash held either in their vaults—a very small amount—or in their “reserve accounts” with their local Federal Reserve Bank branch (there are twelve of them). These reserve account balances may be converted to real money, or cash, at your bank’s discretion. However, the total cash in our economy also includes cash held outside the banking system, such as the money in your wallet, cookie jar, or personal safe deposit vault.

The total of bank reserves plus cash held outside the banking system is known as the monetary base. The monetary base is not the same as the money supply. Most of the money supply is composed of bank credit not backed by reserves. When banks make loans, they credit your account, which becomes bank credit money. Yes, this money was created by the bank out of thin air. Notice that the banks did not create reserves, only credit money, which is not the same thing.

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Whose Fault was Hurricane Idalia?

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2023

How, indirectly? Government makes us poorer than otherwise we would be. The state takes roughly 50% of the GDP and pretty much wastes it all. If we had this back from this venomous institution, we would be twice as rich as we are.

What does poverty have to do with weather conditions? Simply this: wealthier is not only healthier, but also allows us to be more and better protected from adverse weather conditions. It is not for nothing that two storms of equal intensity will play much greater havoc in a poorer than a richer country. The buildings in the latter nation will be built far more sturdily.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/138264382

Walter Block

Hurricane Idalia made devastating landfall on the west coast of Florida a few weeks ago and then ripped across the state where “woke goes to die” (who makes up names for hurricanes, anyway? I looked it up. It is the World Meteorological Organization; who knew? go figure).

Who or what is to be justifiably blamed for this event and others like it? To hear left-wing environmentalists tell it, it is the fault of not global cooling, the cause of all weather evil in the 1970s, nor, yet, global warming, the bete noire in the 1990s, but temperature change, the guilty party nowadays. This, in turn, is the result of capitalism, greed and profits (but I repeat myself), failure to ban fuels such as coal and oil, and over population. It is difficult to maintain this explanation with a straight face, since there is no evidence that hurricanes are getting worse.

What then is the real cause of these horrendous events?

Government, of course, both directly and indirectly.

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DERANGED: Neocon Senator Demands US Bomb Iran | SYSTEM UPDATE

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2023

Glenn Greenwald

Lieberman: Not some Middle East military should go to war with Iran, the US should. Not our job man.

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Liberland Has a Right to Be Free

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2023

History shows that smaller polities mean more decentralized governance and greater human liberty. As people can effectively vote with their feet, they can indirectly affect societal change. This is not to say that small governing bodies have no ability to coerce or become corrupt, but people living in those communities are able to more easily choose a new government right next door.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/liberland-has-a-right-to-be-free/

by Aaron Sobczak

liberland region political map

Along the Danube River in South-Central Europe rests a unique parcel of land. This roughly 2.7 square mile piece of land is sandwiched between Croatia and Serbia. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia, the autonomous regions within the federal republic established their borders following the Danube. However, after decades, the river has slightly changed its course, leaving this piece of land outside of both borders. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, neither nation claimed the land, and in fact it remained terra nullius, or no man’s land, until 2015. 

Vit Jedlička and a few others proclaimed the territory as the Free Republic of Liberland on April 13, 2015. Upon international recognition, Liberland would be the third smallest sovereign state, after the Vatican City and Monaco. There are four criteria required to be considered a state according to the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States. They are as follows:

  1. A permanent population;
  2. A permanent territory;
  3. Government;
  4. Capacity to enter into relations with other states;

Liberland has met all of the requirements, meaning that it should be recognized as sovereign by the international community.

Some libertarians have questions as to the necessity of a new state. Aren’t there enough countries already? Why couldn’t Vit and the others be grateful in their original home countries? Could Liberland even be a real country anyways? All of these questions are valid but have equally valid responses.

History shows that smaller polities mean more decentralized governance and greater human liberty. As people can effectively vote with their feet, they can indirectly affect societal change. This is not to say that small governing bodies have no ability to coerce or become corrupt, but people living in those communities are able to more easily choose a new government right next door. Modern nation states are relatively new creations anyways. Thousands of smaller polities existed both inside and outside of competing empires for generations. There is no reason why groups should not be able to secede or claim uninhabited land as new self governing communities. 

For Americans, one of the most important stories is that of the separatists and pilgrims who left the Old World searching for religious freedom and commercial success. Not only did they live in the New World as British citizens, but they would also eventually proclaim their own autonomy. 

This sense of agency is celebrated by Americans, as well as many post-colonial states around the globe. Why shouldn’t this value be celebrated by everyone? Self-determination as an inalienable right, given by a Creator is crucial to the human experience. Without it, humans lack dignity. The idea that a human adult has no choice but to be subject to the authority of another human adult without explicit consent is dangerous, even tantamount to enslavement.

Property rights also come into play here. Famous empiricist John Locke proclaimed that a natural right to property existed because, “God gave (the world) to mankind in common” for the purpose of stewardship and survival. He argues that individuals can only survive by laboring, and appropriating parcels of land. Thus, property is a natural right to those who contribute their labor to its sustainment. 

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Can Electricity Providers Promise 100 Percent Green Energy? Probably Not. | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2023

If you think this all sounds like a contrivance to virtue signal environmental responsibility, you would be right. Whether electric utility customers are receiving renewable energy isn’t clear, but that’s what they signed up for (by default, in most cases). CCAs, in any case, can claim they provide their customers with the responsible kind of electrical energy and thereby help them save the planet.

https://mises.org/wire/can-electricity-providers-promise-100-percent-green-energy-probably-not

Jane L. Johnson

We expect the lights to come on when we flip a switch, unconcerned with how the electricity is produced or how it reaches our homes. We are aware of telephone poles, wires overhead, and transmission towers, solar panels, and windmills across the countryside. But as long as we pay our electric bills, we trust electric utilities to provide our power somehow.

Who produces the electricity we use? Where does it come from? How does it reach us when we flip that light switch? And is electricity as “green” as we are often told it is?

Residential and business electric customers across the country are served by three different types of energy providers: the traditional monopoly known as an investor-owned utility (IOU), the public power utility owned by a municipality, and the community choice aggregator (CCA). This last is a relatively new type of nonprofit purveyor allowed in nine states—Massachusetts, Ohio, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, and New Hampshire—that have passed legislation allowing them.

These entities form what is collectively referred to as the grid, an interconnected network for delivering electricity from producers to consumers.

Community Choice Aggregators

CCAs are the newest type of electricity provider. They buy electricity from private generating firms, many of which are small start-ups, and deliver it to end users over wires owned by traditional IOUs. Thus, CCAs function as middlemen between energy suppliers and consumers. They also compete with investor-owned IOUs to sign up entire cities or counties.

Electricity can be generated by coal, natural gas, diesel, nuclear fission, biomass, hydropower, solar panels, and windmills. Of these, the last five may be considered renewable sources, but green energy purists view only solar and wind energy as renewable.

California contains over 11 percent of the American population, its energy markets are deregulated, and it hosts twenty-five CCAs, which serve fourteen million customers throughout the state in over two hundred municipalities with over eleven thousand clean energy power purchase agreements.

In addition to these twenty-five CCAs, California has three large IOUs: Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric. Together, they own a significant share of the state’s energy distribution infrastructure (poles and wires). California also has one large municipality-owned utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as well as several smaller public utilities throughout the state.

In 2002, the state legislature passed a bill (Assembly Bill 117) admitting CCAs, which began forming shortly afterward. CCAs promise to provide “green” energy (i.e., generated by solar or wind) to reduce carbon emissions and counteract climate change.

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