Ignorance is easy and we are frogs in the slowly warming pot.
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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Watch “Light in the Darkness Episode 11 Ignorance vs Ignoring” on YouTube
Posted by M. C. on August 2, 2020
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Ignorance, ignoring, light in the darkness | 3 Comments »
Robert F Kennedy Jr. Exposes Bill Gates’ Vaccine Dictatorship Plan – cites Gates’ twisted ‘Messiah Complex’
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
In 2010, Gates committed $10 billion to the WHO promising to reduce population, in part, through new vaccines. A month later Gates told a Ted Talk that new vaccines “could reduce population”. In 2014, Kenya’s Catholic Doctors Association accused the WHO of chemically sterilizing millions of unwilling Kenyan women with a phony “tetanus” vaccine campaign.
Independent labs found the sterility formula in every vaccine tested.
After denying the charges, WHO finally admitted it had been developing the sterility vaccines for over a decade.
Similar accusations came from Tanzania, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines.
Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. is an American environmental attorney, author, and opponent of vaccination. Kennedy is a son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former president John F. Kennedy. He is the president of the board of Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit environmental group that he helped found in 1999.
From #RobertFKennedyJr‘s Instagram post April 9th, 2020:
#Vaccines, for #BillGates, are a strategic philanthropy that feed his many vaccine-related businesses (including #Microsoft’s ambition to control a global vac ID enterprise) and give him dictatorial control over global health policy—the spear tip of corporate neo-imperialism.
Gates’ obsession with vaccines seems fueled by a messianic conviction that he is ordained to save the world with technology and a god-like willingness to experiment with the lives of lesser humans.
REVEALED: Massachusetts Contact Tracing NGO part of Clinton Pedophile Ring in Haiti
Promising to eradicate Polio with $1.2 billion, Gates took control of India ‘s National Advisory Board (NAB) and mandated 50 polio vaccines (up from 5) to every child before age 5. Indian doctors blame the Gates campaign for a devastating vaccine-strain polio epidemic that paralyzed 496,000 children between 2000 and 2017. In 2017, the Indian Government dialed back Gates’ vaccine regimen and evicted Gates and his cronies from the NAB. Polio paralysis rates dropped precipitously. In 2017, the World Health Organization reluctantly admitted that the global polio explosion is predominantly vaccine strain, meaning it is coming from Gates’ Vaccine Program. The most frightening epidemics in Congo, the Philippines, and Afghanistan are all linked to Gates’ vaccines. By 2018, ¾ of global polio cases were from Gates’ vaccines.
In 2014, the #GatesFoundation funded tests of experimental HPV vaccines, developed by GSK and Merck, on 23,000 young girls in remote Indian provinces. Approximately 1,200 suffered severe side effects, including autoimmune and fertility disorders. Seven died. Indian government investigations charged that Gates funded researchers committed pervasive ethical violations: pressuring vulnerable village girls into the trial, bullying parents, forging consent forms, and refusing medical care to the injured girls. The case is now in the country’s Supreme Court.
In 2010, the Gates Foundation funded a trial of a GSK’s experimental malaria vaccine, killing 151 African infants and causing serious adverse effects including paralysis, seizure, and febrile convulsions to 1,048 of the 5,049 children.
During Gates 2002 MenAfriVac Campaign in Sub-Saharan Africa, Gates operatives forcibly vaccinated thousands of African children against meningitis. Between 50-500 children developed paralysis. South African newspapers complained, “We are guinea pigs for drug makers”
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Nelson Mandela’s former Senior Economist, Professor Patrick Bond, describes Gates’ philantropic practices as “ruthless” and “immoral”.
In 2010, Gates committed $10 billion to the WHO promising to reduce population, in part, through new vaccines. A month later Gates told a Ted Talk that new vaccines “could reduce population”. In 2014, Kenya’s Catholic Doctors Association accused the WHO of chemically sterilizing millions of unwilling Kenyan women with a phony “tetanus” vaccine campaign.
Independent labs found the sterility formula in every vaccine tested.
After denying the charges, WHO finally admitted it had been developing the sterility vaccines for over a decade.
Similar accusations came from Tanzania, Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines.
A 2017 study (Morgensen et.Al.2017) showed that WHO’s popular DTP is killing more African than the disease it pretends to prevent. Vaccinated girls suffered 10x the death rate of unvaccinated children.
Gates and the WHO refused to recall the lethal vaccine which WHO forces upon millions of African children annually.
Global public health advocates around the world accuse Gates of – hijacking WHO’s agenda away from the projects that are proven to curb infectious diseases; clean water, hygiene, nutrition and economic development.
They say he has diverted agency resources to serve his personal fetish – that good health only comes in a syringe.
In addition to using his philanthropy to control WHO, UNICEF, GAVI and PATH, Gates funds private pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, and a massive network of pharmaceutical industry front groups that broadcast deceptive propaganda, develop fraudulent studies, conduct surveillance and psychological operations against vaccine hesitancy and use Gates’ power and money to silence dissent and coerce compliance.
In this recent nonstop Pharmedia appearances, Gates appears gleeful that the Covid-19 crisis will give him the opportunity to force his third-world vaccine programs on American children.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Gates, GAVI, India, MenAfriVac, PATH, sterility formula, UNICEF, Vaccine Dictatorship, WHO | Leave a Comment »
Motorvational Training
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
John Hammond No Money Down
Ike Turner Rocket 88
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The Dark Side Of The Cashless Society | Zero Hedge
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
But what if, hypothetically again, that card doesn’t work because their dad is an ornery son of a b$tch who got in a spat with some readers over the Black Lives Matter movement… and some government bureaucrat didn’t like what I said?
That is, what if suddenly my EIP card doesn’t work at Walgreens anymore?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/dark-side-cashless-society
by Tyler Durden
Real quick, grab a $100 bill from your wallet.
OK, humor me, any bill will do. What do you see?
I’d tell you what I see, but when I grab my Book Book, which serves as both a phone case and a wallet, there’s no cash in it. There rarely ever is. Please, keep that in mind for today’s foray into inductive reasoning.
I saw this makeshift sign over the weekend:
Seen at the Walgreens three miles from my house.
“At the airport. Very sparse here, ghost town,” reads an email from a colleague’s mom, “No coins.”
One of Agora Financial’s publishers, Doug Hill, had a similar experience flying to San Francisco last week for a meeting with a private equity fund. He couldn’t get accurate change for a pop rag he wanted to read. No coins.
“With the partial closure of the economy,” Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell says, “the flow of funds through the economy has stopped.”
Economically-speaking, the national coin shortage is a physical reminder of how slowly the nation’s economy has been; ‘velocity of money’ hit roughly zero.
“We are working with the Mint and the Reserve Banks,” Mr. Powell contends. ”As the economy re-opens, we are starting to see money move around again.”
Fair enough. What else is he going to say?
Back to the Benjamin burning a hole in your wallet. On it, you’ll see digits… a serial number for each bill.
As those bills are returned to the Federal Reserve from their journey around the country, the bills that have gotten too wrinkled, torn or worn thin get their serial numbers retired. The paper gets shredded.
Here’s what I was thinking while watching the film on Netflix the other day:
Wouldn’t it just be easier, and less expensive, if the Fed didn’t have to go through all the trouble of reclaiming and decommissioning the paper? Why not just track the serial numbers electronically?
Anyway, while fact checking the coin shortage story, a USA Today reporter included this little nugget: A Facebook post form including “a sign from a Texas-based grocery store chain H-E-B asking shoppers to use a debit card, credit card or correct change, if possible, due to the shortage.
The posts then warn against the potential of the U.S. becoming a ‘cashless society’.”
The Daily Reckoning has been on this “cashless society” story for some time.
Ideally, a cashless society is no big deal.
As I mentioned, I rarely hold cash if ever. Over the weekend, I got a haircut and didn’t leave a tip because my Book Book was dry.
But it’s not an ideal world.
And the mind does wander to dark places, doesn’t it?
Our own Jim Rickards has argued that elites are pushing for the cashless society so they can “herd” us all into “the digital pens.” Then they can impose negative interest rates on us.
But there’s another angle to the cashless society that hasn’t gotten much attention:
What if the powers that be can “cancel” people with unpopular political opinions?
The Walgreen’s sign says I can pay with credit, debit or gift card. I can use Apple Pay or Google Wallet. But here’s where the story gets spooky…
Ever since Mark Zuckerburg got summoned to appear before a Congressional committee over his backroom dealings with Cambridge Analytica prior to the 2016 election, Facebook is not so friendly to folks who don’t think like they do.
Google followed Facebook’s lead. We have reps at each place. Under their guidance, we try to abide by their rules. But the rules can, and have changed, without warning. It’s their platform, they make the rules. “You don’t like the rules,” their attitude goes, “you don’t have to post with us.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Cashless society, Mark Zuckerburg, Mint, Reserve Banks, Walgreens | Leave a Comment »
Red Flags Soar As Big Pharma Will Be Exempt From COVID-19 Vaccine Liability Claims | Zero Hedge
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
The major red flag is how governments are allowing big pharma to rush experimental vaccines, with no legal recourse if something goes terribly wrong.
by Tyler Durden
Last week we warned readers to be cautious about new COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting how key parts of the clinical trials are being skipped as big pharma will not be held accountable for adverse side effects for administering the experimental drugs.
A senior executive from AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, told Reuters that his company was just granted protection from all legal action if the company’s vaccine led to damaging side effects.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” said Ruud Dobber, a top exec at AstraZeneca.
“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries, it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” said Dobber, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority.
AstraZeneca is one of the 25 pharmaceutical companies across the world, testing experimental drugs that could be used to combat the deadly virus. And, of course, if testing yields positive results, AstraZeneca could manufacture hundreds of millions of doses, with no legal recourse if side effects are seen.
European officials told Reuters that product liability was a significant discussion to secure new vaccine drugs from Pfizer, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson.
As for the US, well, when it comes to the legal framework around vaccines, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already has a law called the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which provides immunity to vaccine companies if something goes wrong.
With AstraZeneca, and many US big pharma companies rushing COVID-19 vaccines to market with governments granting them immunity if the vaccine has side effects, all suggest corporate elites and government regulators have very little faith in these drugs.
For more color on leading vaccines in development that produce “severe” side effects, read our latest piece titled “Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Induced Adverse Reactions In “More Than Half” Of Trial Participants.”
Maybe these rushed vaccines are more for optics, get consumers back into airplanes, hotels, resorts, and malls.
The major red flag is how governments are allowing big pharma to rush experimental vaccines, with no legal recourse if something goes terribly wrong.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: AstraZeneca, Big Pharma, COVID-19 vaccine, Vaccine Liability | Leave a Comment »
New Evidence: Key Fans Unhappy With Sports Leagues Kowtowing to Black Lives Matter | The American Spectator
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
While 38 percent of Blacks are more likely to watch sporting events that promote the BLM movement, an astounding 28 percent of Blacks indicated that they are “less likely” to do so. That 28 percent is exactly the same percentage of Whites who indicated that they too are less likely to watch sporting events promoting BLM. But racial differences are apparent in the low percentage of Whites (only 19 percent) who indicate that they are more likely to watch sporting events that promote BLM.
https://spectator.org/black-lives-matter-protests-sports-fans-rasmussen/
If anyone was hoping that the return of the long-awaited Major League season would lift our spirits and bring us together, they had to be disappointed to learn that we are more divided than ever over the National Anthem kneeling debate. And although President Trump has not chosen to join the burgeoning #BoycottMLB movement on Twitter, the president has joined a growing number of disheartened baseball fans who are unhappy that their favorite teams are taking the knee. Even before the start of the season, President Trump tweeted that he was “looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!”
This is not a small issue. Rasmussen released a new poll of 1,000 Americans which indicates that “Americans are sending more negative signals than positive ones over the decision by many professional sports organizations to promote the controversial Black Lives Matter movement.”
The poll, released on July 31, revealed that more than 30 percent of American adults are less likely to watch sporting events that promote Black Lives Matter versus 21 percent who are more likely to do so. It is even worse for those “frequent watchers” who follow professional sports on television, in person, on the radio, or online once a week or less. Roughly 35 percent say they are less likely to watch events that promote the BLM protests.
Although 43 percent of all respondents say such promotion will have no impact on their viewing habits, a deeper analysis of the demographic data reveals that sponsors of these sporting events will be especially unhappy to learn that when the coveted target demographic group — young male beer drinkers — are also the ones more willing to say that they are less likely to watch. Forty-three percent of men under 40 years old indicated that they are less likely to watch sporting events that promote the Black Lives Matter movement, and only 2 percent of men under 40 are more likely to watch sporting events that promote BLM. And even though 22 percent of women under 40 years old indicated that they are more likely to watch sporting events that promote the BLM movement, far fewer women watch sports at all. Forty-two percent of all women polled claim to watch sports “rarely or never.”
Not surprisingly there are some differences by race, but the differences are not as significant as one might predict. While 38 percent of Blacks are more likely to watch sporting events that promote the BLM movement, an astounding 28 percent of Blacks indicated that they are “less likely” to do so. That 28 percent is exactly the same percentage of Whites who indicated that they too are less likely to watch sporting events promoting BLM. But racial differences are apparent in the low percentage of Whites (only 19 percent) who indicate that they are more likely to watch sporting events that promote BLM.
The most dramatic demographic differences emerge from political party affiliation, as 43 percent of all Republicans are less likely to watch sporting events that promote BLM, compared with only 19 percent of all Democrats indicating that they will be less likely to watch.
All of this could have been easily predicted based on historical data collected since the earliest days of the Colin Kaepernick kneeling protests. Even the NFL, after making feeble attempts to blame the ratings dips on the “attention around our presidential election,” had to admit that the Kaepernick kneeling protests were negatively affecting viewership and attempted to address the problem. But, all of that has been forgotten in the current racial climate.
Continuing its commitment to exacerbating the controversy, the New York Times has published an article with the headline: “The Anthem Debate Is Back. But Now It’s Standing That’s Polarizing.” Claiming that “today, athletes may have to explain why they chose to stand, not kneel, during the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ ” John Branch, the Times writer, suggested that “the difference in 2020 as sports begin to emerge from their pandemic suspensions, is that nearly every professional athlete will be forced to choose a posture.” The Times built its argument on an interview with Charles Ross, a history professor and director of African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, who said, “You cannot sit around now in this post-George Floyd period we’re in and say ‘We’re going to continue to take this safe position.… Either you have an issue with racism or you do not.”
Some sports fans disagree. In fact, it is likely that most sports fans just want to enjoy sports again and would prefer to end the polarizing debates on the fields of play. The NFL found this out in 2016 but obviously has decided to revisit this debate yet again. League commissioner Roger Goodell recently showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and reversed his statements on player protests, telling Branch, “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”
In the meantime, professional athletes like 25-year-old Rachel Hill, a player with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Chicago Red Stars, who choose to remain standing and honoring the flag, are shamed. When attacked on social media, Hill responded that she chose to stand “because of what the flag inherently means for my military family members and to me, but I 100% support my peers.… I support the black lives matter movement wholeheartedly. I also support and will do my part in fighting against the current inequality. As a white athlete, it is way past due for me to be diligently anti-racist.”
Hill’s explanation wasn’t good enough for Branch, who concluded his article with the criticism that “Hill tried to have it both ways.… There is little room for such posturing.”
It is difficult to predict whether baseball fans will indeed be “less likely” to watch. In a sports-starved world still recovering from the COVID lockdowns, it is possible that fans will continue to crave the comfort of a good ball game and begin to overlook the politics. But it is also clear that these are perilous times for athletes and for fans.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Black lives matter, national anthem, National Women’s Soccer League, professional sports | Leave a Comment »
Mostly Peaceful | The American Spectator
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Mostly Peaceful protest | Leave a Comment »
Video: Cops Kill Six Year Old While Attempting To Shoot Unarmed Woman | The Libertarian Institute
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
The (militarized police) operation was a success but the patient died.
“What we had was a case where a call from a bounty hunter led to a two-hour police chase of a non-violent suspect, and it resulted in that suspect fleeing and standing in front of a mobile home where there was a child’s bicycle on the porch and a car in the driveway and a 6-year-old boy playing inside that had nothing to do with this police chase,” said Tom Crosley, an attorney for Kameron Prescott’s father, Christopher Prescott. “And deputies in this case fired 20 rounds from assault rifles. And one of those rounds killed this innocent young child.”
In December 2017, the incident received widespread coverage as the mainstream media reported that Kameron was hit with a “stray bullet.” However, this bullet was anything but “stray.” The shot that killed young Kameron was deliberately fired at an unarmed woman. In fact, he was hit twice.
Do you ever wonder about stories where tens or hundreds of rounds are fired at a single individual? The Boston Bomber hiding in the boat comes to mind. I don’t recall that he was even hit by a round.
Where do those rounds go?
The media never ask the incredibly obvious question.
How can police be allowed to be so incompetent?
by
In December 2017, the Free Thought Project reported on the tragic death of 6-year-old Kameron Prescott whose life was stolen from him when police opened fire on an unarmed woman suspected of stealing a car. In June of 2018, the family of the little boy who was gunned down by police found out that the cops who killed their son all went back to work. Then, in March of last year, the family found out that none of the officers responsible for the death of her son would face charges. After the system refused to hold itself accountable, the family filed a lawsuit against Bexar County [Texas] and have been getting the run-around ever since.
This month, the family announced in a letter that it is now calling on Bexar County to settle the lawsuit. According to KENS5, in a 16-page letter sent to county commissioners, attorneys for Prescott’s father and mother, Christopher and Rubi Prescott, laid out what they had discovered since filing suit against the county, writing that while they are “confident in our case,” the Prescott family is “willing to accept, at this time, a fraction of what a jury would likely award as damages.”
The letter reveals new details of Prescott’s killing, including the release of a video which proves a DPS trooper informed the officer that the woman police were shooting at, had no weapons. Also, the letter states that police falsely claimed the suspect, Amanda Jones, was involved in a vehicle burglary which they claim prompted the chase. In reality, according to the letter, a bounty hunter had tipped off police that Jones was in the area.
“What we had was a case where a call from a bounty hunter led to a two-hour police chase of a non-violent suspect, and it resulted in that suspect fleeing and standing in front of a mobile home where there was a child’s bicycle on the porch and a car in the driveway and a 6-year-old boy playing inside that had nothing to do with this police chase,” said Tom Crosley, an attorney for Kameron Prescott’s father, Christopher Prescott. “And deputies in this case fired 20 rounds from assault rifles. And one of those rounds killed this innocent young child.”
In December 2017, the incident received widespread coverage as the mainstream media reported that Kameron was hit with a “stray bullet.” However, this bullet was anything but “stray.” The shot that killed young Kameron was deliberately fired at an unarmed woman. In fact, he was hit twice.
The officers’ guns did not accidentally go off. Deputies John Aguillon, George Herrera, Jesse Arias and Johnny Longoria all deliberately shot at an unarmed woman, and their fear, poor judgment, and carelessness led to the death of an innocent child.
Court documents state Jones walked into Christopher Prescott’s home and that he immediately told Jones to leave the house, to which she responded, “you have kids and I do not want trouble.”
When Jones turned around to leave the home, cops opened fire on the unarmed woman with AR-15s, dumping 20 rounds into the occupied home, killing Jones and little Kameron.
The newly released video shows a DPS helicopter informing the deputies below that Jones was unarmed, just before they opened fire on her.
Although Kameron didn’t live in the home in which he was gunned down by police, it was his father’s house and he was visiting him after getting out of school early on that fateful Thursday for Christmas break.
According to KENS5, Christopher Prescott told them the last words he heard his son utter were “ouch daddy, ouch.” After they killed his child, deputies, he said, placed him in handcuffs and hauled his son off to a hospital where he later died. The letter states the toy Kameron Prescott was toting prior to the gunfire was found near his blood, still blinking.
Had a regular citizen opened fire on an unarmed woman and killed an innocent child in the process, rest assured that they would be sitting in a jail cell right this moment. However, because the people who killed this unarmed woman and child are police officers, there will be no #JusticeForKameron.
Naturally, the sheriff’s department claimed the officers acted appropriately—by opening fire on an unarmed woman—and killing her and a child in the process. Longoria swore under oath that he saw Jones’ pistol smoking—but there was no pistol. Police then claimed she was holding an object when she walked out of the trailer—which was never recovered.
Herrera was wearing a body camera during the shooting, but police claimed it wasn’t turned on.
In a disturbing move, the county has been acting behind the scenes to dismiss the Prescotts’ lawsuit, claiming they didn’t mean to do it.
“They’re taking the position that because they didn’t mean to shoot Kameron, they really meant to shoot this woman, and that because he was an innocent bystander, they shouldn’t be held responsible for causing his death,” Crosley said. “We think that’s a ridiculous position for the county to take.”
It is not only ridiculous but it speaks to the nature of the state which can kill with impunity and face no consequences.
“Why did it escalate to this?” the letter states “Why did a bounty-hunter-initiated event result in the death of a child in an entirely different neighborhood? Why did our deputies (who were the only people that actually had guns) end up firing twenty rounds at an unarmed person and an obviously-occupied mobile home—a structure that would provide no meaningful resistance to gunfire? Does the County really believe almost twenty rounds fired at an occupied home was ‘only the amount of deadly force necessary?’”
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor-at-Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Bexar County, Free Thought Project, Kameron Prescott | Leave a Comment »
Reboot Government? No, Dismantle It | The Libertarian Institute
Posted by M. C. on August 1, 2020
But a “new public operating system” will still carry with it the immoral baggage of the old one. It will be funded by taxes stolen from citizens. Its decrees will still be enforced by threats of force by an organization with a monopoly on violence.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/reboot-government-no-dismantle-it/
by
Imagine my intrigue at seeing this subtitle kicking off a recent op-ed in USA Today:
Why do Americans hate Washington? One reason is that it makes us feel powerless.
Americans hating Washington? An article exploring how the state makes its citizens feel powerless?
Sign me up.
It didn’t take long, however, for me to be disappointed.
The article started out promising, by citing “discontent” toward government coming from “both sides.”
“A survey in 2018, for example, found that almost two-thirds of Americans favored ‘very major reform’ of government, almost double from 20 years ago,” the article noted.
“Political leaders sow division” it continued.
Bingo.
The article next itemized some obstacles to reforming some of society’s pressing problems. Police unions stand in the way of firing bad cops. Red tape gummed up the response to the spread of coronavirus.
Disappointingly, however, the article quickly squandered an opportunity to educate readers how a significant reduction in state power and influence would be the best recipe to heal much of society’s division. Instead, it hits readers with this line:
“Americans need to feel that government can make things better.”
This turn for the worse should have come as no surprise, given the author of the piece, Philip K. Howard, is the head of an organization called “Campaign for the Common Good.”
Any group or person claiming to be working toward the “common good” immediately should raise a red flag for libertarians. Of course, we know there is no such thing as the “common good,” but rather an extremely diverse set of individuals with varying wants and differing plans on how to achieve happiness.
So, how do we achieve this common good and overcome citizen’s sense of powerlessness, according to Mr. Howard?
“Let people take responsibility again. Give officials and citizens alike goals and guiding principles, and then let other people hold them accountable,” he recommends.
Who should “give” officials and citizens their goals and guiding principles goes unanswered.
Moreover, Howard states that overcoming powerlessness involves “letting” government officials do their job, including suggestions such as “Let local public health officials respond immediately to the pandemic,” “(L)et designated officials issue infrastructure permits after reasonable review,” and “(L)et teachers maintain order in the classroom.”
Such suggestions may be great for government officials, but doesn’t do much for citizens. Indeed, his suggestions further entrench the state as problem-solver for society, removing opportunities for free citizens to responsibly solve problems through voluntary cooperation.
To his credit, Howard criticizes the government’s overly-complex law books that allow for little discretion on the part of public officials or citizens, and calls for a process of simplifying and stripping them down.
He supports this notion, however, in part because it will “reactivate(s) our link to government.”
The last thing we need is a greater link to the oppressive and divisive leviathan government.
“Governing isn’t this hard,” Howard assures us. “America needs a new public operating system that re-empowers people with responsibility to deal sensibly with the situation before them.”
But a “new public operating system” will still carry with it the immoral baggage of the old one. It will be funded by taxes stolen from citizens. Its decrees will still be enforced by threats of force by an organization with a monopoly on violence.
Howard is focused largely on making government more efficient in carrying out its functions, and uninterested in limiting its size and scope. This won’t reduce the division that he expressed concern over. The state sows division because if forces some to fund others through welfare and wealth redistribution schemes, and it compels people with vastly different preferences to live under the same arbitrary rules having nothing to do with protecting people’s person and property.
Amazingly, Howard concludes with the statement, “The best cure for alienation is ownership.”
But that starts with self-ownership, not reducing red tape to allow government agents to more swiftly enforce their decrees or spend stolen taxpayer money.
Citizens feel powerless because the state is empowered to initiate force against them, with no repercussions. Powerlessness is not felt because government contractors are slowed from starting their tax-funded projects due to red tape.
Mr. Howard largely gets the diagnosis right. More people are getting frustrated with government and recognizing it as a source of division. Disappointingly, he gets the cure wrong.
Instead of a “reboot” of government, society needs a radical rollback of its power.
Bradley Thomas is creator of the website Erasethestate.com and author of the book “Tweeting Liberty: Libertarian Tweets to Smash Statists and Socialists.” He is a libertarian activist who enjoys researching and writing on the freedom philosophy and Austrian economics. Follow him on Twitter: @erasestate.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Campaign for the Common Good, Libertarian, Police Unions, Reboot Government | 1 Comment »
