Wednesday, March 14, 2012

FED Up


At a basic level the idea of a central bank and clearinghouse for the United States of America makes sense. It seems apparent that big banks, medium-sized banks and small banks will from time to time need a ready supply of cash to offset short-term or momentary needs. Just as many retailers rely on wholesalers to stock and supply their products, a bank accepts deposits and loans money at a profitable rate of interest. Their cash reserves rarely equal their deposit totals, so they may find themselves short of cash even with an outstanding portfolio of performing loans. It should be apparent, however, that the Federal Reserve Bank has abused its charter and its purpose. It has become a tool of the government and global banking interests.

The elementary problem with the FED as it has been designed is that Congress has subordinated its constitutional responsibility for the coining (printing) and valuing our money to a consortium of private bankers. Odd isn’t it that despite all the overreaching by government into the private sector, it is a constitutionally mandated role or obligation that Congress chose to privatize? Why banking? Why money? The entire FED revolves around debt. As money is loaned out by individual banks, they go to the FED to restore their reserves. The FED must print the money and LOAN it to the banks. Without debt the FED would not have a real function other than the constitutional coinage one that Congress gave to it. So the bottom line is that the powers for printing money and creating debt reside with a cabal of private mega-bankers. Cheery thought, huh? You might ask “how do they create debt?” When a bank seeks additional funds for loaning, the FED creates it digitally. In other words if the local banks didn’t have the funds for additional lending, borrowers would have to go elsewhere for funds but the money supply would be more stable.

The unceasing printing (digitizing) of money expands our indebtedness and our money supply…thus generating de facto inflation. Without a corresponding surge in production of goods and services every dollar created increases the number of dollars ‘chasing” a finite supply of products or labor. More dollars chasing fewer things means higher costs. Increasing debt and inflated/lower-valued money are not recipes for a prosperous nation. In the short-term inflation may lull the unsuspecting into assuming that prosperity is flourishing, but will have the opposite effect after a time as goods and property become more difficult to purchase because of escalated prices and higher interest rates.

The FED because it is private uses the resources and wealth of the United States as its own “net worth” as it props up other national currencies and governments. The value of the dollar is directly related to the productivity of the United States, the number of dollars in circulation and the confidence that the indebtedness will be repaid. If any of those three factors experience some slippage, the corresponding effect will negatively impact the U. S. economy. If any of the three major factors underperforms, the government must collect additional revenue to maintain some level of equilibrium to avoid massive runaway inflation, excessive interest costs or severe reductions in productivity. Thus, the FED with full compliance from the government through its policies practically insures higher levels of taxation for American taxpayers. Taxes collected through force are theft. Taxes that stifle economies and intrude on individual freedom are tyrannical. Because of its power over our productivity, our indebtedness and our money supply, the FED, in effect, controls our economy. Our government increasingly controls our lives, and the Federal Reserve manipulates our livelihoods.

It should be dawning on you that as debt problems increase, taxes go up. When interest rates begin to ratchet upward due to inflated money driving the cost of borrowing higher, the governments’ needs for debt service will grow astronomically, the resultant tax increases will stifle the economy and higher taxes plus lower economic productivity joined with massive debt leads to catastrophe. It is an inescapable cycle that can at the best be postponed for a while but becomes worse during the delay. In their efforts to manipulate the market, the currency and debt, the FED will create economic bubbles that will enlarge and eventually burst. As the FED scheme and rig the system, shrewd investors will seek other avenues for avoiding the FED action….thus the bubbles will be created.

Compounding the problem of the FED’s unhealthy and unconstitutional control of the basics of our fiscal and economic systems is the fact that they operate with impunity. We the people have no standing to audit the Federal Reserve or to insist on transparent accountability. In 1913 Congress handed the keys and the car to the Wall Street manipulators and self-serving big bankers. Now Congress lacks the courage to reclaim its constitutional duty yet continues to meddle in a plethora of other unconstitutional arenas. We are now on the precipice of economic collapse. Although the nation and its people will suffer, you can wager your home and all your worldly goods that the Fed governors, their favored bankers and career politicians will emerge unscathed. Obviously….I’m FED Up.



  

Monday, March 12, 2012

Placebo Effect


The main street media are loaded with good news from the government. A recent unemployment survey suggests that 100, 000 fewer claims were filed than there were in the previous cycle. Government officials optimistically state that our economy is showing signs of incremental improvement. Politicians of all stripes praise the artificially low interest rates as a sure-fire impetus for creating investment and jobs. Our brass-laden military leaders and their civilian counter parts extol the advances of our warriors in distant lands. Homeland Security constantly reminds us that our willingness to suffer numerous indignities insure our safety as we travel domestically and abroad. There are numerous other instances of the government flooding us with happy talk to ease our fears and concerns. It is the “Placebo Effect.”

“Placebo” derives from Latin and means “I shall please.” The most common usage of the term is in the medical field….particularly research medicine. It is a simulated or powerless treatment that is intended to deceive the recipient. The “Placebo Effect” occurs when the condition of the recipient appears to improve despite the ineffectiveness of the fake treatment. With many government reports we become the recipients of a placebo treatment. The results they claim and the effectiveness they boast about are artificial ….unreal ….fake ….misleading. Their aim is to feed us the bogus information and hope that we feel better after ingesting it. They believe that they can get away with this strategy because we have proven over and over that we will swallow anything.

Examine the history of our conflict in Viet Nam. It should have caused alarm bells to ring as we moved forward. Weekly ‘kill reports” and bogus enemy body counts were the standard fare of Defense Department reports emanating from the Southeast Asian conflict. For the most part the press took the numbers from General Westmoreland and others at face value until the later stages of the war when suspicions were aroused. In instance after instance our governments have fed us false information to keep our concerns at bay. Sometimes, though, they would revise the figures at a later date, but the new information would be reported in the bowels of the paper and rarely on the audio/video news services. The first news item would be prominently brought forth and heralded while the starker less desirable “adjustment” would go relatively unnoticed.

For years our political leaders have assumed that they could provide us   with placebos when we noticed that the nation was ill. For many years most of us swallowed the powerless pills and assumed that life would be grander. Yet when we encountered the cold hard realities, we discovered that the remedies proposed by the politicians were fake and worthless. Every attempt by them to correct our dire situation exacerbated the problems, and they continued to mislead and deflect us. They have played us for fools, and we have generally complied. I’m not certain if the bulk of government misinformation occurs because they are incapable of collecting, tabulating and reconciling the data correctly, or if they seek to intentionally deceive us. Either reason is unacceptable. Both scenarios prove that our government superstructure, at all levels, is too large and uncontrollable.

There are times when governments force feed us negative placebos….especially school districts and local governments. They scream like banshees about the devastating consequences of our failing to pass a levy or approve a tax increase. We know they exaggerate and embellish, but we take the faux medicine and pretend as if their new financial windfall will solve the problem forever….until the next time. Until, that is, the public employee unions demand better contracts and sweeter benefit packages. The cycle for more of your tax dollars begins anew as the government rams the powerless placebo down your over-taxed throat. It has become the primary specialty of all levels of government….the placebo….the fake…the false argument….the distorted information. This monstrous government tactic has developed to the point that any statement from any level of government should initiate an immediate and massive gag reflex from the electorate. Still….too many of us gulp….and swallow it whole.

It should be clear that placebos and the “placebo effect” can be more dangerous that the diseases that triggered their implementation. Our false sense of resolution only leads to a further ravaging by the disease because the remedy was faulty. If government presents a realistic and truthful assessment, we can attack the root cause and correct the matter. Governments’ insistences, however, on distortion and dissembling cause the real problems to carry on without being properly diagnosed and treated. Government incompetency and government lying lead to greater problems, more difficult remedies and a huge reservoir of distrust. By capitalizing on our unwillingness to reject the placebos, government power and control continue to grow exponentially. In addition, once they have observed that we willingly or compliantly accept the placebo in lieu of the cure, they will continue providing the falsehoods, the artificial and the unreal justifications for their unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional actions. And…we swallow them. It is past time for patriots to join the expectoration brigade. Congressman Joe Wilson dared to utter “You lie” to the President. We should be brazen enough to proclaim “You lie” to any representative of government who bears placebos for us to consume.

  

    

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Littlestuff Weekender-3-10-2012


At 2:00am Sunday morning our ‘time” is magically transformed, and we begin to save daylight. This maneuver has always puzzled me because “saving” suggests some form of storing, and I’ve never found a system that will successfully retain daylight for more than several hours. Maybe our new emphasis on green energy development can include a daylight storage component. We can pass out billions of research and development dollars to well-placed friends of politicians who will, in turn, hire tens (perhaps even dozens of people) of people to resolve the problem. If anyone can possibly save daylight for an extended of time without its molding or rusting, our efficient government bureaucracy armed with unlimited cheapening dollars will find a way….or not.

One other aspect of Daylight Savings Time that perplexes me is why do we go back to Standard Time for such a short period? From the end of October to mid-March isn’t very long, so why bother? Perhaps it’s an extension of Obamacare as the government gurus assume that several senior citizens will tumble from ladders while changing clocks thus saving dollars for Medicare and Medicaid after they break their fragile necks. Just a tin-foil thought. Almighty God has cautioned us that His ways are not our ways, and we are incapable of totally understanding everything about Him. Obviously our government and its representatives believe they are godly because nearly everything they do is beyond human comprehension. Frankly, I trust the Original Creator, but fear and distrust the interloping copycat.

For those of us who remain transfixed by the GOP race for the presidential nomination….the Kansas caucuses are today (Saturday) and Mississippi and Alabama selections are coming this week. The three leading contenders are all predicting victory. I suspect that none of them will be correct. The mess marches on.

Greece has technically defaulted although the true default was nearly two years ago. Once again bond holders will be holding the bag. If you were one of those, you deserve your “haircut.” Greek bondholders are being transformed into “skin heads” right before our very eyes.

What a jolt as Chevy suspended production of the VOLT. Purchases by government and General Electric were not enough to prop up this latest socialist-managed-economy-government-meddling fiasco. I suggest you hold off placing your order until after the new GM-Puegot merger has been finalized wherein you might qualify for a 100% subsidy. Of course you’ll have to supply your own batteries at $12K each, your 40-mile extension cord and your very-own EPA-DOE approved charging station (roughly $275,000 plus ten years delay for impact studies). It’s really tough to top those wonderful government subsidies. Geeeesh.

So President Obama and his covey of clowns are becoming quite perturbed because the “new media” are vetting him. Andrew Breitbart’s recent death has generated more interest in his site’s recently released videos about BHO’s college years. Unlike Anthony Weiner, the President doesn’t want to be ‘exposed.’ Our modern-day Manchurian Commander-in-Chief confidently believes that he can fool all the people all the time…..well, except for those pesky right-wing zealots. It will be up to individual states to determine if Obama is qualified for their respective November ballots. Clearly….the distribution of Democrats versus Republicans will factor into each state’s decision-making process. It must be states who take the lead because Boehner is too cowardly and Harry Reid is too far in the tank for Obama to assure a fair and just Congressional effort.


As the conference tournaments wrap up this weekend, we surge into March Madness next week. There will probably be enough money wagered in office pools to severely dent the national debt. Just like career politicians and bureaucrats, many of those who gamble will have little real knowledge about the vagaries of college hoops. They will generally really on the S.W.A.G. method for designing their brackets (SWAG = Scientific Wild-A$$ed Guess)….just like government only without the “scientific” part. Good luck and NEVER choose a 16 seed to win it all.

Earlier I wrote a column that briefly addressed the Sandra Fluke-Rush Limbaugh kerfluffle (“Sluts and Nuts,” 3-7-2012). This little news item is unworthy of prolonged consideration because it was a movement by strident socialist women to move the contraception debate away from Church-State-1st Amendment issues into the realm of anecdotal downtrodden victim of the system. They chose the wrong representative. Fluke is not a sympathetic character, so when Limbaugh stepped in it and rendered his infallible judgment, the focus quickly shifted toward his supposedly misogynistic attitudes. The old line is “when you wrestle with pigs you have to get into the mud with them….and they have the advantage there.” Still it is much ado about nothing yet it has eaten up bandwidth and print space.

Have a special weekend as you “spring forward.” Monday’s column will be “The Placebo Effect”  …. Unless I change my mind.


Friday, March 9, 2012

Just a Little Bit


As we survey the social, economic and political issues around us, it is rather easy to become dismayed. I know. I have felt so overwhelmed at times that I was ready to curl up into a fetal ball and let the world move on without my participation. Upon further reflection, I decided that withdrawal wasn’t an effective strategy for dealing with our nation’s problems. I have children and grandchildren whose lives will be sorely limited by the onerous direction our land is pursuing. My obligation as the patriarch of our little clan is to preserve and protect their liberties to the best of my limited ability. And so….I have determined that if I cannot make all the difference in our national drift, I must make some difference….have some impact….do my share….if only a little bit.

Faced with an aging body that is reaping the consequences of a lifetime of unhealthy living, I find that my energy and my capabilities are limited. Even if I had an engorged super-hero complex, the aching bones and rigid nap times would minimize my capacity for turning things around. Some of you (the ones with bluer hair or fewer hairs) may remember the Brylcreme commercials. “A little dab will do ya’” they confidently stated about the unmovable hair grease. That’s where I am these days….dibbing and dabbing and hoping to motivate those who have more strength and energy than I have. I let the Founders and Framers carry the wood and start the fire. I’m the old guy with the poker in my hand who stirs the fire from time to time …. hoping to keep it going until the youngsters can haul in more fuel for the hearth and raise the temperature for the nation.

One of the advantages of growing older (aside from the obvious one of being on TOP of the grass) is that as one’s physical abilities diminish, one’s wisdom about how and when to get physical increases ( well, usually ). It’s called “choosing the moment.” Usually a crisis or opportunity emerges and I engage in frenzied activity to address it followed by high-intensity napping. Some of my “little bits” take place in the middle of the night as I spring awake from a deep slumber. It may be the “call of nature” that sets off my internal alarm or the throbbing sensation in my battered knees that interrupt my sleep. Facing the improbability of returning to the blissful quiet of a sound sleep, I stumble to the office to write some profound words about how our government is destroying our personal liberties. For me and perhaps for you also, the act of reviewing my writing recaptures the slumber bug and allows me to drift off for a couple more hours.

The purpose of this column isn’t to regale you with my sleep habits or patterns, but to suggest that each of us can do a little bit beyond thinking about our problems. If you wake in the middle of the night, write a letter to the editor or to a politician….that will put you back to sleep. As a cautionary note, I recommend that you review the letter in the morning before mailing it. Trust me on this. You don’t wish to be placed on another “watch list” just because you engaged in highly inflammatory language at 3:00am. Many of you are gardeners and you can take a short amount of time during lunch (the hottest time of day) to jot a note or an email expressing your concerns. The little bits for most of us can be squeezed into precious moments between activities or when first arising or at bedtime.

Most of us have neither the time nor the talent to accomplish great things for liberty. Our personal “little bits of difference” can add to the efforts of others. Cumulatively we can combine our “bits” and move the nation back to its moorings. Let me be clear here at the risk of offending you. Just attending the meetings and reading the email threads is not enough. Those efforts are pre-“little bits.” It’s the next step of involvement that moves you from a mere participant to a neophyte activist. Little bits by citizens who love liberty can seem like incessant drops of water torture to those politicians who believe they can woo us then ignore us. Little bits of letter writing and email campaigns may convince the editorial pages and program directors that we are here, we are angry, we are serious and we are numerous.

Even if you or I may not have the strength and endurance to lead the charge up Liberty Hill, we can do our little bits by loading the cartridges, holding the horses and joining the swarm when our stronger leaders reach the crest. Every little bit helps. Every little bit is needed. Every little bit counts.




Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Sluts and Nuts


Sandra Fluke is a slut. A 30-year old woman who is studying law at one of the nation’s premier law schools should not ask blue-collar hard-working people to pay for birth control products that would allow her uncontrolled libido to screw the American taxpayers and premium payers. She is a slut because she is willing to exchange her dignity, her self-respect and her reasoning ability for 15 minutes of fame and unrestricted sexual activity. That represents a barter…a type of exchange wherein each party supposedly receives something of value to offset the loss of the assumed value of the object being traded. Just as “will screw for food” would be considered prostitution in most cities (generally controlled by progressive Democrats), as well as “will trade privacy, dignity and principles for sex.” She sold her soul for a big-government looter’s agenda. Rush Limbaugh was correct. When one expects “someone” to pay for one’s nymphomania, one is being paid to have unlimited sexual activity. With generic birth control pills selling for $9.00 per month at Wal-Mart, that leaves approximately $892.00 per year for condoms and other additional “protections” based on Ms. Fluke’s $1000.00 per year estimated cost for her or others’ profligacy.

Rush Limbaugh and his little butt-kissing buddies, Hannity and Levin, are also sluts. While Limbaugh attempts to use the absurd to illustrate the absurdity of Ms. Fluke’s demand, he fails to recognize the inconsistencies of his own positions. He and his cohorts claim the mantle of constitutionalism, but nevertheless do not hold Congress and the Administration accountable for some of their more egregious constitutional abuses….because those unconstitutional acts coincide with the subjective world-views of Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin. Whores and sluts sell their bodies either for pleasure or because of hard-core commercial purposes. Limbaugh and his little band of merry men sell out their constitutional principles either for their own self-serving purposes or to curry favor with their audiences and their supreme government masters. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States clearly identifies that Congress has the authority (and the obligation after careful and thoughtful consideration) to declare war. Yet, since December 8th, 1941 Congress has NOT declared war even though we have been engaged in three decade-long conflicts plus the Korean “police action” in the interim. Why has the triumvirate of conservative talk radio cavalierly ignored this constitutional proviso? Perhaps….it doesn’t fit into their preferences for the unbridled exercise of government power, so they ignore the requirement/mandate. They are sluts and whores because despite their professed love for the Founders, the Framers and our constitutional republic, they willingly sell their souls, their integrity and their principles to unconstitutional activity. Progressives and conservatives, liberals and moderates have all chosen to selectively support the Constitution. All of…..or rather too many of them view the Constitution of the United States as a buffet of privilege for themselves and of limitations for their opponents. No wonder we are in the pit we are in when the supporters of our primary document distort it beyond recognition.  

Most of the mass media are sluts. I know….that’s redundant. Screwing the nation, the regular folks and constitutionalists is the number one activity for most media types. It is not too difficult to assume that the excessive carnal efforts by the media have resulted in debilitating STDs. Their diminished mental capacities would suggest that the spirochete bacterium of syphilis had occupied and destroyed their cognitive abilities. Their observations and reporting are primarily agenda-driven, and for the most part their agendas do NOT coincide with most citizens or with the Constitution. The members of the media can be excused at some level for their shortcomings because of their limited mental acuity. Reading and understanding the Constitution probably requires an eighth grade proficiency which is far beyond the capacity of many who chose to follow journalistic endeavors.

Obviously, the career politicians who unceasingly abuse our rights and ignore our Constitution are the “Sultans of Slut-dom.” They take oaths of office following their elections and proceed to systematically violate them at every turn. Not only are many of our political class… whores, they are cheap whores. They routinely sell out for campaign funds from their favored interest group or for ground troops for their re-election campaigns. They consistently pass new legislation to “clean up” the process but simultaneously open new loopholes and crevices for circumventing the law. They sell out and roll over at the mere glimpse of a dollar or a favor. Their favorite pastimes are screwing the constituency, screwing the nation and violating their sacred trusts. They are whores, sluts and hookers of the highest order. They are committed to their assumed profession and ignorant of their public obligation.

The title of this column is “Sluts and Nuts.” This is a term that most large-scale political campaigns know. There is an element of society that “hangs around” the campaign seeking opportunities for engaging the candidate or upper staff in questionable activity. Some politicians appreciate their presence but fear their disclosures. Others tremble when the sluts and nuts are nearby, but they are a common element of our political life. In light of my previous ranting about the “sluts” in our political structure, allow me to posit that we, the voters and citizens, are the nuts. We are nuts because we allow the sluts to do what they do to us, our Constitution and our republic.

Note to Ms. Fluke: If you’re playing the game and seek the fame, don’t complain about the name.