The Still Report #34 contained enough material on which to comment to comprise a blog entry all by itself.
2012-1-3: #34 Robert Welch Critique - SR 34
They planned to waste our money and raise taxes according to John Birch Society founder, Robert Welch (1974 speech), in order to break this nation and all nations of their sovereignty, forcing them into a world government run by the same people who run the central banks. You don't have to support the ideology of the Birch Society in order to run down Welch's predictions from almost 50 years ago and recognize that a vast number of them have already come true. Indeed, what Welsh saw happening in the United States is in various stages of happening elsewhere too, so a concerted source for these policies is clearly in evidence.
1. Excessive government spending.
2. Escalating taxes.
Still maintains that this strategy employs a built in false dialectic; give more free stuff to the lowest 50% and to the biggest 1% while maintaining the graduated income tax, taxing the upper income earners. Breaking it down; no matter what, the biggest banks always come first, and that's the lesson here. Under current conditions, everything is ultimately controlled by the biggest banks. Still's solution is to forbid the government from borrowing money as Jefferson intended and secondly banks should be forever forward forbidden to create any money, national or otherwise. This is a key component of E. C. Riegel's economics, so of course we subscribe to it.
3. An increasingly unbalanced budget for Federal, state and local governments despite higher taxes.
Still, like us, understands that these problems are all tied together by who gets to create money; the government through loans from the banks. Turning things back around the way they're supposed to operate in a true complete liberty voluntary society, each human being has the inalienable right to create money and that power cannot be taken away, though even under a Value Unit system, that power isn't unlimited else the money created would have no meaning. That's a topic we will be getting into fairly soon.
4. Wild inflation; rising prices as a result of too much money in circulation.
Still argues correctly that what we really have right now is a deflation in our largest valued assets while necessities like food and energy continue to rise in price. Falling real estate prices is an indication of recovery from a balloon in real estate and false investment elsewhere so there is a deflationary trend created by falling values and insufficient value creation relative to circulating money. Put in plain English, fewer people are employed actually making things of real value, be they goods or services. Still's analysis to conclusion is correct; the intention is to doom pensioners and the poor as essentially expendable, while other sectors farther up the feeding chain get more of the available resources as they flow through the economy. Still would like to have us set up a federalized, state controlled bureaucracy to stabilize the amount of money in circulation just so we can keep a bloated government working almost the way it has, or shrinking gradually so as to minimize the pain. This plan is not realistic as it is the equivalent of forcing water to run uphill. Water seeks its own level and if it has no foundation under it forms a waterfall and that's what we'll see as government is forced to concede more control to the public at large.
A Value Unit solution sees setting up local Independent Exchanges (IE's) in every community to act as something like private savings banks, because people would be encouraged to store their saved Value Units in these exchanges, somewhat as a savings bank, but these exchanges would not have the power to lend money, as financing would be a business function that would get its loans authenticated, authorized and cleared by the independent exchanges, but would otherwise spread the risks involved with lending more money than someone may have for those larger purposes.
In the beginning, Riegel envisioned running a parallel system to the existing one and outlasting it as the present monetary system eventually fails. We admit this would be the best solution, as we would be building private relationships among local providers first and foremost and thereafter extending this network across the country and around the world. Riegel believed that once people had used Value Units (he called them value units; Valuns, we are not calling them Riegels after the man who invested them because Laurence Gilbert the Founder of the RMES has copyrighted their exclusive use), they would prefer using them to using the national currencies because they would be inflation and deflation proof, would trade immediately or with less time lapsed than is typical with a bank, and would maintain their function as measures of value much better than any bank or government created fiat currencies.
5. Government controls over wages, prices and materials supposedly to control inflation.
We are reminded of what Riegel said about this; more attempts by those who do not have a valid stake in matters they do not legitimately control attempting to do so, akin to having the government determine the lawful orbits of the planets. This practice doe not work, shall never work and is forthwith discarded as absolute usurpation by those who should be ... going off somewhere and figuring out how to make or grow something of honest value, taking their risks in a limited part of the economy rather than trying to play God.
6. Greater socialistic controls over every aspect of the economy.
Still's analysis is solid, it does deal with centralization of power. We prefer the word “collectivist” now as a more general term that covers anything from nationalism and fascism through socialism and communism, in all cases where the government attempts to level playing fields, enhance “fairness” etc. they invariable screw everything up for everyone but themselves and their backers in the banking community or from among their tax dodging friends among the wealthy, who set up fancy “think tanks” staffed with egocentric individuals who are again playing God. A Value Unit system will have none of them because we wont need them. In fact a Value Unit system is the only one capable of deciding from the basis of need what anything is actually worth.
7. Elimination of state and county limits of jurisdiction, etc.
Those who would eliminate the checks and balances and separation of powers, as they were originally intended in the US Constitution, are those who would want a centralized dictatorship that only they among a few would control and determine and define the meaning of “fairness” for everyone else, again just more people playing God instead of doing something really useful. Still sees the problem clearly as related to the banks taking control of the money, usurping that role from the government which then pulls sovereignty away from the states so the more centralized government has more power.
Riegel saw all of this as beside the point; there shouldn't be those around government buildings, etc. playing God with the rest of us. He advocated setting up a parallel system that would grow naturally as the existing system fell apart, since it is built on falsities and lies, and eventually power would become decentralized and even the largest governments would have far less power. This is what happens when the money power is returned not just to a state, which is supposed to represent the people but never really does or can, but to the people themselves as individuals. Recall that Riegel was emphatic about not allowing business or governments the right to create their own money, only individual human beings are capable of this function since only they naturally want to buy things they need. Businesses are interested in getting more people to buy things, whether needed or not, and government essentially has nothing to sell that anyone wants to buy so they FORCE the sales on these things and the decisions are made by more people playing God. In the meantime, where did any and all liability issues go?
8. Steady advance and control over the public education system.
This is what the School Sucks Project podcasts reviewed on this blog are all about. A multi-pronged solution, one that employs the sense and meaning of “come out of her, my people” is not only to come out of those institutions that are run from the perspective and for the perpetuation of banking and bankers and their government and foundation minions, but out of their organized brain washing centres as well. Still considers this merely a 10th Amendment issue. We think not, we think this is a far deeper issue.
9. More and more endless “police” conflicts around the world involving Americans.
Well, why would any nation want armed combatants from some other country on their soil for any reason? If America needs to go to war, Still says we should do so by specific acts of Congress as specified in the Constitution. But we ask, who benefits from the situation that exists? The answer is writ large in history; who always benefits from war? Not those engaged in them, nor their governments, so it must be those who manufacture the means to sustain a war and those who finance the governments engaged in it. About the best source for nailing this one down is David Astle in his difficult but rewarding read, The Babylonian Woe.
As far as enemies go, Still maintains that we'll always have them since there are those who really don't like us. Well, they might as long as they have the means, but when everyone sees who has the means and why and who really benefits, then there will be an end to war and anyone advocating it will be taken out of society as the sociopaths they are, largely through the most effective weapon available to most people; social banishment; no one will have anything to do with someone regarded as criminally insane. As individuals, such people are mere cranks, when they get together they form think tanks, foundations, government agencies, armies, etc.
Still's “howling wolves of plutocracy” likewise wouldn't be there very long if everyone knew who they were and decided not to have anything to do with them. In fact they'd soon be forced into ... more “sustainable” lifestyles. Again, there is tremendous power in the ability to socially shun someone. In a Value Unit system. those who have are already forbidden to create more because as Riegel clearly put it, they already have. The ability to create from nothing the money to buy something is restricted only to those who have little or nothing at all. Likewise, all totalitarian, power consolidating systems must be sustained by money and when the powers that control money are naturally dispersed and there is no way to get centralization back, all of it will fade away or become insignificant. War and the ability to make war are sustained through the control of the money power and the armaments businesses that naturally spring up to take advantage of lucrative government contracts. When you eliminate all of this worldwide, it just simply goes away as there are always better uses people will want for their own money.
Still does not want elimination of government, he would just like the genie put back into the bottle the framers of the US Constitution intended for it. His analysis of totalitarianism following anarchy may be correct, but we're a far distance from the limited government he envisions because government is not the only institution to have grown excessively large. Any limited liability organization is essentially already too large and rather than mergers and acquisitions, we should be discussing dismemberment and restricting operations based on real unlimited liabilities and risks. Whether government action by itself will be the means to taking apart that which should never have been allowed to form, is a matter best pursued at some later date. But again, and we'd really like to hear Still's response concerning this, it is our observation that all wars and all combatant (and civilian) casualties are the result of the greed for power of the few who are never directly involved in these conflicts, chiefly bankers and arms manufacturers, and these conflicts have relatively speaking nothing to do with fighting and dying for freedom. Once this basic read on history sinks in more widely, it will be that much harder for any madman (or woman) to get their people to go to war for anything whatsoever.
10. Appeasement to national enemies.
Yes, there was appeasement going on, there was building toward war too, all started and ... bankrolled by the same people in the same relation to the rest of the human race; those who would rather play God than do something really useful. It also bears repeating that all the enemies down through time were created, sustained, led to battle and their fates decided long before any battle took place, in the private boardrooms and meeting places of warmongers, their financiers and those whose businesses are related to outfitting and equipping those who fight and die in such wars. Again, once these historical facts are more widely known and understood, it will become ever more difficult to convince anyone to go to war as a reliable means to settle any dispute. Still favours a go slow approach though, because he doesn't want to see assets scattered to the winds before their effectiveness is required and this is probably the safest way down the militarist mountain that we're up upon. Scaling back slowly, always with an eye to where weapons are going and who is developing them are at this time preferable to any one sided disarmament programs. I'm sure many of us can agree with Still's ideas concerning scaling back recently enacted legislation as well, though again we admonish anyone that asking government to repeal an act or scale it back is like asking water to run uphill. Sometimes we will want certain specialities of government work to go away entirely, especially excessive snooping operations that accomplish little or nothing for the average individual.
Walsh had more to say about the aims of his new organization, to work toward getting the United States out of international organizations and limiting our treaty involvements with other nations, etc. All this would naturally follow escape from the money power and setting up our own in its place.
We also agree with Still concerning gold. He likewise understands the key concept of a valueless money, the measure of value without containing value in and of itself. But Still really needs to read Riegel.
2012-1-8: #35 State of the LP (Libertarian Party) Nation 1
Still makes a correction concerning Welch's speech used in the previous report where Welch says that America had been minding its own business for the last 140 years, which of course is false. In fact the government of the United States, which supposedly represents us, has intrigued against the indigenous populations here and abroad for most of the reasons supported by the greed of the few.
Still continues his report on the Libertarian Party, America's third largest political party by registration. He's still involved in the political process which as Riegel said was and is useless. We support Still's convictions, but his knowledge of all this (based from the liberty literature) is absent. He supports a kind of 10th Amendment initiative to decentralize power. We support this but consider his reliance on politics amounting to putting the cart before the horse. Jefferson was right, bank issuance must needs be suppressed, but we find the surest means of doing this would be the establishment of a new standard measure of value independent of any and all political forces that would ultimately subjugate governments everywhere to the will of the people, exposing the psychopaths and sociopaths that currently run things and forcing them into more “sustainable” lives along with the rest of us.
2012-1-16: #36 Meet the New Boss
Taking cues from The Who, what we have now is more of the same, the new boss is just like the old boss. About a year ahead of Still here, so far the patching job is working. But it wont forever. The banking monopoly of money based on debt continues of course. He's right to blame the banks and their system for states of hunger and poverty around the world. His brief analysis is accurate; the political system is irretrievably bound up with the banks. Still's bromide, “freedom for the middle class” should be extended both upward and downward as there is no freedom for those in the middle income brackets without freedom for the poor and even those who are a little richer than middle class but still not really rich. We're all enslaved by the same business models, promoted by the banks. The false solution, gold based money is of course correctly no solution. Riegel understood this and barely mentions it as gold backing is as irrational as relying on politics for any solution. Of course, Still, involving himself in politics, pleads for money. We see in hindsight what has happened; Obama won re-election, just as I and many others easily forecast.
2012-1-31: #37 Fort Knox
The History Channel's “America's Book of Secrets” programme is discussed, in which Still took part. 1953 was the last year the Ft. Knox reserves were audited. 1959 saw Ian Fleming's Goldfinger which described a Ft. Knox gold heist. Still has more on this story. Still admits that at one time he was a “gold bug” but over time and with more study changed his mind. So have I, but nothing has ever been like E. C. Riegel's very clear and obvious observations for he was able to see through all the ... claptrap of the economists I (and no doubt Still as well) have read, extending well back into the 18th century. It took an autodidact like Riegel to do it too, which if you have been following along, gives one a fair estimation of the current value of a college education.
2012-2-14: #38 Not So Fast Mr. Johnson
More Libertarian politics, seeing the spending of money as the name of the game. Gary Johnson believes that none of the bankers on Wall St. committed any crimes. A segment of Still's address is included. Johnson was a former Republican governor of New Mexico, so even if he entered the race behind Still, his money and connections were clearly an advantage. Riegel saw this as the kind of thing that's inevitable in politics so why would anyone with a straight conscience want to become involved in politics? The answer is power, because Still certainly believed at this stage that state power was the only credible game in town. It isn't, people meeting and trading with each other predates state power by many centuries. It is only with the emergence of state power that we begin to experience war as a factor in life for many because now it becomes possible for certain merchants and their financial backers to persuade the greedy and egotistical leaders of states, call them by whatever name you please, to send their peoples over the brink of war which is disaster for all who engage in it. The only actual winners of any armed conflict are those who financed it, and they usually cynically support both sides so they always make a profit. Meanwhile at this point Gary Johnson promises what he obviously cannot even deliver as his previous run for the GOP presidential bid was in the red some $200,000.
2012-2-20: #39 To the Georgia Libertarian Convention
After explaining some things concerning the LP convention in Atlanta, Georgia, the 8 major planks in Still's platform are reviewed:
The issues covered: Deconsolidation of power at every level. Again, a Value Unit system builds for each local community on up, therefore it is by nature deconsolidated. Abortion is a 10th Amendment issue certainly, no disagreement there. Decriminalization of marijuana and gay marriage are likewise seen as 10th Amendment issues, reserved to the states or the people in each locality to decide. Clawing back power by the states is mentioned. Separation of powers as a concept is central to the framers' ideas in the original US Constitution. Well of course, but since it is natural and would occur if all recourse to FORCE were excluded, it will devolve naturally through a Value Unit based system. He speaks about limiting the amount of money issued in an economy being limited by population growth and determined on a per capita (by the head) basis. This isn't new and was first encountered by me in the works of Milton Friedman, one of the very few mainstream economists I ever really liked, because Friedman always leaned in the direction of individual liberty, the hallmark of a genuine free enterprise economic system. He may be correct as far as he goes, but Still's solution amounts to setting up another bureaucracy to maintain the stupid and unworkable notion that money issuance belongs with government when as Riegel showed, it plainly does not. Concerning this point, the US Constitution was and is in error! He says go back to the Revolutionary War currency that was supposedly created in “the public interest.” The Colonials as they were known were eventually worthless. Nice try there. Again, Still has to get rid of the notion that any government can really know what “the public interest” is. They don't know and anyone that claims otherwise clearly has never critically examined this neat little phrase. Most of the rest of his remarks we have heard before, other than updates on these issues.
2012-3-2: #40 Borrowing is Good? Bill Still.mov
The current news of the time is reviewed, more borrowing from the biggest banks. It's currency wars. They did maintain through 2012 and Obama was re-elected. So it goes. It wont last however, whether the end comes next year or in 5 years or longer, it cannot last. One reason is that there are already too many people who have fallen out of this “musical chairs” economy who will be getting older with each passing month and begin to realize that there is no future for them. What are they supposed to do, go off somewhere and die quietly so that the overlords of the banks and corporations can maintain their unsustainable lives? Look at it critically and objectively. Still correctly characterizes Gary Johnson as a cynical politician who says one thing but does another; he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
INTERMISSION
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