Financial topics

[Higgenbotham]

What the Snowden affair says to me is that this government is as thoroughly barbarous as I imagined it to be, and that it has strayed so far from first principles as to be unrecognizable.

"And he was talking about the appearance on the world stage of individuals, and he was speaking to the growth of the population and the appearance of new individuals coming into the mass of humanity, and these individuals evidently are barbarians. They came too suddenly to be educated and for the knowledge of how to keep the Western way of life alive. And so these people have increased and now they have taken over power and so now we're in the hands of barbarians. They have no idea of how our society came to be and what is necessary to keep it going. And they're fiddling with the controls. You might think of a monkey flying a 747. They have no idea what they are doing and this is not going to end well with the barbarians at the controls." --Hugo Salinas Price

As far as Snowden, he is in my mind sort of a character of "deus ex machina" who will inevitably appear at times like these to help carry the plot to its end point.

[aedens]

The Muslims are asking: Who are these persons.

http://prisonerofjoy.blogspot.be/2012/0 ... el-or.html

We have seen they are also dreaming of the man in white. I only asked why do you seek my childrens blood.

They have been told to stop killing christians from there leaders I have read. In the past I bear witness that
two of ours where spared for a night to flee for there very lives a time ago. I have no answers and do not need one.
I would tell them the same who spared the two under our charge then.

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.…

I have no other thought

[gerald]

An Ayn Rand interview by Mike Wallace 1959 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ooKsv_SX4Y

As things stand the US will be come dictatorship, the government provides the ground for the creation of monopolies and tyranny. The people are given no choice in politics.

An interesting interview.

She was not so far off, you think?

[gerald]

heading toward collapse --- WaPo Praises The Joy Of Being "Untethered" And "Unleashed" From A Job, The "Freedom" Of Unemployment
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-0 ... employment

" highlights just how "enabling" and "liberating" Obamacare is for one's life, once a person is no longer burdened by something as trivial as a job."

"The CBO acknowledged that there could be some positive economic impacts from unleashing people from their jobs"

"We hate to break it to you, but "adjusting" to living on the welfare of others, while being untethered, and unleashed from the tyranny of working (hard) and paying taxes is not exactly training for the Ironman Triathlon. Also, the final outcome when the entire population becomes untethered and unleashed is rather unpleasant - just see every socialist paradise in history."
------------------------------------------------------------

If the singularity comes why are people needed? -- kill them all -----sarcasm ----- boy are things f'd up. -- see the interview of Ayn Rand above.

[Higgenbotham]

An Ayn Rand interview by Mike Wallace 1959 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ooKsv_SX4Y

As things stand the US will be come dictatorship, the government provides the ground for the creation of monopolies and tyranny. The people are given no choice in politics.

An interesting interview.

She was not so far off, you think?

Thanks, very interesting. Not far off.

Highlights, then more below the line. Ayn Rand in 1959:

"And the regulations are creating robber barons, they are creating capitalists with government help, which is the worst of all economic phenomenon."

"If the present collectivist trend continues, if the present anti-reason philosophy continues, yes, that is the way the country is going (toward dictatorship and economic disaster)."

"Under a free system no one could acquire a monopoly on anything. If you look at economics, and economic history, you will discover that all monopolies have been established with government help, with the help of franchises, subsidies, or any kind of government privileges."

"Study economics, a free economy will not break down. All depressions are caused by government interference, and the cure is always offered, so far, to take more of the poisons that caused the disaster. Depressions are not a result of a free economy. "

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AR: The traditional American system was a system based on the idea that majority will prevailed only in public or political affairs. And that it was limited by inalienable individual rights, therefore I do not believe that a majority can vote a man's life, or property, or freedom away from him. Therefore, I do not believe that if a majority votes on any issue, that this makes the issue right, it doesn't.

MW: Alright, then how do we arrive at action? How should we arrive at action?

AR: By voluntary consent, voluntary cooperation of free men, unforced.

MW: And how do we arrive at our leadership? Who elects, who appoints?

AR: The whole people elects. There is nothing wrong with the democratic process in politics. We arrive at it, the way we arrived by the American Constitution as it used to be. By the constitutional powers, as we had it, people elect officials, but the powers of those officials, the powers of government are strictly limited. They will have no right to initiate force, or compulsion against any citizen, except a criminal. Those who have initiated force will be punished by force, and that is the only proper function of government. What we would not permit is the government to initiate force against people, who have hurt no one, who have not forced anyone. We would not give the government, or the majority, or any minority, the right to take the life or the property of others. That was the original American system.

MW: When you say take the property of others, I imagine that you are talking now about taxes.

AR: Yes I am.

MW: And you believe there should be no right by the government to tax. You believe that there should be no such thing as welfare legislation, unemployment compensation, regulation during times of stress, certain kinds of rent controls, and things like that.

AR: That's right. I'm opposed to all forms of control. I am for an absolute laissez-faire, free, unregulated economy. Let me put it briefly, I'm for the separation of state and economics. Just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful co-existence among different religions, after a period of religious wars, so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony, and justice among men.

MW: You are certainly enough of a political scientist to know that certain movements spring up in reaction to other movements. The labor movement for instance, certain social welfare legislation. This did not spring full blown from somebody's head. I mean, out of a vacuum. This was a reaction to certain abuses that were going on, isn't that true Ayn?

AR: Not always, it actually sprang up from the same source as the abuses. If by abuses you mean the legislation which originally, had been established to help industrialists, which was already a breach of complete free enterprise, if then, in reaction labor leaders get together to, initiate legislation to help labor, that is only acting on the same principle. Namely, all parties agreeing that it is proper for the state, to legislate in favor of one economic group or another. What I'm saying is that nobody should have the right neither employers nor employees to use state compulsion and force for their own interests.

MW: When you advocate for completely unregulated economic life in which every man works for his own profit. You're asking in a sense for a devil take the hindmost, dog eat dog society, and one of the main reasons for the growth of government controls, was to fight the robber barrons, to fight laissez-faire, in which the very people whom you admire the most, Ayn, the hard headed industrialist, the successful men, perverted the use of their power. Is that not true?

AR: No it isn't. This country was made not by robber barrons. But by independent men, by industrialists, who succeeded on sheer ability. By ability, I mean without political force, help, or compulsion. But at the same time there were men, industrialists who did use government power, as a club, to help them against competitors. They were the original collectivists. Today, the liberals believe that the same compulsion should be used against the industrialists for the sake of workers, but the basic principle there is, "Should there be any compulsion?" And the regulations are creating robber barons, they are creating capitalists with govenment help, which is the worst of all economic phenomenon.

MW: Ayn, I think that you will agree with me, when I say that, you do not have a good deal of respect for the society in which you and I currently live. You think that we're going down hill fairly fast. Now I would like you to think about this question, and you'll have a minute intermission to ponder it and then come back and answer it, "Do you predict dictatorship and economic disaster, for the United States, if we continue on our present course?" Do you? And we'll get Ayn Rand's answer in just a moment. And now back to our story. Alright Ayn Rand what I'd like to know is this, since you describe it as happening in your novel Atlas Shrugged, Do you actually predict dictatorship and economic disaster for the United States?

AR: If the present collectivist trend continues, if the present anti-reason philosophy continues, yes, that is the way the country is going. But, I do not believe in historical determinism, and I do not believe that people have to go that way. Men have the free will to choose and to think. If they change their thinking we do not have to go into dictatorship.

MW: Yes, but how can you expect to reverse this trend, when as we've said the country is run by majority rule, through ballot, and that majority seems to prefer to vote for this modified welfare state.

AR: Oh...I don't believe that. You know as well as I do, that the majority today has no choice. The majority has never been offered a choice between controls and freedom.

MW: How do you account for the fact, that an almost overwhelming majority of the people, whom are regarded as our leading intellectuals, and our leading industrialists, the men whom you seem to admire the most, the men with the muscle and the money, favor the modified capitalism that we have today.

AR: Ah...because it is an intellectual issue. Since they all believe in collectivism, they do favor it, but the majority of the people has never been given a choice, you know that both parties today are for socialism, in effect, for controls, and there is no party, there are no voices, to offer an actual, pro-capitalist, laissez-faire, economic freedom, and individualism. That is what this country needs today.

MW: Let me put one specific case to you. Suppose under your system of self-sufficiency, one single corporation were to get a stranglehold on a vital product, or a raw material, uranium for instance, which might be vital to the national defense, and then would refuse to sell it to the government. Then what?

AR: Under a free system no one could acquire a monopoly on anything. If you look at economics, and economic history, you will discover that all monopolies have been established with government help, with the help of franchises, subsidies, or any kind of government privileges. In free competition no one could corner the market on a needed product. History will support me.

MW: There is a deposit of uranium in Nevada, it's the only one in the United States, and it's our only access to that, and for self defense we need this. Whereas, lets say in the Soviet Union, the state is able to command that. And kind of a strange man, of strange beliefs, got ahold of this uranium, and said, "I will not sell this uranium to my government." He should not be forced by the government 02:51 → 02:53 (according to your philosophy) to sell that uranium?

AR: But you realize, that you are setting up an impossible fantasy. That is, if you are talking of any natural resource, that is vitally needed, it could not become vitally needed if it were that scarce. Not scarce to the point where one man could control all of it. So long as (I'm using your example) if a natural resource exists in more than one place in the world, no one man is going to control it.

MW: When industry breaks down momentarily, and there is unemployment, we should not be permitted to get unemployment insurance, social security we do not need. We'll depend upon the self-interest of these enlightened industrialists whom you so admire, to take care of things when the economy needs a little lubrication, and there are millions of people out of work. 05:00 → 05:04

AR: Study economics, a free economy will not break down. All depressions are caused by government interference, and the cure is always offered, so far, to take more of the poisons that caused the disaster. Depressions are not a result of a free economy.

[aedens]

Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head. Milton Mayer

When oil spikes like all recessions.

http://donny-allen.us/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvTI-LBopo0

2 Timothy 3:1-5, 10-14

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…. And from such people turn away!
"…all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned ..."

http://www.sott.net/article/273599-Desp ... r-al-Assad
this just getting warmed up guys it appears.... No idea when as we are sternly warned

http://www.crossroad.to/Persecution/persecute.html

[aedens]

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/flori ... z2sm9o1Tuq

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/atroc ... 1&at_pos=3

[aedens]

VIX did not play along with the late-day JPY-based surge in stocks

[aedens]

http://prisonerofjoy.blogspot.be/2012/0 ... el-or.html

Sources in Syria say that this was not the only case when witnesses saw some persons in white clothes, who participated in battles against the Alawites and helped Muslims. This story is just one of those rare occasions when such incidents were videotaped.

The Muslims are asking: Who are these persons - angels or heroes?

To engage in Plato's insistence of simple clarity that he could not put this mystic science into written form. What we have been able to discern in the essence of the dialectic that Plato's statements become plain and clear. Dialectic is an interpersonal activity which the participants enter a higher state of consciousness. They gain union with their Higher Self and create new understanding by the interaction and coalescence of ideas from all active participants to see. We are not different in thought but Human Action only.

review from b http://www.zerohedge.com/news/disinform ... w-it-works

Seal the border and keep your Winchester sited Boys. I have no pretenses on the direction or integritys we see.

[gerald]

Interesting ---

ANNAPOLIS, Md., February 10, 2014
State lawmakers in Maryland have filed emergency status legislation that seeks to cut the NSA’s Ft. Meade headquarters off from all material support stemming from the state

http://benswann.com/breaking-maryland-l ... z2sybH3O5P