There is an Upside

By
eric
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75
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As bad as things are, there is one good thing that has arguably come of it all. It is that probably half the country – and if we’re lucky, it’s more than that – no longer assumes the government is benevolent.

This is a very different thing than the previous assumption that the government is merely incompetent.

Incompetence is an annoyance. It is something that bugs competent people when they’re forced to deal with it – or pay for it. But it is qualitatively different from malevolence.

Dr. Fauci is an example of malevolence rather than incompetence. He is not a stupid man. He is an evil man. He knew what he advocated is untrue, vicious. Yet he pushed forward with a deliberate sadism that the mere incompetent is incapable of. It is the difference between a well-intended kid who meant to surprise his dad by changing the oil in his car who accidentally cross-threads the oil-drain bolt keeping the oil in the engine – and the guy who puts sugar in the gas tank.

It’s the motive, in other words, that matters.

Government workers were once generally assumed to be motivated by a desire to help, even if that “help” was unwanted and resulted in more (and worse) problems than the ones supposedly being addressed. They mean well, many of us thought.

We thought wrong.

These are malicious people whose maliciousness has been magnified by the power of government. That is to say, by organized and legalized violence. That is fundamentally what “government” is, after all. In the very best of cases, this organized and legalized violence is limited such that those who are not themselves violent do not, in general, have to worry about legalized violence being directed at them. Most Americans probably felt (more or less) that they lived in a “free” country until the early 2000s – and it wasn’t an unreasonable feeling because it was (more or less) true.

It isn’t anymore – which is why you never hear anyone (outside of government) refer to America as a “free country” anymore. It had to be this way. It was destined to be this way. Because even the “limited government” Americans once enjoyed was like a baby gorilla.

It grew up.

The problem is that limited violence – what is meant by “limited government” – inevitably grows more and more violent. Eventually, its violence becomes ubiquitous, such that the individual who does no violence to anyone is nonetheless ubiquitously threatened by the violence of government.

Which brings us back to Dr. Fauci – who is merely a useful example and one of many.

Absent the organized/legalized violence of government, Dr. Fauci’s capacity to menace people would be very . . . limited. He himself is not capable of much harm because he is a mousy little man most men could easily deal with, in the event that became necessary. If he did not have the muscle of the government behind him, he’d be nothing more menacing than an annoying personage easily avoided. He might perhaps harm a few unsuspecting people who trusted him and took his advice. But he would not have the legalized and legally enforceable power to harm.

There is, as the saying goes, a lesson in there somewhere.

And an irony, too.

It is the one Lysander Spooner – one of the earliest expositors of libertarian philosophy –  laid out a long time ago. He said – words to the effect – that if government is necessary to restrain evil men, how do we go about restraining a government under the control of evil men?

In other words, who watches the watchmen?

In theory, a “limited” government does – but (of course) it can’t. All it can do is temporarily impede malicious men, who will always be among us because that defect of the mind or soul or however you’d like to describe it will always be with us, as human beings. It is knowledge of an acceptance of this fact that limits government. Not a Bill of Rights. Certainly not a ballot box. Rather, a general awareness that government cannot be trusted because you cannot trust people with the power of government. Because government always and inevitably attracts dangerous people such as Dr. Fauci – who is merely one example out of millions now.

Part of the problem is the absence of direct correction when mistakes are made. Absent government, there is in general an immediate price to be paid when we as individuals err. If we are incompetent in our work, we quickly find that others are unwilling to pay us for our incompetent work. We either become competent or we find a new line of work. This is a consequence of not being in a position to force anyone to pay for our work – or our mistakes.

But the biggest problem – once government is involved – is recognizing that we’re not dealing with mere incompetence in the presence of such as Dr. Fauci, et al. In realizing that we make a mistake in giving such people the benefit of the doubt.

Millions now understand what a mistake that was – and is – and have resolved to never make the same mistake again. It is a revelation that is curative and so necessary. And that is the great upside to everything bad that has happened since “Dr. Fauci” became a household name four-plus years ago.

. . .

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  2. The Electric Car Upside . . .
  3. An Upside of the Lockdowns
  4. But Then We’d Have Anarchy!
  5. Standing up To Heroes…

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

75 COMMENTS

  2. So there’s is no solution? Is the cartoon correct in that discussing Libertarian philosophy is pointless when you’re about to be executed by a government goon anyway?

  4. In the musical words from Country Joe McDonald, somehow the words fit for today’s malaise.

    Gimme an F

    Gimme a U

    Gimme a C

    Gimme a K

    What’s that spell?

    What’s that spell?

    What’s that spell?

    What’s that spell?

    It’s war a go-go, man.

    Plenty of money to be made selling the tools of the trade.

    • ‘Munitions made in the United States were used in the deadly Israeli strike on a displacement camp in Rafah on [May 26]. At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 others injured after a fire broke out following the Israeli military’s strike on the outskirts of Gaza’s southernmost city, most of them women and children.

      ‘In video shared on social media, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb is visible, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed the video for CNN. The GBU-39 is manufactured by Boeing.’

      https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/28/middleeast/gaza-us-munitions-rafah-strike-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html

      When the ghastly Nimarata skank, on a visit to Israel last month, autographed a GBU-39 with ‘Finish them! America ♡ Israel,’ it wasn’t just an ideological statement. It was product promotion by a former Boeing board member, to line her own filthy, reeking pockets with dirty shekels. And it pays better than working the glory hole, she’s learned.

      • In the words of the Great Mogambo: “we have an economic system where the definition of debt = money, then thus less debt= less money. This is not so chilling until you realize that less money = losses.”

        It’s always gloom and doom, every doggone day.

        • No kidding. I was recalling the great Mogambo earlier this week, with his penchant for ULKATA (Uniquely Long, Kiss-Ass Trenchant Acronyms).

          ‘DAUGHTY, Richard B. age 74, departed this life peacefully February 10, 2022, at his home with his wife by his side. His work life was wide and varied from first mate on a tugboat to the “job” he loved most, spreading his economic message writing the Mogambo Guru newsletter that always ended with “Ugh!” His second love was music. He was passionate about Mozart and bluegrass.’

          https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tampabaytimes/name/richard-daughty-obituary?id=33330298

    • And it’s 1 – 2 – 3
      What are we fighting for?
      Don’t ask I don’t give a damn
      Next stop is Ukie-land
      And it’s 5 – 6 -7
      Open up the pearly gates
      Ain’t no time to wonder why
      Whoopie! We’re all gonna die

      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0VQ6EFYfgU
        Time for some new lyrics*, eh?
        Well, here’s a start…
        Old “Joe Biden” told the nation
        This is not Americanization
        We’re only lending technical advice
        Shoot those rockets straight for Moscow
        Using our American know how
        For a wider war it’s time to roll the dice.

        *Every so often, the US Gov’t has to start a crappy little war, just to a) show the world what a-holes they really are, b) kill a lot of foreigners for no good reason, and c) make lotsa money for offense (mistakenly called “defense”) contractors.
        That’s just the way the world works, folks.

      • From the late John Prine we have:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_vTY67Wd9I

        From which might follow:
        Well, I packed my bags and bought myself a ticket
        To the land of the date palm tree
        Hello, Prince Sultan Air Base
        And goodbye, Tennessee
        I just stepped down from the airplane
        When I heard my Captain say
        Whacka whacka, nuke a city
        Whacka whacka, nuke a city
        Would you like to play?

        Hey!

        Let’s play dirty in the Middle East
        We can bomb all day
        Rockets fly in the Eastern sky
        You might die today…

  5. “A Free People ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include, their own government”.
    ― George Washington

    &

    “All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”

    ― Frank Herbert

  7. “It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.” Ludwig von Mises

  8. My transformation from merely “conservative” to “Libertarian” began over thirty years ago. During a conversation with one of my more intelligent friends, I was bemoaning another ignorant government decree and wondered how they could be so stupid. He pointed out they weren’t “stupid”, they were “evil” and so began my journey. I have little use for government and find it fascinating that society allows itself to be “ruled” over by a small cadre of elites. The whole concept is ridiculous.

  9. In the old vertical rule system, the old world order…feudal system….the king at the top, slaves on the bottom…an absolute monarchy

    In the old feudal system..an absolute monarchy…..the 1st son got to be king…the other sons got nothing….

    To provide employment to the other sons, they changed the system….to a republic……the slaves were given the right to vote…….all the sons took turns being the president for 4 or 5 years….

    The freemasons are the political arm of the slave owning aristocracy…. when you vote you get the choice of two or more freemasons…an illusion of choice….all USA presidents have been Freemasons except JFK….this stops slave friendly or anti control group people from being elected…..which would be dangerous to the slave owners….

    The freemasons are a religious cult that worships satan…so a satanic cult is running the place….don’t expect great results…..

    these two freemasons are marketed as polar opposites…..a leftist and a conservative….this gives slaves the illusion of two different teams…the divided slaves… through this belief… hate and fight each other over their belief…..this hatred and fighting is turned up to ten…see current events…this guarantees the slaves won’t cooperate and take out the slave owners…

    Traitor slaves are hired to run the government…they help the slave owners….and are well paid…

    At least two groups cooperate with the slave owners too…some women and the LGBQT…….

    replacement slaves are being imported to further divide slaves and get rid of the trouble makers..the white slaves….

    All wars are conflicts, disagreements, between the slave owning groups on the top….

    The slave owning nobility, the monarch’s….with their royal bloodlines, going back to the pharaoh kings, running prison planet….the pharaoh’s were a satanic cult….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WskoJJ3OBOo

    • “Master bedroom” can evoke the language of slavery, where the term “master” was used for slave owners. It also carries connotations of male dominance in households. Use “primary bedroom” or “main bedroom” instead.

      No. Go fuck yourself. Wait until these morons find out about manual transmissions and the attendant cylinders.

    • ‘”Thug” is frequently used to stereotype Black individuals,’ writes MSM stenographer ‘Joe Frankel.’

      That’s just ignorant. As ‘Frankel’ could have learned in ten seconds on Wikipedia, ‘thug’ traces its roots to the Hindi word ठग (áą­hag), meaning ‘swindler’ or ‘deceiver’. The British imported the word from their Indian colony in the 1830s.

      Here is an example of its correct usage:

      The ghastly brown Nimarata entity is a degenerate thug.

      • The British do a fine job of distorting language; my favorite is “worthy Oriental gentlemen”, otherwise known as wogs.

        • LOL.
          Or, alternatively, “Westernized Oriental gentlemen.”
          To be spoken in a strong Mancunian accent:
          “So we said to the Pakistani, ‘Fook off, ya wog,’ and fook off ‘e did.”
          [/Manc]

  12. There’s a great deal of compelling insight packed into those 887 words Eric. And there’s no mistaking for what it is; a short, but classic libertarian discourse on the subject of what has always been the greatest scourge of humanity: government. . .or, more precisely, the people who make up the government.

    A group of govt workers are no more moral or virtuous than a group of people randomly picked out of a phone book. But I’ll be darned if many people today still cling to the notion that they are. One more time Scotty, beam me up, and hurry.

    H. L. Mencken: “If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.”

  13. Nice article, Eric! We need more of this!

    “probably half the country – and if we’re lucky, it’s more than that – no longer assumes the government is benevolent.”

    I’ve seen no proof of any such thing. What I do see is half of the country believing that the administration in power at any given time is malevolent, while believing that if their party were at bat, it would be benevolent.

    This is the very purpose of the political theater we’re constantly treated to. It’s participants (voters) assume that their party is benevolent, and the other party is malevolent. So, by alternating which party has control, at any given time you have half of the country loving the current admin, while the other half actively vies to get their party in control, and never is the idea of government itself challenged. It just becomes a matter of whose brand of tyranny one supports, while the supporters of the “other party” are deemed more evil than the politicians whom they support. Thus the tyrants never have to worry about the people actually seeing what’s behind the curtain (and realizing that it’s the same thing, no matter which group of actors [party] is “in” at any given moment).

    Trump supporters only believe that the Democrat admin is corrupt because it prosecuted their hero, while Biden supporters only think Republicans are corrupt because they prosecuted Biden Jr. THIS is what you are seeing. NOT a belief that government is corrupt, but rather that “only the other side’s government is corrupt”. If anything, these shenanigans have served to incite stronger loyalties between the respective parties and their supporters, so that the hatred between the two sides is more evident. And that hatred is aimed more at the people than at the actual politicians. And sadly this seems to be making people more zealous for their preferred brand of government, rather than causing them to question the very premise of government. Bernaysian subterfuge at it’s best! (Err, worst).

    • PS. Just watch what happens, as proof of how deluded the general public is, and where their loyalties truly lie: When the next “pandemic” [probably this bird flu nonsense] becomes more propagated, I guarantee you we will be seeing throngs of people SCREAMING for the government to take severe measures against those of us who refuse to play along.

      Sure, in our own echo-chamber, among the people we choose to deal with, who share at6 least a semblance of our viewpoint and tend to “get it”, it may look like people have seen the light. But if one samples the opinion of the general public -what one hears on the street; what one sees in comment sections of mainstream articles or general interest platforms, it paints quite a different view. The general public considers US to be the malevolent ones, and sees their elected heroes as their protectors. They think WE’RE the ones they need protecting from! “Those loons who didn’t even have the common decency to wear a mask or get vaccinated! We’ll have none of that, this time!”.

      If one reads the Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion, one of the biggest take-aways is that fear of SICKNESS and disease will be used to control the thoughts and actions of “the gentiles”. And whether one believes that the aforementioned book is legit or fraudulent [I do not profess to know], one can not deny the reality of what it says, and how it is being implemented before our very eyes.

      _______
      Fuck “Israel”!
      Fuck DJT “The Best Friend Israel Ever Had®
      Fuck Pedo Joe

      • “sees their elected heroes as their protectors.”

        couldn’t be more stupid then that…a satanic cult runs the prison planet….beating and robbing the slaves 24/7/365……

  14. >This is a very different thing than the previous assumption that the government is merely incompetent.
    — Eric

    Are you young folks just figuring this out?
    The presumption of government benevolence went out a long time ago, with the parents of us baby boomers. Hell, even my Dad (born 1920s) was cracking snarky anti-Nixon jokes in the 1970s, and I have no doubt he had voted for Crooked Dick in the past.

  15. It’s worse. The USA has been co-opted by a shitty little country (israel) which has a stranglehold over congress and much of the rest of the (unelected) government.
    Each American congresscritter and appointed official is assigned a jewish “handler” to make sure they promote jewish interests and do not depart from the official israel narrative. Two congresscritters who do not have jewish “handlers” are Thomas Massie and Rand Paul.
    In fact, IOF (israel occupation forces) military personnel are about to receive USA “veterans benefits”. I’ll bet they will be put at the head of the line, ahead of USA military personnel.
    Dual citizenship as well as foreign lobbying organizations (AIPAC, HIAS) are both problems that must be dealt with.
    The average (real) American has NO IDEA what is going on.

  17. There are those who blame capitalism or Trump for the problems of the past few years, completely ignoring that the problems we’ve been forced to endure are a result of too much government having too much control over every aspect of our lives. Another issue would be corporate capture of regulatory agencies like FDA, CDC, EPA, FCC, etc., which tends to put the interests of the industry they’re purportedly regulating instead of the “public interest”. For example, I’ve read that it was the pharmaceutical industry (as well as technocrats) that lobbied for government to implement MANDATES for people to take an experimental mRNA jab that, over time, proved to be NOWHERE near what it was sold as to the public. And now, they, along with psychopaths, appear to want to run ANOTHER fear porn campaign, this time around bird flu.

    Another example would be the military-industrial complex, who profits handsomely from endless war.

  18. In early 2020 I thought I was going crazy and could not understand what was going on. Everyone seemed to be under some mass dilusional hypnosis. Thank goodness for a few sites like this one and the voices of others like Tom Woods for keeping my sanity.

    • “Everyone seemed to be under some mass delusional hypnosis.”

      Read Dr. Robert Malone and Mattias Desmet. Mass formation psychosis is what you observed.

  19. I would say that Lysander Spooner quote is accurate but how many people deny it’s validity?

    I’m just curious if the printing of fiat currency starts people’s lack of trust in government or is it when they realize that their bank savings have dropped in value as their glorious leaders blame inflation on higher prices and not the inflation of the money supply that actually caused it?

    • ‘The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.’ — Vladimir Lenin

      Inflation destroys any ability to plan for the future. It engenders a ‘live for today, for who knows what tomorrow brings’ mentality. As the nude dancers used to sing in the Weimar cabaret:

      Ich bin ja so durchaus verlastert
      Ich bin ja so furchtbar verrucht
      Est gibt ja fĂĽr mich nichts mehr Neues
      Ich hab ja schon alle versucht

      I am so completely vice-ridden
      So crazily avid for fun
      I’ve tried all the thrills that are hidden
      There’s nothing new under the sun

      • Hi Jim. But the “West” is supposedly a free enterprise block and not a communist block. But thanks to crony capitalism and our power mad oligarchs and apparatchiks the only ones being crushed are the working men and women of the west.

  20. The recent rhetoric of the pro-Trumpers is getting very interesting. Here’s a video of Steve Bannon (who has to report to federal prison in July for a 4 month sentence for “contempt of Congress”). He’s telling the current regime that once Trump is elected, they will be coming after them. He even says that although they think they can avoid this by leaving the U.S. after the election, they will be extradited back for prosecution (go to minute 15:00 of the video). I’m not gonna lie. The thought of possible retribution against these bastards brings a little smile to my face.

    https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-steve-bannon-2

    • Isn’t contempt of congress the default position of a free man? Much like contempt of court, such institutions are worthy of only contempt.

      • Met with a Congressional staffer yesterday, who’s based here in the district. One day she had to fill in, fielding phone calls for the DC office. There were 142 voice mails, she said, many of them violent, obscene, mouth-breathing rants … along with ominous silences, weird background noises and feral howls.

        ‘I’m not doing telephone duty again,’ she averred wide-eyed.

    • >they will be extradited back for prosecution
      Except for the Jews, who will hide out in their beloved State of Israel to avoid “persecution.”
      Remind me again what fraction of top bureaucrats in the “Biden” regime are Jewish, and hence exempt from retribution under the above scenario. Remind me again about rats on sinking ships, while you are at it.

  21. We all know the line “Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what’s for supper.” What’s always ignored is that there are only two wolves. Not 50, not 535, just two.

    The value of the US confederacy was that there was no central authority. Of course who’s going to pay for the revolution, because France’s treasury has been looted and they’re wanting to be paid. Well, how about scrapping all that in exchange for debt forgiveness? Sure, we take a little power and you get debt jubilee. Just don’t ask for that power back…

    How did we get here? Well, the state legislatures sold us down the river. The only two states worth their salt these days are California and maybe Florida (although that’s not always been the case with FL). Not that CA is all that wonderful, but they do have a national veto. And lately FL seems to be telling DC to pound sand. Texas, for all their crowing about how they’re a Republic in of themselves, always seems to toe the Federal line. There’s money involved, after all.

    46 states in the U.S. have some form of balanced budget requirement. But how they get their revenue usually isn’t specified. So they go up to Uncle Sam, hat in hand, asking for a grant for this or that so they can keep their budget “in balance.” And pretty soon they figure out that there’s strings attached, so that you have to do things the way Uncle wants it done, adding more unnecessary cost. Hiring non-union labor for that new bridge? Nope. In fact, if you don’t pay the “average wage” for a union welder of color in your area, even if they don’t exist, well, you’re in violation of the terms in the spending bill. You want to bring in prisoners to dig ditches? Nope… has to go out to contractors, who have to have the proper ethnic and gender specific board makeup, and happen to have a pretty good relationship with your congressman. No rehabilitating prisoners, and 20X the cost for public works projects (and housing prisoners).

    Now that the two parties rule, the debate is who should get the power, not if it should exist. Seems like even the most well-intended SmĂ©agol becomes Gollum even when he has no idea what the ring’s true purpose is. We can only hope that Mr Frodo will carry the ring to the edge, but even then we remember that Frodo, when put to the ultimate test, hesitated. Only Gollum’s final reckless grab led to the demise of the ring.

    In the story, of course, everything pretty much went back to normal and they all lived happily ever after. But I’m not so sure that’s possible when the beltway “ring” is destroyed. The largess has become ingrained into the states to the point that the bench is pretty thin. Most activity is just following federal guidelines, and management is just there to rubber stamp and make a token contribution. Sure, there’s gingerbread laws that play on the periphery, but the core laws that run society are all federal in nature.

      • Good point. 🎵You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.🎶

        The states all get in line behind the party. Because they know that the “down ballot” gets little attention and they understand that once people start voting along party lines, they just go straight ticket, even if they don’t just check the D or R box at the top. The only elections that get any money at all are for federal seats, even though city councils have much more control over your day-to-day lives than you know. And they don’t get any attention at all, because the parties are very aware of how the masses vote.

        This is also why the Libertarian Party strategy of going for local seats is doomed to fail. They don’t have any money to offer candidates anyway, but even if they did, trying to spread ad spending amongst the 210 Designated Market Areas (DMA) for radio advertising, or targeted Google ads by zip code is a fool’s errand. So they continue to allow fools and clowns to take the stage at the national level in a lame-ass attempt to remain relevant.

    • ‘who’s going to pay for the revolution, because France’s treasury has been looted’ — Ready Kilowatt

      Maybe the looting has just begun:

      ‘Markets are increasingly anxious after French president Macron announced a snap legislative election following his party’s drubbing in the European Parliament elections. Investors fear a win for Marine Le Pen’s far-right [sic] National Rally party, which leads polls by a wide margin, will usher in looser fiscal policies.

      ‘The uncertainty sent the yield spread between French and German bonds soaring this week, on pace for the most on record.’

      https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/futures-slide-yields-tumble-european-turmoil-sparks-global-risk

      France and Germany are the two big countries at the core of the EU. Before the advent of the euro, the D-mark was a hard currency, based on Germans’ lasting horror of inflation after the Weimar blowout in the 1920s. Whereas France was part of the happy-go-lucky Club Med crowd, habitually devaluing the franc and even lopping off two zeroes in 1958.

      Given its sketchy history, France has been obliged to pay a higher interest rate than Germany on its government bonds — typically about 0.40% more during the euro era. This week the spread has spiked to 0.75%. It spells trouble, comrades.

      Death to the euro!

  22. If there is no god, then there are no unalienable God-given human rights.

    Just all a pigment of your deranged imagination.

    A book to read is Miracle on Main Street by F. Tupper Saussy.

    F. Tupper Saussy also wrote a book with the title ‘Rulers of Evil’.

    One book I have yet to read, but you can see F. Tupper is on to something.

    Gold is malleable, have two sheepskins, some gold between the two and start pounding. It’ll eventually become gold leaf. A small amount of gold leaf between your thumb and forefinger will disappear instantly by joining your thumb and forefinger together.

    You gotta do the old school method and bite the gold coin to find out if it is real or not.

    F. Tupper Saussy’s Miracle on Main Street will open your lying eyes.

      • Thing is, there’s a section of the human (mammalian?) brain that is set up for religion. Whatever is put there when you’re young tends to be what you believe. By not admitting this fact, they’re denying human nature. And their own beloved religion that fills the void, science. Or politics. Witness the weeping and gnashing of teeth over Trump’s election and rather benign “conservative” Supreme Court rulings. That’s not normal behavior, that’s a religious reaction.

  23. ‘Not a Bill of Rights. Certainly not a ballot box.’ — eric

    One restraint on government is a currency redeemable in gold.

    Historically, governments suspended gold redemption during wartime, as they desperately borrowed and printed scrip to fund the war. This happened during the Revolutionary War (‘not worth a continental’) and the War Between the States (Ape Lincoln’s greenbacks).

    Franklin Democrat Roosevelt’s suspension of gold redemption was unusual. It was a devaluation of the dollar during a global depression, rather than a wartime measure. But predictably, it served as a prelude to war just eight years later. It was during WW II that Treasury debt succeeded gold as the Federal Reserve’s largest asset. Today gold, whose final link to the dollar was severed in 1971, is just a footnote on the Fed’s balance sheet.

    Gold can’t stop bad people from governing. But by taking away their no-limit fiat currency credit card, gold restrains them from fantastic projects such as the $95 billion Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan folly passed in April — and the brewing WW III with Russia.

    Just as people don’t say ‘it’s a free country’ anymore, they don’t write verses like this anymore either:

    All the gold in California
    Is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills
    In somebody else’s name

    So if you’re dreaming about California
    It don’t matter at all where you’ve played before
    California’s a brand-new game

    — Larry Gatlin, All the Gold in California (1979)

    • They don’t even need to prohibit gold sales, etc. The price of gold is $2100 (last time I checked) and climbing. No one can afford it in sufficient quantities. An ounce of gold is not difficult to carry unless you are in a US airport, where they will just steal if from you. I bet the same would happen in a traffic stop, which happens over 10 million times a year.

      If you are in search of food, one ounce of gold buys a significant sum of groceries, but what if you don’t have antything smaller. The groceries will rot.

      Gold is kind of worthless

      • The case for gold is that it restrains government spending. Whereas redeemable paper currency (in effect, gold warehouse receipts) serves just fine for commerce.

      • Hi Gold,

        You can buy gold in fractional amounts; silver also. Both are excellent ways to protect yourself from the devaluation of fiat-inflated currency. The value of gold/silver may go up – or down – but I am unaware of a case in history of gold or silver ever becoming worthless. Unlike a Weimar Deutschmark. Or a Confederate dollar. Or a U.S. dollar (maybe soon).

        That said, I agree there are other ways to store value and shield wealth from external depredations. Almost anything that’s physical and of value falls into that category.

      • >If you are in search of food, one ounce of gold buys a significant sum of groceries, but what if you don’t have anything smaller.
        Copper is the new gold:
        https://commodity.com/precious-metals/copper/price/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20price%20of,the%20top%20of%20the%20page.
        >Copper is currently priced at $4.51 per troy ounce.
        Read more at: https://commodity.com/precious-metals/copper/price/
        Yes, folks, there is such a thing as copper bullion.
        And there are other metals, as well as other conveniently portable commodities.

        • Interesting recent news item….copper thieves are hitting EV charging stations as the price of copper is spiking…..the irony is palpable….

      • A stack of gold coins is far easier to store, hide, handle, and use than the next best thing, the equivalent value in silver. A little tube of one ounce Kruggerrands is, at today’s “prices” around $24000, while that same 24 grand in silver is closer to 900 ounces.

        While I enjoy a nice treasure bath as much as the next Roman, 900 ounces of silver is a lot of weight and far harder to secure from criminals (government and freelance).

      • Maybe the best way to get money out of the country is collectible watches….

        There are watches worth $500,000….you could probably get on a plane with it on your wrist without a problem…that can’t be done with cash or gold….

        Only collectors can spot an expensive watch,

        Collectible watches could be better then collectible cars or buying real estate….no maintenance, no compulsory insurance, no taxes when sold…you don’t register them like a car…so you own them….they hold their value, small, easy to hide,

  24. This is timely and excellent Eric.

    Most people severely underestimate the percentage of psychopathic personalities that are drawn to government.

    I have seen no studies, bit it would not shock me to learn that the percentage of people with psychopathic personalities are over-represented by at least an order of magnitude in government compared to the general population.

    Therein lies the problem: Those who desire to “Lead” (i.e. control) other people are generally those who should be nowhere near the levers of power.

    You are correct: COVID was a good practice run. I lost some “friends” during this exercise.

    Better to lose them then than finding this out after the shit really hits the fan.

    • If 10% of the people are psychopaths, that means about 1 in 20 people you meet are one. Because at least half of them are in Washington DC or State capitols.
      There is only one cure for psychopathy. It involves not breathing anymore. A great way to cut CO2 emissions.

      • Hi John,
        1% of people are psychopaths. 10% of CEOs are psyhopaths. While they are evil most government parasites are largely narcissists. Psychopaths lack emotion and can be reasoned with. Narcissists can only be shoot on spot. They would kill their kids and burn their house just to please their ego (that will never be pleased). They also never admit they are wrong.

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