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Read or Condemn Yourself to Death by Ignorance

For those courageous souls brave enough to look and see what is,

who are unwilling to blindly accept

the lies and rules of tyrannical authority.


Wednesday 13th February 2019


G’day #Name#,

Hope this finds you fit and well!

Here is a sampling of what crossed my digital desk over the last week.

A Future Worth Working For

Earth to Trump: America Is ALREADY A Socialist Country

Plummeting insect numbers ’threaten collapse of nature’

Concepts That Change Lives

Safe Heroin Injection Sites

Obama Funded ISIS

Even The Walls Have Ears

American Journalism

SEO Glossary of Terms

Edison On Education

On Yapping Dogs

Polkageists

I Before E Except After C

The World

Where Your Taxes Go

Energy Boost

Cannabis Use Increases Violence and Homicides

I hope you get something from it!

Cheers!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A Future Worth Working For
 
A Future Worth Working For
 
 
 

Now this is future scene with which I can agree and work towards!

 
 
 
 
Earth to Trump: America Is ALREADY A Socialist Country
 
 
 
 

by James Corbett corbettreport.com February 09, 2019

So it seems that something in Trump’s State of the Union speech has gotten the MAGA crowd all excited.

Was it this?
.... “My administration has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran. It is a radical regime. They do bad, bad things.”

Or this? .... “Two weeks ago, the United States officially recognized the legitimate government of Venezuela — (applause) — and its new President, Juan Guaidó. (Applause.)”

Well, yes, probably. But the money quote that government cheerleaders will be shoving down your throat for years to come is no doubt this: .... “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

Ahhh, music to the ears of any freedom-loving, libertarian-minded opponent of technocratic government control, right? Right. At the very least it was enough to inspire some congratulatory articles from Trump’s base and launch a funny meme or two.

But hey, wait a minute. I’ve seen politicians lie about things before. Could it be possible—and bear with me, I’m just spitballing here—that this statement might be inaccurate? Why yes. Yes, it could. So let’s examine a few pesky little details that contain some harsh truths that the red cap crowd don’t want to hear.

Now before the socialists in the crowd chime in with the “No True Socialism” fallacy, let’s define our terms. Or better yet, let’s let the Dissembler-in-Chief define them:

.... “Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence and not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

Yes, “socialism” is one of those slippery terms that can (and has) been defined a million different ways, but it’s pretty clear what way Trump is using it here. Socialism is government coercion, domination and control. Opposed to that is freedom from that control, i.e., political liberty and independence.

Alright, let’s take that definition as our starting point and see where it leads us.

If socialism is defined by government coercion, domination and control (in the name of “the people,” of course, i.e., “democratic socialism,”), then what do we call it when there are: .... Government agents dedicated to stopping farmers from selling raw milk? .... Enforcers of the state whose job it is to stop people feeding the homeless? .... Government licensing requirements for driving, fishing, cutting hair, getting married, selling lemonade, blogging, or engaging in literally thousands of other everyday activities? .... Government mandated geographical areas in which one can (or cannot) exercise one’s right to free speech? .... Entire sections of the US Code devoted to policing the size, style, color and order of the words “Turkey Ham” on every package of ham turkey (OOPS! I mean “Turkey Ham”), and any number of other products? .... Tax laws in place that tell the average worker how much of their income they are allowed to keep?

Need I go on? Oh, OK. Americans also need: ..... Permission from the government to work. ..... Permission from the government to travel. ..... Permission from the government to play. ..... Permission from the government to study.

Oh, and who can forget that Americans have: .... A central bank owned by a gang of banksters who print the nation’s money into existence as debt owed back to themselves. .... A legal code so extensive that the average American commits three felonies a day. .... Intelligence agencies that record the entirety of every electronic communication flowing through the country (and then straight up lie to the American people about it). .... And a president who reserves the right to kill anyone he wants, including American citizens, anywhere on earth, at any time.

But, please, do tell me about how “America will never be a socialist country.” Let freedom ring!

Now you may think that this is all just an aberration. That the overarching, all-controlling, all-seeing nanny state is a perversion of the “constitutional republic” that once existed. That, with a little luck and with the right dictator in charge of the system, the country can be returned to the vision of the founding fathers. That American can be made great again, if you will.

Well, I have some bad news for you on that front, dear Trump supporter. This isn’t an aberration. This is what government is. It is its nature. There is no political process that makes it better. You cannot vote yourself to freedom any more than slaves could vote their way off the plantation.

This is the point made by H.L. Mencken the better part of a century ago: .... “The state—or, to make the matter more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

And this is the same point made by Lysander Spooner a century and a half ago: .... “The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that–however bloody–can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave.”

Government, whatever form it may take, is by its nature a “socialist” system, at least in the sense intended by Trump in his speech. Its very existence depends on coercion, domination and control. Its raison d’ętre is to enforce a monopoly of power by the few over the many, and in its modern democratic socialist form it has even convinced those many that it “represents” them. That they are the government. And that the government will never be socialist.

Yes, I’m afraid I have to break it to those on the right side of the left/right delusion: your “leader” is wrong. Not only will America become a socialist nation, but it already is one. The government itself is proof of that.

Here’s how Trump could impress me. If he delivered this speech (courtesy of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon), officially disbanded the government, dropped the mic, and left Washington forever: .... “To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. … To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”

But until that happens, don’t bother me with nice-sounding, meaningless political blather, OK?

 
 
 
 
Plummeting insect numbers ’threaten collapse of nature’
 
Insects
 
 
 

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger animals that are easier to study. But insects are by far the most varied and abundant animals, outweighing humanity by 17 times. They are “essential” for the proper functioning of all ecosystems, the researchers say, as food for other creatures, pollinators and recyclers of nutrients.

Insect population collapses have recently been reported in Germany and Puerto Rico, but the review strongly indicates the crisis is global. The researchers set out their conclusions in unusually forceful terms for a peer-reviewed scientific paper: “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet.

 
Button
 
 
 
Concepts That Change Lives
 
Concepts That Change Lives
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Safe Heroin Injection Sites
 
Safe Heroin Injection Sites
 
 
 

Or drug testing for pills at dance raves. Even IF the pill contains no toxic impurities it can still kill stone dead a person who’s system cannot process the drug.

The first law of economics is that there are always more things to spend money on than there is money to spend. So we all have to set priorities when allocating our resources.

If someone is spending my tax dollars I would prefer them to be spent properly educating kids as to the truth about drugs so those kids made the choice to not take them.

 
 
 
 
Obama Funded ISIS
 
Obama Funded ISIS
 
 
 

Should be charged and tried! And the CIA, through which he routed the money, should be disbanded!

 
 
 
 
Even The Walls Have Ears
 
Even The Walls Have Ears
 
 
 

Been many a year since I heard that expression!

 
 
 
 
American Journalism
 
 
 
 

My friend Bruce Wiseman writes:

The state of journalism in the United States today has fallen to such a level that it no longer deserves the name. Major news publications, as well as network and cable news shows, are little more than partisan political theater.

”Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the news media reports with an intentional bias, according to a new survey.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poll-70-percent-of-americans-believe-news-media-is-intentionally-biased

Television producers and newspaper editors manipulate their content to forward partisan agendas - not to inform, but to persuade. And some are known journalistic whores for the CIA and other segments of government intelligence.

There are a few with the guts and integrity, to tell the truth, and tell it accurately and with reason. Sharyl Attkinsson brings a high confront of evil to the stage of investigative journalism. You can find real news at her site, including her take-no-prisoners challenge of the U.S. surveillance state. https://sharylattkisson.com

But, no one touches Glenn Greenwald. The icon of investigative journalism and recognized, worldwide, as a beacon of integrity in media, Greenwald continues to shine the light of truth on suppressive sectors of society with uncommon intelligence.

His reporting of the Edward Snowden disclosures, the subject of the documentary Citizen Four, won the academy award for the best documentary, while the team he oversaw at The Guardian won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their reporting on the National Security Administration (NSA).

It’s not partisan with Greenwald, it’s patriotic. His viewpoints are grounded in the Constitution, individual liberty and the common man’s right to privacy.

Case in point, his recent expose of Amazon’s deeply incestuous relationship with U.S. government intelligence. It is published in Greenwald’s online publication, The Intercept.

It is an eye-opening read.

https://theintercept.com/2019/02/08/jeff-bezos-protests-the-invasion-of-his-privacy-as-amazon-builds-a-sprawling-surveillance-state-for-everyone-else/

I have an on again, off again relationship with The Intercept. Many of the articles written by the publication’s journalists are in fact leftist, policy-driven polemics.

But Greenwald is unique. He’s not really left or right. I’ve seen him interview Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the vacuous new princess of the political left who has beautiful eyes, signature red lipstick and the intelligence of a vat of buttermilk, but also attack John Brennan, the venomous former director of the CIA.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2017/07/09/former-cia-director-john-brennan-dishonorable-trump-say-honor-meet-putin/

Reading his piece on Bezos above, you can see the reason he brings to a powerful story. He does not focus on the now public sexual indiscretion of the richest man in the world, but the irony of somebody snatching copies of the nude photos that he shared with his mistress while Amazon has become a prime contractor for massive government surveillance programs.

Many months ago, The Intercept published a powerfully researched piece on how the CIA and some of the other spook farms funded Google when it was in its forming stages – when Larry Page and Sergey Brin were developing the initial Google algorithm as graduate students at Stanford.

That’s right, government intelligence agencies provided early seed money for Google.

I wrote an article for The Hard Truth based on this research (which I fully acknowledged). I have my nose into this area more than most, but what I discovered was jaw-dropping.

If you are interested in understanding how it is that Google is essentially a front for government intelligence, buy this one issue of The Hard Truth. https://www.thehardtruthmag.com/all-issues/issue-no-09-2016/

I would love to have you as an annual subscriber ($34.95, 12 issues plus access to the entire archive covering investment recommendations and political issues of import), but whether or not you become an annual subscriber, give this article a read. It will blow your mind.

Best,
Bruce

 
 
 
 
SEO Glossary of Terms
 
 
 
 

I was sent a Glossary of SEO Terms that I thought you might find useful:

 
Button
 
 
 
Edison On Education
 
Edison On Education
 
 
 

And that was 100+ years ago! How much worse has it gotten since?

 
 
 
 
On Yapping Dogs
 
On Yapping Dogs
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Polkageists
 
Polkageists
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
I Before E Except After C
 
I Before E Except After C
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
The World
 
The World
 
 
 

This has some limited workability. I feel it applies very well to posessions but do not feel it applies at all to improving myself, my skills and abilities.

 
 
 
 
Where Your Taxes Go
 
Where Your Taxes Go
 
 
 

This is US data. I do not know ours. But one could be forgiven for thinking the system is not working well for the common man!

 
 
 
 
Energy Boost
 
Energy Boost
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Cannabis Use Increases Violence and Homicides
 
 
 
 

Here are two extracts from a longer article, well worth your reading time to be accurately informed on the subject.

The most obvious way that cannabis fuels violence in psychotic people is through its tendency to cause paranoia—something even cannabis advocates acknowledge the drug can cause. The risk is so obvious that users joke about it and dispensaries advertise certain strains as less likely to induce paranoia. And for people with psychotic disorders, paranoia can fuel extreme violence. A 2007 paper in the Medical Journal of Australia on 88 defendants who had committed homicide during psychotic episodes found that most believed they were in danger from the victim, and almost two-thirds reported misusing cannabis—more than alcohol and amphetamines combined.

Yet the link between marijuana and violence doesn’t appear limited to people with preexisting psychosis. Researchers have studied alcohol and violence for generations, proving that alcohol is a risk factor for domestic abuse, assault, and even murder. Far less work has been done on marijuana, in part because advocates have stigmatized anyone who raises the issue. But studies showing that marijuana use is a significant risk factor for violence have quietly piled up. Many of them weren’t even designed to catch the link, but they did. Dozens of such studies exist, covering everything from bullying by high school students to fighting among vacationers in Spain.

So the black tide of psychosis and the red tide of violence are rising steadily, almost unnoticed, on a slow green wave.

 
Button
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Until next time,
dream big dreams,
plan out how to achieve them,
be continually executing your plans,
enlist people to your causes,
travel and/or read widely, preferably both,
all the while observing what you observe
rather than thinking what you are told to think,
think well of your fellow man,
take time to help your fellow man,
he sorely needs it and it will help you too,
eat food that is good for your body,
exercise your body,
take time to destress,
and do the important things
that make a difference -
they are rarely the urgent ones!

Tom

 
 

Most of the content herein has been copied from someone else. Especially the images. My goodness some people are talented at creating aesthetics! The small bits that are of my creation are Copyright 2014-2018 © by Tom Grimshaw - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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