August 19th = Cost of Government Day

[eyer]

"Cost of Government Day (COGD)" =

"the day of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government on the federal, state, and local levels, is now August 19, the latest date ever recorded. This means that the average American must work 230 days, or 63% of the year, to pay for the full cost of government. It also means that you keep only 37 percent of your labor. 63 out of every 100 hours you work is to pay for government."

Freedom to Feudalism

by Ethan Jacobs, J.D., Activist Post

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yXInOrfmi7A/Tj_Srp7m19I/AAAAAAAAKZ4/VIhqLyq301I/s200/FredaLibertyUpended1.jpg
Anthony Freda Liberty Upended​

"When the Freemasonic “republic” called the United States was founded in 1776, there was no income tax and the people were generally free to do what they liked, so long as they did not injure the person or property of another. Unfortunately, each year the state and federal governments, which have always been controlled by “special interests,” passed more and more laws, destroying the people's freedom - death by a thousand cuts. The United States and the rest of the world now live under the New World Order's refined neo-feudal system.

"Feudalism was present in medieval Europe:

"Feudal systems in antique societies usually had the common feature of being ruled by an extremely wealthy and powerful upper class (nobles and aristocrats) with nearly complete legal power over the lives and well-being of the impoverished lower classes of laborers, craftsmen, service professionals, farmer workers, and bond-servants (individuals with debts so excessive that their only legal options were debtor's prison, life as homeless 'outlaws,' or service to the upper class as serfs or houseservants). The feudal upper classes were not subject to the same set of laws as the lower classes. Thus one of the basic criteria for categorizing a society feudalistic might be simply that its laws and customs are designed to best serve the landed and wealthy while offering substantially lesser legal protections to the landless and working classes and those in debt.

"Sound familiar?

"Neofeudalism is what we have now:

"Neofeudalism literally means 'new feudalism' and implies a contemporary rebirth of policies of governance and economy reminiscent of those present in many pre-industrial feudal societies. The concept is one in which government policies are instituted with the effect (deliberate or otherwise) of systematically increasing the wealth gap between the rich and the poor while increasing the power of the rich and decreasing the power of the poor."

"For the serfs (individual workers and producers), the Cost of Government Day (COGD), the day of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government on the federal, state, and local levels, is now August 19, the latest date ever recorded. This means that the average American must work 230 days, or 63% of the year, to pay for the full cost of government. It also means that you keep only 37 percent of your labor. 63 out of every 100 hours you work is to pay for government.

"For the lords (banksters, “royalty,” large corporations and think tanks) such as General Electric, no federal taxes were paid in 2010 on U.S. profits of $5.1 billion. Similarly, between 2008 and 2010, Wells Fargo made a total profit of $49.37 billion dollars. Over that same time period, their tax bill was negative $681 million, meaning that Wells Fargo actually received 681 million dollars back from the U.S. government (excluding bailout funds).

"Review this list of taxes, fees, and regulations and then try to sing the Star-Spangled Banner with sincerity. Is the U.S. really land of the free and home of the brave? Or is it a nation of beaten down serfs trying to survive in the “green service economy?” Have we the serfs been conditioned to let our corporate and government lords whip us harder Kunta Kinte in Roots, as his fellow slaves stood idly by, too scared overthrow the slave master they greatly outnumbered?

"In fact the average American worker must labor 74 days just to cover the costs of federal, state, and local regulations. As economist Paul Craig Roberts writes:

Few Americans realize that over the last 94 years they have been enserfed and have no more rights to their own labor than medieval serfs or 19th-century slaves… In 'free' America today, ordinary Americans have no more claim to their own labor than a medieval serf. Some 19th-century slaves, whose skills were worth more in towns than on plantations, were leased by their owners to businesses in towns. The businesses would remit half of the slave's wages to the owner. Out of the remainder, slaves could save enough to purchase their freedom. Today, we cannot purchase our freedom from the IRS.

"However, the international banksters that own the private federal reserve and control the federal government live like royalty. After years of making huge profits during the real estate bubble, the banks have been bailed-out during the post bubble collapse.

"The U.S. Federal Reserve gave out $16.1 trillion in emergency loans to U.S. and foreign financial institutions between Dec. 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010, according to figures produced by the government's first-ever audit of the central bank. Last year, the gross domestic product of the entire U.S. economy was $14.5 trillion. Of the $16.1 trillion loaned out, $3.08 trillion went to financial institutions in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium, the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) analysis shows. Out of all borrowers, Citigroup received the most financial assistance from the Fed, at $2.5 trillion. Morgan Stanley came in second with $2.04 trillion, followed by Merill Lynch at $1.9 trillion and Bank of America at $1.3 trillion.

"Likewise, tax-free foundations such as those of Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, and Bill and Melinda Gates pay no taxes while influencing political and social policy.

"In conclusion, those living in the United States and most of the world are serfs in a Neo-feudal system controlled by an extremely small number of bankster/globalist lords. However, abolishing this system and restoring man to his natural and fee state is possible. To accomplish this, the largest banks and corporations must be boycotted and the private Federal Reserve dissolved. Additionally, all stocks of globalist corporations must be sold, including shares of mutual funds that invest in them."

Ethan Jacobs is founder of Beachday Surfwear. He holds a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Ethan’s passion is researching and writing about important issues to defeat every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/08/freedom-to-feudalism.html

 

[Sean Renaud]

You're not making a good case for not raising the taxes on the rich here. You're making an excellent case for soaking the shit out of them.

 

[eyer]

You're not making a good case for not raising the taxes on the rich here. You're making an excellent case for soaking the shit out of them.

You're no different than the "rich" you claim to despise, son...

...force is force no matter how you rationalize it.

Perhaps you should reread the last two lines of the piece to inform yourself what individual responsibility actually is...

 

[eyer]

Is the Fed Treasonous?

by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

August 19, 2011

(Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.)

The neoconservative talking heads recently took a short time out from praising, deifying, and anointing Texas Governor Rick Perry as the next president of the United States to chastise him for criticizing the Fed. In particular, he was taken to the neocon woodshed for saying that the printing of trillions of dollars of paper currency was harmful to the economy and, since we are in a depression, such an act was "almost treasonous."

Governor Perry could not have been referring to the actual definition of treason that is contained in Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads as follows:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. (emphasis added).

The only Americans who were ever guilty of treason under this definition would have been Abraham Lincoln, his cabinet, the "Civil War" Congress, the Union Army command, and all army volunteers from the Northern states during the War to Prevent Southern Independence. Waging war against the Southern states was the very definition of treason under the U.S. Constitution.

Lincoln rhetorically redefined treason to essentially mean criticism of himself and his government. This has always been the preferred definition of treason by American statists, beginning with Daniel Webster, who attempted to redefine it as such in his famous debate over the nature of the union with Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Lincoln simply adopted Webster’s subterfuge while subverting the Constitution with his war.

So where does the Fed fit in here? Was Governor Perry totally off base when he said the Fed’s irresponsible and reckless behavior is "almost treasonous." The Fed is not "treasonous" according to the actual definition of treason in the Constitution. But what the Fed is guilty of is being the financial handmaiden of the subversion of constitutional government in America ever since its founding in 1913. It has helped to finance all of America’s unconstitutional wars and other "military adventures," for example, beginning with the Korean War. Congress no longer declares war, as required by the Constitution, and then disguises the costs of war with debt and with money creation by the Fed. Without the Fed, there would have been fewer unconstitutional wars over the past 60 years, and the wars that did occur would have been shorter.

World War I was a nightmare for civil liberties in America, with governmental goons literally imprisoning people for such "crimes" as reading the Bill of Rights in public. The Fed financed about one fourth of that war, and is therefore partly responsible for such atrocities. The same is true for World War II and all the other wars, including the most recent ones, where state power was used to trample on the civil liberties of American citizens (as always, in the name of "preserving" those same liberties for us).

World War I also introduced socialistic central planning to America with the government policy of "war socialism," which included the nationalization of numerous industries and the dictating of prices and production quotas in many others. All price controls are a violation of the contract clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits laws that abridge legal contracts, such as those between buyers and sellers or employers and employees. The contract clause, and much of the rest of the Constitution, was simply ignored during the World War I years and in the succeeding decades, especially during the Roosevelt administration. The Fed was instrumental in making this possible by financing such interventions.

In his book, Takings, legal scholar Richard Epstein made the argument that both the New Deal and "Great Society" programs were all unconstitutional under the actual constitution despite the fact that generations of lawyers have created case law that essentially rewrites the document as being a toothless inhibitor of governmental powers. All of these government programs have been partly financed by the Fed.

The original Constitution listed a very few enumerated powers of the federal government in Article 1, Section 8. All other powers were reserved for the people and the states under the Tenth Amendment, which Thomas Jefferson considered to be the cornerstone of the entire document. The creation of the Fed in 1913, along with the federal income tax in that same year, was one of the final nails in the coffin of the Jeffersonian constitution. Armed with the ability to engage in legalized counterfeiting, virtually all political power became centralized in Washington, D.C. All states became effective franchises of the central government who could easily be bribed or bullied into submission with federal grants or the threat of their withdrawal.

Thanks to the Fed, American presidents can behave like world dictators, ordering the dropping of bombs anywhere and everywhere on a whim without any consent by Congress or anyone else. Thanks to the Fed, the majority of Americans are on some kind of governmental dole and are therefore neutered as opponents of the never-ending growth of government. They do not really have free speech rights, in other words. The same is true of all corporations that receive government subsidies. Or even if they do not, government has become so powerful that it can use its oppressive regulatory powers to ruin any business person who dares to speak up against the government too effectively. Thus, the Fed may not be responsible for "levying war" against the states, the definition of treason that is in the Constitution, but it has played a crucial role in the destruction of the system of federalism or states’ rights that was established by the American founders. Perhaps Governor Perry can do a better job of articulating this point the next time he attempts to steal Congressman Ron Paul’s thunder on the campaign trail.

http://lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo212.html

 

[phrodeau]

That's funny. I thought the cost of the government would take several generations to pay off. Here it's all done within a few months.

Thanks!

 

[Sean Renaud]

The fact that most Americans tacitly agree is that the Constitution is an incredibly weak document that doesn't give our government the power necessary to run a country safely and efficiently. Nobody SAYS it but if you're not upset about Gitmo then you tacitly agree that the fifth, sixth and seventh Amendments are there for when it's convienent. If you're not upset about the Patriot Act (and no it's not OK that Obama re-upped it) you don't care about the fourth. Hell if you're not against drunk driving road blocks you only pay lip service to the 4th.

Perhaps the Fed isn't necessary. I happen to think that it is but that's a separate issue. The idea that we would have had less wars without the Fed is a hypothetical. There is no way of knowing that one way or another. When you consider that of the sixty years we're talking about (I assume we're talking 1960-2010 roughly) we spent half that time actively paying down the debt and lowering it year after year. It wasn't until the last 30 that we started routinely running a deficiet. So if the argument is we would have ran out of money, that's not exactly true.


There is a bunch of jibber jabber that's only worth addressing as barely readable. Presidents do not act like dictators and to claim that they do is laughable. Sure "most Americans are on the dole" but they in no way think of themselves as such. They are convinced that they are the ones making the damn thing move forward. If they weren't there wouldn't BE a Tea Party. It simply would not exist. Americans are quite aware of their Second Amendment rights. It's like you pluck the crazies shit you can find and then thank God nobody reads it.

You're no different than the "rich" you claim to despise, son...

...force is force no matter how you rationalize it.

Perhaps you should reread the last two lines of the piece to inform yourself what individual responsibility actually is...

I'm quite a bit different from them, and I don't claim to despise them. They are who we should aspire to be. The last two lines of your original bullshit is still force.

"In conclusion, those living in the United States and most of the world are serfs in a Neo-feudal system controlled by an extremely small number of bankster/globalist lords. However, abolishing this system and restoring man to his natural and fee state is possible. To accomplish this, the largest banks and corporations must be boycotted and the private Federal Reserve dissolved. Additionally, all stocks of globalist corporations must be sold, including shares of mutual funds that invest in them."

What your talking about here is a siege. I promise you in the olden days when they surrounded your castle and starved you to death you still called it force. When you cut trade for no reason other than to harm them they considered it force. You're merely rationalizing it because you understand that force is ultimately the only way anything is accomplished. You would tear down basically civilization as we know it and hope to rebuilt from the ashes. I'd just prune some of the branches so the sun gets to the floor.

 

[rosco rathbone]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Texas_Corridor