Every anarchist I know is, deep within, an optimist. That observation is often unbelievable to the casual observer, what with our frequent expressions of anger and frustration toward government and other forced collectives. But, beyond those frustrations lives an almost universal belief that one day an event, or a series of events, will occur setting into motion the elimination of government which will be replaced by a society based solely on voluntary connections.

While it would be nice to believe that on one special day the Statists will simply give up, recognize the errors of their ways and capitulate, such a belief is Pollyannaish at best and dangerous at worst. Sea change does not come as the result of intellectual debate. It is never a matter of semantics. And, regrettably, it never comes peacefully. And, to that end, a voluntary society will result from nothing less than a revolution, most likely several. And, for that reason, many anarchists are optimistically naive.

If I am right, then under what circumstances might people rise up and throw off their chains? I do not know, but I see more incidents in modernity that evidence there are some who are ready, not necessarily to overthrow a government, but to defend themselves against government aggression.

Here are three events, all recent, all within the United States, any or all of which could be a beginning of the move from Statism to Voluntaryism.

Kansas v. The USSA

Guns. Governments don’t like them, except when they have all of them, in which case they like them very much. And they want all of them because they find their citizens to be such pains in the ass, especially when those citizens are armed. Unfortunately for the current owners of the United States, its founders had a healthy fear of tyranny and recognized that when everything else fails to stop the powerful from abusing power, guns are an important, even necessary, alternative.

Currently, Obama and his anti-gun, full-Statist minions are trying to reform the debate by reforming history, asking questions like, “Just how many guns, and of what type, do Americans need to hunt animals? And how big do our magazines need to be to protect ourselves against our neighbors?” Disturbingly disingenuous. Jefferson and other Founders wrote extensively on the issue. The purpose of the Second Amendment has nothing to do with killing animals or your neighbors. Guns are for we the people should the government have to be overthrown. And yes, you need a lot of guns and big magazines to get that job done.

A few State governments, closer and more responsive to their constituents, have gotten the message and passed laws to insure citizens inside their borders will not be deprived of their Second Amendment rights, as was done recently in Kansas:

“It is unlawful for any official, agent or employee of the government of the United States, or employee of a corporation providing services to the government of the United States to enforce or attempt to enforce any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States regarding a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately and owned in the state of Kansas and that remains within the borders of Kansas. Violation of this section is a severity level 10 nonperson felony.”

In short, Kansas is saying that if the federal government attempts to govern firearms in that State, those doing the enforcing will end up in the State penitentiary. This seems legally defensible on at least a couple of levels. First, States have the power to nullify federal law if it is violative of the Constitution. Second, by attempting to regulate only arms firearms manufactured or owned within Kansas, the State may be successful in avoiding the assured federal argument that gun regulation falls under its Constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Needless to say, Obama, through his gun-running Attorney General, disagrees, and had his minion Holder scribble a not-so-subtle threat to Kansas’ governor Sam Brownback saying the feds won’t honor Kansas’ law, considers Kansas’ attempt to protect the Second Amendment rights of its citizens is itself “unconstitutional,” and that federal agents will “continue to execute their duties,” which translated means they will kill anyone who gets in the way of their gun grab.

The makings of an armed conflict are in place.

Adam Kokesh and the March on DC

Adam Kokesh, former Marine and now a well-known libertarian activist announced on Facebook last week that he is planning a nonviolent protest in the District of Columbia which has some of the most stringent (and arguably most unconstitutional gun laws in the nation, allowing residents to possess only registered firearms on their own property, and forbidding them to carry them in public).

“We will march with rifles loaded and flung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated and cower in submission to tyranny,” Kokesh wrote. “Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington. We are truly saying in the subtlest way possible that we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

Kokesh was brutally honest when he refused to predict what might happen if the police move in with force. And force is exactly what should be expected in light of a warning from DC Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier that her own armed forces will meet them at the border as will the US Park Police.

Later, in a pathetic attempt to co-opt the massive publicity Kokesh is receiving for his effort, a video producer for FreedomWorks is leading a parade of supposed libertarians using toy guns, and even had the chutzpah to schedule his a day earlier. He should just have everyone carry white flags and get it over with.

The makings of an armed conflict (at least in the case of the Kokesh march) are in place.

Cody Wilson, the Anarchist Behind the World’s First 3-D Printed Gun

Cody Wilson, a 25 year old law student at the University of Texas, has created a functioning handgun produced by a 3-D printer. Using electronic blueprints and plastic, Cody’s company, Defense Distributed, gives anyone with plastic and a printer the opportunity to make their own gun.

And, his ideas go well beyond making a buck on the idea. He recently observed, ” . . . [the pistol is] undetectable, but more importantly it’s unobservable by institutions and countries and sovereigns . . . This might be a politically important object . . . Really I see the battle as one of just trying to remain human and against you know massive forces, anonymous forces of discipline and control that we can’t really understand. I don’t think there’s a massive conspiracy. But I do think the self is under siege and I think liberty itself is under siege . . . ”

Sounds reasonably close to a call to revolution, but more a call to life without the State:

” . . . what this project’s really about . . . fuck your laws, you know what I’m saying? It’s stepping up, it’s being able to go, you know what, I don’t like this legal regime [and] I neatly step outside of it.”

Do you believe the feds will intervene on 3-D firearms? Yeah, me too.

And that will likely leave thousands of 3-D printed weapons in the hands of those who want to keep them while the government will determine, horror of horrors, they are unregistered and subject to seizure.

The makings of an armed conflict are in place.

A Commonality in Events

These developments, each different with varying geneses, share an important commonality, or at least potential: an armed response to State aggression. In the case of the Kansas governor, it is a turf war between governments. With Adam Kokesh, it is an in-your-face attempt to force the government to acknowledge rights under the Constitution or arrest him for exercising those rights. And, for Cody Wilson it all about individual freedom, various Amendments be damned.

Some readers of these stories will reel backwards in horror. The very suggestion that the end of violence will result from violence is abhorrent to many who subscribe to the non-aggression principle, but history tells us that change, real change, results from revolutions, from standing up and saying, “no more,” and then defending against the onslaught of the State as it retaliates to crush dissent.

Which brings me to the point: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Chairman Mao said that, and while he was wrong about a lot of things, he got that one right and every anarchist and libertarian should remember it, too, not with a view toward primary aggression to accomplish a political goal but to understand that the State will aggress against those who question its legitimacy, especially those who are prepared to defend themselves – like Brownback, Kokesh, and Wilson.

I have never thought of myself as a terrorist.

Until now.

But, according to the USSA, based on my stated beliefs, I might just be dangerous, or at leastsomeone to keep an eye on.

Why?

Because I consider myself a sovereign citizen, which means nothing more than I have never consented to being ruled by others, whether it be other individuals or by a gang of individuals calling themselves a “government.” I have never assented to relinquish my individual liberties at the altar of democracy, a variant of communism where a majority is deemed right even when they are wrong.

Moreover, I never intend to do so.

Other beliefs that may result in my being designated a terrorist, according to government, include the following:

• I don’t like paying taxes. Indeed, I believe the income tax is unconstitutional and that most of the proceeds in the case of the United States goes to fund unjust wars and genocide, making them not only illegal but morally reprehensible. I pay taxes as do other sovereign individuals not because I believe there is any honor or right thing in doing so, but because I am aware that government will put me in a cage if I do not do so.
• I believe gold is better than paper backed by nothing but the promise of a corrupt, bankrupt government, in which neither I, nor most who call themselves US citizens, believe is acting in our individual best interests.
• I reject Keynesian economics as nothing more than a Pollyanna-ish justification for abdicating financial responsibility, individually and collectively.
• I am not impressed with costumes and badges or the people who wear them. I believe most cops are undereducated thugs with too much testosterone who exist to maintain the power structure as it is. When the power structure is threatened, they are Johnny-on-the-spot with their batons, tear gas, guns, tasers, and now armed personnel carriers and even tanks. Drones are next, but that is another story I will save for later.
• I do not support aggression, but I do support self-defense. As an individual who neither aggresses against others, nor will tolerate being aggressed against, I have found the police, when not intrusive, to be useless. Indeed, unless they are busting heads to keeping various minorities from wresting control from their masters or even exercising their rights, cops are note-takers. They show up after a crime is committed, write in their notebooks, and based on the results, they must smoke their notes because no one ever hears from them again.
• Because I see the police and military for what they are, I believe vigilantism is a far more effective way of separating the bad from the good. And, to that end it is not surprising that vigilantism is on the rise. After investigating a gang-rape for more than a year, and the after the victim committed suicide from the shame of having her own rape videotaped and put up on the Internet, the Royal Canadian Mounted Fools still could not find their own asses with a set of elk horns, much less the rapists who were hiding in plain sight. It took Anonymous all of 48 hours to identify the culprits, and only after the threat of releasing their identities into the public domain did the Canadian government at various levels decide to have another look at this tragic case instead of finding a way not to do it.
• I believe the press is nothing more than the disinformation arm of government. Its purpose is to convince the general public that their votes matter. They don’t. The left-right paradigm is deceptive and the worst kind of fiction, the kind people believe and act upon. No better example exists than George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. They are the same person with the same beliefs and the same policies. They are both self-interested, self-important minions of those in control. For power and money they have trashed the Bill of Rights, fomented war, destroyed what was left of the free market, catered to the über-wealthy and their banks, thrown bones to the poor and the working, and have dutifully preserved the status quo. Yet, even in the face of their abject in-your-face sameness, the press has been successful in moderating the pathetic pseudo-confrontation between right and left. The only real difference between right and left is how they offer up socialism – via a fascistic or communistic bent.
• I support real activists, people like Matthew Duran, Katherine Olejnik, and Matthew Pfeiffer who found out the hard way just how ruthless government can be after refusing to answer questions before a grand jury about the political opinions and affiliations of their friends whoparticipated in Seattle’s May Day protests. They refused to participate in the Constitutional gang-fuck where federal agents sought “anti-government or anarchist literature or material,” blatantly attempting to criminalize political opinions and deter others from having an opinion outside the confines of government-approved group-think. They were imprisoned and placed into solitary confinement, itself considered torture by many experts on the subject. Olejnik went to prison because, in her words, “I truly believe that people have the right to believe whatever they want politically. And it’s none of the government’s business.” I believe that, too.
• I believe Julian Assange should be given the Medal of Freedom if such a thing exists. He has done more for transparency than a generation of flag-suckers who have come before him, rank and pathetic apologists for Uncle Sam’s version of the Stasi. The fact that some in the political moron-a-thon that is the United States Congress have called for his assassination only furthers my resolve that Assange must go free.
• I believe at a cellular level that speech should not be regulated even while government continues to cracks down on legal protests with laws specifically allowing it to do so, to include the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, which basically declares it illegal to trespass, i.e., protest, anywhere the President or Vice President happen to be, even temporarily. It is not surprising that it was Nixon, a despot and criminal, was the first to propose and be granted such “protection.” Nearly every President since has expanded its reach.
• Finally, I object to government’s efforts to sterilize the younger generations of any connection to the Constitution and the concept of rights beyond those granted by government. By way of example, in Jacksonville, Florida, fourth grade students were recently lectured on the evils of the Second Amendment and required to write “I am willing to give up some of my Constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.”

As to how the USSA wants to deal with we “terrorists,” that also is clear. With the NDAA, “Obama has exponentially broadened the attack on democratic rights by declaring his “right” to assassinate anyone, anywhere, that he deems to be a “terrorist,” conveniently leaving that term undefined. In other words, if we become too effective, he will just have us killed. The end.

And, before getting too comfortable in your own self-imposed anonymity, know that we dissidents are not the only ones in the crosshairs. The Department of Homeland Security, which legislatively has no war mission inside the borders of the United States, recently purchased 3,000 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) armored personnel carriers, 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition (with associated weapons), and other weapons systems. And no one should be surprised. Candidate Obama told us all in 2008 that “we cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the United States military].” In short, they are ready and willing to go to war against us and kill all of us if that is what it takes.

The fact I believe these things sincerely may make me a “terrorist” in the eyes of the United States government.

If so, I am proud of the designation.

Res ipsa loquitur.

[P.S. All the rest of you "terrorists" may want to get a lot more serious about your plans to get out of the USSA before Obama and his cronies start dealing with you as they have planned. If you subscribe to the TDV Newsletter, TDV Concierges like me will be available to help you scope out the different parts of the world we call home and help get you relocated to somewhere that strikes your fancy. You can sign up for the newsletter here.]

Previously by Jim Karger: Someone Needs To Be HeldAccountable… and They Need To Pay

I have never thought of myself as a terrorist.

Until now.

But, according to the USSA, based on my stated beliefs, I might just be dangerous, or at least someone to keep an eye on.

Why?

Because I consider myself a sovereign citizen, which means nothing more than I have never consented to being ruled by others, whether it be other individuals or by a gang of individuals calling themselves a "government." I have never assented to relinquish my individual liberties at the altar of democracy, a variant of communism where a majority is deemed right even when they are wrong.

Moreover, I never intend to do so.

Other beliefs that may result in my being designated a terrorist, according to government, include the following:

• I don't like paying taxes. Indeed, I believe the income tax is unconstitutional and that most of the proceeds in the case of the United States goes to fund unjust wars and genocide, making them not only illegal but morally reprehensible. I pay taxes as do other sovereign individuals not because I believe there is any honor or right thing in doing so, but because I am aware that government will put me in a cage if I do not do so.
• I believe gold is better than paper backed by nothing but the promise of a corrupt, bankrupt government, in which neither I, nor most who call themselves US citizens, believe is acting in our individual best interests.
• I reject Keynesian economics as nothing more than a Pollyanna-ish justification for abdicating financial responsibility, individually and collectively.
• I am not impressed with costumes and badges or the people who wear them. I believe most cops are undereducated thugs with too much testosterone who exist to maintain the power structure as it is. When the power structure is threatened, they are Johnny-on-the-spot with their batons, tear gas, guns, tasers, and now armed personnel carriers and even tanks. Drones are next, but that is another story I will save for later.
• I do not support aggression, but I do support self-defense. As an individual who neither aggresses against others, nor will tolerate being aggressed against, I have found the police, when not intrusive, to be useless. Indeed, unless they are busting heads to keeping various minorities from wresting control from their masters or even exercising their rights, cops are note-takers. They show up after a crime is committed, write in their notebooks, and based on the results, they must smoke their notes because no one ever hears from them again.
• Because I see the police and military for what they are, I believe vigilantism is a far more effective way of separating the bad from the good. And, to that end it is not surprising that vigilantism is on the rise. After investigating a gang-rape for more than a year, and the after the victim committed suicide from the shame of having her own rape videotaped and put up on the Internet, the Royal Canadian Mounted Fools still could not find their own asses with a set of elk horns, much less the rapists who were hiding in plain sight. It took Anonymous all of 48 hours to identify the culprits, and only after the threat of releasing their identities into the public domain did the Canadian government at various levels decide to have another look at this tragic case instead of finding a way not to do it.
• I believe the press is nothing more than the disinformation arm of government. Its purpose is to convince the general public that their votes matter. They don't. The left-right paradigm is deceptive and the worst kind of fiction, the kind people believe and act upon. No better example exists than George W. Bush and Barrack Obama. They are the same person with the same beliefs and the same policies. They are both self-interested, self-important minions of those in control. For power and money they have trashed the Bill of Rights, fomented war, destroyed what was left of the free market, catered to the über-wealthy and their banks, thrown bones to the poor and the working, and have dutifully preserved the status quo. Yet, even in the face of their abject in-your-face sameness, the press has been successful in moderating the pathetic pseudo-confrontation between right and left. The only real difference between right and left is how they offer up socialism – via a fascistic or communistic bent.
• I support real activists, people like Matthew Duran, Katherine Olejnik, and Matthew Pfeiffer who found out the hard way just how ruthless government can be after refusing to answer questions before a grand jury about the political opinions and affiliations of their friends who participated in Seattle's May Day protests. They refused to participate in the Constitutional gang-fuck where federal agents sought “anti-government or anarchist literature or material,” blatantly attempting to criminalize political opinions and deter others from having an opinion outside the confines of government-approved group-think. They were imprisoned and placed into solitary confinement, itself considered torture by many experts on the subject. Olejnik went to prison because, in her words, “I truly believe that people have the right to believe whatever they want politically. And it’s none of the government’s business.” I believe that, too.
• I believe Julian Assange should be given the Medal of Freedom if such a thing exists. He has done more for transparency than a generation of flag-suckers who have come before him, rank and pathetic apologists for Uncle Sam's version of the Stasi. The fact that some in the political moron-a-thon that is the United States Congress have called for his assassination only furthers my resolve that Assange must go free.
• I believe at a cellular level that speech should not be regulated even while government continues to cracks down on legal protests with laws specifically allowing it to do so, to include the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, which basically declares it illegal to trespass, i.e., protest, anywhere the President or Vice President happen to be, even temporarily. It is not surprising that it was Nixon, a despot and criminal, was the first to propose and be granted such "protection." Nearly every President since has expanded its reach.
• Finally, I object to government's efforts to sterilize the younger generations of any connection to the Constitution and the concept of rights beyond those granted by government. By way of example, in Jacksonville, Florida, fourth grade students were recently lectured on the evils of the Second Amendment and required to write “I am willing to give up some of my Constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.”

As to how the USSA wants to deal with we "terrorists," that also is clear. With the NDAA, "Obama has exponentially broadened the attack on democratic rights by declaring his "right" to assassinate anyone, anywhere, that he deems to be a "terrorist," conveniently leaving that term undefined. In other words, if we become too effective, he will just have us killed. The end.

And, before getting too comfortable in your own self-imposed anonymity, know that we dissidents are not the only ones in the crosshairs. The Department of Homeland Security, which legislatively has no war mission inside the borders of the United States, recently purchased 3,000 mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) armored personnel carriers, 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition (with associated weapons), and other weapons systems. And no one should be surprised. Candidate Obama told us all in 2008 that "we cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded [as the United States military]." In short, they are ready and willing to go to war against us and kill all of us if that is what it takes.

The fact I believe these things sincerely may make me a "terrorist" in the eyes of the United States government.

If so, I am proud of the designation.

Res ipsa loquitur.

[P.S. All the rest of you "terrorists" may want to get a lot more serious about your plans to get out of the USSA before Obama and his cronies start dealing with you as they have planned. If you subscribe to the TDV Newsletter, TDV Concierges like me will be available to help you scope out the different parts of the world we call home and help get you relocated to somewhere that strikes your fancy. You can sign up for the newsletter here.]

Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

The Best of Jim Karger

Americans struggle.

Cars, houses, spouses, kids, jobs, bosses, and debt, to name a few, but they all boil down to one struggle: money. Or better said, the absence of money. Not enough money to buy a car, to take the wife to dinner, to send the kids to private school, to quit the crappy job, to shop like it was a sport, to take a vacation from a soul-dead existence, to pay off the credit cards, and the list goes on and on.

Someone needs to take responsibility. Someone needs to end the struggle.

Angel Adams insists on it. Watch her here:

Someone needs to step up, Angel says as she gestures across a sea of children, all her own.

Someone. Anyone.

Anyone, that is, but Angel Adams.

And most Americans, after watching Angel’s story, will convict her, and criticize her for being a leech on government’s largesse. What they cannot see is themselves in that video. Unfortunate since most Americans are not much different than Angel Adams.

What Angel is willing to say openly and without shame is that she wants someone else to pay.

And, so do a majority of Americans. They want someone to put their thumb on the scale of the market and tip the balance in their favor. They want something for nothing.

Bastiat was right when he observed “government as the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” And, it is not just welfare recipients who can’t make the connection between kids with no shoes and lying on the their backs getting banged like a gong and ending up with 15 children.

Most Americans are—let me search for the word—freeloaders. And most of those deny it. Indeed, a 2008 poll found that 57% of Americans denied ever using a government program. But when shown a list of 21 actual programs, including student loans and home-mortgage interest deduction, 94% of the deniers turned out to have bellied up to the pork-bar after all.

Who are they? They are us.

They are current Social Security recipients who, under no theory, have paid in near enough to justify the benefits they are receiving in the mail each month.

It is a General Public filled with so much fear and hate that they can’t get enough of the engorged war machine that spends more on “defense,” more properly called “war,” than the next 16 largest nations combined.

It is funding for the arts which means funding artists who can’t sell their paintings or pottery or music in the free market.

It is parents who want public parks and museums to babysit their children.

It is Medicare recipients who want someone to pay for their overpriced sick care.

It is Section 8 housing recipients who get a check for rent for an unlimited amount of time with no work requirement.

Bottom line? An estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau. In 2009, an estimated 46.5 million received Social Security; 42.6 million got Medicare; 42.4 million were having doctor and hospital bills paid through Medicaid; 36.1 million get food stamps; 12.4 million enjoyed housing subsidies; and 3.2 million got Veterans’ benefits.

Others who find insufficient the benefits they can latch onto legally just game the system.

US households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes.

But before blaming it all on Angel Adams and the rest of the General Public who go to Disneyworld on food stamps, know that the hogs span every income level.

This includes homeowners who hump the mortgage interest deduction, 69% of which goes to those who earn $100,000 or more each year.

It includes all those who enjoy benefits from employer-provided retirement benefits, the contributions to which are deductible, and the taxes on those contributions and income from them delayed for years.

It is corporations, legal fictions that have no good reason to exist except to protect their owners from personal responsibility, with their heads in the federal feed bucket.

It is banks, themselves corporations, that have engaged in perhaps the most massive holdup in human history, bailed out by a government too afraid to take on the owners.

It is oil companies to whom Congress gave subsidies worth $30 billion over five years.

It is outright cash payments to business in the form of direct cash payments like those that have helped keep many renewable-energy projects afloat, including Solyndra to the tune of $535 million before it went bust.

It is corporate farmers who snort five billion dollars a year through rolled up hundred dollar bills, along with billions more in crop insurance and drought aid while the consumer gets bent over, e.g., US sugar companies enjoy import quotas which keep American sugar prices roughly twice as high as they otherwise would be.

It is the ethanol industry, a sacred cow of American politics whom the government rewards with the requirement that refiners blend billions of gallons of ethanol into gasoline annually, and sweetens the pot further with an ethanol tax credit. Again, the consumer gets it up his corn chute since forty per cent of corn acreage in the US now goes to make ethanol, jacking up food prices because less corn is grown to eat.

It is the drug industry, the biggest hog at the trough. Patent protection is worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year and growing as the range of things that can be patented expands dramatically.

Someone has to pay.

Yet, “someone” is always undefined. But we all know who someone is, right? Someone is government, our sugar daddy who can magically rain money on anyone anytime. The goal of “Let’s Play America” is simple and straightforward: get to the trough first, get your share, and fuck everyone else.

A relative handful know better. They know the collective snorting and sucking is not a prescription for success. And, they know there is no government. Rather, there is a cash machine labeled “government,” and behind that machine are millions of productive people who have their money stolen to fund the needs or wants of the unproductive. That theft manifests itself either as taxes or inflation.

The game is no longer won simply by stealing.  Nearly everyone is doing that.  The game is played well by stealing more than your neighbor.  The grand prize winners steal more than they pay, for now.

Which leads to the problems going forward.

The problem is not “someone” failing to take responsibility.

The problem is individual Americans not taking responsibility.

The problem is not seeing ourselves as hogs at the trough.

The problem is not seeing ourselves in Angel Adams.

The problem is there are fewer people from whom to steal.

The problem is the best and the brightest are leaving and taking their money with them.

The problem is the trade off of liberty, of the freedom not to be harassed, controlled and violated by government, for those who stay and play the game.

The problem is that most are neither smart enough nor gutsy enough to get themselves and their assets out in time.

They will be left to haggle over the ruins.

They will be held accountable.

Previously by Jim Karger: Better Life End At Your Hand Than Theirs: R.I.P.Hunter

“Everyone wants to live at the expense of the State. They forget that the State lives at the expense of everyone.” — Frederic Bastiat

Americans struggle.

Cars, houses, spouses, kids, jobs, bosses, and debt, to name a few, but they all boil down to one struggle: money. Or better said, the absence of money. Not enough money to buy a car, to take the wife to dinner, to send the kids to private school, to quit the crappy job, to shop like it was a sport, to take a vacation from a soul-dead existence, to pay off the credit cards, and the list goes on and on.

Someone needs to take responsibility. Someone needs to end the struggle.

Angel Adams insists on it. Watch her here:

Someone needs to step up, Angel says as she gestures across a sea of children, all her own.

Someone. Anyone.

Anyone, that is, but Angel Adams.

And most Americans, after watching Angel's story, will convict her, and criticize her for being a leech on government's largesse. What they cannot see is themselves in that video. Unfortunate since most Americans are not much different than Angel Adams.

What Angel is willing to say openly and without shame is that she wants someone else to pay.

And, so do a majority of Americans. They want someone to put their thumb on the scale of the market and tip the balance in their favor. They want something for nothing.

Bastiat was right when he observed "government as the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." And, it is not just welfare recipients who can't make the connection between kids with no shoes and lying on the their backs getting banged like a gong and ending up with 15 children.

Most Americans are—let me search for the word—freeloaders. And most of those deny it. Indeed, a 2008 poll found that 57% of Americans denied ever using a government program. But when shown a list of 21 actual programs, including student loans and home-mortgage interest deduction, 94% of the deniers turned out to have bellied up to the pork-bar after all.

Who are they? They are us.

They are current Social Security recipients who, under no theory, have paid in near enough to justify the benefits they are receiving in the mail each month.

It is a General Public filled with so much fear and hate that they can't get enough of the engorged war machine that spends more on "defense," more properly called "war," than the next 16 largest nations combined.

It is funding for the arts which means funding artists who can't sell their paintings or pottery or music in the free market.

It is parents who want public parks and museums to babysit their children.

It is Medicare recipients who want someone to pay for their overpriced sick care.

It is Section 8 housing recipients who get a check for rent for an unlimited amount of time with no work requirement.

Bottom line? An estimated 59% of the 308.7 million Americans in this country get at least one federal benefit, according to the Census Bureau. In 2009, an estimated 46.5 million received Social Security; 42.6 million got Medicare; 42.4 million were having doctor and hospital bills paid through Medicaid; 36.1 million get food stamps; 12.4 million enjoyed housing subsidies; and 3.2 million got Veterans' benefits.

Others who find insufficient the benefits they can latch onto legally just game the system.

US households are now getting more in cash handouts from the government than they are paying in taxes.

But before blaming it all on Angel Adams and the rest of the General Public who go to Disneyworld on food stamps, know that the hogs span every income level.

This includes homeowners who hump the mortgage interest deduction, 69% of which goes to those who earn $100,000 or more each year.

It includes all those who enjoy benefits from employer-provided retirement benefits, the contributions to which are deductible, and the taxes on those contributions and income from them delayed for years.

It is corporations, legal fictions that have no good reason to exist except to protect their owners from personal responsibility, with their heads in the federal feed bucket.

It is banks, themselves corporations, that have engaged in perhaps the most massive holdup in human history, bailed out by a government too afraid to take on the owners.

It is oil companies to whom Congress gave subsidies worth $30 billion over five years.

It is outright cash payments to business in the form of direct cash payments like those that have helped keep many renewable-energy projects afloat, including Solyndra to the tune of $535 million before it went bust.

It is corporate farmers who snort five billion dollars a year through rolled up hundred dollar bills, along with billions more in crop insurance and drought aid while the consumer gets bent over, e.g., US sugar companies enjoy import quotas which keep American sugar prices roughly twice as high as they otherwise would be.

It is the ethanol industry, a sacred cow of American politics whom the government rewards with the requirement that refiners blend billions of gallons of ethanol into gasoline annually, and sweetens the pot further with an ethanol tax credit. Again, the consumer gets it up his corn chute since forty per cent of corn acreage in the US now goes to make ethanol, jacking up food prices because less corn is grown to eat.

It is the drug industry, the biggest hog at the trough. Patent protection is worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year and growing as the range of things that can be patented expands dramatically.

Someone has to pay.

Yet, "someone" is always undefined. But we all know who someone is, right? Someone is government, our sugar daddy who can magically rain money on anyone anytime. The goal of "Let's Play America" is simple and straightforward: get to the trough first, get your share, and fuck everyone else.

A relative handful know better. They know the collective snorting and sucking is not a prescription for success. And, they know there is no government. Rather, there is a cash machine labeled "government," and behind that machine are millions of productive people who have their money stolen to fund the needs or wants of the unproductive. That theft manifests itself either as taxes or inflation.

The game is no longer won simply by stealing.  Nearly everyone is doing that.  The game is played well by stealing more than your neighbor.  The grand prize winners steal more than they pay, for now.

Which leads to the problems going forward.

The problem is not "someone" failing to take responsibility.

The problem is individual Americans not taking responsibility. 

The problem is not seeing ourselves as hogs at the trough.

The problem is not seeing ourselves in Angel Adams. 

The problem is there are fewer people from whom to steal.

The problem is the best and the brightest are leaving and taking their money with them.

The problem is the trade off of liberty, of the freedom not to be harassed, controlled and violated by government, for those who stay and play the game.

The problem is that most are neither smart enough nor gutsy enough to get themselves and their assets out in time.

They will be left to haggle over the ruins.

They will be held accountable.

Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

The Best of Jim Karger

Previously by Jim Karger: Don’t Worry About Your Guns: There Is Nothing Left To Defend

Last Rumble In Fat City; Never Apologize, Never Explain; Whooping It Up With the War Junkies; More Notes On The Death Of The American Dream . . .

Hunter S. Thompson died 8 years ago this afternoon when a .45 caliber bullet fired from a Smith & Wesson Model 645 passed through his brain. 

He wanted it that way.

Hunter was a profoundly gifted writer, sportsman, gun lover, and cultural icon.  Mostly he was my mentor.  No one affected my view of life more profoundly than he did.  And I miss him

But I am glad he is not here today, not forced to watch the death of the American Dream play out like a slow motion train wreck at the hands of low-rent fascists and warmongers while the General Public looks the other way.

Hunter never liked government, he hated politicians, and it became especially painful for him in the final years to watch liberties washed away in the wave of fear that was 9/11.   Indeed on that fateful morning, Hunter wrote prophetically, "The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it:  We are At War now – with somebody – and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives."

And, we have.

A Kingdom of Fear

"America… a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."  – Hunter S. Thompson

In the years since 9/11, America has become a fascist state with a happy face painted over a pallet of ugly reality.  Bush used 9/11 as a reason to destroy the Constitution beginning with the Patriot Act that led to the secret wiretapping of American citizens, causing Hunter to wonder, "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads?”  Civil liberties advocates were likewise outraged and none of it made one bit of difference.  No one wanted to hear about someone else's Constitutional rights when they were fear-pissing down their own legs.

The Patriot Act turned out to be the warmup for the main acts that were to follow.  Today, the government can intercept Americans' international communications without a warrant as long as one party to the communication is "reasonably believed" to be outside the US, as if being outside the U.S. is probable cause to believe someone is committing a crime.  The government can now search any documents or papers, including the entire contents of laptops and other electronic devices, without any suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever.  Per a secret Department of Homeland Security Report, having a laptop computer or cell phone within 100 miles of any U.S. border results in the complete eradication of your Fourth Amendment right to privacy—and more specifically the right to be free from unreasonable searches. When asked how they came to the conclusion that was Constitutional, their answer was the same as always:  "Fuck you," or words to that effect.

After 9/11, the US began incarcerating so-called "enemy combatants" in military detention without charge and without according them the status or rights of prisoners of war, all with the Supreme Court's approval, of course.  That included a friend of mine who was standing behind the counter of his convenience store one day and gone the next, deported to Jordan by the U.S. government.  Why?  Because they could.  The fact there was no war was irrelevant and everything seems fixable via semantics in the land of the free.  In the U.S. view, the entire world, every square foot, is the battlefield, and if the U.S. government doesn't like you, you just may be an "enemy combatant," giving them the self-ascribed right to torture and kill with impunity. 

Obama was going to change all that, or so he said, including closing Guantanamo Bay, but instead ended up expanding that prison where people just disappear, people against whom there is insufficient evidence to get a conviction or where the evidence against them has been tainted by U.S. torture.  And while Obama threw a bone to civil rights advocates, banning the use of torture by U.S. military and intelligence personnel, he has steadfastly refused to permit any review of Bush's use of hideous interrogation techniques that violate at least a dozen treaties and international laws.  And, to show the world the U.S. is still the 900-pound gorilla with a serious grudge to settle, Obama continues the policy of "rendition" – where prisoners the U.S. government no longer can torture are sent to other countries where they can be tortured there.

Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) under cover of night on December 31, 2012, a law that permits the indefinite detention of American citizens without charge or trial.  Combined with dozens of other Executive Orders and laws passed to "protect" us from terrorism, America has become a full-bore police State, and the most nauseating part is that most Americans didn't even notice.

With the expansion of drone attacks and Executive Orders that suspend all civil and Constitutional rights at the stroke of pen, FEMA has gone from flood assistance to the manager of an Americans under Martial Law.  Federal agencies with no ostensible use for guns or ammunition have ordered billions of rounds, including FEMA that also sports 2,500 brand new GLS armored fighting vehicles that for sure won't be used to fight forest fires, and a "corps" of young people reminiscent of the Hitler Youth of the 1930's. You think these kids would kill you if ordered to do so?  Me, too.

And FEMA is only one agency among many that purports to need a lot of killing tools, which makes sense only if government has no limitations.  The Department of Homeland Security recently bought enough ammunition to wage a 7-year war with the American people along bulletproof checkpoint booths with stop and go lights which can be used for, well, your imagination is as good as mine.  

The list of Constitutional violations goes on but that's enough for now and would have been far too many for Hunter.

Guns:  The Final Hurdle

"Freedom is something that dies unless it is used." – Hunter S. Thompson

As civil liberties are peeled away, government is presented with a final hurdle before control over the herd is complete:  guns.  Not their guns, but those 300 million guns in the hands of citizens.  That just won't do.  At some point, Joe Lunchbucket is going to wake up and not like what he sees out his front door and if he has an AR-15 with 1,000 rounds of ballistic ammunition, he can express his displeasure in a meaningful way.  Joe's guns and millions of others clearly need to be collected and turned over to government.  That is the clear intent.  The only question is how. 

Like the rest of our civil liberties that have been trashed on the altar of 9/11 and the irrational fears that resulted, what government needed to move America toward full-bore gun control is exactly what happened:  a maniac with a semi-automatic rifle (conveniently the exact type the government wishes to ban first) entered (or was released) into an elementary school to murder children and their teachers.  A better anecdotal case for gun control could not have been scripted, unless, of course, it was scripted.  Now, before I am arrested for that observation, I hasten to add that I am not saying the government was behind it, but only that it would not surprise me if they were.  For sure government at all levels participated in the Big Lie and coverup that followed, to-wit, the shooter didn't actually use an AR-15 Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle to kill those children, seemingly obvious since it was still in his trunk after he killed the kids and himself. 

The mainstream press ignored the obvious and material, as did Obama and most Democrats in Congress, and all jumped on the event as a justification to ignore the Second Amendment, characterize gun owners as trigger-happy paranoid freaks, and outlaw weapons that look like (but are not) military weapons, stop the sale of high capacity magazines, and eliminate the right to sell any firearm without registration, the final step before confiscation, already proposed in more than one State, including a bill in Missouri that would ban semi-automatic rifles and give law-abiding gun owners 90 days to turn in their firearms to law enforcement or become felons.  All ignore the fact that so-called "assault weapons" are used in only about 7% of all crimes involving guns. 

Indeed, shotguns (like the one being used by Obama in his recent effort to prove he is not anti-(all)guns) are used in crimes considerably more often than the weapons he claims pose an intolerable threat to public safety.

Where this goes from here should be obvious to even a casual observer.  The right to bear arms will continue to be weakened until it is as meaningless as the right to due process and equal protection.  This go around it may be high capacity magazines, the kind that would give you a fighting chance against the bad guys at your door ordering you to come out with your hands up for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all.  Or, it may be registration – all guns, regardless of who sells them.  Or maybe the U.S. goes the way of Canada and requires an advance "license" to purchase a gun with a requirement to then register it under penalty of law.  That way government will have all the information they need to do with guns what they did (and may do again) with gold – confiscate them.  (See Wendy McElroy's excellent piece entitled, "Will Obama Confiscate Guns and Gold."  )

Even Mexico has been drawn into the play orchestrated by Washington, not surprising since the U.S. funds it's drug war south of the border to the tune of nearly $10 billion a year.  After the ignominy of the U.S. letting weapons walk across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, Mexico is now requesting a list of all weapons sold in U.S. States that border their country, under the auspices of tracking down weapons that are used in crimes there.  One need not wonder long to know that the U.S. is behind that request.  Next will be demands under various treaties and war drums against guns will be heard even louder.  The irony of it all will be missed, intentionally.  Mexico, with some of the strongest gun laws in the world, is one of the planet's murder capitals with 120,000 killed and some 25,000 disappeared over the last six years.  Why?  Because in Mexico only the bad guys have good guns.  That same reality has permitted horrible human rights violations against a defenseless population by the Mexican military.  Indeed, in the last five years, the Mexican military opened some 5,000 investigations into human rights violations, almost all of which go exactly nowhere.

And, the same is coming to a town near you.  Soon, owning the wrong kind of firearm, a magazine that holds more rounds than the government is comfortable with, along with tens of thousands of laws and regulations that provide criminal penalties for behaviors we all engage in daily, will make us all criminals and it will be open season on those the government finds most corrosive to their plans.  So be it.

Hunter knew the endgame long ago, in 1971 lamenting that “in a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught.  In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

Indeed.  That is where we find ourselves.  Don't get caught.  Don't be stupid.

Get out while you can.

Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

The Best of Jim Karger

Previously by Jim Karger: Obama’s Third Term? We Have More Pressing Problems

"And, to you tough-talking Neo-Cons with your AR-15 rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo, here is reality: they will take your guns, and no, all your Second Amendment bluster aside, you are not going to do anything about it. You are not going to take on a platoon of Marines with state of the art automatic weapons and the best body armor you cannot buy protected by armed personnel carriers and attack helicopters unless you choose to die that day – for nothing.

You will either be in the country or out, and if you are in, you will stay in and you will comply.

That is your choice . . . for the moment."

I wrote that last year for The Dollar Vigilante in an article entitled "When They Come For Your Guns You Will Turn Them Over", and it has been republished dozens of times, often as not to vilify the very proposition and its author.

And, even after all the recent saber-rattling in response to Obama's threat to ban certain semi-automatic rifles, I still believe every word of that article. Most Americans will give up their guns when they are told do so. Not necessarily because they are afraid to die, although most are, but because they are so used to giving up what the government mandates be turned over. Guns may just be the next takeaway in a long list of takings by the State.

Others will come to the conclusion that guns no longer serve a purpose vis-à-vis protection from government tyranny because they have already given up all the rights that matter. From free speech to freedom of the press, all that which was once held sacred has been fully abridged. Even Bill Maher, a liberal's liberal, gets that irony.

From a government that once complied with the requirements of due process down to dutifully reading one's Miranda rights, we now suffer under a Leviathan that openly claims (and exercises) the right to arrest, indefinitely detain, sequester, jail, and even kill its own citizens without charges, an attorney, or a trial.

From cops who used to fear violating a citizen's rights, we have morphed law enforcement into a vast, thuggish, militarized Gestapo-like police network that share only one commonality: they don't care about the law. They care about what they want. And, if you get in the way or don't do exactly as you are told, or in some cases don't intuit what it is they want you to do, you can end up face down on the pavement like this poor bastard.

From a simple rap sheet on felons that might be available in the past, the State and all of its appendages can and do have access to your most personal information that can be used to construct vast dossiers that are widely shared through new institutions like Joint Terrorism Task Forces, fusion centers, and public-private partnerships. (That information, by the way, includes the fact that you are reading this blog online. They know. They will remember. Forever.)

Free speech that was once revered is now also in the ashcan of history. The Patriot Act, as only one example, makes it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated as a "terrorist organization." And who gets to define "terrorist organization"? The Secretary of State who reports directly to the President. Even organizations like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has been characterized a "terrorist threat" by government. And, of course, anarchists who by definition do not believe in aggression against others, including aggression by the State, are set aside for special condemnation as "terrorists" by the U.S. government:

“The FBI has described anarchist extremists as typically being “event driven,” meaning

they show up at political conventions, economic and financial summits, environmental meetings, and the like. They usually target symbols of Western civilization that they perceive to be the root causes of all societal ills—i.e., financial corporations, government institutions, multinational companies, and law enforcement agencies. They damage and vandalize property, riot, set fires, and perpetrate small-scale bombings. Law enforcement is also concerned about anarchist extremists who may be willing to use improvised explosives devices or improvised incendiary devices.” (Source: Congressional Research Service)

Freedom of the press has likewise been shit-canned, and now subject to the whims of government. Of course, government need not take much action against the press, not anymore, since most mainstream press organizations are merely mouthpieces of government. But in the rare event a reporter or a publication wants to expose the incestuous relationship of government and big business, to reveal the State for what it is, they are shut down under threat of law. Good example: agricultural gag laws that provide prison for reporters that reveal animal abuse in industrial agriculture are an in-your-face violation of the First Amendment, but few care anymore, even the courts.

So, what's the point? Just this: the Second Amendment which prohibits the federal government from abridging the freedom to possess firearms, a right ostensibly provided by the Founders in order to prevent government from stripping away other freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, is arguably unnecessary now, to-wit, those rights which our guns were supposed to protect have already been stripped away. Indeed, other than the right to shop and go out to eat (neither specifically mentioned in the Constitution), there are few rights that most Americans seem to care about anymore. Instead, they have been gamed by bread and circuses without firing a shot.

I would opine that under these circumstances government would care little whether Americans are armed or not. However, the Feds must suspect civil unrest is coming when the dollar collapses, and hungry people with guns probably isn't what they have in mind as an endgame, which brings us full circle back to government, per Congressional directive or Executive edict, one day going door to door asking not-so-kindly for your weapons which will leave you asking what liberties you have left worth dying for.

Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

The Best of Jim Karger

Previously by Jim Karger: Mexico Joins the US and Others in Implementing Capital Controls

This piece started with a note:

"Karger, they want to make Obama the King (officially) by rescinding the 22nd Amendment. Sounds like a legal issue to me. You want to take it on?" ~ Berwick

Not really, I thought.

The fact that some dim-wit Congressman from New York wants to enshrine Obama by making him eligible for a third, fourth, fifth or tenth term, would require support of both Houses of Congress and three-quarters of the States.

Odds of success: 0.0

America is certifiably insane, but that doesn't make "we the people" agree on much, and at least 48% of voters, based on the results of the last election, didn't want Obama for a second term, much less for a lifetime.

That said, whether or not the Constitution is amended to provide for a King, that once seminal document has become irrelevant, having been folded five ways and shoved up the bung-hole of America mostly by an out-of-control Executive branch with full support of a weak-kneed legislature. And that fact has not been lost on the general public who rate Congress less popular than lice, Brussels sprouts, colonoscopies, and root canals. Really.

What is surprising, or at least profoundly disappointing, is that the same general public who would apparently like to stomp Congress like a bunch of narcs at a biker rally, continues to elect the same low-rent ho-ho's every two years which is another story for another time. However we got here, we are here, and where we are is inside a full-bore totalitarian State.

The examples are myriad, but here are a few:

If you milk your cow and sell some of the milk to your neighbor, you could end up having your home raided by federal agents. I know. We had a TDV couple visit us in San Miguel de Allende a few months ago who were selling award-winning cheese in the State of Washington until the Feds came in with a SWAT team sporting automatic weapons like the kind you already can't buy and scared their children into the woods. The armed thugs then announced to them that it wasn't a good idea to sell their cheese across State lines, and proceeded to destroy more than $100,000 of their product and shut down their business. They came to Mexico looking for a new beginning since the federal government had already provided an old ending. 

All over America today if you don't recycle, you face draconian fines. If your kid sets up a lemonade stand, one or both of you may be going to jail if it wasn't properly permitted, and, as one kid found out the hard way, don't burp in class because your next burp may be in jail.  

Don't even think about organic gardening, at least not if your neighbor can see it, and no good deed will go unpunished if that deed is feeding the homeless in many cities.  

In Seattle, where the sun never shines, it may soon be illegal for employers to do a criminal background check on a potential employee. After all, we wouldn't want to discriminate against dangerous felons, now would we?  

ObamaCare is about to heel-crush small business nationwide. And those who think they are going to escape the largest government wealth transfer in history by turning their full-time employees into part-time employees to avoid being covered by the new legislation are going to get a rude awakening, with a shovel, by the IRS, who have no compunction changing the rules mid-stream so that virtually no business of any size will escape except by shutting down, which many will.

So detached from reality has government become that more than one official has suggested that the US take care of its debt problem by minting a trillion-dollar coin. Yeah, that should do the trick. "Here, take this coin. It is worth, uh, a trillion dollars." Ignored is the fact when a government tries to create demand by disseminating money, all you get is a failed currency, falling GDP, soaring debt levels, and inflation. Remember Japan? Apparently, most don't.

And, in a final in-your-face rejection of the most fundamental right of a citizen, which is the right to no longer be a citizen, government has announced ceremoniously that no one can leave the US (permanently) until they pay the piper what is called an "exit tax", calculated using the fiction that one sold all one's property on the day one turned in one's passport and dutifully pays the tax on the phantom gain. Oh, and there will be a $495 charge to cover the cost of the administrative handling of your former passport.

Perhaps we shouldn't expect more. Public servants, to use an wholly inappropriate term, are mostly felons now. Think Eric Holder and “Fast and Furious”. He is hardly alone. A recent lawsuit filed in a federal court in California alleges that National Labor Relations Board member Richard Griffin was complicit in a scheme to cover up embezzlement at his union by terminating employees who attempted to expose the effort. Just the kind of guy we need deciding national labor policy, hey?

The Federal Reserve can't go unmentioned, what with their printing and lending and holding interest rates at zero. I got an email from American Express today asking me to open a "High-Yield Savings Account" which pays, get this, 0.90% annually. I am sure this works just swell for a retiree who has saved all his life and has a couple of million dollars, knowing he can earn a whole $18,000 a year in interest, live in a slum, eat cat food, and wait for a Medicare appointment while having his nose rubbed in it by government for committing the sin of being "rich."

We have a President who weeps over twenty kids who get wasted by a freak show in Connecticut while he himself kills that many in a good week with his own drone attacks over a half a dozen countries, yet he misses the irony completely. He has doubled down on the lunatic fringe that was George Bush, upping the ante on warrantless wire-tapping, proxy detentions, Guantanamo, indefinite detentions and drone warfare. Unlike George W. who was a pathetic fool and a malaprop, Obama is a pathological, unapologetic narcissist. He is not stupid. He is evil. Which might explain he may go down in history as our least merciful president. During his first term, this self-promoting hypocrite has granted fewer commutations (shortening prisoners' sentences) and fewer pardons than any President in recent history.

Which leads here: I have not run out of vitriol, but I have run out of room. Obama won't be King because of the rescission of the 22nd Amendment. He will be King because he is already King, just like George W. was King, all because most people really want a King, want to be ruled, if only because they are too lazy and too disinterested to rule themselves.

Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

The Best of Jim Karger

As I lollygagged around the packed convention floor at the Eastman Gun Show in Gainesville, GA amid thousands of guns and what seemed like millions of bullets, it occurred to me that I've never heard of a mass shooting at a gun show.

This was on Saturday afternoon, a day after 20-year-old Adam Lanza went on a shooting spree that left twenty-eight dead. Lanza first murdered his mother at home, then drove to a local elementary school and blew away 20 children and six staff members before killing himself. He reportedly used guns that were legally registered to his mother after having been denied an application to obtain a rifle himself earlier in the week due to Connecticut's relatively strict gun laws.

Before all the blood had time to dry, pro-government zombie toady scribes were shrieking for more u201Cgun controlu201D and insisting that u201Csomethingu201D must be done NOW. They trotted out the tired meme that the u201Cgun lobbyu201D is very powerful and has a lot of money behind it – as if the government they dutifully worship doesn't have far more power and money than the NRA. One went so far as to proclaim that u201Cno person in the United States Of America should own a gun, unless they're a police officer or a soldier.u201D And of course, u201Cwhite menu201D were blamed, albeit by one white man after the next.

Protected on all sides by well-armed Secret Service members, Barack Obama's eyes grew misty as he proclaimed it was time to u201Ctake meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this.u201D New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also screamed from behind his posse of armed bodyguards for more gun control. Taking time off from repeatedly authorizing billions in taxes to bomb the shit out of the Middle East, other politicians decried the USA's u201Cgun culture.u201D

The Soros shills at Think Progress, who never seemed to meet a white male they liked nor a government regulation they didn't like, hastily cobbled together u201CA Timeline Of Mass Shootings In The US Since Columbine.u201D

As always, anyone who writes for George Soros turns out to be – oh, what's the word? – instructive. Much can be learned merely from taking their list of spree killers and digging a little more deeply. In most cases, the following massacres occurred in so-called u201Cgun-free zonesu201D that gun-control advocates naively thought would help prevent gun violence rather than encourage it:

• An autopsy concluded that Columbine killer Eric Harris had the SSRI antidepressant Fluvoxamine in his bloodstream at the time of his death.

Read the rest of the article

Previously by Jim Karger: So, How Can I Make a Living in Mexico?

By 2014, the US Department of Homeland Security will be able to scan you at the molecular level from 164 feet, and you won't even know it. Starting 2013, the US Department of the Treasury will be able to scan every bank and brokerage account you have in the world, save a few possibilities. In both cases, if the government doesn't like what it sees, they can make short work of you and your money.

Unfortunately, while the US has become the world's most invasive police state, combining intent with technology, it is not the only state policing its citizens' financial transactions. Indeed, many other nations are following in its footsteps, limiting individual freedom as well as financial freedom. One of the most common examples of financial fascism today is currency controls, that is, limiting how much cash one can withdraw over a period of time, what can be purchased with cash, and requiring the reporting of purchases and sales above a certain amount with cash. In the US, for example, transactions above $10,000 must be reported by banks and certain vendors, and suspicious transactions (however defined) also reported. Spain recently banned cash transactions above 2,500 euros.

Regrettably, Mexico, too, has now hopped on the capital control bandwagon. In 2010, Mexico instituted strict limits on foreign exchange cash transactions to $1,500 per person per month which made it tough on tourists and resulted in many dollar exchanges closing their doors.

Now, under the auspices of shutting down a $60 billion drug trafficking business, Mexico has passed a law nominated the "Federal Law on the Prevention and Identification of Operations from Illicit Sources", due to take effect in July of 2013. This law will require the reporting of certain transactions involving cash while prohibiting others. The law is complex and much is left to be interpreted. With a broad brush, however, here are the requirements:

Reportable Transactions

Mexican Notarios (quasi-governmental officials who must close all real estate and many other types of transactions in Mexico), as well as brokers, lawyers, accountants and banks will be required to report to Hacienda (the Mexican IRS) a plethora of transactions, including the following:

• sales of houses and other real estate, as well as mortgages and liens
• secured loans
• incorporations of businesses
• creation or modifications of trusts
• appraisals of properties more than $500,000 pesos (about $40,000 US)
• charitable contributions more than $100,000 pesos (about $8,000 US)
• importation of vehicles

Financial institutions will also be required to report monthly credit card balances in excess of $3,875 US. Also, by law these institutions will have to create customer activity profiles, track customer activity, assign a customer risk factor, and identify unusual activity. They will be required to report unusual activity, as well as report activities over a certain amount, operations in cash, travelers’ checks, or precious metal coins.

Hacienda will audit reporting entities for compliance, and these entities will report mostly because the penalties are so harsh for failing to do so, ranging from $1000 USD to $320,000 USD per violation. Indeed, a "Specialized Unit in Financial Analysis" operating within the Attorney General’s Office will be created to investigate financial operations "that are related to resources of unknown origin."

Prohibited Transactions

The new law will also prohibit using cash above the following amounts for these types of transactions:

• real estate transactions with a value higher than 1 million Mexican pesos (about $77,519)
• buying and selling of vehicles worth more than 200,000 pesos ($15,504 US)
• in the case of jewelry, precious metals, watches, gemstones and works of art, cash payments are restricted to prices below 300,000 pesos (about $23,256 US)

There are significant fines for violations by purchasers and sellers and criminal penalties of two to eight years in prison for anyone providing an incorrect document or forged document to avoid the reporting requirements. Four to ten years in prison await those persons in government if they assist in any misstatement or fraud.

Practical Implications

Because all Notarios will be required to ask and record the source of funds for a purchase, and secure a tax ID number from the seller on any transaction that must be recorded, the days of most large, heretofore legal, cash transactions will soon be ended. Indeed, the days of showing up at a real estate closing with a Zero Halliburton attaché full of cash are a thing of the past.

It has been common in Mexico for buyers and sellers to record an amount on real estate deeds far below the actual amount paid for real estate, resulting in less taxation of that real estate going forward and often avoiding taxation on the capital gains of a real estate sale. Those days may be over, too.

Prohibition of precious metals transactions for cash above +/- $23,000 US may be material to those who want to stack their gold and silver here, although it is unclear whether one may ladder smaller transactions without running afoul of the new law.

Perhaps most significant is the requirement to have a Mexican income tax ID when closing any transaction that must be recorded in public records, which includes all real estate transactions. The Mexican government wants everyone, expats included, to be on their tax radar. It is important to remember that, while heretofore unenforced, all "residents" of Mexico are required to pay tax on their worldwide income here. (In a future article, I will discuss how Mexico will separate residents from non-residents under the new immigration law.)

Expats living in Mexico could simply keep all their financial assets elsewhere outside of Mexico and then live out of ATMs here, but I don’t know many people who want to live that way. Not having a bank account in the country of your residence makes financial life much more difficult. Also, as the new immigration law goes into effect, the Mexican government is shutting down the ability to renew the tourist visa while the visa-holder is in Mexico. More importantly, it is rumored that the Mexican government will soon begin denying back-to-back renewals of the tourist visa (a strategy that many expats use to remain in the country legally without taking on resident status), leaving the Mexican government one step from declaring many expats "residents" for Mexican income tax purposes. We will be consulting with some of the best lawyers in Mexico to insure that TDV subscribers are at the forefront of avoiding unwittingly becoming "residents" of Mexico for tax purposes. (You can become a subscriber by clicking here.)

Just The Beginning

Much still needs to be sorted out, no doubt in the form of regulations which should be issued between now and July, 2013. For now it is safe to say Mexico has joined the effort of many other first world countries to track all significant financial transactions within its borders, to capture every taxable peso and to gain access to the wealth of those banking or transacting business here. For sure, the cost of doing business in Mexico will rise. How significantly will depend on the how the law is interpreted and enforced. Only time will tell.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

There are hundreds of thousands of US citizens who would like to escape America now.

So, why don’t they pick up and leave?

Money.

They don’t have enough to live on the income generated by their savings for the rest of their lives. (Many actually do and believe they don’t, but I will save that topic for another article.)

For those who want to live in Mexico, and who know they will need to work to stay here, this is for you: Some ideas on how to make a living south of the border.

Before I discuss ideas for businesses and jobs that can and have worked for other expats in Mexico, lets talk about what won’t work: Competing with Mexican nationals for semi-skilled jobs. They barely make enough to survive. You won’t last a month performing hard labor for $2 or $3 dollars an hour.

Which leaves a lot of vocational options that have merit, depending on location, and which includes starting your own business, or working for an existing business here in Mexico.

Here are a dozen businesses/jobs that a motivated American with the right experience and skill sets could begin and realize their dream of disconnecting from Amerika:

Real estate agency – This business is perhaps the most common startup among expats. It can be established with relatively modest capital and if you can list and sell property, you can make a living. Unfortunately, it is late to get into this game in most Mexican cities where Americans and Canadians are prevalent. Unless you can bring a model to market that no one else has thought of that will cause real estate that hasn’t sold to sell, you will be one of a large pack in a currently depressed Mexican residential real estate market. Going to work as an agent for an existing agency is also a possibility if you have experience and a record of success.

Coffee shop/Internet café – This is another business that many expats have tried and some have actually succeeded. But, in San Miguel de Allende where I have lived the past 11 years, the city seems saturated with opportunities to buy your morning fix. That said, there is always room for a coffee shop with a new twist in a new area. Just be ready to take on the likes of Starbucks, who are taking Mexico by storm.

Restaurant – Most restaurants fail regardless of which side of the border you are on. But there are notable exceptions. One young couple from the northeast with restaurant experience came to San Miguel a few years ago and opened an Asian-fusion restaurant with a creative menu and an even more creative bar. They have done well.

B&B – Buying a property that lends itself to offering rooms and breakfast can be a good, if low volume, business. They key to success is to buy the property at the right price after evaluating demand and location.

Tours – Bringing in tourists from the US and Canada and providing customized tour services can be attractive in the right market, meaning a location in Mexico deemed safe and desirable by tourists from north of the border.

Employment agency – We went through several maids after we moved to San Miguel, not finding one that had the full set of skills we were seeking. One enterprising entrepreneur started a company called: "Maid In Mexico". They came in, determined what we were looking for and trained our maid to service our home and two casitas to a high standard. The same thing could be done training gardeners and handymen. And, for sensitive positions or those with rare skill sets, one could open an agency that conducts background checks, civil, criminal, and confirms experience, for a fee, of course.

Health club/gym – Finding a modern, state of the art health club or gym is difficult except for Mexico’s largest cities. While capital intensive, if you have several hundred thousand dollars to invest and experience in the fitness business, there may be opportunities in various Mexican locales. If you can’t or don’t want to own your own fitness business, consider becoming a personal trainer, Yoga teacher, or Pilates instructor. I even know one woman who made a living here for a period of time teaching other women to pole dance (not training to be strippers but because pole dancing is, apparently, great exercise.) Just know you will be competing with certified Mexican nationals doing the same thing and that keeps a lid on potential earnings.

Import/Export – Importing into Mexico is highly regulated by the Mexican government and the same is true when exporting good from Mexico to the United States. Someone who can help individuals and businesses leap the legal hurdles might just find a successful niche business.

Non-profit support services – The number of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Mexico is substantial. Someone who has had experience and success in writing grant proposals, for example, may do very well servicing the many US non-profits that operate in Mexico.

Organics – Organic produce and meat may be bigger in Mexico than in the US. Organic farming is popular here and many make their living growing green and selling at various farmers’ markets and restaurants.

Accountants and tax preparation professionals – US citizens must pay tax on their worldwide income, causing a need for US licensed accountants and tax preparation professionals in areas of Mexico favored by expats.

Medical case management – This is a service I haven’t seen here yet, but is needed. It might include evaluation of medical insurance alternatives in Mexico for expats, case management for those hospitalized or in nursing or hospice care, including treatment, hospital/doctor selection, and billing. Someone who has a medical and business background might do well managing the healthcare of expats in Mexico.

Those are a dozen ideas. There are dozens more.

Just know that starting and becoming successful in a business here in Mexico or anywhere for that matter requires skill, preparation, market analysis, and hard work. All businesses require, or at least are best-served in Mexico with bilingual owners. So, if you don’t speak Spanish, don’t wait until you get to Mexico. Find courses you can take now. And, it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, businesses require money to open, oftentimes as much as a similar business in the US and Canada. Don’t come down on a shoestring and believe you can crank up a successful business. It doesn’t work that way. If you want to work in Mexico as an employee, determine what you can add.

Either way, if you are serious, come to Mexico, not as a tourist, but with a view to finding and evaluating opportunities that are in demand which can be serviced by your skill sets and to meet the people who can help you leap the hurdles.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

I wish I had been busier a few days ago, more occupied, or at least more distracted, with less time to follow the news. But I read it all and I regretfully report that it was another tragic day in America, another palpable step toward an ignominious end.

The day began with the mainstream press reporting, matter-of-factly, that the US government was giving a reward to former UBS banker, Bradley C. Birkenfeld, admitted liar, tax fraud promoter, low-rent trash in a suit who violated every promise he ever made to his employer and to his clients. For his efforts, he will receive a total of $104 million. The US government disingenuously classified his collective breaches of contract, trust, and ethics a compensable "service" to a government that collected billions by extorting foreign banks that had the audacity to accept deposits from US clients, not knowing they were expected to also act as agents of the Internal Revenue Service. US foreign account holders also ended up paying billions after being threatened with prison if they did not self-report and pay draconian fines.

The government cynically characterized Birkenfeld’s actions as "blowing the whistle", ignoring the fact that tattling is only honorable when done for honorable purposes, to reveal dishonesty, not to garner a personal reward. If you squeal for money, it is not whistle-blowing. It is bounty-hunting. Even as a paid government snitch, Birkenfeld couldn’t do it straight and was sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying during the course of the very investigation he initiated. No hard feelings, though. He was just released early to a lifetime of fabulous wealth.

As I perused that hideous story, the contrast with Bradley Manning was too obvious, too stark, too disturbing. Manning blew the whistle, too, not for cash, but to deal with the profound guilt he felt from reading and seeing the war crimes of his government which were kept hidden. Since his act of heroism, or treason, depending on how you define those terms, Manning has spent 2 1/2 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, tortured, with no trial. By any definition, Manning was a whistleblower. Unfortunately for him, he blew the whistle on a 900 pound gorilla in the room, the one with a bad attitude and a gun.

Therein lies the difference between Birkenfeld and Manning. Birkenfeld gave the government what it wanted, a cudgel with which to threaten to imprison its own citizens, oftentimes for nothing more than failing to file an obscure form timely. Manning, on the other hand, had the audacity to reveal the true nature of the State, to expose the government for what it is: petty, dishonest, lumbering, inefficient, but mostly pernicious and power-hungry, not above wholesale murder if that is what it takes to further the cultural imperialism it seeks to impose in self-recognition of its manifest destiny to rule the world and everyone in it.

The United States government has become the modern-day Stasi, only with a better PR department. From "if you see something, say something," to paying a bounty hunter for a list of names to threaten and extort, there appears no limit on what this government will do to achieve its desired ends or who it will enlist into its conspiracy.

Indeed, as I despaired through the news today, I learned the same government that determined Birkenfeld was a good guy worth making rich, also supported former enemy, now friend, al-Qaeda, who killed its on-again, off-again friend and enemy, Mohamar Kahdafi. Unfortunately, as killers will do, after taking the keys to the country, they turned their guns and killed their (former) friend’s Ambassador to Libya.

The old Chinese adage that "the enemy of my enemy may be my friend" may be true, but if the enemy of your enemy is lying, thieving scum, they will, given a reason and an opportunity, kill you, too. In Kahdafi’s case, he got out of synch on the "friend-enemy" sequence and ended up with a broomstick up his ass. In the case of US Ambassador Stevens, apparently he didn’t get the memo that al-Qaeda had gone from friend back to enemy after they had done the dirty deed in Libya.

Even more distressing than the news was the Sheeple’s reaction to it, or better said, lack of reaction. Most weren’t bothered in the least. Most, through willful ignorance, didn’t and won’t know any of this. Many of the rest will know but won’t care. After all, the iPhone 5 was released and, "Wow, did you see how thin it is?" The newest toy even overshadowed Bernanke’s third attempt to kill, bury and give the epitaph for the US dollar as he announced to the delight of traders that he would print as much money as it took forever and ever, Amen.

Bernanke made the rich very happy today, while the rest of the proles will be left to come to terms with the reality that more can (and will) become less very soon. Savers will be punished, spenders rewarded, retirees put in bread lines without bread, while the banks will again be saved from their own felonies by a State whose enemies, foreign and domestic, are those who can’t, don’t or won’t pay.

Yes, it was a tough day in America. But there was one high point for me. I wasn’t there. Here in San Miguel de Allende, nestled in the high central desert of Mexico, it was cool and clear, the bougainvilleas in full bloom. The dogs played while I worked with our gardener/handyman Arturo taking down a 40 foot cactus while Kelly was out in the campo checking out a new location for another spay-neuter clinic.

On days like these, I wonder whether it might have been better to not know, to have stayed in bed, to have not turned on the computer. But then I remembered Edmund Burke’s warning that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And, most Americans have been doing nothing for too long.

As painful as the truth may be, it is better to know than not to know, for without knowing we cannot identify our enemies or our friends, often with disastrous consequences.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

Writing is often cathartic for the writer. Indeed, it is often what causes the pen to move, although few writers will admit creating material for publication as an outlet for the pain they suffer. I confess at the outset that what follows is more for me than for you. I need to write this to deal with the angst associated with debating, or trying to debate, those who, for no good or apparent reason, are ready to sacrifice their credibility on the altars of the campaign rhetoric of mainstream candidates. What they are apparently not willing to sacrifice is the time it takes to read anything substantive on the history and stated policies of the Bobbsey twins, Obama and Romney.

My latest frustration began with a post on Facebook and the soliloquy that followed (name changed to protect a friendship):

Jim: Voting is the illusion of influence in exchange for the loss of freedom.

John: So, what would be the alternative to voting for what a person feels will improve the situation in their arena?

Jim: Traditional thought that assumes a large parliamentary democracy is the only alternative, one that has failed, would necessitate a revolution of some kind with a view to beginning again, which ultimately would fail again due to the dynamic of the tyranny of the majority. To wit, no document or contract can (over the longer term) stop the majority from becoming the dictator in a large democracy. But there are alternatives. "Democracy is by definition a collectivist system. It"s socialism through the backdoor. The basic idea behind it is that it is desirable and right that all important decisions about the physical, social and economic organization of society are taken by the collective, the people. And the people authorize their representatives in parliament – in other words, the State – to take these decisions for them. In other words, in a democracy the whole fabric of society is geared towards the State. Clearly then it is misleading to claim that democracy is, somehow, the inevitable climax of the political evolution of mankind. That"s just propaganda to disguise that democracy represents a very specific political orientation, for which there are indeed plenty of reasonable alternatives." Take a look at Beyond Democracy by Karel Beckman and Frank Karsten.  It is available as a book or an e-book at amazon.com.

John: That being said, there is no "reasonable" alternative (with any hope of success) to voting for a candidate that a person feels will improve the current situation.

Jim: If there were such a candidate, perhaps, assuming the nation was not too far gone, which it is.  That aside, the core beliefs and policies of both mainstream candidates are remarkably similar. A good read on this can be found here.

John: Sorry Jim, but there is NO comparison between Obama and "anyone else"!

Jim:   With due respect, that offers nothing except an opinion backed by no facts, evidencing you have fallen for the false distinctions based on the sound bytes of Fox. Feel free to come back when you have something of substance to offer, something that illustrates significant policy differences between the two major party candidates and then we can discuss.

John: With due respect… "there is NO comparison between Obama and "anyone else"!

Jim: This is the problem with the so-called "debate." Most are too lazy or too disinterested to spend any time in basic research and this reflects the quality of their responses.

John: Three-and-a-half years of Obama is about all of the "basic research" I need. Suggest you might want to take in the movie 2016… which I believe is VERY CLOSE to identifying Obama's "Core Beliefs".

Jim: I rest my case. America is going to, once again, get what it so richly deserves.

And we will know what America gets when we wake up November 7, 2012. There will be celebration and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

And it will all be for nothing.

Because nothing material will change, regardless who is elected. On the economy, foreign policy and civil liberties, you could put the differences between Obama and Romney in a thimble and have plenty of room to spare.  Their positions on the most critical issues in America are not materially different but equally devastating. 

The Economy

The U.S. is flat broke, to put it generously.  Even using the government's own numbers, it is apparent that without massive cuts to Defense, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, economic survival is impossible. Even if we eliminated government, all of it, tax revenues do not even cover the cost of entitlement programs, defense and interest on the federal debt. If you don't believe it (and even if you do) watch this:

Neither Obama nor Romney acknowledge this stark reality. Obama"s budget is, in a word, disastrous.  Even increasing tax revenues by a third over the next four years and donning rose-colored glasses of government, his budget will result in an annual deficit of $650 billion in 2016. Applying the 100% "miss" on his estimated 2012 budget, Obama's plan will continue to add more than a trillion dollars to the deficit each year, which is totally unsustainable and will lead to a crash of the bond market. This in turn will lead to the monetization of more debt by the Fed, leading to the absolute and total destruction of the dollar, leading to The End.

Romney's budget is no better.  He makes assumptions that would make an acid-freak blush.  His growth assumptions are laughable. His other "$500 billion in cuts" are pure smoke and mirrors.  His budget, in fact, cuts nothing, but only slows the rate of the government juggernaut in its race to economic destruction.

More bizarre and dangerous is Romney's insistence that the US (a country that already spends more on Defense than the next 17 largest spending countries combined) increase the Defense budget (read: war budget).  Net-net, Romney would not substantially cut federal spending, would spend any cuts on Defense and spending would remain at the 24 percent of GDP level into, well, forever, or until it all comes tumbling down. Combined with across the board tax cuts, Romney's plan would put America in the poor house quickly, if it wasn't already there.

Bottom line: Obama and Romney preach balancing the budget but neither has a plan to actually do it. And, to be fair, neither has the ability to do it. Government depends on working Americans paying taxes to fund its programs, and regardless who becomes President, the US will continue to bleed good jobs while adding more baristas and maids to serve the ever-wealthier class. There is nothing government can do about it.  This is the result of a global economy in which the US can no longer compete against its (much) lower wage competitors. 

In the US today there are few good jobs to be had and there will be even less in the future. Indeed, "only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a Bachelor"s degree or higher to fill the position. Most job openings will be in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren"t easily replaced by computers" and difficult or impossible to ship abroad. 

This combined with the absence of higher paying manufacturing jobs which have already been moved offshore or are now being performed by robots, cannot be resolved politically.  The market, not the government, will have the final say on jobs. Government cannot squeeze blood from a turnip, and neither Obama nor Romney can squeeze taxes from the unemployed.

As for the US"s unsustainable Healthcare system, ObamaCare is the child of Romneycare, a child that Romney now wants to abort, at least the individual mandate provision, a distinction disingenuous at best.  Without an individual mandate, the young  and healthy will not insure, causing premiums to skyrocket for the rest.  Neither version of national healthcare will work. 

Foreign Policy

Obama has been a profound disappointment to those who believe the Bill of Rights should be used for something more than toilet paper.  In three years, he has signed an extension of the Patriot Act that gives government power to engage in warrantless surveillance, and ordered drone strikes against Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, just to name a few. His foreign policy accomplishments include the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and the murder of Osama bin Laden without so much as a thought to capture and trial, and the cold blooded murder of at least at least 168 children, at least one of whom was a natural born US citizen.  He keeps a "kill on sight" list and has a meeting every Tuesday with advisors to determine who is next to be assassinated without charges or trial. Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, a law that vaporizes the protections of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.

It is ironic that, except for their racial bigotry, ethnocentrism, fear of vaginas, wild fantasies of American Exceptionalism, and their steadfast collective belief in Fox News, the neocons would bronze Obama's man-part and erect it (no pun intended) in front of the Pentagon.

Like Obama, Romney believes Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution states that only Congress has the power to "declare war."  But both interpret that mandate as a recommendation, meaning the President can dispense with a declaration of war at will. Romney has expressed an intention of doing just that in order to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The problem is the truth: the White House, the Pentagon, U.S. intelligence, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) all have reached the same conclusions about Iran's nuclear program: "1) Iran does not have a nuclear weapon-it only has a civilian nuclear program at this point, 2) Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and 3) Iran has not made the decision of whether or not to build a nuclear weapon in the future." But, like his warmonger buddy Netanyahu, Romney has made it clear that he intends to bomb Iran, regardless of the facts which also include these facts: Russia and China have made it clear that in so doing he may start World War III. 

Thomas Eddlem concluded cogently and correctly regarding the candidates' stated foreign policies: "No substantial difference. Romney"s bellicosity against Iran is marginally worse than that of Obama, who nevertheless ranks as the worst president in American history on foreign policy."

Civil Liberties

From "if you see something, say something," to DHS electronic strip searches, to federal agencies purchasing enough ammunition to kill every US citizen three times, Obama has operated government more like the Stasi than a free democratic republic. It appears the old liberals inside the Democratic Party in favor of peace and free speech have been fully silenced. 

Romney, a retrofitted neocon chicken hawk, like Obama, supports the devolution of the country into a full-bore Police State.  Both have supported extension of the Patriot Act, including its warrantless surveillance provisions, and the NDAA:

Romney believes he, as President, has the right to order the death of any U.S. citizen "suspected" of terrorism, as does Obama since he has already done it.  They both believe in extraordinary rendition and Romney not only doesn't want to close Guantanamo Bay as Obama promised he would do (and then reneged), but says he wants to double its size.

Obama is pro-choice, just as Romney was when he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. Now, as he has on so many other issues including gun control and immigration, Romney has done a 180 and now claims to be 100 percent pro-life:

Neither seems to have any problem with spying on Americans.  Wikileaks revealed that former senior intelligence officials have created a detailed surveillance system called Trapwire that is more accurate than modern facial recognition technology – and have installed it across the US.  Obama obviously knows about it and approves, and Romney has signaled his assent by remaining silent. 

Both believe they can ignore legislation and the will of Congress with "signing statements," and that the Executive Branch itself can legislate around Congress with Executive Orders.

Both are unmitigated disasters to civil liberties.

So, Who Wins?  Or the Better Question, Who Loses?

Both Obama and Romney are men of privilege, Romney born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and Obama gifted power. Romney is the poster child of the power elite and Obama is clearly acceptable after four years of doing their bidding.

Obama has clearly enjoyed his four years of high rolling, playing at least 100 rounds of golf in 3 1/2 years of being POTUS, while his wife has imitated the rich and famous, sporting a personal staff of 22 and taking extravagant vacations on the taxpayers' dime with not a hint of embarrassment.

Romney is equally unsympathetic.  Michael Cohen, a good friend and political observer, summarizes Romney as follows: "Romney"s father was a CEO, a governor, and a candidate for President.  He was born to great wealth and status and privilege.  He attended the poshest private schools, where he was a bully. At Stanford, he demonstrated publicly in favor of the Vietnam War while he sat it out as a missionary in the steamy jungles of Paris, France. He got filthy rich by starting a fund that bought companies and, for the most part, ran them into the dirt, and the seed money for this noble venture came from immensely wealthy Central and South American families who supported right-wing death squads but also needed to park some substantial money in the US.

"The only rules that Romney thinks apply to him are the rules of rich-people etiquette – how to use snail tongs for escargot, how to talk quietly while your partner is teeing off or putting, how to refer to African Americans without calling them "niggers" or "darkies," which people you can screw (literally and figuratively) and get away with it, and which you can"t.  Other rules, especially the rule of law, do not apply to him.  The law is for little people.  Romney has no need for rules or the law; he is guided by his unerring internal moral compass and incorruptible conscience."

A disturbing choice, indeed, but who will get the nod from the sheeple?

Obama is my odd's on favorite to win in November, if only because half of the US receives a check from the government and intends to continue collecting. 

The Republicans are seen as the party of the rich, mostly because they are. Romney is an empty suit, unlikable, and reminds me of the mildly-retarded George W., but without the childlike qualities. He is of the elite. He is not Main Street. He is Wall Street, brought to the general public by the same elites that have and continue to rape and pillage what is left of the markets and violate the law with impunity. He was an absurd choice by a party that has been absconded with by the neocons.  

Romney's tax return issue won't go away and there is speculation that the reason he won't release more tax returns is because he hid millions in Switzerland believing he wouldn't get caught.  When the Swiss rolled over, he figured he better take advantage of the amnesty because his name would certainly have stood out on a list of US tax cheats turned over by the Swiss government.  No one knows, but if that turns out to be the case and is revealed, he is history.  Even the rumor is taking a toll. 

Finally, Romney's blatant attempt to silence Ron Paul at the Republican convention by refusing to seat his delegates ensures he will lose the vast majority of Libertarians, estimated to constitute at least 12% of the Republican Party. They will either vote for Gary Johnson in protest or not vote at all. Romney's pathetic attempt to appear open by offering Paul a place on the podium was rejected after Romney insisted that he have an advance review Paul's remarks.  Dr. Paul would rather be silenced than censored. 

This is politics and shit does happen, and it may happen to Obama if the bottom falls out of the stock market and Joe Lunchbucket sees what's left of his investments. After having suffered through the dot-com and real estate bubbles, he might just vote for anyone but Obama. Likewise, if Israel decides to bomb Iran before the election, Obama will be in a tough spot. If he sits it out, he will lose a lot of the rich Northeastern support and look like a sissy to the chicken hawks in the Democratic party, and if he involves the US militarily, he will lose many of those Democrats and Independents who are, understandably, war-weary.

But it really doesn't matter. 

The banking cabal and the military-industrial complex doesn't care who wins because they win either way. As Tony Cartalucci observed, "It is absolute folly to believe that multi-billion dollar corporate-financier interests would subject their collective fate to the whims of the ignorant, uninformed, and essentially powerless voting masses every four years. Instead, what plays out every four years is theater designed to give the general public the illusion that they have some means of addressing their grievances without actually ever changing the prevailing balance of power in any meaningful way." 

A little research would have made that clear to those interested in more than repeating TV sound bites.  Behind both candidates you find Wall Street, media, the Fortune 500, and of course the lawyers who, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, intend to be around long enough to haggle over the ruins.

Yet, partisans on the "winning" side of this faux campaign will celebrate their "freedom," if for no other reason that they got to choose their dictator.

Americans, except the elite, will be the losers. Again. They will remain debt slaves, tax donkeys and work mules for the owners. They will watch their dollars become more worthless than they already are, become poorer and more dependent, and sooth their pain with the bread and circuses provided by those in control – alcohol and sport. They will cheer on their gladiators, their teenage sons dying in foreign lands, and not even notice they are being strip-searched daily and their phone calls, email and Facebook feeds monitored.  

While the spokesman for the owners will change, the owners will not, mostly because most voters on both sides are too lazy, ignorant or disinterested to go further than campaign rhetoric.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. I do not know which accounts are unreconciled or whether the unreconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules." ~ John Corzine

Jon Corzine is a contemporary Richard Nixon: a low rent thief, liar, and American success story.

Corzine, you may recall, bet $6.3 billion on the wrong side of European sovereign debt, a wager his own risk department at MF Global told him was nuts, and a wager so big and so wrong that it wiped out the entire firm.

After the news hit the wire and blood hit the water MF’s customers started jumping ship and that is when MF deliberately took customer money as its own to keep its head above water. It was too little, too late. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and Corzine resigned.

Over $1 billion in customer funds remain missing in action.

Depending on who you listen to, Corzine may have known the funds he ordered transferred were customer money. He certainly should have known and there is little dispute he has a serious gambling problem and that he destroyed the savings and lives of hundreds of investors and businesses.

Now, after 10 months of a pretend investigation, one that has not involved so much as an interview by the FBI of Corzine himself, federal prosecutors have decided they are not going to charge him with anything.

Nothing. Nada. Vaya con dios, amigo.

Such is the nature of justice in America’s fast lane.

Plausible Deniability Retested

Taking a cue from Nixon’s "plausible deniability" gambit, Corzine has reminded us of a few important political truths that every American should remember as they struggle to find a safe place for themselves and whatever money they have left:

1. Former CEOs of Goldman Sachs, like Goldman Sachs itself, are too big and too connected to fail, no matter how egregious their conduct. And, to make sure we all know that, in addition to giving Corzine a pass, the government also announced last week that they are ending an investigation into whether Goldman Sachs misled investors in a $1.3 billion sale of residential mortgage-backed securities in 2006, shortly before the housing crash. You may recall that Goldman was packaging this rancid financial trash so that one client (John Paulson) could short them, while simultaneously selling the other side of the deal to their own clients, conveniently failing to disclose that these instruments were specifically designed to fail.

2. Former US Senators won’t be prosecuted for anything, ever, even if caught with underage boys on videotape. They know where too many bodies are hidden, as evidenced by the softballs a fourth grader could have handled when Corzine testified in Congressional hearings on what happened to the money.

3. Big-dollar supporters of any sitting President and his party are too important to lose to jail. Corzine was one of Obama’s biggest campaign "bundlers", a way for the rich to gain direct access to a candidate by leaning on people inside their organizations to contribute far more than ostensibly they would have without implicit threats to do so.

Proven Techniques of Truth Suppression

Not wanting to bet the farm solely on his political connections, but needing to make sure the fix was in, Corzine used several of the time-tested "Thirteen Techniques of Truth Suppression", favorites of politicians and their owners who don’t want to go to jail, which I estimate to be all of them.

In Corzine’s case, he selected from the liar’s list as if were a menu of fine wines, first using technique number nine:

“Come half-clean. This is also known as ‘confession and avoidance’ or ‘taking the limited hang-out route.’ This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes.’ This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken."

Corzine played this gambit well, even professionally, first suggesting that he knew nothing, a proposition so absurd that it fell apart like a cheap suit, then subtly implying that he actually was a moron, a gambler with a problem, too stupid to be held liable for anything, though not in those exact words. His prepared testimony was, in a word, disturbing: "I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date. I do not know which accounts are unreconciled or whether the unreconciled accounts were or were not subject to the segregation rules. Moreover, there were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days, and I do not know, for example, whether there were operational errors at MF Global or elsewhere, or whether banks and counterparties have held onto funds that should rightfully have been returned to MF Global."

Yes, Corzine swore to all that with a straight face.

To make sure no stonewall was left unturned, Corzine borrowed from the crook’s playbook once more, this time technique number ten: “Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable." This worked well when the big banks got behind Henry Paulson, another former Goldman Sachs CEO during the housing meltdown, as he explained not-so-patiently that we, the general public, were far too ignorant to ever understand what went wrong and so we should stop trying.

Matt Taibbi observed in his brilliant article in Rolling Stone:

"There’s been an intense effort at trying to convince the public that no crime has been committed. Whoever is handling MF Global’s P.R. . . . appears to have convinced the company’s officers to emphasize the word ‘chaos’ in describing the last days of the firm – as though $1.2 billion wasn’t intentionally stolen, per se, but simply lost in a kind of uncontrolled whirlwind of transactions that magically carried the money out of accounts off to worlds unknown."

No one with good sense professes to believe Corzine except those who matter, Congress, and federal prosecutors.

Finally, Corzine called on technique number twelve, “Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely," which was easy in this case since he was never interviewed by federal law enforcement, making their inability to prosecute true, albeit pathetic. The fact that MF Global was a client of Attorney General Eric Holder’s, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer’s, former law firm Covington & Burling, didn’t hurt Corzine’s chances either, and the all clear signal was given when Holder (an accomplished criminal in his own right) refused to appoint a Special Prosecutor.

Like Nixon, Corzine is a one man epidemic of deceit, a thug with the conscience of a rabid hyena, and like Nixon, he is not going to jail.

Epilogue

Not only is Corzine avoiding prosecution, but under the heading of "in your face, MF’er," he is going into business again. Doing what you ask? Handling the money of others, of course. Max Keiser summarized the situation best: "Corzine is considering opening a new hedge fund, though the notion that anyone – even a slack-jawed muppet happy to buy whatever Goldman‘s prop traders want to sell – would seed Corzine money so he can trade or steal it away seems absurd – rather like putting a child molester in charge of a day-care."

Absurd, yes, but true nonetheless and odds are he will raise millions, and if not become a high-priced political or financial consultant.

The Big Ugly Picture

Corzine is just another poster child for fraud and malfeasance at the highest levels, public and private. His photo is not alone on that wall of shame.

In the big picture, he is small potatoes. Other bigger players are being given passes for far more egregious crimes. JP Morgan, infamous manipulator of silver, stepped closer to the edge by losing $6 billion in a single trading loss. It’s megalomaniacal CEO, Jamie Dimon, no stranger to truth suppression, expertly employed technique number four: “Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike." Dimon took full responsibility (for a nanosecond) before blaming it all on a straw man, a rogue trader who turned out to have all the authority he exercised. No one is going to jail. To the contrary, almost as a gift, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) dropped a four-year investigation (mainly held behind closed doors) into JP Morgan’s obvious and rampant silver price manipulation just to show there were no hard feelings.

Still another shining example of "justice", as that term is now defined by the owners, is Barclay’s Bank, believed to be a mastermind in the virtually incalculable LIBOR fraud. Its execs have skated criminal prosecution and the bank has paid a relatively meager $350 million fine for everyone to forget it ever happened, except its former CEO, Bob Diamond, who used technique number two: “Wax indignant. This is also known as the ‘how dare you?’ gambit…" after British Parliament observed the obvious – that he is an unmitigated filthy liar like all the rest.

And, then there is Standard Chartered who will pay a $340 million to settle charges that it illegally funneled hundreds of billions of dollars to Iran in violation of innumerable US and international sanctions. No criminal charges, mind you, just $340 million to take care of what amounted to a $250 billion conspiracy. Some might characterize that as a good investment.

Finally, it would be unfair to leave out Morgan Stanley, lead underwriter of the now infamous Facebook offering, who took a play from Goldman Sachs and the great Paulson short. They marketed Facebook stock to the unwitting while shorting it all the way down, making another $100 million.

It is not just about Corzine anymore. The pathology of cronyism is endemic and spreading.

Immoral Of The Story

So, what is the moral of this hideous little tale? What are the lessons for our children?

Perhaps we should sit them down and wax philosophical:

"Kids, you know the old saying that ‘crime doesn’t pay?’ Well, that’s bullshit. Crime pays and pays big unless you are poor and without political connections in which case you will likely join the American gulag and soon.

"And that rule about always telling the truth? How can I put this gently? That’s bullshit, too. Liars, good ones, rise to the top of government and corporations. They are sociopaths by nature and have no empathy for anyone other than themselves. They are sick, but they are rich. You can make more money from five minutes knowing the right insider than you can from a lifetime of hard work.

"And, finally, about that Biblical ‘suggestion’ to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you?’ Well, that will get you a job selling printer cartridges at Best Buy or teaching yoga to the woo-woos if you are limber.

"No, my children, If you want to make it big in this world, smile, lie, follow the money, suck the ass of those on the fast train, step on the little people and fuck anyone who gets in your way.

"Make Daddy proud."

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

My grandmother grew up in the backwoods of Arkansas.  She had a fourth grade education and worked in the fields. When she was 12 years old she threw down her cotton sack and took a train to Texas to live with an aunt she had never met.  She lived a hard life, never had much of a chance, and yet she was one of the wisest people I have ever known.  

She taught me many life lessons that have served me well, one of which went like this:  ”Jimmy,” she would say as she waved her finger in my face, “most folks will lie even when the truth works better.” Not a particularly rosy view of humanity, but it was, and is, deadly accurate.  

Nowhere is the truth of her admonition better seen than when man is collectivized and given authority.  Whether government, corporate or union, the simple fact is that most people are liars. Liars lie. Good liars rise to the top. And when good liars are collectivized they lie more frequently and more effectively.  When they have control of the numbers, it makes their deceit more difficult to discover.  When they can make up the numbers, it can make unwinding them a near impossibility.

Take the recent unemployment numbers that took the U.S. stock market to fresh three month highs.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 163,000 new jobs were created in July, 2012. 

Sounds good enough, but like most numbers, even if it is accurate, which it is not, it creates an intended deceit.  

Looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics own tables reveals the following startling fact:  The U.S. actually lost 1,204,000 jobs in the month of July, 2012.  Don’t believe it?  Take a look at the actual unadjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

During July, 2012, the private sector added a net 27,000 jobs which represented an added 76,000 goods-producing jobs less 49,000 jobs lost in the service sector.  The other million plus were lost in the public sector.  The 163,000 represents a number that has nothing to do with reality, but rather represents a model that supposedly takes into account the seasonality of certain jobs.  

In short, the BLS report showing 163,000 added jobs is statistical wizardry by bureaucrats with calculators following the demands of liars who want the numbers spun.      

If you give it some thought, it makes no sense that employment is expanding. 

GDP is falling, in part because fewer people are working, which might also explain why tax receipts per employee are also falling.  A contracting, not expanding, workforce might also explain these numbers from the ISM’s July Manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) report.  The PMI registered 49.8 percent, which was a contraction in the manufacturing sector for the second consecutive month, following 34 consecutive months of expansion.  And, the New Orders Index registered 48 percent, indicating contraction in new orders for the second consecutive month.

A rising number of unemployed might also be consistent with:

• ISM’s New Orders Index of 48 percent in July, represented a contraction in new orders for the second time since April, 2009.
• The Inventories Index registered 49 percent in July, 5 percentage points higher than the 44 percent reported in June. ISM’s Employment Index registered 52 percent in July, 4.6 percentage points lower than the 56.6 percent reported in June. 
• ISM’s New Export Orders Index registered 46.5 percent in July, 1 percentage point lower than the 47.5 percent reported in June, and represents the second month of contraction in the index since June, 2009.
• ISM’s Imports Index registered 50.5 percent in July, 3 percentage points lower than the 53.5 percent reported in June.

The employment numbers are even belied by garbage, not just the government’s garbage, but real garbage.  A recent ZeroHedge blog interpreted Bloomberg numbers on the number of carloads of trash being hauled by U.S. railroads.  ”As Bloomberg explains:  ’One closely watched economic indicator is the rail car loads of waste and scrap materials.’  Logically, ‘The more we demand, the more waste is generated by that production.’

As the chart of the day, courtesy of Bloomberg Brief, demonstrates, if garbage is the benchmark, the US economy is now contracting faster than it has at any one point in the past 3 years and is on pace to recreate the economic collapse last seen after the Lehman bankruptcy.

Perhaps another reason why central planners have latched on to stock markets and will just not let go.

In the big picture, the numbers still don’t add up.  The “civilian labor force participation rate” is now at 63.7% of the total workforce. The total employment to population rate is 58.4%.   This puts these rates back to about 1982 (see where blue and red lines intersect the black line).

See “The Employment Charade Or Ignore The Headlines” by Jeff Harding at The Daily Capitalist.    If participation keeps falling precipitously, does it make sense that jobs are being added and filled?   From employment to GDP, government skews the numbers to the favor of, well, government.  Obama does it, Bush did it, and the next up in the liar’s list of America’s so-called ‘leaders,’ will do it, too, and for the same reasons:  to keep the Sheeple calm, or at least, less-violent.  

And, while it appears government is lying to its advantage, in fact it is lying when the truth would work better.  Why?  The lies upon lies will soon become incredible.  The Sheeple will look around and see that more, not less, of the people they know – their neighbors and their friends – are unemployed, and one day the published numbers will mean nothing anymore and the civil disobedience will begin.  No doubt the truth would be taken hard today, but the truth would provide a foundation for solutions that make sense.  Relentless denial is rarely, if ever, the answer to any problem.

A good starting point for anyone interested in parsing government numbers is to assume that any number publicized by government is a lie.  The first question to be asked is, “to whose advantage?”  The second question, “Where is the raw data?”  Then, combining common sense with a little research you may still not get to the real number, but you will get closer than the lies being fed to the willing by the liars who lie even when the truth would work better.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.

"When they come for my gun, they will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands," is a common refrain I often hear from the Neo-Cons when there is a threat, credible or otherwise, that the US government is going to take their firearms.

And, when I hear this crazy talk, I agree with them openly. "You are right. They will pry your gun from your cold dead hands," which I often follow with the question, "And where will that leave you except face down in a pool of your own blood the middle of the street, just another dead fool resisting the State?"

This is not a question they are comfortable with, if only because the intent of their saber-rattling was to imply they would fight to keep their weapons, and win.

Nice fantasy. It’s not happening.

If the federal government decides to disarm the public, and one of these rolls down your street after a not-so-subtle request that you kindly turn over your firearms and ammunition "for the common good," it will be nothing less than suicide by cop to do anything other than what you are told.

The militarization of US police forces is ongoing and escalating. Many cities and towns now own tanks, armed personnel carriers, even attack helicopters, and almost all are outfitted with military weapons not available to the general public.

And, it is not just your hometown cops who are getting new boy-toys. The military itself is buying up weaponry not just for use in the current or next scheduled war, but to deal with the likes of you, citizens who don’t seem to understand that the Bill of Rights has been overruled, and that specifically includes, but is not limited to, the right to protest and engage in civil disobedience.

Also ignored (as if it didn’t even exist) is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which generally bars the military from law enforcement activities within the United States.

According to Public Intelligence:

"…for the last two years, the President’s Budget Submissions for the Department of Defense have included purchases of a significant amount of combat equipment, including armored vehicles, helicopters and even artillery, under an obscure section of the FY2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the purposes of “homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.” Items purchased under the section include combat vehicles, tanks, helicopters, artillery, mortar systems, missiles, small arms and communications equipment. Justifications for the budget items indicate that many of the purchases are part of routine resupply and maintenance, yet in each case the procurement is cited as being “necessary for use by the active and reserve components of the Armed Forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities” under section 1815 of the FY 2008 NDAA." (Emphasis supplied.)

And, they are not just arming cops and weekend warriors for domestic purposes. Active duty Marines are now being trained for law enforcement operations all over the world (of which the US remains a part) specifically to deal with civil uprisings, and the US government knows that civil uprisings are coming to a town near you just as soon as the fantasy of a healing economy is shattered, the US dollar fails, and unemployment goes to 30%+ in real numbers.

And, to you tough-talking Neo-Cons with your AR-15 rifles and a few thousand rounds of ammo, here is reality: they will take your guns, and no, all your Second Amendment bluster aside, you are not going to do anything about it. You are not going to take on a platoon of Marines with state of the art automatic weapons and the best body armor you cannot buy protected by armed personnel carriers and attack helicopters unless you choose to die that day — for nothing.

You will either be in the country or out, and if you are in, you will stay in and you will comply.

That is your choice . . . for the moment.

“Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge” is available here.  It is free to TDV and TDV Golden Trader subscribers or for a one-time price of $44.95 USD.  It may be the best use of your fiat Federal Reserve Notes you’ve ever spent. Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.

Jim Karger is a lawyer, and frequent contributor to The Dollar Vigilante, who has represented American businesses against incursions by government and labor unions for 30 years. In 2001, he left Dallas and moved to San Miguel de Allende in the high desert of central Mexico where he sought and found a freer and simpler life for he and his wife, Kelly, and their 10 dogs. Karger’s website is www.crediblyconnect.com.