tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70201229773282534032024-03-13T14:37:38.779-07:00SUNDER THE SKYIntrospection - Voluntaryism - GeekeryChristopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-58040318791677140852022-03-06T14:57:00.000-08:002022-03-06T14:57:01.172-08:00Pfizer Confirms: Their Covid-19 Vaccine is 2-3 Times More Lethal than the Virus<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjulT4zJkA3QFZF8GKhXQBBSpYhQGmSB_fqXk2qRJm_snPxkJgrKCnjUTizdsh8oEJVwXkg8QTOSwthbshtky9-cYfPfdVqyaSKlQulXbQZ5V2CYBOd9Lhe3XE2TGysfY0zpkB_aeCMlfMogpd74ArPxx8j9VUunBPzJzpt-GPp51QMihTUELldbkAa=s1024" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjulT4zJkA3QFZF8GKhXQBBSpYhQGmSB_fqXk2qRJm_snPxkJgrKCnjUTizdsh8oEJVwXkg8QTOSwthbshtky9-cYfPfdVqyaSKlQulXbQZ5V2CYBOd9Lhe3XE2TGysfY0zpkB_aeCMlfMogpd74ArPxx8j9VUunBPzJzpt-GPp51QMihTUELldbkAa=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Having dealt a crushing defeat to the Food and Drug Administration in a Texas District Court, the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency immediately released a bevy of Pfizer documents on the Pharmaceutical giant's ostensible "Covid-19 Vaccine." The information contained therein is completely damning. It is, in fact, devastating.</p><p><br />The "informed" aspect of "Informed Consent" has been completely lacking in the ability of patients to choose whether or not to receive the "vaccine." <br /><br />This, of course, did not stop establishment fixtures from news media to governors to public school officials to doctors and hospitals themselves from exerting extreme pressure upon patients to accept the <b><i>never before used upon human beings MRNA gene-therapy injections,</i></b> anyway. <br /><br />Had patients had access to the full information on the risks presented by Pfizer's MRNA gene-therapy "vaccine," many would likely have chosen to rely upon therapeutic treatment, <i>(had the medical industry given treatment options any attention)</i> and natural immunity, rather than subjecting themselves, and more recently, <b><i>their children </i></b>to this ostensible "vaccine" which has <b>NINE PAGES</b> of negative side effects and adverse events.<br /><br />Nevertheless, that information is now available.<br />You can download it here: <a href="https://expmx.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Pfizer-5.3.6-postmarketing-experience.pdf">Pfizer Vaccine Adverse Effects</a> <br /><br />Pfizer, backed by the United States Food and Drug Administration, held this documentation back until now, because the courts have MADE THEM release it to the PHMPT (see above.)<br /><br />To be clear, the company's plan (which again, was approved by the Federal Government) was to <b><i>wait until the year 2085</i></b> to release this information.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQjmN59PSlxKt201rYRYSaQIKteOunkVzuzx5Q6pwnCAQHCn2jEAdgj1xKU6FBSvLWsBllMUruGMAF6cxTQsBXhPJjGq5-9uATC0M2II-b838rAVvtSaqOgsNqrlxzaXg1Muaq-WPaI8om69o0rA9wsbM7c0kexiW9gO9ErEk4M8FHzlDlYSiEQyT-=s674" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQjmN59PSlxKt201rYRYSaQIKteOunkVzuzx5Q6pwnCAQHCn2jEAdgj1xKU6FBSvLWsBllMUruGMAF6cxTQsBXhPJjGq5-9uATC0M2II-b838rAVvtSaqOgsNqrlxzaXg1Muaq-WPaI8om69o0rA9wsbM7c0kexiW9gO9ErEk4M8FHzlDlYSiEQyT-=s16000" /></a></p><p>Breaking down the numbers in the report, out of an initial 42,086 "vaccine" recipients...</p><p><br />-1,403 instances of "Cardiovascular Adverse Events of Special Interest.<br /><span> --These include...<br /><span> </span><span> -</span>PTs Acute Myocardial Infarction<br /><span> </span><span> -</span>Arrhythmia<br /><span> </span><span> -</span>Cardiac Failure<br /><span> </span><span> -</span>Acute Cardiac Failure<br /><span> </span><span> -Cardiogenic Shock<br /></span><span> </span><span> -Coronary Artery Disease<br /></span><span> </span><span> -Myocardial Infarction<br /></span><span> </span><span> -Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome<br /></span><span> </span><span> -Stress Cardiomyopathy<br /></span><span> </span><span> -Tachycardia</span> <br /></span><br />-136 instances were fatal<br /><br />-380 outcomes "unknown"</p><p>-3,067 subjects still experienced COVID despite the vaccination.</p><p>-136 subjects died with 2110 unknown outcomes</p>-449 subjects suffered Facial Paralysis, Facial Paresis<br /><br />-70 subjects suffered Liver related issues, signs and symptoms or PT Liver Injury<br /><span> -5 of these 70 died, as a result.</span><br /><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>-932 subjects suffered blood related issues with clotting, etc.</span></div><div><span><span> -(Leukopenias NEC (HLT) (Primary Path) or </span></span></div><div><span><span><span> -</span>Neutropenias (HLT) (Primary Path) or </span></span></div><div><span><span><span> -</span>PTs Immune thrombocytopenia, </span></span></div><div><span><span><span> -</span>Thrombocytopenia or </span></span></div><div><span> -</span>SMQ Hemmorage terms (excl laboratory terms) </div><div><span> -</span>34 died</div><div><span> -</span>371 had unknown outcomes. </div><div><br /></div><div>Most frequently reported relevant issues with greater than or equal to 15 occurences include:<br /><br /><span> -Epistaxis (127)<br /></span><br /><span> -Contusion (112)<br /></span><br /></div><div><span> -Injection-Site Bruising (96)</span><br /></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span> -Injection-Site Hemorrage (42)</span><br /></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span><span> -Petechiae (50)</span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span> -Hemorrage (42)</span><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span> -Hematochezia (34)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Thrombocytopenia (33)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Injection-Site Hematoma (32)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Conjunctival Hemorrage (29)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Vaginal Hemorrage (29)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Hematoma (27)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span> -Hemoptysis (27)</span><br /></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><span> -Menorrhagia (27)</span><br /></span></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span><span> -Hematemesis (25)</span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span> -Eye Hemorrage (23)</span><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span> -Rectal Hemorrage (22)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Immune Thrombocytopenia (20)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Blood in Urine (19)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Hematuria (16)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Neutropenia (16)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Purpura (16)</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> -Diarrhea Hemorragic (15)<br /></span><br /><span> -----<br /></span><br /><span> "Pfizer vaccine data. Pfizer wanted you to wait until 2085 to know that the vaccine you took has 9 PAGES of side effects. Start with page 30. I've never seen anything like it. I can't even get my head around this."<br /></span><span> -Dr. Afshine Emrani, MD FACC<br /></span><br /><span> Once again, the American people are about to learn the hard way, the cost of trusting our so-called "Authorities." <br /></span><br /><span> Many other pertinent documents can be found at the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency document page, here: <a href="https://phmpt.org/pfizers-documents/">PHMPT Docs</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>***</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmXatURD0o8Ik2ewnXL6PJepLHQWi5XqPGJdC-Ku3fjMs5B_bGP2aepHMiY70ovCNV2MyKtJzSB11UZ-Bd5qTYQyAWLhYRInY6iD1ZIZv9TwR3Z3y2TnkysVDkdVLAgAfdikTNPfpkBujPCFCGIb5GmCUmSwgVI3NolsYeJIUKB-yxRHxlO47Gk9mn=s2448" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2286" data-original-width="2448" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgmXatURD0o8Ik2ewnXL6PJepLHQWi5XqPGJdC-Ku3fjMs5B_bGP2aepHMiY70ovCNV2MyKtJzSB11UZ-Bd5qTYQyAWLhYRInY6iD1ZIZv9TwR3Z3y2TnkysVDkdVLAgAfdikTNPfpkBujPCFCGIb5GmCUmSwgVI3NolsYeJIUKB-yxRHxlO47Gk9mn=w200-h187" width="200" /></a></div><div>Christopher Loree is a devout Christian and an Ohio-based Voluntaryist, Anarcho-Capitalist blogger, political pundit, Forex investor, freelance business and marketing consultant, and venture capitalist. </div><br />He is the owner and founder of SkySunder Holdings LLC, <a href="http://SundertheSky.com">SundertheSky.com</a> and the host of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbHaxpn3bhUl9Q3bIpE9m3Q">Sunder the Sky Podcast.</a><br /><div><p style="background-color: black; color: #9ba2a8; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: black; color: #9ba2a8; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: black; color: #9ba2a8; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;">Join the Sunder the Sky Podcast Group on Facebook, here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/442738523003385" style="background: transparent; color: #0cddbd; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Join the Group!</a></p></div>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-25794298029774477842021-10-12T20:21:00.004-07:002021-10-12T20:33:21.167-07:00Covid-19, The Great Reset, One-World Communist Rule... and the Documentation that It Was All Planned Ahead of Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jy0m0WKilYY/YWZOE8vPuuI/AAAAAAAAEko/hxm4UrgQHI0v5ogRc2hO158BgGXJ8rCrACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Inject%2BCommunism.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jy0m0WKilYY/YWZOE8vPuuI/AAAAAAAAEko/hxm4UrgQHI0v5ogRc2hO158BgGXJ8rCrACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h336/Inject%2BCommunism.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>"This was all planned."<br /><br />Lots of people are saying that. In point of fact, lots of people<i> have been</i> saying that since the pandemic <i>began.</i></p><p>But, you might ask,... who said it <i>first?</i><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qjxf35VxZcY/YWZKPtPUC2I/AAAAAAAAEkg/O08onsx0JoohcqfcvP7LLE5cIPWLIBIZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/download.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qjxf35VxZcY/YWZKPtPUC2I/AAAAAAAAEkg/O08onsx0JoohcqfcvP7LLE5cIPWLIBIZQCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h200/download.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />The first to proclaim that the institution of a One-World, Totalitarian, Fasco-Communist Society would be carried out via the staging of a global pandemic and the ensuing response to it,... was the Rockefeller Foundation, in their May 2010 internal-document "Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development" <br /><br />...in which they not only lay the plan out, step by step, in a number of different scenarios for full takeover of government, industry, technology, and culture,...<i> (scenarios which they've dubbed; "Lock Step," "Clever Together," "Hack Attack," and "Smart Scramble,")</i> ...but also declare their intention to enact said plan, and said scenarios, each of which they propose trying in a different part of the world to gauge the efficacy of each, and to shift efforts from the least to the most effective among them, as they go along.<p></p><p>Don't believe me?<br /><br />It's been around for a while. Lots of places you can get it.<br /><br />Now you can get it here too.<br /><br /><br /><br />Download the Document Here: <a href="https://stopbsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Annotated-Rockefeller-Foundation-Lockstep-2010.pdf" target="_blank">Rockefeller Manifesto</a></p><p><br /></p><p>As you read along, see if you can match each of the four scenarios to various parts of the world, where those exact overt control actions are being taken, as we speak. </p><p>For example; <i>"Lock Step" = Australia.</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GrEND6x1PPc/YWZPGEbS-QI/AAAAAAAAEkw/Mog4lwWFkOwsZKla4t1DmznCHn2_cQeIACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Me%2B-%2B08-05-19%2B-%2B01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1912" data-original-width="2048" height="111" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GrEND6x1PPc/YWZPGEbS-QI/AAAAAAAAEkw/Mog4lwWFkOwsZKla4t1DmznCHn2_cQeIACLcBGAsYHQ/w119-h111/Me%2B-%2B08-05-19%2B-%2B01.jpg" width="119" /></a></div><p>Christopher SkySunderer is a devout Christian and an Ohio-based Voluntaryist, Anarcho-Capitalist blogger, political pundit, Forex investor, and venture capitalist. He is the owner and founder of SkySunder Holdings LLC, <a href="http://SunderTheSky.com">SunderTheSky.com</a> and the host of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbHaxpn3bhUl9Q3bIpE9m3Q" target="_blank">Sunder the Sky Podcast.</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Join the Sunder the Sky Podcast Group on Facebook, here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/442738523003385" target="_blank">Join the Group!</a></p>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-32228089681685348102021-09-29T10:02:00.011-07:002021-09-29T10:11:42.437-07:00Jen Psaki Refuses to Acknowledge Economic Reality... Because She Thinks It's Mean<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AhD_7Ysae5U/YVSdcBPriXI/AAAAAAAAEkY/dJ5EDhu4zGAgYF8u0GC2Qz93XRzy1WjwQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/download%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Jen Psaki discovers that Economics is a thing that exists,... and she's afraid." border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="800" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AhD_7Ysae5U/YVSdcBPriXI/AAAAAAAAEkY/dJ5EDhu4zGAgYF8u0GC2Qz93XRzy1WjwQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h210/download%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span><br />Ayn Rand famously quipped, “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s latest viral flub seems perfectly calibrated to confirm the late author’s wise words. </span> <p></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a Monday press conference, Psaki was confronted by journalists citing data showing that House Democrats’ proposed tax increases would violate President Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In particular, multiple studies have shown that the proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 26.5 percent would lead to lower wages for workers and higher consumer prices. (A de facto tax increase for those earning less than $400,000 if not technically a direct one.) The press secretary responded to the journalist’s query by downplaying the potential pass-along costs and simply declaring them immoral. </span> </p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“There are some... who argue that in the past, companies have passed on these costs to consumers,” Psaki </span><a href="https://twitter.com/jasonrantz/status/1442653892672581635"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “We feel that that’s unfair and absurd and the American people will not stand for that.” </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s nice. But the laws of economics are unmoved by Psaki’s personal condemnation, and Americans who will bear the real brunt of the tax hike proposals certainly care more about what the practical impact will be than the White House’s moral musings. </span></p><div style="clear: both;"><div id="om-fqmeg7lcejd7fy5oro5r-holder"></div>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Whether Psaki and Biden think that corporate tax hikes <em>should</em> lead to lower wages or high prices is utterly immaterial. They do. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both a </span><a href="https://taxfoundation.org/labor-bears-corporate-tax/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">near-consensus of empirical research</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and basic economic theory confirm this reality. Indeed, a </span><a data-toggle="popover" href="https://fee.org/articles/biden-s-proposed-tax-hike-would-have-3-huge-consequences-study-finds/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation found that a previous Biden proposal to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent—so, slightly higher than the 26.5 percent proposed now—would have shrunk the size of the economy, lowered wages, and eliminated 159,000 jobs. We can safely assume that similar dysfunction would accompany the latest proposal. </span></p>
<p> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Of course, the destructive fallout of their proposed tax hikes is a politically inconvenient reality for the Biden administration. But that’s no excuse for denying or downplaying it. Jen Psaki’s empty moralizing and hand-waving cannot change the laws of economics. Nor will the press secretary’s words comfort workers who bear the brunt of bad policymaking.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-0"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>WATCH</strong>: <a data-anchor="?v=jK6ugnuYQDU&t=615s" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK6ugnuYQDU&t=615s">Reacting to PAINFULLY Dumb Gun Control TikToks</a></span></h2>
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</p><p><span>Brad Polumbo (<a href="https://twitter.com/brad_polumbo" rel="noopener" target="_blank">@Brad_Polumbo</a>) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and Policy Correspondent at the Foundation for Economic Education.</span></p>
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<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/white-house-press-secretary-jen-psaki-refuses-to-acknowledge-economic-reality-because-she-thinks-it-s-mean/">original article</a>.</p>
<img alt="" height="1" src="http://fee.org/counter/195070" width="1" /><script async="async" src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-76646200975664598842019-12-30T00:34:00.000-08:002019-12-30T00:38:12.587-08:00Posse Comitatus<div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Posse Comitatus</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Copied with permission from The Free Encyclopedia on US Law)</i></span></div>
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[Latin, Power of the county.] Referred at Common Law to all males over the age of fifteen on whom a sheriff could call for assistance in preventing any type of civil disorder.</div>
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The notion of a posse comitatus has its roots in ancient English Law, growing out of a citizen's traditional duty to raise a "hue and cry" whenever a serious crime occurred in a village, thus rousing the fellow villagers to assist the sheriff in pursuing the culprit. By the seventeenth century, trained militia bands were expected to perform the duty of assisting the sheriff in such tasks, but all males age fifteen and older still had the duty to serve on the posse comitatus.</div>
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In the United States, the posse comitatus was an important institution on the western frontier, where it became known as the posse. At various times vigilante committees, often acting without legal standing, organized posses to capture wrongdoers. Such posses sharply warned first-time cattle rustlers, for instance, and usually hanged or shot second-time offenders. In 1876 a four-hundred-man posse killed one member of the infamous Jesse James gang and captured two others.</div>
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In 1878 the use of a posse comitatus was limited by the passage of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. This act, passed in response to the use of federal troops to enforce reconstruction policies in the southern states, prohibited the use of the U.S. Army to enforce laws unless the Constitution or an act of Congress explicitly authorized such use. This act was amended five times in the 1980s, largely to allow for the use of military resources to combat trafficking in illicit narcotics.</div>
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Though rarely used, the posse comitatus continues to be a modern legal institution. In June 1977, for example, the Aspen, Colorado, sheriff called out the posse comitatus—ordinary citizens with their own weapons—to hunt for escaped mass murderer Theodore ("Ted") Bundy. Many states have modern posse comitatus statutes; one typical example is the Kentucky statute enacted in 1962 that gives any sheriff the power to "command and take with him the power of the county or a part thereof, to aid him in the execution of the duties of his office" (Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 70.060 [Baldwin 1996]).</div>
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"Posse Comitatus" is also the name taken by a right-wing, antitax extremist group founded in 1969 by Henry L. Beach, a retired dry cleaner and one-time member of the Silver Shirts, a Nazi-inspired organization that was established in the United States after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. The group operated on the belief that the true intent of the founders of the United States was to establish a Christian republic where the individual was sovereign. Members of the group were united by the belief that the federal government was illegitimate, being operated by Jewish interests through the Internal Revenue Service, the federal courts, and the federal reserve. The Posse Comitatus received widespread media attention in 1983 when a leader of the group, Gordon Kahl, was involved in a violent standoff with North Dakota law enforcement officers. Convicted for failure to pay taxes and then for violating the terms of his Probation, Kahl shot and killed three officers and wounded three others before being shot and killed himself.</div>
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Further readings</div>
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Corcoran, James. 1990. Bitter Harvest. New York: Viking.</div>
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Hasday, Jill Elaine. 1996. "Civil War as Paradigm: Reestablishing the Rule of Law at the End of the Cold War." Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 5.</div>
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Malcolm, Joyce Lee. 1994. To Keep and Bear Arms. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.</div>
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Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-85245455151532550462019-10-04T22:28:00.002-07:002019-10-04T22:28:41.285-07:00Snap Crackle Boom - Podcast EpisodePodcast Episode 1: Snap Crackle Boom<div>
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Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-90458736635318892732019-09-27T15:36:00.004-07:002019-10-04T22:28:57.451-07:00Who Dares Wins - Podcast EpisodePodcast Episode 0.1: Who Dares Wins<br />
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If ep. 0 was the appetizer, this is the main course.<br />
Enjoy.<br />
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<br />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-88689195688164441012019-09-25T18:16:00.003-07:002019-10-04T22:29:15.326-07:00Ukraine is the New Russia - Podcast Episode<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Sunder the Sky - Podcast</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Episode Zero</span><br />
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<br />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-32775178043346992792019-09-16T13:48:00.002-07:002019-09-20T20:48:47.694-07:00Jeffrey Epstein's "Little Black Book" (Unredacted): Download<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Full, unedited, un-redacted .pdf of Jeffrey Epstein's "Little Black Book."<br />
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Download it here: <a href="https://gofile.io/?c=O1RfIt" target="_blank">https://gofile.io/?c=O1RfIt</a><br />
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---Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-3136770570024441582019-09-13T16:02:00.003-07:002019-09-15T14:19:33.474-07:00The Clinton Death-Toll: Part Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before I get into the second part of this list, I want to begin by saying that it's proving itself to be quite the psychological odyssey, researching the suspicious deaths surrounding the Clintons and their inner circle. To get a sense of what I'm talking about, take a moment to consider the following questions.<br />
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First, how many people do you know who've died in plane crashes?<br />
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How many people do you know who committed suicide?<br />
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Or who were killed in robberies gone wrong?<br />
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Or who were "robbed" and yet had nothing stolen?<br />
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How many people do you know who've been <i>decapitated?</i><br />
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<i>Burned alive?</i><br />
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<i><b>Hit by trains?</b></i></div>
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For the Clintons, the answers to these questions are staggering. </div>
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If any of you reading this were able to claim <i>one-twentieth</i> of their numbers,... anyone you told about it would immediately consider you a serial killer, and would likely report their information and suspicions to the FBI.</div>
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As I stated in the opening notes of the previous entry, my criteria for vetting these cases, <i>(all of which are connected to the Clintons in <b>some </b>way,)</i> was to boil the list down to only those cases that fit one or both of two standards; <b>1.</b> Deaths of people personally associated with the Clintons, <i>(in other words, not associated by proxy of any intermediary party or parties,)</i> and <b>2.</b> Deaths that presented easily drawn lines of motive leading to the Clintons more directly than to any other party.<br />
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What you will find nowhere on my final, vetted list, <i>(however long it ends up being,)</i> are any parties whose deaths were not immediately beneficial to the Clinton machine.</div>
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When I published <a href="http://www.sunderthesky.com/2019/08/the-clinton-death-toll.html" target="_blank">Part One</a>, I'd believed myself to be halfway done. Having investigated seventy of the one-hundred forty cases I started with, I'd disqualified forty-two as not meeting the above criteria. This produced a list of twenty-eight, not including the deaths of the witnesses <i>(and suspect)</i> in the Henry/Ives "Boys on the Track" -case, nor the dozen former Clinton bodyguards who've been killed.<br />
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I took a week off to give myself some distance from the subject, as the process had taken a heavy toll on my health, my sleep, and my state of mind. Then I commenced finishing my research,... or so I <i>thought.</i> <br />
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However, beyond expectation, more cases began to emerge, both from my own research and from the several readers who've volunteered help, and the list got longer... and longer...</div>
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...and <i>longer.</i></div>
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It seems that Communist Dictators do not, in fact, require the full institutionalization of their policies in order to begin overflowing the mass-graves. No, indeed the slaughter starts decades ahead of the official raising of the red-flag.<br />
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Part One of this series came at the cost of two months of phone calls, emailing, and more dark-web surfing than I've ever done in my life. I have already tapped every contact and source I've ever worked with and even gotten my number blocked by several Arkansas government offices. And that was just getting through the first seventy cases. Since then, my Master List has grown by over <i>two-hundred-sixty</i> names. </div>
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It seems like there is no bottom to this pit.<br />
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I've only been working on Part Two for a week, and so this entry is significantly shorter. Going forward, however, I will commit more time to research between publishings for the remainder of the cases. My next little project, before I get back to the list, is to go into some of the cases in Part One with much greater depth, and expand their entries significantly, <i>(in Particular Vince Foster, Danny Casolaro, and Seth Rich</i><i>.)</i> I'm hoping to have that updated by sometime next week. So, Part Three is likely another month away, and for now, the plan is to release one new part or segment a month until I'm done.<br />
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<i>When I will be done</i> remains to be determined. </div>
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After all, the gears of the Clinton machine are still turning, blades enthusiastically whirring, blood spraying from the mouth of the combine, a scarlet downpour as heavy as ever. <br />
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So, it's anybody's guess.</div>
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-CSS<br />
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These are in no particular order.</div>
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<b>29 - Shawn Lucas:</b> Process server working together with Brandon Yoshimura for <a href="https://www.onesourceprocess.com/" target="_blank">One Source Process, Inc.</a> served the Democratic National Committee with a lawsuit for Fraud on July 3, 2016, in which Debbie Wasserman Schultz is named as the prime suspect in rigging the Democratic Presidential Primary for Hillary Clinton against the Bernie Sanders campaign. <i>(This was shortly before Wasserman Schultz tendered her resignation as Chair of the DNC.)</i></div>
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On July 22 of 2016, the DNC filed a motion to dismiss the suit on partial grounds of improper service, citing Lucas's appearance in a viral video capturing the moment he served the lawsuit. However, as Lucas was found to have had no part in staging said video, nor any association to the media sources that filmed and circulated it, the motion was denied.</div>
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Later, on August 2, 2016, Lucas was found dead in his home, by his girlfriend.<br />
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The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Washington D.C. determined,... <i><b>two months</b> after Lucas's passing,...</i> that the cause of death was "accidental" due to "the combined adverse effects" of fentanyl,<i> (a synthetic opioid,)</i> cyclobenzaprine <i>(a muscle relaxer,)</i> and mitragynine, <i>(aka: "kratom.")</i></div>
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<b>30 - R. Montgomery Raiser:</b> Son of C. Victor Raiser II, Robert Montgomery Raiser was also heavily involved in the Clinton presidential campaign. He was killed along with his father in a plane crash while vacationing in Alaska in 1992, <i>(the year Clinton was elected President.)</i></div>
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<b>31 - William Colby:</b> Director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976 under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and the subject of the 2003 biography <i>Lost Crusader,</i> by John Prados, Colby began writing for Strategic Investment Newsletter in 1996. Many in the intelligence community expressed concern over the position, citing Colby's well-known history of divulging CIA secrets. </div>
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It was Colby who'd revealed to Congress the plans to kill Fidel Castro, the CIA spying, mail-opening, and warrantless wiretapping of American citizens in direct violation of their agency charter, and the conducting of biological weapons-testing and mind-control experiments on unsuspecting American citizens using LSD <i>(MK Ultra.) </i></div>
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He was later replaced as CIA Director by George HW Bush.<br />
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Three years prior to hiring Colby, in 1993, Strategic Investor had covered the death of Vince Foster in depth, going so far as to hire the very handwriting experts who publicly determined that Foster's later discovered, torn-to-pieces "suicide note" <i>(which hadn't been found when his briefcase was first searched, but later materialized out of thin air, with no fingerprints on any of the pieces,...)</i> had, in fact, <i><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/foster-suicide-note-was-a-forgery-say-experts-1579504.html" target="_blank">been a forgery.</a> </i></div>
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It was known to the press that William Colby was sitting on a great deal of yet-to-be-revealed information concerning Vince Foster's death.<br />
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On April 27 of 1996, Colby was alone at his weekend house across from Cobb Island, Maryland. He'd spent the day preparing his sailboat for summer at a nearby marina. Multiple witnesses from the marina confirmed that he'd worked on his sailboat for at least six hours that day.</div>
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Upon arriving home at 7pm, Colby made a phone call to his wife, Sally Shelton, a high-ranking State Department official. Sally was visiting family in Texas. According to her, William had said that he was exhausted from having worked on the boat all day and that he would steam some clams for dinner, take a shower, and go to bed.<br />
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Two sets of eye-witnesses reported having seen him a few minutes later, in his yard watering a willow tree. One was his gardener who'd stopped by at 7:15pm to introduce William to his sister who was visiting at the time. The others were Colby's two next-door neighbors who saw him at the same time from their window. They claimed that after he'd finished watering, he'd gone inside to have dinner on the glassed-in front porch.<br />
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He was found over a week later, drowned in a tributary of the Potomac River in Rock Point, Maryland on May 6 of that year. <br />
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The official conclusion was, <i>(I assure you this is not a joke,)</i> that Colby, a man considered by everyone who knew him to be a methodical, careful, and meticulous man, had put down his fork in the middle of dinner, gotten up and decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment canoeing excursion, <i>telling no one, not even his wife, </i>at which point he left his home unlocked, his computer turned on, and his partly eaten dinner and full glass of wine on the porch table. Then, <i>after a half-eaten dinner and a full day of manual labor,...</i></div>
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this<i> <b>76-year-old man </b></i>proceeded to paddle his canoe...<i> </i></div>
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<i><b>over twenty-miles,</b>... </i></div>
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<i><b>upstream,</b>... </i></div>
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<i><b>at night</b></i><i><b>,</b>... </i></div>
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...at which point, he fell overboard and drowned.</div>
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CNN originally reported that the missing-persons report had been filed by Colby's neighbors the next morning when they'd found his canoe wedged under the dock at Colby's house. <br />
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Later the network claimed that he'd been reported missing by his wife Sally, <i>an hour after having spoken to him on the phone</i> and that the canoe had been found <i>a quarter-mile downstream</i> from Colby's home. Either account would mean that, <i>after Colby drowned,</i> his body stayed put in Rock Point, MD, but the canoe had <i>rowed itself the 20+ miles back to his house.</i></div>
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Later still, the story changed yet again and he was <i>never reported missing</i> and the canoe had been found on a sandbank a short distance from where his body had been discovered. This remains the official story today,... as far as the <i>canoe</i> is concerned. <br />
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The characterization of the missing person's report has gone back to <i>"his wife filed it shortly after speaking with him on the phone that evening."</i></div>
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As for the canoe, according to <i>every local boater and fisherman in the area</i>, there was anywhere from <i>four to six <b>times</b> too much sand</i> in the hull to have merely been the result of tidal deposits, considering that the canoe had only been beached long enough for two tides to have come in. </div>
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That the sand had been deliberately <i>shoveled</i> into the canoe to prevent it from washing away, was universally agreed upon by all witnesses and consulted experts. In spite of this, the official report lists the canoe as having flipped onto its side on a sandbank and become weighted down with sand by the tide.</div>
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Colby's body had been discovered, <i>(approximately 20 yards from where the canoe had been found,) </i>in an area that had already been thoroughly searched, several times by multiple teams and helicopters.</div>
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Also notable about the body was the absence of a life jacket. According to Colby's wife, William had <b style="font-style: italic;">always, without exception</b><i> worn his </i><b style="font-style: italic;">very distinctively colored, custom lifejacket</b><i> whenever he went out on the water.</i><br />
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The lifejacket was never found.</div>
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Independent investigative journalists have since determined that false stories were being deliberately planted in the media, including quoting Colby's wife as having been told by phone that William was going canoeing that evening. She has consistently denied any such story.<br />
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William Colby's death was, in spite of all available evidence and eye-witness testimony ...ruled an accident.<br />
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<i>Note: For whatever this may be worth, the week he died, Colby was scheduled to meet with <a href="https://siriusdisclosure.com/" target="_blank">Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project.</a>*</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
***<br />
<br />
Before proceeding with the list, here is, for future reference...<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Brief Primer on The Inslaw Scandal**</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FQjL5GUZ2WI/XXwAcHlYDfI/AAAAAAAAEQs/G_OSebpUt1IyMSZGk9bH15Eh3ji4BoaqgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Inslaw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="953" height="339" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FQjL5GUZ2WI/XXwAcHlYDfI/AAAAAAAAEQs/G_OSebpUt1IyMSZGk9bH15Eh3ji4BoaqgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Inslaw.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://mhkeehn.tripod.com/inslawcol.pdf" target="_blank">Inslaw Incorporated</a> is a Washington DC-based software company that markets and services case management software to various entities in the courts and related justice agencies, as well as large law firms, the law departments of individual corporations, and to virtually the entire private insurance industry. </div>
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<div>
Inslaw's bread-and-butter product in trade is a software program called PROMIS, (Prosecutors Management Information Systems,) an extremely sophisticated framework for the management of vast amounts of information with categorization criteria that is both broad and deeply nuanced. PROMIS can, among other things, track individuals solely by their involvement with the legal system, no matter how brief or trivial, as well as not only searching but <i>combining</i> disparate databases to circumvent the need for interdepartmental or <i>even inter-company </i>cooperation.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
In 1982, Inslaw secured a contract with the Department of Justice. <i>(It should be noted for future reference, that this contract was won after a veritable cavalcade of representatives from various entities, both private and government,... foreign and domestic,... had visited the Inslaw offices to check out the software, expressed great interest in it and then never got back to them. Many of the representatives in question, it would later turn out, had long been suspected of being assets of the NSA.) </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Anway, Inslaw won a contract to install and service PROMIS in the offices of the US Attorney. However, the person hired and assigned by the DoJ to manage the contract, one C. Madison Brewer, <i>had just been fired by Inslaw.</i> </div>
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<div>
One month after the contract had been finalized and signed, Brewer recommended its termination, in spite of Inslaw performing at or beyond the agreed-upon levels. The DoJ proceeded to seize the software and to withhold payment <i>(otherwise known as "stealing,")</i> ruling officially that its status as a federal bureau placed it above private property law.<br />
<br />
Former Attorney General Elliot Richardson was then hired by Inslaw to represent them in the lawsuit they brought against the Justice Department, claiming that the company had been the victim of a federal, criminal conspiracy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Five years later, in 1987, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George Bason ruled in favor of Inslaw. he awarded the owners of the company $6.8 million, stating that Justice Department officials "took, converted, and stole" PROMIS through "trickery, fraud, and deceit."<br />
<br />
Judge Bason's reappointment was then denied the following year. <i>He was replaced by one of the Justice Department lawyers <b>whom he'd ruled against in the Inslaw case.</b></i></div>
<div>
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
The case had, at that point, reached the level of a full, federal government conspiracy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Circling back a bit, though ownership of PROMIS had reverted back to Inslaw, modified versions of the pirated software were then sold by US Intelligence agencies (including the NSA,) to over 88 foreign intelligence agencies, as well as private entities such as banks. These modified versions of PROMIS included "backdoors" for US operatives to hack into for various intelligence-gathering purposes, including but not limited to monitoring real-time financial transactions and money laundering at banks anywhere in the world. These backdoors can also be<i> (and have been)</i> used by intelligence service hackers and NSA officials to launder money <i>themselves.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The company tasked with the marketing of this stolen PROMIS software and coordinating its use among the US intelligence community was Systematics Incorporated of Little Rock, Arkansas, <i>(now known as Alltel.) </i><br />
<br />
Their intellectual property lawyer, <i>(and the person tasked with protecting the company from the numerous lawsuits and investigations that ensued concerned with the modified version of PROMIS they were peddling,)</i> was a woman you may have heard of named Hillary Rodham Clinton.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
***<br />
<br />
Continuing with the list...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>32 - Larry Guerrin:</b> Private Detective investigating the Inslaw case.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Killed in February of 1987. No cause of death has ever been revealed to the public.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>33 - Lt. Alan Standorf: </b>Employee of the National Security Agency in electronic intelligence/surveillance, working at the Vint Hill Farms Station, <i>(at the time a joint U.S. Army/NSA listening post.)</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
In 1990, he made contact with Danny Casolaro, <i>(<a href="http://www.sunderthesky.com/2019/08/the-clinton-death-toll.html" target="_blank">see Part One</a>,)</i> an investigative journalist who was investigating the Inslaw case. Standorf furnished Casolaro with copies of classified documents related to bulk data collection, money laundering, as well as a list of "dissidents" that were to be rounded up in case of exposure.<br />
<br />
Standorf's body was found, with no visible wounds, on January 31, 1991, wedged into the floor of the backseat of his car in a short-term parking lot of Washington National Airport. Initially, Dr. Stephen Sheehy of the Medical Examiner's Office in Northern Virginia confirmed the information the family had been given at the time -- that Alan had died of a blunt-force blow to the back of the head, nearly a month prior to his body's discovery. This explanation has since been scrubbed from the official record, and all further details of his demise have been classified by the NSA, to the point of openly violating <a href="https://www.justice.gov/oip/foia-guide-2004-edition-exemption-7a" target="_blank">DoJ Guidelines.</a><br />
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The case remains officially "unsolved."</div>
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<b>34 - Dennis Eisman:</b> Philidelphia attorney who'd assisted in the defense in the "Fatal Vision" murders in February of 1970. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Eisman had been identified as having information pertinent to the Inslaw case and was facing indictment.<br />
<br />
Eisman's body was discovered with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest, sitting in his Porsche, parked in a downtown parking garage in Rydal, PA <i>(a suburb of Philidelphia.) </i>He was 50 years old.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.</div>
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<b>35 - Ian Spiro:</b> An International businessman and commodities broker, Ian Stuart Spiro was also a contracted intelligence operative for the CIA, who, according to journalists and international news networks in the early 90s, had been "an indispensable asset" in the gathering of U.S. and British supported intelligence as well as high-level hostage negotiation. He'd also been a covert foreign-policy dealmaker throughout the 1980s.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Evidence has revealed that Spiro worked directly for Oliver North on the Iran weapons-for-hostages bargains, the "October Surprise" and in official efforts to free Western hostages in Lebanon.</div>
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Spiro had been working for some time with CIA asset Michael Riconosciuto in collecting evidence and supporting documents which the two men were using to build a dossier which they'd planned to present to the Federal Grand Jury conducting the initial hearings on the Inslaw lawsuit. Spiro reported to many friends and colleagues during this time, that he'd been receiving numerous death threats by phone. He theorized that the threats were coming from either the Defense Intelligence Agency, Mossad agents, or the CIA itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
In the book <i>The Other Side of Deception,</i> written by former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky, Spiro is accused of having stolen money from the Mossad to pay Hezbollah in exchange for the freeing of Western hostages.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
On November 1, 1992, Spiro's wife and three children were found murdered in their home. Each had been shot in the head. Ian was found, dead of cyanide ingestion, nearly a week later in a parked car in the Borego Desert.<br />
<br />
The official conclusion was that Spiro had murdered his wife and children, and then committed suicide. Investigators have never established a possible motive.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>36 - Vali Delahanty: </b>39-year-old woman who'd been living with her boyfriend, John Munson, a long-time friend and confidant of CIA contract officer Michael Riconosciuto, <i>(see Ian Spiro, above.)</i><br />
<br />
She disappeared in August of 1992.<br />
<br />
Vali wrote to Riconosciuto stating she had information that the DEA was working with John Munson to set Riconosciuto up on a false amphetamine-manufacturing charge.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Delahanty's sister, Debbie Baker had reported that Vali had called her shortly before her disappearance. Vali had told her that she was in possession of extremely sensitive information relating to the Inslaw scandal, as well as the DEA and Justice Department's attempt to falsely imprison Riconosciuto. She further told Debbie that she was prepared to testify on these matters before a Grand Jury.<br />
<br />
Her skeletal remains were discovered in a ravine in Lake Bay, Washington in April of the following year. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
While no cause of death has been determined, the evidence at the scene was reported to suggest that Delahanty had been wading in a nearby creek, spread out her clothes to dry and had been sitting on a log when she died.<br />
<br />
Several months before her body was discovered, John Munson had, while under the influence of alcohol, reportedly told several people at a local bar that Vali was dead.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>37 - John Crawford:</b> Attorney with information relating to the Inslaw scandal, Crawford was set to testify before the Grand Jury.<br />
<br />
He died from an apparent heart attack in Tacoma, Washington in April of 1993, before his testimony could be heard. While the cause of his death raises no particular suspicion, the fact that he was one of several lawyers and investigators working with Riconosciuto on matters related to the Inslaw scandal, to die within a relatively short period of time, is suspicious in itself.</div>
<div>
<br />
<b>38 - Pete Sandvigen:</b> CIA agent. He'd been part of a 26-man team in Afghanistan during the late 80s and had tried to help defend Riconosciuto against the DoJ's trumped-up amphetamine charges.<br />
<br />
A resident of Whidbey Island, Washington, Sandvigen left the island's Navy Air Station reportedly to do some legwork for Riconosciuto as part of his investigation into the Inslaw scandal and was never heard from again.<br />
<br />
His body was found on December 2, 1992. His service pistol was found without the ammo magazine.<br />
<br />
No cause of death has ever been disclosed to the public.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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*** </div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>*The can of worms that this suggests is something I'm not going to get into in this article. It's a project for another time.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
**<i>Eventually, we're going to delve much deeper into the Inslaw Case, PROMIS, and the pattern of connections that have come to be known as "The Octopus." There are literal dozens more mysterious deaths tied to this affair, than those I've vetted thus far. This is a rabbit-hole all its own that seems to go for miles. As such, it is one more project for another time.</i><i><br /></i><br />
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Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-66306102523674704002019-08-30T14:53:00.001-07:002019-09-13T10:46:12.566-07:00The Clinton Death-Toll: Part One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6M1IG7ITW5g/XWl00hOVKoI/AAAAAAAAEOE/-JSQLUjDoyUV9qf1gHMSdCXO--5fWZohACLcBGAs/s1600/hillary-bloody-hands-800x0-c-default.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="800" height="345" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6M1IG7ITW5g/XWl00hOVKoI/AAAAAAAAEOE/-JSQLUjDoyUV9qf1gHMSdCXO--5fWZohACLcBGAs/s640/hillary-bloody-hands-800x0-c-default.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">First Note:</span></b> On the qualification of entries;... There are lists available elsewhere online that are more comprehensive than this one,<i> (some including as many as 140 deaths.)</i> Such compilations include <i>every</i> Clinton-associated death that is both mysterious and untimely.<br />
<br />
This list is, in the interest of fairness, more selective as to both relationship and suspiciousness of cause. In other words, what follows is a list comprised only of those mysterious and untimely deaths who had a direct relationship with the Clintons, <i>(such as Vince Foster.)</i> I've omitted any deaths of persons who were only associated with the Clintons by proxy of intermediary persons or organizations, excepting in cases where an unassociated person's death is highly suspected by multiple law enforcement and justice officials to have been connected to the Clintons' activities or associations, <i>(such as Kevin Ives & Don Henry.)</i><br />
<br />
Also, to whatever extent possible, I've included <i>far more</i> information on these cases than any other list of this type that I've yet encountered online. My intent is to be as thorough as possible in not only vetting each case but in detailing those that pass the vetting process.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Second Note:</b> </span>Several of these entries relate to the Mena Airport drug scandal. In case you don't know what that is; Mena Airport in Arkansas has been alleged to have been a staging/facilitation point for a CIA drug-smuggling operation in which the Clintons are directly implicated. To date, <i>no one</i> who has been credibly alleged to have information on this case has survived long enough to officially testify.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZeurF73gP4/XWl0HBhCzUI/AAAAAAAAEN8/cn8d8sW4d2QD1ai94xLXUMFAVOLV8k2KwCLcBGAs/s1600/Gunshot%2BBilly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="595" height="235" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZeurF73gP4/XWl0HBhCzUI/AAAAAAAAEN8/cn8d8sW4d2QD1ai94xLXUMFAVOLV8k2KwCLcBGAs/s320/Gunshot%2BBilly.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="font-size: large;">Third Note:</span></b> Prepare yourself to become accustomed to the phrase <i>"ruled a suicide,"</i> following phrases like <i>"two gunshot wounds to the back of the head,"</i> or other descriptions of various causes of death with varying degrees of the physical <b>possibility</b> of self-infliction.<br />
<i><br /></i>
If this begins to inspire feelings of anger, fear, and near certitude that our entire government apparatus may be little more than a snake pit of lies and corruption, and if those feelings rise at a steady rate on your journey from this list's beginning to its end, I urge you not to be alarmed.<br />
<br />
It is only a sign that you possess a functioning brain.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Fourth Note:</span> </b>I've not included the deaths of the four men who died in Benghazi, <i>(Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA operatives and ex-Navy Se.A.L.s Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods,)</i> as Hillary Clinton's <i>direct complicity</i> in their demise is a matter of public record.<br />
<br />
Nor have I included Jeffrey Epstein, as the case is too new and ongoing for individual details to be vetted properly.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Fifth Note:</span></b> My research into this topic, applying the aforementioned vetting qualifications has thus far yielded the names on this list. However, I continue to research these cases. As I find more that fit the criteria, the list will be updated with new names. If you have any information or sources that might aid in my research, please <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherCharlesLoree" target="_blank">contact me</a>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Sixth Note:</span></b> In case I die of mysterious causes in the near future, let me save you some time;...<br />
<br />
...It was the Clintons.<br />
<br />
<i>-CSS</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>***</b><br />
<br />
These are in no particular order.<br />
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<b>1 - Vince Foster: </b>Former White House counselor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. Foster had been scheduled to testify against the Clintons the day after his death. He had also planned <i>(and paid for in full,)</i> a long, luxury retreat to immediately follow his testimony.<br />
<br />
Died of <i>two gunshot wounds to the back of the head.</i><br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide. <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>2 - C. Victor Raiser, II: </b>Finance co-chairman of Governor Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign and active at top levels with the Clinton fundraising apparatus. Killed in a plane crash while on vacation in Alaska in 1992, <i>(the year Bill Clinton was elected President.)</i><br />
<br />
<b>3 - James Bunch - </b>Worked for 23 years at the Department of Human Services. He was found dead at the age of 46 in a parking lot near his office. Died from a gunshot wound to the head. He had been fired a few days earlier after being arrested on charges of aggravated promotion of prostitution, <i>(punishable by up to 10 years in prison.)</i> It was reported that he had offered, as part of a plea-deal negotiation, a "Black Book" compiling a list of influential people who had visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.<br />
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<b>4 - Jerry Parks - </b>Head of Governor Bill Clinton's security detail in Little Rock, Arkansas. In September of 1993, <i>(two months after the death of Vince Foster,)</i> Parks was shot and killed in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock city limits. Though ruled a "gang-style" slaying, the murder remains unsolved. Investigators have never named any suspects, either, which makes the "gang" suggestion suspicious.<br />
<br />
Parks' son claimed that his father had been building a dossier on the Clintons and had threatened to turn it into the Department of Justice. After he died, all files and computers were removed from his house by parties unknown prior to the arrival of official investigators.<br />
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<b>5 - Florence Martin:</b> Sub-contracted as an Accountant for the CIA, Martin was attached to the Mena, Arkansas airport drug-smuggling case. She was found dead of three gunshot wounds in Mabell, Texas. The murder remains unsolved. Investigators have never named any suspects.<br />
<br />
Martin possessed documents and supporting paperwork detailing a financial account totaling over $1.5 Million at the Fuji Bank in the Caymans, in the name of known drug-smuggler Barry Seal, <i>(see below.)</i><br />
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<b>6 - Suzanne Coleman:</b> Had an affair with Bill Clinton when he was the Attorney General for Arkansas. <br />
<br />
Coleman, who was seven months pregnant at the time of her death, <i>(she had told friends it was Bill Clinton's child, by the way)</i> was killed by a gunshot wound <b><i>to the back of her head</i> </b>on February 15, 1977.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br /></b><b>7 - Paul Wilcher: </b>Washington Attorney, found dead in his apartment in Washington D.C., one week to the day after delivering a report to Janet Reno concluding his investigation of corrupt activity surrounding Mena Airport in the 1980s.<br />
<br />
At the time of his death, he was also looking into a connection between the Clintons and the Reagan/North cover-up, the incident at Waco, and the drug and gun-running operations <i>still occurring</i> at Mena Airport.<br />
<br />
No cause of death was ever determined.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Left to Right: Paula Jones, Kathy Ferguson, and Juanita Broaddrick</td></tr>
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<b>8 - Kathy Ferguson:</b> Ex-wife of Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson, who was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit.<br />
<br />
Kathy was found dead in May of 1994. Her body was discovered in her living room. Cause of death was a gunshot wound <i>to the back of the head.</i> Several packed suitcases were discovered in the next room as if she'd been preparing to go somewhere.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<i> </i><br />
<br />
<b>9 - Bill Shelton:</b> Arkansas State Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead the following month, in June of 1994 of a gunshot wound at the gravesite of his fiancee.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<br />
<br />
<b>10 - Jon Parnell Walker:</b> Successful bank fraud investigator working the Whitewater case. Fell to his death on August 15, 1993, from an apartment balcony in Virginia. At the time of his death, he'd been investigating a suspicious funds-transfer of $47 Million from the Resolution Trust Corporation to Madison Guarantee Savings & Loan, in which the Clintons were directly implicated.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<br />
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<b>11 - James McDougal: </b>Former partner of the Clintons in the Whitewater deal. Convicted of fraud, embezzlement, and insider trading. A key witness in Ken Starr's investigation, McDougal died while in solitary confinement, less than 24 hours before he was set to testify before a grand jury, as to his inside information about the Clintons' questionable associations and criminal financial practices.<br />
<br />
Cause of death has never been publicly detailed.<br />
<br />
<b>12 - </b><b>Gandy Baugh:</b> Attorney for Dan Lasater. <i>(Dan Lasater, a close friend of the Clintons, is also a convicted drug-distributor who has repeatedly come under suspicion of spying for the Chinese government.)</i> Baugh died falling out of a window of Chicago's 100-story Hancock Tower.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<br />
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<b>13 - Mary Mahoney:</b> Former White House intern, murdered in July of 1997.<br />
<br />
In his coverage of the Paula Jones lawsuit, journalist Mike Isikoff had indicated that a "former White House staffer with the initial 'M'" was preparing to go public with her story of having been sexually harassed by President Bill Clinton.<br />
<br />
Days later, while the three evening employees <i>(Mary Mahoney and her co-workers; Emory Evans, aged 25, and Aaron Goodrich, aged 18,) </i>were cleaning up after closing, gunmen entered the Georgetown Starbucks.<br />
<br />
Goodrich and Evans were taken to a back room and shot. Mary was discovered with five bullets in her body from "at least two different guns, most likely with suppressors." A total of ten shots were fired; none of which were heard by employees of any of the surrounding businesses nor the foot traffic outside.<br />
<br />
In spite of the fact that <i>nothing was stolen,</i> the deaths of Mahoney, Evans, and Goodrich were reported to have been the <i>result of a robbery.</i><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><b>14 - Barry Seal:</b></span><span style="text-align: center;"> TWA Pilot and major drug-runner for the Medellin Cartel, who was portrayed in films such as 1991's "Doublecrossed" starring Dennis Hopper, and 2017's "American Made" starring Tom Cruise. </span><br />
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Seal ran drugs through Arkansas airports,<i> (particularly Mena)</i> while Bill Clinton was the state's Governor. During this time, Arkansas Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Charles Black attempted to call a state grand-jury to examine and consider evidence implicating suspects working at Rich Mountain Aviation <i>(a local company that had been attempting to turn Mena Airport into a center for aircraft refurbishment)</i> as having aided and abetted Seal's drug-trafficking activities.<br />
<br />
Black repeatedly requested assistance from Governor Clinton's office over a period of months but never received any response.<br />
<br />
In the fall of 1986, while the FBI was investigating Dan Lasater <i>(see: Gandy Baugh, above,)</i> his personal pilot was brought in for questioning. He claimed that on February 8, 1984, he had flown Lasater and Patsy Thomasson<i> (Lasater's business partner) </i>"to Belize to look at a horse farm that was for sale." The trip had been cut short and he'd flown Lasater and Thomasson back to the U.S. before the pair could meet with the seller, for reasons unknown to the pilot.<br />
<br />
Within a few weeks of this, Seal flew to the same location. Lassater and Roger Clinton were arrested shortly thereafter and plead guilty to drug charges, which resulted in their serving time in prison.<br />
<br />
Years later, upon being elected President, Bill Clinton placed Patsy Thomasson in charge of the White House's Office of Administration.<br />
<br />
Once convicted, Seal became an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration.<br />
<br />
He was shot to death by assassins in Louisiana, who claimed to have been hired by Medellin Cartel leader Pablo Escobar. <br />
<br />
In spite of numerous accusations as well as suspicions and investigation by several law enforcement agencies, a personal link between Clinton and Seal has never been officially established, but given the number of Mena Airport drug-runners personally associated with the Clintons, there is a lot of smoke in the area, so to speak. The Clintons' relationship with Columbia however, <i>(in particular President Uribe, who himself was a personal friend of Escobar,)</i> is <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2016/05/19/the-clinton-colombia-connection/" target="_blank">well-established</a>.<br />
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<b>15 - Ron Brown:</b> The first African-American to serve as United States Secretary of Commerce <i>(during Bill Clinton's first Presidential term,)</i> prior to this, he was also the first African-American to serve as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.<br />
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In 1996 Brown had come under investigation by the FBI and DoJ. He had spoken publicly about his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QkEuFLyeaDw/XWl2bEu2W8I/AAAAAAAAEOQ/NYpIVcdvzq4jlkBKW_P9WzD8u0H7ONK4QCLcBGAs/s1600/Kathleen%2BWilley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="634" height="170" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QkEuFLyeaDw/XWl2bEu2W8I/AAAAAAAAEOQ/NYpIVcdvzq4jlkBKW_P9WzD8u0H7ONK4QCLcBGAs/s200/Kathleen%2BWilley.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kathleen Willey <br />
(wife of Ed Willey)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ruled to have died on impact along with 34 other souls in a plane crash in Croatia. A pathologist on the investigation team later reported that there was a gunshot wound in the top of Brown's skull.<br />
<br />
Less than a week later, the Air Traffic controller who'd been in contact with the plane during its ill-fated flight, committed suicide.<br />
<br />
<b>16 - Ed Willey:</b> Fundraiser for Clinton. Willey ran and was involved in numerous fundraising activities for the Clintons as well as several of their close associates. He was found dead in the deep woods of Virginia on the same day that his wife Kathleen claimed Bill Clinton had groped her in the Oval Office of the White House.<br />
<br />
Cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.<br />
<br />
Ruled a suicide.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>17 - Kevin Ives & Don Henry:</b> The media and investigators labeled this case "The Boys on the Track." Various reports have alleged that the boys had stumbled upon the drug-running operation at Mena Airport.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">16-year-old Don Henry (left,) and 17-year-old Kevin Ives (right.)</td></tr>
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The Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak reported that the boys had "fallen asleep on the tracks."<br />
<br />
The engineer driving the train said that he saw the boys laying on the tracks, at which point he immediately began blowing the train's horn, to which the boys showed no response nor movement of any kind. <i>(Side Note: Train horns emit sound in excess of 140 decibels. This is, at a minimum, 15 decibels louder than a rock concert.)</i><br />
<br />
Numerous investigators have since pointed out that Don and Kevin had been slain <i>before</i> being placed on the tracks by parties unknown as it was determined that Kevin Ives had died from a crushed skull <i>prior</i> to being placed on the tracks. Don Henry had been stabbed in the back.<br />
<br />
In spite of these findings, numerous Left-leaning news outlets continue to relate the case of <i>"two boys who fell asleep on railroad tracks."</i><br />
<br />
Several people identified as having information on the case died before their testimony could come before a Grand Jury.<br />
<br />
They were...<br />
<br />
<i>-Gregory Collins -</i> Shot to death.<br />
<br />
<i>-James Milam -</i> Found <i><b>decapitated.</b></i> However, Medical Examiner Fahmy Malak, <i>(see above,)</i> ruled his death was due to <i>"natural causes."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>-Keith Coney -</i> Died in a motorcycle accident, having ridden it at high-speeds into the back of a truck. Eyewitnesses reported the truck in question had slammed abruptly on its brakes, seemingly "for no reason," causing the collision and had fled the scene. The truck was never found, nor was its driver identified.<br />
<br />
<i>-Jeff Rhodes -</i> Shot in the head, mutilated, and found burned in a garbage dump. The particular characteristics of his body's extensive and disfiguring wounds were consistent with torture. Other features, such as (localized coagulation-levels and tissue degradation,) strongly suggest that he was tortured <i>for hours</i> before his death.<br />
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<i>-Richard Winters - </i>A suspect in the Ives/Henry deaths. <i>(Because cases of "accidental death" typically have <b>murder suspects,</b> right?)</i> Killed in a set-up robbery where <i>nothing was stolen.</i><br />
<br />
<i>-Keith McMaskle -</i> Stabbed 113 times.<br />
<br />
<i>-Jordan Kettleson - </i>Shot to death in the front seat of his pickup.<br />
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<b>18 - Paul Tully:</b> Political Director of the Democratic National Committee, Paul Tully was described by Clinton as a "dear friend and trusted advisor." Known as one of the Democratic Party's pre-eminent election strategists and among its most passionate advocates, Tully had moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in the fall of 1992 to aid in Governor Bill Clinton's Presidential Campaign.<br />
<br />
He was found dead in a Little Rock hotel on September 25 of that year, at the age of 48.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Without conducting an autopsy,</b></i> the Coroner said Tully<i> (once again, aged <b>48</b>,)</i> <i>"appeared to have died of <b>natural causes.</b>" </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>19 - Paula Grober:</b> Died in a one-car accident, December 9, 1992. She traveled with Bill Clinton as his speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death.<br />
<br />
Rumors at the time alleged that she'd been groped and molested by Clinton on several occasions.<br />
<br />
<b>20 - Johnny Lawhorn, Jr.: </b>Mechanic in Arkansas. In spring of 1997, a tornado had torn through several junked cars at Johnny's Transmission <i>(his place of business,)</i> which resulted in the trunk of a particular car coming open. On surveying the scene to assess the damage, Lawhorn discovered this trunk contained a box of documents and records pertaining to the Whitewater scandal. Included was the carbon copy-sheet for a $27,000 check made payable to Bill Clinton.<br />
<br />
Lawhorn immediately called the FBI and turned over the documents to their Arkansas field office.<br />
<br />
A few months later, he and a friend ran off the road while traveling at a high rate of speed. The car had become airborne before hitting a utility pole. Both men died on impact.<br />
<br />
<b>21 - Herschel Friday:</b> Arkansas bond lawyer whom President Nixon had considered appointing to the United States Supreme Court. The American Bar Association felt that Friday's nomination was inappropriate due to his firm's involvement in the 1957 Central High School Crisis, wherein they had represented the Little Rock School District.<br />
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An active fundraiser and personal friend of the Clintons, Friday died in March of 1994, when his plane exploded in mid-air.<br />
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<b>22 - Danny Casolaro:</b> An investigative reporter looking into the Mena Airport Drug-Running Scandal as well as shady dealings at the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, <i>(both cases directly tied to the Clintons,) (See: "The Inslaw Scandal," in Part Two.)</i><br />
<br />
Casolaro apparently slit his wrists in the middle of his investigation.<br />
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<b>23 - Dr. James Wilson:</b> Reported to have ties to the Whitewater Case. He died from an apparent hanging suicide.<br />
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<b>24 - Barbara Wise:</b> Secretary working closely with John Huang <i>(DNC Fundraiser)</i> and Ron Brown <i>(see above,)</i> at President Clinton's Commerce Department. She was suspected of leaking documents exposing Chinese espionage operations.<br />
<br />
Wise's badly bruised, naked body was discovered locked in her office, by a co-worker on the morning of November 29th, 1996. Cause of death unknown.<br />
<br />
Huang was ordered to come to the White House.<br />
<br />
After an autopsy that many reported as having been hurried and overseen by unnamed persons from the Commerce Department, Sgt. Michael Farish of the police homicide unit said there were no obvious signs of foul play. <i>(Remember, her body was covered in deep, dark bruises.) </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>25 - Charles Meissner:</b> Assistant Secretary of Commerce during Clinton's Presidency. He gave John Huang special security clearance. Huang was later convicted of Felony Conspiracy in violating campaign finance laws.<br />
<br />
Meissner died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash. The cause of the crash remains unknown.<br />
<br />
<b>26 - Dr. Stanley Heard:</b> Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee in the Clinton Administration. Heard had personally treated Clinton's mother, brother, and stepfather.<br />
<br />
Died in a small plane crash with his attorney Steve Dickson. Cause unknown.<br />
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<b>27 - Judi Gibbs: </b>Penthouse model and call girl. She appeared in the December 1979 issue of Penthouse and later worked in a bordello near Mena, Arkansas. This establishment was also known for running a blackmail operation with photos of various high-profile customers with their girls.<br />
<br />
According to the Gibbs family, Bill Clinton had been a frequent customer of Judi, and there were even photos of Clinton and Gibbs having sex.<br />
<br />
In a sworn statement, Clinton bodyguard Barry Spivey testified that he'd been aboard then-Governor Clinton's plane when it had flown over Judi Gibbs' house. He went on to say that Clinton had shown him Judi's penthouse photos and pointed out her house.<br />
<br />
While a cooperating witness with the police in a drug investigation near Mena Airport, she died when her house burned down. Judi had called the fire department to report the fire. Her body was found on the floor in front of a ground-floor window near a door that would have allowed her easy escape.<br />
<br />
No cause for the fire was ever found.<br />
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<b>28 - Seth Rich: </b>Democratic National Committee staffer who was shot multiple times in the back on July 10, 2016. The police ruled his death the result of a robbery in spite of Rich's valuables, <i>(wallet, watch, cell-phone, and jewelry)</i> having been left undisturbed on his body.<br />
<br />
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claims that Rich was one of his sources on the DNC email scandal.<br />
<br />
In spite of the FBI insisting that Rich's death is not under investigation, the NSA has blocked the release of the Coroner's report on the grounds of <i>"national security risks."</i><br />
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***<br />
<br />
To date, 12 former Clinton bodyguards have been killed.<br />
<br />
<b>-Captain Scott J. Reynolds:</b> Helicopter crash in Blossom Point, Maryland.<br />
<br />
<b>-Sgt. Brian Haney:</b> Helicopter crash in Blossom Point, Maryland, (see above.)<br />
<br />
<b>-Major William S. Barkley, Jr.:</b> Helicopter crash in Blossom Point, Maryland, (see above.)<br />
<br />
<b>-Sgt. Tim Sabel:</b> Helicopter crash in Blossom Point, Maryland, (see above.)<br />
<br />
<b>-Major General William Robertson:</b> Cause unknown.<br />
<br />
<b>-Col. William Densberger:</b> Helicopter crash in Frankfurt, Germany.<br />
<br />
<b>-Col. Robert Kelly:</b> Helicopter crash in Frankfurt, Germany, (see above.)<br />
<br />
<b>-Specialist Gary Rhodes, Jr.:</b> Helicopter crash in Frankfurt, Germany, (see above.)<br />
<br />
<b>-Steve Willis:</b> Cause unknown.<br />
<br />
<b>-Robert Williams:</b> Cause unknown.<br />
<br />
<b>-Conway LeBleu:</b> Killed while working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in a raid on the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas.<br />
<br />
<b>-Todd McKeehan:</b> Killed in the raid on the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas, while working at the ATF.<br />
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***<br />
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Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-69037387222708610132019-07-26T15:26:00.001-07:002019-07-26T15:26:19.724-07:00How to Find Substantive Remote-Work Opportunities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNe9RYtTw58/XTt-BVm4AQI/AAAAAAAAELk/GhpvnOu8OCIaHW3JH7lf4GmLRRKaFy1mACLcBGAs/s1600/working-from-home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNe9RYtTw58/XTt-BVm4AQI/AAAAAAAAELk/GhpvnOu8OCIaHW3JH7lf4GmLRRKaFy1mACLcBGAs/s640/working-from-home.jpg" width="640" height="420" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1050" /></a></div>
<p><span>Digital nomads use telecommunications technologies to earn a living. I’ve been working remotely since 2016 and have been a digital nomad since July 2018. I often work remotely from countries other than the United States, coffee shops, public libraries, and sometimes co-working spaces.</span></p>
<p><span>It’s starting to become the newfound “millennial dream,” but without hard work, it can be difficult to make it a reality. </span>The daily grind, cultural norms, and rising student debt can also get in the way. <span>Though landing a remote position may seem daunting, nearly 38 percent of workers will be able to work remotely in some capacity over the next decade, according to </span><a href="https://remote.co/10-stats-about-remote-work/"><span>Remote.co</span></a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>Here are some easy ways to get started researching opportunities regardless of your background to begin settling into remote work.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-0">Earn Your Way There with Your Current Company</h2>
<p><span>Though it may seem impossible to earn remote status with your employer, step out of the lens in which you view your position and ask yourself: “Is it possible to work remotely within my current role? Does anyone else at my company do this?”</span></p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">Though it may mean moving to a different position or leveraging odd hours, be open to discussing new possibilities.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p><span>Even if only one person works remotely, you may have the leverage to begin initiating conversations with your employer if you’ve paid your dues.</span></p>
<p><span>Though it may seem to be a risk, if you’ve been loyal to your company, nothing is impossible. Though it may mean moving to a different position or leveraging odd hours, be open to discussing new possibilities.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-1">Pick up Clients as a Freelancer</h2>
<p><span>If you’re interested in this workstyle but are unsure if working remotely may be the right lifestyle for you, consider taking on several clients as a freelancer, initially.</span></p>
<p><span>This way you can begin to establish work rhythms that will benefit you if and when you do make the decision to transition into remote work.</span></p>
<p><span>If you have a skill like graphic design or photography where you could grow your client base, consider starting your own small business.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-2">Find Startups on Websites like Angie’s List </h2>
<p><span>There are </span><a href="https://www.ryrob.com/remote-jobs-websites/#general"><span>websites</span></a><span> that can guide you on your search to finding the right remote positions, just like Angie’s List. Many tech companies offer remote opportunities directly from this website. As you search for positions online, Google also offers “work from home” as a filter as you aspire to search for positions as well.</span></p>
<p><span>Consider making a spreadsheet of all the companies you find that have these opportunities, and </span><a href="https://chloeanagnos.com/how-to-make-linkedin-connections-without-being-creepy/"><span>connect with hiring managers on LinkedIn</span></a><span>. Though there may not be a position you qualify for immediately, begin scoping out companies you would like to work for and continue to check back for the right opportunity.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-3">Look into Creative Circles</h2>
<p><a href="https://creativemornings.com/"><span>Creative Mornings</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://www.creativecircle.com/"><span>Creative Circle</span></a><span> are great resources as you continue the search to help you land remote work, in addition to networking with like-minded digital nomads. <span class="rte-quote">Co-working spaces are another creative outlet to network and collaborate with other entrepreneurs.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p><span>Co-working spaces are another creative outlet to network and collaborate with other entrepreneurs. Seek out any opportunity to cultivate relationships with people who currently work remotely and aspire to learn from them.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-4">Take on Multiple Jobs and Passions</h2>
<p><span>Though some may find certain jobs unappealing, a compromise to obtain a remote lifestyle may mean sacrificing your full-time salary, in exchange for a lower paying job.</span></p>
<p><span>Therefore, taking on multiple passions—like your remote position that gives you work flexibility in addition to another revenue stream—may make this lifestyle possible for you a bit sooner. Explore different options and combine the passions that generate revenue.</span></p>
<h2 id="link-5">Go All In! </h2>
<p><span>Even if you hate your job, remember that no one is forcing you to work there. Be thankful for the income, development, and stability your company provides no matter your frustrations.</span></p>
<p><span>But when the time comes, don’t be afraid to take the leap and go all in to embrace remote work.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://chloeanagnos.com/ditching-the-9-5-how-to-find-remote-work-opportunities/"><em>This article was republished with the author's permission. </em></a></p>
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<img src="http://fee.org/media/31278/chloeanagnos.png?anchor=center&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131841677350000000" width="100" height="100" alt="Chloe Anagnos">
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<h5>
<a href="http://fee.org/people/chloe-anagnos/">
Chloe Anagnos
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</h5>
<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p>Chloe Anagnos is a professional writer, digital strategist, and marketer. Although a millennial, she's never accepted a participation trophy.</p>
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<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/how-to-find-remote-work-opportunities/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/184308" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-44451809550452382152019-07-10T14:29:00.001-07:002019-07-10T14:29:32.994-07:00Rising Anger in America. The Stoics Taught How to Keep Your Cool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WQRNEQXbBqY/XSZYqMWTS3I/AAAAAAAAELQ/adueNGgDUa0YRiGhXS8OXHJgI9yl5IVdQCLcBGAs/s1600/dLcZgEV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WQRNEQXbBqY/XSZYqMWTS3I/AAAAAAAAELQ/adueNGgDUa0YRiGhXS8OXHJgI9yl5IVdQCLcBGAs/s640/dLcZgEV.jpg" width="640" height="412" data-original-width="749" data-original-height="482" /></a></div>
<p>According to the <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/06/26/735757156/poll-americans-say-were-angrier-than-a-generation-ago">latest NPR-IBM Watson Health poll</a>, “42% of those polled said they were angrier in the past year.”</p>
<p>Most of us think <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.livescience.com/26914-why-we-are-all-above-average.html">we are better than average</a>. We believe others are getting even angrier than we are: “Some 84% of people surveyed said Americans are angrier today compared with a generation ago.”</p>
<p>No wonder some popular politicians speak like they are in a perpetual rage. Joseph Epstein, writing in the <em>Wall Street Journal,</em> <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/socialists-dont-know-history-11559171072">observes of Bernie Sanders</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In his earnest self-righteousness and inflexibly held positions, Mr. Sanders reminds one of the Stalinists of old. Whenever I hear him hammering home his points in his staccato speech, using his hands for italics, I recall that old phrase of Jewish mothers of an earlier generation being nagged by their children: "Hak mir nisht keyn tshaynik!” Loosely translated: “Stop rattling that tea kettle in my face.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Epstein adds, “Mr. Sanders isn’t a Stalinist, but, judging by his temperament and rigidity, in Stalin’s day he might have been.”</p>
<p>Sanders won’t be giving up his anger anytime soon; his success depends upon attracting angry voters.</p>
<p>And it’s not just in the political arena that anger rules the day. Harvard University law professor Ronald Sullivan, forced to step down as a faculty dean, <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/opinion/harvard-ronald-sullivan.html">wrote of “angry demands”</a> on college campuses:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Unchecked emotion has replaced thoughtful reasoning on campus. Feelings are no longer subjected to evidence, analysis or empirical defense. Angry demands, rather than rigorous arguments, now appear to guide university policy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his <a href="https://amzn.to/2G3AANP"><em>Meditations</em></a><em>, </em>Marcus Aurelius observed, “It’s courtesy and kindness that define a human being. That’s who possesses strength and nerves and guts, not the angry whiners.”</p>
<h2 id="link-0">Stop Feeding Your Anger</h2>
<p>A few months ago, my wife and I missed our highway exit. When we exited to retrace our steps, we found ourselves backed up at a traffic light. Each time the light turned green, only five cars could make it through before it turned red again. My thinking riffed on getting to our destination on time. As I railed against reality and behaved boorishly, my wife sat still, well, stoically.</p>
<p>At that moment, I was sure my anger was coming from the traffic light. I didn’t sign up for a poorly controlled intersection and a delayed trip. Take the issue away, and I would be calm again. Wrong. Anger starts with an internal decision to be angry. If we want to be angry, we will find things to be angry about.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">If you shouldn’t trust yourself when you are angry, surely you shouldn’t trust others who are angry.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>My momentary agitation was made of the same stuff as full-blown road rage. I had given the world, in the form of a traffic light, power over my peace of mind. “You shouldn’t give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don’t care at all,” Marcus Aurelius counseled.</p>
<p>The moment I stopped feeding my anger with more thinking, the anger was gone. In their book <a href="https://amzn.to/2LK9EGH"><em>The Daily Stoic</em></a>, Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman write:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first rule of holes, goes the adage, is that “if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” This might be the most violated piece of commonsense wisdom in the world. Because what most of us do when something happens, goes wrong, or is inflicted on us is make it worse—first, by getting angry or feeling aggrieved, and next, by flailing around before we have much in the way of a plan.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Life will often not meet our expectations. The traffic light will only let five cars through when you have to get somewhere. But do you have to allow your thinking to make the situation even worse? If you keep pinching your arm, don’t be surprised if you get bruised.</p>
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<h2 id="link-1">Seneca on Anger</h2>
<p>James Romm is a professor of classics at Bard College. His book <a href="https://amzn.to/2LGzzik"><em>How to Keep Your Cool: An Ancient Guide to Anger Management</em></a> is a new translation of the Stoic philosopher Seneca’s work <em>On Anger</em>.</p>
<p>In his introduction to his book, Romm asks us to recall “the last minor incident that sent you into a rage.” He asks us to reflect on these questions: “You were injured—or were you? Were you notably worse off, a day or two later, than before the incident occurred? Did it really matter that someone disrespected you?”</p>
<p>Then Romm offers this pointed advice:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By shifting our perspective or expanding our mental scale, Seneca challenges our sense of what, if anything, is worth our getting angry. Pride, dignity, self-importance—the sources of our outrage when we feel injured—end up seeming hollow when we zoom out and see our lives from a distance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Seneca’s words, “Your anger is a kind of madness, because you set a high price on worthless things.”</p>
<p>Using the common example of road rage, Romm explains the price of our madness:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In your momentary road rage, in your desire to honk at, hurt, or kill the other driver, lie grave threats to the sovereignty of reason in your soul, and therefore to your capacity for right choice and virtuous action. The onset of anger endangers your moral condition more than that of any other emotion, for anger is, in Seneca’s eyes, the most intense, destructive, and irresistible of the passions. It’s like jumping off a cliff: once rage is allowed to get control, there’s no hope of stopping the descent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Awareness cures anger. Look at “all the vices anger gives rise to and take good measure of them.” Seneca was adamant:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you truly want to examine its effects, the damages it causes, I say that no plague has done more harm to humankind. You’ll see slaughters, poisons, mutual mud-slinging of litigants, wreckage of cities, extinctions of whole races, lives of leading men sold at public auction, torches touched to buildings, flames not contained within walls but, held by an enemy host, gleaming over vast spans of territory.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anger harms the angry host. Seneca taught:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Deaf to reason and advice, stirred up by empty provocations, unsuited to distinguishing what’s just and true; [anger] resembles nothing so much as a collapsing building that breaks apart upon that which it crushes.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="link-2">Don’t Let Anger in the Front Door</h2>
<p>The Stoics advised that you can do your “duty” without anger. There is no such thing as healthy anger, taught Seneca.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some men think it valuable to moderate anger rather than set it aside, to force it to conform to a healthy measure and restrain its overflows, to hold on to that part without which action grows weak and the force and energy of the mind is dissipated. First, however, it’s easier to shut out harmful things than to govern them, easier to deny them entry than to moderate them once they have entered. Once they’ve established residence, they become more powerful than their overseer and do not accept retrenchment or abatement.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In short, “Once shaken and overthrown, the mind becomes a slave to that which drives it.” Choose against anger as soon as you recognize it. Seneca instructs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: left;">It is best to repel instantly the first prickings of anger, to stamp out its very seedlings, to take pains not to be drawn in. For once it has knocked us off course, the return to health and safety is difficult; no space is left for Reason once passion has been ushered in and given jurisdiction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here is Seneca’s timeless thumb rule: Don’t trust your first angry thoughts shrieking insane advice. He explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since we ought to fight against first causes, the cause of anger is the sense of having been wronged; but one ought not to trust this sense. Don’t make your move right away, even against what seems overt and plain; sometimes false things give the appearance of truth. One must take one’s time; a day reveals the truth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Like other Stoics, Seneca advised mind training. Each of us must come to know our personal storm warnings. He instructs:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is best therefore to restrain oneself at the first sign of the evil, then to give as little rein as possible to one’s words and to block the onset. It’s easy to detect when one’s emotions first arise, since the hallmarks of the ailments precede them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Seneca asked, “Won’t everyone want to call themselves back from anger’s borders, once they understand that its first onset is to their detriment?”</p>
<h2 id="link-3">Don’t Trust the Angry</h2>
<p>If you shouldn’t trust yourself when you are angry, surely you shouldn’t trust others who are angry. “There is no reason to trust the words of angry people, which make loud and menacing noise despite the great timidity of the mind that lies beneath,” advised Seneca.</p>
<p>Angry politicians believe they are wise. Enraged college students believe they are just. A driver overcome by road rage believes he is in the right. Seneca would say they are all insane.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everyone who’s transported beyond mortal thinking by an insane mind believes he’s breathing in something elevated and sublime. But there’s nothing firm underneath; things that grow without foundations are likely to slide into ruin. Anger has nothing on which it can lean; it arises from nothing steady or durable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some may believe that the ability to be angry with impunity is a perk of their power. Seneca would say getting angry is a booby prize.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Don’t you want me to advise those people who wield anger from the height of power, who think it a testament to their strength, who reckon a ready revenge to be one of the great benefits of great wealth, that he who is a prisoner of anger cannot be called powerful, or even free?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can we reduce our attraction to anger? Can we keep our cool while others lose theirs? If enough of us can, there will be less demand for angry politicians.</p>
<h2 id="link-4">Forgiveness Is a Healing Balm</h2>
<p>Romm places <em>On Anger</em> in context: “By the time he came to write <em>On Anger</em>, or at least the greater part of it, he had witnessed, from the close vantage point of the Roman Senate, the bloody four-year reign of Caligula.”</p>
<p>Most of us are not pure saints nor demented souls like Caligula. Seneca wrote, “Even in good characters there is something rather unsavory. Human nature contains treacherous thoughts, ungrateful ones, greedy and wicked ones.”</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">How we spend our days becomes how we spend our life.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>Understanding human nature allows us to be “kinder to one another.” Seneca advised us to forgive the foibles of others: “We’re just wicked people living among wicked people. Only one thing can give us peace, and that’s a pact of mutual leniency.”</p>
<p>Always see your common humanity with others, counseled Seneca.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The majority of humankind gets angry not at the wrongs but at the wrongdoers. A good look at ourselves will make us more temperate if we ask ourselves: “Haven’t we ourselves also done something like that? Haven’t we gone astray in the same way? Does condemning these things really benefit us?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Seneca pointed to our hypocrisy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Each of us has the spirit of a king inside us: We want total freedom to be granted to us but not to those acting against us. It’s either our ignorance or our arrogance that makes us prone to anger. For what is so surprising if wicked people do wicked things?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And when we forget our ignorance and arrogance, Seneca suggests we recall “every time we find it hard to forgive, whether it’s to our benefit that everyone be implacable. How often has the one who refused mercy later sought it?”</p>
<p>Today, like every day, the world will provide ample opportunity to practice Seneca’s wisdom. How we spend our days becomes how we spend our life. Are we willing to learn, as <a rel="nofollow" href="https://dailystoic.com/keeping-your-cool-40-stoic-quotes-on-taming-anger/">Marcus Aurelius puts it</a>, that we “have something in [us] more powerful and divine than what causes the bodily passions and pulls [us] like a mere puppet”?</p>
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Barry Brownstein
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<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p>Barry Brownstein is professor emeritus of economics and leadership at the University of Baltimore. He is the author of <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/The-Inner-Work-Leadership-Barry-Brownstein/dp/0984425403?tag=foundationforeco"><em>The Inner-Work of Leadership</em></a>. To receive Barry's essays subscribe at <a href="http://givingupcontrol.us11.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=9f90da3819262b93ad1f6d668&id=d86ea3faef">Mindset Shifts</a>.</p>
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<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/anger-is-rising-in-america-the-stoics-taught-how-to-keep-your-cool/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/184305" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-52832632217899026342019-06-29T13:45:00.002-07:002019-06-29T13:47:26.611-07:00Harvard Study Examines the Dangers of Early School Enrollment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YbFa6FU5EIE/XRfOTtQ3mtI/AAAAAAAAEK0/7kfvCe8VFeIev2udnp94Zc16iio5UynswCLcBGAs/s1600/sad-kid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YbFa6FU5EIE/XRfOTtQ3mtI/AAAAAAAAEK0/7kfvCe8VFeIev2udnp94Zc16iio5UynswCLcBGAs/s640/sad-kid.jpg" width="640" height="427" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1068" /></a></div><br>
<p><em>For a weekly newsletter from Kerry McDonald on parenting and education, sign up <a href="https://info.fee.org/parenting">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the development and maturity of a young child. A one-year-old is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always imagining, always asking <em>why</em>, while a five-year-old may start to sit and listen for longer stretches.</p>
<h2 id="link-0">Growing Expectations vs. Human Behavior</h2>
<p>Children haven’t changed, but our expectations of their behavior have. In just one generation, children are going to school at younger and younger ages, and are spending <a rel="noopener" href="http://ns.umich.edu/Releases/2004/Nov04/teen_time_report.pdf" target="_blank">more time</a> in school than ever before. They are increasingly required to learn academic content at an early age that may be well above their developmental capability.</p>
<p>In 1998, 31 percent of teachers <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/01/19/kindergarten-the-new-first-grade-its-actually-worse-than-that/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0b564b52fd52" target="_blank" data-anchor="?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0b564b52fd52">expected</a> children to learn to read in kindergarten. In 2010, 80 percent of teachers expected this. Now, children are expected to read in kindergarten and to become proficient readers soon after, despite research showing that pushing early literacy can do more harm than good.</p>
<p>In their <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.deyproject.org/uploads/1/5/5/7/15571834/readinginkindergarten_online-1__1_.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> <em>Reading in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose</em> education professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige and her colleagues warn about the hazards of early reading instruction. They write,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When children have educational experiences that are not geared to their developmental level or in tune with their learning needs and cultures, it can cause them great harm, including feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and confusion.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="link-1">Hate The Player, Love the Game</h2>
<p>Instead of recognizing that schooling is the problem, we blame the kids. Today, children who are not reading by a contrived endpoint are regularly labeled with a reading delay and prescribed various interventions to help them catch up to the pack. In school, all must be the same. If they are not listening to the teacher, and are spending too much time daydreaming or squirming in their seats, young children often earn an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) label and, with striking frequency, are administered potent psychotropic medications.</p>
<p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr081.pdf" target="_blank">reports</a> that approximately 11 percent of children ages four to seventeen have been diagnosed with ADHD, and that number increased 42 percent from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012, with a majority of those diagnosed placed on medication. Perhaps more troubling, one-third of these diagnoses occur in children under age six.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">Children who start school as the youngest in their grade have a greater likelihood of getting an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>It should be no surprise that as we place young children in artificial learning environments, separated from their family for long lengths of time, and expect them to comply with a standardized, test-driven curriculum, it will be too much for many of them.</p>
<p>New <a rel="noopener" href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/11/when-starting-school-younger-children-are-more-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-adhd-study-says/" target="_blank">findings</a> by Harvard Medical School researchers confirm that it’s not the children who are failing, it’s the schools we place them in too early. These researchers discovered that children who start school as among the youngest in their grade have a much greater likelihood of getting an ADHD diagnosis than older children in their grade. In fact, for the U.S. states studied with a September 1st enrollment cut-off date, children born in August were 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older peers.</p>
<p>The study’s lead researcher at Harvard, Timothy Layton, <a rel="noopener" href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/11/when-starting-school-younger-children-are-more-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-adhd-study-says/" target="_blank">concludes</a>: “Our findings suggest the possibility that large numbers of kids are being overdiagnosed and overtreated for ADHD because they happen to be relatively immature compared to their older classmates in the early years of elementary school.”</p>
<h2 id="link-2">This Should Come as No Surprise</h2>
<p>Parents don’t need Harvard researchers to tell them that a child who just turned five is quite different developmentally from a child who is about to turn six. Instead, parents need to be empowered to challenge government schooling motives and mandates, and to opt-out.</p>
<p>As universal government preschool programs gain traction, delaying schooling or opting out entirely can be increasingly difficult for parents. Iowa, for example, recently <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2013/10/11/massachusetts-debates-raising-school-dropout-age-to-18" target="_blank">lowered</a> its compulsory schooling age to four-year-olds enrolled in a government preschool program.</p>
<p>As New York City expands its universal pre-K program to all of the city’s three-year-olds, will compulsory schooling laws for preschoolers follow? On Monday, the New York City Department of Education issued a <a rel="noopener" href="https://infohub.nyced.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/rfp-preview-doe-birth-to-five-early-care-and-education-services.pdf" target="_blank">white paper</a> detailing a “birth-to-five system of early care and education,” granting more power to government officials to direct early childhood learning and development.</p>
<p>As schooling becomes more rigid and consumes more of childhood, it is causing increasing harm to children. Many of them are unable to meet unrealistic academic and behavioral expectations at such a young age, and they are being labeled with and medicated for delays and disorders that often only exist within a schooled context. Parents should push back against this alarming trend by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether.</p>
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Kerry McDonald
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<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p>Kerry McDonald is a Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1641600632/"><em>Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom</em></a> (Chicago Review Press, 2019). Kerry has a B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. in education policy from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and four children. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/kerry_edu">@kerry_edu</a>. You can sign up for her weekly newsletter on parenting and education <a href="https://info.fee.org/parenting">here</a>.</p>
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<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/harvard-study-shows-the-dangers-of-early-school-enrollment/?fbclid=IwAR2l-oyvZMnIBKLrBiBBMpKMGYpzWWH0K-5sIJ3KUfkXKxLw-BImb7wUvPg">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/176871" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-75741747660760554182019-06-22T05:14:00.000-07:002019-06-22T05:16:59.742-07:00How Joe Biden Became the Architect of the Government's Asset Forfeiture Program<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T-kpZ54Tslw/XQ4cDbbjEBI/AAAAAAAAEKk/G67wD6i1pygE4ZjZFrTCEI6bW4xENZquACLcBGAs/s1600/Biden-crop-640x480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T-kpZ54Tslw/XQ4cDbbjEBI/AAAAAAAAEKk/G67wD6i1pygE4ZjZFrTCEI6bW4xENZquACLcBGAs/s1600/Biden-crop-640x480.jpg" data-original-width="640" data-original-height="480" /></a></div>
<p>In 1991, Maui police officers showed up at the home of Frances and Joseph Lopes. One officer showed his badge and said, “Let’s go into the house, and we will explain things to you.” Once he was inside, the explanation was simple: “We’re taking the house.”</p>
<h2 id="link-0">Leading up to the Event</h2>
<p>The Lopeses were far from wealthy. They worked on a sugar plantation for nearly fifty years, living in camp housing, to save up enough money to buy a modest, middle-class home.</p>
<p>But in 1987, their son Thomas was caught with marijuana. He was twenty-eight, and he suffered from mental health issues. He grew the marijuana in the backyard of his parents’ home, but every time they tried to cut it down, Thomas threatened suicide.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">That statute of limitations for civil asset forfeiture was five years. It had only been four.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>When he was arrested, he pled guilty, was given probation since it was his first offense, and he was ordered to see a psychologist once a week. Frances and Joseph were elated. Their son got better, he stopped smoking marijuana, and the episode was behind them.</p>
<p>But when the police showed up and told them that their house was being seized, they learned that the episode was not behind them. That statute of limitations for civil asset forfeiture was five years. It had only been four. Legally, the police could seize any property connected to the marijuana plant from 1987. They had resurrected the Lopes case during a department-wide search through old cases looking for property they could legally confiscate.</p>
<h2 id="link-1">History of Forfeiture</h2>
<p>The roots of the law that allowed the police to take their home ran all the way back to 1970. Prior forfeiture laws only applied to goods that could be considered a danger to society—illegal alcohol, weapons, etc. But with the birth of the modern War on Drugs, lawmakers wanted something with more teeth. Prosecutor Robert Blakey, having worked under Attorney General Robert Kennedy and various Congressmen, provided the teeth. He helped draft a bill for a new legal concept, “criminal forfeiture,” which would allow police to seize the illegally acquired profits of a convicted criminal.</p>
<p>In 1970, the targets were wealthy crime bosses, but the assets that could be seized consisted of anything that was funded with money connected to criminal activity. To appease those worried about abuses of power, Blakely assured them that prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the criminal was guilty of a crime before the assets could be seized. There was nothing to worry about; only legitimate bad guys would suffer.</p>
<p>The new policy was passed as part of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-96">Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act</a>. Blakely was a fan of the 1931 movie <em>Little Caesar</em>, and the acronym was crafted to honor Blakely’s favorite character from the movie: the gangster Rico Bandello.</p>
<p>The RICO act wasn’t actually designed as part of the War on Drugs; it was just meant to target criminals. But when Richard Nixon took office, the RICO Act was one of a number of new tools that the members of his newly created Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (precursor to the Drug Enforcement Administration) could use to fight his Drug War. Combined with other legal innovations, such as no-knock raids and mandatory minimum sentences, Nixon and his administration would cure America of the drug menace.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">At Bourne’s urging, Congress modified the RICO Act to allow the DEA to confiscate assets without a conviction.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>Still, the pesky “conviction” requirement stood in the way of law enforcement’s ability to seize criminal assets. In 1978, Jimmy Carter’s Director of the Office of Drug Abuse (the title “Drug Czar” is often retroactively applied), Peter Bourne, decided that the law needed to be changed. Bourne learned of an incident in which a suitcase at the Miami International Airport had been left on the baggage carousel for three hours before police picked it up and found $3 million inside. If Drug Kingpins could afford to abandon so much money, they must be flush with enough cash to hardly worry about criminal forfeiture laws.</p>
<p>So, at Bourne’s urging, Congress modified the RICO Act to allow the DEA to confiscate assets <em>without </em>a conviction. The burden of proof wasn’t entirely gone (yet), but the government only needed an indictment, rather than a full conviction, to justify asset seizure. After all, the government knew who a lot of these Kingpins were, but the criminals continued to get rich while the DEA struggled to build cases against them.</p>
<p>Even here, though, real estate was off limits. Asset forfeiture had evolved from the seizure of dangerous items to criminal profit following a conviction to criminal profit (and its “derivative proceeds”) without the conviction requirement. But real estate—like the Lopes house—still couldn’t be touched.</p>
<p>But through the 1970s, the RICO Act was still largely ignored by prosecutors. Blakely was holding seminars out of Cornell University, which were attended by federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors, to urge them to take advantage of the RICO Act in the War on Drugs. He made few inroads. The law was unwieldy, and prosecutors were overworked. More often than not, it wasn’t worth their time. While Blakely was proselytizing the virtues of his law to little effect, he was unwittingly gaining an ally in Congress: Senator Joe Biden.</p>
<h2 id="link-2">No Hidin' from Biden</h2>
<p>Biden, a young Senator from Delaware, had to do something to show that despite his “liberal” reputation, he could be just as tough on crime as his Republican colleagues. He took notice of the RICO law, and he realized that law enforcement agencies were not taking advantage of it, particularly in regards to the Drug War. He turned to the General Accounting Office and asked them to produce a study on the potential uses of RICO for drug enforcement.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">Reagan brought the FBI into the Drug War. Drug cartels must be rendered unprofitable.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>The report showed that the RICO Act granted enormous powers to police to confiscate drug-related assets, but these powers were not being taken advantage of: “The government has simply not exercised the kind of leadership and management necessary to make asset forfeiture a widely used law enforcement technique,” the report stated. By the time the report came in, Ronald Reagan was settling into office and getting ready to wage a renewed War on Drugs.</p>
<p>Reagan brought the FBI into the Drug War, and he gave the director, William Webster, a mission. His agents would use the RICO Act powers to find drug rings and take away their assets. Drug cartels must be rendered unprofitable.</p>
<p>As the 1980s progressed, the War on Drugs would be the country’s biggest political issue. Politicians from both parties would work to show that they could out-Drug-Warrior their opponents. One Democratic Representative from Florida, Earl Hutto, said, “In the war on narcotics, we have met the enemy, and he is the U.S. Code.” Biden brought the RICO law to the attention of the Federal Government, Reagan enlisted the FBI to use it against drug traffickers, and now both parties would work to dismantle any legal limitations the law might still impose.</p>
<p>The Drug War became a contest of political one-upmanship. Reagan’s Justice Department fought for all kinds of new powers. Attorney General Edwin Meese and his Assistant Attorney General William Weld (yes, <em>that </em>Bill Weld) railed against the limitations on their legal prerogative. Weld went so far as to argue in favor of the legality of using the Air Force to shoot <em>suspected </em>drug-smuggling planes out of the sky, a policy that even his boss was unwilling to endorse.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">With this law, federal agents had nearly unlimited powers to seize assets from private citizens.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>But Meese, Weld, and everyone else seemed to agree that forfeiture laws didn’t go nearly far enough. By requiring an indictment, the government still had to meet some standard of reasonable guilt before seizing property, which allowed far too many criminals that law enforcement <em>knew </em>to be guilty (but couldn’t build a case against) to keep their ill-gotten gains.</p>
<p>To take things further, the Justice Department argued that law enforcement should be allowed to take “substitute” property; they knew they wouldn’t be able to take everything that was paid for with drug money, so it stood to reason that they should be able to take legally acquired assets of equal value (however that was determined). And finally, with real estate off limits, the government was unable to seize marijuana farms, drug warehouses, and criminal homes.</p>
<h2 id="link-3">Enter New Legislation</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/senate-bill/948">Comprehensive Forfeiture Act </a>fixed all of these problems. The new bill was introduced by Senator Joe Biden in 1983 and it was signed into law the next year. With this law, federal agents had nearly unlimited powers to seize assets from private citizens. Now the government only needed to find a way to let local and state police join the party.</p>
<p>This came with the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/senate-bill/1762">1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act</a>. In addition to a slew of new powers for prosecutors, the burden of proof for asset seizure was lowered once again (agents had to only <em>believe</em> that what they were seizing was equal in value to money <em>believed </em>to have been purchased from drug sales). More significantly, the bill started the “equitable sharing” program that allowed local and state law enforcement to retain up to 80 percent of the assets seized.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">The Lopes story merely illustrates that criminals are hardly the only people falling victim to this policy.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>The law took effect in 1986, the year before Thomas Lopes pled guilty to charges of growing a marijuana plant in his parents’ backyard. In 1987, when Thomas faced the judge, the government had just made it so that his local police had an enormous incentive and unchecked authority to seize property from private citizens, as long as they could show any flimsy connection to drugs. By 1991, the Maui police were running out of easily-seized property, so they started combing through case files within the five-year limit to find new ways to enrich their precinct from the expanded RICO powers. One such file brought the Lopes home to their attention.</p>
<p>But the Lopeses are only one example out of millions. In the year their home was confiscated by police for a minor, four-year-old drug charge, $644 million in assets were seized. In 2018 alone, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp/page/file/1126546/download">the Treasury Department’s Forfeiture Fund saw nearly $1.4 billion in deposits</a>. The Lopes story merely illustrates that criminals (regardless of how one might feel about drug laws) are hardly the only people falling victim to this policy.</p>
<p>The decades-long abuse of this policy has reached such extreme proportions that people on all sides of the political aisle have been turning against it. As I am writing this (February 20<sup>th</sup>, 2019), <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2019-02-20/supreme-court-rules-constitution-limits-civil-asset-forfeiture-excessive-fines">the Supreme Court has unanimously voted in favor of Tyson Timbs</a>, whose $42,000 Land Rover was seized in 2015 following a conviction for selling $400 in heroin. The Court is asserting that asset forfeiture constitutes a fine, and the Eighth Amendment—which protects citizens from excessive fines—applies to both state and local governments. The consequences of the ruling remain to be seen, but it seems nearly certain that the unanimous decision was motivated by the increasing outrage against the Civil Asset Forfeiture policies.</p>
<h4>References:</h4>
<p>Baum, Dan. <em>Smoke and Mirrors: The War On Drugs and the Politics of Failure</em>. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><a href="https://mises.org/wire/history-asset-forfeiture">This article was reprinted from the Mises Institute.</a></em></p>
<div>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/17309/chriscalton.png?anchor=center&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131317337500000000" width="100" height="100" alt="Chris Calton">
</div>
<div>
<h5>
<a href="http://fee.org/people/chris-calton/">
Chris Calton
</a>
</h5>
<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p><span>Chris Calton is a graduate student of history at Marshall University.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/how-a-young-joe-biden-became-the-architect-of-the-governments-asset-forfeiture-program/?fbclid=IwAR3T3IZVYWcNkrjy5Hpqt-xFH18ldNxwiKIpv78ydv9ZKhF9JHbaNTQ4_P4">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/179888" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-23115270405297605622019-06-15T00:36:00.001-07:002019-06-15T00:39:46.696-07:00Good Money, Bad Money -- And How Bitcoin Fits In<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7d68KLBL3Mo/XQSgme4WNhI/AAAAAAAAEKY/B44UwqDF7T40aSqkjae1LKrtfE-FdvKiwCLcBGAs/s1600/WE-AB713_CRYPTO_P_20181015161239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7d68KLBL3Mo/XQSgme4WNhI/AAAAAAAAEKY/B44UwqDF7T40aSqkjae1LKrtfE-FdvKiwCLcBGAs/s400/WE-AB713_CRYPTO_P_20181015161239.jpg" width="400" height="266" data-original-width="749" data-original-height="499" /></a></div>
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<p>Let us start with talking about bad money, by which I mean the US dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, the Chinese renminbi, the British pound, the Swiss franc, and basically all official currencies.</p>
<p>They all represent fiat money. The term fiat is derived from the Latin word <em>fiat</em> and means “so be it.” Fiat money is “coercive money,” or “money forced upon the people.”</p>
<p>There are three major characteristics of fiat money:</p>
<ol>
<li>The state (or its agent, the central bank) has a monopoly on money production.</li>
<li>Fiat money is produced through bank credit expansion; it is literally created out of thin air.</li>
<li>Fiat money is intrinsically valueless. It is just brightly colored paper and intangible bits and bytes that can be produced at any time and in any amount deemed politically expedient.</li>
</ol>
<h2 id="link-0">How We Got Bad Money</h2>
<p>Just in passing, I would like to let you know that fiat money has <em>not</em> come into this world naturally. States have worked long and hard to replace commodity money in the form of gold and silver with their own fiat money.</p>
<p>The final blow to commodity money came on August 15, 1971: US President Richard Nixon announced that the US dollar would no longer be convertible into gold. This very decision (which I like to call the greatest monetary expropriation in modern history) effectively put the world on a fiat money regime.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, it may not come as a surprise that fiat money suffers from economic and ethical deficiencies.</p>
<h2 id="link-1">The Defects of Fiat Money</h2>
<p>First, fiat money is inflationary. Its buying power dwindles over time, and history has shown that this entropy is almost as irreversible as gravity.</p>
<p>Second, fiat money enriches a chosen few at the expense of many others. The first receivers to get a hold of the new money benefit to the detriment of latecomers.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">As the state expands and sprouts like weeds in an untended garden, fiat money strangles—even destroys—individual freedom and liberty.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>Third, fiat money fosters speculative bubbles and capital misallocations that culminate in crises. This is why economies boom and bust.</p>
<p>Fourth, fiat money lures states, banks, consumers, and firms into the pitfall trap of excessive debt. Sooner or later, borrowers find themselves in a deep hole with no way out.</p>
<p>Fifth, fiat money feeds big government. And as the state expands and sprouts like weeds in an untended garden, this outgrowth strangles—even destroys—individual freedom and liberty.</p>
<h2 id="link-2">On Good Money</h2>
<p>I have spoken enough about bad money. Let us talk about good money.</p>
<p>What is good money? To answer this question, we just have to think about how a free market in money works.</p>
<p>Here, people are free to decide which kind of money they would like to use, and they also have the freedom to cater to the needs of fellow people seeking good money. <span class="rte-quote">Money has emerged from a commodity and spontaneously from the free the market: no state or no central bank was needed in the process.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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</ul></span>The outcome of a free market in money will be good money simply because people will demand, out of self-interest, good money—not bad money. This is actually what sound monetary theory would tell us. Money has emerged from a commodity and spontaneously from the free the market: no state or no central bank was needed in the process.</p>
<p>To qualify as good money, the “thing” or good in question must have specific properties. It must be scarce, homogeneous, divisible, durable, transportable, mintable, etc. Gold and silver meet these requirements par excellence, and this is why they were chosen as the universally accepted means of payment whenever people were free to choose.</p>
<p>How does Bitcoin fit in?</p>
<h2 id="link-3">Cryptocurrencies: The Search for Good Money</h2>
<p>I would argue that from a monetary theory point of view, Bitcoin qualifies as a good money candidate<em>.</em> It has emerged from the free market through the voluntary actions of all participants involved, respecting individual freedom and private property rights.</p>
<p>I would also argue that Bitcoin complies with the regression theorem and thus provides the crypto unit with a necessary requirement to potentially become money. The key question, therefore, is whether Bitcoin will stand a chance in challenging and outcompeting official fiat currencies or gold money. Let us think about this in further detail.</p>
<h2 id="link-4">A Free Market in Money</h2>
<p>One exciting feature of Bitcoin is that its quantity is limited to 21 million units. This hard cap means that at some point, the quantity of Bitcoin will not grow any further. If the quantity of money is constant and the economy expands, prices for goods and services will fall.</p>
<p>Would that be a problem for money users or the economy? No, it would not. Firms can still be successful if prices decline. Their profits result from the spread between revenues and costs. If goods prices fall (in nominal terms), firms just have to make sure that revenues keep exceeding costs.</p>
<p>Consumers would be pleased to see the prices of goods fall. Their money becomes more valuable. They can reduce their cash balances and increase spending.</p>
<h2 id="link-5">Buying Now or Buying Later?</h2>
<p>But wait: would consumers not refrain from buying goods if and when prices can be expected to fall over time? Imagine a car costs $50,000 today and only $40,000 in a year. If I need the car right now (because my old one has broken down), I would have to buy a new one right away, I would not and could not wait.</p>
<p>The general answer is this: People make their decision to buy now or later based on discounted marginal utility. The marginal utility of buying the car for $50,000 ranks lower on people’s value scale than paying only $40,000. But the car available for<span class="rte-quote">There is no reason to fear that the economy will come to a standstill if and when the prices of goods decline over time.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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</ul></span> $40,000 is not for sale now but in a year. When it comes to decision-making, people will, therefore, discount the marginal utility of purchasing the good for $40,000 in a year using their individual time preference rate.</p>
<p>They will then compare the result with the marginal utility of buying the good now for $50,000. If the discounted marginal utility of buying the car for $40,000 in a year is lower than the marginal utility of buying at $50,000 now, people buy now. If it is higher, they will postpone their purchase.</p>
<p>The important point is: There is no reason to fear that the economy will come to a standstill if and when the prices of goods decline over time. Money that has a limited quantity, such as Bitcoin, would work just fine!</p>
<h2 id="link-6">On the Optimal Quantity of Money</h2>
<p>Let me stress something fundamentally important here: The quantity of money in an economy does not have to grow to make increases in production and employment possible. The sole function of money is exchange, and so a rise in its quantity does not make an economy richer; it does not bring about any social benefit.</p>
<p>All an increase in the quantity of money does is lower the purchasing power of one money unit compared to a situation in which the quantity of money has not been increased.</p>
<h2 id="link-7">What Would Happen to Credit?</h2>
<p>We just heard that in a Bitcoin money regime, we would have to expect price deflation. What would that do to the credit market? As the prices of goods fall, holding money becomes more profitable.</p>
<p>If, for instance, prices fall by three percent per year, the purchasing power of money increases by three percent. In this case, I would not exchange my money for a T-Bill that yields only, say, two percent per year.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">In an economy where there is a constant quantity of money, the credit market will remain relatively small. <ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>To make me part with my money, a borrower would have to offer me a return on the investment that is higher than the increase in the purchasing power of money. Borrowers would be careful taking up debt because they know that in times of stress, they will not be bailed out by an inflationary monetary policy.</p>
<p>Therefore, it is likely that in an economy where there is a constant quantity of money, the credit market will remain relatively small—especially compared to the debt pyramid that comes with today’s fiat money regime.</p>
<p>At the same time, firms retaining earnings and issuing equity for funding would be much more commonplace. People would invest their life savings in company stock rather than debt (be it issued by banks, governments, or corporations).</p>
<h2 id="link-8">What Would Happen to the Interest Rate?</h2>
<p>What about the market interest rate in a world in which price deflation occurs? We know that in a free market, the nominal interest rate cannot drop below zero. This is easy to understand: if I lend $100 to you for one year at, say, minus 5 percent per annum, you would have to return $95 in one year.</p>
<p>Of course, any lender (who is not out of his mind) would politely reject this kind of deal. They would be better off just holding on to cash and would not lend at a negative interest rate. I cannot go into detail here but will simply say that in a free money market, the market clearing interest rate is determined by people’s time preference. Time preference is always and everywhere positive, and so is its manifestation, the originary interest rate. In other words: the interest rate would not and cannot fall to zero, let alone into negative territory.</p>
<h2 id="link-9">Some Disadvantages of Bitcoin</h2>
<p>So far, I have argued that the limited quantity of Bitcoin does not stand in the way of the crypto unit becoming money. However, some aspects appear to be disadvantageous for Bitcoin's aspirations to become money.</p>
<p>From the current state of technical capabilities, distributed ledger technology is unlikely to be put to widespread use in retail and large value payments. Currently, there are around 360.000 Bitcoin transactions per day, and given its current configuration, the Bitcoin network is presumably running at full capacity. This is not enough. For instance, in Germany alone there is an average of around 75 million transactions per business day!</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">Where to store your private cryptographic keys? Offline, secure, and immune to electromagnetic fields.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>What is more, Bitcoin transaction costs vary widely. For instance, in July 2016, it cost around $.08 for a transaction mined on the block (data recorded in files) in the next 10 minutes. In December 2017, it cost more than $37. Currently, the price is around $4. High and volatile transaction costs might discourage the use of Bitcoin from the viewpoint of many people and institutions.</p>
<p>Another aspect is finality. Financial transactions require a point in time from which they can be taken as valid. However, not all DLT (distributed ledger transaction) consensus mechanisms offer this. The “proof of work” protocol, for instance, merely provides a probabilistic finality (due to the creation of forks).</p>
<p>What about safety? Progress has been made in Bitcoin safekeeping (think of, for instance, cold storage wallets). However, vulnerabilities remain, as scams and thefts at even the largest and most sophisticated crypto exchanges prove.</p>
<p>A central issue in this context is where to store your private cryptographic keys. They need to be stored offline (so they cannot be hacked), and the place of storage must the secured (to prevent theft) and immune to electromagnetic fields (otherwise the stored codes could be destroyed).</p>
<p>For professional investors, this is a challenge. They might need a bunker storage solution, but this could turn out to be quite inconvenient. How does one get access to private keys quickly and at low costs?</p>
<h2 id="link-10">What about Intermediation?</h2>
<p>Bitcoin was developed for peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange without any intermediation. But would people really want a monetary and financial system without any middleman? For some payments, you may not need intermediation (e.g. to buy a book).</p>
<p>For others, you may wish to involve an intermediary. Imagine you mistakenly send 100 Bitcoins instead of just one. How would you get it back? Who is going to help you out in a P2P world without any intermediation? The answer is nobody, and nobody would help you if your wallet got hacked.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">To support economic progress and a sophisticated monetary sphere, a currency must be compatible with some form of financial intermediation.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>What about more sophisticated financial transactions like borrowing and lending? It is hard to imagine that this can be done in an anonymous and trustless regime as envisaged by the Bitcoin protocol. Interestingly enough, many Bitcoin owners seem to keep their coins on crypto exchanges, which control the private keys of the Bitcoins. Obviously, people trust some intermediaries in the Bitcoin space, actively demanding the services supplied by these “middlemen.”</p>
<p>This observation points us toward a rather important but unfortunately often neglected issue: To support economic progress and a sophisticated monetary sphere, a currency must be compatible with some form of financial intermediation. Otherwise, it will be difficult to compete effectively with existing fiat currencies, which offer money users many convenient intermediary services.</p>
<h2 id="link-11">Digitalized Gold Money</h2>
<p>How would an intermediation structure look in a free market of money? For the sake of illustration, let us review the workings of a digitalized gold money system.</p>
<p>Let us say Mr. Miller owns one ounce of gold (31,1034 … grams). It is recorded on the asset side of his private balance sheet.</p>
<p><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://fee.org/media/34478/2019-06-0120bitcoin_3june2019edited_5068164c-9115-4bd4-9040-2f865e3522ff.png" alt="" data-zoom-target="https://fee.org/media/34478/2019-06-0120bitcoin_3june2019edited_5068164c-9115-4bd4-9040-2f865e3522ff.png" data-zoom="" class="medium-zoom-image"></p>
<p>For greater convenience, he deposits 10 grams of gold with a money warehouse, which offers security, storage, and settlement services.</p>
<p>The 10 grams of gold are credited on Mr. Miller’s account with the money warehouse, and the accounting unit is gold gram.</p>
<p>In return, Mr. Miller gets a digital gold gram certificate (which may be called a money certificate) documenting that he owns 10 grams of gold deposited with the money warehouse.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">In a free market of money, you would not only have money warehouses but also institutions specialized in credit, hedging, pooling risks, insurance, etc.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>The digital gold gram certificate serves as a means of payment, and it can be redeemed into gold at any time at par with the money warehouse.</p>
<p>Now there is a steel company that wants to raise money by issuing a bond. Mr. Miller wishes to earn some return, so he decides to exchange his digital gold gram certificate against the bond. In Mr. Miller's balance sheet, the digital money certificate is replaced by the bond. The steel company records the digital gold gram certificate as an asset on the left side of its balance sheet and a liability on the right side of its balance sheet. Now the steel company can spend the money on input factors, salaries, rents, etc.</p>
<p>In addition to this “direct credit transaction,” a digitalized gold money also facilitates all sorts of “indirect credit transactions,” as well as all kinds of transactions in stock and bond markets, derivative and commodity markets, M&A markets, and so on.</p>
<p>In fact, in a free market of money, you would not only have money warehouses (offering safekeeping and settlement services for money proper) but also institutions specialized in credit, hedging, pooling risks, insurance, etc.</p>
<h2 id="link-12">Bitcoin Warehouses</h2>
<p>Of course, we could imagine Bitcoin, rather than gold, being "base money," and digital Bitcoin certificates, rather than digital gold certificates, being used as a means of payment. Either way, intermediation would work just fine, and unhampered competition would effectively prevent the practice of money warehouses operating on fractional reserves.</p>
<p>However, with the need for an intermediation structure, it is hard to see how the monetary system—whether Bitcoin or gold serves as “base money”—could escape the repression of the state. Under intermediation, it is no longer possible to have transfers of any kind confined to the purely virtual realm; <span class="rte-quote">States might no longer be in a position to stamp out cryptocurrencies, but they will increase the hurdles preventing money candidates.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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</ul></span>transfers would have a point of reference in the real world where the state has become overwhelmingly powerful.</p>
<p>While states might no longer be in a position to stamp out cryptocurrencies, they can and actually will do everything in their power to increase the hurdles preventing money candidates—be they cryptocurrencies or precious metals—from replacing fiat currencies.</p>
<p>For instance, states impose VAT and capital gains taxes and restrictive regulations on potential money candidates, and they bestow the privilege of legal tender status on their own fiat currency. All of these are hostile to the idea of good money.</p>
<h2 id="link-13">Final Remarks</h2>
<p>The emergence of cryptocurrencies has given great impetus to the search for better money. As paradoxical as it sounds, it is the state that is one of the greatest allies of Bitcoin in particular or any other crypto unit in general. If there were no state (as we know it today), we would undoubtedly have a free money market. People would be free to decide what money they would choose. No one would have to hide. In a genuinely free market of money, it would be far from a done deal that Bitcoin would outcompete digitalized gold money.</p>
<p>The world is as it is, however, so I would like to conclude by saying that technological progress is just one aspect of making the emergence of good money possible. The other aspect is to inform the public at large that fiat money is bad money, that good money is possible, and that it is advantageous for them, and that all it takes is a free market in money unimpeded by the state.</p>
<p>Technology alone might not do the trick of putting an end to the tyranny of fiat monies—it also requires people to actively invoke their right to self-determination in monetary affairs.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p><em>This talk was given at the Value of Bitcoin Conference in Munich, 3 June 2019.</em></p>
<h2 id="link-14">Literature:</h2>
<p>Deutsche Bundesbank (2017), Distributed-Ledger-Technologien im Zahlungsverkehr und in der Wertpapierabwicklung: Potenziale und Risiken, Monthly Report, September, pp. 35 – 50.</p>
<p>Harwick, C. (2016), Cryptocurrency and the Problem of Intermediation, The Independent Review, v. 20, n. 4, Spring, pp. 569 – 588.</p>
<p>Herbener, J. ed. (2011), The Pure Time Preference Theory of Interest. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute.</p>
<p>Hülsmann, J. G. (2008), The Ethics of Money Production, Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute.</p>
<p>Mises, L. v. (1998), Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. The Scholar’s Edition. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute.</p>
<p>Mises, L. v. (1953), Theory of Money and Credit. New Haven, Yale University Press.</p>
<p>Polleit, T. (2017), Die Blockchain-Disruption: Geld, Bitcoin und Digitalisiertes Goldgeld, Ludwig von Mises Institut Deutschland, 20 December.</p>
<p>Polleit, T. (2014), Geldreform: Vom schlechten Staatsgeld zum guten Marktgeld, FinanzbuchVerlag, München.</p>
<p>Reik, T. (2019), Bitcoin Revisited, Sprott Insights, 29 May.</p>
<p>Rothbard, M. N. (2009), Man, Economy, and State. The Scholar’s Edition. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, US Alabama.</p>
<p>Rothbard, M. N. (2008), The Mystery of Banking, 2nd Edition, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, US Ala-bama.</p>
<div>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/15562/thorsten-polleit.jpg?center=0.40601503759398494,0.5&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131317337790000000" width="100" height="100" alt="Thorsten Polleit">
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<h5>
<a href="http://fee.org/people/thorsten-polleit/">
Thorsten Polleit
</a>
</h5>
<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p>Thorsten Polleit, Chief Economist of <a href="http://www.degussa-goldhandel.de/" target="_blank">Degussa</a>, Honorary Professor at the University of Bayreuth, and Partner of <a href="http://www.polleit-riechert.com/" target="_blank">Polleit & Riechert Investment Management</a>.</p>
</div>
<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/good-money-bad-money-and-how-bitcoin-fits-in/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/183719" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-61024898379995915102019-05-28T12:31:00.000-07:002019-05-28T12:33:49.177-07:00Why Principles Matter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oCLLyVicsxk/XO2NCW-4muI/AAAAAAAAEJo/Dpg4LxK1uRQE2VcJZQuKt9pGr36AgsgKgCLcBGAs/s1600/light-bulb-1246043_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oCLLyVicsxk/XO2NCW-4muI/AAAAAAAAEJo/Dpg4LxK1uRQE2VcJZQuKt9pGr36AgsgKgCLcBGAs/s320/light-bulb-1246043_1920.jpg" width="320" height="213" data-original-width="1600" data-original-height="1063" /></a></div>
<p>Paraphrasing the English journalist and philosopher G. K. Chesterton, New Testament scholar N.T. Wright wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The purpose of an open mind… is like the purpose of an open mouth: that it might be shut again on something solid. Yes, we must be free to ask questions. But when we hear a good answer we must be prepared to recognize it as such, and not be so keen on keeping all the questions open that we shy away from an answer because we so like having an open mind. That is the way to intellectual, as well as spiritual, starvation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So much for the Cult of the Open Mind, which in its purest essence is nothing more than the admission that one has lived a life without learning a thing or arriving at a conclusion.</p>
<p>In one form or another, I hear people suggest that an “open mind” is somehow superior to possessing an opinion or embracing a principle. The only times that’s true, in my view, are when an opinion or a principle is knee-jerk, poorly considered, illogical, untrue, or unfounded.</p>
<p>Does the sun come up in the east or in the west? It’s not a sign of wisdom to claim your mind is open on the matter and then wait around to see what happens each morning.</p>
<h2 id="link-0">Opinions vs. Principles</h2>
<p>Opinions and principles are connected, or at least they ought to be. Principles are foundational, and opinions are based at least in part upon them. So think of principles as first, opinions second. Principles are rule sets, guidelines, fundamental truths. They include axioms, morals, ideals, laws of nature and human behavior, and even the bedrock physical principles of the universe. You have an opinion on something because somewhere along the way you’ve adopted, consciously or subconsciously, a principle or two. Another word for principle is conviction.</p>
<p>This doesn’t mean that one’s principles must necessarily never change. When truth or new evidence (not simply the prevailing winds) suggest it strongly enough, we should change them. In that sense, I suppose, our minds should always be “open,” but that’s no reason to sit on the fence in the meantime.</p>
<p>To date, our senses and the information they gather inform us convincingly that vegetables are good for our health. We act—and consume—accordingly. No one in his right mind would say that he’s so open to the contrary view that vegetables might someday be found to be bad for us that he’s not going to take a chance and eat some now. So we embrace the principle that vegetables are good so far as we presently know. We eat them and then form opinions as to which ones are more pleasing to our palates.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">“If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.”<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>The above examples come from the physical sciences, where evidence and proof seem to be, at least for the moment, objective and indisputable. It’s in the social sciences that things get fuzzier and more subjective. But even there, a thinking person seeks principles to lead him logically to opinions as well as conclusions.</p>
<p>Though some might view principles negatively as a sign of rigidity, ideology, or closed-mindedness, that’s often just a way of dismissing another person’s principles while holding fast to our own. Most people instinctively admire someone who seems to believe in something!</p>
<p>The comedian Groucho Marx once facetiously declared, “Those are my principles. If you don’t like them (pause), <em>I have others</em>!” We may chuckle at that, but we don’t admire it. It’s just a funny way of saying, “I really don’t have any principles,” or “I’ll have whatever principles you want me to have, and I’ll dump them the moment somebody else wants me to have different ones.”</p>
<p>I don’t know who first said it, but whoever it was should get a medal for observing that “If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.”</p>
<h2 id="link-1">The Graveyard of Principles</h2>
<p>Many people are cynical about politics because it’s the graveyard of principles. Rick Becker, a friend and member of the North Dakota House of Representatives, is one of the rare politicians who says what he means, means what he says, and votes that way. On my <a href="https://www.lawrencewreed.com/radio">podcast</a>, I recently asked him what it is about politics that sabotages men and women of principle.</p>
<p><span class="rte-quote">If you dodge and weave so you can claim to have an “open mind,” you’ve simply demonstrated how empty your mind really is.<ul class="social-links share-quotes">
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<p>I expected Rick to cite a litany of temptations the political process dangles in front of good but unsuspecting people. Instead, he offered a more penetrating insight: “Politics brings out what’s already in you.” In other words, in the pressure cooker of politics, the principles you thought somebody had turned out to be little more than temporary conveniences that were easily replaceable by a stronger desire to be popular, rich, or re-elected.</p>
<p>To be principled is more than just uttering platitudes or high-sounding maxims. To be principled means you put your actions where your mouth is. It’s a sign of good character. To be <em>unprincipled</em> should never be a compliment. If you dodge and weave to avoid principles so you can claim to have an “open mind,” you’ve simply demonstrated how empty your mind really is. And perhaps your soul, as well.</p>
<p>I believe that being a principled person is so important that it’s one of the two or three things I would most want to be remembered for someday. Long after anybody remembers the houses you've lived in, the jobs you've held, or even the names of your children, it would be over-the-moon if they could proclaim, “Now there was a principled man. He identified what he thought was right and true, connected the dots, and lived his life accordingly.”</p>
<h2 id="link-2">What Are <em>Your</em> Principles?</h2>
<p>I’d like to suggest here a useful exercise in self-examination. Put some time aside to write down some principles you earnestly believe in. Of course, if you worship at the Altar of the Open Mind, you can write them in the palm of one hand and still have room to spare. But if you’re honest, and if you’ve learned anything in your years, you’ll be amazed at how many tablets you can fill. Look carefully at the list to see if you’ve got some glaring contradictions, and if you do, resolve them. Think about what risks you might be willing to take or the losses you might be willing to endure to stick to each principle.</p>
<p>For example, one of my principles is “Humans should be free so long as each does no harm to another.” That’s one I think I’d risk everything for. Another principle I believe in is “Because my yard is a public reflection of my care for property, I want it to always look good. But I’m not going to bankrupt myself keeping it watered if I live in Death Valley.”</p>
<p>(FYI, <a href="https://fee.org/articles/seven-principles-of-sound-public-policy">here</a> are a few more principles to consider.)</p>
<p>Socrates supposedly advised, “Know thyself.” I can’t think of a better way to do that than this very exercise.</p>
<p>Keep your list where you can pull it out and give it some attention from time to time. Judge how well your actions comport with what you listed. Share some or all of your list with your children; they will know and appreciate and remember you so much more for it.</p>
<p>Stanley Baldwin, one of Britain’s more forgettable prime ministers, once declared, “I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck.” We still aren’t sure what his principles were, which is a big reason he remains forgettable.</p>
<p>Open your mind to the importance of principle. It just may be what the world remembers you for.</p>
<div>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/26902/lawrence-reed-dsc09443.jpg?center=0.37,0.49833333333333335&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131614445930000000" width="100" height="100" alt="Lawrence W. Reed">
</div>
<div>
<h5>
<a href="http://fee.org/people/lawrence-w-reed/">
Lawrence W. Reed
</a>
</h5>
<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p><span>Lawrence W. Reed is President Emeritus and Humphreys Family Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and author of </span><a href="https://store.fee.org/products/real-heroes">Real Heroes: Incredible True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction</a><span> </span><span>and </span><a href="http://amzn.to/2wM284a">Excuse Me, Professor: Challenging the Myths of Progressivism</a><span>.</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/lawrencewr">Follow</a> on Twitter and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lawrence-Reed/202924809735438">Like</a> on Facebook.</p>
</div>
<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/why-principles-matter/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/183272" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-75742049513988419202019-05-15T23:46:00.003-07:002019-05-15T23:47:22.293-07:00The US Is 5 Years Away from a National Debt Death Spiral. Here's Why.<p>According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Debt Management, the U.S. government is just five years away from the point where every new dollar it borrows from the public will go toward funding interest payments on the national debt.</p>
<h2 id="link-0">Negative Borrowing Deficit </h2>
<p>That is the main takeaway from the Debt Management Office’s <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/quarterly-refunding/Documents/q12019CombinedChargesforArchives.pdf">Fiscal Year 2019 Q1 Report</a>, which featured the Office of Management and Budget’s latest projection of the U.S. government’s borrowing from the public, shown in the chart below:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44323 medium-zoom-image" src="https://blog.independent.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FY2019Q1Report_OMBs_Projection_of_Borrowing_from_the_Public.png" alt="FY2019Q1 OMB's Projection of Borrowing from the Public" width="801" height="587" data-zoom-target="https://blog.independent.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FY2019Q1Report_OMBs_Projection_of_Borrowing_from_the_Public.png" data-zoom=""></p>
<p>ZeroHedge <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-01/minsky-moment-starting-2024-all-us-debt-issuance-will-be-used-pay-interest-debt">explains</a> the significance of what the chart shows as the Primary Deficit, indicated as the blue portion of the bars in the chart, swings from positive to negative beginning in 2024:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As part of today’s <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/quarterly-refunding/Documents/q12019CombinedChargesforArchives.pdf">Treasury Presentation to the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee</a>, there is a chart showing the Office Of Debt Management’s forecast for annual US debt issuance, broken down between its three component uses of funds: Primary Deficit, Net Interest Expense, and “Other.”</p>
<p>That chart is troubling because while in 2019 and 2020 surging US interest expense is roughly matched by the other deficit components in the US budget, these gradually taper off by 2024, and in fact in 2025 become a source of budget surplus (we won’t be holding our breath). But what is the real red flag is that starting in 2024, when the primary deficit drops to zero according to the latest projections, all US debt issuance will be used to fund the US net interest expense, which depending on the prevailing interest rate between now and then will be anywhere between $700 billion and $1.2 trillion or more.</p>
<p>In short: in the stylized cycle of the US “Minsky Moment”, the US will enter the penultimate, Ponzi Finance, phase – the one in which all the new debt issuance is used to fund only interest on the debt – some time around in 2024.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="link-1">Fiscally Unhealthy</h2>
<p>Net interest on the national debt has become one of the <a href="https://blog.independent.org/2018/12/18/interest-due-on-u-s-national-debt-starts-to-explode/">fastest growing segments</a> of federal spending. When the national debt reaches the point where all newly borrowed dollars must be used to pay this mandatory expenditure, the U.S. government will have passed the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/event%20horizon">event horizon</a> that marks the boundary of the <a href="http://www.mygovcost.org/search_results.php?cx=018225991961863933630%3Ans6y3pmxlje&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=debt+death+spiral&sa=Search&siteurl=www.mygovcost.org%2F2012%2F11%2F15%2Fthe-debt-death-spiral-u-s-city-edition%2F&ref=www.bing.com%2F&ss=2767j688875j17" data-anchor="?cx=018225991961863933630%3Ans6y3pmxlje&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=debt+death+spiral&sa=Search&siteurl=www.mygovcost.org%2F2012%2F11%2F15%2Fthe-debt-death-spiral-u-s-city-edition%2F&ref=www.bing.com%2F&ss=2767j688875j17">national debt death spiral</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mygovcost.org/2012/11/15/the-debt-death-spiral-u-s-city-edition/">Cities</a> and <a href="http://www.mygovcost.org/2015/06/30/puerto-ricos-debt-clock-runs-out-of-time/">territories</a> in the United States that have crossed that crisis point have either gone through bankruptcy proceedings or their equivalent, or they have <a href="https://www.nysun.com/arts/mayor-who-brought-the-city-back-from-the-brink/21911/">implemented major fiscal reforms</a> that reversed their fiscal deterioration, wherein the best-case scenarios, they acted to restrain the growth of their previously out-of-control spending to restore their fiscal health.</p>
<p>There’s an <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/467811-if-something-cannot-go-on-forever-it-will-stop">old saying</a> that applies for the U.S. government’s looming fiscal situation: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” It’s only ever a question of how painful it will be when it does.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><a href="https://blog.independent.org/2019/05/06/five-years-to-the-national-debt-death-spiral/">This article is republished with permission from the Independent Institute. </a></em></p>
<div>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/32080/eyermann_craig_400x520.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131971363650000000" width="100" height="100" alt="Craig Eyermann">
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<div>
<h5>
<a href="http://fee.org/people/craig-eyermann/">
Craig Eyermann
</a>
</h5>
<p class="brief-bio">
</p><p><span>Craig Eyermann is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.</span></p>
</div>
<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/the-us-is-5-years-away-from-a-national-debt-death-spiral-heres-why/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/182870" width="1" height="1" alt="" /><script src="https://fee.org/Scripts/fee-repub.js" async="async"></script>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-44215524164577325662018-07-12T15:28:00.001-07:002018-07-12T16:06:35.577-07:00Frank Miller's "300" is Completely Realistic. ...No, Seriously.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tY14zmQolZQ/W0fBDGvth1I/AAAAAAAAEGQ/2oYSb2I8Low3Ev2YmqrSFrcx09crj-mXQCLcBGAs/s1600/300___wallpaper_1920x1200_by_z_a_p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1131" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tY14zmQolZQ/W0fBDGvth1I/AAAAAAAAEGQ/2oYSb2I8Low3Ev2YmqrSFrcx09crj-mXQCLcBGAs/s320/300___wallpaper_1920x1200_by_z_a_p.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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(Spoiler Warning)<br /><br />As our story begins, an adolescent Leonidas faces a wolf that seems to have been conjured from Little Red Riding-Hood's worst nightmares. The size of a small horse, it has fangs reminiscent of dagger-blades, and eyes that glow like twin drops of molten bronze. The boy, our would-be king, stands nearly nude, barefoot in the snow, facing the monster with a makeshift spear. Observing the massive creature circling him, looking for an opening, he lures it into a narrow rift in the rock face behind him, forcing it to face him head-on.<br />
<br />
Xerxes' messenger arrives at Sparta and warns Leonidas of his emperor's power; "an army so massive it shakes the ground with its march, so vast it drinks the rivers dry." The Spartan king answers Xerxes' demand for submission by kicking his emissary and entourage into a pit so deep we never hear them hit bottom.<br />
<br />
Later, Leonidas ascends a windswept peak in the night, climbing bare stone hand-over-hand, to petition the support of Sparta's bizarre mystics, old men so pocked with sores and tumors that they barely resemble humans anymore. They consult their oracle, a young girl who delves into mystic wellsprings of fateful knowledge so vivid that she becomes nearly weightless,... floating above the ground as the spirits caress her.<br />
<br />
Armored rhinos the size of small elephants. Elephants the size of three elephants.<br />
<br />
Immortal warriors in golden masks that hide their monstrous visage. Lute-playing goat-men. A gluttonous executioner with crude bone-axes for arms.<br />
<br />
Anyone who's discussed the movie with others is familiar with the objections.<br />
<br />
"It's an awesome flick, but there's just no way it really happened anything like that."<br />
<br />
Well, I'm here to tell you... Frank Miller was not exaggerating any of this. Speculating some of it? Perhaps. But, not exaggerating. All of this is very realistic. In fact, given the limited run-time audiences expect from feature films, if anything, the story is probably <i>understated. </i><br />
<br />
How can this possibly be true?<br />
<br />
It's actually very obvious. In fact, the explanation that renders the story literal is apparent throughout the film.<br />
<br />
Here's a hint...<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pv4a1AbqE7o/W0fE4MmV66I/AAAAAAAAEGc/LjlGXtLBcDcaJ0FCSnOc_pfBvq9W0k1-ACEwYBhgL/s1600/39989_80dd6171b7d571d5fbeb8109cdb4413c_980x365re0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="559" height="207" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pv4a1AbqE7o/W0fE4MmV66I/AAAAAAAAEGc/LjlGXtLBcDcaJ0FCSnOc_pfBvq9W0k1-ACEwYBhgL/s320/39989_80dd6171b7d571d5fbeb8109cdb4413c_980x365re0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">~Most People Don't Realize What This Story <i>Isn't</i>~</span></b><br />
<br />
Pictured above is the character Dilios, as portrayed by David Wenham.<br />
<br />
This character is not based upon a real historical figure. He did not really exist.*<br />
<br />
He is entirely a literary framing device that lends self-awareness to the outlandishness of the narrative. It is a self-awareness that just about everybody misses.<br />
<br />
Wenham's voiceover both bookends and accompanies the film, throughout each scene.<br />
<br />
Remember that we are not seeing the Battle of Thermopylae nor the Last Stand of the 300. We are, to the contrary, seeing Dilios's <i>account</i> of these events in his effort to whip the Spartan legion into enough of a frenzy that they will demand the Council authorize them to go to war against Xerxes.<br />
<br />
Miller makes this apparent through both dialog and, (I believe) a couple instances of symbolism.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nDWSvHOJ0mw/W0fLvS09YhI/AAAAAAAAEGo/mgemLQcFPHEaBLUgWUA-wiDbMFvPZQuewCLcBGAs/s1600/Tale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="870" height="132" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nDWSvHOJ0mw/W0fLvS09YhI/AAAAAAAAEGo/mgemLQcFPHEaBLUgWUA-wiDbMFvPZQuewCLcBGAs/s320/Tale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">~A Talent Unlike Any Other Spartan~</span></b><br />
<br />
On the eve of the final confrontation with Xerxes, Leonidas pulls Dilios aside and tells him that he is sending him back to Sparta. To this, Dilios protests, saying that he is fit and ready to fight.<br />
<br />
"That you are," Leonidas replies, "one of the finest. But, you have another talent, unlike any other Spartan."<br />
<br />
Here he is referring to Dilios' eloquence as a speaker and an evocative storyteller.<br />
<br />
"You will deliver my final orders to the council, with <i>force and verve.</i> Tell them our story. Make every Greek know what happened here. You have a <i>grand tale to tell.</i>"<br />
<br />
Leonidas remarks earlier in the film that if he is assassinated, all of Sparta will go to war. This is what he has wanted from the beginning; some way of prodding the stagnant and ineffectual Spartan council into action. He knows that his death would be a galvanizing force, but he suspects that it may still not be enough. He knows that the key lies in inspiring the Spartan Legion itself to <i>demand</i> war, leaving the council no other choice.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y1LhM_XWRuo/W0fSTAP1v1I/AAAAAAAAEHE/LFNpXm70Y2ANBG1bGLhbrPjPBM9kWr0CACLcBGAs/s1600/Untitled-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="929" height="162" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y1LhM_XWRuo/W0fSTAP1v1I/AAAAAAAAEHE/LFNpXm70Y2ANBG1bGLhbrPjPBM9kWr0CACLcBGAs/s320/Untitled-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">~The Eyes Have It~</span></b><br />
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During the skirmish with Xerxes' Immortals, Leonidas sustains a wound that leaves him with a vertical scar over his left eye.<br />
<br />
Sometime later, Dilios loses his left eye to a war-wound of his own.<br />
<br />
These wounds are seemingly window-dressing, as they have no effect on anything in the plot. Leonidas' cut is not deep enough to impair him, and Dilios is sent home because of his persuasiveness, not because he is unfit.<br />
<br />
What these two seemingly insignificant details do result in, however, is that Dilios and Leonidas spend the entire third act of the film literally <i>winking</i> at the audience.<br />
<br />
Their secret meeting, wherein Leonidas orders Dilios home, is shot close-up. The two men are standing face to face, only a foot or so away from one another, and speaking in hushed tones. The frame-up of each shot of their faces, during this meeting, <i>(both in the film and in the original comic)</i> centers on each man's wounded <i>(read: "winking") </i>eye. Gerard Butler's wounded eye is <i>completely</i> shadowed out, in spite of the lighting only <i>dimming</i> the rest of that side of his face.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yTPGO7Kidow/W0fUZwqT8pI/AAAAAAAAEHQ/u6S6X-r4t34lBIlpEQyUkB7lkBrczP5DQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Shotshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="866" height="265" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yTPGO7Kidow/W0fUZwqT8pI/AAAAAAAAEHQ/u6S6X-r4t34lBIlpEQyUkB7lkBrczP5DQCEwYBhgL/s320/Shotshot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
And look what happens when we overlay the shots, one on top of the other...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a7tM-i1pDC4/W0fUrXsBkEI/AAAAAAAAEHY/LkoXXS6lq6A2fBOOKLxjjYIV2k0ALiPxACLcBGAs/s1600/Overlay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="361" data-original-width="874" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a7tM-i1pDC4/W0fUrXsBkEI/AAAAAAAAEHY/LkoXXS6lq6A2fBOOKLxjjYIV2k0ALiPxACLcBGAs/s320/Overlay.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Given that these wounds serve no real purpose in the story, I believe they are meant as a symbolic indication that Dilios is knowingly exaggerating the events of the story in the telling, in accordance with Leonidas' wishes and intent.<br />
<br />
Frank Miller's "300" is thus not a story about a war.<br />
It is a portrayal of the <i>propaganda campaign </i>that <i>led up to</i> a war.<br />
<br />
Yes, the story was exaggerated deliberately. But, the film portrays this exaggeration in an unexaggerated way as part of the narrative. We are not seeing the battle, we're seeing how the battle is played out in the minds of the soldiers listening to Dilios' account.<br />
<br />
So, all of it... the giant monsters and the twirly-whirly fighting and each Spartan dropping Persians by the thousands,... is in all likelihood very faithful to how the story was being told in those days, and the <i>telling of the story</i> is what the comic and the movie are really about,.. not the story itself.<br />
<br />
In spite of all of this,... among the many things that Dilios exaggerated, changed, or fabricated... I remain at a complete loss as to why he gave Leonidas a Scottish accent. ;)<br />
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
*-(It's possible that the character of Dilios was based, at least, in small part, upon two Spartan soldiers named Aristodemus and Eurytus. These two men were stricken with a disease of the eye, and were sent home to Sparta by Leonidas before the battle began. Eurytus, however... turned back in defiance of his king's orders, to die with his Spartan brothers at the last stand. Aristodemus, on the other hand, for continuing home was contrasted with Eurytus and marked as a coward by the Spartan legion until later redeeming himself at the battle of Plataea.)<br />
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<br />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-21930524674921640202018-03-30T15:51:00.004-07:002018-03-30T15:51:31.785-07:00Feel the Trump...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
***</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/soF-ORFE1wk/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/soF-ORFE1wk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />***</div>
<br />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-59113618671257016202018-03-12T13:05:00.001-07:002018-10-14T06:31:01.041-07:00Op-Ed: Voluntaryists Have More in Common with Conservatives than with Liberals... a LOT More.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I believe that the philosophical position of libertarianism necessitates the political position of conservatism. In other words, when one is philosophically libertarian, being politically conservative is most in line with those principles.<br /><br />Whether or not a Voluntaryist <b><i>ought</i></b> to be politically engaged is a personal choice and not the issue I'm addressing in this piece. That needs to be established right up front, here.<br />
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Remaining apolitical is, of course, perfectly consistent with the philosophy of libertarianism.<br />
<br />I am only saying that, as a libertarian (and in particular as a Voluntaryist) <i><b>IF</b></i> you are going to become politically engaged, the position of Conservatism in regards to the State is the only one that both makes sense for you, and carries sufficient relevance to validate your engagement.<br />
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To explain,... the terms "liberal" and "conservative," do not mean what they used to, in American politics.<br />
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To be "politically liberal" used to mean believing that the government should change, that it should evolve in every aspect of its operations and duties. It meant that government should constantly be looking for new ways to handle things, exploring new ideas and new methods.<br />
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To be "politically conservative" used to mean believing that the government should be slow to change. That we should be careful about altering or dissolving things that took effort and sacrifice to establish in the first place. It meant that protecting that which had already been discovered or gained or established was at least as important as seeking new gains.<br />
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Imagine a tribe of people gathering together in the wild. Over time, they build their civilization up from the dirt and establish themselves. The "political liberals" would be analogous in this example to the explorers of the tribe, the ones who wanted to leave the village and find what else was out there that could be obtained and benefitted from. They would argue that to just stay in the village and never look for new territory would lead to stagnation and resource depletion. The "political conservatives" would be the villagers who wanted to protect and refine the village. They would argue that the prospect of what might be found elsewhere was not worth abandoning what had already been built and obtained.<br />
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As Ben Shapiro has observed. Imagine two people, a liberal and a conservative walking across a vast countryside, when suddenly, they encounter a fence, blocking their path.<br />
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The liberal says; "I don't understand why this fence is here. It doesn't seem to be serving any purpose at the moment. Let's tear it down so that we can proceed."<br />
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The conservative says; "I don't understand why this fence is here. I should do more searching to find out why it's here before I decide whether it should be torn down."<br />
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It's important to note that I'm saying "political" conservatives and liberals. Because it's important to keep in mind that we're not talking broadly about human endeavor. In our village example, both the liberals and the conservatives are an essential part of their community. The current territory needs to be held and maintained or the community will collapse, and also new territory must be explored or the community will stagnate.<br />
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But, the "political" distinction changes things. "Political" does not refer to community. We are specifically talking about government. The State.<br />
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The State operates in total under the authority established by the fact of its legal monopoly on aggression. "Aggression" is defined as the initiation of violent force. (That's initiation. Meaning, acting violently or threatening imminent violence before anyone else in a given situation has. Violence employed in defense of oneself or others either in person or property is non-initiatory and hence, non-aggressive.) The terms "liberal" and "conservative" only make sense in reference to politics if used as descriptors for one's ideas on the appropriate application of said aggression-based authority to the address of problems, issues or challenges facing the society that a given State-apparatus is assumed to govern.<br />
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The American Left is only truly "liberal" in terms of their belief in the application of government. They believe that when a problem or challenge is encountered, the society should liberally apply aggression-derived authority (government) to address it. The American Right is "conservative" in the same terms, believing in a conservative application of government to address issues.<br />
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If you believe in the Non-Aggression Principle,... at all... (whether with exceptions or without) ...then to simultaneously believe in a liberal application of government/force to the address of issues is philosophically inconsistent and/or intellectually dishonest. Additionally, if you believe in individual freedom, then belief in a liberal application of aggression-derived authority is inconsistent.<br />
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Philosophically, I am a Voluntaryist and Anarcho-Capitalist.<br />
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For a very long time, I was against all forms of political action. I have changed on this, within the last several years. History has no examples of people successfully *ignoring* government away. Nor is there precedent for the successful institution of a voluntary society via the sudden overthrow of an overgrown state-apparatus. Collapsed states have never lead to successful anarchy. They only lead to new and more violent states.<br />
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Therefore, I do believe in the reduction of government by any and all means possible, short of open violence, and I do support political actions that seek to shrink government,... *while understanding* how often such actions are mere pretexts for surreptitious government expansion.<br />
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I don't believe that any political party long survives with its principles intact, so I will never register as- nor join the Republican Party. But, I do see eye to eye with political conservatives, because, as I've said... 99 out of a hundred people with *politically* conservative views are basing them on *philosophically* libertarian principles.<br />
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As a Voluntaryist, I rarely agree with the Republican Party.<br />
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But, I never agree with the Democrats.<br />
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"Never" is significantly different from "rarely." Occasionally, a Republican proposal is a sincere effort to reduce state intrusion into private life. I have neither seen nor heard of a Democratic proposal about which the same can be said. Even those proposals with the most liberty-oriented rhetoric, are always and only couched in the expansion of aggression-based authority when they come from the Left. Sometimes, albeit rarely,... proposals that come from the Right, seek to accomplish the expansion of liberty via the reduction of government.<br />
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***<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherCharlesLoree" target="_blank">Sky-Sunderer on Facebook</a>Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-74663311001404103262017-12-28T20:11:00.003-08:002018-01-01T10:22:02.224-08:00Catharsis for the Last Jedi... *SPOILERS*Reviews for “The Last Jedi” are in abundance right now. Everybody has an opinion and the general consensus seems to be that the movie was terrible. I can’t argue with that. There is not a lot to like here. There is a little, don’t get me wrong. But, overall… you’re right to be so pissed off about Disney’s handling of this movie’s legacy.<br />
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I’m going to do my best here to not simply regurgitate what’s already been said about this film. <i>(This will be tough, as I think the movie’s been reviewed more in the last two weeks than any film’s been reviewed in a year. But, I think my take is a bit different from most of what’s out there.) </i><br />
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I’ll also note that this review took me a while to finish, because, like everyone else, I wanted <b>desperately t</b>o like this movie.<br />
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But, I don’t.<br />
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It took me a bit to come to grips with the reality of that.<br />
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It's not all bad. There are, in spite of everything… three things about this movie that are legitimately great. Three things that shine out in the darkness and valiantly try,… <i>(though sadly fail…)</i> to redeem the rest of it.<br />
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Since the movie is such a tangled knot, I’m going to leave those things out, and at the end I’ll cover those three gleaming diamonds in all this rough.<br />
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Stick with me. Those diamonds are indeed worth the pain involved in reaching them. In spite of the rest of the film, I’m glad those three things happened.<br />
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Let’s begin…<br />
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<b>“This is not going to go the way you think.” <br />-Luke Skywalker</b><br />
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I open with this quote because it says everything relevant about the film in terms of the writing and direction, <i>(both furnished by Rian Johnson.)</i> It is not by accident that every trailer for the movie features this line in a prominent way. In both of my viewings of the movie, it struck me that Johnson seemed to be attempting to find every possible way to reiterate this idea through the medium of Star Wars.<br />
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This movie, for better or worse, hurts to watch. It’s meant to. <i>(I’ll explain why later.)</i> Anyone who tells you that the movie met their expectations is lying to you. Anyone saying that it exceeded their expectations is straight-up delusional.<br />
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Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi is,… from top to bottom, an examination of the <b>subversion</b> of audience expectations. Not-doing-what-we-thought-they-were-going-to-do is <b>the point</b> of this movie. I can’t really fault Rian Johnson too much for this. He's certainly not a <i>bad</i> filmmaker. He's got a good movie to his credit <i>(Looper)</i> and a <b>great</b> movie to his credit <i>(Brick.)</i> In being tapped to write and direct a chapter of the main Star Wars saga, he had the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders and after Episode 7’s deluge of plot-setups and hanging story-threads, he was staring down the barrel of the single largest glut of fan-theories any director has ever had to contend with in the history of film. As such, he has given us a story that examines baiting and switching so often and so repeatedly, it would make Anthony Jeselnik cringe. This occurs in every scene throughout the film. Events build toward a conclusion and then that conclusion is reversed, and re-reversed, until you feel foolish for <i>having had</i> an expectation in the first place.<br />
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I believe that this is Rian Johnson expressing his pain as much as it is his servicing of the plot. Many filmmakers, when pushed, will push back with a kind of half-subliminal trolling in their films. Sometimes this chiding is subtle and ingenious <i>(Stanley Kubrick,)</i> and sometimes it’s ham-fisted and moronic <i>(George Lucas.)</i> I don’t think Johnson falls on either extreme, but is somewhere right in the middle-average range.<br />
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<i>(See what I did there? -nyuk nyuk-)</i><br />
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-The bombers are trying to do one thing, they aren’t going to do it, oh… no wait, they are. Now they have a chance to do another thing <i>(take out the Dreadnought.)</i> No, they can’t do that, no wait, yes they can. <i>(Editorial: Rian Johnson Doesn’t Understand Physics – Part I: How are they *dropping* bombs? Yes, *dropping,* the movie explicitly says “drop.” The bombs are not *launched* nor are they *fired* they are literally <b>dropped</b> to<b> fall</b> on the Dreadnought… in space… where there’s no gravity.) </i><br />
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-Luke <b>does</b> take the lightsaber. But, he just throws it away and walks off. She follows him until he finally agrees to train her. Then, he freaks out and says that he won’t. Then Yoda’s ghost shows up and talks him into training her after all. Then he dies before he can actually train her.<i> (I know… he’ll probably be back as a Force ghost.) </i><br />
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-Chewbacca’s killed and roasted one of the porgs and is about to eat it. Then he sees them staring at him with puppy-dog eyes and decides not to. Then he changes his mind and roars to scare them all away and goes to bite into the roasted porg anyway. Then he sees one little porg still staring at him, so he throws the roasted porg away.<br />
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-Kylo contemplates blasting Leia to death. Then he doesn't. But, it doesn't matter because there's an explosion and Leia gets sucked out into space and apparently dies. The audience collectively thinks this is how they’ve decided to handle Carrie Fisher’s death. Then,… nope, she wakes up,…<i> (in the frozen vacuum of space, by the way?)</i> They open the door <i>(RJ Doesn’t Understand Physics – Part II: No decompression effect,… we literally *just saw* a bunch of people blown out into space by explosive decompression, but now it’s magically not a thing?)</i> Then she falls into a coma. Then wakes up again. To everyone’s great surprise, Leia is the only member of the original trilogy’s roster of heroes who is <b>still alive</b> at the end of the film, even though the actress is the only one<b> not still alive</b> in real life.<br />
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-Rey goes to Luke for training. Not receiving it, she concludes that the Rebellion’s best hope lies in her turning Kylo back to the Light, <i>(in fairness, she’s correct, Luke is an utterly useless shadow of his former self in this film.)</i> She confronts Kylo and Snoke. She is tempted to the Dark Side, but not really. Kylo turns on Snoke, kills him and joins Rey in fighting off the Imperial Guard. But, he doesn’t actually turn to the Light, he wants Rey to join him in ruling the First Order. She doesn’t.<br />
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-The Walkers are storming the base on Krayt and it’s just a matter of time before their giant battering-ram-cannon blasts through the gate. All is lost. No, wait… it’s not. The rebels fly out to meet them in beat-up old fighter-skiffs. No wait, all is lost again, the fighters get torn apart like an army of toilet-paper trying to fight an army of flaming wheat-threshers,… but, then the Falcon shows up and diverts the TIE fighters away from the Walkers. But, then it doesn’t matter because the fighter-skiffs are still just getting torn apart like they’re nothing.<br />
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-Then Finn<i> (the most ineffectual and useless Star Wars character since Jar-Jar Binks)</i> is going to sacrifice himself to take out the cannon and finally be of some actual use. ...Until Rose swoops in and saves him. <i>(RJ Doesn’t Understand Physics - Part III: So, these two ancient, fragile vehicles collide at several hundred miles per hour, literally <b>IN</b> the beam of the high-powered laser-cannon and somehow… neither pilot dies?) </i><br />
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-Luke shows up and is apparently destroyed by cannon-fire.<br />
Then he steps out of it, demonstrating that he is <b>still</b> the most powerful Jedi in history.<br />
Then, he’s not… because it was just a Force projection and he wasn’t really there.<br />
Then, he’s great again because we realize he’s been projecting himself from half-a-galaxy away.<br />
Then, he sucks again because the strain of it literally kills him.<br />
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Why did any of this happen,... why bait and switch Luke's sacrifice only to switch it again and have him die anyway? This one was <b>obviously</b> just to piss us off.<br />
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It is the entire movie. Bait, switch, switch-again.<br />
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The idea resonates at the macro-scale here, as well. It comes into play between Star Wars films overall. Last Jedi effectively turns The Force Awakens into one massive bait-and-switch. Absolutely none of the threads that JJ Abrams set-up in Episode 7 pays off in Episode 8. Nor are they left to potentially pay off in Episode 9. They’re all just defused. Eliminated from the story.<br />
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My greatest irritation with the previous movie (The Force Awakens,) was that it effectively overturned a lot of the story elements that the original trilogy had established.<br />
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-Turns out Han <b>didn’t </b>really grow as a person. He’s an absentee father who can’t even be bothered to visit, and is still dodging hitmen and smuggling contraband for drinking money.<br />
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-Turns out the Empire <b>wasn’t</b> actually defeated with the destruction of both Sith Lords and the second Death Star. The Rebellion is still a small, underfunded band of rag-tag freedom fighters, and the First Order is still a monolithic behemoth with unlimited resources casting its shadow across the entire galaxy.<br />
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-Turns out Luke <b>didn’t</b> reignite the Jedi Order. He gave it up in frustration over a single difficult student, and ran off to live as a hermit.<br />
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So, what the hell was the point of the original trilogy?<br />
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Well, what Episode 7 did to the original trilogy, Episode 8 does to Episode 7! It’s like a soft reboot on top of the soft reboot they already gave us.<br />
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-Snoke is set up in The Force Awakens as the biggest bad-ass Sith Lord ever. Last Jedi reinforces this as he links-up two other people’s minds across the galaxy without either of them knowing that he's doing it. Later, he overpowers both Rey and Kylo in the raw exercise of power, while reading both of their minds and stonewalling every effort at telekinetic subversion. He suspends Rey in the air with a casual wave of his hand. <i>(By the way, this is the girl who literally picked up a lightsaber for the very first time in her life and defeated a Sith who’d been training since childhood. This was after she’d already out-muscled him telepathically. Later in this same movie, we see her effortlessly suspend and cast off dozens and possibly hundreds of tons of solid rock.)</i> And this incredibly powerful Force-Talent is fighting Snoke's telekinesis with all of her might and it amounts to <b>nothing.</b> That is how badass they want us to believe Snoke is. Then, this Grandmaster of the Dark Side, who can surreptitiously read and influence the thoughts of other <b>extremely powerful Force-sensitives from hundreds of light-years away,…</b> somehow can’t hear a rusty, old lightsaber rattling around on the table right next to him.<br />
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He dies and we never learn anything about him other than the fact that he was <i>(unnecessarily)</i> a CGI creature, and that he had the power to literally do anything,… except when the writer needed him out of the way.<br />
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There are some fan theories out there about how Snoke knew what he was doing all along, and wanted to die, to project himself as a Force Demon into someone else,... or something. But, I think they're giving Rian Johnson way too much credit. Especially after this...<br />
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Over the summer, Rian Johnson infamously trolled Star Wars fans on Twitter by posting a picture of himself holding a napkin that says “Your Snoke Theory Sucks.”<br />
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Not half as much as yours, Rian.<br />
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Or, more to the point,... maybe, they did. Maybe our theories did suck. But, at least we <b>had</b> theories, Rian.<br />
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At least we <b>had </b>ideas about the main villain.<br />
It’s unfortunate that you didn’t.<br />
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-Rey, who’s secret background is hinted at relentlessly in The Force Awakens,… is revealed to just be some random kid from nowhere, whose parents literally sold her for drug money. <i>(I’ll come back to this later, because I have a lot more to say about it.)</i><br />
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-The victory of destroying Starkiller Base also amounts to nothing as the Rebels are still on the run and literally being wiped out as the movie begins. By the time the movie ends, only a handful of the Rebellion is still alive. All that remains is a "spark."<br />
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At this point, the next time the Imperials build some kind of superweapon, any rebel pilot would have to be a complete idiot to want to volunteer to help destroy the thing. It literally <b>never accomplishes anything. </b><br />
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Ok,… let’s put all of this aside for now.<br />
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There is another quote featured prominently in each of the film’s trailers,…<br />
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<b>“Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you were meant to be.” <br />-Kylo Ren</b><br />
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The reiteration of this quote in trailer after trailer, I believe, is also not a coincidence. It summarizes where Disney’s head is at in terms of how they are intending to utilize the Star Wars property. In other words, Luke’s quote is effectively Rian Johnson talking and Kylo’s quote is Disney.<br />
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They want Star Wars to be <b>theirs,</b> and creatively… it isn’t,… and they know this. So, they want to create something new out of it, all on their own, something that they can put their stamp on. But, at the same time, they want to use the nostalgia surrounding the Star Wars brand to sell their new version. They want the intellectual credit <b>for</b> Star Wars, in addition to the intellectual property <b>of</b> Star Wars. The property can be<i> (and has been)</i> simply bought outright, but the credit doesn’t work that way.<br />
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<i>(As an aside here, in all fairness to Disney; who can blame them for thinking it does? George Lucas has been <b>incorrectly</b> assigned the credit for Star Wars for decades.**)</i><br />
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The problem is that they’ve been chasing two goals here from the jump. They want to sell us nostalgia for the old movies, but they also want something they can <b>keep</b> <b>selling us,</b> knowing that the three main actors of the original films are all getting very old. Carrie Fisher, as we know, is no longer with us.<br />
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In the Red Letter Media <a href="https://youtu.be/Kc2kFk5M9x4?t=5m46s" target="_blank">review</a> of Rogue One: A Star Wars Tale, Rich Evans observed… “They can’t just keep doing [stormtroopers, lightsabers, and space-battles in every movie,] because then it definitely <b>will</b> get old.”<br />
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He’s not wrong.<br />
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Star Wars is old. I know because I’m old and Star Wars is only one year younger than me. If you’re thinking that Disney’s intention is to conclude this old saga by giving us the long-awaited Episodes 7, 8, and 9, so that we can all have the closure we’ve been wanting all our lives,… you’re very much mistaken.<br />
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Disney’s intention, which they’ve made no secret of, is to keep making Star Wars movies for as long as they can keep the property profitable, at a rate of 1 and eventually 2 movies per year. Episodes 7-9 are, in essence, just the <b>launch</b> of what Disney intends to become a new Star Wars property. They’re filming the Han Solo stand-alone film. They’ve announced a Boba Fett movie, an Obi-Wan movie, a Yoda movie, a Rebellion-Era TV-Series and quote… <i>“many more.”</i> As I sit here, I promise you they will also continue the main saga. There will undoubtedly be an Episode 10, 11, 12,… etc.<br />
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They’re not looking to wrap-up something old. They are, to the contrary, in the process of launching something new. There’s nothing wrong with this, and people who scream and yell about how evil and corporate this is, are morons. Star Wars is <b>owned</b> by Disney. People who own things are entitled to do whatever they want with them.<br />
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By extension, if you, as a consumer, want to cast out everything Disney does with it, and hold the original trilogy as <i>“your Star Wars,”</i> …nothing that Disney has done, will do, or is even capable of doing,… can stop you. Those movies still exist and they always will. Stop whining and grow up.<br />
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But, from a production standpoint, if they want the property to remain profitable, Rich Evans is correct; They can’t just keep milking nostalgia forever, or this won’t work.<br />
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Hollywood has been wrestling with this problem for a long time. They went through a phase of making movies based on old TV shows. Then they started remaking old movies.<i> (Yes, I know they’ve always done this. But, I’m talking about the trends that they’ve focused on.)</i> Soon, the term “reboot” came into use in the movie industry. They put genuine effort into normalizing the idea that movies are <b>supposed</b> to be updated and reiterated every so often. But, they wasted no time in overplaying that hand, <i>(there were three different Spider-Men in a single decade,)</i> and people quickly stopped buying into it,… and so now, the big studios are all in the business of building story-continuities, <i>…"Shared Universes"</i> that can unite several movies.<br />
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On its face, this is not a bad idea. It allows them to use our Love for what they’ve done before… to market the next wave of products. At any given time, everything you’re seeing now exists not only for its own sake, but to whet your appetite for the next batch of products as well. This is what TV’s marketing strategy has always been, and Hollywood has been trying to adapt it to the feature-film market forever. Shared Universes allow them to do that.<br />
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Keep in mind that we’re changing as audiences too. Binge-watching is a thing now. People can and do watch TV series’ a <b>season</b> at a time. Visual storytelling is becoming a richer medium in that way. We're watching movies thinking about other movies related to it. But, as with anything new, there’s also going to be a lot of garbage mixed in with the gold… and a lot of stumbling as studios and production companies come to grips with the new normal.<br />
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Also, keep in mind, that shared movie universes are not a completely new thing. The original shared universe came in the form of the monster movies released by Universal in the forties through the sixties. Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula,” Boris Karloff’s “Frankenstein,” and Lon Chaney Jr’s “The Wolfman” all took place in the same shared, fictional world, <i>(…along with “The Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “The Mummy,” and “The Invisible Man,” among others.)</i> But, it is a new phenomenon for shared universes to be the standard into which movie studios are throwing all of their effort.<br />
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So, I think this movie was meant to be a deliberately harsh and poignant casting-off both of– and from– the original property.<br />
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In concept, this is both good and bad. I appreciate what they intended to do, <i>(divorce themselves from the original Star Wars and give us a new and fresh take on everything,)</i> but, I hate <i>how</i> they did it, at the same time. Undoubtedly, it must have been a tough call to make.<br />
<br />
If you’re Disney, you’ve got to do <i>something</i> with this property and the original actors were all still alive at the time of purchase. To not include them would have been seen as disrespectful, if not outright mean-spirited. Fans have never really forgiven George Lucas for not giving us episodes 7-9 in the 90s. But, at the same time… you need to do something new and fresh if you’re launching a whole new iteration of the property. So, a full reboot is off the table, which leaves you painted into a corner with the soft-reboot seeming like your only option.<br />
<br />
Yeah, I know… you could just continue the saga and rely on creative people to deliver fresh new ideas anyway. But, with <b>billions</b> of dollars at stake, no one’s going to take that kind of a risk. What Disney did instead is they tried to have it all. They tried to go both ways simultaneously. They wanted to play it safe, but not <b>too</b> safe, and they wanted new ideas, but not <b>too</b> new.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, these were two clubs that just couldn’t be juggled, it seems, because the property, <i>(at least in terms of going forward with the main saga,)</i> has become a travesty. It was a one-two punch. If Episode 7 was the hard left-cross, Episode 8 was the right uppercut that finally KO'ed the franchise's integrity. They killed the old saga off in an unfair, unpoetic, and inappropriate way, while establishing a new saga that is uncompelling, uninspired, and uninteresting.<br />
<br />
Luke was right. It didn’t go the way we thought it would.<br />
<br />
Nor the way we <i>hoped</i> it would.<br />
<br />
Even as the movie began, I thought I was in for something much better than what they delivered. I thought; <i>“Whoa! Ok,… so this entire movie is going to revolve around one big desperate and seemingly inescapable situation. There’s going to be a ticking clock that spans the entire film, this time. That is something Star Wars hasn’t done before. Man, I’m already invested in this!”</i><br />
<br />
Then the rest of the movie happened.<br />
<br />
Exactly <b>none</b> of that dramatic tension or momentum was harnessed or utilized in any meaningful way. There were plot-holes you could fly Dreadnoughts through, three at a time. <i>(Others have compiled numerous and exhaustive lists of these glaring mistakes, so I won’t do so here.)</i><br />
<br />
Suffice it to say, they botched this. Badly.<br />
<br />
Not just in terms of Star Wars, either. This was just a bad movie. Period.<br />
<br />
The one bait and switch that I would have kept, the one that I thought was really meaningful,… was the fact that Rey came from nowhere. The fact that she was just some girl.<br />
<br />
That was moving, I thought. Or,… it <i>would have been</i>, if they’d done anything with it.<br />
<br />
Star Wars has always given us people from great families or dynasties, and then there’s the outlier. To Luke’s <b>*Son of the Most Powerful Sith Lord Ever*</b> and <b>*Chosen One Who Will Bring Balance to the Force*</b> and Leia’s <b>*Princess of Alderaan,*</b> and <b>*Leader of the Rebellion,*</b>… we had Han’s <b>*Just some guy,*</b> who started as a scoundrel and ended-up a hero.<br />
<br />
How cool is the idea that, this time the <b>nobody</b> is the biggest bad-ass Force-wielder in the galaxy?<br />
<br />
But, they wrecked it by making her such a Mary Sue with no explanation. Sure, she had fighting experience with her staff and living as a young, female scavenger on Jakku. But, she beats a Master lightsaber-duelist <i>(Kylo Ren)</i> and a Grandmaster Jedi <i>(Luke)</i> with <b>no</b> formal training, taking down the former literally the first time she’s ever held a lightsaber, and the latter… with a god-damned stick!<br />
<br />
I’m all for this natural virtuoso discovering raw power within her and being fearful of it. That's awesome! But highly developed precision <b>skills</b> should never just come from nowhere. It doesn't make sense. That’s just bad storytelling economy. It smacks of a filmmaker who thinks that "Stuff People Can Do," is all intrinsically of the same nature. That someone who's good at computer programming is fundamentally the same as someone who's really strong,... or even... really <i>lucky.</i><br />
<br />
Yes, I know that between the three chapters of the original trilogy, Luke had a grand total of like two-weeks of training, but he also pretty much got his ass handed to him in both of his duels with Vader. In Empire, Vader is pretty clearly just toying with him, trying to teach him about the ultimate futility of things like hope, faith in friends, and the Light Side of the Force overall,… everything dies and so the Dark always prevails,… that kind of thing… capping off the lesson by literally slicing his hand off, and leaving him defenseless, broken, and alone, hanging upside down over a miles-long drop, with nowhere to turn except <i>to him.</i> Luke proves him wrong by trusting in the Force, and the Force provides. Beyond his knowledge there is another Force sensitive nearby. On instinct, he reaches out to her and she rescues him. And in Jedi? Luke literally gets driven into *hiding under the stairs* to avoid Vader until he manages to get the upper hand by opening himself to the Dark Side. As the more powerful Force-Sensitive, he managed to overpower his father by doing so. Palpatine wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted Luke to take his father’s place at his side. It’s the way of the Sith, the strongest earns his place by proving his strength,… “beating the Man to be the Man,” as it were.<br />
<br />
Rey being nobody also works in contrast with Kylo. Kylo is very much “Dark Luke.”<br />
<br />
Kylo is special because of his blood, and he knows it and you’re going to know it too, damn it!<br />
<br />
Rey is the flip-side of that.<br />
<br />
Again,… <b>IF</b> it had been handled better.<br />
<br />
Another thing that I thought was pretty good was Luke’s appraisal of the Jedi as stagnant and overly rigid in their approach. He’s right.<br />
<br />
The Jedi had indeed become stale and dogmatic. This refusal to change and adapt led to the rise of the Empire right under their noses.<br />
<br />
The problem, Rian... is that Luke already proved that and redeemed the Jedi in Return of the Jedi. The two literal <b>ghosts</b> of the Jedi order were telling him he was a fool for thinking that it was even possible to turn back to the Light Side after succumbing to the Dark, that he was a fool for wanting to risk himself as the last Jedi to save his friends from an inescapable fate.<br />
<br />
He proved them wrong. On both counts. He had already demonstrated the staleness of the old way and forged ahead with a new path.<br />
<br />
Why is he cycling back to this realization <b>again</b> in his 60s like it's something new?<br />
<br />
Nonsense!<br />
<br />
<br />
Ok, so what about those three diamonds in the rough, I mentioned?<br />
<br />
<b>1. Luke’s lesson to Rey about the Force.</b><br />
<br />
That moment, when Luke has Rey close her eyes and reach out to the Force... It’s something that has happened in every Star Wars movie. There’s always that moment when the Jedi closes their eyes and “reaches out with their feelings.” It calms them, centers them, and shows them their place in the great turning of the awesome machinery of nature, giving them uncommon insight into the way of things.<br />
<br />
But, this is the first time we’ve ever been given a glimpse of what they’re seeing/feeling/perceiving when they do this. We all know how insightful and wise the Jedi can be. We've seen some of the amazing things they can do and we've heard them pontificate about things like 'feeling the will of the Force,' 'feeling that the Force was 'strong' with someone,' etc. But, in this scene, we are given our first ever sample of what all of that looks like *from the Jedi's perspective.* This scene was the very first time that we were allowed to actually see, for ourselves, through the eyes of a Jedi, and to experience the Force <b style="font-style: italic;">directly, </b>the way the Jedi and the Sith do, rather than merely bearing witness to its aggregate effects like a bystander.<br />
<br />
Concordant with Rey's meditation, Luke’s dialogue both reiterates and expands upon the timeless framing of the Force that Yoda gave us in “Empire.”<br />
<br />
Isn’t that just so God-damned much better than fucking Midichlorians?<br />
<br />
That one moment returns the Force to something mystical,… shamanic,… archetypal. A metaphysical alchemy that exceeds both the reach and grasp of one's biology, the Force can only be comprehended in that headspace where the mind anchors the soul.<br />
<br />
For that moment alone, I would sit through the rest of this movie.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>2. Rey and Kylo take on the Imperial Guard.</b><br />
<br />
What I’m about to say is not intended as hyperbole. This scene is, without question, the best action scene Star Wars, as a franchise, has ever given us. It is the best action-choreography, -pacing, and -cinematography that any of the other films; <i>(original trilogy, prequel trilogy, animated series,’ or Rogue One)</i> have ever given us, but with all of the portent and dramatic weight that lightsaber duels haven’t had since 1983.<br />
<br />
It was perfect.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Yoda.</b><br />
<br />
Yoda has always been, and remains today, my all-time favorite Star Wars character.<br />
<br />
I was hoping that at some point in this new trilogy, we would see Yoda’s ghost. When he died, he didn’t just die, he faded away like Obi-Wan did. Vader was surprised and confused by Obi-Wan’s vanishing act, if you’ll recall. <i>(He nudged around in the empty robes with his toe.)</i> This tells us that Jedi don’t usually just vanish like that. So, there was something special and unique about this method of dying. The other unique thing was returning as a ghost.<br />
<br />
Now, admittedly… back in the 80s, I’m pretty sure we all thought that Jedi’s spirits tended to linger on after death, and other Force-Sensitives could see them. It wasn’t until Lucas decided that Ghost-Projection was just Force Technique #672 of the “Spirituality” Power-Tree, ...that any of us thought otherwise.<br />
<br />
I thought that Rey’s training would have been a perfect time for Yoda to show up.<br />
<br />
His effect on the story is not what I had hoped it would be. However, his final parting lesson to Luke was great.<br />
<br />
It was, <i>(unlike prequel-Yoda)</i>… <b>true to the original trilogy version of the character,</b>… which is the Yoda I like.<br />
<br />
He spoke about things like letting go and accepting that we do not control anything, we merely <i>guide</i> things by going with the flow, and that ultimately everyone has their own destiny and their own choices to make along the path toward finding it.<br />
<br />
<b>“The greatest teacher, failure is.”</b> <i>(This line actually gives me hope for Star Wars in spite of Last Jedi. That’s how awesome Yoda is!)</i><br />
<br />
<b>“We are what they grow beyond. That is the burden of all Masters.” </b><br />
<br />
Yes!<br />
<br />
His prequel-doppleganger was just some dogmatic little Pope sputtering nonsense about how one subjective emotion <b>objectively always </b>leads to some other subjective emotion, before leaping around like a circus monkey with a tiny, baby-sized lightsaber and <b>NOT</b> seeing the Sith Lord <b>*TALKING TO HIM*</b> in meetings.<br />
<br />
I was very happy to see <b>the real Yoda</b> one last time.<br />
<br />
All in all, Star Wars – Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is one big, giant sigh of longing for what might have been. It’s a bittersweet thing that is a lot more bitter than sweet. But, as I said,… it’s just a movie. The original trilogy is still there for us.<br />
<br />
Eventually,… way down the line… Star Wars is going to be rebooted.<br />
<br />
Here’s hoping that, when that day comes, the saga finds itself in more capable hands.<br />
<br />
It’s sad that we’ll never get a proper sequel-saga with Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford.<br />
<br />
But, let’s be honest with ourselves… The original trilogy was lightning in a bottle. It was never going to happen anyway. You can’t summon that kind of synergy on purpose. It’s the result of everything just coming together perfectly in ways that no one is consciously capable of orchestrating.<br />
<br />
You can’t go home again.<br />
<br />
But, you also don’t need to, because though you left home, what <i>mattered most</i> about home never left you, and it never will.<br />
<br />
So, despair not, my fellow fans.<br />
<br />
Disney used a couple quotes to summarize their message. I’ll use one to summarize mine.<br />
<br />
<b>“Remember, the Force will be with you,… always.”</b><br />
<b>-Obi-Wan Kenobi</b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
Also, watch this. It's funny as hell...<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<br />
**In spite of what most fans think, George Lucas’s Star Wars is something we’ve never actually seen. It’s a Love-letter to Flash Gordon, wherein Luke Starkiller is a 60-year-old retired general with a robotic head, Han Solo is a 7-foot-tall humanoid frog, and Yoda is a literal <b>elf </b>complete with pointy-toed shoes, and magic wand, straight out of Santa’s workshop. The Force, meanwhile is a power that comes from a kind of cosmic Holy Grail called the Khyber Crystal, the finding of which the series was originally intended to revolve around.<br />
<br />
Nearly all of Lucas’s original ideas for… <i>(*deep breath*)</i><br />
<br />
“The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, As Taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars,” <i>(…yes, that was the original title. No joke.)</i><br />
<br />
…were overruled, shot down, and laughed out of the writers-room by those he was collaborating with. At the end of filming, the movie he’d shot was an unmitigated disaster. Gary Kurtz, the film’s producer has been quoted as saying it was all “terrible trash of the worst kind.”<br />
<br />
It was then given to two gifted film editors <i>(Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch)</i> who basically performed the editing equivalent of turning water into wine in transforming George Lucas's pile of hot celluloid fecal-matter into the modern masterpiece we know today as Star Wars.<br />
<br />
The film stands to this day as the greatest example of just how much can be accomplished through editing.<br />
<br />
In spite of this, George Lucas has been riding the <i>“I’m the Guy Who Created Star Wars”</i> hero-chariot for forty years. So, yeah… it’s understandable that Disney might feel they can hijack the credit for Star Wars.<br />
<br />
It has, after all… been done before.Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-8499982469772350362016-11-07T10:35:00.000-08:002018-11-03T04:22:24.043-07:00How to Feel Good About this Election (or... "The Silver-Lining You've Probably Missed")<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
So, this post comes on the heels of a very rough week, for me. The past several days have been probably among the toughest and most challenging experiences I've lived through.<br />
<br />
It started for me when some people I know,... members of a certain hacktivist group you've heard of, unless you've been living under a rock for the last several years... started talking about an information dump that was coming in the (then) immediate future. It was something coordinated with Wikileaks, that had originally been intended as part of the "October Surprise." It had been delayed, when those compiling the information discovered that what it contained was several shades darker than anyone had anticipated, and they wanted to give their sources a chance to get out of the country before going public with it.<br />
<br />
That information has since come out.<br />
<br />
I was immediately blown away by what it contained. It turned my stomach worse than anything I've ever read, but I committed myself to doing my research and publishing a trio of articles here, examining the information in stages.<br />
<br />
However, as I commenced with my research, I found that it was making me physically ill to keep focused on it. Initially, I put in a good eight hours of work, after which I felt dizzy, nauseous and unable to continue. I took to bed for the night. Since then, I've only been able to work in very short, (thirty-minute to one-hour,) sessions and ultimately, I just ended up feeling evicted from the work. I simply could not continue to put my eyes to it. I couldn't get my fingers moving on the keys. I had to stop.<br />
<br />
Then, I checked into social media, <i>(Facebook & Twitter are my primaries, which makes me as unique as your average Bic pen.)</i> Predictably, everybody's talking about tomorrow's election, and every last post that I so much as <i>glanced at</i> stirred up my stomach again.<br />
<br />
The only way I can describe the feeling was an intense and pervading sense of dread. It was a certainty that no matter what happens tomorrow, it's going to be bad. I shut off my computer, and my phone. I climbed into bed and just shut down.<br />
<br />
Today, I've found... quite by necessity, a new outlook.<br />
<br />
I still intend to push forward with my work on the John Podesta email-dump, but for the time being, I thought I would focus on something more positive. Because I realized that there is a silver-lining to this election, and it's one that is absolutely guaranteed to happen. "Silver" isn't even the right word for it. It is incandescent! It shines with a light all its own, more brightly than the sun on a clear day.<br />
<br />
No matter what happens tomorrow; whether Trump's landslide is publicly acknowledged by the powers that be, or the <i>Axis</i> of the DNC, the Clinton Campaign and the Mainstream Media completely obscure it to pilfer the election,... a gleaming upside will remain.<br />
<br />
The real takeaway that we should all be very happy with, from this entire, year-long ordeal of debates and mudslinging and propaganda is this: Realizing that we have now moved completely into and are living in the Information Age, (that is; the era of information is no longer "being built" or "having its foundation poured," but is now fully established, fully in effect and cannot be stopped...) the previous, undisputed <b><i>rulers</i></b> of Information... have been deposed.<br />
<br />
No one trusts the Mainstream Media anymore. In fact, it's actually become something of an oxymoron to refer to them by that term. Public trust in the MSM is at a historic low. It is now below 6%. That means that over 94% of the American public no longer trust CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, FOX, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, etc. The true "Mainstream" of the media is now what has been heretofore referred to as "Alternative Media," or simply "New Media."<br />
<br />
Here's what this has to do with feeling good about the election;... No matter what happens tomorrow, November 8th, 2016... the (previously) "Mainstream" Media <i>will never,</i> and <i><b>can</b> never...</i> recover from this shattering of the American people's faith in them.<br />
<br />
Their handling of this election has become the final nail in the coffin containing what's left of their public-trust.<br />
<br />
If Trump wins, it will only confirm that the MSM has been straight-up lying about their polling data, their consumer feedback studies, and their reporting on the public-reaction to the debates and news-items. If Trump wins the election, after six-straight months of media pundits telling us, firstly that he has "absolutely no chance to win," and secondly that they're basing that assessment on real figures and data-points,.. <i>(for a great example, listen to the pundit discussions before the last of the three Presidential Debates; it was nothing but, "Trump can't win," "It's over," "Get used to saying 'Madam President," etc.)</i> If, after all of that, Trump ends up <i>winning,</i> it will officially be the end of anyone buying into Mainstream Media narratives ever again.<br />
<br />
"But," you're probably asking, "what if the election goes to Clinton?"<br />
<br />
It's a real possibility. A lot of people are saying that <i>"she's going to win, whether she actually wins or not," </i>...and I think that's an astute assessment of how things are working in Washington right now.<br />
<br />
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So, it's a fair question; If the election goes to Hillary, won't that just confirm everything the MSM has been saying for the last year?<br />
<br />
Well,... no.<br />
<br />
See, here's the thing... full disclosure; I'm not a Trump fan. Prior to this election, I've never followed Donald Trump, particularly. I read his book, <i>"The Art of the Deal,"</i> years ago. But, I'm not a big Trump guy. I don't think he's nearly the ridiculous monster that many others do, but that's not to say that I'm a <i>"fan."</i><br />
<br />
That having been said, there is something pretty major that I have in common with at least 99.9% of the people in this picture...<br />
<br />
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<br />
And, to be fair... it's something that I'll bet I have in common with everybody in this picture too...<br />
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<br />
<br />
...and it is this: <b><i>I HAVE FUNCTIONING SENSES!</i></b><br />
<br />
See, the MSM has been talking up how nobody likes this Trump-guy, he's got less than no chance to win the election, his Mommy dresses him funny, he's got weird hair, and he said "Pussy" once, <i>tee hee hee</i>... etc.<br />
<br />
All the while, THIS...<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
...has been the actual reality of the physical universe we occupy for the last twelve months.<br />
<br />
Donald Trump was drawing crowds of between <i>200,000 and 300,000</i> people <i>per rally.</i><br />
<br />
Hillary Clinton drew a total of just over <i>25,000</i> people at <i>all of her rallies <b>combined!</b></i><br />
<br />
That's right! Hello! Good morning, everybody! Reality check! The magician isn't *actually* pulling a magical rabbit out of a hat! The emperor is wearing no clothing at all! Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and toaster-pastries that <i>don't</i> taste like chalk are figments of your imagination!<br />
<br />
...And Hillary Clinton is <b><i>*nowhere near*</i></b> Donald Trump in terms of popularity with voters.<br />
<br />
So, no... if the election goes to Hillary it won't <i>"prove the MSM right."</i> It will actually prove Trump's assertion that the electoral system has been rigged and that the Mainstream Media is <i>bullshitting you!</i><br />
<br />
That is your silver-lining: The Mainstream Media in the United States of America in 2016 AD, has performed the single greatest instance of <i>painting oneself into a corner,</i> in the history of man. They have no way out of this exposure. They did it to themselves. They lifted their own curtain. The bell cannot be un-rung.<br />
<br />
Whatever else the future might hold in store... the straight-up terrorist, propaganda and indoctrination institution known as the <i>"Mainstream Media"</i> has been broken. The people of this country are demonstrably,... deafeningly... tired of a government that treats them like they are the enemy. It is a system that uses and abuses them, while charging them for the privilege and demonizing them for good measure, all because their interests don't align with that of the ruling elite-class. The media has been trumpeting the virtue of this wholly perverse and lecherous system, in open condescension and defiance of the will and awareness of the people. Watch the Presidential Debates again. They're all available, in full, on YouTube. They're not even hiding their bias for the left, nor their pure, elitist <i>contempt</i> for the <i>"unwashed masses,"</i> that are their vision of the American public, anymore.<br />
<br />
They have devoted <b><i>billions</i></b> of dollars toward focusing on a candid conversation that took place on a bus, over a decade ago... to the complete exclusion of literally thousands of pages of revelations of criminal activity on the part of the Clintons and their inner-circle! They have held their narrative line of <i>"violent, rioting Trump supporters,"</i> in open denial of the revelations about George Soros' funding of Clinton supporters to riot at Trump rallies! They have maintained their stance on fraudulent polling practices, and voter fraud, in open denial of the Project: Veritas video evidence showing said fraud happening right in front of all three-hundred million pairs of American eyes!<br />
<br />
And now, most recently? We've got reams of evidence, straight from the Clinton campaign themselves, that the Clintons and John Podesta have participated in Satanic, Cannibalistic rituals involving pedophilia and child-sex-slave trafficking... and the MSM has flat-out, openly <i>refused</i> to cover it!<br />
<br />
Their defense?<br />
<br />
<i>"B-b-but... 'grab 'em by the pussy, they let you do it,"</i> ...remember, guys?<br />
<br />
Their problem is that this is not the 1930s. They don't decide what information the public eye has access to, anymore. The internet exists. The information is out there, widespread and decentralized. <b><i>The marketplace of ideas remains a FREE-market, whether-the-fuck they like it or not!</i></b> We can find this information, and we can put our eyes on these things. So, the big "news" networks are only further torching their own credibility, when they pretend that they can suppress information by sticking their collective heads up their asses.<br />
<br />
Well,... we've seen them for the propagandists that they are, now. No one believes them, and no one is interested in their spin anymore.<br />
<br />
New Media has, over the course of the last few years, risen to not only "compete with," but to replace... the MSM. Viewership for New Media outlets is screamingly high, and it only continues to rise, as public trust in the MSM continues to wither away to nothing.<br />
<br />
The power of the elite to obscure and spin the truth has all the horsepower of a motorized flea-circus.<br />
<br />
That is going to remain true, <i>no matter what</i> <i>happens tomorrow.</i><br />
<br />
So,... to liberty minded people, I say this; Keep speaking truth to power.<br />
Your audience has <i>never</i> been larger.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*****<br />
<br />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-5968669731818008792016-10-24T18:24:00.000-07:002016-10-25T00:05:55.011-07:00Review: The Walking Dead - S7 Premiere - **NO SPOILERS**Don't worry if you haven't seen the Season 7 premiere of The Walking Dead. I won't spoil anything here.<br />
<br /><br><br>
The episode definitely stung,... a lot. It left a very sour taste. It left me, as a fan, uncertain of how I felt about it.<br />
<br />
But, that's exactly how they want us to feel at this point. The episode, <i>(again, without spoiling anything)</i> is devastating. If you have anything to do which requires a cool and clear head, don't watch this episode right before it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OlEf0NAvtYI/WA60Ixtg5WI/AAAAAAAAEAE/nOtVYjowH6M4T9-Szb3pTBQK79c_L9FfQCLcB/s1600/Article%2BLead%2B-%2Bwide1007696427gnz39simage.related.articleLeadwide.729x410.gnyfjf.png1459841875388.jpg-620x349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OlEf0NAvtYI/WA60Ixtg5WI/AAAAAAAAEAE/nOtVYjowH6M4T9-Szb3pTBQK79c_L9FfQCLcB/s1600/Article%2BLead%2B-%2Bwide1007696427gnz39simage.related.articleLeadwide.729x410.gnyfjf.png1459841875388.jpg-620x349.jpg" /></a></div><br><br>
I Love Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Everything I've ever seen him in, he is both entertaining and completely convincing. Good actors can give you one or the other of those things. It takes a great actor to give you both,... and a <i>superb</i> actor to do so, consistently.<br /><br />Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a <i>superb</i> actor.<br />
<br />
His portrayal of the Comedian in Watchmen, made me Love the character I liked the least <i>(and even hated)</i> in the comic. I can't picture anyone else playing <i>any</i> of the characters he's played; from John Winchester in Supernatural to Clay in The Losers. He makes every role his own. Negan is no exception to this. From start to finish, I absolutely believe in how utterly cruel, remorseless, and psychopathic the character is.<br />
<br />
I have this problem with TV dramas. It's a pretty big one and it's certainly pervasive throughout the medium and the genre; with very rare exceptions, the villains suck. They just never convince me. They're just not <i>dark-dangerous-foul</i> enough to get me to genuinely worry about the heroes. The villains thus far on The Walking Dead have been,... ok, I guess. But, they've always been a trade-off of factors. Some were <i>almost</i> dark enough, but didn't have the chops to do anything about it. These psychopaths were usually dangerous only because of <i>circumstances beyond their direct control that facilitated an opportunity</i> for them to act on their hateful urges and pose a real threat. On the other hand, those villains that were <i>capable</i> enough to be dangerous without a Deus ex machina putting the gun in their hand, weren't nearly dark or evil enough to make their talents scary.<br />
<br />
Negan is the first TV-villain I've seen in a long time that actually scares me. What's lurking just out of sight, behind that razor-blade smile, is more sinister than all of the other villains who've appeared on the show, <i>combined.</i> What's worse, he is not a mere <i>beneficiary of circumstances.</i> He is a <i><b>creator</b></i> of them. For the entirety of his screen-time, he is in utter control of the universe. His people, Rick's people, even entire hoards of walkers, are to Negan, nothing more than tools which he turns to his own designs, seemingly without notable effort. Even those actions and events that occur outside of his control, end up serving his purposes, and *not by chance,* but by the way he adapts himself to them. He is <i>unflappable.</i><br />
<br />
He is a threat to our heroes in every conceivable way. He manipulates everyone and everything around him to accomplish his goals. Nothing is ever out of hand, for him. And again,... the guy is just pure, psychopathic evil personified.<br />
<br />
What I'm saying is that it's good that the episode's sting is as harsh as it is, and it is, in fact a <i>must-watch.</i><br />
<br />
Good TV-villains are <i>black diamond-rare.</i> They're also commensurately <i>expensive.</i> Speaking in the currency of narrative, it will <i>(and should)</i> cost something to establish such a show-stealing threat. Into every pot of chili, a few scoops of spice must fall. Otherwise, the longer it's on the fire, the weaker it will become.<br />
<br />
At the outset of the show's <i>seventh season,</i> I'd say it's a good time to reach for the Japanese Ghost Peppers.<br /><br />***Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-31260159136528310852016-10-08T13:58:00.000-07:002016-10-08T13:58:13.333-07:00Don't Lose Friendships Over Politics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LcvUlB4liNY/V_ld2Vsi1YI/AAAAAAAAD8c/nbtCiKkBDOclxGBvd5JdDiXw3iOIynH4gCLcB/s1600/7-Effective-Steps-to-Forming-Fabulous-Friendships-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LcvUlB4liNY/V_ld2Vsi1YI/AAAAAAAAD8c/nbtCiKkBDOclxGBvd5JdDiXw3iOIynH4gCLcB/s400/7-Effective-Steps-to-Forming-Fabulous-Friendships-2.jpg" width="400" height="268" /></a></div>
<p>Has election season always been this rough on friendships?</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="rte-quote"><span>Friendships and families are actually too precious to throw away for transient reasons.</span></span>So many people I know are getting into Facebook fights, Twitter wars, Instagram arguments, and Snapchat squabbles. What begins as an ideological dispute ends in bitterness. People are provoking others, demanding those who do or don’t support their candidate leave their networks, cutting ties with friends and family, and all because of political differences.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I can’t even imagine what the Thanksgiving table will be like this year!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">People perceive the stakes this year to be that high. To be sure, political philosophy does matter and does carry high stakes. However, the partisan struggle for the control of the state apparatus by this or that temporary manager doesn’t matter as much as election season seems to suggest. You might be being manipulated, and friendships and families are actually too precious to throw away for transient reasons.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a pity to cause permanent rifts, and so unnecessary. The people who rearrange their personal relationships for the election imagine that they are taking control of their lives. They don’t seem to realize that they are actually letting strangers control their lives – strangers who care nothing for them in a system that actually seeks to divide people so it can conquer them. To permit politics to fundamentally alter something so important as friendship is to give politicians more importance than they deserve.</span></p>
<p><strong>Trolling and Banning</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="rte-quote"><span>To isolate yourself, and hate others for their views plays into exactly what the political system wants for you to do.</span></span>Now, of course there is a proviso here. If there is someone in your network who is deliberately trolling you, harassing you, and goading you to respond, the best possible response is to block them. Not talk back. Not engage in a tit for tat. Just quietly block, without drama or announcement, much less denunciation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most public people I know have blocked as many as one hundred plus people over the past year, simply because this election season has been so contentious, with the </span><a href="https://fee.org/articles/five-differences-between-the-alt-right-and-libertarians/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">alt-right</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://fee.org/articles/bernie-sanders-anti-trade-crankery/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">alt-left </span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">(who oddly agree on so much) battling it out on social media. Blocking is the far better path than engaging them. Vicious back and forths on the Internet can be life-consuming and draining. People who are trying to do that to you deserve exclusion from your conversation circle.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Apart from these cases, it strikes me as pointless to hurl someone out of your life because of political differences.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">First, by denying yourself access to different points of view, you risk isolating yourself from a critic who might teach you something you need to know, maybe about anything in life, but maybe even about politics.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Second, talking to people with different opinions keeps you making sense and speaking in a civil way, addressing others in a way that could persuade them. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Third, and most critically, to isolate yourself, hate others for their views, and regard people with different points of view as less deserving of dignified treatment, plays into exactly what the political system wants for you to do.</span></p>
<p><strong>But Aren’t They Aggressors?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A counter to my point was offered by a friend of mine last year. Speaking as a libertarian, he said, he regards anyone who supports some government action – even just casually and without much thought – as wittingly or unwittingly contributing to an opinion culture that supports rising political violence. The only friends he believes deserve the time of day from him must hold steadfastly to his voluntarist perspective, else he regards them as a direct threat to his life and liberty.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, this strikes me as vastly too severe. The truth is that most people who support some government action do not regard themselves as violent people. They believe that they are favoring something that is good for others, perhaps fostering the better life for the community. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For example, if a person favors higher spending on public education, they believe that they are pushing for policies that are good for others, not calling for violence against taxpayers to support unworkable programs. How can you possibly persuade them otherwise if you cut off all ties?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And it’s not just libertarians who can be this way. A good friend of mine was a casual lefty and, like most from his tribe, he was dead serious about the issue of climate change. I had no idea until the subject came up over coffee. I expressed </span><a href="https://fee.org/articles/king-canute-vs-the-climate-planners/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">some doubt</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that the science was truly settled concerning all causes and effects, solutions, costs and benefits, and so on. I was actually very measured in my comments, but somehow they caused him to blow up, call me a science-denying, tin-foil-hat-wearing capitalist apologist, and then actually leave the conversation. And that was it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="rte-quote"><span>The politics of identity is causing precisely these sorts of irrational and pointless splits among us.</span></span>I was stunned. I was merely disagreeing with him, however cautiously. But somehow, he had come to believe that anyone who disagreed with him bears some responsibility for the rising sea levels, the melting of the polar ice caps, and the gradual disintegration of the planet, even though I’ve written very little on the topic at all.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He was letting politics control his life and even determine his friendships. Both of us are spiritually poorer as a result of this friendship loss.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And consider the toxic effect the rising politics of personal identity – on the left and the right – are having on the ability of people to find value in each other. Imagine how you would make me feel if you believed my whiteness represents a continuing stain on the world order. There is no chance for any kind of engagement; after all, I cannot change my race. Or what if I believe your blackness or gayness or atheism or whatever is leading to demographic or cultural destruction – how can we possibly be civil to each other? The politics of identity is causing precisely these sorts of irrational and pointless splits among us.</span></p>
<p><strong>What Is the Point of Friendship?</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What the libertarian and the lefty I mentioned above do not realize is that they are guilty of the same error of allowing politics to invade the conduct of their lives and determine the conditions of their personal happiness. Once this kind of thing starts, there is truly no end to it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Must everyone agree with you on every jot and tittle of your ideology to be your friend? Must there be zero tolerance for even the slightest difference in outlook, priority, application, and goal of your particular political outlook? In other words, must all your friends believe exactly as you believe?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If this is your perspective, you might consider: there is not much point to being friends and engaging in conversation with someone who has the exact same view on all things that you have. It seems rather boring. Might as well stay home and reflect on your own infallibility.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="rte-quote"><span>If we long for a better world of mutual understanding and peace, one way to help achieve it is to live as if it already exists.</span></span>I like to think of friendship much the way we think of economic exchange. In economics, goods and services do not exchange in the presence of perfect sameness. They exchange because each party to the exchange believes himself or herself will be better off than he or she was before the exchange. It is only in the presence of unequal expectations that exchange becomes mutually rewarding.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is the same with friendship. We need to hear different points of view. We need the insights of others. Even if we don’t accept them in total, we can still hope to understand people and the world better by considering what others have to say – with sincerity, warmth, and honesty. In other words, friendships like this help us have an open mind and keep us all humble and teachable.</span></p>
<p><strong>Candidates Will Betray You</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neither is it a good idea to give up a friendship based on loyalty to a particular candidate. The top two contenders for the presidency have held many different and conflicting views on a huge range of political issues, from taxation to immigration to war. These people are wired to be adaptable based on the polls. To follow one or the other all the way to the point that it affects your associations is to risk compromising your own intellectual integrity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neither is worth that.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the great tragedies of politics is that it can take people who in real life would be peaceful and loyal and loving friends and turn them into bitter enemies. I’m always struck by this when I see a political rally, with face offs between backers and protesters. What exactly is gained by this? If you put these same people in a shopping mall or movie theater or restaurant, they would have every reason to get along and no reason to be screaming obscenities at each other.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We should hold on to that realization. Each of us is a human being with feelings, hopes, dreams, and a vision of a life well-lived – every single person, regardless of race, religion, gender identity, or ideology. Politics should change nothing about that. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If we long for a better world of mutual understanding and peace, one way to help achieve it is to live as if it already exists. Above all, that means never letting politics get in the way of rewarding human relationships.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/16075/foundationeconomiceducation_bbbb1262.jpg?center=0.27751937984496122,0.48166666666666669&mode=crop&height=287&widthratio=1.3937282229965156794425087108&rnd=131128161490000000" alt="Jeffrey Tucker">
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<a href="http://fee.org/people/jeffrey-a-tucker/">
Jeffrey Tucker
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<p><strong>Jeffrey Tucker</strong> is <span>Director of Content for the </span><a href="https://fee.org/">Foundation for Economic Education</a> and CLO of the startup <a href="https://liberty.me/">Liberty.me</a>. Author of five books, and many thousands of articles, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events. His latest book is <a href="https://amzn.to/1ABe9p1"><em>Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World</em></a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker">Follow</a> on Twitter and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jeffreytucker.official">Like</a> on Facebook. <a href="mailto:tucker@fee.org">Email</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffreyatucker" class="twitter-timeline" data-widget-id="598453032930578433">Tweets by @jeffreyatucker</a></p>
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<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/don-t-lose-friendships-over-politics/">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/142287" width="1" height="1" alt="" />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7020122977328253403.post-74664960779122351732016-09-28T11:36:00.000-07:002016-09-28T11:36:52.902-07:00Hillary Will Tax You to Death... and Then Tax You for Dying<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M6174va8qkI/V-wNuzRpjsI/AAAAAAAAD8M/VvMWl380qTEwOP1oFWNqWjMJV1aNlvaRgCLcB/s1600/Hillary-Clinton-Laughing-For-10-Hours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M6174va8qkI/V-wNuzRpjsI/AAAAAAAAD8M/VvMWl380qTEwOP1oFWNqWjMJV1aNlvaRgCLcB/s400/Hillary-Clinton-Laughing-For-10-Hours.jpg" width="400" height="225" /></a></div>
<p>What’s the worst possible tax hike, the one that would do the most economic damage?</p>
<p>Raising income tax rates is never a good idea, and there’s <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/a-lesson-on-the-laffer-curve-for-barack-obama/">powerful evidence from the 1980s</a> about how upper-income taxpayers have <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/one-simple-reason-and-two-easy-steps-to-show-why-obamas-soak-the-rich-tax-hikes-wont-work/">considerable ability to change their behavior</a> in response to changes in incentives.</p>
<p>But if you want to know the tax hikes that do the most damage, on a per-dollar raised basis, it’s probably best to focus on levies that <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/explaining-the-perverse-impact-of-double-taxation-with-a-chart/">boost double taxation of saving and investment</a>.</p>
<p>The Tax Foundation <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/a-primer-on-growth-politics-and-taxation/">ran some estimates</a> on five different tax increases, for instance, and found that worsening depreciation rules (an <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/identifying-the-right-depreciation-tax-policy-the-most-boring-but-important-article-you-will-read-today/">arcane part of the tax code</a> dealing with the degree to which new investment is taxed) would do the most damage, followed by <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/with-washington-now-imposing-the-worlds-highest-corporate-tax-rate-every-day-is-april-fools-day-for-american-companies/">a higher corporate tax rate</a>, and then higher individual income tax rates.</p>
<p><img style="width: 461px; height: 324px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://fee.org/media/18401/tf-tax-hike-growth.jpg?width=461&height=324" alt="" data-id="142954"></p>
<p>But I wonder what they would have found if they also modeled the impact of a higher death tax. That levy is particularly destructive because it directly requires the liquidation of capital. The assets of investors, entrepreneurs, farmers, small business owners, and other victims take a big hit as politicians grab as much as 40 percent of what they’ve worked for during their lives.</p>
<p><img style="width: 312px; height: 201px; float: right;" src="http://fee.org/media/18400/apple-harvest-capital-tax.jpg?width=312&height=201" alt="" data-id="142953">This is bad for the economy because it directly reduces the capital stock. Sort of like harvesting apples by cutting down 40 percent of the trees in an orchard. The net result is that the <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/tax-policy-double-taxation-tax-reform-and-the-proper-definition-of-income/">economy’s ability to generate future income</a> is undermined.</p>
<p>But it’s also bad for the economy because it reduces incentives for successful taxpayers to both earn and invest while they’re alive. Why bust your rear end when the government immediately will take at least 39.6 percent (actually more when you consider <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/whos-right-on-medicare-reform-ryan-and-rivlin-or-obama-and-gingrich/">Medicare taxes</a>, <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/learning-from-new-jerseys-bad-tax-policy/">state taxes</a>, and <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/how-can-obama-look-at-these-two-charts-and-conclude-that-america-should-have-higher-double-taxation-of-dividends-and-capital-gains/">double taxation of interest, dividends, and capital gains</a>) of your income, and then another 40 percent of what you’ve saved and invested when you kick the bucket?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton doesn’t seem to care about such matters. She actually just decided to double down on <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/hillary-clinton-willie-sutton-and-class-warfare-tax-policy/">her destructive tax agenda</a> by endorsing an even bigger increase in the death tax.</p>
<p>I’m not joking.</p>
<p>The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/clintons-65-killer-death-tax-1474586639">not exactly impressed</a> by Hillary’s class-warfare poison.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On Thursday she decided that her proposal to raise the death tax to 45% from 40% isn’t enough and endorsed even higher levies that would apply to thousands of estates. Though she defeated Bernie Sanders in the primary, she is adopting the socialist’s death-tax rate structure. She’d tax all estates over $10 million at 50%, apply a 55% rate on estates over $50 million, and go to 65% on assets above $500 million. The 65% rate would be the highest since 1981 and is another example of how she is repudiating the more moderate policies of her husband and the Democrats of the 1990s. …the Sanders plan that Mrs. Clinton is copying did not index exemption levels for inflation. …Mrs. Clinton would also end the “step-up in basis” on stock valuations for many filers, triggering big capital gains taxes for a much broader population.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wow, this is class warfare on steroids. And the part about this being more like Bernie Sanders than Bill Clinton hits the mark. Economic freedom <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/01/09/bill-clinton-vs-barack-obama/">actually increased</a> in America between 1992 and 2000.</p>
<p><img style="width: 185px; height: 206px; float: right;" src="http://fee.org/media/18399/death-tax-cartoon.jpg?width=185&height=206" alt="" data-id="142952">Hillary, by contrast, is a <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/deciphering-hillarys-statist-economic-plan-a-helpful-translation-into-english/">doctrinaire and reflexive statist</a>. I’m not aware of a single position she’s taken that would reduce the burden of government.</p>
<p>By the way, here’s a bit of information that won’t shock anyone familiar with the greed and hypocrisy of the political class.</p>
<p>Hillary and her friends will <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/bill-and-hillary-hypocrisy-alert/">largely dodge the tax</a>, which mostly will fall on small business owners who lack the ability to create clever structures.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…most of her rich friends will set up foundations, as she and Bill Clinton have, to shelter most of their riches from the estate tax. …In any case, Mrs. Clinton is now promising total tax hikes of $1.5 trillion over a decade if elected President.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gee, knock me over with a feather.</p>
<p>The Tax Foundation may not have included the death tax when it compared the harm of different tax hikes, but it has <a href="http://taxfoundation.org/article/modeling-estate-tax-proposals-2016">looked at</a> how the death tax hurts the economy by discouraging capital formation and capital accumulation.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…an estate tax increase would cause economic production to be allocated away from business equipment, reducing the quantity of business equipment in the economy. …Many of the assets that fall under the estate tax, such as residential structures, commercial structures, and business equipment, enhance productivity, or gross domestic product (GDP) per hour worked. …The relationship between these assets and productivity is the focus of one of the most common models in economics, an equation called the Cobb-Douglas production function, which describes how workers and capital goods together produce economic output. Under this model, more capital increases output or income, even as the number of workers is held constant. It therefore increases GDP per hour worked, making people richer. Under such a model, reallocating economic production away from the capital goods that enhance output would reduce GDP in the long run. This is an effect that one might expect to see in a macroeconomic analysis of the estate tax.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amen. If you want more output and higher living standards, you need to <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/if-you-want-to-understand-why-obamas-tax-agenda-is-bad-for-workers-this-picture-says-a-thousand-words/">boost worker pay</a> by increasing the <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/labor-capital-entrepreneurship-and-economic-growth/">quality and quantity of capital</a> in the economy.</p>
<p>Here are the estimates of what happens to the economy with a 65 percent death tax.</p>
<p><img style="width: 474px; height: 277px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://fee.org/media/18398/death-tax-hillary-hike-econ-impact.jpg?width=474&height=277" alt="" data-id="142951"></p>
<p>So what would happen if lawmakers instead did the right thing and <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/the-correct-rate-for-the-death-tax-is-zero/">abolished this wretched example of double taxation</a>?</p>
<p>The Tax Foundation has crunched the numbers. Here’s the impact on the overall economy.</p>
<p><img style="width: 475px; height: 265px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://fee.org/media/18397/death-tax-repeal-econ-impact.jpg?width=475&height=265" alt="" data-id="142950"></p>
<p>And here’s what happens to federal revenue over the same period.</p>
<p><img style="width: 473px; height: 396px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://fee.org/media/18396/death-tax-repeal-rev-impact.jpg?width=473&height=396" alt="" data-id="142949"></p>
<p>By the way, the Wall Street Journal editorial cited above did contain a bit of good news.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Congress is starting to push back against President Obama’s stealth death tax increase. Rep. Warren Davidson (R., Ohio) read our recent editorial about Treasury plans to raise taxes on minority stakes in family businesses by artificially inflating their value, and he’s drafted a bill to stop Treasury’s tax grab as a violation of the separation of powers. …A former owner of several businesses, Mr. Davidson says the U.S. economy needs owners focused on “growing assets, not structuring them for life events.” He explains that many farms in particular may carry high values but hold little cash, and so the death tax triggers land sales to pay the IRS. “The whole concept of a death tax is immoral,” Mr. Davidson says, and he’s right. The tax confiscates assets that have already been taxed once or more when first earned, and it punishes a lifetime of investment and thrift.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/09/06/the-obama-administrations-assault-on-the-rule-of-law/">I wrote about this issue</a> the other day, so I’m glad to see that <a href="https://davidson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-davidson-introduces-legislation-stop-irs-s-unilateral-death-tax">there’s pushback</a> against this Obama Administration scheme to unilaterally boost the burden of the death tax.</p>
<p>P.S. Politicians are <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/the-real-beneficiaries-of-the-death-tax/">not the only beneficiaries</a> of the death tax.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>Republished from <a href="https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/09/24/hillarys-grave-robber-tax-hike/" target="_blank">Dan Mitchell's blog</a>.</em></p>
<img src="http://fee.org/media/15587/daniel-j-mitchell.jpg?center=0.37666666666666665,0.58333333333333337&mode=crop&height=287&widthratio=1.3937282229965156794425087108&rnd=131128161420000000" alt="Daniel J. Mitchell">
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<a href="http://fee.org/people/daniel-j-mitchell/">
Daniel J. Mitchell
</a>
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<p>Daniel J. Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who specializes in fiscal policy, particularly tax reform, international tax competition, and the economic burden of government spending. He also serves on the editorial board of the Cayman Financial Review. </p>
<p style="font-style: italic;">This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the <a href="https://fee.org/articles/hillary-will-tax-you-to-death-and-then-tax-you-for-dying/?utm_source=zapier&utm_medium=facebook">original article</a>.</p>
<img src="http://fee.org/counter/142964" width="1" height="1" alt="" />Christopher SkySundererhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16884982179468080660noreply@blogger.com0