Would you shed a tear seeing Killary’s head lopped off?
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You’re getting warmer.
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I will quote Stephen Lang’s depiction of Stonewall Jackson from the movie Gods And Generals:
It is not with glee and joy that we go into battle…Had our friends to the [Left] practiced a more preferable form of persuasion this day might not have come, But this day has been thrust upon us just as it was thrust upon our forefathers.
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It’s just too good not to hear it in its original.
Stephen Lang does a wonderful job in this role, as he has done in other roles such as his depiction of Ike Clanton in Tombstone.
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Well?!?
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OK. I’ll take the risk. In 1789 often the crowds yelled “Off with their heads”! I have previously observed that, in my innocent, idealistic youth, I couldn’t understand why, in revolutions I learned about in studying history, the winners always eliminated the losers. The growing tyranny and betrayal we are experiencing at the hands of formerly-trusted institutions - the powerlessness that engenders in ordinary, otherwise-peaceable citizens - yield and abhorrence so overwhelming (especially as individual rights are trampled one-by-one - even liberty to voice one’s objection to being crushed by the state), that the most severe retribution becomes likely; particularly in the setting of a mob whose members have all suffered such depredations by the state and its organs.
Even the slogan suggests the need to extirpate the evildoers, starting with the ‘head’ of the oppressive state. In other words, I have lost my innocence and idealism, due to the corruption of the state in which I once fervently believed. I now understand the necessary course of revolution. Owing to my decrepit state, I find I am unable to say I “regret I have but one life to lose”. No, they wouldn’t hang me. Our tyrants are too ‘refined’ for that. They would simply lock me up like the Jan. 6 “insurrectionists”, deny me medical care (about 10 prescription meds daily and at least monthly doctor visits), thereby killing me slowly and ‘organically’. If nothing else, the state is expert at propaganda. It maintains a careful image of MSM deep-fake benevolence.
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Let me try to be a ray of sunshine and hope. Perhaps!
Move less than a decade from the 1789 French Revolution to the teenaged United States, where patriots had fought & died to escape English tyranny. (Note to self: Fighting in the English colonies against an oppressive English government in 1776 was right and good; fighting in the Donbas in 2014 onwards against a murderous Kiev government was wrong & bad. Those are Our Betters’ rules – just accept it).
In 1798, the US Congress passed the Sedition Act which, in flagrant breach of the recently-adopted Constitution, made it illegal to criticize the government. Newspaper editors were thrown in jail and treated as badly as today’s Congress treated those who toured the people’s Capitol in 2021.
Politicians are scum! Always have been. And yet the ray of sunshine is that the people of the new United States rejected the Congress-scum who voted for the Sedition Act and restored (if not permanently) the right of citizens in a republic to criticize the idiots in government. Our ancestors did it once – perhaps we will be able to do it again, and restore sanity to this corner of the globe?
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While I admire you for it, I fear your optimism is misplaced, due to cultural disintegration and political consolidation of the left. Between 1798 and now, at an ever-accelerating pace (particularly following the 1910’s) “progress”, in significant part due to state-mandated universal “education”, has in-formed each succeeding generation with ‘narratives’ which have instilled in our progeny a statist worldview by default. Elites have been most clever in employing propaganda à la Bernays, to create a citizenry willing to accept docile subjugation (to the extent their betters supply sufficient bread and circuses - in the form of (fast food and video games).
As if Liliputian acceptance of civic flaccidity weren’t enough, tumescence of Leviathan has been sufficiently incremental as to having now fully ensnared the entire populace (except elites and illegal aliens, who are mystically exempt from all these minute rules which can ruin the life - at least financial life - even if fully exonerated by due [bankrupting] process of law - of any citizen upon mere allegation).
In short, even if some significant plurality wanted to rebel, they would be actively denied the means of communication by Leviathan’s tech minions and they would be denied access to their own financial assets (like the Canadian truckers’ peaceful protests); they would face an entire practiced and fully corrupt legal system of “men, not of laws”, dedicated to crushing them. This corruption of the system was demonstrated clearly and convincingly, by the conduct of the 2020 Presidential election. Attempting to vote out our tyranny will surely meet the same fate, as the widespread lawlessness of every major city certainly extends to those who count the votes in overwhelming-majority democrat (sic) districts. Short of national guard monitoring of polling places and vote counting, there is zero hope of honest elections where the vast majority of votes are cast - in blue, thus hopelessly corrupt, cities.
Yes, “politicians are scum” but they are far more malignant than ever and now sense the lack of any restraint on their power, whatsoever. The main perpetrators of that lack of restraint is the unapologetic corruption of the “fourth estate” - the MSM - whose malevolence is blatant and celebrated in gleeful support of democrat (sic) Marxists. The power structure thus consists of sociopath politicians, whose power-lusting allies include (anti-) social media, banks, large corporations, and a large majority of the legal system - from prosecutors to courts. In short, we are in a political minority and face an overwhelming power structure. In my book - hopeless. Sorry to say, I think the only way out is after a prolonged dark age of tyranny. Only then may the populace discover the need to re-learn what was well understood by the Founders in the last third of the 18th century.
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Yes.
Plus, we really can’t contemplate armed rebellion or civil war. I mean seriously, can we? It would be terrible beyond imagination. And let’s face it, which side is tougher at this point? The blackshirt lefty fascists are the ones staying up all night burning buildings, throwing bricks and frozen bottles, harassing citizens as they shop and eat dinner……nah. They are ready to hurt, kill, pillage—we are not. IMHO.
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The ground rules are changing. Even if the world manages to avoid Biden*'s pointless thermonuclear war, there is an even bigger problem emerging from stage left – economic chaos. We will at some point reach the situation where foreign suppliers will no longer accept Bidenbucks for their goods & services – empty shelves in Walmart. And as our host points out, the current population also depends on fertilizers derived from natural gas – largely Russian natural gas, which Euroscum no longer have since they have sanctioned it. Starvation approaches.
The only way to avoid the growing problem would be for FedGov to reduce its expenditures drastically – no more money for Biden*'s proxy war in the Ukraine, and much less money for Social Security, Medicare, welfare. The cure may be as painful as the disease.
I agree with civilwestman that the likely outcome will be a new Dark Age – for the West. But the human race will march on. Civilization will persist in other parts of the world, and eventually Europe & North America will be recolonized.
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I think you underestimate the extent to which technological innovation has distributed services outside of Leviathan’s control. It is probably easier for revolutionaries to communicate undetected today than at any time in history. Sure, Leviathan’s tech minions can silence enemies of the state on the social media ghettoes, but revolutionaries are not limited to the established means of communication. Tools like The Onion Router and AES-256 encryption are available to everyone and offer very good protection against Leviathan’s snooping. Likewise, today’s revolutionaries need not depend on the Leviathan-controlled banking system, nor do they have to resort to easily traceable physical assets such as precious metals. Value can be stored and financial transactions conducted using cryptocurrency, which is very difficult to seize or shut down. The revolutionaries of today have the advantage of a (growing) decentralized technological infrastructure. They do not require the support of Leviathan’s institutions to overthrow it.
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This is discussed at some length in The Network State, which we discussed here on 2022-07-08. The author sees what is coming not so much a revolution against the existing system but more an opting out from the two main competing Leviathans (U.S.-greenback-incompetent empire vs. China-social credit-ubiquitous surveillance) by setting up voluntary, consensual replacements for their institutions, just as the Internet allows the exchange of information outside the control of the traditional gatekeepers.
One powerful advantage that those seeking alternatives have in this competition is the utter incompetence of the Leviathans and their crumbling and fraudulent institutions. When they cannot deliver even the most basic services people have expected from rulers for centuries: secure borders, domestic law and order, money that keeps its value, protection of property rights, security from foreign attack, not to mention all the other things government has attempted to do and utterly failed at, then simple, comprehensible, voluntary alternatives begin to look a lot better.
Today, if you are self-employed or a remote worker who can live anywhere, you can instantly double your income by moving to a jurisdiction that does not tax you on income from outside the country (there are many such places, not at all exotic). As the financial system continues to erode and the “gimmee” tries to extract ever more from its subjects, expect this option to become increasingly widespread.
Postwar Britain experienced a severe “brain drain” to the U.S. because the combination of austerity resulting from the country’s bankrupting itself in the war and socialist economics destroyed opportunity for advancement among the talented fraction of the population who could easily step into jobs at two or three times their UK salaries in the U.S. Perhaps much the same will happen to today’s Leviathans once alternatives begin to emerge.
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I don’t understand how this can work for a US serf. It has taken my Swiss-born son 10 years to renounce his US citizenship and last I heard, they were refusing any ‘exit interviews’ at US embassies. He never even resided in the US, yet had to pay some US tax, beyond what tax paid in Switzerland according to a tax treaty. A US expat would be stuck with a US tax liability for years after leaving. Correct me if I am wrong, but were one to leave and not file and pay whatever taxes the armed IRS demanded - until the ‘authorities’ were kind enough to accept your relinquishment (and collect your exit tax on all unrealized gains on all your assets). I can’t see this can practically work. Is there something I don’t get?
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These laws change all the time, and practical considerations involved further complicate the question. In particular, during the COVID panic, most US embassies completely suspended consular services, including the “exit interviews” for renunciation, and people reported delays of years in getting out from under the Blue Eagle of Confiscation (but I have never heard of a case of ten years—there must have been some unusual circumstances there). Prior to some time around 2003, if a US citizen renounced their citizenship, they were liable for US taxes on all US source income for ten years after renunciation (the dreaded 26 USC 877). So, you could renounce, re-source your income from outside the U.S., and defer any capital gains for ten years and you were out.
With the revision of 877, they introduced a Soviet-style “expatriation tax” in which all global assets were marked to market and taxed as capital gains at the moment of expatriation. There is a special expatriation tax return which requires declaring all assets worldwide.
But what this means in practice is “get out now”, especially if you are a founder of a company which is still privately held and growing rapidly. You expatriate, pay a nominal sum based upon a GAAP assessment of your illiquid founder stock, take the bite if you’re disposing of appreciated real estate, then settle offshore. Because there’s no ten year tail any more, you can continue to be paid by the US company as a foreign employee, and in your new domicile that income isn’t taxable because you didn’t earn it in-country. When your company goes public, you can cash out with no US capital gains tax and none in your new home unless you have chosen it unwisely.
They are making it harder to get out every year. In the mid-1990s, it was easy, and they have turned the screw repeatedly since then. But that only reinforces the message that it’s better to act sooner than later.
As Kelvin R. Throop said,
Places you have to pay to leave aren’t places you want to live.
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I have to share the latest innovation in social credit, digital vouchers governed by smart contracts (by IMF) https://twitter.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1581058535609495552
“CBDC can allow gov agencies & private sector players to program/allow targeted policy functions (i.e. consumption coupons) By programming #CBDC the money can be precisely targeted for what kind of people can own & what kind of use this money can be utilized” Bo Li, #IMF
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Does this have the effect of making one’s money contingent? i.e. one can only use it for purposes approved by the state? If so, it is casus belli. It is as infuriating as banks having the ability to throw out clients whose politics they don’t like. They should be subject to common carrier laws, which prohibit such arbitrary discrimination based merely upon legal activities of which the bank disapproves.
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This is exactly what it does, and the people perpetrating this see it as a feature, not a bug. It is potentially the greatest means of fine-grained surveillance and control by rulers over a populace ever invented.
Two days ago, on 2022-10-14, the International Monetary Fund held a powwow in Washington, DC to discuss “Central Bank Digital Currencies for Financial Inclusion: Risks and Rewards”. Here is a clip from the event. The speaker, Bo Li, is the Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, discussing the “programmability” of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and what this means for their issuers.
So who is this “Bo Li” dude? Well, before coming to the IMF in August, 2021, he was deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China and
Li holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MA from Boston University, both in economics. He also holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. Li studied at Renmin University of China for his undergraduate degree in Beijing.
China is the pioneer in the Social Credit system, which is already largely rolled out through their wireless payment system, even before the introduction of a CBDC.
There are various punishments for low trustworthiness. As of June 2019, according to the National Development and Reform Commission of China, 26.82 million air tickets as well as 5.96 million high-speed rail tickets had been denied to people who were deemed “untrustworthy(失信)” (on a blacklist), and 4.37 million “dishonest” people had chosen to fulfill their duties required by the law. Delinquent debtors are placed on blacklists maintained by Chinese courts and shared with the Ministry of Public Security which controls the country’s entry-exit checkpoints. Individuals with outstanding debts can be subject to exit bans and prevented from leaving the country as a way of encouraging or forcing the collection of debt. According to the Financial Times, as of 2017, some 6.7 million people had already been placed on blacklists and prevented from exiting the country as a result of the new policy. In July 2019, additional 2.56 million flight tickets as well as 90 thousand high-speed train tickets were denied to those on the blacklist. If the parents of a child were to have low enough social credit, their children would be excluded from the private schools in the region or even national universities. A person with a poor social credit may be denied employment in places as banks, State-owned enterprises, or as a business executive. The Chinese government encourages checking whether candidates names’ appear on the blacklist when hiring.
Economists of the totalitarian bent have also been gushing over the prospect of money that “rusts”—where the balance in CBDC erodes over time at a rate determined by the central bank, obtaining all the benefits of inflation for the state without a rising price level to bring out the torches and pitchforks.
This is why the coming battle between Bitcoin and other decentralised, non-inflationary currencies versus CBDCs is a central arena in the struggle for liberty in the next decade.
Here is the entire IMF conference. The clip about “programmability” starts at the 19:50 mark.
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Not only, then, will public accommodation law never be applied to banking; the act of denying banking to political opponents is clearly a base desire of today’s CCP brand of statists. Anyone surprised at the educational credentials of Herr Bo Li? I am thus not surprised at the state’s wish to fine grain institutionalize the “de-banking” of those whose politics displease the new-and-improved, lemon-freshened, chlorophyll-infused, vitamin-enriched, green fascists. This really must be stopped, to quote the left - by any means necessary. To acquiesce is to become an out-and-out slave of a thoroughly malignant state.
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I am reminded of the sticker on those old hippie VW buses – “Gas, grass, or ass. No-one rides free”.
When human beings can’t use cash to pay for what they want, they will barter. Of course, it is economically much less efficient – and tax-free too!
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There are many good reasons why having more friction in transactions can be a good thing. Higher taxation of tobacco and alcohol than of books on the supply side is a given, but it can also be done on the demand side through negative taxes / welfare.
There are other examples why more friction is a sensible thing: for example Chinese state could easily create volatility in European energy markets and profit from it with the application of the gambler’s ruin principle - the same way China has employed economic dumping to destroy European and American manufacturing while taking over the IP for free.
But there are other instruments for this, I’m especially fond of Liataer’s decentralized thinking on this, it’s simply more robust and resilient than ‘programmable money’:
Similarly, @civilwestman argues for data friction: it should not be allowed to use political affiliation, for example, to determine the issuance of a loan. And I think it should also not be allowed to track political affiliation to analyze to whom loans have been issued, in contrast to the current “affirmative” practices.
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