Hope & Change: Super Failure

I know that many Americans are disappointed and even stressed at the the dismal results of the Super Committee's failure to reach a deal. The Democrats will blame the Republicans and the Republicans will blame the Democrats. In fact, the finger pointing has already begun, and that is no surprise either.

The fair and balanced but conservative leaning major media outlet will have you believe that a former third placed Presidential candidate is the nation's best hope of defeating Obama. As if that is the only goal that We the People have.

I can't say that I find either party lacking in fault for where we are today. Both parties have contributed to a bloated federal bureaucracy, unbridled spending, and ridiculous laws, mandates, regulations and taxes that have only served to drive manufacturing out of the US and into more business friendly nations around the world. But some candidates will have you think that it's China's fault. Not so.

The blame lies with We the People plain and simple. Yes, it's all your fault for buying the bullshit that both major political parties and the privately-owned major media spoon-feed you daily. Why didn't Romney beat McCain in 2008? What makes Romney capable of beating Obama now? I can beat the sitting President with the record he has compiled thus far. But I am not seeking office. But I do have a candidate that I will support and vote for.

In my life, I have never found a candidate that represents the People with such honesty and sincerity, with such strict adherence to the Constitution, as Congressman Ron Paul. Dr. Paul's record stands out among all representatives in both Houses, as exemplary in voting and voicing the will of We the People.

Ron Paul predicted the housing market crisis a decade or more ago and everyone said he was a lunatic. He voted against every single bailout offered and against most spending bills that did not include spending for the military troops in combat and support roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he wants to bring them all home now!

He is the only Presidential candidate who has spoken out against the secretive practices of the Federal Reserve Board, calling for an audit of the Fed and its eventual replacement with sound money. Money that is backed by assets of gold and silver, reserves of oil and coal, natural gas and other commodities that boost the GDP instead of reduce it.

Ron Paul's courage is displayed when he stands up against all sanctions against Iran for their development of a nuclear weapon. He points out how many nukes Russia (former USSR) and China have and how we played war games with those nuclear arsenals without attacking each other. Common sense instead of emotional response to the spin by the military minded.

He is all for defense of our nation and wants to secure our borders from criminals and terrorists, not just illegal immigrants that come here as many legal immigrants do, for the opportunities to become self reliant and even prosperous. And he is all for taking away the "magnets" of social programs that further entice people to come here illegally while burdening the People with the bill.

Ron Paul will be a President that will restore the rights of the sovereign States and to the sovereign People residing in them. He will reduce the size of government, reduce the pay of government officials and employees to equal that of the private sector, so as not to compete with the private sector for employees.

Isn't it time we all stopped picking from the same menu offered by the two major parties and the media?

What Would Really Happen If Ron Paul Were To Be Elected President?

I received the following in email this morning. Kudos to the author for writing such a concise and elegant piece . I felt it was important enough to share with as many people as possible. Please give credit to the author and source.

What Would Really Happen If Ron Paul Were To Be Elected President?

By pollywog

by Bill Sardi

So what would really happen if Ron Paul were as elected President?

President Paul would immediately push for $1 trillion cut in federal spending (per year, not the $3 trillion that Democrats proposed over 10 years with half of that from increased taxes).

President Paul would have the authority as commander-and-chief to withdraw troops from overseas, within limits of treaty commitments which must be honored (US supplies defense for Saudi Arabia, many other nations). To the extent possible, the US would cease being the world's policeman and plunderer of foreign economies (Iraq, Libya). The US would cease being a war economy. President Paul would also push to eradicate foreign aid which essentially is bribery, often to foreign despots who the US quietly supports because they hold a strong hand over their masses.

President Paul would have some empty chairs in his Cabinet – the Department of Commerce, Department of Education and other Cabinet positions would be eliminated. Civil service employees would be ushered into other government jobs.

President Paul would likely demand, using his bully-pulpit, a regular audit of the Federal Reserve (recall the FED pushed $13 trillion of short-term loans out the door in the world financial crisis without any oversight, which resulted in worldwide inflation and the unrest we now see in foreign countries – Egypt,Libya, etc – as a result of rising food prices.).

You probably don't know that the Federal Reserve bank takes a 6% cut off the top of all interest it collects as middleman between the US Treasury Dept and local banks. (President John F Kennedy realized this, recognized it would result in huge federal debts in the future, which have now materialized, and cut the Federal Reserve entirely out of the equation in 1963 by directly issuing US Notes, not Federal Reserve currency, into the economy. Of course, shots fired in Dallas ceased that practice and all those US Notes were quietly withdrawn from circulation.) That cut for the central bankers would be eliminated in a Ron Paul Presidency.

President Paul would likely demand and personally oversee an audit of the gold at Ft. Knox. Wouldn't you like to be there for that (live cameras please)? If the gold isn't there, who absconded with it and where is it now? (Might not have to look far, it could be stashed in Federal Reserve bank vaults – recall, the Federal Reserve is not federal, it is a bunch of private banks who may have absconded with the nation's gold supply).

With a public groundswell of support, President Paul would oversee the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service, freeing Americans of the onerous and treacherous task of figuring out the taxes they owe (recall the Secretary of the Treasury couldn't accurately figure out his own taxes). No more debtors prison for not filing tax forms properly (yep, some Americans are in prison for this). That would free-up about 6 billion man-hours and $250-300 billion of money now committed to tax preparation. Real money, not the fractionated loan money, would be returned to the economy.

There would be a re-adjustment period as the nation figures out how to rebuild employment without phony government jobs programs, but anticipate an eventual US renaissance. The US would be spared the fate of Greece which has 40% employment in the government sector, placing those jobs on the back of the remaining tax payers there.

Without an income tax the Federal Reserve would have no conduit to siphon money back out of the economy to limit inflation and it would have to cease its inflationary money printing practices. Mothers of young American children would be told that their struggles to see their kids get ahead in this country will not be futile as the Federal Reserve's planned inflation policy would be put to a halt. If your kids can't earn a better income than the rate of inflation (now 7-11%, government says it is only ~3%) they will surely be impoverished.

For example, if an American child was born in 1990 and her/her mother as sole bread winner was making $35,000 a year on the date of that child's birth, that child would have to earn $60,758 today (2011) to equal his/her mother's salary in 1990. Soccer moms should shout loudly for a Ron Paul Presidency. Your children have no future if one of the other pretenders is elected. Without currency reform, all other reforms become meaningless. The elites will continue to plunder and undermine the wealth that you create.

President Ron Paul would push for the federal government to get out of the real estate lending business. By Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ensuring home loans, lenders generated loans based upon low teaser interest rates (subprime, ALT-A) and unverified incomes and then funneled these bad loans on up to these quasi-government agencies where the public took the losses (these losses are now on the accounting books of the Federal Reserve). In a Ron Paul Presidency, bad lenders would go out of business, not be given bailouts.

The Federal Reserve now holds over $1 trillion in bad loans on it accounting books – let the Federal Reserve get what it deserves – a giant loss as its banks go out of business due to insolvency, just punishment for allowing low interest rates to prevail and create a real estate bubble in the first place. Stop protecting bankers, start protecting your own wealth – vote for Ron Paul!

Without a government backstop to insure home loans, lenders would be more diligent in checking out lender qualifications and incomes. Thefalse demand for housing that the Federal government created would cease and home values would crash, for a short time. But that would be good news – now homes would become affordable.

It is said, if the Federal Government would get out of housing homes prices would tumble by 50%. While that is not good news for the asset-side of lenders accounting books, it is the only way to bring back the housing market in a short time. This is the mark-to-market value accounting that must be practiced. Interest rates on home mortgages would rise, but so would the interest on saved money – Americans would cease losing money on savings accounts (interest on saved money today is less than 1% while inflation is ~7-11%).

While the US economy is said to be the strongest in the world (~$14 trillion), the US is hiding the fact its Gross Domestic Product is actually in decline and that probably half of the GDP is comprised of financial gains from moving money around. An example is the stock market with 70% of its trades now comprised of high-speed millisecond trading. Financial gains are contrived and there is no real value created out of these phony transactions, nor is any employment created. The lending classes will have to face reality. Phony numbers would not likely be a part of a Ron Paul Presidency.

With a groundswell of public support, President Ron Paul would push for a currency that has limited stretchability by backing it with gold. No more rubber money. The fortunes of Americans would cease being eroded by money printing practices at the Federal Reserve. If you missed Ron Paul's object lesson - he recently held up a pre-1964 silver dime (dimes today have no silver in them) and said it is worth ~$3.00 today, about the price of a gallon of gasoline. That means a gold-backed dollar could buy you a full tank of gas. Imagine that?

But inflationary policies have robbed American bank accounts of wealth. The thief of inflation that is robbing your money out the back door of your local bank would be handcuffed. Ron Paul would also push for competing currencies (if this sounds foreign to you, we already have one – its called a VISA card, and don't forget American Express Checks). Creators of currencies who have the most backing in the form of reserves would have the most desired currencies, those who don't would have currencies of lesser value.

So what would happen worldwide with the announcement of a Ron Paul Presidency? Did you see what happened yesterday when the European Union band-aided its currency and debt problems for the time being. Markets soared with even a hint of sound money. Likewise, a Ron Paul Presidency should cause markets to soar just on the announcement of his Presidency. The International Monetary Fund has been begging the US to cut federal spending or devalue its currency by 30%.

The tax and print-money Keynsians would be ousted from power. Phony money would be a thing of the past. Real jobs, not government-contrived jobs that add a 15% administration burden and place the salaries of government workers on the remaining private sector, would be created. Two bad examples are Solyndra and General Motors, both whom received a government-back loan and then sought government contracts to sell solar panels to the US Navy and Chevy Volt electric cars to the federal government's fleet of automobiles. That is nothing but false demand.

Imagine Ron Paul appoints a new chief at the Food and Drug Administration who turns that institution upside down, who complies with the law (Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act) rather than repudiates or ignores it as the current FDA does, and works to allow health claims for natural medicines that work far more safely and effectively than synthetically made drugs, and at much lower cost. Imagine the National Institutes of Health is forced to generate studies to reveal the true effectiveness of vitamins C and D, as previously documented by this author in the archives at LewRockwell.com, and the life expectancy of Americans soars and their quality of life in their retirement years greatly improves. Dr. Ron Paul is committed to this kind of real change, not give lip service to it.

Imagine for a moment that President Ron Paul, advocate of free markets, calls for a true revamp of the nation's electrical grid unlike the current administration which only gives rhetoric to the idea. With installation of new US-manufactured power cable technology that is able to transmit twice as much power on a single power line with 9-20% greater efficiency (less line loss), averting the need for 98 new fossil-fueled or atomic power plants by stringing just 3000 miles of the nation's power lines with this US-made technology, and bringing $60 billion greater bottom-line profits to power generating companies, your electricity bill would be measurably trimmed instead of continually rising.

Ron Paul – your President. Your vote for RP will cause all of the above and more to happen. This article is just a sampling of what could happen almost overnight. One man, one moment in time, and everything changes on day-one of a RP Presidency. It would the best $39,000 your government could invest (Ron Paul has publicly stated he would take a $39,000/year salary while in office compared to the $400,000/year salary of the incumbent, to set an example).

Don't be dissuaded by bogus claims "Ron Paul is unelectable" or by the menu of wanna-be candidates served up by the news media. The 4th-Estate, the nation's major news sources are not unbiased parties. The news media is in dire financial straits themselves and wants those campaign advertising dollars, particularly the $750 million the incumbent President is likely to raise like he did last election. Ron Paul is electable – by you. Make the election of RP so magnanimous that even vote fraud can't hide it.

Let's recap – no income tax, the Federal government generates revenues by other means; no IRS forms to deal with; no need to send your kids off to phony wars in foreign theatres; no more cut off the top by the Federal Reserve; assurance there really is gold in Ft. Knox; gold-backed money like this nation once had before the banksters cut their own deal at Jekyll Island, South Carolina decades ago and Nixon took America off the gold standard; rising individual purchasing power as inflation is nixed (no need to ask the boss for a raise, your money will buy more), financial gains on your banked money instead of erosion of your wealth via inflation; your chance to own a home will greatly improve rather than the current situation where home ownership is now only a fading American pipe dream; and true reform of healthcare rather than manipulation by those with vested interests.

These are what a Ron Paul Presidency portends. This is Doctor Ron Paul's prescription for the re-installation of sanity in American politics. Entrenched forces and crony capitalism are destroying America. You can fight back. Let the public's voice be heard loud at the ballot box. Vote for Ron Paul so the 99% can have a real opportunity to become the 1%.

You can save your country, save your family, save your nation's future – vote Ron Paul for President.

November 2012

Food as a Weapon

Why is there not enough food to feed all of humanity? We can send probes to other planets and deep into the far reaches of the solar system. We have technology today that can make foods faster and pest resistant. But is it healthy?

I remember listening to a late night talk show many years ago, the guest was an agricultural biologist who claimed that the food we eat today has only a fraction of the nutritional worth of foods our grandparents ate. We would have to eat two pounds of broccoli to gain the same value in nutrition as our ancestors gained in a single serving. Diseases are on the rise even though we have made so many advances in medicine. Or have we?

I submit to you that all of the problems we face as humans around the world is based on an illusion. It's like watching the Wizard of Oz for the first time and discovering the "man behind the curtain." Many of my friends and family will not even look there. They are embarrassed to think that they have been duped for all these years. Many think that I am crazy to think that my government would condone such things. But after all, they are of the same flesh and blood as us, capable of the same successes and failures. One only needs to look at where we are today to see that government has not been capable of controlling its own bloated growth, let alone act on behalf of markets and commodities. Why our Congress even gave up its Constitutional mandate to coin currency and set its value to private banks, trusting them to act with integrity on our behalf.

There are many ways in which the very wealthy can manipulate markets. But staying with food, there are now a few extremely large corporations both foreign and domestic that control possibly as much as 80% of the food supply of the globe. Some think it can be closer to 100% but living in an area where there remain a good number of independent family farms, I am not willing to make that leap. But the truth is that many of these small farms are being forced out by the conglomerates through the outright manipulation of the commodities markets.

A bushel of wheat will still feed the same number of hungry people as it did when it was first cultivated. The growth of any food crop demands the proper arable lands and the cooperation of nature. But it does not determine the amount of food crop available to feed the population. Remember in the biblical stories in Exodus, the temple granaries were full and yet their were people starving during a drought. It was used as a weapon to  wield power over people. It took an act of divine intervention to convince those priests of Egypt to release the stores to the starving masses.

How many other times has food been used as a weapon? A practice still used today through subsidies, is to have farmers turn under a good harvest so as to keep the prices higher. The justification is that the farmer could not make a living selling the crops at a very low price.but the reality is that they are doing just that, only the government is making up the difference. Would it not be better to have that crop sold to either the free market or to the government? Instead of funding dictators and foreign governments that will use our "gifts" to oppress their own people and they themselves live in wealth and splendor, send tons of wheat to feed the masses?

People need not be punished for their prosperity unless they obtained their riches by cheating, lying, stealing from others. There are methods employed today that produce rich and abundant foods naturally, without the use of chemicals for fertilizers or pesticides. I myself have grown tomatoes in my patio garden and always have such an abundance to share with many of my neighbors. I have demonstrated how we can each grow a crop and share our harvests so well will obtain a variety of nutritious fruits and vegetables and not have to buy them from high priced markets. Even when I must make a purchase, I go to markets that offer locally grown produce when available.

We live in a world that has become as much of an illusion as the science fiction film, The Matrix. And it is just as difficult for most of us to awaken ourselves and face reality. We have to do that now. The alarm has been ringing for quite some time and all we are doing is hitting the snooze button.

Food, Health and Nutrition

It seems that the government wants to protect us once again, and the Food Safety Modernization Act, as its disclaimer suggests, 


"The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Obama on January 4th, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it."


Well I do not buy it. It is yet another expensive government program that will create more expense for the growers, add more workers to government payroll (that is more tax revenue spent on public sector jobs) while putting many small farms out of business because they cannot afford the new "safety" regulations.


The major source of contaminated food is imported. It is obvious that we cannot control the safety of food unless it is inspected thoroughly upon arrival into U.S. ports, and that seems like a very daunting and expensive exercise. But the legislation is loaded with fees that will drive many small businesses into closing because only the large corporate processors will be capable of paying the many fees included in this poorly written bill.


For example, and this is directly from the FDA website:


Q: How will FDA calculate the total fee assessed?
A: For Fiscal Year 2012, the hourly rate is $224 if no foreign travel is required and $325 if foreign travel is required. The total fee that is assessed will depend on the number of hours FDA spends directly on the reinspection-related activities or food recall activities associated with a recall order. 
Reinspection-related activities could include conducting compliance reinspection at the facility, making preparations and arrangements for the reinspection, traveling to and from the facility, analyzing records, analyzing samples, preparing reports or examining labels, and performing other activities as necessary to determine compliance with the requirements found to be violated in the initial inspection. 
Food recall activities associated with a recall order could include conducting recall audit checks, reviewing periodic status reports, analyzing the status reports and the results of the audit checks, conducting inspections, traveling to and from locations, and monitoring product disposition.


Here in the Pacific Northwest there are many family farms, local growers who depend on the small profit margins to sustain their business and provide healthy produce to their customers. Local packaged food processing will be driven out due to these high fees and regulatory hoops they must jump through. But who will monitor the produce in Costa Rica that is imported by American food processors?