The Democrat-controlled House followed the Senate yesterday in passing legislation forbidding the president from withdrawing from NATO and affirming undying US support for the outdated Cold War alliance. Is NATO really about defense? Or is it a jobs program for the military industrial complex?
By Chris Rossini
The world is not filled with envy. You can flip the world upside-down and turn it inside-out and you'll never find a thing called envy. Envy is a way of thinking, and of interpreting the world to yourself. It's a choice. One can choose to be envious or not. Choosing to be envious begins in ignorance and in not understanding one's own nature. We are all sovereign individuals. We are not carbon copies of one another. Since we are each so perfectly unique, wouldn't it be an error to fixate on others? Why would a unique individual fixate on what another has achieved, acquired, earned or accumulated? Why compare oneself to another? What do they have to do with you? You'll never be them, and they'll never be you! But that's what envy is: the focusing on others and then resenting them. Everything goes downhill from there. The next step downward is to tell yourself that you're entitled to what others have. Nothing good can come from that attitude. The last step down into the pit of de-civilization is to act on your envious emotions with aggressive force, i.e., to go and steal another person's property in order to satiate your feeling of entitlement. A vast majority of people never take that final step. They won't steal because deep-down they know that it's immoral and wrong. But it is at this point that the politician steps in to capitalize for him or herself. The politician offers up a supposed loophole. In exchange for your vote, the politician will do the stealing for you. You don't have to worry about a thing because he assures you that it's all "legal." Such a temptation is much too hard for most people to turn down. The "voter" feels that he's off the hook morally, and rationalizes it to himself. The warped government then does the dirty work of stealing and the "voter" receives his "entitlement." The voter doesn't have to experience the terrible feeling of actually stealing from another person, and doesn't have to get his own fingers dirty. It's all done out of sight, and out of mind. This massive theft "system" is then justified a billion different ways by the official media, is taught in government's so-called "schools," and it marches to its final destination of total bankruptcy. A system of thievery can last for a little while. Life will give you a little while to change your ways, but if you don't .... down the house of cards must come. Fortunately, individuals don't have to wait for government bankruptcy. That'll happen in its own time. In the meantime, each individual can free him or herself from envy and the downward spiral. Liberty isn't only about freeing yourself from the barbarian government. It's also about freeing yourself from your own superstitions and destructive habits of thought. When more people do the latter, the former becomes a piece of cake. Liberty is always an inside game first. The outside catches up later. The first step is to acknowledge and accept one's nature as an individual. Since you're a one-of-a-kind human being, the standard that you measure yourself against is NEVER someone else. What another person has, what they've acquired, what they've accomplished is none of your business....literally. It's their business alone. Your business is you, and if you're going to measure yourself against someone --- that someone is YOU! Where do you start? Start right where you are. That's where everyone has to start. What if you start with your health? How many push-ups can you do? ... 5? Well, then do 5 today, and tomorrow do 6....The next day do 7....and then 8. Such a small and seemingly insignificant chain of accomplishments puts you in-line with human nature. Each of us is meant to constantly expand, in all directions! Just going from 5 to 6, and knowing that you're better today than you were yesterday, will flood your mind with endorphins. There's something about accomplishing things that triggers good emotions. It doesn't matter how big or how small the accomplishment is either. Just knowing that you're moving forward seems to be all that's necessary. You're now measuring yourself against yourself....exactly how it's meant to be. Once you get the health moving, take another aspect of life to measure and improve -- Take your relationships, education, or your value to your employer. We have so many things to focus on in our own private worlds, that it's ridiculous to even think of trying to steal from "the wealthy," or "a billionaire," or to live your life vicariously through some politician. You have an opportunity to see how far you can improve yourself, but instead you're going to pretend-live through some politician? Come on! Once you take each aspect of your own individual life, and measure it against how you used to be, you really will expand in all directions.....without limit! Momentum takes over, and all the "luck" that is falsely attributed to wealthy people, begins to happen to you. THE ONLY CAVEAT IS THIS: When it comes to other people, the rule is "do no harm." No aggression. Obviously that means not using government as your barbarian either. It's live and let live. Your expansion does not take place at anyone else's expense. When you measure your life against yourself, envy disappears; or more accurately, envy never comes into existence. Let everyone else come to the same realization on their own schedules. We are all different after all. But if you, individually, refuse to bring envy into existence, the world is a much better place for sure.
The decline and closure of the neocon flagship journal, The Weekly Standard, did not slow the neocons at all. They are back with a new publication funded by a left-wing billionaire, but preaching from the same neocon playbook. Why do neocons continue to change their stripes, from Trotskyites in the 1930's, to Reagan conservatives, to Hillary-ite liberals?
By Ron Paul
President Trump’s frustration with the Federal Reserve’s (minuscule) interest rate increases that he blames for the downturn in the stock market has reportedly led him to inquire if he has the authority to remove Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Chairman Powell has stated that he would not comply with a presidential request for his resignation, meaning President Trump would have to fire Powell if Trump was serious about removing him. The law creating the Federal Reserve gives the president power to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board — including the chairman — “for cause.” The law is silent on what does, and does not, constitute a justifiable cause for removal. So, President Trump may be able to fire Powell for not tailoring monetary policy to the president’s liking. By firing Powell, President Trump would once and for all dispel the myth that the Federal Reserve is free from political interference. All modern presidents have tried to influence the Federal Reserve’s policies. Is Trump’s threatening to fire Powell worse than President Lyndon Johnson shoving a Fed chairman against a wall after the Federal Reserve increased interest rates? Or worse than President Carter “promoting” an uncooperative Fed chairman to Treasury secretary? Yet, until President Trump began attacking the Fed on Twitter, the only individuals expressing concerns about political interference with the Federal Reserve in recent years were those claiming the Audit the Fed bill politicizes monetary policy. The truth is that the audit bill, which was recently reintroduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and will soon be reintroduced in the Senate by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), does not in any way expand Congress’ authority over the Fed. The bill simply authorizes the General Accountability Office to perform a full audit of the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy, including the Fed’s dealings with Wall Street and foreign central banks and governments. Many Audit he Fed supporters have no desire to give Congress or the president authority over any aspect of monetary policy, including the ability to set interest rates. Interest rates are the price of money. Like all prices, interest rates should be set by the market, not by central planners. It is amazing that even many economists who generally support free markets and oppose central planning support allowing a government-created central bank to influence something as fundamental as the price of money. Those who claim that auditing the Fed will jeopardize the economy are implicitly saying that the current system is flawed. After all, how stable can a system be if it is threatened by transparency? Auditing the Fed is supported by nearly 75 percent of Americans. In Congress, the bill has been supported not just by conservatives and libertarians, but by progressives in Congress like Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, and Peter DeFazio. President Trump championed auditing the Federal Reserve during his 2016 campaign. But, despite his recent criticism of the Fed, he has not promoted the legislation since his election. As the US economy falls into another Federal Reserve-caused economic downturn, support for auditing the Fed will grow among Americans of all political ideologies. Congress and the president can and must come together to tear down the wall of secrecy around the central bank. Auditing the Fed is the first step in changing the monetary policy that has created a debt-and-bubble-based economy; facilitated the rise of the welfare-warfare state; and burdened Americans with a hidden, constantly increasing, and regressive inflation tax.
MLK's family has been adamant and unanimous: James Earl Ray did not kill the civil rights leader. Many of MLK's associates share the view. We do know how the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover harassed King for years before his death. What might the conspiracy to kill King look like and why is it important 51 years later?
The foundation and root of Socialist ideas are government power and violent force. Socialist governments, both past and present, have produced the largest death counts (of their own citizens) without question. They're in a league of their own. With that being the case, Socialist ideas are constantly being re-named, re-wrapped, and re-packaged in order to get the public to finally acquiesce. Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is delivering a message. Should we care?
An apparent suicide bombing in Manbij, northern Syria, has taken the life of four US service members and several civilians. ISIS has taken credit for the attack. Neocons cite the attack as proof that we should stay. The rest of us cite the attack as more proof that we should leave. Where will Trump come down?
A shocker article in the Daily Caller this week blew the lid on what it's really like among all those "public servants" working in the Federal bureaucracy: about 85 percent of them do nothing at all related to their jobs. With thousands of "workers" furloughed, the government offices are actually working better than ever. Is there a lesson in this somewhere???
|
Archives
April 2024
|