Will presidential hopeful Joe Biden choice of a pro-war authoritarian as his running mate give him the edge over Trump? Is there any issue Kamala Harris is not terrible on from a libertarian point of view? But there is good news out of Washington: President Trump has chosen a new coronavirus advisor who opposes lockdowns and believes the virus is actually under control. Will Fauci start packing his bags?
Across the United States authoritarians are clamoring for a return to lockdown over what they claim is a resurgence of coronavirus infections. Despite the data not supporting that conclusion, they want to shut the economy down and further destroy life in the US. They point to Europe's success with lockdowns - even as there appears to be a resurgence of cases in Europe. What is most shocking and striking is that no one in authority in the US is calling for us to emulate the one country that appears to have beat the virus thus far: Sweden. Why can't they even utter the word "Sweden"?
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By Ron Paul
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed the next multi-trillion dollar "coronavirus relief” spending bill that will support testing, tracing, treatment, isolation, and mask policies that have been part of a “national strategic plan” she has been advocating. The Trump administration is not opposing Pelosi’s plan on principle. Instead, it is haggling over the price. But, even if the strategic plan could be implemented at little or no monetary cost, it would still impose an unacceptable cost in lost liberty. Pelosi’s plan will lead to either a federal mask mandate or federal funding of state and local mask mandate enforcement. Those who resist wearing masks could likely be reported to the authorities by government-funded mask monitors. We can label this the “Stasi” approach to health policy, after the infamous East German secret police force. Contact tracing could lead to forcing individuals to download a tracing app. The app would record where an individual goes and alert authorities that an individual has been near someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. The strategic plan could eventually include Bill Gates' and Anthony Fauci’s suggestion that individuals receive “digital certificates” indicating they are vaccinated for or immune to coronavirus. A certificate would be required before an individual can go to work, to school, or even to the grocery store. The need to demonstrate vaccination for or immunity to coronavirus in order to resume normal life would cause many people to “voluntarily” receive a potentially dangerous coronavirus vaccine. The Trump administration has already spent billions of dollars to support efforts of companies to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Policymakers have stated that once a vaccine is developed it will be rushed into production and onto the market. Supporters of expediting production and use of a vaccine should remember the 1976 swine flu vaccine debacle. The swine flu vaccine was rushed into production in response to political pressure to “do something.” The result was a vaccine that was more of a danger than the flu. Unfortunately, those who raise legitimate concerns regarding the safety of vaccines are smeared as “conspiracy theorists.” This is the equivalent of stating that anyone who dares criticize our interventionist foreign policy “hates freedom” and is probably a “terrorist sympathizer.” The coronavirus panic has given new life to the push for a unique patient identifier. The unique patient identifier was authorized in 1996, but appropriations bills since 1998 have contained a provision forbidding the federal government from developing and implementing the identifier. Unfortunately, two weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the ban. The unique patient identifier would aid government efforts to track and vaccinate every American, as well as to infringe in other ways on liberty in the name of “health.” Politicians and bureaucrats cannot eliminate a virus any more than they can eliminate terrorism. What they can do is use terrorism, a virus, and other real, exaggerated, or manufactured crises to expand their power at the expense of our liberty. Politicians will never resist the temptation to use crises as excuses to gain more power. Therefore, it is up to those of us who know the truth to spread the message of liberty and grow the liberty movement, A strong liberty movement is the only thing that can force the politicians to stop stealing our liberty while promising phantom security from terrorists and viruses.
A Nashville, TN councilwoman has proposed charging anyone not wearing a mask with either murder or attempted murder. Is it any wonder violence, anger, and fear is spreading even as coronavirus deaths continue to decline? Why are they doing this? Also today, dentists report a surge in cavities and gum disease among people wearing masks. Kansas health official busted faking charts to falsely inflate effectiveness of mask-wearing. Big motorcycle rally in South Dakota - no masks!
By Jeff Deist Judy Shelton, a Trump nominee to the Fed Board of Governors, may not have coined the excellent term "Fed bug," but she used it to delicious effect in this 2019 Financial Times interview: “People call me a goldbug, and I think, well, what does that make them? A Fed bug,” she says. Can anyone the New York Times attacks this dishonestly be all bad? For our purposes, Fed bugs are people with a faith-based belief in the power of central banks (and central bankers) to engineer economic growth using "monetary policy," despite decades of history and current evidence to the contrary. They believe tinkering with inputs and rates and velocity and flows somehow makes us richer in terms of productivity, goods, and services. They believe in financial alchemy, as economist Nomi Prins puts it, rather than precious metals. They believe paper has value so long as government issues it and legislates its use. Most of all, they believe in technocratic control over money in the economy. Central bankers almost by definition are Fed bugs, but so are most monetary economists, financial journalists, and politicians. And they all hate gold with a passion. The reasons why are multifarious, but ultimately flow from their fundamental resentment of any money they do not control and cannot design. Central planning requires central money, and gold stands apart by its very decentralized nature. It is indifferent to human conceptions, and can be discovered and summoned from the earth only with tremendous risk and effort. It cannot easily be manipulated or destroyed, and its value cannot be decreed (though they try mightily). It is unchanging, unyielding, and stubbornly at odds with the political visions of Fed bugs. And so they hate it. They hate gold because it never goes away and never goes to zero. It holds monetary value intrinsically, without the imprimatur of a sovereign or government. Gold does not need the state or its bankers to operate as money, because individuals choose it as money on the market century after century. Even after more than a century of political efforts to erase gold's status as money, the public still views it as such. Gold quietly serves as a lingering rebuke of the entire political fiat money project—even as central banks are forced by circumstances to buy and hold it as collateral, as the ultimate hard currency and liquid asset for their balance sheets. In fact, central banks steadily bought or repatriated huge amounts of physical gold in recent years, despite the supposedly strong world economy prior to the covid crisis. During the transitional period leading up to the full adoption of the euro across the twelve original eurozone countries, Germans in particular secreted away millions of Deutschmarks in mattresses, closets, and safety deposit boxes. More than a decade after the euro came into widespread use, Germans still held €6.6 billion(!) in unconverted Deutschmark notes and coins according to the Bundesbank. The reason for this is very simple: those Germans distrusted, and continue to distrust, the stability and purchasing power of the euro. They fear a crisis, however unlikely, and protect themselves by holding a "harder" currency in case the euro depreciates rapidly someday. In other words, they prefer "buying" peace of mind by holding Deutschmarks to converting them to euros and buying goods or services. In the same way and for the same reasons, more and more Americans prefer exchanging some of their paper US dollars for physical gold. And yet the media campaign against gold continues. With Congress ordering magical fiscal bailouts from the Treasury, Trump conjuring up continued $600 weekly unemployment payments by executive order, and the Fed adding assets of every dubious stripe to its swollen $7 trillion balance sheet, gold prices predictably spiked to over $2,000 per ounce last week. Right on schedule, Fed bug journalists respond with a litany of "Gold is foolish, don't buy it!" articles. In fact they sound like real estate agents in reverse: there is never a good time to buy. Gold goes up relative to the dollar; it's overpriced and poised for a big fall. Gold falls below $1,100, as it did in 2015? See, we told you this worthless shiny metal was headed down! We rarely see this level of media vitriol and meta-analysis directed toward, say, the latest pump and dump medical device stock duping day traders on Robinhood. The share price of bankrupt Hertz car rental goes from $20 to 80¢ and back up to $5 in a matter of a few months with little public ire or fanfare. And yet gold, the hated and denounced relic of late night Fox News infomercials, outperformed equity markets over the last fifteen years despite its monetary rather than investment status. Gold is still here. FDR attempted to ban its private ownership and force conversion into dollars in 1933; Nixon eliminated the right of foreign governments to redeem US dollars for gold in 1971. Both men acted without Congress; both knew what their actions meant for savers and inflation. But gold has not faded away, if anything it grows in importance as fiscal and monetary policy across the West becomes increasingly unmoored. Here is what Ludwig von Mises had to say about gold as real money one hundred years ago: What the United States needs is not the gold-exchange standard but the Classical gold standard, decried by the inflationists as orthodox. Gold must be in the cash holdings of everybody. Everybody must see gold coins changing hands, must be used to having gold coins in his pockets, to receiving gold coins when he cashes his pay check, and to spending gold coins when he buys in a store. What a wonderful vision, and not an impossible one. Uncle Sam and virtually all Western nations have embarked on a campaign of money creation unlike any time in human history. Where it all leads, and how long it lasts, cannot be predicted. But a global currency crisis, precipitated by a falling US dollar and finally arriving here at home, is hardly unthinkable. At that point we may see a new supranational currency created, or we may see a flight to known commodity money like gold. When the day comes you might want some gold coins jangling in your pocket, or at least some gold-backed zeros glowing in your digital accounts. This article was originally published at The Mises Institute.
Politicians and Central Bankers attempt to do the impossible. They believe that with dictates and counterfeit money they can control the economy. The reality is the exact opposite. They only destroy the economy. Is it any wonder that the ultimate international money - Gold - has hit all-time highs in terms of The Fed's debased dollars? Gold has no ties to any politician or central banker. It is a source of independence. More and more people are wanting that kind of independence.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is desperately begging rich people to return to the state and to New York City. He's killed off the old people by sending Covid patients into nursing homes and he's killed off the economy by shutting down, but he's offered to cook a meal for any rich person who returns to the burned out shell of the former great city. Any takers? Plus in today's Report: LA Mayor: "Want to party? Try it without any electricity or water!" Houston begs people to get Covid tested after new "cases" continue to fall. And Sweden has advice on how to open schools. Should we listen to success?
By Chris Rossini
Liberty is the natural condition of every individual. We are thinking and choosing beings. The choices that we make produce consequences. We can't escape the consequences of our choices, but the liberty to make those choices is always there, and a part of us. Because no individual is all-knowing, it necessarily means that to a great degree, we are all ignorant. No matter how much knowledge we're able to cram between our ears during our time here, ignorant we will always be. Being ignorant, we will make mistakes. We will err, and experience the pain that comes along with making those errors. As unpleasant as it can be, mistakes and errors are a necessary part of life and cannot be eradicated completely. Now, of course an individual can err, learn from it, and never make the mistake again. In that sense, he can eradicate that error from his life. But he will always have the choice of making the error again. The option will always be there. Since we are always susceptible to error, it necessarily means we are very often faced with uncertainty. We often have to choose, without knowing in advance, exactly what is going to happen. So we're largely ignorant ... dealing with uncertainty ... and constantly taking risks. Needless to say, living as a human being is a risky adventure. There's no doubt about that. But wait, there's more... Other people! While you can personally discover and work in harmony with physical, biological, mathematical, and economic laws, you cannot know for sure how others will react to the choices that you make. You can't think and choose for them, just as they can't think and choose for you. You can guess how others will react. You may have a gut feel at times. You may make assumptions based on past experiences. But the past is dead and gone, never to be repeated in the same way again. The present moment is perfectly unique. So other people add tremendous uncertainty. All throughout history, these truths have bothered those who yearn for absolute certainty, who want to completely eliminate errors, pain, suffering, poverty and risk. They don't like that this is the setup of life, and they're going to do something about it. This is where the utopians and tyrants (and their many followers) come in. They're going to change life. They're going to "change the world," as they so often like to say. So, just when you thought that life was hard enough, dealing with the errors and mistakes, here come the utopians and tyrants to make everything exponentially harder! Their "policies" multiply errors on a grand scale...and they never want to stop. The worse they make things, the more "policies" they believe they need! They do not accept their ignorance. They believe themselves to be 'gifted' and 'exceptional.' And after all, everything that they do, they do in the name of "helping." They see a problem with Liberty. It does not eradicate error, pain and suffering. So the utopians, with all of their weapons, believe that if they just inflict enough violent force, or generate enough fear, they can bring about their uniform, and perfectly organized utopia. The utopians and tyrants believe that they will change human nature. If there's one truth about all of nature that every human being should accept, it's this: "You're not going to change it!" Nevertheless, the utopians don't want to hear that and onward they will march. They have often stated that they are on a mission to create a 'New Man.' This 'New Man' will think, value, prefer, and choose what he is told to think, value, prefer, and choose. This 'New Man' will obey. He will know nothing but obedience, and in being obedient will experience happiness like he's never imagined before. Oh, how the tyrants and utopians have tried, and continue to try to bring about their robot world. Oh, how their believers keep begging them to keep trying. And oh, how much devastation they have always brought onto themselves and onto countless innocent human beings. But the truth cannot be overturned. Man is not the Creator. In fact, man does not create anything. Man combines and re-arranges. He combines and re-arranges thoughts, and he combines and re-arranges the natural elements to suit his needs. But man cannot combine and re-arrange other men! This, the utopians and tyrants do not want to hear, and will completely ignore. The ideas of Liberty suggest the exact opposite of the tyrants and utopians. Just deal with others according to human nature. Live and let live. Voluntarily exchange ideas and voluntarily exchange products and services. The Declaration of Independence, signed by those courageous "traitors," acknowledged that everyone is "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These brave "rebels" were acknowledging and accepting the human being as it was created. They were not seeking to create a 'New Man.' If they did, the greatest flowering of life in human history would never have occurred. America would have been turned into a wasteland....and quick! Liberty is the key. It is not utopian. Liberty will not create a world without error or uncertainty. It will not create a world without pain, or poverty, or tragedy. Liberty does, however, provide the ability of better dealing with these fixtures of life, but will not eliminate them. Without a doubt, Liberty is far superior to all the utopians and tyrants. It allows the individual to navigate his way through this risky adventure that we call Life.
The authoritarians who have locked this country down ostensibly to fight the outbreak of a coronavirus are not going to let up once a vaccine is ready. Already we are seeing additional qualifiers and contingencies being made that will only serve to prolong their rule-by-decree. A vaccine is not going to end it. Also today: More Americans are saying "no" to any vaccine; CDC Director admits a financial incentive to list deaths as "Covid"; Gov. Whitmer cracks down harder...but why? And more...
According to a recent Axio-Ipsos poll, Americans are increasingly skeptical of the official case and death reports being served up by politicians and the mainstream media. Are we getting closer to the awakening needed to put an end to Covid tyranny? Plus in today's program: New York Times admits that lockdowns will kill more than Covid; What is happening to Australia; Houston Mayor threatens residents; and the real danger to Americans is not Covid according to this important map.
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