A friend of liberty sent me an email the other day with a subject that read, "Mass Arrests at White House as Soldiers Put Their Bodies on the Line for PEACE". In this email was a link to a YouTube video shot on a snowy Thursday, December 16th 2010, featuring war veterans from our wars in Vietnam, the first Iraq war, and many fresh from Afghanistan and Iraq. Before I clicked the link, I thought of my experience when I was in Washington D.C. back about a year ago and walking in front of the White House. Standing there by the fence were a few wacko hippies protesting Nuclear Arms. I assumed these type of people were constantly standing out front of our President's home always yelling about unfair this and baby killer that, so I assumed the same about the video emailed to me. I thought, oh great, a video of a bunch of hippies yelling about something they clearly have no understanding of. I was wrong. In this 13 minute video by Skylightmedia films, I discovered very quickly these men and women are not burned out hippies, but Purple Heart awarded soldiers, Rangers, and infantry men and women who have seen death and destruction at the hands of the Untied States and have decided to stand up for something greater.
The media did not pick up on this little protest that got 131 people arrested. You did not see this on the nightly news or read about it on the front page of USA Today. These heroes have seen the error in our offensive wars based on greed and power and have chosen to speak out. I applaud them because they are the people that make a difference. The man speaking in this 13 minute video is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges, and his speech that is not only succinctly accurate but moving, provides an extraordinary overlay for this documentary.
As I watched and listened, I pictured Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler in the crowd. For those who do not know who Smedley Butler was, he was America's most decorated general who fought during World War I and witnessed first hand the destruction of war. During the Great Depression he wrote a book called "War is a Racket" and two quotes stood out to me as I watched this documentary.
"War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."
"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights."
We are in the longest conflict in American history and it has not made us safer, richer, wiser, more powerful, or popular. What it has done is destroyed our economy, made people from around the world hate us, and increased recruitment for terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Asia. The heroes of American liberty and freedom are not fighting in the Middle East, they're fighting right here at the steps of our Capitol.
Points, Pondering, and Truth
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
They first came for my income and I said nothing, now they come for my savings
Martin Niemöller was a pastor and theologian in Germany during the rise of the Nazi regime. Pastor Niemoller, like most Germans at the time, believed Hitler was a great man, and he was going to save Deutschland. Soon, though, the pastor discovered the truth. Hitler was a dictator, hell bent on creating an all powerful state. Money, businesses, freedom, and even your life were expected sacrifices for the Nazi regime. The Jews of course would be another story. Seizure of the economy and the money was the key to full control. Socialist all over the world understand, if you control the money, you control the economy, and you control the people.
Today, Europe is standing at a precipice about to go over the edge. The government elites of each European country know their time is short, and realize their parasitic ways are coming to an end, the money is disappearing. Panic is setting in. What to do? The answer is...Go after savings, and force the people to invest in the government. Jan Iwanik, writer for the CSM (Christian Science Monitor)uses a great quote from a classic gangster movie when describing these tactics, "the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse". Hungary, Bulgaria, France, and Poland are confiscating the retirement savings of it's citizens. First, Iwanik points to the Hungarians, and how their government is forcing individuals to remit their money into a state run program. He says, "They (Hungarians) could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings". Bulgaria, in similar fashion is trying to confiscate $300m in private retirement funds. France and Poland have taken $33bn from the national reserve pension, which is a public fund, intended on being used in 2020 - 2040 and using it to fund pensions now. Good luck to the younger generation, because there will be no money come 2020. Poland seems to be a little more "generous" because their government only wants to seize 1/3 of future savings.
All parasites eventually die, either the host figures out the parasite is killing it, or the parasite kills the host. I believe in Europe the parasite will kill the host before it dies. The money can only be siphoned off so many times before there is none left. The welfare state can only go on so long, and Europe is no exception.
You would think in America we wouldn't have to worry about the government seizing our savings, they would never do something so despicable. Oh, think again. When governments see the real possibility of losing power or control they will resort to any tactic to retain it. With the U.S. running a $14tr deficit the power elites know what this means and will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo. In the U.S. they came for the income of the working class in 1913 by instituting the income tax. This was ironically the same time the Federal Reserve was created, and the people said nothing. It is just a matter of time, before they come for our savings, and investments, and when they do will we be strong enough to say, no.
In prison, after the Nazi government arrested Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller he wrote a poem, and I find it fits the situation of today, not just in Europe, but in the U.S. as well.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Today, Europe is standing at a precipice about to go over the edge. The government elites of each European country know their time is short, and realize their parasitic ways are coming to an end, the money is disappearing. Panic is setting in. What to do? The answer is...Go after savings, and force the people to invest in the government. Jan Iwanik, writer for the CSM (Christian Science Monitor)uses a great quote from a classic gangster movie when describing these tactics, "the government made the citizens an offer they could not refuse". Hungary, Bulgaria, France, and Poland are confiscating the retirement savings of it's citizens. First, Iwanik points to the Hungarians, and how their government is forcing individuals to remit their money into a state run program. He says, "They (Hungarians) could either remit their individual retirement savings to the state, or lose the right to the basic state pension (but still have an obligation to pay contributions for it). In this extortionate way, the government wants to gain control over $14bn of individual retirement savings". Bulgaria, in similar fashion is trying to confiscate $300m in private retirement funds. France and Poland have taken $33bn from the national reserve pension, which is a public fund, intended on being used in 2020 - 2040 and using it to fund pensions now. Good luck to the younger generation, because there will be no money come 2020. Poland seems to be a little more "generous" because their government only wants to seize 1/3 of future savings.
All parasites eventually die, either the host figures out the parasite is killing it, or the parasite kills the host. I believe in Europe the parasite will kill the host before it dies. The money can only be siphoned off so many times before there is none left. The welfare state can only go on so long, and Europe is no exception.
You would think in America we wouldn't have to worry about the government seizing our savings, they would never do something so despicable. Oh, think again. When governments see the real possibility of losing power or control they will resort to any tactic to retain it. With the U.S. running a $14tr deficit the power elites know what this means and will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo. In the U.S. they came for the income of the working class in 1913 by instituting the income tax. This was ironically the same time the Federal Reserve was created, and the people said nothing. It is just a matter of time, before they come for our savings, and investments, and when they do will we be strong enough to say, no.
In prison, after the Nazi government arrested Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller he wrote a poem, and I find it fits the situation of today, not just in Europe, but in the U.S. as well.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
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