Tag Archives: Independence

Taxation With Representation, by Eric Peters

Posted on July 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Being able to vote for your unfreedom doesn’t make you any less unfree. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Today, Americans celebrate their independence – from what, exactly?

From Great Britain? Why should that be cause for celebration? What have Americans gained thereby?

Was it “taxation” – with “representation”? Is this in fact the case? And if so, can it be accounted an improvement?

The fundamental thing is this business of taxation. Everyone knows what it means – the obligatory handing over (one isn’t “paying”) of money, unwillingly, to be used to finance things the person made to hand over the money almost certainly does not wish to finance. Hence the necessary element of threats – of physical violence – leveled and implicit in every tax, to coerce the handing over.

In other words, strong-arm robbery – as distinct from mere theft, which is a lesser thing because it is generally done without overt violence or threats thereof. The thief steals in the manner of an opportunistic fox, who sees that the henhouse is open. It would be robbery rather than mere theft if the fox – armed with a gun – sent you a letter declaring that you “owed” him a chicken and had better deliver it to him by such-and-such a date. 

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Government, Politics, Propaganda, Taxes

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Independence Day, by James Howard Kunstler

Posted on July 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

We’ll celebrate independence in spirit until we can celebrate it is as fact. From James Howard Kunstler at kunstler.com:

The Party of Chaos is draping its narrow shoulders in black crepe this Fourth of July, putting on funereal airs, which is actually just another cynical act in their remorseless performance of pretending to care about our country, as everything they touch goes to shit, blood, and ruin. Anything not that, they would like you believe, is “right-wing extremism” and “domestic terrorism.” Such as reminding your fellow citizens that there’s an upside to the rule-of-law and free speech, two niceties of the constitution the Party of Chaos is working hard to dispose of.

Understand that this Party of Chaos is insane, and rejoice this holiday weekend that you are not them. Independence, after all, was not just throwing off the yoke of King George III, but of establishing conditions for a people to thrive and pursue happiness without nefarious interference by vicious authorities of a leviathan state. That was something worth fighting for in 1776 and worth fighting for now.

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Critical Thinking in Troubled Times, by William Bernard Butler

Posted on April 18, 2022 | 2 comments

Thinking for one’s self and thinking well may, in these troubled times, mean the difference between life and death. From William Bernard Butler at williambernardbutler.com:

In a matter of about a month, the United States federal government silently and unilaterally exited from a two-year war on an illusory, and perhaps illusionary, virus, and pivoted toward fomenting and provoking a kinetic war with a nuclear-armed Russia.  While many people in the U.S. unquestioningly and dutifully removed their masks and started using the Ukrainian flag emoji on their iPhones and social media feeds, the rest of us are left with trying to discern between whether we are on the precipice of a kinetic World War III or simply witnessing a bankrupt and petrodollar-dependant Leviathan in its death throes.

Or perhaps both.

As a sign of the times, this week I witnessed a 40-something year old black cop at a gas station speaking to the 50-something white station owner when the cop said, “I am so sick of this fear bull*@$t, as soon as they put the Covid bottle of fear back on the shelf, they take the Ukraine fear bottle off and put it in front of people and yell lies at them until they are actually afraid!  Don’t people know that all this BS only benefits the people trying to control you!”  He was wearing a mask strapped absurdly far under his chin.  When asked why he was wearing a mask, he said:  “So I can ask everyone who two weeks ago was asking me to pull up my mask why they aren’t wearing theirs anymore!  I’m going to keep wearing it like this until they wake up!”

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Collapse, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Government, History, Media, Medicine, Military, Politics, Propaganda, War

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Remembering Our Independence, by Eric Peters

Posted on July 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Independence, if it is to mean anything at all, must mean that one political subdivision can secede from another. That is, after all, what the American revolutionaries did. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

 
 
 

This weekend marks another 4th of July, the day marking the announcement by representatives of the American states that they were seceding from the British empire. It is impolitic to mention that fact nowadays.

It does not make it less a fact, of course.

Nor less sound, as an idea.

Secession is nothing more than parting ways – peacefully, ideally – from those who do not share your point of view. We secede in this manner, on an individual basis, in everyday life all the time. We hang out with, date and even marry people with whom we have common interests and goals. Because we like them – and because we want to.

If we do not have common interests or goals we usually agree to disagree and go our separate ways.

 

Who can reasonably argue with the soundness of this? Who likes the idea of being forced into association with others who do not share the same interests and aspirations? Indeed, with others who have opposite interests and aspirations? Who do not like – and even hate – us?

Is that not a guarantee of fractiousness? Who benefits from that? At best, you have a bully – and the bullied. At worst, you have legalized bullying in the form of this thing we commonly refer to as government – which is mechanism  of coercion by which people with dissonant likes, interests and aspirations are forced into association and punished for attempting to peacefully secede from.

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The War for Dependence, by Jeff Thomas

Posted on August 3, 2020 | 1 comment

Our forefathers fought for independence. Today’s revolutionaries want someone to take care of them. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

War for Dependence
No, that’s not a typo.

In 1776, residents of the American colonies took the very risky step of going to war with a then-powerful Britain – a War for Independence.

At that time, it was quite a courageous act, one that was a direct result of grievances:

Taxation: Colonists were angry over increased taxation, which at that time was only about 1%. But they got little in return, as the UK did not defend them against the native Americans. Colonists were instructed to sort out their own protection.

Production: The colonists were also angry because most of their export product went to the UK and they were paid very little for it, whilst goods shipped from England to the colonies carried a high price, which often left the colonists in debt to English exporters.

Self-determination: But they particularly resented the fact that, although the colonies functioned quite well on their own, and local representatives in the House of Burgesses were entirely capable of establishing law for the colonies, the UK made the bigger legislative decisions. These decisions were often regarded as arbitrary or usurious.

The colonists rightly concluded that Mother England regarded the colonies as milk cows, and the colonists longed to go it alone.

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Dispatches from the War: New York, Trump, Physical Freaks, by Jon Rappoport

Posted on August 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

There’s hardly a spark of life in America, none of the independent spirit that once made it great. From Jon Rappoport at nomorefakenews.com:

Take a deep breath. Ready? In today’s episode of the current president in the iron mask, and a 77-year-old physical freak, Biden, with a brain aneurysm (and twelve doctors) who won’t make it through the swearing-in ceremony if he’s elected, leaving the fate of the nation to one Kamala Harris; and a country smoking in ruins, sold out by Fauci to the Chinese—hold your horses, no self-respecting B studio will green-light this mess, it could never happen, this is America, this is the land of the rednecks with big guns ready to invade governors’ offices alongside coiffed soccer moms who see their kiddies quarantined and locked down in schools after several snot-bubble sneezing third graders test positive on a viral assay geared to inflate case numbers…

What do they have on President Trump? Is it his taxes? Something much worse? A night in a hotel room? I’m asking, because the US GDP has just dropped more than 30 percent this past quarter—the greatest collapse in US history. Bar none. And what is the president saying, what is he doing? Besides wearing a black mask. And talking about operation warp speed to develop a killer Gates vaccine. And wondering whether the presidential election should be postponed.

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Secession Is the Answer to Building a Free Society, by Gary D. Barnett

Posted on January 22, 2020 | 2 comments

Those of us who love freedom don’t need to convert the entire world or even the entire US to our view. We just need a chunk of land we can defend where we can practice what we believe in—freedom. From Gary D. Barnett at lewrockwell.com:

“Once one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as in a state of impermissible ‘anarchy’, why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighbourhood? Each block? Each house? Each person?” ~  Murray N. Rothbard (2004). “Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, Scholar’s Edition”, p.1051, Ludwig von Mises Institute

The question seemingly always raised is that the idea of true freedom sounds good, but how do we do it? What is the single plan to fix everything? Obviously, there is not one answer or any legitimate short answer to this question, and those that ask it, are usually not really interested in real freedom in the first place. In fact, most people do not want the responsibility of freedom, and that makes the government’s job easy, because as a rule, the only thing required by the state to keep the apathetic public at bay, is to offer them safety and benefits. They are happy to remain slaves, so long as they can get the things they want without much effort, and can through their proxy government, use others to gain for themselves.

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Independent From What? by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on July 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

How free and independent are Americans today? From Raúl Ilargi Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

There’s something wonderfully -though at the same time sadly- ironic in simultaneously contemplating America’s Independence Day and Greece’s NO! (OXI!) vote three years ago that was subsequently defeated by it own prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, at the behest of the European Union’s powers that be.

Where Americans managed to break free of their yoke in 1776, the Greeks did not. Indeed, they were betrayed by their own. There are certainly plenty of similarities with the Declaration of Independence to be made, plenty voices and forces that sought to defeat the Founding Fathers. In the end, the result is simple: the Americans succeeded in breaking free, the Greeks did not.

It’s just that this is not where the story halts; it’s not the whole story. You can say that the Greeks are not independent while the Americans are, but that is true in name only. What does that famous American independence consist of?

How free and independent are Americans really today? In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower famously talked about the military-industrial complex that the nation should beware of, but 62 years later is seems safe to say his warning was not heeded.

Donald Trump ran on a non-interventionist platform, but the military-industrial complex appears to have him gift-wrapped up and ready for delivery a year and a half into his presidency. Under Trump, the US have dropped more bombs than even under Obama, no small feat.

It is of course well understood that if you justify such action properly through the media, the people will buy about anything when it comes to waging war abroad, but it’s still not what people voted for. They are not independent of the war machine.

And you can take this one step further. You can ask how independent a nation can really be if its citizens never learn to have independent thought, if they are deliberately never taught how to think for themselves. How can you be independent if and when other people define your thought and views?

To continue reading; Independent From What?

 

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Catalonia’s Independence Showdown Nears, Investors Fret, by Don Quijones

Posted on September 12, 2017 | 1 comment

Catalonia looks sets to hold a referendum that the Spanish government has declared illegal. Devolution and decentralized are the theme of our age. From Don Quijones at wolfstreet.com:

After years of simmering tensions, the biggest showdown yet between Barcelona and Madrid appears to be just weeks away. On Oct 1, the regional government of Catalonia plans to hold a referendum on national independence, in complete defiance of Spain’s central government in Madrid. As a last show of strength, an estimated one million separatists filled the streets of Barcelona, a city of just one and a half million people, for Catalonia’s national holiday, La Diada, on Monday.

Companies and investors are somewhat less enthused by the prospect of a head-on clash between Madrid and Catalonia, Spain’s richest and fastest-growing regional economy. An increasing number of financial firms, analysts and rating agencies are finally warning that what began as a largely political (and perfectly avoidable) crisis has the potential to spiral into a financial maelstrom that could spread far beyond the borders of both Catalonia and Spain.

Catalonia accounts for almost one-fifth of the nation’s economic output, but for years it’s been locked out from the capital markets and unable to issue its own debt, which is in deep junk territory. As such, it depends on the central government’s national liquidity fund (FLA) for about 60% of its funding, while the central government depends on Catalonia’s tax revenues to keep meeting its financial obligations.

This mutually dependent relationship has been under heavy strain ever since 2010, when Spain’s highly politicized Supreme Court, at the urging of the People’s Party, then in opposition but now in govermnent, decided to annul many of the articles of the new Statute of Autonomy signed in 2006 between Spain’s previous Zapatero government and Catalonia’s regional government, effectively stripping the agreement of any meaning.

The same court, once again at the urging of the PP, now at the head of a minority government in Madrid, just suspended Catalonia’s latest legislative move to allow a referendum on national independence. This time, however, Catalonia’s regional government is refusing to back down despite the ominous threats emanating from Madrid of criminal proceedings. Depending on which side of the fence you’re on, it is either a criminal act of treason or a heroic act of rebellion.

To continue reading: Catalonia’s Independence Showdown Nears, Investors Fret

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He Said That? 7/3/15

Posted on July 3, 2015 | Leave a comment

A paragraph from F.A. Hayek in The Road to Serfdom captures the state of our society better than this weekend’s paeans to the independence we once had, cherished, and were willing to fight for:

Thus, the more we try to provide full security by interfering with the market system, the greater the insecurity becomes; and, what is worse, the greater becomes the contrast between the security of those to whom it is granted as a privilege and the ever increasing insecurity of the underprivileged. And the more security becomes a privilege, and the greater the danger to those excluded from it, the higher will security will be prized. As the number of the privileged increase and the difference between their security and the insecurity of the others increases, a completely new set of social values gradually arise. It is no longer independence but security which gives rank and status, the certain right to a pension more than confidence in his making good which makes a young man eligible for marriage, while insecurity becomes the dreaded state of the pariah in which those who in their youth have ben refused admission to the haven of a salaried position remain for life.

Independence has been traded for security, and as surely as night follows day, we will end up with neither.

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