TDV Week in Review February 17th, 2013

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In the Old Testament, Abraham begged God to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if only a small number of righteous people could be found within those cities: 50 righteous people to be exact. The Lord agreed. Abraham quickly realized that finding even fifty righteous people in those towns would be a stretch and so began to bargain God down. In a show of Semitic fortitude, Abraham told the Most High, "How about 45, Lord? Maybe 40...or 30...or 20..?" Eventually God agreed to spare the cities if just ten people could be found to make the other thousands worth saving. The latest news this week makes me wonder if there are enough people in the US to make it worth saving, too. 

According to a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll 56 percent of American are just fine with "high-level" terrorists being targeted in drone strikes. 13 percent said no one should be killed by drones, but just as many said anyone even suspected of being a terrorist ought to be obliterated from on high if the president said so.

A couple of things: "high-level terrorist" seems to be retroactively applied to just about anyone killed by a drone...and the US government in general and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president (who promised to roll back the American war machine) in particular seem very eager to expand the list of people who can be targeted in the first place. Right now it's brown men who speak a funny language in a faraway place. But while Americans opine as to whom their government should blow up, their government is swinging the artillery to point squarely at Americans themselves. Drones will be monitoring entire cities in the US, streaking across the skies with their bellies ringed with missiles, and hovering like hummingbirds or swarms of insects outside your window and maybe in your home itself. 

It's also really funny how the people who would have been protesting these aggressive military policies and use of drones under George W. Bush are so eagerly embracing these policies under Obama. And this isn't some wild accusation from right wingers or anti-state voluntaryists either. No less than the elitist left NY Times has said as much (emphases mine):

For four years, Mr. Obama has benefited at least in part from the reluctance of Mr. Bush's most virulent critics to criticize a Democratic president. Some liberals acknowleged in recent days that they were willing to accept policies they once would have deplored as long as they were in Mr. Obama's hands, not Mr. Bush's.

"We trust the president," former Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan said on Current TV. "And if this was Bush, I think that we would all be more up in arms because we wouldn't tust that he would strike in a very targeted way and try to minimize damage rather than contain collateral damage."

You have to wonder if the former governor counts as "minimal collateral damage" the 52 innocent people, more than half of whom were women and children, whom Mr. Obama killed in his first attempt to obliterate an American citizen without due process. Not that due process would excuse state violence, but you would think that lack of process would make the apologists for state violence at least a little nervous...especially when their Nobel Peace Prize-winning president not only eventually killed that American citizen but also his 16-year-old son with more than a little tough guy bravado ("He should have chosen his father's friends better because we really don't mind blowing up children to show the world who's boss"). 

Left and right don't really describe political persuasion so much as they describe the left-right march of every statist society toward tyrannical totalitarianism (and let me just take a minute to offer a whimsical mocking laugh for the apologists who make fun of terms like "totalitarianism" and comparisons of the US to Soviet Russia or Fascist Germany; these people are getting cartoon-like in their denial). Behold how under Obama "liberal Democrats" now embrace the same militaristic aggression and domestic police state that they would have protested under George W. Bush. How much more evidence do people need that politics is a sham meant to distract them...a false fight that the state always wins no matter what the outcome of any of these joke elections? 

One thug says vote for me and I will stop the handouts and give you more security. Another thug says vote for me and I will give you more butter and silence the guns. Yet under all these thugs both the welfare and warfare increase, both privacy and liberty decline. The tax farm animals in the meanwhile are kept complacent with the illusion of choice. They're brainwashed almost from birth to believe there is honor in this choice, honor in using the proxy of the ballot to point guns at each other to take each other's money and tell each other what to do.

And the state grows all the while. This time with the redistributionist thief-prince touting peace and love and instead raining death and ruin. Not only is he using flying robots to blow up his foreign enemies and whatever innocents happen to be standing within 1000 feet of them; he's also presiding over the US government's biggest push to eradicate privacy completely. Make no mistake. There will be drones big and small absolutely everywhere (much more on dealing with this in upcoming issues of TDV Homegrown for those who won't be able to leave the US and will have to make the best of life here in the police States). 

At the very least, the state will want to have a record of absolutely everything you do at all times. In public and in your home as well as online. The laws will grow even more numerous and complex till you don't have a hope of complying with them all. You will be free to move about only by the state's whim since you will technically be able to be fined, arrested or both at any given time. And if you really annoy the regime with things like criticism or a wake up call to your fellow tax slaves, then don't be surprised if the state sends a missile-laden drone to rap gently on your front door to have a word with you. 

By the way, according to the legend not even ten people were found in Sodom and Gomorrah to make those cities worth saving in the eyes of the Lord of Hosts. The one righteous guy, Lot, and his small family were told to get the hell out of Sodom before the fireball of an angry god flattened and charred the city. Suggesting that an angry god may be sending his wrath America's way is enough to get you hit with a drone missile these days...so I want to make it clear that that's not what I'm saying. Though it's probably accurate to say that there is economic and social strife galore on the way as well as a hellfire missile or two for dissidents. What I am definitely saying is that life in this land will be getting harder both economically and politically. You'd do well to start laying your treasures -- and planning to get yourself -- elsewhere. 

Regards,

Gary Gibson
Editor, The Dollar Vigilante

P.S. There are interesting times ahead and definitely better places to spend them than the US. If you are in a position to leave, may we gently but sincerely suggest you make good on it. And allow TDV to help with building your life abroad. Let us help you get on the New Underground Railroad to more freedom by clicking here. If you're stuck for the duration, let us help you survive in (relative) comfort and style...even thrive in the growing Orwellian police state... Just sign up to follow our reporting and advice in TDV Homegrown by clicking here. 

Well, the week was an odd one. It started with O'Bomber's State of the Union address, a template for the swift destruction of the USSA funded by your stolen tax dollars, and at some point the Pope quit, then it was Hallmark Day, and, well... That's enough of a week to drive you to drink, isn't it? So, let's sober up with a review of TDV's week of provocative and insightful writings.

Here’s what we wrote about this week…

MONDAY, February 11

Should Americans Emigrate or Defect?

Wendy McElroy explores the distinction between emigration and defection, and how that distinction benefits prospective expat Americans.

“America still allows emigration; the door has not yet slammed. But America punishes the act and it is proposing legislation to punish it more. For example, a bill called the Ex-PATRIOT Act is in the Senate. Its full name is the Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy Act, and it would ban anyone who expatriates from ever setting foot again on American soil. As the law stands today, the “exit tax” for those who emigrate without renouncing citizenship is to be saddled with a US tax liability in perpetuity; in short, double taxation. The “exit tax” for those who renounce citizenship is the complexity of the process and a confiscation of wealth from those who have it. This is a fiscal Berlin Wall. Those who quietly leave and “stay gone” without notifying the U.S. state are similar to pre-wall East Berliners. They fall somewhat between emigrants and defectors, with their main reason for silence being to escape notice. Hopefully, the door for them to do so will remain open.”

continue reading…

TUESDAY, February 12

Arnie Texton: Living Large on a Little in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Jim Karger interviews ex-wrestler, ex-pat Arnie Texton.

"'How do you spend your average day in San Miguel de Allende?'

"'Get up about 6am. Spend a couple of hours on the computer. Then head for the gym. Work out a couple of hours. Then I go home, make myself lunch and then take a siesta, and then take a nice long walk in the afternoon. I never turn the TV on until about 5pm and that's about it unless I get a phone call from a friend who wants to go out to the bars and then I will go with them. Pretty tranquil life.'

"'Do you miss work?'

"'Fuck no! I don’t have to work, but if I want to travel I need to take jobs from time to time. Otherwise, no, I don’t miss it. And, besides, I usually end up spending all the money I make working partying in each place. So, it pays to stay at home.'"

continue reading…

WEDNESDAY, February 13

Madonna Had it All Wrong

Redmond Weissenberger on Argentina’s self-destructive economy.

“If uber-Keynesian and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wants to find paradise, he should journey down to Argentina. Immediately following the International Monetary Fund's censure over fudging its economic data, the government has frozen prices on every item in the nation's supermarkets. This just begs the question of why the Argentinean government needs to lie about its economic statistics. The answer is simple really. Like any state, it wants to paint itself in the best light by presenting a Potemkin village of happy citizens and a booming economy. In reality, the people in Argentina are suffering under a brutal bout of inflation. Private economists estimate the inflation rate has reached 30%- the very definition of hyperinflation.”

continue reading…

THURSDAY, February 14

The War is Over…And We Won

Jeff Berwick on the war “between collectivizing, coercive government and the allied forces of individualism, freedom and markets.”

“I understand if when I say that government has lost the war, you might think I'm crazy. After all, things look pretty bleak. Yes, the government is out of control in the US and in many other countries. But their actions are more like death throes. Like a big, mortally wounded beast, the state is lashing out with the strength and ferocity that comes from panic. It senses death approaching. And that may make it temporarily more dangerous. But the end is in sight. All their actions are actually reactions to the fact that they're losing. They are trying to close the doors, control the flow of information and restrict the flow of capital, but people are finding ways around everything (especially people like us and the people who read publications like this).”

continue reading…

FRIDAY, February 15

Feedback Friday – February 15, 2013

In this week’s Feedback Friday: rape in Acapulco, TDV and the military, the Twilight Zone, and much more.

read more here...

SATURDAY, February 9

The Weekend Vigilante February 16th, 2012

Jeff Berwick checks in from Acapulco and addresses Chris Dorner, Justin O’Connell’s drink spilling criminal record,  The Global Escape Hatch conference, and more.

continue reading...

TDV VIDEO

In this week’s featured video, Jeff Berwick joins Mike Shanklin on TRIPLE-V to discuss Taxation/War, National Debt, Public Education, The FED, Mexico, DROs, Peaceful Parenting, and much more...

And don’t forget to have a look at our wide array of informative videos featuring interviews, opinions, and analysis on TDV’s media page.

TDV SERVICES

Don't forget, TDV is much more than a newsletter.  We also offer many of the solutions to the problems we identify in the letter to help people internationalize their self and wealth to protect themselves from The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI). Check out all our services designed to help you gain more freedom in your life here:

• TDV Passports
• TDV Offshore
• TDV Self-Directed IRAs

Remember, if you have any questions, concerns, or issues with what you've read on TDV, write us at: tdv@dollarvigilante.com.

Thanks as always for reading or subscribing!

Managing Editor

 

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