“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
There could really be another FLORIDA in the GOP column.
Note that I did NOT say “another DeSantis”. Jim Renacci has suggested that his administration would be a lot LIKE the DeSantis administration in Florida but he’s actually rather loath to compare himself directly to Ron DeSantis, or to any other Republican governor.
But when he does compare, he makes no bones about it.
No lockdowns, no gun control, and no CRT – Ohio needs a governor like Ron DeSantis. pic.twitter.com/CVA4WdYoTS
Renacci claims to have STUDIED DeSantis, just like he used to study his business competitors, in order to learn how they succeeded. Renacci says that DeSantis has a SYSTEM (which I will not repeat for enemy ears) that pipelines popular legislation to his desk very rapidly. Renacci is fully prepared to begin doing the same thing for Ohio in 2023, because he believes that conditions to create a similar system will be ideal after the 2022 election.
Renacci actually has a PLAN for Ohio – what he can accomplish in 4-8 years, and what he cannot. For example, Renacci figures that he cannot remove the state income tax during his tenure, but that he can prepare the state for a complete change in the tax system to happen AFTER his administration.
And all the stuff that we DO want right away, to push back against BRANDON and his insane, treacherous, WEF-and-China puppet administration? Renacci would begin signing bills as soon as he could get them across his desk.
Fox News, of course, as controlled FAKE NEWS opposition, is trying to downplay the possibility of Renacci winning.
Note that Fox is pegging Joe Blystone (the underdog, outsider, “Farmer Joe” candidate) with the same very respectable 20% segment as the Harris poll, but is dropping the much more realistic Renacci candidacy BELOW that level – which makes no sense. IMO there was a 20% transfer from Renacci to DeWine here, but I’m not sure how that artifact was pulled off.
So exactly how “DeSantis” would a Renacci administration actually be?
IMO, it would be as Republican as the House of the Ohio Legislature, which just gave DeWine a constitutional carry bill that he could not afford to “not sign”. That bill becomes law this summer.
That means Renacci would have legislative backing for moves like this.
It means getting RID of the critical race theory that DeWine’s appointees supported and defended to the very last liberal (yes, I was SHOCKED by that).
Whether it's called "Critical Race Theory" or "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," I will kick leftist propaganda out of our public schools.
Renacci has studied Mike DeWine, too. Renacci says that DeWine runs like a Republican for the primary, moves left for the general, and then TRIES to govern like a Democrat.
And Renacci’s not wrong about that.
Mike DeWine could have protected women's sports in Ohio last summer – he chose NOT to. https://t.co/0SeNTAiHZa
Mike DeWine’s a nice guy, but in my opinion he’s not committed to freedom. He signed the constitutional carry bill because he HAD to do it to win the primary – not because it was the right thing to do. DeWine called constitutional carry a “tough decision”. Not tough at all, says Renacci.
In my opinion, the only thing really standing in the way of Renacci is the media and lovable Joe Blystone, who the media plays up while ignoring Renacci. The media does this in order to keep Joe in the limelight and in viable “underdog” status, sapping votes from the more realistic and left-threatening competitor – Jim Renacci. You can tell – 20% of the vote is rather surprising for a third-party candidate. THAT is the power of the media, churning for Joe Blystone with “bad press”.
Will the media plan succeed? Will they “keep us divided” so that a RINO can slip through, yet again, to force all of Ohio to suffer a minority ideology that nobody wants?
Or will Renacci bring that Sweet Florida magic to Sweet Ohio?
You can bet a bushel of buckeyes, I will do my best to help freedom happen!
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
And indeed, it’s Monday…again.
But we WILL get through it!
…and we will have fun doing it, too!
The Rules
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
Bottom line – respect other people’s FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Our only additional requirement is that you do so NICELY. Or at least try to make some effort in that direction.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
You may also pray for our nation, our world, and even our enemies.
Call To Battle
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Day Year:
placeholder
noun
something which holds the place of another, such as this default post which “holds the place” of what would be an interesting and varied weekly Monday post.
verb
to do something to Eric Holder, as in “Please placeholder under arrest.”
In the fog of war, as I learned from the Balkans, the first side that the sheep are told to pick is usually the wrong side, which is not to say that the other side is great – it’s just less of an immediate danger. We in the Fakely Democratic West have learned the hard way that the phony Deep State narrative is usually a lie – it just takes some precious time to unravel it.
If you go back and check my postings on both this site, and at The Conservative Treehouse, you will see that for YEARS I have likened the eternal Russia-Ukraine love-hate marriage to an outlaw biker and drug dealer (Russia) with his floozy, junkie, common-law wife (Ukraine), who are constantly fighting and making up, and perpetually trying to involve everybody else in their fight, while scamming them ALL at the same time.
So when the mini-skirt beayatch Ukie comes to your door, BEGGING for help, fingers all grabby-grabby for those “my what strong biceps you have”, the smart play is to do whatever it takes to get her out of your life as QUICKLY and CLEANLY and PERMANENTLY as possible.
When her big biker boy Russ has an invitation and then a deal that seems too good to be true, hold that thought, because it’s not only too good to be true – it will put YOU in jail and HIM selling your house. The SMART play is to get out of whatever is coming NOW, because you likely WON’T be able to get out of whatever is coming NEXT.
Don’t call me “pro-Russian” just because I think that treating Russia without hypocrisy is the right thing to do. If WE have any right to the Monroe Doctrine, then so does Russia. That doesn’t mean I trust “Russ” any more than “Ukie”, or that “Russ” picked the smartest, best, or most inspired option here. I just trust GTFO-ing their world of hurt ASAP, and doing so on PRINCIPLES is usually a move that is automatically smarter than we are, BECAUSE GOD.
After seeing the results of NATObama’s immoral, haughty, and ill-advised over-expansion folly – daring to stupidly and corruptly push NATO into even-more-corrupt Ukraine, using his favorite bag-man, Joe Biden, and Joe’s stupid son, it is absolutely clear that we have corrupt but very clever geopolitical idiots behind this mess, working for the election-stealing, virus-releasing, globalist scum who got 1000 feet beyond the tips off their skis with their idiotic “Great Reset”.
Now. I could sit here and appeal to your logic all day, and it might wake you up, but I have a special treat that will wake you up faster.
Begin by questioning Ukie’s request for a sleep-over. This will help.
Be sure to watch the SECOND video. That’s the one you need most of all to WTFU.
You really want me to get in bed with these people, Adolph? FUCK YOU.
PS – Long before this crap, I was always astonished that the Ukrainians embraced the Nazis so fervently. The idea of Jazis like Soros and Schwab never even dawned on me.
Now I look back and just see how much of a dupe and a sheep I was. Evil is far more varied and inventive than what we were tricked into believing.
Are these videos disinformation? Are they propaganda? I don’t care. You need to embrace them to begin questioning. Right or wrong, don’t be afraid of the TRUTH that will come.
By the end of this, I’m betting you will agree with my little analogy.
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
And indeed, it’s Monday…again.
But we WILL get through it!
…and we will have fun doing it, too!
The Rules
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
Bottom line – respect other people’s FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.
Our only additional requirement is that you do so NICELY. Or at least try to make some effort in that direction.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
You may also pray for our nation, our world, and even our enemies.
Call To Battle
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
Joe Biden didn’t win.
And we will keep saying Joe Biden didn’t win until we get His Fraudulency out of our White House.
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Day Year:
placeholder
noun
something which holds the place of another, such as this default post which “holds the place” of what would be an interesting and varied weekly Monday post.
verb
to do something to Eric Holder, as in “Please placeholder under arrest.”
If Republicans don’t rein in DHS now, they will be unable to stop what’s coming – to your state, your city, and your county
TL;DR – If you know how to read the Mayorkas document (because it IS in fact his document), then you will understand that the purpose of the report is to purge non-RINO Republicans and MAGA Democrats from law enforcement – FIRST from DHS, and then from all branches of state, federal, and local government, as well as private contractors, which may take federal dollars or “partner” in any way with DHS.
INTRODUCTION
It is tempting to believe that “these people are stupid”, but in my opinion, that is a tragic mistake, and it is a good part of why everything is going to hell right now.
Never assume that your enemy is not also reading Sun Tzu, and perhaps excelling as a student.
The ChiComs have used “lulling” as a technique from the very beginning. I saw it up close, when I worked in a place I call “shallow state”. The CCP’s and PLA’s lieutenants took us over, with the aid of American Bolsheviks and globalists. They’re ALL very good at what they do.
Trust me – when a ChiCom “assures you” of anything positive about yourself or your side, what he or she is doing is solidifying your position for their next move. They are making sure you stay exactly where you are, so that you don’t mess up their plans to BEAT YOUR ASS.
American communists work the same way.
Alejandro Majorkas plays the bald idiot spectacularly, but he is not an idiot, and neither is Barack Obama, nor are any of the players between THEM and “Mr. Global”, whoever (s)he is.
Don’t think that “Q” is stupid for saying they’re stupid, either. It’s a complicated business.
“Think mirror corollary.”
Their Plan
Whether or not you believe there is some kind of “plan” by the “white hats” for “devolution”, I can tell you this.
Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security installed by Barack Obama and “Big Sister” Janet Napolitano, has a plan to get ahead of devolution, and YOU are paying for it.
Gateway Pundit has the story – but they don’t have all of it. They did NOT read the fine print.
This is not just bluster.
This is not just for the bureaucrats at DHS.
This is not just for “we the little people” going to Trump rallies.
This is how they are going to PURGE state and local government and law enforcement of MAGA Republicans, moderate Democrats, and anybody else who SPEAKS THE TRUTH.
This is the “Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Mitt Romney support policy”, but it goes far beyond the federal government.
This is an attack on RED states, RED counties, RED cities, and even BLUE moderates who are not willing to toe the communist line.
So how does it work? For that, we look at the document.
We will be looking CLOSELY at two words – INSIDER and CONTRACTOR. These words lead us to what Mayorkas is really up to.
Now, before we get started, I have to tell you how such documents work under cryptocommunist bureaucracy.
When the communists took over my old employer, which I call “shallow state”, their Bolshevik and globalist puppets (who were installed to work around the compromised and paralyzed normals) had to tamp down all “upward flow” of information – and particularly the idea that this information should result in any unapproved action. All action had to be approved TOP-DOWN, and in general, it needed to actually ORIGINATE top-down.
Once that was accomplished, the commies and their go-alongers restored what LOOKED like upward flow, but was actually a kind of FAKE upward flow.
Off the books, and off the record, lower-level commie-compliant managers were TOLD FROM ABOVE exactly what they were to request, suggest or propose, perhaps doing so in their own words. No matter what, that request, proposal or suggestion was then “approved”.
Anything that did not arise in such a fashion was “studied” but not approved. On rare occasions, when it suited management’s purposes, some such proposals WERE approved after long study, but only as SHAMS and COVER processes, designed to deceive and hide. Credit for the stolen, killed, and skin-suited project would then be given to an apparatchik in need of a new cap feather. Nothing good would result from these projects.
This is EXACTLY what we have here. Mayorkas was GIVEN exactly what he wanted and needed, albeit with some cover language by the working group to suggest independence. One way you can see that smoke signal is in the larger message (I’m paraphrasing) that:
“We found almost no problem at all, BUT HERE ARE 15 RECOMMENDATIONS THAT SOUND LIKE WE DID FIND A BIG PROBLEM.”
We KNOW that the millions of horrified and pissed-off LAW-ABIDING patriots are not “domestic violent extremists”. We know that people like us are not dangerous. We know that protected leftist violent groups like ANTIFA and BLM are the actual “domestic violent extremists”, and that this is an Orwellian reversal.
But THAT is all cover.
That is a DISTRACTION.
What is REALLY going on here is something underneath the “outrage” of calling Americans like us “domestic violent extremists”, or even just “potential domestic violent extremists”.
This image is social programming from some Hollywood toxin called “The Purge”. This “purge” is actually antithetical to the quiet, silent, stealthy, Stalinist, DHS-planned “purge” I am talking about, but in an Orwellian and Hegelian way, it is used to create enough FEAR in the minds of average Americans, that they go along with the communist plan to purge patriotic Americans from Government.
Goebbels would be proud.
This is psychological SLANDER. And yet, at the very same time, it’s a PART of this.
JFK understood exactly what the other side is doing. This is what the Democrat communists do by saying we cannot speak the truth about the deliberately broken election system.
They give us one apparent exit – violence – and dare us to go through it.
They are making it impossible for us to object peacefully, while they stand ready to turn our own government upon us if we even hint at trying anything else.
Antifa? No problem. They’re OWNED and PROTECTED by DHS and FBI.
Americans? Problem. We’re OPPOSED and SLANDERED by DHS and FBI.
OK – I’ve stalled long enough. I did have a reason – a very good reason.
I wanted you to appreciate the enemy’s tactics here. They are NOT STUPID.
The enemy has BOTH a strategy and tactics, and they are apparent in the Mayorkas Document.
Assuming that you read the Gateway Pundit article…..
…..let’s look at the document itself….. (H/T Gateway Pundit and SCRIBD)
If you just skim through this document, you will find fascinating stuff EVERYWHERE.
Start off with a point that MUST be made. The discussion of “who is a domestic violent extremist” completely ignores leftist violence.
I mean COMPLETELY.
Let me just put that into a quote for Zoe and other low-vision readers.
Current Domestic Violent Extremism Threat Landscape
A March 2021 unclassified threat assessment prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Department of Justice, and DHS, noted that domestic violent extremists“ who are motivated by a range of ideologies and galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021.”3 The assessment pointed to newer “sociopolitical developments such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence” that “will almost certainly spur some [domestic violent extremists] [sic] to try to engage in violence this year.”4
Report to the Secretary of Homeland Security Domestic Violent Extremism Internal Review Observations, Findings, And Recommendations
You can be damn sure, based on this, that the current bunch of [smart and devious] communist goofballs running DHS considers this blog to be a threat. Whatever. Keep it in mind. Act accordingly.
One of the things they do, right up front, is to put a LULL quote about protecting Constitutional rights at the end of a footnote. Yes, it’s just a footnote, and it’s just a sentence in that footnote, which isn’t even from this current study, but from a PRIOR one. Do not kid yourselves, in any case. This little qualifier means no real commitment, but it’s designed to promote self-deception by our side, and to provide some gristle for the FAKE NEWS FACT CHECKERS to say “toldjaso”.
MY EMPHASIS IN BOLD.
2 The Working Group used the definition provided in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s “Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021” assessment issued on March 1, 2021, which defines a domestic violent extremist as “an individual based and operating primarily in the United States without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power and who seeks to further political or social goals wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence.” It is important to note that the mere advocacy of political or social positions, political activism, use of strong rhetoric, or generalized philosophic embrace of violent tactics does not constitute extremism and is constitutionally protected.
This mealy-mouthed stuff can be used to EXCUSE Antifa and GO AFTER patriots at the very same time. Up is down, down is up, and DHS is in control for OBAMA.
The text of this footnote quote is not on its own indicative of the idea that they ARE going to go after patriots and NOT violent leftists like Antifa. However, the fact that their definition of DVE (domestic violent extremists) above is so highly politicized, trying to shift the entire message of DVE 100% away from their political allies, Antifa and BLM, and onto the victims of their phony buffalo jump narrative, tells you all that you need to know.
Now, to start seeing their plan, you need to search for the word insider in this document.
The word insider shows up 27 times in the document. Two of those are in the executive summary, right at the beginning.
I am including the ENTIRE executive summary, because it shows how there is no evidence of a NEED for what Mayorkas and the communists are doing, but “because there are gaps”, they are going to do it ANYWAY.
CLASSIC. Classic communist tactics.
EMPHASIS IN BOLD IS MINE.
These are points that lead to the motherlode.
Executive Summary
At Secretary Mayorkas’ direction, a cross-Departmental working group of senior officials conducted a comprehensive review of how to best prevent, detect, and respond to potential threats related to domestic violent extremism within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Department’s Chief Security Officer led the Domestic Violent Extremism Internal Review Working Group (Working Group), which included experts from across the Department, including from DHS oversight offices. The Working Group also consulted with several interagency partners during the course of its review.
The Working Group found very few instances of the DHS workforce having been engaged in domestic violent extremism. However, the Working Group assessed that the Department has significant gaps that have impeded its ability to comprehensively prevent, detect, and respond to potential threats related to domestic violent extremism within DHS. These gaps, which the Department is working with urgency to close, may have impacted DHS officials’ ability to adequately identify and address related threats, and include the following:
• a lack of an official definition of “domestic violent extremist,” guidance as to what constitutes violent extremist activity, and an established list of behaviors that may be indicators of domestic violent extremism;
• a lack of workforce training specific to identifying and reporting violent extremist activity;
• a lack of specialized training for those best situated to identify violent extremist activity or behaviors that may be indicators of violent extremism (e.g., background investigators, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties inquiry officials, and DHS Insider Threat Program personnel);
• a lack of a centralized, interoperable DHS-wide investigative case management system, as well as standardized reporting and information sharing mechanisms for investigating allegations of violent extremist activity; and,
• insufficient funding needed to support the expansion of the DHS Insider Threat Program, development and implementation of related training programs, establishment of a DHS-wide related reporting mechanism, and implementation of the government-wide federal personnel security reform effort called Trusted Workforce 2.0.
To address these gaps, the Working Group made 15 recommendations described further below to enhance the Department’s ability to comprehensively address internal domestic violent extremism-related activity to protect our employees and DHS’s ability to continue executing its critical mission.
Wolf again.
The idea of INSIDERS is critical. Never mind that the CLASSIC insiders are “left wing extremists” like Obama, Jarrett, and – boom – Alejandro Mayorkas. Yes – the entire government has been turned on its head.
The actual “insiders” are now calling the shots – and calling the patriots “insiders”.
If it wasn’t SICK, it would be hilarious.
Like I said, I lived through this shit. And my mom did, too.
DHS obviously is a target for any group wishing to take over or influence the United States. Trust me – the place is chock full of trouble, not only top-level Kim Philby insiders like Mayorkas, but also including ChiComs, very likely in the form of red diaper two-steppers who have not yet “decloaked” as commies.
Searching further on insider, we are led to multiple interesting sections.
Most of these have to do with “solutions” to the threat of DVE as insiders, despite the fact that there don’t seem to be any.
If you just look through the headlines of the 15 recommendations of the “working group” that gave Mayorkas what he wanted, you will see that they provide a ROADMAP for purging DHS of those who may be threats – like people who question sketchy elections or murderous vaccinations.
Recommendation 1: Adopt a consistent definition of “domestic violent extremist” and descriptions of violent extremist activity and integrate both into DHS policies and guidance.
Recommendation 2: Adopt and implement a DHS-approved list of behaviors that may be indicators of domestic violent extremism.
Recommendation 3: Develop and implement an official DHS Directive that provides guidance on how to identify and respond to violent extremist activity within the Department.
Recommendation 4: Incorporate the list of violent extremist activity into DHS policy.
Recommendation 5: Educate the DHS workforce on the threat that domestic violent extremists within the Department could pose to the DHS mission.
Recommendation 6: Inform employees of their obligations to refrain from violent extremist activity and the existing reporting requirements.
Recommendation 7: Provide training on how to identify and adjudicate violent extremist activity to employees charged with personnel screening and vetting activity.
Recommendation 8: Enhance hiring practices through initiatives under Trusted Workforce 2.0 in order to deter and detect individuals engaged in violent extremist activity from applying to work for the Department.
Recommendation 9: Establish the intra-departmental sharing capability for investigations and inquiries involving DHS contractors and other non-employee insiders.
Recommendation 10: Promote early intervention to get support to employees who may be at risk of radicalizing to violence.
Recommendation 11: Establish efficient and accessible reporting and intake mechanisms to facilitate information sharing among stakeholders charged with addressing allegations of violent extremist activity.
Recommendation 12: Accelerate the expansion of DHS Insider Threat Program capabilities.
Recommendation 13: Incorporate the DHS list of behaviors that may be indicators of violent extremism into insider threat tools, including user activity monitoring.
Recommendation 14: Explore expanding the use of publicly available information, including social media, beyond personnel security vetting, to identify or investigate potential violent extremist activity within the DHS workforce.
Recommendation 15: Establish an ongoing DHS Domestic Violent Extremist Working Group.
Let’s look at those in reverse order.
The last one (Number 15) creates a permanent “Mayorkas control group” that can begin doing things much more under the radar. Again, as I said, they will not originate any ideas that are not fed to them from above. But once this group is created, there will be MUCH less sunlight.
Number 14 is notable in that it shows how they will use social media to purge patriots based on social media posting, and prevent new ones from taking their places.
Number 13 shows how they will monitor employees on the inside. This was done in “shallow state” too, but the original purpose was actual national security, later turned to politics, once the commies took over.
Number 12 means they are going to do this stuff quickly, before the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Number 11 is more Obama “information-sharing” crap, whereby DHS will blackball patriots and honest Americans quickly throughout the entire government. That INCLUDES Woke Military, now turned to shit.
Number 10 is code for “risk mitigation” by social isolation of identified patriots, and suppression of any networking by patriots and honest Americans inside DHS.
Number 9 is HUGE. We will come back to that one.
Number 8 is about preventing patriots from joining DHS. They are going to socially change DHS to be WOKE, and that means NEVER hiring anybody like Christina Bobb ever again.
They are going to do their best to keep people like Ms. Bobb OUT of DHS.
Number 7 is pure “top-down” re-education of DHS personnel, in terms of how to deal with patriots.
Number 6 is how they begin the behavior modification of people at DHS. This is just like what they did in Shallow State, and it works like crazy. People will politically change, when the job forces them to do so. They don’t THINK they will change, but they will.
Number 5 is how they set up the more intrusive behavior modification, by starting with “education on the threat”. This indirect accusation of patriotic American staff within DHS is also designed to have a huge “chilling effect” within the organization. It will create internal division and isolation of the “problem” people. This works on the same Bolshevik principles that were used to create Christian-Jewish division in the United States in the 1970s – but THAT is another story for a different post.
Number 4 is how they give the policy teeth BEFORE it’s actually tested and rolled out. This is totally unscientific if what you’re trying to do is create an effective organization. However, if you are taking over an organization, in an occupied country, it’s exactly what you want to do.
Number 3 is the big cheese – the big policy of “what to do” about the people to be purged or suppressed.
Number 2 is a big part of the real payload – the “how to determine who is bad” part. This is the PRACTICAL part of the “identification of the enemy”. This is how they DEFINE who is “bad” in practice, like the Nazi genealogical rules on who was a Jew and who was merely racially impure. This is the Nazi stuff. This is what my mother warned me about. This is straight out of the Third Reich.
Number 1 leads us back to where I started, with this image:
This is the THEORY of who is bad. This is the GUIDANCE of who needs to be purged. This is the “top-down” message on who should not be in DHS. It will by highly political, and BY DESIGN won’t touch the PROG-NAZIS that they want in DHS.
Now – I skipped over Number 9 because that one is going to be hugely important for what DHS is actually setting up. Numbers 1-8 and 10-15 are more about getting political control of DHS.
Number 9 is about spreading the purge.
Recommendation 9: Establish the intra-departmental sharing capability for investigations and inquiries involving DHS contractors and other non-employee insiders.
Understand this. “DHS contractors and non-employee insiders” is YOU, all patriots and honest Americans in law enforcement and contracting entities outside of DHS.
This is how it spreads.
One needs to look closely at the relevant section. If you search on the word contractors, it appears almost exclusively in the section for Recommendation Number 9.
Which I repeat below:
Establishing a centralized, interoperable DHS-wide investigative case management system and information sharing procedures for these types of investigations and inquiries will help mitigate against the risk that a contractor under investigation for potential misconduct leaves the applicable contract prior to the completion of the investigation.
Given that DHS has about 170,000 contractors, special consideration must be given to vetting this sizeable population, which has direct authorized access to DHS assets (e.g., facilities,equipment, information, and systems).
DHS has remedies available to address domestic violent extremism threats involving DHS contractors and other non-employee insiders, including limiting or prohibiting access to DHS owned, leased, and operated facilities and/or removing an individual from a contract, as well as referring information to an appropriate criminal investigative agency for further action.
Action 9.1: Establish a working group composed of relevant subject matter experts from across the Department to identify and implement procedures and system capabilities needed to permit information sharing of investigations and inquiries.
This is designed to spread the infection.
Do not think – with federal money going along with DHS contracts – that this infection of Federal Law Enforcement and National Security by flat-out communist political purges is going to be contained inside DHS by simply ignoring it.
Also remember this – with Mayorkas’ “working group” modifying DHS policy in perpetuity, it could get EVEN WORSE in the future.
In my opinion, Republicans in Washington won’t do ANYTHING about this.
And even if they TRY, Mitch McConnell, on behalf of China, will stop it.
Ain’t that right, Mitch?
Notice how stealthy and smart this attack was. DHS and other federal law enforcement and national security assets made themselves “integral” to all sorts of state, regional, county and local agencies and offices. They are now a “normal” part of local and regional American law enforcement. It is far easier to give in to DHS demands, than to tear up contracts over a few people who DHS asks to be blackballed and driven out of a “partner”.
170,000 contractors is a LOT of people.
Now, as DHS begins purges at home, it is going to “investigate” and “purge” patriots and honest Americans from everybody it works with.
It doesn’t matter whether any kind of “devolution” is planned, or just happening.
The idea of “devolution” to reduce federal dependency is a THREAT to these people.
If you thought the communists in Washington were not going to FIGHT BACK, when states like Florida decided to resist, you were WRONG.
DHS is GRANTING ITSELF the power to “vet” not only private contractors but also state and local law enforcement officers in contract with DHS, for the Washington communist definition of “extremism”.
To KEEP THOSE CONTRACTS, individuals will be thrown under the bus, and they will GO UNDER THE WHEELS OF DODGY JUSTICE.
THAT is the state of things.
In my opinion, if we ignore this, we will be beyond the salvation of “peaceful revolution”.
This is designed to give DHS the power to make all law enforcement OBEY WASHINGTON.
And you ain’t gonna like that world – trust me.
So what do we have to do?
We will have to fight back against this at every level. ALL Republicans who don’t want to live under Democrat neo-Bolshevism for the rest of their lives must resist.
If we don’t, the entirety of law enforcement and the military will – eventually – be turned against everyday Americans.
Those who would be our friends will not speak up.
We will be living in something very much like China, but also like Nazi Germany.
“Progzi America.”
I know this for a fact. I don’t want to live there.
Hopefully there are people who see how to attack the DHS strategy.
And if they do, hopefully they will not telegraph OUR strategy in return.
Get your rest, Trumpy Bear! You’re going back to the White House!!!
We can’t let SNIFFY BEAR destroy it any more than we already have!!!
The Business At Hand
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
And indeed, it’s Monday…again.
But we are COOL WITH IT.
The Rules
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
Prayers for your enemies, and your enemy’s enemies, and your enemy’s enemy’s enemies, are all permissible.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
For your listening enjoyment, and general encouragement, we continue Wheatie’s tradition of fine music videos, shipped fresh from the seas of information by our intrepid authors.
While looking at videos in an earlier week, I accidentally discovered this oddball American sister duo on the Latin “pop country whatever” music charts.
…..and later realized that such a sister act is not a totally unique thing…..
…..although it certainly looks like BOY DUOS are more common…..
Q’s post addressed to Nate Cain (qanon.pub post 2578) had a line which really struck a nerve: YOU ARE NEVER ALONE. Here is the post. Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 52a4e6 No.4250950 Dec 10 2018 23:13:47 (EST)https://twitter.com/cain_nate/status/1072221511443013633Sometimes ‘intrusions’ have a way of safeguarding people & evidence.Sometimes ‘intrusions’ are a necessary event in order to safeguard chain of custody [post OIG WB status …
…..and while I was looking for that Elenyi video, I found this, but it’s not a duo…..
…..and that kinda balances out the Barlow Girl trio.
“And so it goes.”
Call To Battle
Actors Henry Fonda and James Coburn on the set of Universal Studios movie ” Midway” in 1976. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
…..and then…..
We can give in to despair…or we can be defiant and fight back in any way that we can.
If you want to download the Pfizer documents – the ones that they wanted to hide for 75 years or whatever – it’s easy. But first, a couple of videos to set things up a bit.
Now it’s really a one-page site – they get right down to business on the landing page…..
You can search through the site to select documents first, OR you can just download to your heart’s content. Here is the bottom of the page, with nothing selected, so the download button is grayed out.
Now, if you want to download ALL of the documents just go to that drop-down button in the lower left corner…..
…..and change the setting from “Show [ 25 ] per page” to “All”. Then, you will get a single page, and you can put a checkmark on ALL 150 documents (which is tedious as hell, but it works).
When you download all of these documents, they will come in a ZIP file. You can then extract all of the documents out of the zip file, and then view each of them with the proper application.
Enjoy!
Wolfie’s Wheatie’s Word of the Day:
endeavor
noun
A conscientious or concerted effort toward an end; an earnest attempt.
Purposeful or industrious activity; enterprise.
verb
To exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive.
To attempt; try.
Used in a quote:
We thought about it for a long time, “Endeavor to persevere.” And when we had thought about it long enough, we declared war on the Union.
First of a four part series on the ongoing attack on the American Food Supply including a time line.
“In an effort to escape the continuous, racking abdominal cramping, Alex curled up into a fetal position and begged me to hold him. I stroked his face, attempting to calm him, to soothe him. I watched in horror his life hemorrhaging away in the hospital bathroom; bowl after bowl of blood and mucus gushed from his little body. Later, I helped change blood-soaked diapers that he had to wear after he could no longer stand or walk. Alex’s screams were followed by silence as the evil toxins attacked his brain causing him to lose neurological control. His eyes crossed and he suffered tremors and delusions. He no longer knew who I was.”
Nancy Donley, mother of Alex and President of Safe Tables Our Priority
The agonizing death of this little boy and many others WAS DELIBERATE. It was ‘JUST POLITICS.’ An orchestrated death, along with others, used to play up the need for legislation that moved control of the US food supply FROM AMERICAN’S INDEPENDENT FARMERS TO THE AG CARTEL OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.
Shielding the Giant USDA’s “Don’t Look, Don’t Know” Policytells the tale of how the USDA ALLOWED ConAgra to Poison Americans with Tainted Meat to create a crisis to get their blasted Food Safety Modernization Act through Congress. For over a decade Congresswoman Rosa Delauro (D – CT) tried to get the food safety bill through congress with no luck. So they set-up a MAJOR food poisoning event the E. coli Outbreak at the 2004 North Carolina State Fair and the MSM blasted it all over the news. I give the insider details HERE . (Slight editing to make it more readable.)
…..I know Jason Wilke of Crossroads Farm Petting Zoo, the designated fall guy for the State Fair E. coli Outbreak in North Carolina (2004). It is curious that two weeks before there was NO outbreak at the Lee County fair where he was for a week and there was no outbreak the week after at another large venue. (I personally verified with the fair committee chairs.) However during the week he stayed home prepping for the state fair, an animal rights activist who was a USDA vet, stuck a thermometer up the butt of each of his animals thanks to that one line change in the Animal Welfare Act. She also told him she wanted to close him down. These actions and words were relayed to me via phone by Jason BEFORE the fair. (He wanted to vent and moan) … CDC did over 400 tests on Jason’s animals and the only vector route was through fresh feces. Skin/fur or mouth contact did not have viable organisms. Also it was the first case where this nasty strain of e coli showed up in sheep and goats. It was confined to concentrated feed lot operations prior to that. Operations that would be inspected by a USDA vet. The four year campaign by Animal Rights Activists in North Carolina to cause a bad accident/incident at pony rides or petting farms ended abruptly the week of the fair and has not resurfaced…. HMMMmmm.
Gail Combs
I did not mention in that comment that PETA targeted me, trying to arrange animal related injuries to children 4 times in the 6 months prior to the fair. The last attempt was less than a week before the fair. I have had no incidences since then. Also Feces SINK through the shavings so a child would literally have to go digging through the shavings for the fresh feces to eat. On the other hand State Fairs use casual labor (How many were PETA?) The food vendors would likely buy hamburger from the refrigerated trailers parked on the state grounds. The vendors equipment and area would be steam cleaned long before the inspectors would go looking for someone to pin the blame on. Therefore there would be zero chance of connecting the food vendors to the outbreak.
…What bothers me the most is that there is enough “leakage” to see the clear coordination. Like the “4 walling” of food related illnesses right up until the farm regulation bill was past. Now? Nothing. Well I’m sorry, but we did not overnight go to zero food poisoning or bacterial contamination. It just reeks of either deliberate contamination to create a panic or a deliberate propaganda effort coordinated from (somewhere) central.
It bothers me to think that the governments of the world are largely in the Railroading Business, but it is looking ever more that way. Clear lines of control, influence, action “for effect”, coordinated efforts agenda driven. I’d like to think we had a free association of people and a marketplace of ideas, evolving to the best ends. The evidence argues otherwise. The UN is clearly (and states so) acting as a central coordinating and influencing body. The intent to reduce the Nation State autonomy is also quite clear. (That the Big Players have publicly stated that intent makes it easier to see…
EM was certainly correct. Prior to that final incident in 2004 John Munsell tried to alert politicians and others. In a e-mail to me he even said he had a reporter stay with him for three days, write an article for a well know NY magazine, have it approved by the editor only to have the CEO kill the article at the last minute.
“Before the tainted beef arrived — USDA-approved and vacuum-sealed – Munsell had no reason to doubt the integrity of the food-safety system. But that changed after the meat he ground for hamburger tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7. Instead of tracking the contaminated meat back to its source, the USDA launched an investigation of Munsell’s own operation. Never mind that the local federal inspector had seen the beef go straight from the package into a clean grinder — a USDA spokesman called that testimony “hearsay.” By February 2002, three more tests of meat Munsell was grinding straight from the package came back positive. This time, as he would later testify in a government hearing, he had paperwork documenting that the beef came from a single source: ConAgra:
Munsell fired off an angry email to the district USDA manager, warning of a potential public-health emergency, and adding that if no one tracked down the rest of the bad meat, “both of us should share a cell in Alcatraz.” The agency moved immediately and aggressively — not to recall meat from Greeley, but to shut down Munsell’s grinding operation, a punishment that lasted four months. Despite Munsell’s continued whistleblowing — to Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), national cattle associations, and his fellow meat processors — the USDA failed to address the alleged contamination at ConAgra’s Greely Plant. Then, in July 2002, Munsell’s worst fears came true. E. coli-tainted burger from Greeley killed an Ohio woman and sickened at least 35 others. ConAgra then recalled 19 million pounds of beef, one of the largest recalls in history.”
But again nothing was done. The switch from the ‘safest food in the world’ to feces laced hamburger can be traced to the switch from hands on USDA food inspection to HACCP, a new system where inspectors no longer inspect FOOD, they inspect PAPERWORK. John Munsell does a great job of explaining the change in:
Unfortunately there are just too of many “incidents” that have been handled in such a way that transnational corporations are not “inconvenienced”. Stanley Painter, Chairman of the National Food Inspection Unions, stated in his testimony at the congressional hearing on the Hallmark Dower Cows:
“..when we see violations of FSIS regulations,.. we are instructed not to write non-compliance reports… Sometimes even if we write non-compliance reports, some of the larger companies use their political muscle to get those overturned….Some of mymembers have been intimidated by agency management in the past when they came forward and tried to enforce agency regulations and policies. I will give you a personal example: [SRM removal regulations concern brain and spine removal to prevent BSE] …
In December 2004, I began to receive reports that the new SRM regulations were not being uniformly enforced. I wrote a letter to the Assistant FSIS Administrator for Field Operations at the time conveying to him what I had heard…I was paid a visit at my home in Alabama by an FSIS official dispatched from the Atlanta regional office to convince me to drop the issue. I told him that I would not.
Then, the agency summoned me to come here to Washington, DC where agency officials subjected me to several hours of interrogation including wanting me to identify which of my members were blowing the whistle on the SRM removal violations. I refused to do so….I was then placed on disciplinary investigation status. The agency even contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General to explore criminal charges being filed against me…
Both my union AFGE and the consumer group Public Citizen filed separate Freedom of Information Act requests in December 2004 for any non-compliance records in the FSIS data base…. It was not until August 2005 that over 1000 non-compliance reports – weighing some 16 pounds — were turned over to both AFGE and Public Citizen that proved that what my members were telling me was correct – that some beef slaughter facilities were not complying with the SRM removal regulations… on the same day those records were released, I received written notification from the agency that they were dropping their disciplinary investigation – eight months after their “investigation” began.
When the act failed to pass under the sponsorship of Democrat Rosa Delauno, the Act was then CO-SPONSORED by Senator Burr (R – NC) I go through some of the ramifications of that law HERE. The KEY is the Ag Cartel controlled World trade Organization would determine the rules US farmers would have to live by.
SEC. 404. COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS. Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.
….Spend hours out of your working day filling in endless forms, filing maps and measuring every last inch of your fields, tracks and farmsteads; applying for ‘passports’ for your cattle and ear tags for your sheep and pigs; re-siting the slurry pit and putting stainless steel and washable tiles on the dairy walls; becoming versed in HASAP hygiene and sanitary rules and applying them where any food processing was to take place; and living under the threat of convictions and fines should one put a finger out of place or be late in supplying some official details…
Sir Julian Rose
Do not forget that Bush signed a treaty to HARMONIZE US laws with that of the EU.
“In a sweeping move that has garnered surprisingly little attention this week the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards “harmonized” and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.” The BBC reported from the Summit in Washington on Monday….
The harmonization of laws, regulations and standards between and among trading partners requires intense, complex, time-consuming negotiations by CFSAN officials. Harmonization must simultaneously facilitate international trade and promote mutual understanding, while protecting national interests and establish a basis to resolve food issues on sound scientific evidence in an objective atmosphere. Failure to reach a consistent, harmonized set of laws, regulations and standards within the freetrade agreements and the World Trade Organization Agreements can result in considerable economic repercussions.
FDA
The international Ag Cartel was the driving force behind the Agreement on Agriculture, HACCP and the doubling of Food Borne illnesses. I did the graphs for a presentation before congress showing the five years before HACCP and the five years after. The USDA responded just as the DOD is now. ‘OH the first five years didn’t capture ALL the food borne illness. We switched to a different system where the reports (MANDATORY BY LAW) can be emailed instead of Faxed or sent by mail.’
This doubling of food borne illness, well hyped by the media, was used to justify the new law, the Food Safety Modernization Act, REGULATING farming (not the corporate processing plants.) These new regulations are meant to be used to kill off US independent farmers.
Again the USDA and the FDA LIED. They stated there had been no up date to our food safety system AFTER they had already implemented HACCP allowing the Ag cartel to inspect themselves.
In September, 1995, USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service presented a 600-page document Farm-To-Table – control of every step in the food chain from production to home preparation.
For plants with more than one process (meaning more than one HACCP program), verification activities would be scheduled to ensure that all HACCP plans are covered at least once a month. Compliance over time would mean less frequent verification.
Some key steps:
Verification – Inspector checks to see that the plant is doing what is in its process control or HACCP plan. This may last several hours or perhaps one day.
Validation – FSIS evaluates the plant’s HACCP plan to be certain it is appropriate and works for the product and process covered. A target frequency for validation audit would be at least once every two years for every HACCP plan. This is likely to involve an FSIS out-of-plant technical person or team and take several days to a week, but will occur on site…
Steve Krut, American Association of Meat Processors
The Grain Trader Dan Amstutz, Who wrote the Draft of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture was VP of Cargill (grain) and then moved to Goldman Sachs (How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis- with it’s entry into the commodities market) He originally worked in the department of Ag under Reagan but his draft Agreement on Ag and Draft farm bill was passed under Clinton.
The author Nicole Johnson takes us through how a Milner Round Table, the Committee for Economic Development (CED), intentionally changed the US agriculture system from a decentralized system to the vertically integrated system favored by the Ag cartel.
The human cost of CED’s plans were exacting and enormous.
CED’s plans resulted in widespread social upheaval throughout rural America, ripping apart the fabric of its society destroying its local economies. They also resulted in a massive migration to larger cities. The loss of a farm also means the loss of identity, and many farmers’ lives ended in suicide.
CED members were influential in business, government, and agricultural colleges, and their outlook shaped both governmental policies and what farmers were taught. Farmers found themselves encouraged to give up on a farming system that employed minimal outsourced inputs and capital and get “efficient” by adopting instead a system that required they go into debt in order to purchase ever more costly inputs, like fossil-fuel based fertilizers, chemicals, seeds, feed grain, and machinery. The local, decentralized food distribution networks that were previously in place became subject to corporate buyouts, vertical integration and consolidation, leaving farmers with fewer and fewer outlets to sell their goods.
With this consolidation of grain handlers, railways, food processing, meat packing, brewing and beverage makers, cereal makers, food retailers and restaurants, more and more of the food dollar went to processors and retailers, which gained increased market power. Farmers, meanwhile, were and continue to be squeezed on both ends: by input suppliers putting upward pressure on selling prices and by output buyers exerting downward pressure on their buying prices.
This analysis is confirmed by the Keystone Center, an establishment think tank with representatives on its board from Monsanto, DuPont, Shell, Coca-Cola, Dow, General Electric and the Rockefeller Foundation, to name a few. The organization’s 2001 report “The Keystone National Policy Dialogue on Trends in Agriculture” observes that “Agricultural policy in many respects supported the concentration of farming into larger and fewer units. Some would say agricultural policy is biased toward bigness.”
Home Gardens ARE covered in case you are wondering..
“..FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation…”
There is NO exemption for instate commerce, for hobby farms, for you backyard garden.
“ The Administrator, in order to protect the public health, shall establish a national traceability system that enables the Administrator to retrieve the history, use, and location of an article of food through all stages of its production, processing, and distribution. set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;
conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate
require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;
include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water”
Notice it does not say a person SELLING food, it says a person holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients. This is very scary given Ag Sec. Venman’s ” September, 1995, USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service presented a 600-page document Farm-To-Table – control of every step in the food chain from production to home preparation. “
Also included is this. “in any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction SHALL BE PRESUMED TO EXIST.” The fact you are growing veggies for you and friends does not exclude you!
….Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org, who is not a lawyer (she has a B.A. in advertising), claims the bill doesn’t apply to “that tomato plant in your backyard.” As a lawyer, I am skeptical of this claim (I co-represented the prevailing defendant in the last successful constitutional challenge to federal regulation under the interstate commerce clause…
….Ignorance about the law’s broad reach (and how it will be construed by the courts) has thwarted opposition to the bill, which will likely pass Congress. For example, a newspaper claims the bill “doesn’t regulate home gardens.” The newspaper probably assumed that was true because the bill, like most federal laws, only purports to reach activities that affect “interstate commerce.” To an uninformed layperson or journalist, that “sounds as if it might not reach local and mom-and-pop operators at all.” (The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, has sought to forestall opposition to her bill by falsely claiming that that “the Constitution’s commerce clause prevents the federal government from regulating commerce that doesn’t cross state lines.”)
But lawyers familiar with our capricious legal system know better. The Supreme Court ruled in Wickard v. Filburn (1942) that even home gardens (in that case, a farmer’s growing wheat for his own consumption) are subject to federal laws that regulate interstate commerce. Economists and scholars have criticized this decision, but it continues to be cited and followed in Supreme Court rulings, such as those applying federal anti-drug laws to consumption of even home-grown medical marijuana. Indeed, many court decisions allow Congress to define as “interstate commerce” even non-commercial conduct that doesn’t cross state lines — something directly at odds with Rep. DeLauro’s claims.
Hang in there, Trumpy Bear! You’re going back to the White House!!!
No more of this Sleepy Creepy guy, provoking needless wars to fill Democrat coffers!
The Business At Hand
This Stormwatch Monday Open Thread remains open – VERY OPEN – a place for everybody to post whatever they feel they would like to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA/KAG/KMAG world (with KMAG being a bit of both).
And indeed, it’s Monday…again.
But we WILL get THROUGH IT, OVER IT, and BEYOND IT.
The Rules
Boilerplate, more or less, but worth reading again and again, if only for the minor changes, and to stay out of moderation.
The bottom line is Free Speech. Theories and ideas you don’t agree with must be WELCOME here, and you must be part of that welcoming. But you do NOT need to be part of any agreement.
In an image…….
Try to make it real.
SO….. [ENGAGE BOILERPLATE…..]
We must endeavor to persevere to love our frenemies – even here.
Those who cannot deal with this easy requirement will be forced to jump the hoops of moderation, so that specific comments impugning other posters and violating the minimal rules can be sorted out and tossed in the trash.
In Wheatie’s words, “We’re on the same side here so let’s not engage in friendly fire.”
That includes the life skill of just ignoring certain other posters.
We do have a site – The U Tree – where civility is not a requirement. Interestingly, people don’t really go there much. Nevertheless, if you find yourself in an “argument” that can’t really stay civil, please feel free to “take it to the U Tree”. The U Tree is also a good place to report any technical difficulties, if you’re unable to report them here. Please post your comment there on one of Wolf’s posts, or in reply to one of Wolf’s comments, to make sure he sees it (though it may take a few hours).
We also have a backup site, called The Q Tree as well, which is really The Q Tree 579486807. You might call it “Second Tree”. The URL for that site is https://theqtree579486807.wordpress.com/. If this site (theqtree.com) ever goes down, please reassemble at the Second Tree.
If the Second Tree goes down, please go to The U Tree, or to our Gab Group, which is located at https://gab.com/groups/4178.
We also have some “old rules” and important guidelines, outlined here, in a very early post, on our first New Year’s Day, in 2019. The main point is not to make violent threats against people, which then have to be taken seriously by law enforcement, and which can be used as a PRETEXT by enemies of this site.
In the words of Wheatie, “Let’s not give the odious Internet Censors a reason to shut down this precious haven that Wolf has created for us.”
A Moment of Prayer
Our policy on extreme religious freedom on this site is discussed HERE. Please feel free to pray and praise God anytime and anywhere.
Thus, please pray for our real President, the one who actually won the election.
You may also pray for our enemies, many of whom were grievously harmed by their foolish choice to virtue signal with the experimental gene therapy vaccines, which were snuck upon all of us by the monstrous WEF, Pfizer and Moderna, despite our warnings, and because this corrupt administration, media, and social media suppressed the truth.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
For your listening enjoyment, and general encouragement, we continue Wheatie’s tradition of fine music videos, shipped fresh from the seas of information by our intrepid authors.
First, some “epic” mandolin…..
Well, let’s get that mandoleen a little more TOE-TAPPIN’ and a FOOT STOMPIN’!
And finally, a song from a movie you probably never saw – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
OK – we can’t leave you with that downer. Check THIS happy song out!
Feel ready? GOOD!
Call To Battle
Our beloved country is under Occupation by hostile forces.
Daily outrage and epic phuckery abound.
For the first time – no image here.
OK, just ONE of many:
I refer you to a series of ABSOLUTELY AWESOME memes posted by Robert Malone, here:
“Hospitals receive payments for testing every patient for COVID, every COVID diagnosis and every ‘COVID death,’ as well as any time they use remdesivir and mechanical ventilation.”
Not only is that a great article, that is highly referenced.. It very accurately goes through history and malfeasance by our government and the hospitals. This article is a must read. It also has an extensive list of references at the end.
You may hit a paywall, but you can take Malone’s word for it, if you do.
H/T whoever it was who found this gem! (I forgot)
How “Let’s Go Brandon” Demonstrates the Failure of The Regime’s “Decisive Victory” Strategy Against Us
This may seem like it’s the usual, hand-waving, “defeat is victory” battered-conservative abuse-porn, coated with addictive hopium, but IMO it’s actually some “real” hopanite ore, suitable for creating hopium-based nukes, and depleted hopium bullets.
Basically, a comparison of the “establishment victory over Trump” to Pearl Harbor.
They have not won.
Rather, they have earned themselves an ASS-WHOOPIN’.
Robert Malone Performs/Explains A Real Live Peer Review
This is actually REALLY GREAT, and a UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY. You will almost NEVER see this, unless you get an advanced science degree, and in that case, you will likely be taught all the bad habits of somebody not nearly as good and experienced in “grantsmanship”, patenting, and publication, as is Robert W. Malone.
Malone even does it in plain, common, sensible language that anybody can understand. You will literally see how to “talk back” to HIGHLY credentialed scientists making mistakes, showing bias, sticking to narratives, and just being people who you should NOT trust.
This is RESTORATIVE to real science. I just cannot praise this enough.
Peer review example: “Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine among children”
Having written hundreds of requested peer reviews, I am offering my unsolicited one.
What makes this even more powerful, is a slightly earlier post by Malone, in which he exhorts ALL people to USE COMMON SENSE in doubting the media on things in which they don’t have expertise, because the FAKE NEWS is demonstrably WRONG on the things in which you DO have expertise, and you REMEMBER those cases, and therefore you are absolutely entitled to extend that skepticism to ALL THINGS THE PRESS SAYS.
Please note that there are many variations on how English speakers actually pronounce most of the word, but the lifted pinky / beltway bandit / light-in-the-loafers silent T is “supposed to be” preserved in English, and the result sounds very French.
Therefore, if you want to stay grounded and keep your “man of the people” cover, you can intentionally mispronounce the word JUST A LITTLE by including that final ‘t’ ever so slightly (“MAUWNt”).
Alternatively, over-emphasize the open mouth ‘MAUW[n]’ at the end to almost comedic levels, and you sound like a real American who took French in high school. But it’s still probably best to avoid ‘reproach-ment’, unless you really want to make sure people think you don’t know a lick of French.
Used in a sentence:
The convergence was noted by statesmen and scholars of the time, but the term “Great Rapprochement” to refer to a distinct historical phenomenon may have been coined by the American historian of Anglo-American relations Bradford Perkins in his 1968 study of the period, The Great Rapprochement: England and the United States 1895–1914.
Slightly misused (and optionally mispronounced) in a Lindsey Graham joke:
We are NOT serving mercurials or arsenicals today – or EVER – but we ARE serving MODERN SUBSTITUTES like penicillin – to the non-allergic, of course.
While our beloved REAL bartender takes a needed break of unknown duration, we continue to ENDEAVOR TO PERSEVERE.
Christmas Spirit
And now, the rules of the pub.
HOUSE RULES
God bless us, every one! Tiny Tim had such a beautiful soul. He hadn’t a mean bone in his body…unlike most of us. But in keeping with Christmas, we promise to honor Wolf’s rules and keep Scrooge at bay. The Utree is where the Ghost of Christmas Present will conduct you should you need to rattle some chains. Another option, should all hell break loose is here.
Now, back to business.
AMEN!
Free the January Brothers
Current Art On The Wall
We have a really RETRO shipment this week. All designed to go along with our FEATURE PRESENTATION.
These are presented in the order that they came out of the box.
PATENT MEDICINE PILL, 1890.
Advertisement for Beecham’s Pills from an American newspaper of 1890.
Interestingly, Beecham’s Pills were actually USEFUL. They contained aloe, ginger, and SOAP, the latter meaning that they were much like stool softeners – a gentle laxative.
Not so sure about snake oil…..
The following is a subtle ad for CHILD DEWORMERS.
With this picture, we begin some ads for Dr. D. Jayne and his products. His company lasted for around a century. He was an actual trained doctor, and tended to use pharmaceuticals with real physical effects, like digitalis, opiates, etc., rather than quack ingredients.
American children tended to have roundworms and pinworms – Dr. Jayne’s “vermifuge” apparently worked on both.
Jayne used a lot of artwork in his marketing – thus many of his product advertisements can still be found.
The following is very subtle propaganda.
Jayne’s was still around as WWII loomed. Many of our childhoods were not long after this. Bear this in mind later in this post.
More “Jayne’s art”.
The expectorant apparently contained ipecac, opium and digitalis.
Nothing like a good salve!
Stabler’s apothecary was run by multiple generations of a family of pharmacists. The founder, Edward, was an interesting herbalist, trained in Pennsylvania. He was an abolitionist in Virginia who would purchase slaves to set them free. http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/feb/01/herbal-remedy/
I hope you have some idea now about medicine in the 19th century.
Do you think we’ve advanced much?
Let’s move “forward” now, to “state of the art” 19th century prescription medicine.
Seatbelts.
Mercury and Arsenic as the mRNA and Remdesivir of Pre-Fauci America
In the process of reading about how COVID vaccines are now setting off syphilis tests (a topic which we covered last Friday), I chanced upon a boatload of information about early treatments of syphilis, and what I read simply blew me away.
The scandals of syphilis are WAY, WAY more than the “shame of the disease itself”, and WAY, WAY more than the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
These scandals are SMALL POTATOES compared to the scandal of TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS WITH MERCURY.
This is history you will NOT learn under globalists and progressives.
A scandal which was SO BAD – just like “treatment” with these demonic mRNA vaccines – that medicine started QUIETLY – without admitting fault – looking for an exit strategy. And part of that was motivated by this fact:
BLACKS and other groups who were not getting “treated” with mercury, were not suffering many of the WORST end-stage “symptoms of syphilis”.
You see what I mean? It was JUST LIKE THE CLOT SHOT. Just like remdesivir. BLAMECASTING the errors of the BAD but moneymaker treatments onto the disease.
This is NOT NEW STUFF.
In fact, it is MOST IRONIC that the Tuskegee experiment STARTED OFF by literally SAVING the participants from treatment with mercury – only to then DENY THEM penicillin when that became available, so that they could continue the experiment.
Because the experiment was not merely about “not treating people”.
It was REALLY about NOT TREATING PEOPLE WITH MERCURY.
And THIS explains why there was so much determination to get these participants to the end-stage WITHOUT TREATMENT. Because it was end-stage effects that they were so interested in observing.
What I discovered was that the history of medicine in America is FILLED with stuff every bit as bad as the DEMON Anthony Fauci, the disaster of AIDS and AZT, toxic drugs like remdesivir, and medical killers like the untested mRNA vaccines. Much of it is exposed by the history of syphilis, so that is where we will begin.
The Wikipedia article on syphilis doesn’t say much about the actual treatment of syphilis with mercury, despite it having a fairly extensive section on treatment. A much better coverage is found in the article on the History of syphilis.
However, even THAT does not really give you a sense of the magnitude of what might gently be called “the problem of mercury as a medicine”.
Let me put it this way. When it turned out that MALARIA and ARSENIC were both superior and more importantly SAFER treatments of syphilis relative to the “consensus treatment” of MERCURY, you know that mercury was BAD SHIT as a medicine.
Obviously, if they tried MALARIA and ARSENIC, people KNEW that mercury was a bad drug.
In fact, I was shocked to find that the current confrontation between “natural therapies” and “pharmaceuticals” is a VERY old conflict that never went away. While there has been SOME reduction in the mortality difference between “do no harm, save a few” natural remedies and “kill a bunch of people, save a few” pharmaceuticals, we are still talking about millions of Americans killed by pharmaceuticals intended – or maybe just “purported” – to save them.
Anyway, here is the big picture.
The “clot shot” and the people who maliciously pushed it are entirely believable in the long, dark shadow of “killer calomel”.
SO – let’s get started with Hg2Cl2.
My parents actually had a bottle of calomel (not calamine – the neighbor kids had that) in the medicine cabinet when I was a kid. It was somewhat more modern than the above, with a metal screw-cap. Indeed, my parents had a lot of very old-school medical stuff from the 40s and 50s.
As children, we treated all our wounds with the mercury compound thiomersal, a.k.a. merthiolate. You know – the bad stuff in vaccines. This is the “new” bottle which I loved – we had older glass bottles with a glass dipping rod, before these handy squeeze bottles.
Calomel has a LONG history as a therapeutic. Although it got its start back in alchemy, by the time it got to America, it was a common medicine.
From Wikipedia:
By the 19th century, calomel was viewed as a panacea, or miracle drug, and was used against almost every disease, including syphilis, bronchitis, cholera, ingrown toenails, teething, gout, tuberculosis, influenza, and cancer. During the 18th and early 19th centuries pharmacists used it sparingly; but by the late 1840s, it was being prescribed in heroic doses[7]—due in part to the research of Benjamin Rush, who coined the term “heroic dose” to mean about 20 grains taken four times daily.[8] This stance was supported by Dr. Samuel Cartwright, who believed that large doses were “gentlest” on the body.[9] As calomel rose in popularity, more research was done into how it worked.
J. Annesley was one of the first to write about the differering effects of calomel when taken in small or large doses.[9] Through experimentation on dogs, Annesley concluded that calomel acted more like a laxative on the whole body rather than acting specifically on the vascular system or liver as previous physicians believed.[9] In 1853, Samuel Jackson described the harmful effects of calomel on children in his publication for Transactions of Physicians of Philadelphia.[7] He noted that calomel had harmful effects causing gangrene on the skin, loss of teeth, and deterioration of the gums.[7] On May 4, 1863, William A. Hammond, the United States’ Surgeon-General, stated that calomel would no longer be used in the army as it was being abused by soldiers and physicians alike.[7] This caused much debate in the medical field, and eventually led to his removal as Surgeon-General.[10] Calomel continued to be used well into the 1890s and even into the early 20th century.[7] Eventually calomel’s popularity began to wane as more research was done, and scientists discovered that the mercury in the compound was poisoning patients.
Calomel was the main of the three components of the pill number 9 of the British army during the First World War. [11]
But if you REALLY want to understand the history of calomel as both a poison and a drug, this is the article you need to read.
This article totally gets it, as you can tell from the opening quote.
New drugs present greater hazards as well as greater potential benefits than ever before—for they are widely used, they are often very potent, and they are promoted by aggressive sales campaigns that may tend to overstate their merits and fail to indicate the risks involved in their use. . . There is no way of measuring the needless suffering, the money innocently squandered, and the protraction of illnesses resulting from the use of such ineffective drugs.
John F. Kennedy, in his Consumers’ Protection Message of March 15, 19621
Is the whole “Q” thing starting to make sense? Just as an aside. JFK clearly had some of the same enemies as Trump.
Anyway, this article shows how the use of mercury and arsenic compounds for medicines was controversial even from the START, with Paracelsus himself admonishing fellow alchemists not to use too much mercury in treatments.
The problem with calomel is that it’s insoluble MOST of the time, and in that state it can be used in excess, because it just flushes through the body. It’s a lot like barium sulfate – a totally safe version of highly toxic barium – in that respect. But if calomel oxidizes, or becomes impure, or otherwise emits other forms of mercury, it can be very harmful.
Thus, calomel got good results in some hands, but in the hands of other physicians, and in the bodies of other patients, it was a killer. It was easily abused, and even some of the “megadose” treatments were abusive from the git-go – to say nothing of giving it to children, and doing life-long damage.
But now, let’s look at what calomel and other mercury compounds did for syphilis. For THAT we go to another great article.
This article does a deep dive on use of mercury to treat syphilis, and does not hold back on the contention that much of the symptomology of syphilis that was seen before penicillin, was really due to mercury poisoning and NOT due to syphilis itself.
Sound familiar?
This article in particular contends that the end-stage dementia of tertiary syphilis in the West, which was observed much less frequently in certain populations like blacks, Indians, and Norwegians, who avoided mercury, was mostly due to the treatment with mercury, not syphilis.
In case you’re thinking that’s unlikely, just consider patient-killing remdesivir, which we’ve covered extensively.
Now, there IS an great academic look at the skeletons of syphilitic patients, some of whom were treated with mercury, trying to determine if mercury made things worse. The results are inconclusive, but in any case, the background material is excellent reading.
More Harm than Healing? Investigating the Iatrogenic Effects of Mercury Treatment on Acquired Syphilis in Post-medieval London.
Molly K. Zuckerman
DOI 10.1515/opar-2016-0003 Received October 26, 2015; accepted March 29, 2016
Abstract: Mercury was commonly used to treat syphilis in post-medieval Europe, but debate persists about whether it ameliorated infection or exacerbated it. As there are no in vitro studies on mercury’s effectiveness, Hg levels were characterized using an established technique, portable X-Ray Florescence Spectrometry (pXRF) in syphilitic skeletons (N=22) from six post-medieval London cemeteries. Levels were assessed against proxies for syphilitic infection severity (lesion type, episodic involvement, extent of involvement), oral health indicators, and age at death. The findings are equivocal, likely obfuscated by background poor oral health and high mortality, and cannot elucidate whether mercury ‘killed or cured’.
Keywords: syphilis, mercury, pXRF, post-medieval, London, trace element analysis, paleopathology.
The history of treatment with mercury in America serves as a strong precedent for what we are seeing now with “vaccines for everything”. The mendacity of some and the fecklessness of others regarding COVID treatments is not new – it all happened before with the mendacious and feckless medical establishment – and MERCURY.
And just for my fellow lovers of history-of-science porn, click on the following for the full-sized image.
From Wikipedia.
L0057102 Mahogany medicine chest, England, 1801-1900
Credit: Science Museum, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
The mahogany medicine chest contains boxes, bottles and tubes of medications to treat a number of conditions. The chest includes treatments to purge the body by vomiting (emetics), by sweating (diaphoretics), as well as general purgatives such as rhubarb, jalap and calomel. Other medications include pain relief, such as opium plus astringents and stimulants, including ginger and lavender. The chest contains a handwritten inventory listing the medications. The chest also includes a set of scales, weights, a pill tile and a spatula. The set was probably used in the home or by a chemist or apothecary.
maker: Unknown maker
Place made: England, United Kingdom
made: 1801-1900 Published: –
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
And don’t forget to…….
ENJOY THE SHOW.
Thank you all for being here. Have a great weekend.
Trudeau is threatening to confiscate bank accounts. Steve Cortez and others has been warning of coming Stagflation. Steve has been a part of Wall Street as a trader and strategist for almost two decades. Others such as Clif High warn of a coming dollar collapse.
Ed Dowd, a former Blackrock Portfolio Manager, reports on Falling Pharma Stocks And Coming Financial Collapse. Edward has said elsewhere how COVID-19 may have been used to cover global debt, and how he predicts a financial collapse is ahead of us.
… the bilateral currency swap agreement on 22 March 2012. The agreement allows exchange of local currencies between the two central banks…’” thus cutting out the US Dollar as the exchange currency.
The China-Australia Currency Swap Agreement.
Given these circumstances, I thought a discussion about Central Banks and the US dollar was appropriate. I hoped the Q tree could benefit from having this information all in one place.
“Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none have been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money. This is the most effectual of inventions to fertilize the rich man’s field by the sweat of the poor man’s brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive taxation — these bear lightly on the happiness of the mass of the community compared with fraudulent currencies and the robberies committed by depreciated paper. Our own history has recorded for our instruction enough, and more than enough, of the demoralizing tendency, the injustice, and the intolerable oppression, on the virtuous and well disposed, of a degraded paper currency, authorized by law, or in any way countenanced by government.”
Daniel Webster (1782 -1852) Statement to the Senate in 1832
With encouragement from Senators Clay and Daniel Webster, Mr Nicholas Biddle, then President of the Second Bank of the United States, applied for a renewal of the Bank’s charter in 1832. President Jackson vetoed the renewal, stating “. . . It appears that more than a fourth part of the stock is held by foreigners and the residue is held by a few hundred of our citizens, chiefly of the richest class. . .” LINK
So it should not surprising that Senator Aldrich (R) read that Webster quote at a New York City dinner speech on October 15, 1913 on the eve of the passage of the Federal Reserve Act. He was NOT advocating AGAINST a Fractional Reserve Currency but rather FOR IT! — SEE: aIV Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science #1, at 38 (Columbia University, New York (1914))
For those who might not know the history of Fractional Reserve Banking see: The Magic of Fractional Banking. In essence it is counterfeiting.
One of the biggest victories achieved by modern economists and modern central bankers is changing the definition of inflation. Inflation used to mean an increase in the money supply – full stop.
Money is metal coins, currency (Bank IOUs) and credit (fairy dust created out of thin air) or even beads and obsidian arrowheads. Money needs to be durable, accepted and dividable which is why precious metals were often the choice.
Money is a generally accepted, recognized, and centralized medium of exchange in an economy that is used to facilitate transactional trade for goods and services.
Capitalism is a private individual’s wealth, labor and resources reinvested to produce more wealth.
Capitalism is an economic system in which capital goods are owned by private individuals or businesses. The production of goods and services is based on supply and demand in the general market.
E.M. Smith aka Chiefio, who trained as an economist, gets into the definition of capitalism and other definitions surrounding capitalism: Monopoly, Monopsony, Oligopoly, Collusion And Economics 1“Evil Socialism” vs “Evil Capitalism” is a short comment by EM describing the continuum between straight capitalism and Communism.
One of the best explanations of the Federal Reserve is by G Edward Griffin. A Talk by G. Edward Griffin-The Creature from Jekyll Island. Unfortunately Griffin is a member of the John Birch Society and is therefore attacked on that basis by the defenders of the Fed. So I am presenting more rigorous sources.
Some of the most frank evidence on banking practices was given by Graham F. Towers, Governor of the Central Bank of Canada (from 1934 to 1955), before the Canadian Government’s Committee on Banking and Commerce, in 1939… Most of the evidence quoted was the result of interrogation by Mr. “Gerry” McGeer, K.C., a former mayor of Vancouver, who clearly understood the essentials of central banking. Here are a few excerpts:
Q. But there is no question about it that banks create the medium of exchange? Mr. Towers: That is right. That is what they are for… That is the Banking business, just in the same way that a steel plant makes steel. (p. 287) The manufacturing process consists of making a pen-and-ink or typewriter entry on a card in a book. That is all. (pp. 76 and 238) Each and every time a bank makes a loan (or purchases securities), new bank credit is created — new deposits — brand new money. (pp. 113 and 238) Broadly speaking, all new money comes out of a Bank in the form of loans. As loans are debts, then under the present system all money is debt. (p. 459)
Q. When $1,000,000 worth of bonds is presented (by the government) to the bank, a million dollars of new money or the equivalent is created? Mr. Towers: Yes.
Q. Is it a fact that a million dollars of new money is created? Mr. Towers: That is right.
Q. Now, the same thing holds true when the municipality or the province goes to the bank? Mr. Towers: Or an individual borrower.
Q. Or when a private person goes to a bank? Mr. Towers: Yes.
Q. When I borrow $100 from the bank as a private citizen, the bank makes a bookkeeping entry, and there is a $100 increase in the deposits of that bank, in the total deposits of that bank? Mr. Towers: Yes. (p. 238)
Q. Mr. Towers, when you allow the merchant banking system to issue bank deposits which, with the practice of using the cheques as we have it in vogue today, constitutes the medium of exchange upon which I think 95 per cent of our public and private business is transacted, you virtually allow the banks to issue an effective substitute for money, do you not? Mr. Towers: The bank deposits are actual money in that sense, yes.
Q. In that sense they are actual money, but, as a matter of fact, they are not actual money but credit, bookkeeping accounts, which are used as a substitute for money? Mr. Towers: Yes.
Q. Then we authorize the banks to issue a substitute for money? Mr. Towers: Yes, I think that is a very fair statement of banking. (p. 285)
“Banks typically have 3% of their assets in cash in order to meet customer needs. Since 1960, banks have been allowed to use this “vault cash” to satisfy their reserve requirements. Today, bank reserve requirements have fallen to the point where they are now exceeded by vault cash, which means lowering reserve requirements to zero would have virtually no impact on the banking system. US banks are already operating free of any reserve constraints. The graph below shows reserve requirements falling to zero over the last fifty years….”
E.M. Smith and other economists, such as Steve Bannon and those he has on the War Room as well as other financial experts are trained (and believe in) Keynesian Economics (IMF.) I prefer Mises and have had arguments with E.M to that effect. (He has started to come around a bit.) It should be noted that Communist spy Harry Dexter Whiteof the US Treasury and Fabian Socialist John Maynard Keyne are the two who saddled the world with the IMF and World Bank via the 1944 Bretton Woods system. I mentioned recently Structural Adjustment Policies, the noose the IMF & World Bank Banksters put around the neck of countries that go bankrupt. There is another Economic Philosophy not connected to the Communists and Fabian Socialists. It was developed by Mises.
This is very long so I want to highlight a few critical points.
#1. Because money is not capital, he [Mises] concluded that an increase of the money supply confers no identifiable social value. If you fail to understand this point, you will not be able to understand the rest of Mises’s theory of money. On this assessment of the value of money, his whole theory of money hinges.
An increase in the quantity of money can no more increase the welfare of the members of a community, than a diminution of it can decrease their welfare. Regarded from this point of view, those goods that are employed as money are indeed what Adam Smith called them, “dead stock, which . . . produces nothing”
#2. New money does not appear magically in equal percentages in all people’s bank accounts or under their mattresses. [New] Money spreads unevenly, and this process has varying effects on individuals, depending on whether they receive early or late access to the new money.
It is these losses of the groups that are the last to be reached by the variation in the value of money which ultimately constitute the source of the profits made by the mine owners and the groups most closely connected with them
[This is a critical point and the reason Bankers can steal our wealth]
This indicates a fundamental aspect of Mises’s monetary theory that is rarely mentioned: the expansion or contraction of money is a zero-sum game. Mises did not use this terminology, but he used the zero-sum concept. Because the free market always maximizes the utility of the existing money supply, changes in the money supply inescapably have the characteristic features of a zero-sum game. Some individuals are made better off by an increase in the money supply; others are made worse off. The existing money is an example of a “fixed pie of social value.” Adding to the money supply does not add to its value.
MISES ON GOLD
…the attempt by modern governments to regulate in any way an international gold standard is always a political ruse to undermine its anti-inflationary bias. “The international gold standard works without any action on the part of governments. It is effective real cooperation of all members of the world-embracing market community. . . . What governments call international monetary cooperation is concerted action for the sake of credit expansion”
“Now, the gold standard is not a game, but a social institution. Its working does not depend on the preparedness of any people to observe arbitrary rules. It is controlled by the operation of inexorable economic law” (p. 462)…..
. . . The role played by ingots in the gold reserves of the banks is a proof that the monetary standard consists in the precious metal, and not in the proclamation of the authorities (p. 67).
In order to effect the acceptance of fiat money or credit money, the State adopts a policy of the abolition of its previous contractual obligations. What was previously a legal right of full convertability into either gold or silver coins is abolished by a new law. The State removes the individual’s legal right to exchange the State’s paper notes for gold or silver coins. It then declares that the new, inconvertible fiat paper money or bank credit money is equal in value to the older redeemable notes, meaning equal to the value of the actual coins previously obtainable through redemption. But the free market determines otherwise. The two forms of money are not equal in value in the judgment of the market’s individual participants. Gresham’s law is still obeyed….
Gresham’s law
The State can set legal prices, meaning exchange ratios, between the various kinds of money. The effects of such fixed exchange rates are identical to the effects of any other kind of price control: gluts and shortages. The artificially overvalued money (glut) replaces the artificially undervalued money (shortage). This cause-and-effect relationship is called Gresham’s law.
MONEY:
Mises therefore defined money as the most marketable commodity. “It is the most marketable good which people accept because they want to offer it in later acts of impersonal exchange” (Human Action, p. 401.).
Money serves as a transmitter of value through time because certain goods serve as media of exchange.
Money transmits value, Mises taught, but money does not measure value. This distinction is fundamental in Mises’s theory of money.
Mises was adamant: there is no measure of economic value.
….Mises concluded that money is neither a consumption good nor a capital good. He argued that production and consumption are possible without money (p. 82). Money facilitates both production and consumption, but it is neither a production good nor a consumption good. Money is therefore a separate analytical category.
“It is illegitimate to compare the part played by money in production with that played by ships and railways. Money is obviously not a ‘commercial tool’ in the same sense as account books, exchange lists, the Stock Exchange, or the credit system”
Because money is not capital, he concluded that an increase of the money supply confers no identifiable social value. If you fail to understand this point, you will not be able to understand the rest of Mises’s theory of money. On this assessment of the value of money, his whole theory of money hinges….
This theory regarding the impact that changes in the money supply have on social value is the basis of everything that follows. Mises offered here a unique assessment of the demand for money. He implied here that an individual’s demand for production goods or consumption goods, when met by increased production, confers an increase in social value or social welfare.
If a producer benefits society by increasing the production of a non-monetary good, later finding a buyer, then society is benefitted because there are at least two winners and no losers.
Therefore, if a producer of gold and a buyer of gold both benefit from an exchange – which they do, or else they would not trade – yet society receives no social benefit, then the analyst has to conclude that some other members of society have been made, or will be made, worse off by the increase in the money supply. This analysis would also apply to decreases in the money supply.
There are two conceptually related issues here: (1) money as a separate analytical category, neither a consumption good nor a production good; (2) changes in the money supply as conveying neither an increase nor decrease in social value.
With that as a background in economics, we look at the Federal Reserve Bank through the eyes of Congressman Wright Patman (D) in 1964 before President Nixon had to close the gold window.
Again this is very long, which is why I have posted excerpts. However if you want to understand our Central Banking System this is a very good document to read.
President Lincoln said :
“Money is the creature of law, and the creation of the original issue of money should be maintained as an exclusive monopoly of the National Government. The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of the Government, it is the Government’s greatest opportunity.” [pg 16]
This is very important. Although US citizens can not exchange Federal Reserve notes for treasury gold, official and semi official foreign banks can.
Behind the Federal Reserve notes is the credit of the U.S. Government. If you happen to have a $5, $10, or $20 Federal Reserve note, you will notice across the top of the bill a printed statement of the fact that the US government promises to pay not the Federal Reserve promises to pay. Nevertheless most Americans to do not understand what the US Government promises to pay: American citizens holding these notes cannot demand anything for them except (a) they can be exchanged for other Federal Reserve notes or (b) that they be accepted in payment of taxes and all debts public and private. Certain official or semiofficial foreign banks may exchange any “dollar credits” they may hold-that is, deposits with the commercial banks-for an equal amount of the Treasury’s gold. Americans themselves may not exchange them for gold . [pg 19]
Of the 19 Federal Reserve officials 12 are elected by bankers so HOW the money supply is increase and WHO gets the interest on the US treasury bonds can get very interesting.
The Federal Reserve officials can always decide to create a large portion of any increase in the money supply themselves, though, of course, a larger portion of the supply will always be provided by the private banks under present law. Still the larger portion of Reserve-created money, the more the U.S. Treasury benefits-because all income of the Federal Reserve after expenses reverts to the Treasury. Thus the Treasury receives a good share of the income earned from the Government securities purchased in Reserve money-creating operations.
On the other hand, if the Federal Reserve officials decide that the increase in the money supply they want is all, or substantially all, to be made by the private banks, the private banks acquire and hold more Government securities than in the first case, and the interest payments on these securities go into bank profits. So, whether the Federal Reserve officials decide to favor the U.S. Treasury or the private banks does make a difference-millions of dollars of difference-in the amount of taxes you, I, and all other taxpayers must pay. After all, one of the biggest items of expense of the Federal Government is the interest it must pay on its debt. [pg 36]
[JUMPING FORWARD IN TIME]
“…Although the money in the Federal Reserve is not in anyway “owned” by private banks they get paid interest on it…. In its latest power play, on October 3, 2008, the Fed acquired the ability to pay interest to its member banks on the reserves the banks maintain at the Fed. Reuters reported on October 3:”
“The U.S. Federal Reserve gained a key tactical tool from the $700 billion financial rescue package signed into law on Friday that will help it channel funds into parched credit markets. Tucked into the 451-page bill is a provision that lets the Fed pay interest on the reserves banks are required to hold at the central bank.”
[An incorrect but ] typical explanation runs this way: John Jones deposits $100 in cash with his bank. The bank is required to keep, say, 20 percent of its deposits in reserves, so the bank must deposit $20 of this $100 as reserves, with a Federal Reserve bank. The bank is free to use the other $80, however, to make loans to customers or invest in securities. The expansion of money thus begins. This kind of explanation not only leads to misunderstanding, it also leads to misguided Government policies and rather constant agitation on the part of bankers for other such policies. Many of the smaller bankers who are, on the whole, not as well versed with the mechanics of the money system as they might be, actually believe that they have deposited a portion of their money, or their depositors’ money, with the Federal Reserve. Thus they feel they are being denied the opportunity to make profitable use of this money. Accordingly, there is always agitation to have the Federal Reserve pay the banks interest on this money which they think they have “deposited” with the Federal Reserve.
Furthermore, they are quite certain that the Federal Reserve System has “used” their money to acquire the Government securities which the Federal Reserve may buy in the process of reserve creation. Believing this, the bankers naturally feel that they are entitled to some share of the tremendous profits which the System receives from interest payments on its Government securities. Many bankers know better. The leaders of the bankers’ associations certainly do. But some of these leaders have not hesitated to play on general ignorance and misunderstanding to mobilize the whole banking community behind drives that are nothing but attempts to raid the Public Treasury.
The truth is, however, that the Private banks, collectively, have deposited not a penny of their own funds, or their depositors funds, with the Federal Reserve banks. The impression that they do so arises from the fact that reserves, once created, can be, and are, transferred back and forth from one bank to another, as one bank gains deposits and another loses deposits. [pg 37]
Under Secretary of the Treasury Robert V. Roosa, formerly a Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, while testifying before the House Committee on Banking and Currency in 1960, described the misconception as follows:
“There is another misconception which occurs much more frequently-that is, the banks think that they give us the reserves on which we operate and that, too, is a misconception. We encounter that frequently, and, as you know, we create those reserves under the authority that has been described here.”
The writer [Wright Patman] has had a couple of personal experiences which ‘have provided some amusing confirmation of the fact that the source of bank reserves is not deposits of cash by the member banks with the Federal Reserve banks. having seen reports that the Federal Reserve System had, on a given date, Government securities amounting to a proximately $28 billion, I went on one occasion to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where these securities are supposed to be housed, and asked if I might be allowed to see them. The officials of this bank said, yes, they would be glad to show them to me; whereupon they opened the vaults and let me look at, and even hold in my hand, the large mound of Government securities which they claimed to have and which, in fact, they did have.
Since I had also seen reports that the member banks of the Federal Reserve System had a certain number of millions of dollars in “cash reserves” on deposit with the Federal Reserve bank, I then asked if I might be allowed to see these cash reserves. This time my question was met with some looks of surprise; the bank officials then patiently explained to me that there were no cash reserves. The cash, in truth, does not exist and never has existed. [pg 38]
When the Federal Reserve purchases a $1 million Government bond and gives some bank credit for $1 million in its reserve account, that bank also credits the bond dealer’s checking account with $1 million. I n other words, to acquire $1 million of reserves, the bank also assumes a liability to pay its customers $1 million. If the transactions stopped here, the bank would, of course, come out even, neither gaining anything nor losing anything. But the fact that there is now $1.million more of bank reserves than existed before means that the private banks as a group can create $6 million more money than existed before. In other words, by acquiring this $1 million more in bank reserves, the private banks have the privilege of creating another $6 million of bank deposits, in the process of which they acquire $6 million in interest-bearing securities or loan paper, less an allowance for leakage into the cash (currency) balances of the public. [pg 43]
What amount of Government securities have the private banks acquired with bank-created money?
On January 31, 1964, all commercial banks in this country owned $62.7 billion in U.S. Government securities. The banks have acquired these securities with bank-created money. In other words, the (banks have used the Federal Government’s power to create money without charge to lend $62.7 billion to the Government at interest.
On January 29, 1964, commercial banks had total assets amounting to $304.7 billion, and all of these had been paid for with bank-created money, except $25.4 billion which had been paid for with their stockholders’ capital. In other words, less than 10 percent of the banks’ assets have been acquired with money invested by stockholders in the banks. [pg 46]
The make-up of the Federal Reserve Directors changed in favor of the bankers
The Federal Open Market Committee. There are 19 participants in this powerful body, 7 appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate of the United States. Once appointed, however, a man serves for a period of 14 years, and cannot be removed by the President or by any other official body, except for cause. The other 12 men in this select group are elected to their places through the votes of private commercial bankers. there are 12 voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee. The voting members consist of 7 members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, plus some 5 of the 12 Federal Reserve bank residents. [pg 65]
Because of this, the balance of power over the money supply lay securely, it was thought, with the public side of the System through authority of the Board of Governors. But when the move toward the alternative open-market technique of control was given legislative blessing by Congress in 1933 and 1935 and a full-fledged central bank thereby created the balance shifted radically toward the private, commercial banking side of the System. [pg 72]
.
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“ownership” of the fed reserve: Confusion due to stock and elected board members: The position of the Federal Reserve officials thus seems to be clear :
The Federa1 Reserve banks are not owned by the commercial banks. The viewpoint of the individuals quoted above has also been borne out by the presidents of the Federal Reserve banks in hearings before the House Banking and Currency Committee. However, officials of the Federal Reserve banks are sometimes inclined to take the opposite position. [pg 78]
Do bankers believe that they own the Federal Reserve banks. Yes. [100% of the “stock” is owned by the private banks. Also after instigating “the Accord” It was later revealed by testimony of some of the Federal Reserve officials to committees of Congress that the Open Market Committee had held a meeting on August 18 and decided not only to raise the discount rate, but to “go their own way” on the Government longer term bond rate as well, despite what the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the head of the Office of Defense Mobilization might do”….Therefore the Federal Reserve is not answerable to the President or Congress or the electorate, nor even to a government audit or even Congressional funding!]
The original act required that the banks invest 6 percent of their capital stock in the Federal Reserve banks.
Why was the Federal Reserve Act written to require member banks to invest in the so-called stock of the Federal Reserve banks?
The framers of the Federal Reserve Act gave many reasons, but the main, reason was this: it was expected that the Federal Reserve would issue money, not mainly against Government securities as is now the practice, but against commercial and industrial loan paper-“eligible paper” as the reader knows.
It was in view of these considerations that Congress, in framing the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, required member banks of the Federal Reserve System to put a certain percentage of their capital into the .’stock” of the Federal Reserve banks; this “stock” was a safeguard against a misuse of the Government’s credit which was being delegated to these banks. The 1013 act placed on the member banks, furthermore, a “double liability” for their “stock” in the Federal Reserve banks. In other words, if a Federal Reserve bank failed, the member banks would lose not only their invested capital, but an equal amount of capital which they would also forfeit. [pg 79]
The 1933 act also prohibited commercial banks from making stock market loans, and investment banks from accepting public deposits. This was an effort to prevent a wave of stock market speculation like that of the twenties by keeping commercial banking and investment banking separate and distinct. [pg 84] [Clinton got rid of that and other limits on the banks.]
What changes were made the Banking Act of 1935?
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was made permanent, and the Board of Governors was given power to change reserve requirements. The act of 1935 had other important revisions :
(1) The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System was changed. Membership no longer included the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency, and the number of members was cut from nine to seven. The name, the Federal Reserve Board, was changed to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The reorganized Board, with its increased powers really gave us a central bank for the first time, in place of a system of individual Federal Reserve banks which were largely on their own.
(2) Also of primary importance in creating a true central bank was the establishment of the Federal Open Market Committee to determine purchases and sales of Government securities for the entire System.
(3) Another change made by the 1935 act related to loans of the Federal Reserve banks. This act allowed the Federal Reserve banks to extend reserve bank credit on any type of credit which the commercial bank possessed.
4 ) The 1935 act also contained provisions concerning regulation of bank holding companies. [Pg 84]
Private banks enjoy a very special relationship with the Federal Government. After all, most business firms employ private capital or privately owned resources to produce a product or provide a service which can be profitably sold in the marketplace. Most business firms pay for the raw materials and services they receive, and, furthermore, in the case of most kinds of business firms, the business itself is a risk-taking venture. The firm succeeds or fails in competition with other business firms.
But the conditions under which private banks operate are very different. In the first place, one of the major functions of the private commercial banks is to create money. A large portion of bank profits come from the fact that the banks do create money. And, as we have pointed out, banks create money without cost to themselves, in the process of lending or investing in securities such a Government bonds. Bank profits come from interest on the money lent and invested, while the cost of creating money is negligible. (Banks do incur costs, of course, from bookkeeping to loan officers’ salaries.) The power to create money has been delegated, or loaned, by Congress to the private banks for their free use. There is no charge.
On the contrary, this is but one of the many ways the Government subsidizes the private banking system and protects it from competition. The Government, through the Federal Reserve System, provides a huge subsidy through the free services the System provides for member banks. “Check clearing” is one of the services; i.e., the collection and payment of funds due one bank from another because of depositors’ use of their checkbook money. The costs of this service alone runs into scores of millions of dollars.
The gross expenses of the combined Federal Reserve banks totaled $207 million in 1963, most of which was incurred as a cost of providing free services to the private banks. Other Federal agencies also receive services from the Federal Reserve. But these are not free. The System received about $20 million for “fiscal agency and other expenses” in 1963.
In addition, the Federal Government provides private banks with a large measure of protection from competition, and the hazards of failure. … This means, in brief, that nobody can enter the banking business by opening a national bank, unless the proposed bank is to be located where it will not cause an inconvenient amount of competition to other banks already in business. [pg 89]
In mid-August of 1950, however, the Federal Reserve raised the discount rate and short-term Treasury bills jumped toward 11/2 percent, although there were requests from the Secretary of the Treasury and the President for the System to continue a low-rate policy. It was later revealed by testimony of some of the Federal Reserve officials to committees of Congress that the Open Market Committee had held a meeting on August 18 and decided not only t o raise the discount rate, but to “go their own way” on the Government longer term bond rate as well, despite what the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the head of the Office of Defense Mobilization might do…. Since the signing of the so-called accord, in March of 1951, this event has been widely interpreted as an understanding, reached between the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, that the Federal Reserve would henceforth be “independent.” It would no longer ” peg Government bond prices. It would raise or lower interest rates as it might see fit, as a means of trying to prevent inflation or deflation.
These are understandings which have been grafted onto the accord over the years. Certainly, no such understandings were universal at the time the accord was signed. ….
At the end of 1951, then, the Federal Reserve had both self-proclaimed independence, as a result of the accord, and an operational policy which aimed at maximum credit effects through minimum changes in interest rates….. the Federal Reserve people were quite sure that they could do a better job of running the country than the President, and with only slight increases in interest rates. …
It then added another string to its bow- the “bills only” policy. … Henceforth when the Treasury issued bonds or medium-term securities, it was to dump these issues on the market and watch the natural consequences-first a drop in bond prices, then a gradual recovery as the market absorbed the bonds. Any private rigging or manipulations of the market were to go without interference from the Federal Reserve, as were any speculative booms or panics short of a “disorderly” market. The “bil1s-only” policy had only one reservation: The Federal Reserve would buy long-term bonds in the event that the Open Market Committee made a findings that the market was disorderly. [ full details starting on pg 103]
The [Eisenhower ] administration announced at the outset that it would re1y on monetary policy exclusive1y for its economic regulation and would respect the complete independence of the Federal Reserve to carry out these policies as it saw fit …..
Thirteen years have now passed since the accord and the liberation of the Federal Reserve. What have been the results? The major result is shockingly obvious. Interest rates have climbed steadily, with slight interruptions, during the entire post accord period. (See table 3.) The period has been marked, then, by a continual shift of income to the banks, other major financial institutions, and individuals with significant interest income. The rest of the country provided this income. …
Another result of post accord monetary policy is that the U.S. economy has unwittingly become a low investment economy… The Federal Reserve has chosen the high interest, slower growth option for this country.
In fiscal year 1963, the U S Government paid out approximately $10 billion as interest on the national debt. The budget deficit for the same year was $8.8 billion. Much political hay was made with the deficit. It was potential inflationary dynamite, ran the ”no deficit” claim. And these same people strongly supported tighter money and higher interest rates to prevent the otherwise inevitable inflationary explosion. Yet if these people were really worried about the deficit they should have been rabid partisans of a low-interest policy. For it can be shown that last year’s deficit would have been $5 billion less if the Government had not been forced by Federal Reserve policy to pay increasingly more on its outstanding debt. I n fact, the total national debt would now be $40 billion less if the interest rates of the early 1940’s had prevailed in the postwar period.
Moreover, the system eludes even the audit control exercised by the General Accounting Office, whose function it is to make sure that other Federal agencies not only handle their financial affairs properly but also pursue policies and practices that are in accord with the law. The system provides for its own auditing; clutching its mantle of independence, it has stoutly resisted repeated congressional suggestions that the General Accounting Office perform an annual audit.[ pg 121]
Congress has never given authority for determining monetary policy to the Federal Reserve System-and certainly not to a committee within the System containing members who owe their selection to private bank interests. This basic authorization has not been changed by any amendments to the Federal Reserve Act made to date. Yet two evolutions have taken place within the Federal Reserve System, in one instance, without authorization, and, in the other, directly contrary to the expressed intent of the Federal Reserve Act. In brief, the Federal Reserve’s “monetary policies,” as they are practiced today, were never authorized by law…There is little doubt in the author’s mind that if any legal challenge were ever raised to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, the courts could hold them unconstitutional.
The First Annual Report of the Board of Governors after passage of the 1935 act opened with a statement that the act “places responsibility for national monetary and credit on the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee”-although the act contained no reference whatever to monetary policy nor any provision which indicated a change in the convertibility concept on which the 1913 act was drawn. In brief, the Federal Reserve’s “monetary policies,” as they are practiced today, were never authorized by law.
The monetary powers, as has frequently been pointed out, are reserved to the Congress by the constitution. There is no doubt that it is within the prerogative of the Congress to delegate these powers either to the executive branch of the Government or to an independent agency. But it is not within Congress’s constitutional means to delegate these powers without prescribing policy objectives and clear guidelines detailing how the powers may be used. Inevitably, the Supreme Court has held unconstitutional those grants of powers made without any spelling out of the specific objectives and limitations placed on their use [pg 128]
This second change, whatever else it accomplished, did open the door to private banker influence in the formation of monetary policy. T h e regional bank presidents have become policymakers. At the very least, the type of man chosen to become the president of a regional bank affects the bent of Open Market Committee thinking. Now the private bankers have the dominant voice in choosing the regional bank presidents. They are hardly likely to choose and retain man as presidents whose approach to monetary matters does not in general conform to their taste.
I hope you take the time to read these excerpts and do not blow your blood pressure too high.
“Capitalists with government help are the worst of all economic phenomena.” — A. Rand
Rand was wrong, the absolute worst economic phenomenon is “Capitalists with government help ALL paid for by counterfeit money printed by the Robber Baron Bankers”
