The TSA wants your DNA

It's been recently (and broadly) reported that the TSA is planning on using DNA scanners as soon as this summer in their never ending quest to intrude into people's privacies.  It boggles my mind that Americans are just allowing this kind of thing to spiral out of control.  What do you think they are going to use that DNA for, simple identification purposes?  Really?   REALLY??  Are we that dumbed down as a nation these days to think that the DNA won't be misused somehow by government gone wild?  What's next, a chip implant instead of a frequent flier card?

But don't worry, DHS says that DNA information won't be used to identify genetic weaknesses, propensity for disease, etc.  Add that to the long list of proven lies from government that starts with "we won't store naked body images".  Think about it: one day you might be prohibited from traveling because the DNA says you are likely to be a carrier of some disease.  Or maybe your DNA scan comes back and says that you have a genetic propensity toward criminal activity.  Do you really think genetic profiling won't be used?  WAKE UP!  Of course it will be used and so will any other "tool" they can think of to control and intimidate people.   This is getting dangerously close to having a division of pre-crime where people are treated differently even though they haven't actually done anything wrong.   Shades of Minority Report!

Look, here's how it is.  As long as we have an organization which is getting paid to monitor, track, probe, grope, x-ray, search and prod us like cattle then we will continue to receive all of these treatments.  In addition, while you are working and trying to earn a living, they have time to just keep looking at all the new security toys that are coming out and finding ways to spend taxpayer money on them.  The new DNA tests are a "bargain" at only $100 a pop.  Someone is cashing in on that and you have to wonder who at the TSA is getting the kickbacks.  Oh, and the tests only take an hour now so don't worry about being slowed down in your travels.  You have an hour to wait for your test to complete, right?

This is all just security theater.  It's not making us safer at all.  In fact, it is pushing people around and that is how people turn bitter and angry.  Eventually the security measures themselves are the very cause of blowback.  People who trade their freedoms and privacy for security theater will end up without freedom, privacy or security.

Wow - Utah wants to return to honest money

The Salt Lake Tribune reports, "A bill that recognizes U.S. gold and silver coins as legal tender and exempts their sale from the state capital gains tax passed the Utah House Government Operations Committee Wednesday."

This bill is very interesting on many levels:

• It does not attempt to create a new paper currency that is backed by gold and silver.  Instead, it seeks to restore gold and silver coins themselves to their constitutional roles as money.  Whenever someone says they want gold backed paper money you always have to wonder if they are going to game the system like the federal government did when the dollar was backed by gold.  That experience, which ended in default in 1971, showed us that backed by gold is not the same thing as gold.  It also showed us that government has no problem stealing from the people.  The Utah bill does not look like it is playing games.  Those folks appear genuinely concerned that Federal Reserve notes are not worth the paper they are printed on.
• The bill exempts coin "sales" from state taxes.  In other words, it makes gold or silver coins real money, not "collectable" items which can appreciate and have capital gains.  Of course, the federal government wants none of that and if you are stupid enough to report the conversion of gold into paper money to them they will treat it as a taxable event.  That is a total scam and the fact that Utah is working to remove the state taxation of conversion between metal coins and paper money proves the point.  Did we ever have to pay tax as children when we saved up dimes and quarters and then went to the bank to convert them to dollars?  Of course not.  But the federal government wants us to do exactly that if we want to convert gold and silver coins into dollars today.  The feds believe that the fact that their paper money cannot hold its value is your problem, not theirs.  Silver and gold coins never increase in value.  The paper money decreases in value and thus it takes more of them to buy gold and silver which has not lost value.  Whose problem should that be, ours or the fed's? 
• While the bill is a step in the right direction, Gresham's law and fear of federal taxation will probably limit the actual trading of gold and silver coins for items in the economy.  Gresham's law is really just a rule of thumb which states that bad money will displace good money in the economy because people will pass the bad money along in trade and hoard the good money.  A good example of this is that you never see any silver dimes or quarters in the money supply anymore.  When people see the silver ones they put them in their pockets and they do not spend them.  Instead, they spend the silver colored ones that have no actual silver in them.  Likewise with gold.  The Utah law seeks to make it legal to pay for things with gold coins but who would use gold to pay for a car when they can use paper money instead?
• The big wildcard in all of this is the marketplace.  Gresham's law only holds true when gold and paper trade at the same rate.  However, if car dealers start giving price discounts based on buying with gold and silver coins instead of with paper money then all bets are off.  Yes, the discounts would have to be significant in order to tempt people to spend their coins instead of paper but I think if you could get 10-15% off for spending gold coins instead of paper money that it could see some interest from the buying public.  Discounts for more tangible forms of payment are not new.  If you have ever seen a cash price that is lower than a credit price for something then you have experienced this for yourself.  Who knows, maybe one day at the gas pumps there will be a credit price, a cash price, and a silver price.
• The whole idea of a new currency (or return to the old standard) represents a new threat to the federal government.  The feds have lots of power over everyone which they acquire via their ability to spend money on anything they want.  It gives them the ability to pick winners and losers, friends and enemies of the state.  The reason they get away with it is that they don't have to earn the money or even tax it away from the public.  They simply borrow or print it and that is an exorbitant privilege not only over other nations but also over the states.  If everyone decided to follow Utah's lead on this and if businesses subsequently stopped accepting paper money or gave a big discount for using gold and silver coins then the federal government would collapse within a few short months.  Without control over the currency of the land the federal government is nothing.  At this point the Utah legislation can be viewed as "a stunt" by DC statists.  They can claim it will never catch on.  They can pooh-pooh it like they did about the Tea Party.  But if Americans are finally waking up to the scam which is fiat currency and fractional reserve banking and if they are willing to go through the pain of a transition back to honest money then the federal government could go bankrupt in short order and return the control of people's lives back to the state level where most of the power was constitutionally intended to reside.

I really have tip my hat to Utah government for making this statement and for giving up any level of expected tax revenue in pursuit of returning to an honest money supply.  This is a move that is pro business and pro labor at the same time.  It is a move that shows a real desire for integrity.  That's something I have not been able to say about any government in a long, long time.

Bernie Madoff "The whole government is a Ponzi scheme"

For at least 4 years now I have been writing that the US government and indeed the whole global economy is one big interconnected debt based Ponzi scheme which requires ever increasing amounts of debt to keep it from collapsing.   At the time my views were considered extreme but over time they have become much more main stream.  I knew I was on the right track when several months ago The Economist magazine agreed that it is a Ponzi and later so did Bill Gross of PIMCO.  Now Bernie Madoff, Ponzi king, is adding his experienced opinion.  Don't ask me why he's decided to blab now after remaining fairly quiet on the matter throughout his trial but he's clearly pulling no punches.  Perhaps his son getting suicided like that has his hackles up.  Who knows?  The point is that, unfortunately, he's telling the truth.

All Ponzi schemes eventually collapse but nobody can say exactly when because the timing has to do with confidence of the herd.  Until the herd loses confidence it is going to doggedly stick with what has appeared to work (just like Madoff participants did).  Participants in a Ponzi begin to think that winning big forever is normal.  They get used to it and become dependent upon it.  That's when the trap door opens.

I've written on several occasions how the recent US government treatment of the collapsing Ponzi closely mirrors the behavior of the original Charles Ponzi as his famous scam was collapsing.  Ponzi proved that he could extend the Ponzi for short periods of time through showmanship consisting of face time with the worried crowds, making additional but unkeepable verbal guarantees and promises on top of the old ones in order to shore them up, and even through the giving of coffee and doughnuts to people lined up in the cold to get their money out.  His story is very instructive and the wiki for it is well worth your read.

So if all of this is a Ponzi scheme which must inevitably collapse at some point, what do you need to know?  Well, the historical characteristics you should pay attention to are:

• No Ponzi in history has ever avoided collapse.
• Not everyone in a Ponzi can get out whole.  There isn't enough money in the system and there never was.  Accounting entries are Wimpy Promises or as N.J. Governor Chris Christie calls them, "fairy tale promises".
• Those who get out of a Ponzi before it collapses get out whole. 
• Signs and warnings can be present for a long time but the collapse often comes suddenly as a result of some trigger event which makes the herd lose confidence.

Go ahead and play along as long as you like but if you see really unprecedented things begin to happen suddenly here in the states then it might be wise to take action first and ask questions later.  The last ones out of a Ponzi are left holding an empty bag.

A world of misconception

The civil unrest seen around the world is starting to arrive in the states as reality about the collapsing debt Ponzi sinks in.  No, we do not have running gun battles, aircraft strafing the crowds or protesters throwing firebombs at police.

Yet.

But the hate rhetoric is winding up and the herd is going into emotional mode.   That means reason will probably take a back seat at some point.  In today's news the headline is, "NJ Union Members Told To Brace For Coming Fight"

Within that article, National AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka promised, "If we stand together and we fight together, I promise you we'll win together."

I think we have to stop there for a minute and pause.  This is not the little guy vs. the big corporation demanding fair pay and work conditions.  This has nothing to do with corporations.  It's about unionized public sector workers.  When unions fight big corporations you have to admire them because why should those corporations suck up all the profits which were generated by the labor of workers?  It makes perfect sense that profits should be shared fairly with the laborers who created them.

But again, don't let your mind be swayed in that direction because this is a different matter.  This is state workers vs. the state.   OK, so it's still David vs. Goliath, right?  The only problem with that thinking is that Goliath is not a productive economic enterprise which profits from the labor of its employees.  Instead, it is basically a semi-symbiotic parasite on the economy and on society.  Goliath has no money of its own.  It never earns money.  There are no profits to share.  Any money it does acquire must be taken from the citizens under threat of legal action.  Many of the services provided by Goliath are of little to no value to many of the people who are being legally required to pay for them. 

New Jersey is bankrupt.  They have no money.  Public employees don't care about that.  They want to view the government as an all powerful bottomless pit of wealth from which endless wondrous easy money emanates.  OK, I accept that reality.  But when Trumka stirs up the people into a fight, it is not a fight with government because government does not have what they seek to gain by fighting.  Fight with the government all day long and not another penny will flow because all the pennies are gone.  Period.  Instead, it is a fight with their fellow citizens to pay more money out of their pockets so that public employees can live better lives.

Everyone deserves a fair wage for what they do no matter who it is.  The only questions are, what is fair and do we even need what you are selling?  Public employees provide a service to the public.  But if payment for that service means that work-a-day people cannot afford their own homes or to have their own medical insurance then at some point the service can become too much of a good thing.  Can you imagine how you would react if the water company demanded that you water your lawn every day year 'round because they needed the revenue to fund their medical and retirement benefits of the type that private sector employees never get?  You lawns would be waterlogged all the time and your water bill would be astronomical.  At some point you would probably dig a well so that you could rid yourself of their parasitic services.  But when government is involved you can't do that and so the only way to say "no mas" is to decline further tax increases.

If promised benefits cannot be paid then either charge those who made the deal with fraud for knowing that they could never be paid or default on the promise like businesses do all the time.  Heck, go ahead and do both!  But whipping up the people against each other is not going to result in more money squeezed from the turnip, especially when the private sector doesn't get the same average salary and benefits as public workers.  Now that awareness on this issue is so high, the public is not going to agree to make an unfair situation even more unfair.  Let's not see people hurt and property damaged with this kind of infighting.  If public workers don't like the new deal, then quit.  That's all private workers could do when their employers imposed 10% pay cuts.  But under no circimstances does any service provider have the right or the moral imperative to force unwanted levels of service upon its customers.

Poster child in the move back toward conservatism

In his 2002 book, "Conquer The Crash" Bob Prechter clearly predicted that the social mood had peaked (think irrational exuberance) and that it had begun the march back toward conservatism.  Today's news reports that Nevada Senator Harry Reid thinks "the time has come" to end legalized prostitution in his state.  If that isn't an endorsement of Prechter's long standing views then I don't know what is.  We are in dire economic times as measured by joblessness and people living on state aid.  It's amazing to see the Senator of the state which currently has an economic monopoly on the legalized sex trade saying he wants to destroy those jobs!

Prostitution is always a sad thing but forget the morality assessment for a second, stay economic with me.  This is more than just shutting down the Mustang Ranch and the 27 brothels implied by the article.  Outside of those places prostitution is still illegal but there is something about having that kind of dual standard in place that sets the tone for everyone else.  Enforcement and stings do exist but the casinos and streets are teeming with sex "workers".  People fly into Vegas all the time to "party" and that includes plenty of prostitution.  Many of those outfits pay their taxes (protection money?) to the government and so they operate in the open as escort services.  Corporate shindigs, group meetings and individual vacation decisions rely on the quasi-legality of the activity.  No, prostitution is never on the formal agenda.  It is more of "perk".  But it adds to the air of partydom and excitement and if it goes away then some of the sparkle of Sin City will diminish with it.  That loss of sparkle will certainly turn up as economic loss at a time when the state can ill afford it.

Harry Reid knows all this yet he's suggesting it anyway and he's doing it at a time when people are shooting Senators from his state in the head.  Cutting jobs of prostitutes, pimps and the organized crime that accompanies these things seems like a good way to increase one's chances of receiving a 9mm ticket to the afterlife, but still he is doing it.  That tells me that there is an unseen move toward conservatism that he's picking up on, something that will help him win more votes than he loses by adopting this stance.  The best politicians are those who feel the pulse of the herd and then "lead" them in the direction they were already heading.  Yes, that's right, the best politicians (a word that I always use with a pejorative tone) are followers who act like leaders.  Real leaders are people like Ron Paul who tell the herd they are headed off a cliff even when they don't want to hear it.  Expect more disingenuous conservatism from our politicians going forward.

Everyone plans on fighting until the end.

It's pretty clear from global action that the Grand Debt Ponzi is rolling over.  That, folks, will likely include the eventual collapse of the completely artificial stock market rally that began in March 2009.  Everything that was artificially put into place using the income provided by the debt Ponzi will now, in time, evaporate back to whence it came.  Tunisia's president Ben Ali held out as long as he could.  So did Egypt's Mubarak.  Now Gadhafi is planning to hang on until his last drop of blood is spilt.  I can only wish him the speedy attainment of his goals. 

Here in the U.S. we see Wisconsin public workers hanging on as long as they can.  Soon it will be California teachers pension folks up in arms because it is already insolvent and the New York pension system isn't far behind.  NPR aficionados want that program to remain and the Planned Parenthood crowd is all riled up about proposed de-funding.  In a sign of the times, just last year an official with the New Jersey Teacher's Union has prayed for the death of N.J. Governor Christie for his moves to cut their funding.

The signs are all around us.  The first reaction by those affected is "What, me?  Why do they have to get rid of [me / unkeepable promises made to me / my pet feel good government funded project ]?".  Nobody bothers to ask two very important questions:

1. Where does the money come from to pay for these things?
2. If that magical money source is running dry then how can the above things continue to be paid for?

It would be nice if everyone would just figure out that we have all been conned, make the required adjustments, and get on with our lives.  Unfortunately, people don't understand that we have ALL been conned by the scam of fiat currency and fractional reserve banking.  Instead, "victims" believe it is "the other side" executing some evil plan to rip them off, etc.  Does my down play of this mean I don't think the left and the right plot against each other?  Of course I do!  But those plots have been ongoing for decades and none of them have gotten us to this point.  Besides, both left and right are getting whacked.  People are at each other's throats in a big way around the globe and it will very likely become violent here in the U.S. at some point.

Getting mad at fellow citizens about this is akin to one victim of the Madoff Ponzi getting mad at another one of the victims.  Sure the GOPs gladly funded preemptive strike wars to nowhere.   And yes, the Dems gladly funded countless social programs which basically teach people to be dependent.  And both sides have bailed out the banks big time.  The problem is that we have all been conned and we don't want to admit it.  Why?  Because that would imply some degree of greed and complicity by the "victims" who of course are pure as the driven snow. 

Huh?  Now I'm saying that the "victim" of a con is himself partially to blame?  Absolutely!  That's why I keep putting "victim" in quotes so annoyingly.  The correct term for the person who gets fleeced by a con is "patsy".   Confidence games get their names from the fact that they cannot work without gaining the confidence of the patsies.  A con man accomplishes this goal by playing on the greed of the patsies.  They convince them that they will receive something for nothing or at least a reward which is far greater than what their participation was worth.  The patsies look at the whole thing and realize something is wrong but they don't stop to ask questions because they want the items that are being promised.  They want to believe that they are worth all these luxuries even while many people in the world die each day for lack of clean water to drink.  People allow themselves to be conned.  They never stop to think about what they will do if the promised item does not even exist.  They block that possibility out.

When a Ponzi is in the collapse stages, protest is a waste of time because you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.  There is no gold at the end of the rainbow so rant about it to the leprechaun all day long and it wont make a stitch of difference.  Folks, we have been enjoying a great quality of life based on the accumulation of debt and now it is becoming clear that we have overspent the credit card.  People who used to not worry about it are now worried about it.  It makes no sense to continue racking up more debt so that we can fund banking bailouts, wars to nowhere and, sorry to say, lifetime pay and benefits for public workers when private sector folks get none of it. 

Everything should be cut including NPR, Planned Parenthood and every other something for nothing program.  Why?  Because there is no money to pay for it!  Stop ranting about the social need for someone else to pay for these things.  If certain groups of people want them so badly let them fund them privately.  But don't continue stealing from our children to pay for these social luxuries.

Unfortunately, the current tone suggests that everyone is planning on fighting about everything until the end.

Has the USA needed to be the world's policeman all these years?

Today's news reports that two Libyan fighter pilots defected with their aircraft to Malta instead of carrying out government orders to bomb civilians. Gadhafi is failing.  This is absolutely wild because it means that the pilots feel such global eyes upon them that they would rather be named enemies of the state than carry out the evil despotic orders of a tyrant.  Obama got the Nobel peace prize for doing basically nothing.  In a fair world he would give that prize to those two brave pilots who defied the direct orders of a maniacal despot at great risk to their safety and that of their families.

At this point, Gadhafi is a dead man walking.  There is no way he can stop the protests without heavy handed threats and violence from his military hit squad and he has already ordered his helicopters to live fire on the crowds resulting in many deaths.  If he doesn't flee the country soon then his own cronies will turn on him a-la-Caesar or the people will break though his defenses and capture him.  In that case his worthless life will be cut short by the mob.  Even if he manages to escape I believe that his behavior has been horrific enough to be charged with war crimes and then executed by a formal tribunal.  This means Gadhafi is in it until the end.

At this point all the corrupt and despotic governments of the Middle East are fighting for their lives.  In true Ponzi collapse fashion, it seemed to go from a simmer to boiling over in the blink of an eye.  All of this should be proof that the world does not need the US to be the global policeman.  Have people died in their recent quests for freedom?  Yes, of course they have because freedom isn't free and it never has been.  But if you look at the staggering numbers those who died in the U.S. led overthrow of Saddam, the death toll is 100 or even 1000 times as high as what we are seeing today.  Thinking people have to believe that freedom has the lowest cost and the longest lasting effects when the affected people take care of their own problems in their own ways.  That's because when a 3rd party becomes involved it brings with it a separate agenda which clashes with what many of the local people wanted.  Foreign intervention in civil war is a Trojan horse which will end up with a foreign controlled puppet government.

Ron Paul has been teaching us this wisdom for a couple decades now.  Given that we are 14 trillion in debt and given that our deficit is growing by nearly 1.5 trillion annually, it makes perfect sense to slash the military budget massively and to bring our troops home to defend our own borders as outlined in the constitution.