Category: Guest Contributors

Guest Contributor – TomD – 15DEC2023 – Hyperinflation Follies

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Tom | Flickr

TomD

Not just Weimar Republic though they are the most famous if not the most egregious example.

100 trillion zimbabwe front.jpg
100 trillion zimbabwe front.jpg

Zimbabwe for example. Attached is a photo of the $100 trillion dollar Zimbabwean bill with the dubious distinction of being the largest denomination bill in human history.

I bought a number of these bills for about dollar and some each in around 2009. I gave them away as gag gifts. Amazingly, a couple of years ago I happened to find that the $100 trillion dollar notes had become rare and expensive. I checked a couple of minutes ago and found them selling in the $100 to $500 dollar (US) range with some higher. I gave about 30 of these things away. The joke is on me.

Adding to the irony, if I sold the notes on the market now, the US Gov would take 25% of my profit away in the form of capital gains tax on collectables. I’m getting a headache trying to think of all the ironies wrapped up in that.

Some outfit in Germany (no irony there) printed these notes for the Zimbabwean government, so they are of substantial quality.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 15DEC2023 – Who in 2024

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war pig

Not so sure about voter hate not being a factor. I believe the 2016 election was not as much about love for Trump as it was about a majority of Americans despising Hillary.

Today’s Democrats are trying their best to whip up a seething hatred of Trump and among their core it works. Most liberals would give their firstborn to keep Trump out of office. But then, they have no problem with murdering their babies, anyhow.

The left is using the weaponized bureaucracy to try to get anything they can to keep him off the ballot. It might just work. If they keep Trump off by legal fiat and leave the Biden crime syndicate, I’ll lose all faith in the government and legal system.

The trick may not be to replace Biden at the convention, but to have him resign after the election, which they steal, with another. Harris would be a joke, even to the left who would love to have a malleable Black woman as President. Hillary might be able to blackmail them into appointing her as VP at the convention. Gavin is a strong contender as VP then have him step in when Biden is ushered out due to “health issues”. They would love to have Biden die in office to get sympathy votes, but he may not oblige.

Look for Joe to have health issues. I doubt he would actually resign. The left created a Frankenstein’s Monster with him. Once they get him in hospital for something serious the process of removing him from office will begin. While Hillary would be okay with an assassination and the left will murder people with impunity in prison, I doubt the left will assassinate a US president. Even Trump. If they manage to get Trump in prison, all bets are off. The left uses bananana Republic rules in prison. “Make him disappear”.

 

 

 

 

Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 12DEC2023 – The New Political Reality

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I have already a noticed a change in how I approach other people and politics in general. I no longer seek to argue my position to outsiders. I know I’ve debated with all of you but, shock!, I don’t consider you all to be outsiders. Convincing my neighbor of the righteousness of my position is irrelevant and a waste of my time.

I have begun to look for allies, people who I might not agree with on everything but can still trust. Coalitions can be built based on common interest. I am not interested in walking ten miles in someone else’s shoes. Who can I ally with to bring about desired change? I guess I have come around to the coalition building approach of the Democrat Party and Tammany Hall. It’s us against them; you’re either with us or against us. No more foolish open mindedness that lets me be manipulated.

A Thank You to the Guest Contributors

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Over the last few days there have been a goodly number of essays on rights.  And it is apparent that the specific view points of the writers differ on a number of points.  And yet the debate and the tenor of the writing has been exceptional.

I want to thank all the participants for the level of the discourse and especially for the friendly and respectful nature of the discussion.  I’m sure everyone has witnessed the opposite behavior when the stakes were much, much lower in terms of the matter under discussion.

Thank you for myself and for the other readers for taking the high road.  And personally I found the discussion very enlightening.  If only the debates in the Congress of this country could be half as sincere, learned and intelligent we wouldn’t be in the sorry state in which we currently find ourselves.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 07DEC2023 – Human Rights Continued

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Hello, Glenn. As another career military man I too have been around-the-world three or four times.

I agree with Zman that what we call human rights are an invention as we have no natural, unalienable “rights”. What we call rights are privileges and will last no longer than we can/will defend them. Our 1st and 2nd Amemdment “rights” are currently under attack. We either defend them or lose them.

Uncontrolled immigration is another tool to dilute our will to defend our Constitutional privileges. Players such as Soros, Gates, Buffet and others are spending big money on the gamble that ruining our Constitutional Republic will make them trillionaires.

Having seen the world from the vantage of its underbelly (counterintelligence) I, too realize how exceptional America truly is. I agree that if America falls, there will be nobody to come to our aid. We-Are-It. The alpha and the omega. The concept of “human rights” will go by the wayside and if we’re lucky, it will leave a footnote in history. Likely not. The UK and Canada, especially Canada, have gone quite a ways down the fascist road. Trudeau fancies himself a political Simón Bolivar. In the UK you can’t even carry a pocket knife without risking felony, yet there are no-go zones in Birmingham for non-Muslims. And Canada and the UK are among the more civilized places.

As far as “human rights” go, once America falls we’ll be right back to 1600.

As for personal liberty, yes, that too depends on our defense of our Constitutional priviliges. I make distinction between calling them rights or priviliges in the fact that they can disappear so quickly without our jealously defending them, even from our own government. Government is all about control. Our Constitution says that We, the People rule, not the government. Both government and most of the public seem to have forgotten that.

Canada made sure to invade the personal and financial liberties of the truckers when they protested. Before Brexit, the British authorities could and would harass and try to intimidate people who supported a legal UK political party, UKIP. They even frightened and abused the children to keep parents in line.

My personal liberty depends somewhat on my support of the supremacy of the People over government. Of my designated privilege to protect myself and my family from harm without asking government’s permission. I take control of my liberty. If I find the laws tolerable, I obey them. If not, I ignore them. I take full responsibility for my actions in either case. My personal liberty lies within myself, not as a fiat of outside authority.

Good to read another career GI. Hope to read more of your opinions soon.

Guest Contributor – Glenn W – 07DEC2023 – Human Rights Continued

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It is true that rights are violated all the time but that does not mean they do not exist. Yes, rights need to be guarded and defended. The truth that the defense of those rights requires, at times, violence does not negate them.

The concept of natural rights as used in our founding set limits on what the federal government was allowed to do. It was meant to be a practical application of a moral principle for our internal governance.

The dissident right is antagonistic to the concept of a social contract, which is based on natural rights, between the government and the people. I agree that the social contract is an abstract concept but I have never heard of any political theory that isn’t full of abstractions. That includes the communitarians and the dissident right theorists.

What set John Locke’s political theory apart from the other philosophers who used the social contract (Hobbes, Rousseau, etc.) was that Locke was explicitly Christian. He based his principle that all men are created equal on the belief we are all created in the Image of God. A king has no more of that image than a peasant. As Thomas Jefferson phrased it “The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God.” I believe all of us in this country, both believer and unbeliever, have benefited tremendously from this approach to government.

It’s important to note that in Locke’s philosophy the “pursuit of happiness” was a lot more than a state of mind. There is no point in going into it here but this article provides a deep dive into the concept if you are interested.

I think I’ve said my piece on the topic, you all know where I stand on this and I’m going to let this be my last response. I hope you all have a merry Christmas.