Is a one way street, it didn’t used to be this way but unfortunately this is what we have now. I’ve wanted to write about this topic for quite some time but never have because I figured that the feathers I would ruffle would take away from the message I’ve been trying to deliver. You all know by now that I have absolutely ZERO question in my mind that paper currencies will collapse, there may be only 1,000 people in the world who have no “nagging doubts” about this in the back of their minds…I am one of them. I mention this because I want you to know that I write from the heart, I say what I mean and try not to “hedge.” I try to write like I speak (thus the horrible grades in all of my English classes) because it’s the only way I know how. I have had a message based on logic and common sense that hopefully some will heed and protect them and loved ones. What you are about to read has nothing to do with “protecting yourself financially” but some will “feel better” after reading it while others may never read me again. I will “feel better” because someone sooner or later had to say “something” because for the most part very few have.
“The First Amendment” presumably (in my opinion) was the most important to our founding fathers because “it was first,” maybe I am wrong and some historian will correct me. The United States was the greatest country the world has ever known because it was based on “The Constitution” written by, abided by and marveled by “people” who believed in “self-sufficiency.” Nothing was ever “free” and from birth, Americans “knew” that if they worked hard they could attain “the dream,” the American dream. Yes there was crime, graft, theft, violence and murder but there was always “the rule of law.” There has always been a basic “fairness” in The United States not found anywhere else in the world…ever…which is what made us great!
So what’s the burr under my saddle? I, as have pretty much everyone else, sat back and watched as issue after issue has gone by where the “politically correct” thing to do was to say nothing. Pick an issue, religion, race, creed, sexual preferences or whatever, it was best to say nothing…lest start up a firestorm. Think about this for a moment, 25 years ago did you ever think twice about saying “Merry Christmas” to someone in the fear of “offending” them? Offending them because they might be Muslim, Jewish or Buddhist? …Or atheist? Saying “Merry Christmas” to someone is a way of spreading good cheer. Is it, can it, be perceived as an insult to anyone? Was it ever “offensive” to fly the American flag? What could possibly be offensive with this? Now you have homeowners associations that ban this. Would anyone ever “burn the American flag” 50 or 60 years ago after WWII or Korea? But now it is OK because it is “freedom of expression.”? It’s OK to burn the American flag, on our own soil as “freedom of expression” but considered “hateful, racist or bigoted” to burn the flag of another nation…? It is now even politically correct to fly the flag of another nation on our soil, what’s up with this?
Without getting into the “issue” itself (not politically correct), the goofy looking (in my opinion) redneck (self-described) Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty got lambasted over the last few days…for stating his opinion. “Opinion” as in “that which is guaranteed by the First Amendment.” Do I agree with his opinion? Does it even matter? It is someone’s opinion! Everyone is entitled to their own opinion under The Constitution. They are entitled to it AND they can express it in public…period, end of story. …Unless. Unless it is counter to some “group” that claims “special status.” How much has this country changed? I can remember when the Pope visited the U.S. in the past, did our President ever “kneel, bow or kiss his ring?” Not that I can ever recall. And how did our president greet the King of Saudi Arabia? With a genuflect? Yes I know, “politically incorrect” to even mention this.
Do you see what I am getting at here? We have changed as a country. What was once commonplace is now “taboo” and not politically correct, what was once unthinkable is now “acceptable?” Some may think that we have changed “for the better.” I disagree…in my opinion which as of now I am still entitled to, it seems to me like we as a nation have reached an inflection point. We are more polarized now than any time in our history with maybe the exception of 1860-1865. The country is split between “socialists” (for lack of better terms) and “capitalists.” We have half of the country moving toward a new way of thought and the other half that still believe in the “old” American ways and traditions.
We have a Constitution that our own government follows only when it is “convenient.” Some would even like to do away with the Constitution as it is said to be an “old and outdated piece of paper.” We are living in very dangerous times, the politically correct thing to do have been to remain silent. It would not surprise me if an issue like the current Duck Dynasty saga turns out to be a line in the sand where people wake up. Wake up to the fact that we as a nation must either make the decision to “stand tall” for our beliefs or let them slip away and be rewritten in the history books.
We have sunk to the bottom as a nation in too many ways to count. Our laws are “laws” that don’t pertain to everyone. How many bankers have gone to jail for the fraud that led up to and has occurred since 2008? How can the Supreme Court rule that it is “constitutional” that every citizen must purchase health insurance (or anything else for that matter) or face a fine or jail time? How can the president make 14 “changes” so far to a law that was passed by Congress? Can a president arbitrarily change a law under the Constitution? I think not, a dictator however certainly can. How is it possible that Congress is offered up a 5 page piece of paper (the original TARP documents) to raid the Treasury of $700 billion and then receive a multi thousand page document with no time to even read it? We were told “we must pass this or we are all doomed” and “we have to pass this to see what’s in it!”
Are we collectively as foolish and “sleepy” as those who are pulling the strings believe us to be? So far this does seem to be the case. I however do not believe it. I think that there are still enough “patriots” left that given the right “issue” will stand in defiance of those who wish to defile or destroy our Constitution. I can only hope and pray that this is correct because if it is not, our children and grandchildren will never truly know how a great country the United States once was.
You nailed it Bill, you keep hitting them out of the park!
Don’t stop….ever!
Thanks Randy.
Amen Bill. We need more Bill Holter’s in our country. And we also need more Phil Robertson’s. Where is our freedom of speech? We are all of our freedom’s – where have they gone?
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I have no way to contact Phil Robertson, but Merry Christmas to him and his family. May God bless them for telling the truth.
Thank you Rich. I believe deeply in what I wrote, please pass this piece around to your friends and relatives.
Well said, Bill!
Politically correctness is the death of truth!
Bill,
Thank you for another fantastic year of incredible articles! This one will go down as one of your best.
Those of your readers who disagree with what you are saying are either not paying attention or don’t want to face reality, which is that our country is descending into Tyranny. The more people understand this, the sooner we can make our collective voices heard and do something about it.
“Merry Christmas” to you and your family and God Bless.
Exactly! Merry Christmas and God bless you too.
I am not an American Bill but your thoughts are my thoughts and your sentiments are my sentiments. What makes America exceptional is its constitution. No wonder the enemies of America want to obliterate it. Stand tall. Be free. Don’t let them.
Well written Bill.
Thanks Mark.
Hello Bill,
Another outstanding article. You keep outdoing yourself with each article better than the last, which is hard to do I might add. I wish we had 300 million Bill Holters in America.
Merry Christmas to you and your family. I am so blessed to have this community in my daily reading.
Merry Christmas to you and yours LW.
Bill,
All I can say is Amen.
This should be published under Letters to the Editor
in every newspaper in the country.
Thanks Bill, send it to your newspaper editor and anyone else you can think of or would like to. I feel very strongly about our liberties being chipped away at, silence at this point will be a killer.
Bill,
Your words speake the truth. Please keep up the great work.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thank you Farrell, Merry Christmas.
Hi Bill, Your piece on the constitution is pretty much as I see it also. We have become a “Police State” where people live in fear and intimidation. I grew up in the Sierras (mid Calif) in a small logging town and as a young man was raised with manners and respect for elders. What ever happened to those ideas ? If we don`t stand and fight the tyranny that has gripped this great country than it will be lost forever. Thanks for making my voice heard, Jim.
Our pleasure.
joeforamerica.com article I’m Offended That You Are Offended…Great read…..I need to be tolerant but you don’t? South Park had show about Intolerance School…..Happy Holidays, HA! (Seriously, Merry Christmas!)
exactly my point about a one way street.
Spot on! Spot On!! SPOT ON !!!
The Constitution is what made us great, it is the foundation of our Nation. Under the original Constitution our country prospered like no country before or since ever has. It is our Supreme Court, the very institution mandated in the Constitution to protect it, that has failed we the people. It is the Supreme Court, whose member’s sworn duty is to see that our law makers do not transgress, but transgressed they have; and the court has turned a blind eye to their unconstitutional transgressions.
If the court won’t protect the document that protecs us those of us polarized on the side of freedom must rebel against the usurpers. Thankfully, least for the time being, we still have the ability to do so through due process. If they ever walk on that law blood will have to be spilled to right the wrongs… but I fear the divisions may now be as they were when the Founding Fathers rebelled against the usurpations of their day.
“A third of us are Tories, a third of us are timid, and A THIRD OF US ARE TRUE BLUE.”
~ John Adams
“The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from its government.”
~ Thomas Paine
Is it any wonder we are polarized when half the citizenry is blind to what is happening to their freedoms, or have had their thinking SO corrupted AS to believe in the sovereignty of the state as opposed to that of the individual? As if we as men were put on this earth to serve the state?
Thank god for true patriots like Bill Holter.
~ Don Paul
Thanks much Don!
Abraham Lincoln could not have said it better!
I had felt until last year that The Supreme Court would be the savior of America!
Can you think of how it would be if you were afraid to walk down the street and not be able to express your thoughts?
scary!
I agree that the US is descending into tyrrany. I love your writings and I almost fully agree with everything you say. It is obvious that TPTB are using the media to divide and conquer the middle class with contrived left vs. right idealism, in an effort to divert attention from the looting going on.
However, one thing that I haven’t ever seen on this blog, or generally around the alternative / libertarian movement, is a frank discussion of the real underlying cause of all this — that being the decline in energy available to power the economy. In this respect, I think the MF blog is missing the fundamental problem.
I disagree that The Constitution is what made America great (speaking as a Canadian). It certainly had an impact, but the real reason that America rose to power was because it had access to huge amounts of natural resources, most notably energy, and its economy was structured in a way that maximally dug up and consumed those resources in a way that benefited the most people.
Since this energy consumption was entirely unsustainable, as has been warned about for decades now despite everyone’s ignorance of the problem, of course it must come to an end. The social decay we are seeing now can be seen to be merely the manifestation of problems that were always around, but were historically hidden behind continual economic growth. Now that growth is ending, the social fabric is coming untwined. This really is what Peak Oil looks like (the US hit Peak Oil in 1971 — how does that coincide with the gold standard ending?)
Where is the analysis of the US oil trade deficit and how the US still imports almost half the oil it burns? … Despite all this media propaganda telling us that the US will rise again like a phoenix from the ashes due to Bakken tight oil production … pure malarky. Give me a break. The numbers don’t in any way support this.
The US is not going to recover once its economy collapses. To the contrary, when the dollar dies then so will the trade deficit, and with that so will imports of oil. Then you will really see what it is like to go without energy in an economy that has been built around, and can only function with, access to copious amounts of cheap oil. Which will never, ever return.
Sorry to say it, but it’s bye-bye time. Things are never going to improve; the time to change was in the 1980’s but our parents blew it… because they threw caution to the wind, ignored the scientists, and listened to the oil companies telling us that everything’s going to be A-OK… just Drill Baby Drill!
…and Canada doesn’t have “copious amounts” of energy?
The freedoms The Constitution created guaranteed the American People, “a land of opportunity” and that is why I say The Constitution is what made American Great, i.e. it created an environment where free men could benefit from their labor, initiative and industry. Take that freedom away from men and you get an economy like that of Cuba today. Put another way: We do not work to pay taxes; we work to create a better life for ourselves and those we love. The laws in the ORIGNAL Constitution created a fertile environment for economic growth. It provided incentive. It guaranteed free men that, if they worked hard, it they would be allowed to benefit from their labors. Governments in this country today take away what we earn and gives it to others, in the original Constitution this was against the law. That law did not sit well with the political class so they got the law changed. But I ask you, how is it legal to make a law in this country, if you apply the tenants in the Constitution to it, that legalizes discrimination? You have to throw the Constitution out the window to allow any tax law that is not applied equally to all citizens.
“In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.” ~ Voltaire (1764)
To the point that our (America’s) resources are what made us great: Yes, it’s true they were of great benefit, and still are, as are those of Canada, and Russia. Further it is true that the discovery of fossil fuels have been HUGE for the entire human race, and that we are foolishly burning through them at an alarming rate… and that without them we will not be able to feed this huge population numbers they have allowed the human species to attain. As an aside, I have read THE END OF OIL by Paul Roberts, and I am very aware of the problem.
A few years ago I saw a report on one of the National News Broadcasts about a car the reporter test drove, it got 300 miles to the gallon (that’s New York to Los Angeles on 10 gallons of gas). The reported stated, “This thing’s got get-up-and-go.” He went on to say that the manufacturer said he could have it in mass production in one year. I never heard another word about it…
In the original United States of America inventions like this did not just disappear, men developed them. Call me paranoid* but IMHO someone, or something, is squelching the development of things that would be developed in a true free land of opportunity – a Nation such as the one the original Constitution fostered.
Resources are of great value to any society, but without the sweat and toil of men they are still just rocks and trees / resources. It is what men do with their resources that gives them value, and what drives men to do with something is the concept he, or she, will benefit from the doing.
*According to Woody Allen the word “paranoid” is a synonym for perceptive
Well said Bill. I have a sense that maybe more people are waking up to the need to stand up and be counted when it comes to free speech and basic values that were commonplace at our founding…and for many generations thereafter. Many self evident truths need a fresh airing in this generation. Merry Christmas!
It’s not just free speech and the First Amendment, it goes to our “basic values” as you say. Merry Christmas to you Andy!
Bill,
I feel the change too. I work with many liberals and they still blame Bush. Obama just inherited a bad economy the feel. When I mention obama doubled the debt it’s because the republicans won’t negotiate. When I bring up removal of glass steigal during Clinton yrs they blame Greenspan, never a democrat. When I bring up Keynesian economics, they say economics is just something they had to invent during the 20th century. I guess what I’m saying is people are so brainwashed into being told what to believe that their is no critical thinking. It’s pretty powerful what they have accomplished. It scares me how smart people can be stuck in mindset no matter the facts that are presented. They laugh and get angry with my gold purchases and GOTS plan. They believe everyone needs to support the dollar. I find it odd I’m the only one with a 16 foot sign on my front yard stating ” enough! us debt 17,000,000,000,000″. Why isn’t there more anger? I guess 1/3 have no clue, 1/3 don’t care , 1/3 care but feel helpless. I feel like the odd one at family gathering mentioning debt or collapse but I can never go back to “we’ll be fine, they will never let anything bad happen ” I trust nothing any longer when it comes to financial instruments . It’s all a lie to me
I know the feeling.
Wrote my comment late in the night and I didn’t get across my main point. It’s not a democrat vs republican issue to me, it’s a government/federal reserve issue. The msm seems to place blame in the wrong places keeping people in the dark as the fed keeps robbing savers of any return on their capital to float the top banks on Wall Street. The system is broken from the inside and the general public has no clue or know where to look. That’s what is scary to me. Because a collapse has not happened ever people will never truly believe. I find it hard to believe too but I keep an open mind and take precautions as much as possible.
Hard to believe? It is “mathematically” coming!
I believe it’s coming, just that it’s hard to believe. How could they, whoever that is, do this to our country? Why and what happens next? My guess it’s due to the fed’s greed and power it’s been given in 1913. On the govt side it’s about keeping power by buying votes so don’t rock the boat and put any financial cuts to entitlements. Ok I have become totally cynical and am ok with that as long as it’s the truth. I can make proper decisions if I have the truth and finding the truth is why I read this blog religiously everynight.
many many questions, few answers for sure. Most probably the “string pullers” are of European descent. Look to who “owns” the Fed for your answers.
As Maurice Samuel stated , ” We are theDestroyers . We will always be the Destroyers , no matter what you do ! “
@keith just be careful that the same ones who do not believe you and the preparations you are making, are the ones who come to steal all you have done in preparation. It is easier to ask people if they stack/prepare to see if the conversation goes anywhere. I find this to be a good way of gauging who will receive the information and who will not. Every man is responsible for his home and that must always be his first preparation. I have learned I cannot save anyone, I can only help them. But first I have to learn to help myself and the ones I am responsible for.
Bill as always good to read your articles!
Bill:
I agree, wholeheartedly.
Saint