Authored by Charles Hugh SMith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Nobody seems to be wondering what happens should the real world no longer respond to the Perpetual Motion Finance Machine.

Scrape away the hand-wringing about interest rates and we find a bedrock of complacency. Nobody seems to doubt that the status quo can grind on for another 30 years doing the same stuff it’s done for the past 30 years.

Japan’s Perpetual Motion Finance Machine can apparently run for another 300 years without a hitch. Here’s how the Perpetual Motion Finance Machine works: the government spends huge sums it doesn’t have by selling bonds to the central bank, which creates the money to buy the bonds out of thin air. Perpetual Motion–perfect!

Japan’s immense success with its Perpetual Motion Finance Machine offers other governments a rock-solid template for permanent funding of all the goodies everyone wants and needs. It’s perpetual motion, nothing can stop it.

This then drives another surefire financial gimmick, the Yen Carry Trade: borrow in yen at near-zero rates and then use the free money to buy US Treasuries yielding 3% or 4%. Free money! This is also assumed to be so ironclad it’s good to go for another 30 years, heck, make it 300 years.

the assumption here is nothing can bring down a system that can create as much money as it needs to solve any spot of bother and we have the past 30 years of history to prove it.

Nobody seems to think there are any constraints on the Perpetual Motion Finance Machine or the alternatives being proposed: crypto, gold-backed currencies, and so on. That these alternatives might fail to solve the underlying problem–there’s no way to keep the Waste Is Growth-Landfill Economy running with solely financial means–that’s impossible. Finance fixes everything.

Until finance in all its flavors is the problem, not the solution. Few seem to ponder the possibility that the whole freaking shebang of debt and leverage might give way and tumble over the cliff regardless of what reforms (gold-backed currencies, etc.) and other financial modifications are instituted.

In other words, few seem willing to entertain the possibility that the system is now beyond the point that a return to stability is possible. In systems terms, the whole shebang (the global financial system and the global economy it enables) has veered so far out of equilibrium that incremental policy tweaks can no longer restore equilibrium.

The dominant dynamic will be wild swings within a widening gyre of instability until the whole shebang unravels. Then there’s the real world, which–and I know this is shocking–can actually trump financial gimmicks.

Imagine the scene on the Titanic when the engineer explains to the captain the ship is doomed because too many watertight compartments have been compromised by the collision with the iceberg, and the captain reassures him: “No worries, we have a printing press on board and we’ll print as much money as we need to repair the ship.” Uh, right.

Yesterday I went to the local outlet of a major national grocery chain to pick up a couple of sale items. I walked around the cavernous store but didn’t spot any hand-baskets, so I asked a clerk, “Did you get rid of the hand-baskets?” She replied, “No, we just don’t have any.”

I submit this as the perfect summary of how the whole shebang unravels. No, we didn’t dispense with X, we just don’t have any.

In other words, we’d be going to Heck in a hand-basket except we’re out of hand-baskets.

This is not an isolated incident. Here are a few more.

1. Tried to reach an office in the healthcare system. Left four polite messages last week, no response. Called the doctor’s office, the staffer said that office is understaffed. Gee, lucky nobody actually needs any prompt response.

2. Submitted a form via their “secure online system” regarding my IRA at a major US bank. No response for several weeks, so I called the number provided and was eventually connected (after many minutes of jarring music) to a support person who wanted to help but did not know what form I was referring to. In other words, every avenue of communication is a dead-end.

3. Another call to Corporate America connected to a support staffer whose English was so poor I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but beyond that, she clearly had not been trained to do the basic functions of her job. So what to do? You know, of course: hang up, spin the roulette wheel and hope for a more competent staffer.

OK, I get it: I’m cursed. The rest of you are getting excellent service from every company, from the DMV, and so on, and there are stacks of hand-baskets waiting to increase your shopping pleasure.

Yes, these are all inconsequential developed-world annoyances. The point isn’t that they’re life-changing, the point is that these systems used to function reliably and now they don’t. This can be written off with various excuses, but what if it’s evidence that the real-world systems we rely on are all sliding toward the cliff edge of systemic dysfunction or breakdown?

One more anecdote. The guy ahead of me in the grocery store line ponied up $255 for a couple bags of groceries and another $22 for some Coors beer. He didn’t look like his household was bringing in $250,000 a year, and yet he didn’t seem troubled by dropping almost $300 for a couple bags of groceries and a few beers. He was clearly price insensitive, i.e. we don’t need no stinking discounts, we pay full pop for whatever we want.

Personally, I would be having a cardiac arrest if all I got for $277 was a couple bags of groceries and a few beers. But again, I guess I’m cursed with frugality and nobody else even cares how much things cost now. A $60,000 pickup truck? No problem, give me two!

Nobody seems to be wondering what happens should the real world no longer respond to the Perpetual Motion Finance Machine. Meanwhile, I’m cursed with the gut feeling that the printing press on board the Titanic isn’t going to keep the whole shebang glued together as long as everyone else seems to think, and that substituting new financial gimmicks won’t restore the system, either.

The lifestyle you ordered is out of stock and we have no idea when the back-order will be filled. But no worries, we’ve got 30 years of history to prove that all we need to do to enjoy 30 more years of Waste Is Growth is play around with various versions of “money,” debt, speculative bubbles and phantom capital.

But really, everything’s FINE (Fragile, Insecure, Nonsensical, Expensive) and it’s all rock-solid for another 30 years. But hey, why be so darned cautious, make that 300 years, we’ve got Perpetual Motion.

New Podcast: Its a Waterfall – Risk, Collateral & Productivity (48 min)

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In this all-encompassing conversation, Matterhorn Asset Management, AG partner, Matthew Piepenburg, meets with the Jay Martin Show to discuss the financial and political forces which daily strengthen the case and role for physical gold.

Centralization of information, politics, digital currencies and reckless monetary policies is a theme which runs throughout this fascinating discussion.

Matthew addresses the consequences of a weaponized reserve currency and an equally politicized/weaponized (i.e., non-transparent/unaccountable) political and media environment to characterize an era of “splintered chaos” in everything from social fracturing to the slow then rapid implosion of financial markets. These forces enhance distrust from the bottom-up colliding from policy failures from the top-down. The subsequent collision historically suggests increased market, military and social stressors followed by less rather than more individual, market and informational freedoms.

Based upon unsustainable debt levels and credit market indicators, Piepenburg foresees a world in which the USD has less rather than more influence in global payment and trade settlements. He tracks the bond market signals from the 2019 repo crisis to the recent collapse of regional banks to confirm credit risks which point to an increased need for synthetic liquidity and inevitable, as well as inflationary, policy reactions to deflationary recession forces.

Gold, of course, loves chaos and broken financial systems marching through and toward classic deflationary to hyper-inflationary cycles. These patterns and debt-strapped doom-loops are clear to any and all who understand the math, history and policies of debt-soaked sovereigns using inflation, currency debasement and war as distractions from—and reactions to—monetary failures created from within.

Piepenburg and Martin pull on many thematic threads (de-dollarization, CBDCs, central bank gold stacking, negative real rates, petrodollar shifts and Powell rate hikes) to make this pattern more apparent.

Watch the full discussion below:

Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,

The “Federal” Reserve – in the usual air-finger-quotes, to emphasize the maliciously disingenuous verbiage, the “Fed” being a conglomeration of private banks that controls the federal government and so, practically everything else, via the issuing of money it creates out of nothing that it loans at interest to the federal government – has up to now been a kind of background evil. Few knew about or understood its machinations – its manipulations – because few had any direct dealings with it.

It was just, you know, the “Fed.”

That is about  to change.

Come July, the Fed will involve itself directly in the affairs of Americans, via Fed Now – a chirpily named etiolation of the “Fed’s” manipulation of the nation’s money supply. The object now isn’t manipulation as much as it is habituation.

To “federal” control over what you are allowed to buy and sell with the digital money it controls. FedNow is the Beta version of what is meant to become the Fed’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). It is just a matter of getting people used to it. As they got used to wearing Face Diapers. To being fondled as a condition of travel. To election months rather than election day. And so many other such things. All in good time, my pretty, the wicked witch says.

As things have stood since the creation of the “Fed” by the private banks – by the rich men that controlled those banks – using their riches to buy politicians such as Nelson Aldrich (whose daughter married a Rockefeller, who gave birth to politician Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller) the “fed” has controlled the economy via its control of the money used by the economy.

It has used what is styled “inflation” to devalue the buying power of money and so egg-on people to spend it before it buys less. This discourages savings and rewards profligacy, which profits the “Fed” and those close to it via the encouraging of debt-based living, upon which the banks and related institutions feed, via the interest they collect. The end result is a society in which the banks own almost everything that matters, while most people pay interest on debt most of their lives, many of them ending their lives with little to show for it.

But impoverishing people by eroding their wealth and keeping them chained to debt is only a partial solution as there are still people who find a way to live within their means, avoid debt and – worst of all – avoid being controlled. They are the people who aren’t wage slaves, who deal in cash, anonymously – and by dint of that, avoid what are styled “taxes,” the legalized robbery committed by the government that is the tag-team enserfer of the American people, along with “inflation.” If money retained its buying power – if it were not made of paper – and if people weren’t robbed of their money – most people would have money enough to live comfortably and, most of all, they would  be largely immune to much of the bullying so many currently endure at the hands of the government-corporate nexus.

The “Fed” being one of the first mergers of the two when it was created back in 1913 – courtesy of the services rendered by bought-and-paid-for politicians such as Senator Nelson Aldrich. The latter was also instrumental – uncoincidentally – in the passage of the 16th Amendment, which legalized the federal income tax. So as to assure the people would be robbed of their money when they earned it as well as their money robbed of its value when they spent (or tried to save) it.

Now the nexus wants to assure that people who have managed to escape these forms of control will be placed under control – by making it so that every transaction they make is known – or put another way, they will make it impossible for anyone to make any transaction without it being known.

And subject to approval as well as immediate robbery.

The “Fed” – which is to say, the nexus – would know every last detail of your financial life, down to the can of soda you just bought – using their app in lieu of cash. You will pay every cent of what they say you “owe” in taxes. The good news is it will probably no longer be necessary to file taxes every April. The bad news is you’ll be paying taxes – all of them – all year long. No more under-the-table cash transactions, the latter imputed with disreputability – as if it were disreputable to hide one’s money from those who would rob one of it.

But the worst part isn’t the being rendered naked and defenseless before the robbers. It is that the robbers will be able to tell you what you may – and may not – do with whatever they leave you after they rob you.

When they can prevent you from buying, you will only be able to buy with their permission. Which will only be granted if you are obedient. Easy – instantaneously –  when money becomes a digitized app, the app under their control

The main reason the “pandemic” didn’t achieve its ends entirely was that millions were able to ignore it and go about their lives – and their business. Especially those who operated outside of the grasp of the nexus, being self-employed or self-sufficient. They could buy food; they could buy fuel. Thus, they were able to say a stalwart No to face diapers and the drugs pushed by the nexus. They are still able to not buy an EV – and drive an SUV – to and from their single family home, which isn’t an apartment in a 15 Minute City.

It will be much harder to say No – to anything – when the nexus can say No, to them.

Attention, citizen! There is a climate lockdown in effect. Shelter in place. Await instructions.

Or else.

This is what FedNow is all about. Not immediately, of course. But piece-by-piece. Just as the income tax was only paid – at first – by the “rich.” Who of course didn’t pay it, being rich enough to pay politicians to enact exemptions and “write-offs” so as to ameliorate the burden, which was quickly passed on to the middle and working classes, who could not afford to buy politicians.

FedNow is presented as innocuous and even helpful. Instantaneous transfer of money! Avoid those late fees! Pay at the very last second, anytime you like!

“FedNow is the Federal Reserve’s new instant payment service that will enable customers at participating banks and credit unions to send and receive money within seconds, 24/7 and every day. You’d be able to complete payments or transfers on weekends, holidays and after banks’ business hours.”

The head of the “Fed” – Jerome Powell – says “What FedNow will do is it will enable all the banks, any bank in the United States — not just the big ones — to offer instantly available funds and real-time payments to their customers.”

And many other things besides.

This is poison. Cancer. We will not survive it if it is not excised, then burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. The nexus intends to “launch” FedNow in July. If we do not wish to be controlled – utterly and implacably and forever – this “launch” must be met with resistance. This option is still available to us – in the form of not having anything to do with it. Or the banks that are involved with it.

No is an immensely powerful weapon. If only people would learn to use it.

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Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A former US Army psychological warfare officer says that Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News because of the regime’s agenda to maintain an “uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population.”

The remarks were made by US counter-terror expert Scott Bennett.

Carlson and Fox News “parted ways” on Monday with speculation still raging as to the specific reason why the network canned its highest rated and most popular host.

According to Bennett, Carlson posed too much of a threat to institutional power because he turned Americans into proper “researchers and thinkers”.

Carlson offered an “intellectualism, truthfulness, and an analytical depth that no other news personality has ever done in the history of the United States as far back as I can remember,” said Bennett.

Tucker needed to be “silenced” because he represented too big a threat to the “powers and principalities, institutions and agendas that seek an unenlightened uninformed semi lobotomized quasi retarded population that do not question, do not research, do not analyze but simply digest and follow instructions,” according to Bennett.

“Tucker Carlson also exposed the fraud and money laundering racketeering crimes of FTX and the Democrat Party in Ukraine involving the United States government. He exposed the US biochemical labs in Ukraine and their connection to the Democrat Party, President Barack Obama, Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Bill Gates, and other US government agencies and pharmaceutical companies,” Bennett told Sputnik.

The ex-host’s anti-regime rhetoric “could no longer be tolerated by the corrupt American media and political establishment,” said Bennett, adding that his exit signals “the death of American media”.

The former US army psyops officer suggested that Senator Chuck Schumer had threatened to utilize the CIA and the FBI to deploy secret government operations against Tucker to get him off air unless he was fired.

Schumer previously called for Carlson to be taken off air after he broadcast footage showing the January 6 ‘riot’ leaders were actually allowed into the Capitol and chaperoned around by authorities.

As we highlighted earlier, one of the reasons behind Tucker’s dismissal is a lawsuit fired by former show producer Abby Grossberg, who claims she was bullied and subjected to sexist and anti-semitic harassment.

However, Grossberg’s own lawyer revealed that she has never even met Carlson.

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It looks as though it isn’t just Tesla participating in a price cut war to win business.

Stellantis’ Citroen is also joining the fray, according to Bloomberg, who reported on Thursday that the brand is now going to focus more on making “accessible” cars. CEO Thierry Koskas is likely targeting an ongoing cost-of-living crisis taking place in Europe, the report said. 

The manufacturer is targeting India, South East Asia and South American markets with its new India-made C3 Aircross SUV, according to the note. Koskas said India “is a very specific market. We can only establish ourselves here if we design vehicles for India that can be built in India with as much local content as possible.”

He continued: “We are not a low-cost brand but we need products targeted to our customers’ needs. Citroen clients don’t need technology Christmas trees or screens everywhere.”

The company is launching an “international offensive” with hopes of expanding beyond Europe, Bloomberg wrote. 

Tesla also recently “cut prices in numerous European markets including Germany and France because of a scaling up and improvement in its production capacity.” 

Prices in Germany for the Model 3 and Model Y were cut between 4.5% and 9.8%, marking the second price cut for the country this year, the report says. Singapore saw price cuts of between 4.3% and 5% and Israel saw price cuts of an astounding 25% for the base rear-wheel drive Model 3. 

Pricing is becoming an issue not just overseas, but also in the United States. The company closed its first quarter with record deliveries hitting over 423,000 units worldwide, using price cuts throughout the quarter to help move metal. As Bloomberg calculated last week, the latest price cuts on the Model Y makes it a third cheaper than it was at the start of the year, in part due to the introduction of a new lowest level trim.

The most recent cuts to Model X and Model S prices came on March 6, a little more than a month ago, when the company reduced the starting prices for the S and X in the US by 5.3% and 9.1%, respectively, to $89,990 and $99,990. Additionally, the higher-performance Plaid version of the Model S and X had been lowered by 4.3% and 8.3%.

Authored by Irina Slav via OilPrice.com,

• The EU approved a carbon tax reform to reduce emissions by 62% from 2005 levels by 2030.

• The reform makes emissions more expensive for various industries through carbon permits and the introduction of a tax on emission-intensive imports.

• The EU plans to soften the blow of the carbon tax reform by setting up an 86.7-billion-euro fund.

The European Union finalized the approval of a carbon tax reform that will see polluting industries face higher costs for continuing to generate emissions and incentivize the switch to wind and solar.

Approved by the European Parliament last week, the reform will see the EU’s carbon permit regime extended to more industries, including air and maritime transport, and reduce the availability of these permits with a view to phasing them out entirely by 2034.

In four years, the carbon permit regime will extend further to cover emissions from cars and buildings. To soften the blow, the EU plans to set up an 86.7-billion-euro fund. The money will be raised from the sales of carbon permits.

The price of these permits has soared in the past couple of years, largely in anticipation of the reform. In fact, since the start of 2020, the price per ton of carbon dioxide has tripled to 88 euros, Reuters noted in a report.

Even with this increase in the cost of generating carbon emissions, last year those fell just 1.2% to 1.6%, according to preliminary data released earlier this month. The data covered the industries that are currently within the scope of the emission-trading regime: power generation and heavy industry.

The goal is to reduce the bloc’s emissions by 62% from 2005 levels by 2030, to which end the EU also agrees to introduce a tax on emission-intensive imports from 2026 onward. The import goods that will be subject to the new tax include steel, cement, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity, and hydrogen.

The levy aims to put European producers of such goods on a more equal footing with countries that don’t have as stringent emission-related legislation as the European Union.

A majority of 24 member states voted in favor of the reform, Poland and Hungary voted against it, and Belgium and Bulgaria abstained.

More US intelligence documents from the trove of accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira point to continued failing US policy related to the Ukraine war, particularly in regards to far-reaching US sanctions which Biden policymakers hoped would blunt the Russian war machine. 

The classified assessments examined by The Washington Post show that US intelligence believed Russian can continue funding its war efforts for at least another year. While it should be obvious to anyone that Moscow hasn’t been deterred by economic sanctions or isolation from the West, this provides crystal clear confirmation. 

“Moscow is relying on increased corporate taxes, its sovereign wealth fund, increased imports and businesses adaptability to help mitigate economic pressures,” one assessment reads. WaPo says that markings on the documents suggest the info was gained via intercepted communications. 

The Post comments of the crucial context as follows: 

While some of Russia’s economic elites might not agree with the country’s course in Ukraine, and sanctions have hurt their businesses, they are unlikely to withdraw support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an assessment that appears to date from early March.

According to more from the document: 

Those elites “are likely to persist in upholding the Kremlin’s objectives in Ukraine” and in “helping Moscow circumvent sanctions,” the leaked assessment finds. 

A key purpose of the sanctions from Washington’s point of view was to impose such a cost and negative trickle-down effect on the Russian populace – perhaps leading to riots and destabilization – that it would force Kremlin decision-makers to change course and wind down the invasion. But this hasn’t happened.

Just after the February 2020 invasion of Ukraine President Biden had mockingly said Russia’s currency would be reduced to “rubble.” Of course, the opposite happened within a month after those comments. The ruble had also recovered to its pre-conflict levels against the USD by mid-April of 2022.

Also greatly aiding in Russia’s weathering the sanctions-storm has been soaring oil revenue via new markets opening up and expanding, in Asia particularly. 

Authored by John Cody via Remix News,

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), which serves as the country’s domestic intelligence service, has classified the AfD party youth wing, Junge Alternative (JA), as a “certain right-wing extremist endeavor.”

The new designation not only creates the conditions for increased monitoring and enforcement action against JA, it also comes as a political hit to the parent AfD party at a time when it has seen a surge in popularity.

The BfV had already listed the AfD youth group as a “suspected case” in 2019, and the agency is now allowed to use all intelligence tools to monitor the JA after its new designation. In addition to the use of so-called confidential informants, this will include telephone tapping and covert observation, according to German newspaper Die Welt.

The BfV justified its step, among other things, with the concept of how the organization allegedly views the German people. The BfV argues that JA’s view is not compatible with the country’s constitution, also known as the Basic Law.

“The JA’s understanding of the people, which is clearly evident in its statements and pronouncements, contradicts the understanding of the people expressed in the Basic Law and is capable of excluding members of supposedly other ethnic groups and devaluing German citizens with a migration background as second-class Germans,” the agency wrote in a press release on Wednesday.

Agitation against migrants is a consistent theme of the Junge Alternative, the BfV stated.

“In particular, immigrants with a (supposed) Muslim background are attributed negative characteristics in a sweeping manner, such as cultural backwardness and a disproportionately strong tendency to crime and violence, simply because of their origin and religion,” the BfV wrote in a statement.

It is unclear what specific comments the BfV is referring to, but it has long been reported, including in mainstream media outlets, that foreigners, particularly from Middle Eastern and African countries, feature extremely high crime rates, especially for serious crimes like murder, assault, robbery, and rape. Furthermore, German officials themselves have pointed to foreigners from these countries as being responsible for the dramatic increase in child marriage and female genital mutilation. In other areas, like anti-Semitism, the predominant groups involved all hail from the Middle East.

The BfV also claims that the AfD has repeatedly expressed itself in an anti-democratic manner. The agency claims members of the JA denigrate “political opponents, but also the state and its representatives per se.” This allegedly indicates that the Young Alternative is not concerned with democratic discourse, “but with a general disparagement of the democratic system of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

According to the government’s own data, the AfD is the most attacked party in Germany. Its members have been subject to numerous arson attacks, and much of the political establishment — both the left and the center-right — have called for the party’s complete ban. The party has also been effectively banned from the country’s political talk shows on the ARD and ZDF channels, which are required to air a plurality of views reflecting the German public, due to their status as publically funded.

The federal executive committee of the Junge Alternative downplayed the BfV’s announcement.

“The classification of the so-called constitutional protection does not surprise us,” the board of the party youth branch announced.

The statement outlined that the country’s secret services are simply fulfilling their mission of suppressing the country’s opposition.

“Regardless of whether they are critics of migration, critics of coronavirus measures or advocates of peace — every form of authentic opposition in this country is systematically stigmatized by this authority,” the board of the JA warned. Now, the JA is reviewing its legal options in light of the designation.

AfD leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel also released a joint statement, writing: “We currently have neither a justification nor relevant documents that make the step comprehensible.”

The AfD is facing various legal disputes that could end up with the party being slapped by the BfV with a similar “right-wing extremist” designation. The party suspects that the BfV made the move against the JA to strengthen its case against the AfD. If the AfD receives such a designation, it could pave the way for a complete ban of the party in Germany.

There is also the suspicion that the BfV is using the new classification of the JA to influence legal disputes with the AfD.

In January, the AfD appealed to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster to overturn the BfV’s classification of the party, its youth organization and the dissolved party branch “Der Flügel” as suspected right-wing extremists.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), known for writing for Antifa Magazine and her claims that the right poses the biggest threat to Germany, praised BfV for classifying the party as a right-wing extremist group.

“We are a strong and resilient democracy. We are very resolute in defending ourselves against racism and other forms of inhumanity,” she said on Wednesday. “We are doing everything we can to dry up the breeding ground for right-wing extremist violence.”

Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.”

– Justice William O. Douglas

Absolutely, there is a war on free speech.

To be more accurate, however, the war on free speech is really a war on the right to criticize the government.

Although the right to speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom, every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.

Indeed, those who run the government don’t take kindly to individuals who speak truth to power.

In fact, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices.

This is nothing new, nor is it unique to any particular presidential administration.

For instance, as part of its campaign to eradicate so-called “disinformation,” the Biden Administration likened those who share “false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information” to terrorists. This government salvo against consumers and spreaders of “mis- dis- and mal-information” widens the net to potentially include anyone who is exposed to ideas that run counter to the official government narrative.

In his first few years in office, President Trump declared the media to be “the enemy of the people,” suggested that protesting should be illegal, and that NFL players who kneel in protest during the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.”

Then again, Trump was not alone in his presidential disregard for the rights of the citizenry, especially as it pertains to the right of the people to criticize those in power.

President Obama signed into law anti-protest legislation that makes it easier for the government to criminalize protest activities (10 years in prison for protesting anywhere in the vicinity of a Secret Service agent). The Obama Administration also waged a war on whistleblowers, which The Washington Post described as “the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration,” and “spied on reporters by monitoring their phone records.”

Part of the Patriot Act signed into law by President George W. Bush made it a crime for an American citizen to engage in peaceful, lawful activity on behalf of any group designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Under this provision, even filing an amicus brief on behalf of an organization the government has labeled as terrorist would constitute breaking the law.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the FBI to censor all news and control communications in and out of the country in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt also signed into law the Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate by way of speech for the overthrow of the U.S. government by force or violence.

President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which made it illegal to criticize the government’s war efforts.

President Abraham Lincoln seized telegraph lines, censored mail and newspaper dispatches, and shut down members of the press who criticized his administration.

In 1798, during the presidency of John Adams, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it a crime to “write, print, utter or publish … any false, scandalous, and malicious” statements against the government, Congress or president of the United States.

Clearly, the government has been undermining our free speech rights for quite a while now.

Good, bad or ugly, it’s all free speech unless as defined by the government it falls into one of the following categories: obscenity, fighting words, defamation (including libel and slander), child pornography, perjury, blackmail, incitement to imminent lawless action, true threats, and solicitations to commit crimes.

This idea of “dangerous” speech, on the other hand, is peculiarly authoritarian in nature. What it amounts to is speech that the government fears could challenge its chokehold on power.

The kinds of speech the government considers dangerous enough to red flag and subject to censorship, surveillance, investigation, prosecution and outright elimination include: hate speech, bullying speech, intolerant speech, conspiratorial speech, treasonous speech, threatening speech, incendiary speech, inflammatory speech, radical speech, anti-government speech, right-wing speech, left-wing speech, extremist speech, politically incorrect speech, etc.

Conduct your own experiment into the government’s tolerance of speech that challenges its authority, and see for yourself.

Stand on a street corner—or in a courtroom, at a city council meeting or on a university campus—and recite some of the rhetoric used by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Adams and Thomas Paine without referencing them as the authors.

For that matter, just try reciting the Declaration of Independence, which rejects tyranny, establishes Americans as sovereign beings, recognizes God (not the government) as the Supreme power, portrays the government as evil, and provides a detailed laundry list of abuses that are as relevant today as they were 240-plus years ago.

My guess is that you won’t last long before you get thrown out, shut up, threatened with arrest or at the very least accused of being a radical, a troublemaker, a sovereign citizen, a conspiratorialist or an extremist.

Try suggesting, as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin did, that Americans should not only take up arms but be prepared to shed blood in order to protect their liberties, and you might find yourself placed on a terrorist watch list and vulnerable to being rounded up by government agents.

“What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms,” declared Jefferson.

He also concluded that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Observed Franklin: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”

Better yet, try suggesting as Thomas Paine, Marquis De Lafayette, John Adams and Patrick Henry did that Americans should, if necessary, defend themselves against the government if it violates their rights, and you will be labeled a domestic extremist.

“It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government,” insisted Paine.

“When the government violates the people’s rights,” Lafayette warned, “insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”

Adams cautioned, “A settled plan to deprive the people of all the benefits, blessings and ends of the contract, to subvert the fundamentals of the constitution, to deprive them of all share in making and executing laws, will justify a revolution.”

And who could forget Patrick Henry with his ultimatum: “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Then again, perhaps you don’t need to test the limits of free speech for yourself.

One such test is playing out before our very eyes on the national stage led by those who seem to believe that only individuals who agree with the government are entitled to the protections of the First Amendment.

To the contrary, James Madison, the father of the Constitution, was very clear about the fact that the First Amendment was established to protect the minority against the majority.

I’ll take that one step further: the First Amendment was intended to protect the citizenry from the government’s tendency to censor, silence and control what people say and think.

Having lost our tolerance for free speech in its most provocative, irritating and offensive forms, the American people have become easy prey for a police state where only government speech is allowed.

You see, the powers-that-be understand that if the government can control speech, it controls thought and, in turn, it can control the minds of the citizenry.

This is how freedom rises or falls.

Americans of all stripes would do well to remember that those who question the motives of government provide a necessary counterpoint to those who would blindly follow where politicians choose to lead.

We don’t have to agree with every criticism of the government, but we must defend the rights of all individuals to speak freely without fear of punishment or threat of banishment.

Never forget: what the architects of the police state want are submissive, compliant, cooperative, obedient, meek citizens who don’t talk back, don’t challenge government authority, don’t speak out against government misconduct, and don’t step out of line.

What the First Amendment protects—and a healthy constitutional republic requires—are citizens who routinely exercise their right to speak truth to power.

Tolerance for dissent is vital if we are to survive as a free nation.

While there are all kinds of labels being put on so-called “unacceptable” speech today, the real message being conveyed by those in power is that Americans don’t have a right to express themselves if what they are saying is unpopular, controversial or at odds with what the government determines to be acceptable.

By suppressing free speech, the government is contributing to a growing underclass of Americans who are being told that they can’t take part in American public life unless they “fit in.”

Mind you, it won’t be long before anyone who believes in holding the government accountable to respecting our rights and abiding by the rule of law is labeled an “extremist,” is relegated to an underclass that doesn’t fit in, must be watched all the time, and is rounded up when the government deems it necessary.

It doesn’t matter how much money you make, what politics you subscribe to, or what God you worship: as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are all potential suspects, terrorists and lawbreakers in the eyes of the government.

Federal health officials are investigating a “Listeria outbreak with unknown source” across 15 states.

“A specific food item has not yet been identified as the source of this outbreak. However, CDC is concerned that illnesses continue to be reported. Listeria illness is rare, but it can result in serious illness or death,” a recent notice via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) read. 

The overall count of infections might be higher than what is currently being reported. According to CDC data, there have been 18 cases of infection, leading to 17 hospitalizations in 15 different states. So far, no fatalities have been reported.

Michigan and Wisconsin are the only states to have recorded two illnesses. Illinois, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Washington have each reported one. 

The CDC has constructed an outbreak map. 

“Public health officials are interviewing people in this outbreak to find out what foods they ate before getting sick,” the CDC said, adding the infection is “especially harmful if you are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system.”