lewrockwell--2020-06-06--When Will Government Take its Foot Off the Public’s Neck?

The old biddy* ( *crazy elderly woman who is out of touch with the world yet thinks she knows something relevant and feels compelled to share it ) history professor who created the “ scientific ” substantiation for the current lockdown/mask-wearing , social distancing that has destroyed the American economy is Nancy Tomes PhD , history professor at Stony Brook University and Bancroft Prize Winner .
Given that Tomes ’ books and journal articles are now used by public health authorities to justify destructive lockdowns of modern populations , Tomes has now made herself a part of history by her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 15-page report published in Public Health Reports in 2010 provided a historical permission slip for public health agencies to over-step their authority , something Tomes never mentions even in a recent lecture recorded by CSPAN .
Tomes does say : “ The playbook now is the same playbook they used in the Great Influenza of 1918.
” Public health authorities distributed information about the deadly flu epidemic which was “ exactly the same stuff they were telling people at the turn of the last century .
We have not evolved ” beyond what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Tomes .
Remaking the American ... Tomes , Nancy Best Price : $ 12.55 Buy New $ 33.77 Professor Tomes describes “ public education ” efforts used in the 1918 Spanish flu as …… “ you might call it propaganda.
” At least she got that right .
It ’ s not that Professor Tomes doesn ’ t provide two sides of the story , but that she fails as a historian to warn , to advise against a repeat of the failures of the 1918 flu pandemic .
Where she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts was when posters used to advise the public to wear masks , not spit on public streets , or to “ turn away when you cough ” were directed at men , not women .
In the current feminist era , I guess that women were slighted in public health messages of the time was in some way evidence of discrimination .
Tomes goes on to write : “ Perhaps the most important ‘ lesson ’ taught by the pandemic was the realization that those measures that worked the best to control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , school closures , and strict quarantine and isolation—were precisely the ones most difficult to implement in a modern mass society , ” as if the American public today should have learned to be more servile to their overseers .
Tomes goes on to say the 1918 flu pandemic did make “ significant changes ” in our society .
Such as : “ the rise of facial tissues ( Kleenex ) , a product developed for women to remove their makeup was now being used by Americans to blow their noses.
” Say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Alex Buy New $ 5.99 Tomes asked her classroom rhetorically : “ Did any of this work ?
” Her answer : “ Historians found that cities that opted for a total lockdown or some restrictions did seem able to control their death rates.
” But then says : “ You can ’ t 100 % show it.
” So , which was it : beneficial or harmful ?
Locking down a society so its citizens can survive only to face massive unemployment , abject poverty , hunger , and early death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the flu .
While Tomes concedes mask wearing in 1918 was ineffective , she says : “ I think that making people feel safe is not a bad thing to do .
If a mask makes you feel better , wear the mask , ” she says .
Wouldn ’ t that be false assurance ?
Mask wearing was roundly criticized and ineffective , but Tomes fails to ask why public health authorities haven ’ t learned from the past .
Here is how far Tomes was willing to buy into today ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How We Fa ... Simon , James Buy New $ 8.97 Tomes : “ Nor was it easy to get the public to practice the rules of modern nose/mouth/hand hygiene .
Even at the height of the pandemic , people who should have known better broke the rules.
” In reference to the 1918 Spanish Flu Tomes writes : “ Recent historical work suggests that the early and sustained imposition of gathering bans , school closures , and other social-distancing measures significantly reduced mortality rates during the 1918–1919 epidemics.
” But then Tomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ era were less than effective .
Tomes : “ In the two principal cities where influenza first broke out , Boston and Philadelphia , the illness and death rates rose so steeply and quickly that the municipal authorities felt they had no choice but to impose sweeping public-gathering bans .
Yet their decision to close schools , theaters , and other gathering places came too late to prevent the wide spread of the disease.
” “ Public-gathering bans also exposed tensions about what constituted essential vs. unessential activities .
Those forced to close @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay open .
For example , in New Orleans , municipal public health authorities closed churches but not stores , prompting a protest from one of the city ’ s Roman Catholic priests .
If churches had to be closed , Father Bandeaux argued , then the “ .. .
big business establishments , which are crowded from early morning until closing hours in the evening , [ should ] be also required to close.
” Because the board of health was doing such a poor job of stopping the disease ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had all the more reason to go to church to ask for divine help.
” Tomes does cite a critic of that era ’ s public health prohibitions : Over the Counter Natur ... Ellison , Shane Best Price : $ 5.81 Buy New $ 9.56 Continuing to talk out of two sides of her mouth , Professor Tomes writes : In other words , in practice there was no strict lockdown .
“ Transmission ( of infectious disease ) will continue to occur unless the most stringent community quarantine measures are being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means near-complete reduction of all activities in the community.
” In communities with high-population density like Wuhan , China , where the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic was supposed to have originated , “ even with near 100 % restriction of outdoor activities , all transmission will continue to occur ” writes European researchers .
Transmission still continues in small communities of 5,000 .
In the U.S. , people were still allowed to go grocery shopping , so no stringency was enforced .
The only redeeming value of the current lockdown was it was good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today , there were practices that were more political than medical .
Tomes says news reporters have been calling her over the recent measures taken by public health authorities .
She should have sounded an alarm .
Instead , Americans got more of the same archaic practices of 100 years ago .
Tomes asks but never answers : “ Do we have any better chance of controlling a “ crowd disease ” such as influenza in the early 21st century , compared to 1919 ?
” Tomes : “ Yet despite our renewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of social-distancing measures still faces many challenges today .
Public-gathering bans , school closures , and transportation restrictions are difficult to enforce for the same reasons they encountered resistance in 1918–1919 .
Nor are we any more likely than our World War I forbearers to be able to sustain an exacting hygiene of nose/mouth/hand prevention.
” As for the cause of all this , Tomes then says : “ Nearly 100 years after the great pandemic , we have no program of national health insurance.
” I guess Medicare for all would fix @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden .
After listening to a recent hour-long lecture by Professor Tomes on CSPAN and reading her decade-old article in Public Health Reports , I felt if she had been assigned to recount the historical medical atrocities that included deliberate exposure to typhus and malaria and forced sexual debauchery as part of human experimentation by Adolph Hitler , she would have recounted it without a moral twinge .
Tomes closes her March 10 , 2020 lecture by saying to her classroom of students : “ Don ’ t worry about what is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to be fine .
We will know by Thursday.
” The rest is history .

The old biddy* (*crazy elderly woman who is out of touch with the world yet thinks she knows something relevant and feels compelled to share it) history professor who created the “scientific” substantiation for the current lockdown/mask-wearing, social distancing that has destroyed the American economy is Nancy Tomes PhD, history professor at Stony Brook University and Bancroft Prize Winner.
Given that Tomes’ books and journal articles are now used by public health authorities to justify destructive lockdowns of modern populations, Tomes has now made herself a part of history by her “failure to warn.”
Her authoritative 15-page report published in Public Health Reports in 2010 provided a historical permission slip for public health agencies to over-step their authority, something Tomes never mentions even in a recent lecture recorded by CSPAN.
Tomes does say: “The playbook now is the same playbook they used in the Great Influenza of 1918.” Public health authorities distributed information about the deadly flu epidemic which was “exactly the same stuff they were telling people at the turn of the last century. We have not evolved” beyond what we did in a WWI era,” said Tomes. Remaking the American ... Tomes, Nancy Best Price: $12.55 Buy New $33.77 (as of 03:17 UTC - Details)
Professor Tomes describes “public education” efforts used in the 1918 Spanish flu as …… “you might call it propaganda.” At least she got that right.
It’s not that Professor Tomes doesn’t provide two sides of the story, but that she fails as a historian to warn, to advise against a repeat of the failures of the 1918 flu pandemic.
Women were slighted
Where she did take umbrage with prior public health efforts was when posters used to advise the public to wear masks, not spit on public streets, or to “turn away when you cough” were directed at men, not women. In the current feminist era, I guess that women were slighted in public health messages of the time was in some way evidence of discrimination.
Most important lesson
Tomes goes on to write: “Perhaps the most important ‘lesson’ taught by the pandemic was the realization that those measures that worked the best to control a highly infectious disease—bans on public gatherings, school closures, and strict quarantine and isolation—were precisely the ones most difficult to implement in a modern mass society,” as if the American public today should have learned to be more servile to their overseers.
Significant Changes
Tomes goes on to say the 1918 flu pandemic did make “significant changes” in our society. Such as: “the rise of facial tissues (Kleenex), a product developed for women to remove their makeup was now being used by Americans to blow their noses.” Say again. Unreported Truths abou... Berenson, Alex Buy New $5.99 (as of 03:17 UTC - Details)
Were lockdowns effective?
Tomes asked her classroom rhetorically: “Did any of this work?” Her answer: “Historians found that cities that opted for a total lockdown or some restrictions did seem able to control their death rates.” But then says: “You can’t 100% show it.” So, which was it: beneficial or harmful?
Locking down a society so its citizens can survive only to face massive unemployment, abject poverty, hunger, and early death, I would take my chances with the flu.
Masks that raise morale but don’t reduce mortality
While Tomes concedes mask wearing in 1918 was ineffective, she says: “I think that making people feel safe is not a bad thing to do. If a mask makes you feel better, wear the mask,” she says. Wouldn’t that be false assurance?
Mask wearing was roundly criticized and ineffective, but Tomes fails to ask why public health authorities haven’t learned from the past.
“When cities lifted public-gathering bans, they often did so with the proviso that people wear masks when attending theaters. Mask wearing gained considerable popularity as an emblem of public spiritedness and discipline.” At least the masks were good for morale.
Here is how far Tomes was willing to buy into today’s misdirection: The Big Nap: How We Fa... Simon, James Buy New $8.97 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details)
Still, gauze masks had their detractors within the public health community. One notable critic was the Detroit health commissioner, Dr. J.W. Inches, who declared “.. . these masks are worthless.” They were so porous that not only “.. . a mosquito could jump through them,” he remarked, but, “I have sprinkled granulated sugar through them,” telling proof that a microbe could get through the mask’s defenses. No comment from Tomes about useless masks today.
Tomes: “Nor was it easy to get the public to practice the rules of modern nose/mouth/hand hygiene. Even at the height of the pandemic, people who should have known better broke the rules.”
Tsk, tsk, those evil rule breakers. Aren’t lockdowns an impossibility?
Yea or nay?
In reference to the 1918 Spanish Flu Tomes writes: “Recent historical work suggests that the early and sustained imposition of gathering bans, school closures, and other social-distancing measures significantly reduced mortality rates during the 1918–1919 epidemics.”
But then Tomes concedes the disease control methods of that era were less than effective. Tomes:
“In the two principal cities where influenza first broke out, Boston and Philadelphia, the illness and death rates rose so steeply and quickly that the municipal authorities felt they had no choice but to impose sweeping public-gathering bans. Yet their decision to close schools, theaters, and other gathering places came too late to prevent the wide spread of the disease.” “Public-gathering bans also exposed tensions about what constituted essential vs. unessential activities. Those forced to close their facilities complained about those allowed to stay open. For example, in New Orleans, municipal public health authorities closed churches but not stores, prompting a protest from one of the city’s Roman Catholic priests. If churches had to be closed, Father Bandeaux argued, then the “.. . big business establishments, which are crowded from early morning until closing hours in the evening, [should] be also required to close.” Because the board of health was doing such a poor job of stopping the disease’s spread, the priest suggested, people had all the more reason to go to church to ask for divine help.”
Tomes does cite a critic of that era’s public health prohibitions: Over the Counter Natur... Ellison, Shane Best Price: $5.81 Buy New $9.56 (as of 03:17 UTC - Details)
“The best way to interrupt the chain of infection was to isolate flu victims, or as a Massachusetts physician expressed it more colorfully, “.. . put each diseased person in a diver’s suit and provide him with a pair of handcuffs.”
More duplicity
Continuing to talk out of two sides of her mouth, Professor Tomes writes:
Even in cities that passed sweeping bans on public gatherings, people could not live in total isolation. Due to the necessity of working and eating, most urban residents had to venture out of their homes into the germ-ridden realm of public spaces.
In other words, in practice there was no strict lockdown.
Strict lockdown required
A recent study published in EUROSURVEILLANCE concludes:
“Transmission (of infectious disease) will continue to occur unless the most stringent community quarantine measures are being taken in a lockdown setting, which means near-complete reduction of all activities in the community.”
In communities with high-population density like Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic was supposed to have originated, “even with near 100% restriction of outdoor activities, all transmission will continue to occur” writes European researchers. Transmission still continues in small communities of 5,000. In the U.S., people were still allowed to go grocery shopping, so no stringency was enforced. The only redeeming value of the current lockdown was it was good for drill.
Political over medical measures
Tomes continues:
“In retrospect, some of the preventive measures practiced during the 1918 pandemic seem painfully ineffective. For example, so strong was the belief in the infective power of street dust and dirt that cities all over the country, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Fall River, Indianapolis, and Nashville, invested considerable time and money in daily street washing.”
So then, as today, there were practices that were more political than medical.
Tomes says news reporters have been calling her over the recent measures taken by public health authorities. She should have sounded an alarm. Instead, Americans got more of the same archaic practices of 100 years ago.
Tomes asks but never answers: “Do we have any better chance of controlling a “crowd disease” such as influenza in the early 21st century, compared to 1919?”
Tomes: “Yet despite our renewed fear of the germs, the implementation of social-distancing measures still faces many challenges today. Public-gathering bans, school closures, and transportation restrictions are difficult to enforce for the same reasons they encountered resistance in 1918–1919. Nor are we any more likely than our World War I forbearers to be able to sustain an exacting hygiene of nose/mouth/hand prevention.”
As for the cause of all this, Tomes then says: “Nearly 100 years after the great pandemic, we have no program of national health insurance.” I guess Medicare for all would fix everything. Tomes need to collaborate with Joe Biden.
After listening to a recent hour-long lecture by Professor Tomes on CSPAN and reading her decade-old article in Public Health Reports, I felt if she had been assigned to recount the historical medical atrocities that included deliberate exposure to typhus and malaria and forced sexual debauchery as part of human experimentation by Adolph Hitler, she would have recounted it without a moral twinge.
Tomes closes her March 10, 2020 lecture by saying to her classroom of students: “Don’t worry about what is going to happen. We’re going to be fine. We will know by Thursday.” The rest is history.


lewrockwell--2020-06-06--The Weimar United States

The Weimar United States

This is from a former high level member of the CIA in a note to me : Bear in mind that we have about 100 million well armed citizens……… many of whom have military training .
Even the US Army would be unable to stand up against this force if it is decided the government has ceased to protect its people and uphold the Constitution .
As we have written , the leadership of the United States abdicated its duty to the nation when they shut it down over a not very significant flu .
They have forced from their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a form of national suicide .
What we have seen in the streets is a similar situation to Weimar Germany as the German nation faced in the 1920s and 1930s when the communists were rioting in the streets .
We have only seen in the streets the actual problem in America .
We have not seen the counter-revolutionary consequences .
We have warned repeatedly that the 50 % unemployment will cause a counter-revolutionary upheaval .
It is coming .
Tucker : Our leaders dither as our cities burn ( GRAPHIC VIDEO ) Weimar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D. Best Price : $ 16.13 Buy New $ 15.98 How should we define a worse case scenario ?
The total unemployed today is said to be just in the last six weeks 36.5 million Americans out of 155.7 million who were employed or a 23 % just two percent below the 1933 depression peak .
But that is not the true figure for in 1933 the frustrated workers unemployed for a year from 1929 were included which today is not counting another 22 % before the six weeks began , or 45 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chart below agrees with our figures that before the coronavirus siege the real unemployment was 22 % and this rose by the end of April to 39.6 % but does not include May as my figures .
It is important to note that in Germany in 1933 a 50 % unemployment level was sufficient for the democratic overthrow of the Weimar Republic .
Our oligarchs on Wall Street should start feeling their necks as they may not escape as they did in 2008 .
It must be remembered that the National Socialist Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of the vote , on September 14 , 1930 14 % , on July 31 , 1932 37.4 % becoming the largest political party in Germany .
It was a movement that came from nowhere thrust up by massive unemployment .
CORONAVIRUS DEATHS TO OVERALL DEATHS IN THE U.S. An analysis of federal data conducted by a team headed by the Yale School of Public Health found that the U.S. recorded 15,400 excess deaths between March 1 through April 4 , almost twice the number attributed to the coronavirus .
In that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported .
Below is a report from our Italian correspondent explaining why this is happening .
In brief , it is because at least in the US the hospitals have been largely abandoned by the masses of the US population causing substantial layoffs of hospital doctors and personnel .
People with heart attacks and strokes are afraid to go to the emergency rooms lest they develop coronavirus .
Our correspondent below believes that this has caused a huge spike in the number of deaths .
We are looking at the potential collapse of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States if this keeps up .
Also , doctors in the hospitals are falsifying the death certificates to ascribe the deaths to coronavirus so as to be able to receive larger death benefits from the Federal Government which pays more for coronavirus deaths .
This means that the death rates for coronavirus may be overstated by double or triple what they actually are .
This is reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw ’ s questioning why we should think that doctors are any less corrupt than our politicians .
This is covered in detail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his famous play .
This would also mean that the main killer as this report from Italy suggests below is not the coronavirus but the mass reaction to the coronavirus .
• None The terror of this virus has spread all over the world creating mass fear .
• None Since everybody is now concerned about the coronavirus , and since people are aware that this virus is very contagious , as well as doctors being afraid of it , the doctors are focusing their attention on the coronavirus and not on treating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ example , here in Italy there have been many people dying for not receiving appropriate treatment for hearth attacks , cancer or ictus ( stroke ) .
Before coronavirus they were treated in time , but now they have been delaying the treatment or the surgical operations to give priority to coronavirus cases so many of them have died unnecessarily .
Many doctors attribute the cause of death on the death certificates to coronavirus to avoid responsibility for negligence that could lead to lawsuits .
• None So we can not rely on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In the US hospitals are reimbursed for coronavirus deaths more than ordinary ones so many have just stated on death certificates that everyone that dies at hospital is a victim of coronavirus in some hospitals and most who have other major disease are still attributed to coronavirus.. • None Another point : in the first quarter of year of 2019 in Italy we had 20.000 more deaths than in 2020 , but in the month of April we had many more deaths than in 2019 .
We may have to wait for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see if this averages out .
• None Also our Protezione Civile ( Disaster Recovery Agency ) has related many times on the television that there is a big difference between people dying for coronavirus and people dying with coronavirus .
The majority of people dying had more than two other diseases ( comorbidities ) , that were very severe , so the coronavirus has just been a smaller push towards the tomb .
The coronavirus may have had the effect of slightly shortening the life of the patient and we may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months .
We see typically in Italy every year 650,000 to 680,000 are deaths for many causes which brings the average mortality rate to about 1800 per day .
• None March and April have been the worst months for the mortality attributed to coronavirus , but this has to be attributed to wrong diagnoses in Italy that brought to wrong treatments .
At the beginning the doctors were thinking that people were dying from pneumonia .
They later discovered from autopsies that the cause of death was venous tromboembolia ( pulmonary embolism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opposite to the treatment of pneumonia , and this brought to many more deaths than would have been with a proper treatment .
• None What is most interesting is that the state and controlled media engendered a fear in the masses to accept a more dictatorial form of government than we have ever seen .
This is a textbook experiment in social control .
We will not comment on conspiracy theories such as this was a pre-planned Gatsian ( Bill Gates ) trial run to increase control of our society as in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brave New World ” but I can say this that what we have done we will live to regret as the studies below indicate .
What is missing in the contemporary discussion in the business and media is what Warren Buffett calls the the huge derivative market estimated at 1.5 quadrillion dollars .
Even Warren Buffett did not mention them at his Annual Meeting as we believe he is trapped himself in sufficient derivative contracts to wipe out Berkshire Hathaway and no longer wants to attract attention to the issue .
That is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dime of his 135 billion dollars in his cash hoard on new investments keeping them in reserve for his humongous derivative exposures .
I was sitting with a beautiful derivative trader of Goldman Sachs at dinner who handled his account who said to me despite his warnings about derivatives being financial weapons of mass destruction he was one of the largest derivative players in the world .
The Bank for International Settlements whose source for derivative contracts are the banks under their supervision show as follows against an 88 trillion dollar world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ third of those which exist : “ Notional amounts of OTC derivatives rose from $ 544 trillion at end-December 2018 to $ 559 trillion at end-December 2019 .
This , however , corresponds to a significant fall over the last six months , which could be at least partly attributed to seasonal factors.
” These bank exposures of 544 trillion are mostly out of the money but will go into the money in a crash on a chain reaction basis that can bring the whole system down .
The US Federal Reserve just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up and would be forced according to Henry Kaufman in his discussion with me to nationalize all the banks .
Yet on examining Buffett ’ s March quarterly report for Berkshire Hathaway we see the following entry : Retained earnings declined to 352,359 billion from 402,493 billion causing the net worth of the fund to drop about 50 billion dollars as total shareholders ’ equity declined to 375,235 from 428,563 .
This is said to reflect losses largely on derivative contracts .
And yet , we have not seen the April and May @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the depressed nature of Warren ’ s appearance at his annual meeting .
Warren says he needs all of his 135 billion in cash against 375 billion in total equity in the event of a worse case scenario .
It is our interpretation that these may lie in his insurance companies that account for 25 % of the fund .
It is this derivative market that can blow the entire US and world economy to smithereens .
How should we define a worse case scenario ?
The total unemployed today is said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks 36.5 million Americans out of 155.7 million who were employed or a 23 % just two percent below the 1933 depression peak .
But that is not the true figure for in 1933 the frustrated workers unemployed for a year from 1929 were included which today is not counting another 22 % before the six weeks began , or 45 % .
You will note that the chart below agrees with our figures that before the coronavirus siege the real unemployment was 22 % and this rose by the end of April @ @ @ @ @ @ @ May as my figures .
It is important to note that in Germany in 1933 a 50 % unemployment level was sufficient for the democratic overthrow of the Weimar Republic .
Our oligarchs on Wall Street should start feeling their necks as they may not escape as they did in 2008 .
It must be remembered that the National Socialist Party on May 20 , 1928 polled 2.6 % of the vote , on September 14 , 1930 14 % , on July 31 , 1932 37.4 % becoming the largest political party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that came from nowhere thrust up by massive unemployment .
The $ 600.00 a week Federal supplemental weekly compensation for the unemployed on the rolls above their state benefits has stopped for a while the massive unrest as in the streets of Germany in 1933 when Ernst Rohm ’ s SA fielded 3,000,000 storm troopers .
In fact , most of the unemployed are doing better with this $ 600.00 a week Federal supplement than they were when they were employed .
It is not surprising to find Wall St. analysts suggesting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the long run for as John Maynard Keynes said in 1929 after the crash that “ I am may be a bad Prophet in speaking this way…………..There will be no serious consequences in London resulting from the Wall Street slump……..as the end of the stock market boom will bring a substantial reduction in interest rates , thus providing a boost to business……….which will give rise…..to new trade and industrial activity.
” Now , the Wall Streeters say all you have to do is push the monetary button while everyone returns to work and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have found the elixir of life in fiat money .
Keynes proceeded in making massive investments putting his money where his mouth was and lost everything .
ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment for April 2020 is 35.4 % , 39.6 % net of BLS errors ( see Flash No .
1435 ) .
What this means below is that the demand for gold is so great that HSBC had to go to the Bank of England to cover its gold short position to maintain an “ orderly market ” .
The pressure on the gold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic unrest to come .
Life and Death in the ... Fritzsche , Peter Best Price : $ 11.61 Buy New $ 22.32 THE SUICIDE OF THE WEST It never occurred to me that the west would die by self-inflicted suicide but this is what appears to be happening by causing a depression in economic activity by shutting the western economies down over a virus which has not increased the overall death rate in Europe based on the study below .
In addition a large proportion of US hospital deaths are being treated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a larger reimbursement for treating such a death rather than heart disease or strokes , and this is being done all over the US .
If this is so , then the coronavirus death rate is much lower than presently estimated .
European studies show that their death rates are relatively the same as in previous years , see below next .
*Click on the image below to read the full report .
In other words , we have shut down nearly the entire economy over inaccurate information .
The figures below do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exceed the great depression highest unemployment figures of 25 % in 1933 .
In 1933 Germany hit 50 % .
The main difference between these figures below at 39.6 % and the US figure ’ s today is that frustrated workers who have not been employed for over a year are not counted as in 1933 .
That means before coronavirus the figure was 22 % and now it is 45 % if we count the unemployment for May .
We really did not have a healthy economy before the coronavirus .
ShadowStats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % , 39.6 % net of BLS errors ( see Flash No .
1435 ) Why was there no mass unrest at 22 % ?
It was because as Mitt Romney said he could not win the election because half the country was on transfer payments .
Trump won by saying he would bring back the jobs transferred out of the US to these unemployed .
It is interesting to note that Romney ’ s Bain Capital financed the transfer of factories out of the US to make money based on lower wages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the currencies are rigged or dirty floated as discussed in my exchange with Bob Rubin below when he was Secretary of the Treasury .
In other words , the country as Germany with the trade surplus must rig the euro by buying dollars to push the US currency upward .
Therefore , Ricardian comparative advantage can only work if Spain has wine to sell in exchange for an equal amount in pounds of British manufactured goods , but if there is no balanced trade , then the surplus country must buy the deficit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ export surplus .
Here is where most of our 22 % unemployment was created based on dirty floats .
The Death of Democracy ... Hett , Benjamin Carter Best Price : $ 10.83 Buy New $ 11.19 The way the international financial system worked in 1933 was that if you had a trade deficit you had to pay it in gold which contracted your money supply decreasing internal demand until the trade deficit was wiped out .
At least that was how it theoretically should have worked .
Under today ’ s monetary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deficit you will have to pay with an increase in quantity of your own currency that will depreciate it in the foreign exchange markets while the surplus country will have a lower creation of their currency .
As such , the deficit country ’ s currency will fall in value making their products more attractive and the surplus country ’ s surplus will drive their currency upward making their exports more expensive .
Here you would create balance through the floating self-correcting mechanism .
But if the surplus country buys the deficit country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up so the surplus country ’ s exports are still cheaper .
This is what they call a dirty float and therefore there is no self-correcting mechanism .
This is why the US has had endless deficits now totalling at the end of 2019 9.55 trillion dollars .
This is largely held by foreign central banks as evidence of the currency rigging or dirty floating as they bought the dollar with their currency to foster exports to the US .
Why is there little unrest now ?
The supplemental unemployment benefit from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on top of state unemployment compensation until the end of July .
If state unemployment is $ 300.00 per week on a $ 600.00 per week salary , then the poor are receiving $ 900.00 a week which is more than they were making before .
They are very happy .
That is why there is limited unrest now as we approach the 50 % unemployment of Germany in 1933 .
Senator Lindsay Graham says he is going to stop this which will make our poor folk very unhappy as in Germany in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receiving unemployment benefits in most states got , on average , less than half their weekly salaries .
pandemic : The Great In ... Banks , John M. Buy New $ 14.45 Now , as millions file claims , many are poised to receive more money than they would have typically earned in their jobs , thanks to the additional $ 600 a week set aside in the federal stimulus package for the unemployed .
( April 23 NYT ) .
What is amazing about the Bill Gates statement below is that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vaccine is worthless for elderly people which contradicts all the widespread medical advice that the elderly must take this vaccine because they are most vulnerable to influenza at their age .
What makes anyone think if we were not able to develop a influenza vaccine that we can develop a coronavirus vaccine ?
Unless , of course , we develop a vaccine as worthless as the influenza vaccine one which is so widely sold .
Bill Gates : Flu Vaccine Isn ’ t Effective in the Elderly , COVID-19 Vaccine Will Have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gates in that the influenza vaccine is not effective in the elderly .
The truth is that it is not effective for anyone .
Next is a chart of the influenza flu during the period of massive inoculation of vaccines to the general population in the US which shows that the vaccines have had no effect at all .
* Estimates from the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons are preliminary and may change as data are finalized .
The next issue is whether the bundled vaccines now given to children are damaging their health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under some studies have gone from one per ten thousand births to 1 in 32 , while others as the chart below are not as severe .
The CDC has testified that they have no proof that the vaccines are not causing autism but no proof that they are .
Yet there is a direct correlation between the introduction of bundled vaccines and autism .
As if vaccines being worthless were not bad enough , the face masks are positively unhealthy as this article demonstrates .

This is from a former high level member of the CIA in a note to me:
Bear in mind that we have about 100 million well armed citizens……… many of whom have military training. Even the US Army would be unable to stand up against this force if it is decided the government has ceased to protect its people and uphold the Constitution.
As we have written, the leadership of the United States abdicated its duty to the nation when they shut it down over a not very significant flu. They have forced from their jobs nearly half the working population as a form of national suicide. What we have seen in the streets is a similar situation to Weimar Germany as the German nation faced in the 1920s and 1930s when the communists were rioting in the streets. We have only seen in the streets the actual problem in America. We have not seen the counter-revolutionary consequences. We have warned repeatedly that the 50% unemployment will cause a counter-revolutionary upheaval. It is coming.
Tucker: Our leaders dither as our cities burn (GRAPHIC VIDEO)
German Official Leaks Report Denouncing COVID-19 As “A Global False Alarm”
Weimar Germany: Promis... Weitz, Eric D. Best Price: $16.13 Buy New $15.98 (as of 03:18 UTC - Details) How should we define a worse case scenario? The total unemployed today is said to be just in the last six weeks 36.5 million Americans out of 155.7 million who were employed or a 23% just two percent below the 1933 depression peak. But that is not the true figure for in 1933 the frustrated workers unemployed for a year from 1929 were included which today is not counting another 22% before the six weeks began, or 45%. You will note that the chart below agrees with our figures that before the coronavirus siege the real unemployment was 22% and this rose by the end of April to 39.6% but does not include May as my figures. It is important to note that in Germany in 1933 a 50% unemployment level was sufficient for the democratic overthrow of the Weimar Republic. Our oligarchs on Wall Street should start feeling their necks as they may not escape as they did in 2008. It must be remembered that the National Socialist Party on May 20, 1928 polled 2.6% of the vote, on September 14, 1930 14%, on July 31, 1932 37.4% becoming the largest political party in Germany. It was a movement that came from nowhere thrust up by massive unemployment.
CORONAVIRUS DEATHS TO OVERALL DEATHS IN THE U.S.
An analysis of federal data conducted by a team headed by the Yale School of Public Health found that the U.S. recorded 15,400 excess deaths between March 1 through April 4, almost twice the number attributed to the coronavirus. In that time period, 8,128 coronavirus fatalities were reported.
(What this means is that there has been an increased number of deaths in April and May over last year that may be due to coronavirus but the comments below question this premise.)
Below is a report from our Italian correspondent explaining why this is happening. In brief, it is because at least in the US the hospitals have been largely abandoned by the masses of the US population causing substantial layoffs of hospital doctors and personnel. People with heart attacks and strokes are afraid to go to the emergency rooms lest they develop coronavirus. Our correspondent below believes that this has caused a huge spike in the number of deaths. We are looking at the potential collapse of the entire hospital system of the United States if this keeps up. Also, doctors in the hospitals are falsifying the death certificates to ascribe the deaths to coronavirus so as to be able to receive larger death benefits from the Federal Government which pays more for coronavirus deaths. This means that the death rates for coronavirus may be overstated by double or triple what they actually are. This is reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw’s questioning why we should think that doctors are any less corrupt than our politicians. This is covered in detail to Mr. Shaw’s preface to his famous play.
Full text of “The Doctor’s Dilemma: Preface on Doctors”
This would also mean that the main killer as this report from Italy suggests below is not the coronavirus but the mass reaction to the coronavirus.
Miller’s Review ... Miller, Neil Z. Best Price: $8.32 Buy New $14.48 (as of 04:45 UTC - Details ) The terror of this virus has spread all over the world creating mass fear. Since everybody is now concerned about the coronavirus, and since people are aware that this virus is very contagious, as well as doctors being afraid of it, the doctors are focusing their attention on the coronavirus and not on treating other diseases. As an example, here in Italy there have been many people dying for not receiving appropriate treatment for hearth attacks, cancer or ictus (stroke). Before coronavirus they were treated in time, but now they have been delaying the treatment or the surgical operations to give priority to coronavirus cases so many of them have died unnecessarily. Many doctors attribute the cause of death on the death certificates to coronavirus to avoid responsibility for negligence that could lead to lawsuits. So we cannot rely on the official statistics as they are flawed. In the US hospitals are reimbursed for coronavirus deaths more than ordinary ones so many have just stated on death certificates that everyone that dies at hospital is a victim of coronavirus in some hospitals and most who have other major disease are still attributed to coronavirus.. Another point: in the first quarter of year of 2019 in Italy we had 20.000 more deaths than in 2020, but in the month of April we had many more deaths than in 2019. We may have to wait for longer period to have correct statistical data to see if this averages out. Also our Protezione Civile (Disaster Recovery Agency) has related many times on the television that there is a big difference between people dying for coronavirus and people dying with coronavirus. The majority of people dying had more than two other diseases (comorbidities), that were very severe, so the coronavirus has just been a smaller push towards the tomb. The coronavirus may have had the effect of slightly shortening the life of the patient and we may see death rates thereby offset in future months. We see typically in Italy every year 650,000 to 680,000 are deaths for many causes which brings the average mortality rate to about 1800 per day. March and April have been the worst months for the mortality attributed to coronavirus, but this has to be attributed to wrong diagnoses in Italy that brought to wrong treatments. At the beginning the doctors were thinking that people were dying from pneumonia. They later discovered from autopsies that the cause of death was venous tromboembolia (pulmonary embolism). So the right treatment was opposite to the treatment of pneumonia, and this brought to many more deaths than would have been with a proper treatment. Blood Brothers: A Novel Haffner, Ernst Best Price: $1.98 Buy New $9.60 (as of 03:18 UTC - Details ) What is most interesting is that the state and controlled media engendered a fear in the masses to accept a more dictatorial form of government than we have ever seen. This is a textbook experiment in social control. We will not comment on conspiracy theories such as this was a pre-planned Gatsian (Bill Gates) trial run to increase control of our society as in the book by Aldous Huxley entitled “Brave New World” but I can say this that what we have done we will live to regret as the studies below indicate.
Coronavirus: Bill Gates predicted pandemic in 2015
Footnote one:
AGAIN, THE 1.5 QUADRILLION DOLLAR DERIVATIVE MARKET
What is missing in the contemporary discussion in the business and media is what Warren Buffett calls the the huge derivative market estimated at 1.5 quadrillion dollars. Even Warren Buffett did not mention them at his Annual Meeting as we believe he is trapped himself in sufficient derivative contracts to wipe out Berkshire Hathaway and no longer wants to attract attention to the issue. That is why we believe he will not spend a dime of his 135 billion dollars in his cash hoard on new investments keeping them in reserve for his humongous derivative exposures. I was sitting with a beautiful derivative trader of Goldman Sachs at dinner who handled his account who said to me despite his warnings about derivatives being financial weapons of mass destruction he was one of the largest derivative players in the world.
The Bank for International Settlements whose source for derivative contracts are the banks under their supervision show as follows against an 88 trillion dollar world GDP below. This covers about a third of those which exist:
“Notional amounts of OTC derivatives rose from $544 trillion at end-December 2018 to $559 trillion at end-December 2019. This, however, corresponds to a significant fall over the last six months, which could be at least partly attributed to seasonal factors.”
These bank exposures of 544 trillion are mostly out of the money but will go into the money in a crash on a chain reaction basis that can bring the whole system down. The US Federal Reserve just cannot handle a quadrillion dollar blow up and would be forced according to Henry Kaufman in his discussion with me to nationalize all the banks. Yet on examining Buffett’s March quarterly report for Berkshire Hathaway we see the following entry:
Retained earnings declined to 352,359 billion from 402,493 billion causing the net worth of the fund to drop about 50 billion dollars as total shareholders’ equity declined to 375,235 from 428,563. This is said to reflect losses largely on derivative contracts. And yet, we have not seen the April and May catastrophe yet which may have been reflected in the depressed nature of Warren’s appearance at his annual meeting. Warren says he needs all of his 135 billion in cash against 375 billion in total equity in the event of a worse case scenario. It is our interpretation that these may lie in his insurance companies that account for 25% of the fund. It is this derivative market that can blow the entire US and world economy to smithereens.
How should we define a worse case scenario? The total unemployed today is said to be just in the last six weeks 36.5 million Americans out of 155.7 million who were employed or a 23% just two percent below the 1933 depression peak. But that is not the true figure for in 1933 the frustrated workers unemployed for a year from 1929 were included which today is not counting another 22% before the six weeks began, or 45%. You will note that the chart below agrees with our figures that before the coronavirus siege the real unemployment was 22% and this rose by the end of April to 39.6% but does not include May as my figures. It is important to note that in Germany in 1933 a 50% unemployment level was sufficient for the democratic overthrow of the Weimar Republic. Our oligarchs on Wall Street should start feeling their necks as they may not escape as they did in 2008. It must be remembered that the National Socialist Party on May 20, 1928 polled 2.6% of the vote, on September 14, 1930 14%, on July 31, 1932 37.4% becoming the largest political party in Germany. It was a movement that came from nowhere thrust up by massive unemployment.
The $600.00 a week Federal supplemental weekly compensation for the unemployed on the rolls above their state benefits has stopped for a while the massive unrest as in the streets of Germany in 1933 when Ernst Rohm’s SA fielded 3,000,000 storm troopers. In fact, most of the unemployed are doing better with this $600.00 a week Federal supplement than they were when they were employed. It is not surprising to find Wall St. analysts suggesting that a 23% unemployment means nothing in the long run for as John Maynard Keynes said in 1929 after the crash that “I am may be a bad Prophet in speaking this way…………..There will be no serious consequences in London resulting from the Wall Street slump……..as the end of the stock market boom will bring a substantial reduction in interest rates, thus providing a boost to business……….which will give rise…..to new trade and industrial activity.” Now, the Wall Streeters say all you have to do is push the monetary button while everyone returns to work and everyone will be happy again. They have found the elixir of life in fiat money. Keynes proceeded in making massive investments putting his money where his mouth was and lost everything.
ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment for April 2020 is 35.4%, 39.6% net of BLS errors (see Flash No. 1435).
What this means below is that the demand for gold is so great that HSBC had to go to the Bank of England to cover its gold short position to maintain an “orderly market”. The pressure on the gold derivatives is growing as a sign of economic unrest to come. Life and Death in the ... Fritzsche, Peter Best Price: $11.61 Buy New $22.32 (as of 03:18 UTC - Details)
Amid Gold Market Turmoil, HSBC Taps Bank Of England For GLD Bars
Footnote 2:
THE SUICIDE OF THE WEST
It never occurred to me that the west would die by self-inflicted suicide but this is what appears to be happening by causing a depression in economic activity by shutting the western economies down over a virus which has not increased the overall death rate in Europe based on the study below. In addition a large proportion of US hospital deaths are being treated as a coronavirus as Federal aid allows a larger reimbursement for treating such a death rather than heart disease or strokes, and this is being done all over the US. If this is so, then the coronavirus death rate is much lower than presently estimated. European studies show that their death rates are relatively the same as in previous years, see below next.
*Click on the image below to read the full report.
In other words, we have shut down nearly the entire economy over inaccurate information. The figures below do not include May for unemployment but now exceed the great depression highest unemployment figures of 25% in 1933. In 1933 Germany hit 50%. The main difference between these figures below at 39.6% and the US figure’s today is that frustrated workers who have not been employed for over a year are not counted as in 1933. That means before coronavirus the figure was 22% and now it is 45% if we count the unemployment for May. We really did not have a healthy economy before the coronavirus.
ShadowStats Alternate Unemployment for April 2020 is 35.4%, 39.6% net of BLS errors (see Flash No. 1435)
Why was there no mass unrest at 22%? It was because as Mitt Romney said he could not win the election because half the country was on transfer payments. Trump won by saying he would bring back the jobs transferred out of the US to these unemployed. It is interesting to note that Romney’s Bain Capital financed the transfer of factories out of the US to make money based on lower wages abroad. This can only work if the currencies are rigged or dirty floated as discussed in my exchange with Bob Rubin below when he was Secretary of the Treasury. In other words, the country as Germany with the trade surplus must rig the euro by buying dollars to push the US currency upward. Therefore, Ricardian comparative advantage can only work if Spain has wine to sell in exchange for an equal amount in pounds of British manufactured goods, but if there is no balanced trade, then the surplus country must buy the deficit country’s currency to maintain their export surplus. Here is where most of our 22% unemployment was created based on dirty floats. The Death of Democracy... Hett, Benjamin Carter Best Price: $10.83 Buy New $11.19 (as of 03:18 UTC - Details)
Robert Rubin Correspondence – David Lifschultz
The way the international financial system worked in 1933 was that if you had a trade deficit you had to pay it in gold which contracted your money supply decreasing internal demand until the trade deficit was wiped out. At least that was how it theoretically should have worked. Under today’s monetary theory, if you have a trade deficit you will have to pay with an increase in quantity of your own currency that will depreciate it in the foreign exchange markets while the surplus country will have a lower creation of their currency. As such, the deficit country’s currency will fall in value making their products more attractive and the surplus country’s surplus will drive their currency upward making their exports more expensive. Here you would create balance through the floating self-correcting mechanism. But if the surplus country buys the deficit country’s currency they will hold it up so the surplus country’s exports are still cheaper. This is what they call a dirty float and therefore there is no self-correcting mechanism. This is why the US has had endless deficits now totalling at the end of 2019 9.55 trillion dollars. This is largely held by foreign central banks as evidence of the currency rigging or dirty floating as they bought the dollar with their currency to foster exports to the US.
Why is there little unrest now? The supplemental unemployment benefit from the Federal Government is $600.00 a week on top of state unemployment compensation until the end of July. If state unemployment is $300.00 per week on a $600.00 per week salary, then the poor are receiving $900.00 a week which is more than they were making before. They are very happy. That is why there is limited unrest now as we approach the 50% unemployment of Germany in 1933. Senator Lindsay Graham says he is going to stop this which will make our poor folk very unhappy as in Germany in 1933.
Before the coronavirus, people receiving unemployment benefits in most states got, on average, less than half their weekly salaries.
pandemic: The Great In... Banks, John M. Buy New $14.45 (as of 02:45 UTC - Details) Now, as millions file claims, many are poised to receive more money than they would have typically earned in their jobs, thanks to the additional $600 a week set aside in the federal stimulus package for the unemployed. (April 23 NYT).
What is amazing about the Bill Gates statement below is that he is telling the truth that the influenza vaccine is worthless for elderly people which contradicts all the widespread medical advice that the elderly must take this vaccine because they are most vulnerable to influenza at their age. What makes anyone think if we were not able to develop a influenza vaccine that we can develop a coronavirus vaccine? Unless, of course, we develop a vaccine as worthless as the influenza vaccine one which is so widely sold.
Bill Gates: Flu Vaccine Isn’t Effective in the Elderly, COVID-19 Vaccine Will Have to be Different
The statistics below support Bill Gates in that the influenza vaccine is not effective in the elderly. The truth is that it is not effective for anyone.
Next is a chart of the influenza flu during the period of massive inoculation of vaccines to the general population in the US which shows that the vaccines have had no effect at all.
* Estimates from the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons are preliminary and may change as data are finalized.
The next issue is whether the bundled vaccines now given to children are damaging their health with mass autism. The autism levels under some studies have gone from one per ten thousand births to 1 in 32, while others as the chart below are not as severe. The CDC has testified that they have no proof that the vaccines are not causing autism but no proof that they are. Yet there is a direct correlation between the introduction of bundled vaccines and autism.
As if vaccines being worthless were not bad enough, the face masks are positively unhealthy as this article demonstrates.
Reprinted with permission from David Lifschultz.


lewrockwell--2020-06-06--COVID-19: A Movie on the Screen of Life

COVID-19: A Movie on the Screen of Life

Recently , a report on the COVID-19 crisis was leaked from the German Interior Ministry .
The report states quite definitely that the whole threat has been overblown .
It was a “ false alarm.
” World media have taken very little notice .
As sott.net reveals , the report , “ Analysis of the Crisis Management ” , was authored by “ a scientific panel appointed by the interior ministry and composed by external medical experts from several German universities.
” “ The report was the initiative of a department of the interior ministry called Unit KM4 and in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of critical infrastructures ’ .
” Crayola Twistables Cra ... Buy New $ 4.49 “ Some of the [ leaked ] report key passages are : * The dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated : probably at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level .
* The people who die from Corona are essentially those who would statistically die this year , because they have reached the end of their lives and their weakened bodies can no longer cope with any random everyday stress ( including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
* Worldwide , within a quarter of a year , there has been no more than 250,000 deaths from Covid-19 , compared to 1.5 million deaths [ 25,100 in Germany ] during the influenza wave 2017/18 .
* The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses .
There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm .
* A reproach could go along these lines : During the Corona crisis the State has proved itself as one of the biggest producers of Fake News.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we ’ re grateful that the New York Times , the Washington Post , and all the major television networks have been trumpeting news of the explosive findings in the leaked German report .
Our major media have been on top of this story from the beginning , with page-one headlines and lead items every night on TV news broadcasts .
We ’ re grateful to Tony Fauci , Deb Birx , and the whole coronavirus task force crew for highlighting what ’ s been happening in Germany in their daily press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Germany from the CDC and the WHO .
Bill Gates ’ breathless reports on YouTube , demolishing the official COIVD narrative and praising the German leaker , have warmed our hearts .
WAIT .
Sorry .
For a minute there , I thought I was writing PR releases for…some honest US government agency and media consortium that don ’ t actually exist .
My mistake .
Wrong country , wrong world , wrong universe .
Let me try to go back into the theater where the population is watching the movie called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me , what ?
I can ’ t go in without a mask ?
Problems , problems .
I give up .
I ’ ll just stand outside .
—I ’ ve written about 140 articles so far about COVID , in which I ’ ve disassembled the plot line of the movie .
Intex River Run I Spor ... Buy New $ 20.00 The movie , of course , seems to take no notice of this .
It just keeps playing .
The studio , the producers , and the director are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in asking them to “ retract ” what they ’ ve already done .
And the actors…well , are their roles real ?
Those roles are IN the movie .
I ’ m going to say something controversial now .
Here ’ s the thing .
This is a special kind of movie .
By exposing the studio , the producers , the director , the actors ; by revealing what we could loosely call their bad intent , and their specific lies , the movie itself can change .
I know that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true .
And by change , I mean new story lines bleeding into the central plot .
I also mean something more drastic : rips and tears and shreds in the screen itself , the screen on which the movie is being projected .
THAT ’ S what I ’ m REALLY interested in .
The exposure of the fact that COVID is a movie in the first place .
Now , you have to understand that the audience in the theater is hypnotized by the movie—and they also have a role to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them start to wake up , the rest of the crowd acts as a Greek chorus .
Together they say : REAL PEOPLE ARE DYING , IT MUST BE THE VIRUS .
And then those few people starting to wake up go back to sleep .
Everyone in the theater is in the trance again .
Of course , it doesn ’ t have to be the virus .
People are dying of any number of causes .
But the chorus wins out .
Let me explain all this in a somewhat different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is always a certain amount of whining and remorse as one enters the theater to see the movie called Reality , after buying the ticket .
SINGARE Large Octopus ... Buy New $ 21.97 “ Is this a good idea ?
” “ Why did I do it ?
” But you can already feel a merging sensation .
The electromagnetic fields humming in the theater , even before the movie starts , are drawing you into the space .
Your perception of x dimensions is narrowing down to three .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the note you ’ ve written to yourself , and you read it again : “ Don ’ t forget where you came from .
Don ’ t forget this is just a movie .
Don ’ t fall asleep .
The serial time in the movie is an artifact .
The binding feeling of sentimental sympathy is a trance-induction .
It ’ s the glue that holds the movie fixed in your mind.
” “ The movie will induce nostalgia for a past that doesn ’ t exist .
Don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re here to find out why the movie has power.
” “ You want to undergo the experience without being trapped in it.
” “ The content of the movie will distract you from the fact that it is a construct.
” On the big screen , against a gray background , the large blue word REALITY slowly forms .
Suddenly , you ’ re looking at a huge pasture filled with flowers .
The sky is a shocking blue .
You can feel a breeze on your arms and face .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 6.00 You think , “ This is a hypnotic weapon.
” Now , the pasture fades away and you ’ re standing on an empty city street at night .
It ’ s drizzling .
You hear sirens in the distance .
A disheveled beggar approaches you and holds out his trembling hand .
He waits , then moves on .
You look at the wet shining pavement and snap your fingers , to change it into a lawn .
Nothing happens .
You wave your hand at a building .
It doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your pocket and feel a wallet .
You walk over to a streetlight and open it .
There ’ s your picture on a plastic ID card .
Your name is under the picture , followed by a number code .
On the reverse side of the card , below a plastic strip , is a thumbprint .
There are other cards in the wallet , and a small amount of paper money .
You look at the ID card again .
There ’ s an address .
Though it seems impossible , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind ’ s eye , you see a small cottage at the edge of an industrial town .
There ’ s a pickup parked in the driveway .
It ’ s your truck .
You know it .
But how can that be ?
Gazillion Bubbles 1 Li ... Buy New $ 5.56 You walk toward larger buildings in the distance .
Three men in uniforms turn a corner and come up to you .
Behind them emerges a short man in a business suit .
He nods at you and holds out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants .
You pull out your wallet and give it to him .
He looks at the ID card , at you , at the card again .
“ You were reported missing , ” he says .
“ Missing from what ?
” you say .
“ Your home .
Your job .
What are doing here ?
Are you all right ?
” “ I ’ m fine , ” you say .
“ I was…taking a short trip .
I ’ m just out for some air.
” “ In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he says .
“ That ’ s not smart .
We ’ ll take you home .
Our car is right over there.
” One car sits on a side street .
In large red letters printed on the trunk is the word Concern .
You walk with the men to the car .
Waves you ’ ve never felt before are emanating from it .
Mentally , you try to back up from them .
They ’ re targeting your body .
You feel a haze settle over you .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re speaking .
You try to hear what they ’ re saying .
Homech Family Inflatab ... Buy New $ 135.99 Now you do .
“ Real , real , real.
” You look at the short man in the suit .
He ’ s smiling at you .
Suddenly , his smile is transcendent .
It ’ s so reassuring , tears fill your eyes .
You ’ re thinking , “ They built this so I would be lost , and then they found me .
I ’ m supposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experienced being rescued before .
I never knew what it meant.
” It grows louder .
As you near the car , you realize you ’ re listening to a chorus and an orchestra .
The rising theme is Victory .
One of the uniformed men opens the car door .
You nod at him .
You ’ re standing next to the pickup in your driveway alongside your cottage .
Think , you tell yourself .
What ’ s going on ?
You recognize your mind has sections .
The first part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These sensations are meant to be sorted , in order to answer the question : How Am I Doing ?
The second part of your mind is entirely devoted to perceiving problems and solving them .
Everything at this level is organized to constitute problems .
You were never aware of these two distinct sectors of your mind before .
Where did they come from ?
Now , as you walk into your cottage and instantly remember the rooms and the objects in these rooms , an accompanying sensation of Familiarity , slightly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You realize , without knowing how , that you ’ re supposed to feel tremendous relief .
This is what ’ s expected of you .
It ’ s expected of everyone .
They live with one another through the touchstone of the Familiar .
They share it like bread .
They keep coming back to it .
The Familiar is a sacrament .
It ’ s built in .
It ’ s invented through…it ’ s stamped on every object in this space… …In order to suggest you ’ ve been here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As you look around the cottage , you apprehend a third sector of your mind .
You struggle to identify it .
It ’ s the fount of a different kind of perception .
You keep staring at the cottage and you see space .
Has been placed here .
For you .
And at that moment , there is a small explosion behind your head .
And you ’ re sitting in the theater again .
The movie is playing on the screen .
All around you , in the seats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed .
You feel a tap on your shoulder .
You turn .
It ’ s an usher .
He leads you up the aisle into the lobby , which is empty .
An office door opens and a young woman steps out .
She strides briskly over to you .
“ You woke up and came back , ” she says .
She gives you a tight smile .
“ So we ’ re refunding your money .
It ’ s our policy.
” She drops a check in your hand .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ you say .
“ What happened ?
” “ Only you would know that .
You must have done something to interrupt the transmission.
” “ And the rest of those people ?
” She looks at her watch .
“ They ’ re probably into their fifth year by now .
The fifth year is typically a time of conflict .
They rebel .
Well , some of them do .
They rearrange systems .
They replace leaders .
They promote new ideals.
” “ I had such a strong feeling I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smiles .
“ Apparently it wasn ’ t strong enough .
You ’ re back here.
” “ How do you do it ?
” you say .
“ I ’ m sorry , ” she says .
“ That ’ s proprietary information .
Did you meet your family ?
” “ No , ” you say .
“ But I was in a cottage .
It was…home.
” “ If you hadn ’ t escaped , you would have been subjected to much stronger bioelectric bonding pulses .
Do you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to answer and realize you don ’ t know .
She looks into your eyes .
“ Go out to the street , ” she says .
“ Walk around .
Take a nice long walk for an hour .
You ’ ll reorient .
It ’ ll come back to you.
” “ Why do you do it ?
” you say .
“ Oh , ” she says .
“ Why does a travel agent book a vacation for a client ?
We ’ re in that business.
” You turn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shining outside .
People are walking past the doors .
You take a deep breath and leave the theater .
The street is surging with crowds .
The noise is thunderous .
You notice you ’ re carrying a rolled up sheet of paper in your hand .
“ If you return from your movie experience , you will not reveal or discuss , under penalty of law , anything about its nature , substance , or duration… ” You look at the sheet of paper , make up your mind , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Jon Rappoport

Recently, a report on the COVID-19 crisis was leaked from the German Interior Ministry.
The report states quite definitely that the whole threat has been overblown. It was a “false alarm.”
World media have taken very little notice.
As sott.net reveals, the report, “Analysis of the Crisis Management”, was authored by “a scientific panel appointed by the interior ministry and composed by external medical experts from several German universities.”
“The report was the initiative of a department of the interior ministry called Unit KM4 and in charge [of] the ‘Protection of critical infrastructures’.” Crayola Twistables Cra... Buy New $4.49 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
“Some of the [leaked] report key passages are:
* The dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated: probably at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level.
* The people who die from Corona are essentially those who would statistically die this year, because they have reached the end of their lives and their weakened bodies can no longer cope with any random everyday stress (including the approximately 150 viruses currently in circulation).
* Worldwide, within a quarter of a year, there has been no more than 250,000 deaths from Covid-19, compared to 1.5 million deaths [25,100 in Germany] during the influenza wave 2017/18.
* The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses. There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm.
* A reproach could go along these lines: During the Corona crisis the State has proved itself as one of the biggest producers of Fake News.”
Of course, here in America, we’re grateful that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and all the major television networks have been trumpeting news of the explosive findings in the leaked German report. Our major media have been on top of this story from the beginning, with page-one headlines and lead items every night on TV news broadcasts. We’re grateful to Tony Fauci, Deb Birx, and the whole coronavirus task force crew for highlighting what’s been happening in Germany in their daily press conferences. We appreciate the hour-to-hour updates on Germany from the CDC and the WHO. Bill Gates’ breathless reports on YouTube, demolishing the official COIVD narrative and praising the German leaker, have warmed our hearts.
WAIT. Sorry. For a minute there, I thought I was writing PR releases for…some honest US government agency and media consortium that don’t actually exist. My mistake. Wrong country, wrong world, wrong universe.
Let me try to go back into the theater where the population is watching the movie called “COVID-19, Terrifying Pandemic.”
Excuse me, what? I can’t go in without a mask?
Problems, problems. I give up. I’ll just stand outside.
—I’ve written about 140 articles so far about COVID, in which I’ve disassembled the plot line of the movie. Intex River Run I Spor... Buy New $20.00 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
The movie, of course, seems to take no notice of this. It just keeps playing. The studio, the producers, and the director are finished with their work. No point in asking them to “retract” what they’ve already done. And the actors…well, are their roles real? Those roles are IN the movie.
I’m going to say something controversial now. Here’s the thing. This is a special kind of movie. By exposing the studio, the producers, the director, the actors; by revealing what we could loosely call their bad intent, and their specific lies, the movie itself can change. I know that sounds preposterous, but it’s true. And by change, I mean new story lines bleeding into the central plot. I also mean something more drastic: rips and tears and shreds in the screen itself, the screen on which the movie is being projected. THAT’S what I’m REALLY interested in.
The exposure of the fact that COVID is a movie in the first place.
Now, you have to understand that the audience in the theater is hypnotized by the movie—and they also have a role to play. Whenever one or two of them start to wake up, the rest of the crowd acts as a Greek chorus. Together they say: REAL PEOPLE ARE DYING, IT MUST BE THE VIRUS.
And then those few people starting to wake up go back to sleep. Everyone in the theater is in the trance again.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be the virus. People are dying of any number of causes. But the chorus wins out.
Let me explain all this in a somewhat different way.
Here is the headline:
The Blockbuster Movie Called Reality.
There is always a certain amount of whining and remorse as one enters the theater to see the movie called Reality, after buying the ticket. SINGARE Large Octopus ... Buy New $21.97 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
“Is this a good idea?” “Why did I do it?”
But you can already feel a merging sensation. The electromagnetic fields humming in the theater, even before the movie starts, are drawing you into the space.
Your perception of x dimensions is narrowing down to three.
You take your seat. You look at the note you’ve written to yourself, and you read it again:
“Don’t forget where you came from. Don’t forget this is just a movie. Don’t fall asleep. The serial time in the movie is an artifact. The binding feeling of sentimental sympathy is a trance-induction. It’s the glue that holds the movie fixed in your mind.”
“The movie will induce nostalgia for a past that doesn’t exist. Don’t surrender to it.”
“You’re here to find out why the movie has power.”
“You want to undergo the experience without being trapped in it.”
“The content of the movie will distract you from the fact that it is a construct.”
The lights dim.
On the big screen, against a gray background, the large blue word REALITY slowly forms.
Suddenly, you’re looking at a huge pasture filled with flowers. The sky is a shocking blue. You can feel a breeze on your arms and face. The First Years Stack ... Buy New $6.00 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
You think, “This is a hypnotic weapon.”
Now, the pasture fades away and you’re standing on an empty city street at night. It’s drizzling. You hear sirens in the distance. A disheveled beggar approaches you and holds out his trembling hand.
He waits, then moves on.
You look at the wet shining pavement and snap your fingers, to change it into a lawn. Nothing happens.
You’re shocked.
You wave your hand at a building. It doesn’t disappear.
Incredible.
You reach into your pocket and feel a wallet. You walk over to a streetlight and open it. There’s your picture on a plastic ID card. Your name is under the picture, followed by a number code. On the reverse side of the card, below a plastic strip, is a thumbprint.
There are other cards in the wallet, and a small amount of paper money. You look at the ID card again. There’s an address.
Though it seems impossible, you remember the address. In your mind’s eye, you see a small cottage at the edge of an industrial town. There’s a pickup parked in the driveway.
It’s your truck. You know it. But how can that be? Gazillion Bubbles 1 Li... Buy New $5.56 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
You walk toward larger buildings in the distance.
Three men in uniforms turn a corner and come up to you. Behind them emerges a short man in a business suit. He nods at you and holds out his hand.
You know what he wants. You pull out your wallet and give it to him. He looks at the ID card, at you, at the card again.
“You were reported missing,” he says.
“Missing from what?” you say.
“Your home. Your job. What are doing here? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” you say. “I was…taking a short trip. I’m just out for some air.”
“In this part of the city?” he says. “That’s not smart. We’ll take you home. Our car is right over there.”
One car sits on a side street. In large red letters printed on the trunk is the word Concern.
You walk with the men to the car.
Waves you’ve never felt before are emanating from it.
Mentally, you try to back up from them. They’re targeting your body. You feel a haze settle over you.
In the haze dance little creatures. They’re speaking. You try to hear what they’re saying. Homech Family Inflatab... Buy New $135.99 (as of 03:20 UTC - Details)
Now you do. “Real, real, real.”
You look at the short man in the suit. He’s smiling at you.
Suddenly, his smile is transcendent. It’s so reassuring, tears fill your eyes.
You’re thinking, “They built this so I would be lost, and then they found me. I’m supposed to be rescued. I’ve never experienced being rescued before. I never knew what it meant.”
You hear faint music.
It grows louder. As you near the car, you realize you’re listening to a chorus and an orchestra. The rising theme is Victory.
One of the uniformed men opens the car door.
You nod at him.
“My pleasure, sir,” he says.
The music fades away.
The scene shifts.
You’re standing next to the pickup in your driveway alongside your cottage.
You’re home.
Think, you tell yourself. What’s going on?
You recognize your mind has sections. The first part registers sensations from this new reality. These sensations are meant to be sorted, in order to answer the question: How Am I Doing?
The second part of your mind is entirely devoted to perceiving problems and solving them. Everything at this level is organized to constitute problems.
You were never aware of these two distinct sectors of your mind before.
Where did they come from?
Now, as you walk into your cottage and instantly remember the rooms and the objects in these rooms, an accompanying sensation of Familiarity, slightly out of phase, grows stronger.
You realize, without knowing how, that you’re supposed to feel tremendous relief. This is what’s expected of you.
It’s expected of everyone. They live with one another through the touchstone of the Familiar. They share it like bread.
They keep coming back to it. The Familiar is a sacrament.
It’s built in. It’s invented through…it’s stamped on every object in this space…
…In order to suggest you’ve been here before. To suggest you belong here.
As you look around the cottage, you apprehend a third sector of your mind. You struggle to identify it.
It’s the fount of a different kind of perception.
Yes.
You keep staring at the cottage and you see space.
You see pure space that…
Has been placed here. For you.
And at that moment, there is a small explosion behind your head.
And you’re sitting in the theater again.
The movie is playing on the screen. All around you, in the seats, people are sitting with their eyes closed.
You feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn. It’s an usher.
“Sir,” he says. “Please follow me.”
He leads you up the aisle into the lobby, which is empty.
An office door opens and a young woman steps out. She strides briskly over to you.
“You woke up and came back,” she says. She gives you a tight smile. “So we’re refunding your money. It’s our policy.”
She drops a check in your hand.
“What happened in there?” you say. “What happened?”
She shrugs.
“Only you would know that. You must have done something to interrupt the transmission.”
“And the rest of those people?”
She looks at her watch. “They’re probably into their fifth year by now. The fifth year is typically a time of conflict. They rebel. Well, some of them do. They rearrange systems. They replace leaders. They promote new ideals.”
“I had such a strong feeling I’d been there before.”
She smiles. “Apparently it wasn’t strong enough. You’re back here.”
“How do you do it?” you say.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “That’s proprietary information. Did you meet your family?”
“No,” you say. “But I was in a cottage. It was…home.”
She nods.
“If you hadn’t escaped, you would have been subjected to much stronger bioelectric bonding pulses. Do you have a family here?”
You start to answer and realize you don’t know.
She looks into your eyes.
“Go out to the street,” she says. “Walk around. Take a nice long walk for an hour. You’ll reorient. It’ll come back to you.”
“Why do you do it?” you say.
“Do what?”
“Sell this trip.”
“Oh,” she says. “Why does a travel agent book a vacation for a client? We’re in that business.”
You turn toward the exit. The sun is shining outside. People are walking past the doors.
You take a deep breath and leave the theater.
The street is surging with crowds. The noise is thunderous.
You notice you’re carrying a rolled up sheet of paper in your hand.
You open it.
It’s a non-disclosure agreement.
“If you return from your movie experience, you will not reveal or discuss, under penalty of law, anything about its nature, substance, or duration…”
You look at the sheet of paper, make up your mind, and it bursts into flames.
Reprinted with permission from Jon Rappoport’s blog.
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lewrockwell--2020-06-06--Natural Law and Anarcho-Capitalism

Natural Law and Anarcho-Capitalism

In this paper , Frank van Dun ( FvD ) offers an examination of Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism and its presupposition of a natural order – based on natural law and natural rights .
It is important that van Dun clarifies that he is dealing with a Rothbardian order , as others base their anarcho-capitalism or libertarianism on foundations other than natural law .
Rothbard ’ s version is not driven by views on efficiency , but on views of human beings as human beings .
Safe Brass BBQ Grill C ... Buy New $ 12.23 It is important , therefore to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law – at least as van Dun sees it .
As he notes , “ ‘ Natural law ’ is a controversial concept.
” One reason it is controversial is that it is often connected to the metaphysical , or otherwise connected to a particular theology .
While one can not escape Aquinas when discussing natural law , this certainly does not make it a Catholic convention – or invention .
FvD then dives into a very important point – one that I have often made , yet still find misunderstood .
Natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory need not be identical .
Such thinking results in an unnecessary either / or situation : Natural law : either suggestions for ethical behavior or a system by which to implement a theocracy .
But neither extreme is necessary , and in any case not at all intended by Aquinas .
Forgive the very long cite , but this is a tremendously important point : …Thomas clearly distinguished between mere sins ( that merit disapproval and repentance ) and injustices ( that merit ‘ action in justice ’ and redress ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ sort no virtuous man would engage in and vices that threaten the existence of ‘ society ’ ( not this or that particular society but ‘ human society ’ as a general form of conviviality or symbiosis ) : murder , arson , theft , fraud , robbery , assault and other crimes against persons and property .
( Summa Theologica , IaIIae , question 96 , art.2 ( concl ) .
Only with respect to injustice and especially crime can the coercive power of ‘ human law ’ intervene .
In short @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( sanctioned by the rational appreciation of their agreement with divine providence ) , and all vices are consequently unlawful , only a few vices of a particular sort should be made illegal .
‘ Legislating morality ’ was not on Thomas ’ agenda .
FvD uses the terms “ unlawful ” and “ illegal ” to make the distinction .
Unlawful being a violation of natural law ; illegal being a violation that gets you thrown in prison ( or justifies violence in response ) .
Marshmallow Roasting S ... Buy New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point that the non-aggression principle fits quite well as a theory of punishment , but not as a theory of ethics .
Violations of the natural law that are also aggressions against person or property are subject to the “ coercive power of human law.
” Non-aggressive violations of the natural law are not , in my opinion , subject to this same coercive power .
I will leave aside , as it is rough around the edges and will be dictated by local custom as much as any other factor , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” I don ’ t think the edges of this term are identifiable by evermore purifying attempts at applying libertarian theory .
Human beings don ’ t work that way .
Different societies will figure this out in a way that works for them .
FvD next looks at a comparison of natural law and artificial law .
Whether in physics , biology , or chemistry , science attempts to identify the natural order of things .
It is no different when working to identify the natural order of persons .
This order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on the characteristics of human beings as human beings .
This as opposed to artificial law : “ An artificial law is an order of artificial things .
Here we shall consider it only as an order of artificial persons.
” FvD offers as an example , the artificial person known as a “ citizen.
” States and corporations also qualify .
These are defined by the relevant artificial law .
A breakdown in artificial law happens when people refuse to play by the rules .
This could be because they refuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the rules violate natural law ) or when the rules are overly complex and ever-changing .
A breakdown of natural law happens when people do not heed the distinction of one person from another .
( Egalitarianism in all its forms , run amok . )
What of any obligation for a person to respect the natural law ?
This , van Dun suggests , is an open question requiring serious thought : How I see this : A natural person can punch someone in the nose for no good reason ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do this .
A natural person ought not live in a drunken stupor ; yet this says nothing about what he must do regarding the consumption of alcohol .
OPOLAR 10000mAh 8-Inch ... Buy New $ 39.99 Such an is-ought question is not an issue at all for artificial persons and artificial law .
Here , the law is whatever the law is , and the person is whatever the law makes him to be .
This is positivism , and it is clear why positivism is anathema to anarcho-capitalists – and many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ denies , the idea of natural law .
In this paper , van Dun is not attempting to justify natural law , only to examine it and its relationship to anarcho-capitalism .
He concludes : Building liberty on any other foundation is flawed ; it is not sustainable .
Only this foundation of natural law takes human beings as they are , not as someone wishes them to be .
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The purpose of this paper is to give an analysis and explication of the notion of a natural order of human affairs, which is logically independent of any metaphysical or theological system. – Natural Law: A Logical Analysis, Frank van Dun
In this paper, Frank van Dun (FvD) offers an examination of Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism and its presupposition of a natural order – based on natural law and natural rights.
In short, anarcho-capitalism, in its Rothbardian form, stands or falls with its supposition that there is a natural order – a natural law – of the human world and that each human person has a place in that order that is delimited by his or her natural rights.
It is important that van Dun clarifies that he is dealing with a Rothbardian order, as others base their anarcho-capitalism or libertarianism on foundations other than natural law. Rothbard’s version is not driven by views on efficiency, but on views of human beings as human beings. Safe Brass BBQ Grill C... Buy New $12.23 (as of 03:21 UTC - Details)
It is important, therefore to examine just what is meant by natural law – at least as van Dun sees it. As he notes, “‘Natural law’ is a controversial concept.” One reason it is controversial is that it is often connected to the metaphysical, or otherwise connected to a particular theology. While one cannot escape Aquinas when discussing natural law, this certainly does not make it a Catholic convention – or invention.
However, the fact that some theories of natural law are metaphysical or theological does not mean that natural law is something metaphysical or theological. A theory of mice and men can be metaphysical but the metaphysics is in the theory, not in the mice and not in the men.
FvD then dives into a very important point – one that I have often made, yet still find misunderstood. Natural law legal theory and natural law ethical theory need not be identical. Such thinking results in an unnecessary either / or situation:
…either all natural laws are mere moral admonitions or all of them are legally enforceable requirements. That ambiguity has plagued the interpretation of natural law theories ever since Thomas Aquinas identified natural law and reason.
Natural law: either suggestions for ethical behavior or a system by which to implement a theocracy. But neither extreme is necessary, and in any case not at all intended by Aquinas. Forgive the very long cite, but this is a tremendously important point:
…Thomas clearly distinguished between mere sins (that merit disapproval and repentance) and injustices (that merit ‘action in justice’ and redress). He also distinguished between vices of the sort no virtuous man would engage in and vices that threaten the existence of ‘society’ (not this or that particular society but ‘human society’ as a general form of conviviality or symbiosis): murder, arson, theft, fraud, robbery, assault and other crimes against persons and property. (Summa Theologica, IaIIae, question 96, art.2 (concl). Only with respect to injustice and especially crime can the coercive power of ‘human law’ intervene. In short, while all virtues are necessarily lawful (sanctioned by the rational appreciation of their agreement with divine providence), and all vices are consequently unlawful, only a few vices of a particular sort should be made illegal. ‘Legislating morality’ was not on Thomas’ agenda.
FvD uses the terms “unlawful” and “illegal” to make the distinction. Unlawful being a violation of natural law; illegal being a violation that gets you thrown in prison (or justifies violence in response). Marshmallow Roasting S... Buy New $16.99 (as of 03:21 UTC - Details)
This is consistent with my point that the non-aggression principle fits quite well as a theory of punishment, but not as a theory of ethics. Violations of the natural law that are also aggressions against person or property are subject to the “coercive power of human law.” Non-aggressive violations of the natural law are not, in my opinion, subject to this same coercive power.
I will leave aside, as it is rough around the edges and will be dictated by local custom as much as any other factor, the specific application of the word “aggression.” I don’t think the edges of this term are identifiable by evermore purifying attempts at applying libertarian theory. Human beings don’t work that way. Different societies will figure this out in a way that works for them.
FvD next looks at a comparison of natural law and artificial law. Whether in physics, biology, or chemistry, science attempts to identify the natural order of things. It is no different when working to identify the natural order of persons. This order exists, waiting to be discovered, based on the characteristics of human beings as human beings.
This as opposed to artificial law: “An artificial law is an order of artificial things. Here we shall consider it only as an order of artificial persons.” FvD offers as an example, the artificial person known as a “citizen.” States and corporations also qualify. These are defined by the relevant artificial law.
To find out about natural persons, go live among them; to find out about citizens, consult a lawyer!
A breakdown in artificial law happens when people refuse to play by the rules. This could be because they refuse to do so (including for reasons that the rules violate natural law) or when the rules are overly complex and ever-changing. A breakdown of natural law happens when people do not heed the distinction of one person from another. (Egalitarianism in all its forms, run amok.)
What of any obligation for a person to respect the natural law? This, van Dun suggests, is an open question requiring serious thought:
What a natural person can do does not translate into what he may do. What such a person ought to do does not translate into what he must do.
How I see this: A natural person can punch someone in the nose for no good reason; it does not follow that he may do this. A natural person ought not live in a drunken stupor; yet this says nothing about what he must do regarding the consumption of alcohol. OPOLAR 10000mAh 8-Inch... Buy New $39.99 (as of 03:21 UTC - Details)
Such an is-ought question is not an issue at all for artificial persons and artificial law. Here, the law is whatever the law is, and the person is whatever the law makes him to be. This is positivism, and it is clear why positivism is anathema to anarcho-capitalists – and many libertarians. Positivism ignores, and even denies, the idea of natural law.
Conclusion
In this paper, van Dun is not attempting to justify natural law, only to examine it and its relationship to anarcho-capitalism. He concludes:
Anarcho-capitalism rests on the notion of natural law as an order of natural persons rather than a binding set of rules or commands. As a normative theory, it holds not only that we have good reasons to respect the natural order but also that we have no right not to respect it.
Building liberty on any other foundation is flawed; it is not sustainable. Only this foundation of natural law takes human beings as they are, not as someone wishes them to be.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
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