The monopoly privileges don’t stop at the doorstep of government. There are many other organizations that have secured such privileges. The most egregious of these is the central bank of a nation. In the United States of America, this would be equivalent to the Federal Reserve System. This is quite possibly the most abusive central bank ever. It curried favor with the political elite of this nation way back in the early part of the last century and has since worked to draw all the real wealth of the nation to its owners and undermine the stability of the economy and the nation as it slowly sacrifices the very currency it was entrusted to protect.

So, the question becomes, what can be done to hold these institutions accountable? Obviously, “voting the bums out” has not worked. They count the votes and control the electoral process. No wonder they don’t seem to listen to their constituents. Obviously, giving the banks more power and influence over the economy has not worked. They regulate their competition out of business and bail their selves out with money created from nothing. It is up to us to hold these entities accountable. It is up to us to stop relying on the politicians. They aren’t going to do what’s right, they are going to do what benefits their selves, their families and their friends. It is time we started relying on ourselves.

How can we regain self reliance? I believe there are more ways to do that than one can shake the proverbial stick at. I’m not certain which ways will work and which ways won’t, or which ways will work for you and which ways won’t, but there are certain things that can be tried. First off, the monopoly needs to be broken. As long as there is a monopoly, those working for the monopoly know they don’t have to work that hard to provide good costumer service. They know you have no choice. So, it becomes a matter of having more options to choose from.

Allowing for alternative currencies is one way to hold banks accountable. Of course that takes state cooperation. Legal tender laws would have to be repealed. Personally, I think that legal tender laws should be repealed. As a business, I shouldn’t be forced to take some piece of paper in exchange for a product or service if I didn’t want to take that particular piece of paper, but if I don’t take FRNs (Federal Reserve Notes) in this nation I can be arrested.

The point is, I doubt very much that legal tender laws are going to be repealed anytime soon unless there’s a quantum shift in the way people view such laws. Even then, it will be very difficult to get the politicians to do the right thing, especially if they are getting money and power from the very institutions that need to be reigned in. In order to create the quantum shift, regular, everyday people are going to have to get involved. Those who can need to start setting up alternative currency systems and others are going to have to start using such systems.

Once the political and banking classes are left out of the loop, they suddenly sit up and start to take notice. The strange thing is, it really doesn’t take much for them to notice. Take the example of the Liberty Dollar. Even though the total amount of liberty dollars confiscated by the government was mere millions, it’s growing popularity was enough of a threat to the Federal Reserve monopoly that they felt they needed to put an end to it and send a message to anyone who would try to use precious metals as an alternative to their money. They certainly don’t want a growing, thriving underground economy going on when they’re not getting a piece of it.

I’m not an advocate of the gold standard, or even a silver or copper standard. I’m not an advocate of government issued paper money either, but any of those things would be better than what we have. At least if the government issued interest free money we wouldn’t have a national debt to pay off. At least if we had some sort of standard based on an actual commodity rather than debt we’d have some kind of check on uncontrolled borrowing and run away inflation. The problem with all those systems is that they all maintain a monopoly on currency creation. When there is such a monopoly someone will always learn to play the system, so to speak, they will always find a way to manipulate the system to their benefit and the detriment of most everyone else. There will always be people who will be able to use such monopolies to their own benefit and will remain unaccountable because of their monopoly power.

Another obstacle to holding the banksters accountable is the practice of fractional reserve banking. This practice allows those with the money to create debt that is ten times more, and higher, than the amount of money actually available. It ensures that debt will never be paid off. Think about indebtedness for a second. Is it not akin to slavery? Does it not give people a certain leverage over you? As we have seen recently, the banksters have used it to threaten us with economic ruin if they did not get bailed out and paid off. They are completely unaccountable for their mistakes.

Fractional reserve banking is fraudulent, in my opinion, and obviously so. Threats of economic ruin are little different than threats from the mafia to a small businessman that refuses to pay his protection money. These folks should be held accountable for their fraudulent and extortionist practices. The problem is, the courts are another government monopoly and the government is owned by the banksters and their corporate companions. They are not going to hold themselves accountable. They are not going to prosecute themselves. The best we’ll get is a “oops, my bad. Too bad, so sad” and they walk away with all the wealth, power and influence.

Holding government officials and agents accountable might be even more difficult than holding the central bankers accountable. They are granted the privilege of something called immunity. Even though for many it’s supposed to be limited immunity in many cases the sky is the limit. For instance, a law enforcement officer who does something wrong might have his department sued successfully, but he won’t have to pay one dime to his victim(s) from his pocket. Instead, the tax payers he’s supposed to serve are left holding the bag. It’s that kind of unaccountability that angers people.

While it might be a little more difficult to break up the monopoly of “legitimate” force the government enjoys than it would be to allow competition in currency, we can at least demand the repeal of immunity laws. No government official or agent of the state should be allowed immunity to wrong doing. I would personally like to see citizen courts set up which adhere to common law and present legal cases vigorously by both defense and prosecution even if the government official or agent refuses to take part. Sometimes, just exposure and shining the light on corruption is enough to shame these people into changing their behavior for the better.

Holding these people and institutions accountable is not going to be an easy endeavor. They have spent decades erecting the systems that protect them. They are not going to give up their power and privilege easily. They have no problem using force and will even resort to murder and assassination if they feel their privileges are threatened, let alone if they think they might end up in prison. It is important to first remove the aura of legitimacy that they emit. Fortunately, this seems to be happening. The obvious injustice and abuse of the bailouts may have been a step too far. People are learning and accepting the corruption. People are standing up and saying no more. Moving forward, the collapse of the facade of legitimacy the privileged elite has built might come sooner and faster than one would imagine so long as we continue to work toward this goal.

My archives can be found at my website szandorblestman.com. Please visit there to read more and support me by making a donation.

The wait is finally over. I am overjoyed to announce that, after 16 years, “The Legacy of the Tareks; book 2 of The Black Blade Trilogy,” has finally been released as an ebook. Get yours today! It is also available at Sony, Kobo, and Diesel. For those of you who have not yet read “The Colors of Elberia; book 1 of The Black Blade trilogy” it is still available at smashwords, Sony and Diesel. Here is a list of my works by Matthew Wayne at different web retailers for your convenience. “The Edge of Sanity” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, and Diesel. “The Ouijiers” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Diesel. Here are links to my book “The Blessings of Freedom, Creating Prosperity in the 21st Century” serialized version: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 and chapters 3 and 4. I thank you for your support.

The “strategic release” program has allowed American officials over the past several years to use prisoners as bargaining chips to reduce violence in restive provinces, it said, citing U.S. officials who it said spoke on condition of anonymity.

The freed detainees are often fighters who would not be released under the legal system for military prisoners in Afghanistan. They must promise to give up violence, the report said.

Officials would not say whether those who have been released have later returned to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, the Post said.

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Think about this for a minute. What happens if Ron Paul gets the most delegates even after all the primaries and caucuses have been held and the votes have been flipped, er, I mean counted, and the fraud has been finalized, er, I mean Mitt Romney has been declared the winner? How is that going to reflect upon the establishment media? Will people actually begin to realize that they’ve been toyed with? Will they wonder how the media could have missed such an important story? Will they finally get the hint and stop paying attention to the media altogether and find some more trustworthy, accurate sources to get their information from? Well, I don’t know. I’ll say this, I think whatever the RNC decides to do, it will be really tough to keep it out of the news.

There is the possibility that they will change the rules at the last minute. That’s my guess at how they will try to keep Ron Paul out of the spotlight. If he brings more delegates, or even enough to cause a brokered convention, they’ll call foul and say the democratic process was compromised and the popular vote should be what matters. Then he’ll make the claim that his campaign was merely following the rules set down before hand by the Republican Party. If the rules change at that point so that delegates have no choice but to vote for Romney, I hope Ron Paul’s campaign brings out the accusations and evidence of election fraud. Wouldn’t the media look stupid if they didn’t cover that?

They could try to keep him out of the convention like they did in 2008. They could try to smear him. They could try to spin his popularity. They could try to appeal to the masses of Ron Paul delegates and supporters to band together and back the Mittster so Obama can be at last be defeated along with his socialist agenda. I got news for the Republicans, it’s not the socialist agenda that people should worry about, it’s the globalist agenda, and Mitt Romney is just as much a socialist and a globalist as Obama, maybe more so. It’s the devil you know versus the devil you don’t, and Mitt is the devil we don’t know this time around. It’s either Ron Paul as the Republcan candidate, or four more years of Mr. Soetoro.

It’s interesting to wonder what would happen if Ron Paul ran third party. The Republicans would claim he “took” votes away from Romney and helped Obama win the election. But then, he’s just as likely to take votes away from the Obama crowd, after all, he is the only true peace candidate out there. Besides, Democrats aren’t stupid. They know when they’re being played. I bet Ron Paul could win running as an independent, if the vote was counted honestly. Oh, there’s that election fraud thing again. Just another little story the establishment media decides to ignore. I guess that’s another reason I have to do the job they’re supposed to be doing. Maybe if these over paid pundits would actually do some digging and some real thinking and stop chirping the song those at the top tell them to sing, the general public would actually get some decent information. But, they’d probably get fired for that so they sit in their gilded cages chirping away.

What price is the media going to pay for ignoring Ron Paul? Will they lose viewers and readership? They are already doing so due to not only the convenience of the Internet, but the quality of the information that can be found there. Will the establishment media continue to bleed away customers as they are shown to be even more manipulated than imagined? Will they pay a price at all, or will the ruling elite be successful in their attempts to put the Internet genie back in the bottle, so to speak? Will the chilling effect the feds are trying to put on free speech with their Internet censorship bills (disguised as Internet security bills) work? Will there be an establishment media bailout? Or will that be a step too far for too many people for them to get away with such measures?

Perhaps more importantly, what price will the people of the United States pay for ignoring Ron Paul? It’s good that so many have woken up to his message, or are at least curious about it, but there are still so many who are misinformed or don’t understand and don’t care to try to find out. This is understandable as so many people lead busy lives and don’t even want to pay attention to politics. They seem to think that politics has nothing to do with them or their lives. What they may not understand is that politics is intruding upon their lives, more so every day that goes by where these control freaks in Washington, DC remain in power and assert more and more influence on the smallest details of everyday living.

It is Ron Paul who advocates removing the burden of intrusiveness of government from the backs of the American people. The other candidates may talk a good game, they may promise changes to accomplish more freedom, but their records suggest they will do the opposite. Their records suggest they will heap more government burden atop the already over burdened private sector. When was the last time you heard of a federal law being repealed? I remember learning something about December 5, 1933, when alcohol prohibition was finally repealed after much loss of life and treasure. Meanwhile other prohibitions have taken the place of alcohol, but perhaps too many of us are too drunk to care about those. As long as you are allowed your drug of choice, why should you care about anyone else’s?

Let’s consider some more of the possible costs for ignoring Ron Paul. It could cost us our national sovereignty. We could be relegated to being subject to an armed world government with centralized powers. A little far fetched maybe? Well, Obama has already started one war without consulting congress because the United Nations asked him to. Many people supported him. With that kind of precedent, how long until our government is following United Nations’ mandates without question? It is a slow process, this global agenda, and both Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are globalists, in my opinion.

The price we pay could be trillions of dollars more than the taxpayers of this nation have already been fleeced for. We complain about bailing out the huge corporations, but we do little to nothing about it. Oh, we latch onto someone who promises change, and delivers it to us. Only it was change in the opposite direction that it was supposed to go. We get more wars, not peace, more bailouts, not none nor payback, more government intrusion on our lives, not less. Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are working for the banks, especially the elite central banks, not against them. Only Ron Paul has proven his tenacity when it comes to bringing accountability to the most influential of all institutions, the Federal Reserve. Either of those other two guys are going to just keep the fraud going and the money flowing to the top for another four years. They are trying to suck the economic body completely dry of its fluid currency. Only Dr. Paul addresses this fact and ignoring him could cost us our current currency.

The greatest price we might pay could be our freedoms. This is equivalent to our very nation. I remember in 2008, all the press about how George W. Bush was shredding our constitution. I remember certain Barrack Obama pundits celebrating in part because Mr. Obama was going to honor the Constitution. Well, three years later, I think we know better. Mr. Obama has not asked to repeal one overbearing, constitution shredding law. In fact, he has signed several more. As the feds decide to legalize violations of each of our precious individual rights, the nation looks more and more like an authoritarian, police state dictatorship. Either of the other two will keep this trend going. Only Ron Paul honors the Constitution. Can we afford another four years of having our rights tread upon? If so, what kind of a nation will we have in 2016? What kind of a nation will our grand children live in? Will they live in fear with limited choice, or will they have the opportunities that freedom provides to better themselves?

Ron Paul cannot be ignored. His message can’t be ignored. His supporters can’t be ignored. There are simply too many of them. His message is simply too important. Try as they might, the power elite are not going to be able to hide his importance much longer. You can’t cap a volcano and expect it to not erupt somewhere else. Freedom is ready to erupt into our cultural awareness. It is ready to flow into our society. It is ready to be reborn as a worldwide phenomenon. I only hope it is allowed to do so in a peaceful rather than a violent manner.

My archives can be found at my website szandorblestman.com. Please visit there to read more and support me by making a donation.

The wait is finally over. I am overjoyed to announce that, after 16 years, “The Legacy of the Tareks; book 2 of The Black Blade Trilogy,” has finally been released as an ebook. Get yours today! For those of you who have not yet read “The Colors of Elberia; book 1 of The Black Blade trilogy” it is still available at smashwords. Here is a list of my works by Matthew Wayne at different web retailers for your convenience. “The Edge of Sanity” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Diesel. “The Ouijiers” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Diesel. Here are links to my book “The Blessings of Freedom, Creating Prosperity in the 21st Century” serialized version: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 and chapters 3 and 4. I thank you for your support.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit from Jose Padilla and his mother, Estela Lebron, who claimed the man’s constitutional rights were violated when he was held for years in solitary confinement at a military prison in South Carolina.

The issue was whether John Yoo, who worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, deserved “qualified immunity” as a government official from such suits. A federal judge earlier had said the litigation could proceed.

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Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease.

Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department.

USDA said the infected cow was a rare “atypical” case of the disease, meaning it arose spontaneously rather than through the feed supply. However, it is USDA’s standard procedure to search for other cattle, offspring or herd mates, that might be exposed to the fatal disease, even though mad cow disease is not contagious.

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I have been writing about Ron Paul since 2008. Back then I didn’t have my own website, but several different sites picked up my work. They didn’t have much in the way of comment sections at the time, or not too many people used them, so any comments I saw were mostly emailed to me. Most people just wanted to express gratitude for reporting on Ron Paul in a way that didn’t spin him as some crazy loon. Any people that did want to make derisive remarks would usually repost the story in a forum where they could do so along with their neo-con buddies. I can understand that. People of like minds, birds of a feather, and all that you know. Those posts would get ugly and the trolls in those forums were actually Ron Paul supporters who were often rhetorically attacked in a very vicious and vitriolic manner. As for me, I didn’t really have to worry about trolls.

I did do an article on Best Buy, however, where I complained about their gift card policy. I became suddenly inundated with emails. About half of them were gracious and told of their problems with customer service at Best Buy, but the other half were very juvenile in nature in which my personal integrity and intelligence were brought into question. This prompted me to write a second article where I revealed the nature of the emails. I don’t know if it’s fair to call these people trolls because they used email rather than posting on blogs or forums, but the effect is basically the same. So I guess I do have a little experience with trolls.

I wondered who would be emailing me such insulting emails. I also wondered what they thought they’d accomplish. I was told by a couple of people that the emailers probably worked for Best Buy. I was told that there were people whose job it was to do such things. I really can’t say if that’s true. If it is, I imagine they were trying to intimidate me into silence with their rhetorical abuse, but it had the opposite effect. As I stated above, I wrote a second article because of the emails. I never looked any further into the matter, as I was not driven to do so, but the theory made sense to me. Perhaps they were loyal costumers, but I don’t think it’s likely. I don’t know that a customer would really care whether I ever shopped at the store again or not, nor would I think one would take the time to email me in such an abusive manner.

Well, times have changed. I have my own website now and I welcome comments. I don’t get many, but I let anyone that wants to have their say. I only delete comments that are obvious spam or advertisements and nothing more. Recently, I wrote an article on Ron Paul and actually got a few comments, to my delight. I even got a comment telling me why everyone hates Ron Paul and then one from the same person insulting me, also to my delight. It becomes apparent to me that I must be doing something right to get such a response from someone. I must be hitting a nerve somewhere. So I thought, “Who is this person that he would take the precious time from his busy day to make such a comment?”

Who are the trolls? Are they just kids with nothing better to do? Are they simply going along and reading things just so they can be contrary? Are they genuine? Do they really get so emotional about issues that they feel the necessity to write such nastiness? In the case of Ron Paul, are they supporters of another candidate? That I can understand. If they want to argue their case for another candidate, that’s fine. It’s when they get abusive and resort to name calling because someone disagrees I think their true colors show. Logical arguments for statism oft times crash like waves against the rock of the freedom position, and so those arguing from the collectivist point of view will have to resort to emotional tantrums to make their points.

To be fair, I’ve seen Ron Paul supporters also resort to name calling. I wish they wouldn’t do that, there are better ways to persuade, but to each his own. But Ron Paul supporters wear their hearts on their sleeve. You know who they are. Most of them are just regular folk. Recently many of them are the young folk who don’t want a crushing debt burden on their shoulders. Usually you know who the supporters of other specific candidates are. Newt, Rick and Mitt all have their own following and many of them are proud to support their candidates. There’s nothing wrong with that. But who are these trolls who hide behind anonymous, guest, or names that are difficult to decipher? Who are they that just come out of nowhere, insult and abuse, and then disappear? What are they trying to accomplish?

Are they establishment agents? Are they spies for the corporate elite? Are they spooks of the alphabet agencies? Maybe they just want us to know that they’re out there, watching. I know, that sounds like paranoid conspiracy theory crap, but I’m just asking the questions. I’m not afraid to open my mind to any possibility. I don’t discredit any theory unless I know something for certain. I suppose some of trolls can be as described. Others might be like those talked about earlier, kids just making trouble or emotional people looking for an outlet. Why shouldn’t it be a mix? Seems to me that’s the most likely. I really don’t know. I don’t know how to find out. Even if I did, I don’t know if I’d want to take the time to do so.

Whoever these trolls are, as long as they keep their activity to talking trash, it’s no big deal. Whatever they’re trying to accomplish, I don’t think it’s working, unless they’re just blowing off steam. If they’re trying to shut us up, that’s not working. As you can see, it just succeeded in getting me to write another article. Thank you, troll, for making this op/ed piece possible.

As long as there is freedom of speech in this country, I will continue to offer my opinion as I see fit. As long as I have protections against government intrusion upon my freedom to express myself, I will continue to point out the flaws I see in establishment institutions. If those natural, individual rights are ever threatened by government agents, I will do my best to do the same from the proverbial underground. If the proponents of freedom and peace are ever rounded up and thrown in prison for their point of view, I will endeavor to remain free and keep speaking out against tyranny. After all, isn’t that what a good American is supposed to do? Isn’t liberty and individual freedom what this nation is supposed to be about?

My archives can be found at my website szandorblestman.com. Please visit there to read more and support me by making a donation.

The wait is finally over. I am overjoyed to announce that, after 16 years, “The Legacy of the Tareks; book 2 of The Black Blade Trilogy,” has finally been released as an ebook. Get yours today! For those of you who have not yet read “The Colors of Elberia; book 1 of The Black Blade trilogy” it is still available at smashwords. Here is a list of my works by Matthew Wayne at different web retailers for your convenience. “The Edge of Sanity” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Diesel. “The Ouijiers” at smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Diesel. Here are links to my book “The Blessings of Freedom, Creating Prosperity in the 21st Century” serialized version: Chapter 1. Chapter 2 and chapters 3 and 4. I thank you for your support.

“They never came back, ignored all my cries and I still don’t know what happened,” he said. “I’m not sure how they could forget me.”

On April 21, Drug Enforcement Agents raided an apartment where Chong and his friends were smoking marijuana. Nine people were arrested and the agents reportedly seized ecstasy pills, marijuana, prescription medication, psychedelic mushrooms and weapons, according to CBS 8 News. Seven of those arrested were taken to jail and one was released.

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