In 2012, Ron Paul ran on a platform of real spending cuts. His plan sliced the federal budget by a trillion dollars year one. The pundits claimed he would crash the economy. When you need to level a condemned building, do you do so through a controlled demolition, or do you allow the building to collapse on its own terms (while occupied)?

Congress does not believe in real cuts. They've duped the public into believing that "averting disaster" means raising the debt-ceiling. (What good is a ceiling that is so easily raised?) All manner of temporary fixes are preferable to actual problem solving. Elections are decided by who can promise the most free stuff to the largest number of people while keeping the straightest face. Incumbent "public servants" must also justify their previous terms in office. If you repeat a lie long enough, people will start to believe it. Likewise, career politicians are really good at getting re-elected.

But it's not just our elected officials that are to blame. Some are just money and/or power junkies in search of their next hit (God bless 'em). The bigger blame lies on their suppliers- the unelected officials of the private Federal Reserve. For government, the Fed enables unfettered debt monetization. For banks, the Fed administers "quantitative easing" (spoooky language). The Fed chair, Janet Yellen, has the power to send shock-waves through the entire financial market with one poorly chosen word. (If that's not the sign of a healthy financial system, I don't know what is.) Here's a question: What would we ever do without the Federal Reserve? "Well," you say, "without the Fed, the markets would be quite volatile, leading to market crashes and potentially even depressions." Wait.

Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it.-Ben S. Bernanke

The Fed has begun easing the easing, and now, we wait with bated breath for what could be a tsunami of financial ruin. Assuming that the current "recovery" is only the short-term result of massive stimulus spending (an "interest-rate recovery" as Gerald Celente puts it), the Fed will soon be forced to pause the tapering before reversing course, increasing stimulus even more dramatically. That reversal will leave the markets quaking. Continuing to taper will dissipate the mirage of a recovery.

But, it's not like other countries are free from their own economic problems. Central banks the world over have employed usury to subjugate their populations, and governments are printing money left and right. When debt that is mathematically impossible to repay goes exponential, countries can choose to default on their obligations or inflate their currency. Since inflation can keep the ponzi scheme going, is harder to detect, and can be explained away by the experts, it is undoubtedly where we're headed. As debt climbs steeply, so too inflation to pay it off. That dollar just won't buy what it used to, and people might need to retire later than planned. Not to mention, high taxes and huge income gaps is the stuff of revolutions. Do you believe "target practice" is the reason Homeland Security bought a billion bullets?

When currencies are being debased in a race to the bottom, who is going to come out on top? The weaker currencies will go from a backing of confidence to a backing of paper. Assuming a massive blow to the confidence in fiat currencies, currencies backed partially by gold may even return to prominence. Regardless, when currencies and trade are at war, holding gold is an excellent hedge. Last year, Germany tried to repatriate a small fraction of its gold holdings from US soil. The US wants seven years to ship it. Why? The vaults are empty. People understand this, and now the value of gold incorporates speed of delivery.

Why can't we see the gold in Fort Knox? Because it's invisible!

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant to the Secretary of the Treasurey under Reagan, exposed the Fed's rigging of the gold market. Paper claims to gold (that vastly outnumber the amount of available physical gold) are used to drive down the price of physical gold by selling the paper claims short on a massive scale- a form of naked short-selling. A strong gold price reflects a weakening dollar and threatens the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. Asia's demand for physical gold will eventually implode this manipulation.

The Fed is testing the limits of this economy. Creating so much wealth without creating value is a recipe for financial Armageddon. If 2008 is any indication, they could again be caught off guard. The petrodollar and the dollar's status as reserve currency have really been the Fed's saving grace. Once countries start dumping their dollar holdings (China), start accepting other currencies for oil (Russia), or start trading in other currencies (BRICS) or directly in gold (Iran), the dollar will be under even more pressure. The Fed's tapering or gold manipulation will also force a correction in the not too distant future. Now is the calm before the storm.

Following its humiliating defeat by Russian, English, and American hands, Washington was forced to rescind its demonization campaign of the Syrian regime. Syria agreed to disarmament, and Iran quickly followed suit, proclaiming a willingness to ease its own nuclear endeavors. Without skipping a beat, Obama changed his tune from bellicose rhetoric to peaceful diplomacy and was hailed. The planned destabilization of the region was put on hold, but not before triggering the totalitarian alarm clock- an alarm clock that awoke millions of Americans from apathy. Battle-hardened America awaited its next challenge- defending against an attack on its healthcare.

Officially titled "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the bill (unsurprisingly) neither protects patients nor negotiates affordable healthcare. Again, we are presented with another gross abuse of language revealing just how lawmakers perceive the public (malleable idiots). Our Conmander-in-Chief went on tour across the country, painting half-truths and misdirection on a canvas of trust and naïveté.

Stephanopoulos: But you reject that it’s a tax increase? Obama: I absolutely reject that notion.

Obama said the penalty is not a tax, but then it is. It is an unapportioned direct tax, yet it's legal. The supreme court argues that it's not a direct tax because not everyone is required to pay it- "it is triggered by specific circumstances." Note the colorless, indirect language. What they meant to say is, "it is triggered by a refusal to purchase private health insurance." I'm pretty sure that's called fascism.

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. Period.

Patients were quickly informed by their insurance companies that they could keep their plan... if they didn't mind paying double the price. The individual mandate and universal coverage creates artificial demand for health services, and increasing demand without proportionately increasing supply means increasing price. Add in a couple rolls of red-tape, and you've got a de facto 100% increase in price.

Here's a paradigm shift: why not actually spend that money to improve health. Buy quality food, vitamins, health books, and club memberships. What did people do before health insurance? Moreso than today, they were their own doctors. The problem isn't insurance companies. Insurance companies are, ironically, a symptom of a flawed medical system. There's no real incentive in finding a cure when you're dealing in a trillion-dollar-a-year industry. Modern medicine is set up to nurse symptoms until the patient runs dry. Did you really think the apex of modern medicine was epidemic levels of debilitating disease? Now that the insurance companies have us mandated, they're going to try their hardest to convince us it's worthwhile. How would finding cures and promoting true health make insurance worthwhile? It doesn't fit the for-profit model. There's a reason we still drive cars that run on gasoline.

If they're seriously counting on the young adults of this country to offset the increased costs, they're living in a fantasy land. Young people are already debt-enslaved from the allure of a college investment that, in many cases, won't be paying dividends in this faltering economy. They're concerned with paying off that debt, not spending an extra $2500 a year for what is essentially zero value. Social Security and Medicare payments are already fleeting before their eyes. Most young people will undoubtedly pay the tax for the first two years. Of course, human behavior is not hard to predict, and they would have seen this coming from a mile away. This begs the question: was it designed to self-destruct from the beginning?

Financial collapse is the ultimate goal but not before the public has accrued an unsustainable amount of debt. The dark agenda of Obamacare is to further tighten the shackles of voluntary debt-slavery. When the economy collapses, the public will be so broke that it will have no choice but to accept the lawmakers' most finely crafted, tyrannical legislation. What will trigger such a collapse? It may be a bail-out of the struggling health insurance companies. The world would bear witness to the government's repeated failure and the dollar's fragility. The question is whether the American people would submit to yet another bail-out.

The sheer amount of red-tape creates a belief that the government is interfering with the insurance companies to their detriment. Obama essentially rewrites the law through decree and now the insurance companies have to adjust. But let's be clear- it's definitely in their favor. Just check out the health insurance index on the NYSE. This belief will fuel sympathy (misdirected) towards the health insurance companies and potentially beget a public opinion that is more accepting of an insurance company bail-out. Problem-reaction-solution at its finest.

They're betting on Americans remaining silent. Surely this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Will America stand for it?

The American people are awakening from a slumber- their political apathy exhausted by an incessant stream of misdirection, lies, and failure. While the homefront is on the verge of bankruptcy, the battlefront is booming. When it comes to war (death and destruction), "insufficient funds" is oxymoronic. Fortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel is fast approaching and a critical mass of enlightnment will soon be reached. To the orchestrators, that means one thing - accelerating the agenda.

We instictively knew all bets were off for a second term, and they're not wasting any time. Its all-in claim that Bashar Al-Assad indiscriminately unleashed chemical weapons upon his own people is sloppy and desperate. It simply doesn't add up. Why would Syria commit such an act knowing that America has been chomping at the bit for years, looking for any excuse to strike. It would be FAR more logical that it was carried out by the battle-weary "rebels" (with CIA assistance, no doubt) to gain American military support. But it isn't about logic, it's about emotion. Politicians are preying on the common misconception (mind control) that our reality is nothing more than a television drama. And when it comes to TV, you can only sit back and watch the drama unfold.

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.-Obama (the unelected version)

The hubris of this administration is unparalleled. Its hypocrisy is that of legend. How arrogant the assumption that it knows how to deal with Syria's problems better than the Syrian people. How pretentious the claim that they can distinguish the "good guys" from the "bad guys." How insane the thought that overthrowing a foreign power by arming Islamic extremists would make this country more secure. Not so long ago, the same thing happened in Afghanistan when the US assisted a "freedom fighter" known as Osama Bin Laden. History truly does repeat itself.

Without hard evidence, the American public is deeply skeptical (if not outright opposed). They have seen this script play out before with Iraq. The strength of their collective memory has been underestimated. The lies are now transparent; the rhetoric is now empty. Not even Obama (and the cult of his person) can sell this one. Public support is so low, it's going to take another 9/11 style event to put the people back in the trance. Beware of false-flags.

The year was 1999. I was a super-charged, hyper-consuming twelve-year-old kid, looking to unregretfully dive head-first into any heavily pushed childhood craze. Following the Beanie Baby crash of '98, it was only a matter of time before I would fall prey to a peculiarly named video game trend from Japan.

Pokemon was first met with skepticism, but once I learned to let go, I really let go. I was watching, recording, and re-watching episodes of the anime. I was spittin' pokeraps to phat beatz like WHAT. I was crafting bad 90s websites replete with background MIDIs, scrolling marqees, and animated GIFs. Surprisingly, the one thing I wasn't doing was playing the video game itself. I mowed lawns like a fiend to save up for a Game Boy color and the Pokemon Blue Version. Once I bought it, nothing else mattered. I remember pouring an ungodly number of hours just mindlessly leveling my team in Viridian Forest, which drew laughter from my friends. In my mind, they just lacked the determination of a true Pokemon Master. Life with Pokemon was good. Little did I know, I had yet to discover the most tantalizing outlet for my Poke-debauchery- the Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG).

I remember opening my first booster pack. The fresh smell of cards, the dynamic colors, the suspense. **deep inhale** **slow exhale** Each pack had 11 cards: 2 energy cards, 5 commons, 3 uncommons, and 1 rare. My rare was a foil Alakazaam - my head nearly exploded. Sky cracked a foil Raichu, and his brother Wyatt cracked a foil Venusaur. My brother would eventually pull a foil Charizard. I couldn't wait to collect them all and master each of them.

Our First Foil Rares

Over the next few months, I accumulated more cards through booster packs, theme decks, and trading. I traded a Tangela and a Bulbasaur (2 commons) for Wyatt's duplicate copy of a rare foil Venusaur, but it was worth it for him because he couldn't use his Venusaur without my Bulbasaur. Hopefully, he forgives me, and we'll both chalk it up to life-lessons-learned. FACT: Everything that you need to know about life can be learned through the Pokemon TCG.

On a fateful trip to Mankato, I discovered a games and hobby store that held Pokemon card tournaments. "Finally," I thought, "a way to prove my mastery." I couldn't wait to compete. In the beginning, I couldn't afford the good cards so I never made it too far in a tournament. I used powerful commons and uncommons like Kadabra and Dewgong as well as a playset of Energy Removal, but it could only get me so far. I looked to the Internet to find a new edge.

Budget player's cards

I was a net-decker even before that honorable credential had a name. Scott Gerhardt was editor at pojo.com, the main source for Pokemon TCG strategy at the time, and came out with a number of "killer decks": Potpourri, "Viagra", and The Sponge. I net-decked the 3-color Potpourri deck and handily went undefeated at a local tournament. Early on, it was clear that all Pokemon cards were not created equally.

The longer I played, the more trainers ended up in my deck. By the end of my illustrious career, my decks consisted of approximately 35 trainers (out of the allowed 60 cards), skimping dangerously low on basics and energy. Back then, evolving pokemon was too much of a liability so I stuck to basic Pokemon and cast trainers with reckless abandon. My goal with these trainer-heavy decks was to have the option to obtain any card from my deck on any turn of the game (and, consequently, draw my entire deck on any of those turns). Those early years really were the wild west. Bill (literal 2-for-1), Professor Oak (literal draw 7), Computer Search (tutor), and Item Finder (Regrowth) were my base, and ridiculous cards like Plus Power, Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal did the rest. A single Lass would have blanked my entire deck, but alas, to us kids, that card was nothing more than a bad rare (like Devolution Spray) that every kid prayed would pass over his booster pack.

Power 9 of Pokemon

I remember one match in particular against someone sporting a "Raindance" deck. Raindance's Achille's heal was its reliance on weak basics like Squirtle and Magikarp in a world of Hitmonchans and Electabuzzes. This made Plus Powers and ways to find them especially awesome. He started with a lone Squirtle to my Electabuzz and luckily won the coin flip to start the game. Even more luckily, his Squirtle paralyzed my Electabuzz with his Bubble. That would usually portend a second turn Pokemon Breeder into Blastoise, who would one hit KO my Electabuzz with Hydro Pump. Instead, on my first turn, I proceeded to Bill, Oak, Item Finder, and Computer Search until I had assembled a Lightning energy, 2 Plus Power, and the coup-de-grace- my singleton Full Heal to remove the paralysis. My opponent was stunned. Nice game, brah.

Miser's Full Heal for the Win

Another one of my fonder (albeit degenerate) memories stems from a deck called Rocket's Trap. The goal was to cast Imposter Oak's Revenge to reduce the opponent's hand to 4 cards, then cast Rocket's Sneak Attack to reduce it to 3, and, finally, hit them with The Rocket's Trap to reduce the hand to zero cards. This left them top decking on turn 1 and you likely with a hand double the size of your deck. There was one catch, Team Rocket's trap required you to win a coin flip, but you could still play with 4 copies plus Item Finders to better your odds.

Degenerate Pokemon combo

Armed with my likely 35+ trainer Rocket's Trap deck, I handily made it to the finals of that tournament. On the first turn against my finals opponent, I reduced his hand to 3 cards but failed to destroy the rest of his hand by flipping three tails in a row (12.5% chance mind you). Coin flips are one of the more dreadful aspects of this game, especially considering that the tauntingly ill-conceived "Chansey" coin flipped heads approximately 87% of the time. (I didn't use that coin nor did I let my opponents use it.) At any rate, he Lassed my hand away, evolved into Dark Vileplume which disables all trainers, and my grossly unassisted Movie Promo Mewtwos were left fighting his psychic resistant Snorlaxes while I drew blank after blank after blank.

Disabled trainer cards

Since Nintendo took over the game from Wizards of the Coast, I understand that cards have become a bit more balanced, and some of the flaws have been patched with rules changes. For example, the player that starts a game cannot cast any trainer cards. I think never reprinting Professor Oak, Energy Removal, or Super Energy Removal helped keep things in check, as well. I believe Bill actually got reprinted as a "Support" card which is a special type of trainer that can only be played once per turn.

I played Pokemon through Gym Heroes (circa July 2000) before beginning my transition from trainer to magician- my transition to a real man's TCG - Magic: the Gathering. I remember winning my first Magic tournament with Blastoderms and rebels. Disappointment followed protest as my fellow magicians saw me put my store credit towards a Rocket's Scyther.

From then on, I played magic exclusively. Fast forward to my senior year in college, a combination of being overworked and overstressed led me to regress back to my former, hyper-consuming twelve-year-old self. I fired back up the Pokemon Trading Card Game for Game Boy and started winning auctions on ebay to rebuild my decks. It was at that time that I had a bright idea. Since 90% of Pokemon cards were unplayable in tournaments, bringing the concept of drafting (which I had learned from Magic) to Pokemon would breathe a revitalizing new life into those misfit 90%. I bought a booster box of Base Set 1 off of eBay.

Booster box of Base Set

Unfortunately, I never got around to assembling the 6 required Pokemon trainers to partake. Instead, it is now likely destined to permanent residence within my personal time capsule.

Thanks for reading!

Scans courtesy of http://pkmncards.com, a website that is very well put together