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?

Now that I'm living with my brother, himself a weight-lifting aficionado, I decided to start my weight training regimen. He's a former Snap fitness member, so after he re-enrolled, I jumped on (over?) board. My experience so far has me a little bizarro'd. If the experience doesn't already reflect what our society has become, it undoubtedly shows us where it's headed.

Enrollment

Fees. Fees. Fees. There is a $50 enrollment fee. I had to wonder if Snap was paying someone to keep manual, written records, but according to the rep, Snap is paying some licensing fee on their enrollment system software. That sounds extremely sketchy to me. I can't quite comprehend why Snap couldn't just create their own system to avoid licensing costs. I mean, it's putting people into a database... we're not sending anyone to the moon. Seems like a straightforward way to cut costs. Next was a $20 entrance card fee...

RFID Entrance Card

RFID. Boy, do we have it good in the 21st century! I was getting SO TIRED of swiping cards through a reader. Not to mention, it was seriously cramping my style. Now that it's all wireless, one only needs to hold it up to the reader. I don't even need to take it out of my wallet! Plus, it makes a COOL BEEPING NOISE and turns a light GREEN! WHY CAN'T WE USE RFID EVERYWHERE!!!!???

I'm relieved to hear that credit card companies are bringing RFID to our payment system. I'm pretty sure Japan has had this stuff for awhile now. It's about time guys... I wasn't comfortable living in a technologically neolithic society. (Anyone concerned about the security is just a conspiracy theorist that needs to undergo some mental rehabilitation. A glass of instant smile is equally effective.)

No Drinking Fountain

A workout facility without a drinking fountain. Whatever it takes to cut costs, I guess (I feel for you treadmill'ers). In the event that you forget to bring your own refreshment, you have two options: stick your face under the bathroom sink faucet or buy from their vending machine. That's the same machine with the giant, tantalizing sticker telling me to ENJOY A REFRESHING DASANI. MMMMM MMMMMM. I love paying over a dollar for a bottle of reverse osmosis water, especially when I can pay for it with my RFID card!

FUCK!

The other night I got a knock on my door. It was the Comcast guy, explaining that he was doing working on the apartment and was wondering if I was experiencing any problems. What a guy! I assured him that all systems were performing as expected. As I went to shut the door, he started asking some questions.

First, he asked what I use the Internet for. I was aghast. "Do you do a lot of downloading? or just basic stuff like email?" Do I do a lot of downloading? Considering the nature of the Internet, Yes, I do. I'm not exactly sure what he was getting at here. Besides, can't he monitor that kind of thing being that HE WORKS FOR COMCAST?

Second, he asked me "What about TV?" After recovering from a spontaneous d stroke, I pieced together the words to explain that I did not have TV. I guess he was mining for whether I had satellite TV because to my knowledge Comcast is the sole cable provider of the building and he would know whether I had TV. He marked something down on his sheet of paper.

I guess he may be just trying to survey the usage of the building or something, but he was inches away from coming off as a solicitor. Don't they have this data already sitting in a database?

Mood: Creeped out