Topic: The Federal Reserve
END THE FED! Protest to take place on Saturday, 11/22/08 "Scenes are now to take place as will open the eyes of credulity and of insanity itself, to the dangers of a paper medium abandoned to the discretion of avarice and of swindlers." -Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
(libertarian)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Upset about the financial crisis and how it could negatively affect your life? Think it won't effect your life? Try reading my last article "Bank and Credit Union 2008 Body Count at 32". Well, speaking for myself, I've already harassed my Congress representatives to no avail, so I suppose it is time to show up at the FED itself.
END THE FED! protests will take place at all FED branches and offices in the following 39 US cities on Saturday:
Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dallas (Alex Jones of prisonplanet.com to attend, hope he does not break the below principles!), Detroit, Denver, El Paso, Helena, Houston (Ron Paul to attend), Jacksonville, Kansas City, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington, DC.
The site specifies that END THE FED! participants must agree to the following principles:
Peaceful, Non-Violent Rally to Support Sound Money
Cooperation and respect for local laws and authorities
No harassment of Fed employees
No blocking of pedestrian or vehicular traffic
"The trifling economy of paper, as a cheaper medium, or its convenience for transmission, weighs nothing in opposition to the advantages of the precious metals... it is liable to be abused, has been, is, and forever will be abused, in every country in which it is permitted." - Thomas Jefferson to John W. Eppes, 1813
For any who are unaware, although the Federal Reserve was created by Congress and President Wilson via the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve's use of paper currencies unbacked by gold and silver is unconstitutional, although this decision has been made many times by the contemporary executive and legislative branches, especially in times of war.
There is debate about whether Congress has the right to transfer its power over monetary policy to the FED, especially since there is very little oversight over Ben Bernanke's crew; the FED has never been audited by Congress. This month Bloomberg filed a lawsuit against the FED demanding that they disclose the recent bailout recipients. The House Republican leader has demanded the same. As of today, the FED has refused to comply.
Per the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5, states that only Congress shall have the power "to coin Money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures."
Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1, prohibits the following: "No State shall coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debt."
Both of the above have never been amended in any way, and the Constitution is the highest law in the land, NOT the Federal Reserve Act.
"On the night of November 22, 1910, a group of newspaper reporters stood disconsolately in the railway station at Hoboken, New Jersey. They had just watched a delegation of the nation’s leading financiers leave the station on a secret mission. It would be years before they discovered what that mission was, and even then they would not understand that the history of the United States underwent a drastic change after that night in Hoboken. The delegation had left in a sealed railway car, with blinds drawn, for an undisclosed destination." They were led by Senator Nelson Aldrich, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and leaders from JP Morgan's and Rockefeller's banking families.
I am planning to visit to the USA (I reside in Asia) and attend the Chicago demonstration, assuming I can convince my hosts that it will be a good time.
"Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or reduce them to slavery under an arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from further obedience, and are left to the common refuge which god hath provided for all men against force and violence." – John Locke
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Well, I guess we can expect the END OF THE FED soon after this big protest. This should be the real NAIL in the coffin of the Fed. Glad you're traveling all the way from China (I think you said is where you're located). That will probably be the impetus to get things finalized.
Why is it that all the quotes you use are from people who lived before television, radio, airplanes, McDonald's, computers, cell phones, and the NEED for huge government bureaucracies to provide common services like highways, water and sewer, police and fire, etc.?
The world has changed so much since then that their opinions about ANYTHING would be about as useful as their comments about medicine, hospitals, fluoride in water, dentistry, and banking. Why don't you see if you can work in some quotes from people who "have a clue" about things that matter. It isn't just a matter of "give me liberty or give me death" anymore. It's save me from AIDS, economic meltdowns, and the nuclear bomb!
Once again master c displays the vapidity of a wanna-be intellectual. Sonny...the principles behind "give me liberty or give me death" have not changed. Go save yourself from AIDS . Once again you display a small grasp of the founding of the greatest nation God has ever graced the planet with. Our liberties that you so blithely smirk at are the ones that have allowed this nation to thrive. We are slowly and inexolerably sliding towards the death of our republic as we know it becasue you and many like you are afraid of becoming uncomforatble with promoting and fighting for a return to our Constitution.
Dismissing the Constituion as an archaic device of government because the framers did not have cell phones belies a complete ignorance of the political thought and process that has made this nation great.
Why shouldn't we quote the founders if they are correct? Their statements are as relevant today as they were 232 years ago.
Now I know this last question will have you posting something as insightful as ever, but try to consider that in the early 1900's our form of governmet was highjacked by Fabian socialists and others. The thugs, like Wilson, Sanger, and the ilk, have something you are incapable of...historic perspective and patience.
One more thing, do try to answer Jake in more than some childish and snarky manner. You really show yourself as a lightweight with each consecutive post.
Posted By: Jake, the champion of the constitution
Date: 2008-11-17 06:20:04
Dear MC -
As always, thanks for commenting.
Nope, the rally isn't going to immediately close the FED at all. You are right. A few more people may become aware of what the FED really does - most people have no clue.
Nope, I am not coming all the way from China to attend a rally., had the trip planned for awhile. Glad the friends from Chicago feel like joining me there as I am heading there to see them - Iand they don't care too much about the FED, which is pretty normal still. Actually I didnt even know the date of it until some dude named Adam Kokesh (whom I've quoted in my articles, must mean he's actually dead) told me.
As to whom I quote the most, (ok, RP is a fossil from 1776, ok, ok) I think I get your intended meaning. It's pretty interesting how the rEVOLution members just keeping going back to that same old gang, the Founding Fathers. For the record, I've also quoted Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff, Jose Padilla, Walter Williams, Senator Obama/McCain, Colin Powell, Sarkozy, Bernanke, Greenspan, Bush, and many more. At last glance, they are all still kicking.
As far as studying history, if you don't study it, it will repeat or at least rhyme, as the sayings go. Any thing in the past is history, including yesterday.
I think that overall the rhyme of history pretty much sucks, and my rhyme is cooler.
Jake, I applaud your effort and wish I could join you. Those useless lunks in Washington will never do their constitutional duty and get rid of the Fed unless there is an overwhelming groundswell among the grass roots. That groundswell won't happen unless people that know better stand up and expose what is going on. The apathy and ignorance of the general public is an entropy that will be hard to overcome, but I believe there is hope.
I, for one, am very excited that this protest is occurring and it could not be happening at a better time. In response to Master C, I can see some benefit to having a governing body like the Fed overseeing financial concerns in the US if it was designed to function with a limited scope. But as with all things related to government, it has not functioned in that capacity for a very long time. I am young (26 yrs old) and so the extent of my memory goes back to Greenspan's cutting of interest rates to 1% and the subsequent effect on US currency. It is an inherent fallacy to have a free market system where you install entities meant to interfere with its free functioning. Its just like a power cable. You plug your computer in to the wall and expect electricity to flow from the wall to your PC. Would it not be counter-intuitive to insert numerous electrical switches inbetween the wall and your computer that all regulate the power that flows to your computer? Of course it would, because the computer does not need that kind of regulation because you can regulate your computer yourself by setting it to idle after a certain amount of time, switch to hibernate mode or turn off the LCD after a certain amount of inactivitiy. You don't need switches to moderate the electricity flow because the computer is capable of doing it all by itself. And its NOT a matter of beneficial redundancy; because after a while if you leave those switches along your power cord you will no longer give thought to the need to regulate how your PC uses power. You will grow dependent on those switches and you will no longer be invested in the maintenance of your PC. It will become "the switches" job.
Well guess what folks? We're better at governing ourselves than the "switches" we elect to office, and this is especially true when it comes to our financial markets. People have lost sight of what free market means, because we have gotten SO accustomed to prosperity in this nation that we start to think America means "never failing". Have we forgotten that one of the best ways we learned how to be self-sufficient adults was through our teenage failures? Failure happens. People lose jobs or money, but these things work themselves out if they are allowed to. You cannot interfere in the free market so grossly as our government and non-governmental bodies have and then turn around and blame capitalism. You should blame the fact that you tried to mix together mechanisms from two conflicting philosophies: capitalism and socialism. Oil and water folks.
As far as I see it, the economic situation became a crisis the instant Bear Stearns was rescued, and this action was an extremely short-sighted one. As Dick Fuld said in his testimony before congress, why were Bear and AIG bailed out but not Lehman? Dick Fuld is a douche, BUT it is also a fair question. The question itself shows EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS when you allow your country to become a nation of entitlements. EVERYONE WANTS THEIR PIECE! Now, GM/Ford/Chrysler want their piece as well, and expect us to save their failed isntitutions and prop up the corrupt Labor unions who have bled these corporations dry because they were too cowardly to resist union thugs. After all, they were making money, so what did they care. If we had allowed Bear Stearns to fail, it would have sent a SHOCKWAVE through corporations like Wamu, Circuit City and Lehman who were all struggling and ALL received buyout offers (CC at 2$/shr, Wamu I forget, and Lehman around $15/shr). If they had not been emboldened by the government intervention in Bear Stearns, they would have been forced to accept the reality the free market was handing them and sell to those bidders. Instead, we have 3 crushed organizations, 2 of which are having multiple ripple effects throughout the global economy.
My neighbor works at a boutique investment firm in the city, and we were discussing the hopeless feelings surrounding the economic crisis and I came out with what I felt was an apt metaphor for this crisis. Right now, it is the difference between dying a slow and debilitating death from cancer versus putting a revolver in our mouths. As libertarians, we know how important the principle of Right-To-Die is for allowing patients to determine an end to their life when the dignity with which they lived it has passed. Right now we are slowly dying as a nation and this economic crisis has tubes feeding us, pumps helping us breathe and a bedpan collecting our excrements. Are we not better off with the revolver in our mouth? Let the death come quick and fast, and then lets move on to the recovery. If we know anything about America (and the brits learned this one first hand during the revolution) is that you cannot kill the spirit of americanism. There are those with the ingenuity and know-how who can take the pieces that are left over and re-build our economic system into what it was meant to be. A market free of unnecessary government intervention where an individual with an idea or dream can apply themselves and make it happen. Why would anyone come to America for freedom anymore when we all have invested in increasing our government to the degree where we are slowly suffocating the breath of freedom this country once was.
At this rally I hope we can all send a message to the government and our fellow citizens that the economy belongs to the people. Lets tell our elected representatives that they have a choice: either get their hands out of our wallets and off our economy, or else be prepared to meet, within all of us, the incarnation of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. Give me Liberty or Give Me Death. As true today and tomorrow, as it was so many years ago.
This is an excellent idea, and I will be at my local gathering. I would hope that it becomes an annual event which grows each year.
The post from MC shows the true level of programming out there. It is so sad. I wish it represented a small group, but unfortunately he is regurgitating the rhetoric exactly as he was instructed. And the ideas are gobbled up en mass. The constitution is old, therefore it must be irrelevant. God help us all. I hope it is not too late to wake up the ones who are not a total waste...study history, it may not be as exciting as xbox, but you may learn a few things - oh, I forgot, history is old...
So he wants quotes from people in the "McDonnalds era"?
Ron Paul, Jim Rodgers, Ralph Nater, Eustace Mullins, John Perkins,on and on,, google is your friend.
And if reading is too "old fashioned" then here are some videos that may help to enlighten you (sorry nothing about the Big Mac):
Hey, I saw your protest in Cincinnati while on the way to protest the scientology cult that has set up shop downtown. Good to see you guys out there! I might have joined in if I didn't have my own protest to go to, but I gave your guys a thumbs up on the way past them.
Master C said, "Well, I guess we can expect the END OF THE FED soon after this big protest. This should be the real NAIL in the coffin of the Fed."
I'll resist the urge to address the trite overtone of your statement with the exception to say that it telegraphs your misguided agenda.
As more and more people get squeezed by the growing economic crisis, the End the Fed movement will grow exponentially. During the Chicago march, not one "boo or hiss" was heard - quite the contrary. The public's reaction of horn honks and cheers was entirely supportive and bold. Thousands of educational leaflets and DVD's were handed out - rarely were they rejected.
"Why is it that all the quotes you use are from people who lived before television, radio, airplanes, McDonald's, computers, cell phones, and the NEED for huge government bureaucracies to provide common services like highways, water and sewer, police and fire, etc.? "
Funny, I didn't see Jake promoting "End Constitutional Government". Besides, the Federal Reserve isn't even a governmental entity - it is a private bank. Bottom line - calling to End the Fed is not calling for anarchy, as you so lamely tried to infer.
"The world has changed so much since then that their opinions about ANYTHING would be about as useful as their comments about medicine, hospitals, fluoride in water, dentistry, and banking. Why don't you see if you can work in some quotes from people who "have a clue" about things that matter. It isn't just a matter of "give me liberty or give me death" anymore. It's save me from AIDS, economic meltdowns, and the nuclear bomb!"
Again, these issues have nothing to do with the Federal Reserve fiat monetary system. That aside, the principles of freedom and liberty do not change with the times. And then there's the issue of constitutionality. As evidenced by your statement, you believe that uber alles government should ignore the rule of law (the Constitution) and respond to the whim of the masses and the issue de' jure. In that, it is YOU who promotes anarchy - organized anarchy.
Wake up, Master C. And while you're at it, try educating yourself before you cast your "pearls of wisdom"... and maybe you won't embarrass yourself so much next time.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.