From the Summit of the Moral High Ground

Chief Justice John Roberts  The chief justice’s canny move to uphold the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as 'Obamacare'), while gutting the Commerce Clause. There were two battles being fought in the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act. Chief Justice John Roberts—and Justice Anthony Kennedy—delivered victory to the right in the one that mattered. Yes, Roberts voted to uphold the individual mandate, joining the court's 'liberal' wing to give President Obama a 5-4 victory on his signature piece of legislation. Right-wing partisans are crying treason; left-wing partisans saw their predictions of a bitter, party-line defeat undone. But the health care law was, ultimately, a pretext. This was a test case for the long-standing—but previously fringe—campaign to rewrite Congress' regulatory powers under the Commerce Clause. This is why the challenge to the ACA, and its progress through the courts, came as a surpris...

The United Kingdom and the Channel Islands both make the majority of their money through the practise of Usury, far more than any other nation in the world. Total debt (public and private) in the UK is some 1000% of GDP, by far the highest in the world. There has been much discussion recently as to the 'morality' of taxation but if we are concerned with 'moral' right then perhaps it is time to review the moral basis for the primary source of all that taxation. Usury, the charging of interest on money loaned (or as it is latterly defined 'the charging of interest at extortionate rates') has an interesting history, as expressed in this extract from the Catholic Dictionary , Plato (Laws, v. 742) and Aristotle (Politics, I, x, xi) considered interest as contrary to the nature of things; Aristophanes expressed his disapproval of it, in the "Clouds" (1283 sqq.); Cato condemned it (see Cicero, "De officiis, II, xxv), comparing it to homicide, a...

Germany has the second largest gold reserve in the world, but they could become a whole lot bigger if Italy, Spain, Portugal or France default on new loans  “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand.” ― Milton Friedman The breaking news over night was that a new agreement had been reached between Germany and the rest of the European Union. Germany has apparently shifted position and will no longer demand austerity in return for keeping the other nations afloat. Angela Merkel did not take part in the press conference. There is clearly something we are not being told and I suspect that once the details emerge we will see that these loans (which will be made directly to banks and not to countries) are secured on whatever assets it is worth stripping from these countries - gold, natural resources, the share capital of the banks themselves. As we have been reporting for some time this is the end game for Germany...

It happens when you interfere with the Free Market  Well the three year investigation into market manipulation within the City of London has been concluded for the first of the big banks, Barclays. The investigations are continuing at the other banks but Barclays was the bank which co-operated most fully with the investigation. The British Bankers Association is 'shocked' according to their press release "The British Bankers’ Association is  shocked  by yesterday’s report about LIBOR. The banks which contribute to the LIBOR rate must meet the necessary obligations to their regulators. The BBA has proactively co-operated with the authorities at every stage and will continue to work with the regulatory investigations into LIBOR, submitting information and making staff available for interview. "The current LIBOR review, with which our authorities are fully engaged, has been underway since March this year and is considering all aspects including the settin...

Banks have run off the cliff, but have not yet looked down  In his latest musing the Gold Jackass, Jim Willie, continues the theme that has dominated his economic analysis for years now but the end is finally upon us, the events which he and many others have been accurately predicting are all coming to pass and we cruise towards the end of Welfarism. "Many are the events, signals, and telltale clues of a real live actual systemic failure in progress. Until the last several months, such banter was dismissed by the soldiers in the financial arena. But lately, they cannot dismiss the onslaught of evidence, a veritable plethora of ugly symptoms of conditions gone terribly wrong and solutions at best gone awry and at worst never intended in the first place.   My theory has been steady from the TARP Fund scandal and the Too Big To Fail mantra of deceit. The plan all along since the breakdown began in September 2008 has been to preserve power, to maintain intact the ins...

Ian Christmas (not an Advocate)  The prosecution of Jersey's magistrate-designate continues as the JEP reported Magistrate-designate Ian Christmas is one of four defendants accused of fraud worth almost £1.5m. When the Royal Court trial begins, it will be almost four years since Mr Christmas’ office in the Magistrate’s Court was searched by police investigating fraud. At the time, he was on the brink of being named Magistrate, and succeeding Ian Le Marquand, who is now a Senator and Home Affairs Minister. Although Mr Christmas has been working since his arrest, he has been on restricted duties and has not been sitting in court. It is understood, however, that he has still been drawing his full £110,000 to £115,000 salary.   Mr Christmas and his co-accused – John Lewis, Russell Foot and James Cameron – face between them a total of 27 counts with a combined alleged fraud of almost £1.5m.   As is usual with these cases the prosecution has tried to paint a picture...

Image from Spiegel based on calculations with ING bank  Well the Euro crisis has ramped up again and set the touch paper to the price of gold and silver, the Spanish have indicated that they will require a further 547 billion Euros between now and 2015 to recapitalise their banks. Cyprus has also sought aid from the European Union and the Greek Finance Minister has resigned just days after being appointed. In fact it has been a rather interesting EU summit. Merkel's unequivocal comment on her nation's unwillingness to 'share' burdens and slap the proverbial cheek of Monsieur Hollande, Italy's banking union looking for more 'aid', Spain actually asking for their bailout, Greece 'avoiding' reality, and Cyprus pulling the 'China rescue plan' last ditch retort to market angst; ZeroHedge.com I have been reporting the impeccable analysis from the Gold Jackass, that Germany is planning on leaving the Euro to the socialist nations of the Sou...

An appeal against a decision by a Court basically involves explaining to a higher Court what prevented the lower Court from reaching a fair verdict. It is neither A second opinion or a re-trial Generally appeals will be upheld for one or more of the following reasons There was a procedural error by the Judge There was insufficient evidence adduced before the Court for the Judge to reach the verdict they reached A key piece of evidence has since been discovered which calls into question the original verdict The directions given to the jury were erroneous In effect either the Appellant must show that the Judge made an error or that sufficient new evidence has come to light which casts into doubt the original decision. There are three possible outcomes; appeal dismissed, appeal upheld and case dismissed or appeal upheld and a re-trial ordered. On appealing a parking fine it is exceptionally unlikely that there will be any new evidence that can be 'ad...

I'm going to start this post (which will be a series of posts) with a disclaimer - the following is based on my personal experience in the jurisdiction of Jersey and may not be applicable to other jurisdictions particularly those which are not common law jurisdictions. This is not legal advice which in any case would only be relevant if given with regard to the specific circumstances of the situation which gave rise to your need for advice, but it is my understanding of what the law actually means and I hope it is applicable generally. Jersey does follow the demands of justice to a great extent, but just as you are not beyond using the system to your advantage, neither are they and they have a lot more practise than you do, so let's start to balance the scales a little. If the Courts were completely corrupt then it would not matter what you said, you would be guilty anyway. Myth One - I am not a person, I am a flesh and blood man This is one of those strange phrases ...

I was invited to speak to the Commission yesterday   I must admit that it was with more than a little surprise that the electoral commission invited me to give evidence to them directly, not that I am assuming that I will have much influence over them, but to prejudice the outcome by not taking part in the process is nothing short of self-defeating. I compiled a more complete submission than the one previously reported on this blog, extending to some five thousand words, admittedly largely taken from existing posts on this blog focusing on the principle of Subsidiarity. Unsurprisingly this idea and the extensions of the principle were taken seemingly seriously; the principle holds that any decision should be taken by the lowest competent authority and is a principle which applies to Law, to Liberal Constitutions and large organisations and was in fact developed by the Pope as a principal of organisation for the Church and Christian Society. Nick Le Cornu, graciously gave...

The US Treasury Black Hole Sucking in all available Capital  A failed paper currency, a fiat currency with no intrinsic value, cannot be replaced with another paper currency. Gold backed currencies are now inevitable. The pre-eminence of the US dollar is currently enshrined within the  SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system but as a result of the aggression of the United States relaince on this system for the settlement of international trades is fading. Iraq was the first nation to accept settlement for oil in euros rather that in dollars, perhaps a reason for the successive invasions. But now other countries are breaking ranks and beginning to accept settlements in other currencies; Russia, China, Japan, Iran all of them are moving away from the US dollar as the means of payment. You may have heard yesterday that there would be no QE3 but that Operation Twist would be extended. Well there are a couple of issues, firstly Quan...

Monetary Easing 'Rob from the People to give to the Banks'  Russian Today reports "The Bank of England and the UK Treasury have revealed plans for a £100 billion support program in order to stimulate British banking to provide cheaper loans during the time of recession.  British Chancellor George Osborne explained the emergency plan, called “funding for lending” scheme, requires the Bank of England to provide cut rate lending to banks in order for them to pass on the lower interest rates to customers. Osborne pointed out the scheme was developed in order to avoid a possible credit crunch and higher interest rates in Britain, as the banks are reluctant to lend at the time of economic uncertainty. The plan could secure an £80bln in loans to businesses and households within weeks, according to the Chancellor.  He also warned that British economy should rely on tight fiscal policy and active monetary policy in supporting its economy, while “things could get worse...

Courtesy of libertystickers.com It has been a most interesting Republican Nomination Battle and whilst there are still those who want to believe that the dream can become reality at the National Convention in Tampa the focus of the Campaign for Liberty has moved on to ensuring that certain candidates are elected to Congress and the Senate and that some influence is exerted on the policies of  Mitt Romney at the forthcoming campaign. But with approximately 10% to 20% support across the United States including many registered Democrats and Independents being drawn to the Liberty message these are votes which the Republican Party need to hold onto if they hope to win. With Ron Paul attracting over 50% of the votes of the under 30 age group and amongst Hispanics, the very groups which the Republican Party requires to win the election. In fact the person who polls best is Ron Paul, he alone would beat Obama in an election but he can only get the support of 17% of Republicans. ...

Interestingly this week the Greeks received a $4.2 billion bailout from the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and promptly used the money to purchase Greek bonds purchased by the European Central Bank (ECB) last year. The Greek Government, no longer a sovereign nation but under the control of the European Banking Troika, paid back the bonds at their full face value, giving the European Central Bank (who had originally purchased the bonds at a 20 to 30% discount) a profit of some 480 million Euros. So let's examine that transaction closely... The Greek people have accepted another $4.2 billion of debt obligations which will require further 'austerity' to pay for and the money has not been used for anything but to pay off other debts which has allowed the lender (the ECB) to recognise a profit, which will not be used for anything but to award themselves huge sums for the administration of the scheme to rob the Greek people. You may recall that all oth...

Persona est homo cum statu quodam consideratus   but what rights and duties arise from the status of Minister and how does it affect the proposition of Senator Ferguson of Censure against Senator Ozouf. I am specifically concerned with the following statement. "Members will have heard the Minister for Treasury and Resources claiming that it is his job to challenge Officers and also to achieve best value for the States." Well this is not quite true, it is the duty of the Minister, having taken regard of any advice provided by his civil servants, to make decisions regarding policy. He must of course always be mindful that he is a representative of the public and their wishes. Finally it is not to achieve the best value for the States of Jersey but for the taxpayer. However, Senator Fergusson continues "We have no problem with this." Therein lies the problems at the heart of the States of Jersey. Neither the Minister himself, nor his colleagues ar...

My appeal will finally be heard on the 25th June at 10:00 am, with Cyril Vibert's to be heard at 2:30 p.m. on the same day. This is the basis of my case, with of course a few cards up one's sleeve to play at the pertinent moment. This is a matter of public record Dear Advocate O'Donnell, I have found that Persona est homo cum statu quodam consideratus  which I believe means that a man is a person with reference to a certain status, in virtue of which certain rights belong to a man and certain duties are imposed upon him. So far I can find that I have certain 'unalienable' or un-lienable rights which means that these are granted by God and no lien may be placed upon them by any man nor can any duties arise from them other than those given by God (i.e. not to kill, not to steal etc., but I'm pretty certain God never said be careful where you park your car), the States of Jersey are compelled to follow this as a result of the Universal Declaration of Hum...