Wednesday 27 February 2013

Lunatics in charge of this asylum

It has been an interesting week in the wide world out there beyond this Island's shores but the waves are coming our way.

Firstly the downgrading of the UK's credit from AAA to AA1 caused very few waves; the reason for this is simple - because the UK controls its own money printing machine. Unlike in France, Italy, Greece, Spain where the downgrading of an individual nation who uses the Euro can force up the interest rate at which it is forced to borrow money if it wants to maintain its expenditure, the Bank of England simply steps in and buys up the debt and in sufficient quantities to artificially lower the interest rate to whatever the Bank of England wants it to be.

What has happened is that the value of £1 has fallen against other currencies, which is making all imports that much more expensive... expect the rate of PRICE INFLATION to continue to increase, I would say that it will go up from its current 8% (using the shadow statistics produced using old government methodologies) to over 10% in the next twelve months. Of course the government is likely to tell you that it remains at 2%.

The Italian elections have ended in the inevitable uncertainty and their interest rate has soared and with German hands on the Euro printer, there is just not much forthcoming.

There has been much talk of an end to austerity, but fundamentally if you do not have any money, then it is impossible to spend it.

Perhaps we will really see some government austerity where it truly matters in the profligate waste that is bureaucracy.

Back on the Island and one of my major election campaign themes is now front and centre... the battle between the JFSC and the finance industry. You may wonder why it was part of my campaign, well someone has to being these matters to the public's attention, to start the public debate and in the time since there have been many voices echoing my opinion.

The finance industry exists to punish the most profligate of bureaucracies by allowing those with the most capital to avoid suffering as a result of the excesses of government. The finance industry requires discretion, which is why both Jersey and Switzerland have lost significant business since they sign the agreement sharing treaties with the EU. Most of the business is moving to Singapore.

The JFSC has adopted a very strange approach to regulating the finance industry, a good analogy would be if the Police were to decide that the best way to prevent disorder were simply to kill all the people. It has a certain logical basis; and would certainly achieve its aims. Another solution which would work would be for all laws to be repealed.

So not content with already losing its market share, the JFSC has decided to speed up the process and bring the inevitable calamity on Jersey all the sooner.

So with the JFSC working to foment economic contraction in terms of the number of pounds generated, with the UK looking to devalue each and every one of those pounds and a States of Jersey still determined to spend our tax like there is the same infinite supply of money that the UK enjoys thanks to its printer, everything seems to be headed towards one inevitable conclusion and at breakneck speed.

The government actually appears to believe its own hype; that the fairy will descend and with a wave of his magic wand and a little bit of fairy dust everything will be back to better than life.

Friday 22 February 2013

Happy birthday to Neil McM and I

Both Neil McMurray and I, will be celebrating our birthdays on the 23rd February, we do every year!

Back in 2007, what seems a life time ago, when I first discovered the oppressive nature of the tyranny we live under.

To have everything stripped from oneself and be left with nothing, to realise how fragile and illusory everything that anyone has ever built from themselves truly is. But anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

To encounter what are essentially the false promises of government; that they will be there for you in times of need, only to discover that in those times of need, even when the need is only created by that very same government, that they simply are not. That is a formative experience, a revelation to the truly despicable and self-serving nature of the society we live in. It is a truth that many would rather not have to see and because the illusion is preferable to the reality, so many choose to believe the illusion.

One cannot blame people for choosing the easy option, but as the easy option is incredibly dull, I will take the road less travelled.

I find myself drawn ever closer to 'God' as the years pass, not that I ever really moved away from Him. I am incredulous when others would seek to deny His existence, and usually in discussing the matter I find that people are not in fact rejecting God but rejecting some human definition of God that they have been taught. But God is a personal thing which cannot be taught or learnt, but has to be experienced and for each who bothers to consider it, there is a personal definition which will not apply to anyone else. As the years go by I guess my focus just improves and things become clearer.

As with all things, no one really knows anything, it is only ever a best guess within the limits placed upon us by our senses and the interpretation of those senses by our brains. We do not know where thoughts come from, and yet I think, therefore I am.

Amidst all that uncertainty it is hardly surprising that some humans seek to exert an illusion of control over the world around them, but I prefer the chaos (which is simply order beyond human comprehension), for within that lack of understanding there is an infinity of possibility where almost anything might be achieved. Those who are truly controlling in nature will always try to stop things from changing, but that is perhaps the one thing that is beyond anyone. To take on such a task is to inevitably fail.

With the attempts to maintain the illusion of control becoming increasingly serious and desperate it is only made clear that the inevitable failure draws ever closer.

One should not take life too seriously because it all has the same ultimate and inevitable conclusion. So whilst journeying to that end there can be only one goal - to enjoy the ride.

Thursday 21 February 2013

What to do when a lawyer gives you free advice?

So yesterday morning I received some free legal advice from a member of the Law Society of Jersey following the recent publication in the Jersey Evening Post.

She like me was puzzled by the timing of the story indicating that I could face prison, firstly that it was published at all and secondly that it was published some four months after the actual event and so had been putting her grey matter to good use and trying to work out what they are up to.

Her best theory is that it has been decided that too much of the Royal Court's time is being wasted on these trivial Employment Law matters and that they have decided to make an example of someone.

Now trivial is of course a relative thing, but to the Royal Court anything under £10,000 is trivial.

I am apparently a perfect target, I am not the States, I am not a financial institution, nor a lawyer and thus seen as an easy target.

So having reviewed the evidence she suggested that the likely outcome would that I would be found guilty and sentenced to prison, to create the headlines, but that I would likely win on appeal and receive compensation, but that just like last time they did this to me the final outcome would not be reported.

Fundamentally, I still have trouble accepting that the Courts would act in such a manner, I want to believe that they play by the rules, that they are good men. But it may simply be that is truly and wholeheartedly a tyranny of oppression and unrepentantly so.

Then my desire for justice also kicks in and I resent being robbed by scurrilous lies and falsehoods. I fundamentally do not believe in allowing oneself to be threatened or intimidated especially by the government.

But there is perhaps a time when moral right must come second to the logical course of action. I mean it is not like they are asking me to gas human beings, just to render under to Caesar that which is Caesar's.

Having totted up the actual value of the false claims against me and discovering that they total just £450.50 the logic in just handing over the money to the highwayman seems the sensible course of action, but it just doesn't feel right, I'm not sure I can have it on my conscience. Not even knowing that it has already cost the taxpayer over £10,000 to steal £450 from me, is a salve.

I may simply have to have faith that God will ensure that all involved, including myself, will reap their just rewards, all I can say is may God have mercy on their souls (again).

At least I have already secured a path to the European Court of Human Rights, something which most laws make exceptionally difficult to achieve, but the Employment Law makes very easy.

What to do, what to do?

Sunday 17 February 2013

Why manual workers are right to strike

The preferred method of government in getting out of the financial mess that their excesses have created is what is euphemistically termed 'economic growth' but such growth of course relies solely on the individuals within that society devoting more of their time to taxable activity.

But is this something which the individuals who make up that society really want?

What are the options open to an individual:

1) Income Support
Entitlement to Income Support for a single Person Household
  • Adult Component: £92.12
  • Household Component: £49.56
  • Rent Component: £161.66 (1 bed flat)
Total Weekly: £303.45 Annualised: £15,779.40
Add Back Income Tax and Social Security £1,486.60
(A working person would benefit from the marginal rate (allowance £13,780) but pay 27% on the £1,999.40 left meaning an Income Tax bill of £539.83 and would pay 6% social security on the full amount £946.76). See income tax allowances for 2013
So the equivalent wage (after taxes) to an individual income support claimant with no dependants is £17,266.00.

Now at first glance this might seem a lot of money, but you have to remember that income support was not designed as a career choice, but short term assistance to someone who for whatever reason finds themselves in a difficult place and is likely substantially less than they were earning prior to claiming.

In an ideal world people who had been unemployed for a prolonged period would be first choice for government manual worker posts.

I would also bring an end to the discrimination against Jersey people and make any entitlement dependent on living in Jersey for 25 years, as it is for those who are born here.

2) Working for Government (Manual Worker)
How does that compare to the Civil Service Pay Scales well Grade 1 pays £17,370 to 19,209 and Grade 6 pays £26,547 to £29,358. Remembering that Income Support for a family with two children is equivalent to £34,095,88 and it is not unreasonable for a worker to want to have a family and perhaps one parent will want to stay at home or only work part-time.

Now government workers should get paid less than those who work for private enterprise. The employment is generally more secure, but their work does not contribute to the very necessary 'economic growth' which is required to save the government. I would argue that government should be taken out of GDP statistics because it is very easy for the governments of the world to manipulate their growth figures simply by employing more people and spending more money. This distorting effect does not allow us to truly understand whether the economy is growing or not; I suspect that much of the reported growth is actually government masking how bad things really are.

3) Working at minimum wage
Let's now compare that to the minimum wage hourly rate: A grade one worker works 48 (5 day) weeks a year less 9 public holidays so 231 days per year at 7.5 hours per day or 1,732.5 hours per year. So that is an hourly rate of £10.36 per hour. I realise that States Workers get paid holidays etc, but many people don't and we need to get a fair comparison so for our purposes I am assuming that they only get paid when they work. Now minimum wage is £6.48 per hour (or £6.73 in reality as you need to add 4% to account for holidays and such like) so to get the same value as someone receiving income support a person on income support has to work fifty weeks at fifty one hours and twenty minutes per week. That is fairly easy for table staff to clock up working 11am to 3pm and then 6pm till 1am five days (55 hours) per week.

Now very few people get paid minimum wage as far as I know although I am sure that there are some, (if I work out my hourly rate for example it does not even match minimum wage but I know that is an unfair comparison because I would rather be working than not most of the time.)

A note on pensions

I am ignoring 'benefits' but then I don't actually believe that the States pension or indeed the State pension is going to be worth anything like what it is today in ten years time, at 40 if I were working for the States I would not want to join the pension scheme.

Inflation and the loss of index linking will gradually pare it away and leave it without any real value by the time I would be able to retire in 2039, plus I will get a better return if I invest it myself in gold, than if I pay some pension adviser to do it for me.

A note on overtime

My real issue with terms and conditions is in the payment of overtime - overtime should be paid at the same hourly rate as normal time. If there is so much overtime to be done then why not simply employ another worker to do it? If you don't want to work on Sunday then don't but why should you get double time for doing it?

Breaking the link between manual worker pay and civil service pay

On the civil service pay scales there is a grade 15 who earns around £75,000 per year - this is wrong. There are also grades above this who earn more, the Bailiff for example earns £360,000 per year. This means that the Bailiff's work is worth twenty times what the work of a manual workers is. Can this be right?

When Sir Pip, who was seemingly an appallingly bad lawyer, so bad that his own father passed him over and gave the family law firm to his younger brother. Was seemingly such a bad judge that the post of Royal Court Commissioner had to be created so that competent judges could sit on cases that required a sound knowledge of the Law. Perhaps he should have stuck to politics where at least he is not afraid to have an opinion and to stand by it, unlike many of the unemployable ditherers who fill the States Chambers.

But he was paid even more than the current Bailiff, was his 'work' really worth twenty times what the work of a street cleaner is? Arguably the street cleaner performs the greater public service.

Who is to blame?

The people at the top of the Civil Service are having a laugh at the expense of the people of Jersey, all the people of Jersey.

It is important that all the people of Jersey target their anger at the progress of government in the right area. The manual workers may come in for a lot of bad press  as those in power seek to find yet another section of society to pass the blame onto - as they have recently done to local businesses.

If the Civil Servants want to know who is to blame for the mess they find themselves in, then they need to stop looking around and look instead into the mirror.

Our politicians need to stop representing the views of the Civil Servants and start representing the views of the people of Jersey who elect them. The people of Jersey need to stop electing the members that they do.

The strike is valid as the management of these manual workers is the problem, that poor management is the reason that they are being asked to foot the bill, that is not right.

Saturday 16 February 2013

Manual Workers it is time to strike

Whilst I am often critical of the unions and their place in the establishment of Jersey it is important to distinguish, the union from the members of the union just as it is important to separate the States of Jersey from the people of Jersey. They are not the same thing.

On Tuesday the manual workers will hold a meeting to decide whether they should strike or not and to those who have asked my opinion, I have a simple answer, YES, start with a one day strike.

Now I do not support a pay rise across the board for the Civil Service as far as I am concerned the Bailiff is already over paid by about 200% but you have to look at what has happened to pay scales at the lower end of the grading system.

Income tax has been increased greatly and stealthily with the introduction of 20 means 20 and the gradual phasing out of allowances, the increase in the threshold has not kept pace with the reality. If the entitlement to income support is £25,500 per year than why is the income tax threshold not set to this level? Inflation is vastly under-reported through use of various means of manipulating the statistics.

One of Deputy Southern's better ideas has previously been to award pay rises to the lower grades (up to 6) but not to the higher grades. It would seem to me far better to treat Grade 7 as a pivot point and whilst every lower grade should enjoy a pay increase, every higher grade should pay for it with a pay reduction.

We know that the lower grades are the first to lose their jobs in staff number reductions, and are then replaced with additional management.

You need to show the States of Jersey that you are serious, they cannot suggest that there is not enough money to give you a pay rise given the ongoing profligate waste and I would rather than money went into the pockets of working Jersey people rather than overseas consultants. There is the money to award you a pay rise, there simply is no desire.

Without an act of defiance, without showing the States that you are serious, you will not be taken any notice of.

Thursday 14 February 2013

Central Market - If I'm wrong, why not prove it to me

As discussed in Has there been a breach of the Public Markets Trust? the saga over whether or not GST is chargeable on the rents here is still ongoing.

It is incredibly frustrating that I still cannot get a straight answer out of anyone, so perhaps readers might want to put forth their thoughts on the matter.

Having served on the appropriate agents both a notice of understanding and intent and a notice of default which went unanswered, I duly paid the rent without GST on the following proviso:

Under the Goods and Services Tax (Jersey) Law 2007 GST is only chargeable on the basis set forth in Article 6 (1) (a) of the said Law. It is reproduced below for your ease of reference -
6      Charge to GST
(1)    GST shall be charged –
(a)     on the supply of goods or services in Jersey, if the supply is a taxable supply made by a taxable person in the course or furtherance of any business carried on by the person;
However under Article 3 of the Loi (1885) Touchant L'Administration Des Marches Public the basis upon which the States of Jersey through their appointed representatives the Minister of Transport and Technical Services and the Inspector of Markets may charge rents is
3      
Les États auront le droit d’émaner des Règlements pour le bon ordre, la police et l’entretien des Marchés, et pourront, comme par le passé, louer les boutiques, étaux et emplacements dans les Marchés, afin de subvenir aux frais qu’entraînent l’administration et l’entretien des Marchés
Translated this states that the rents which are charged are solely to cover the cost of administration and maintenance of the markets, the States of Jersey may not make a profit on the rental income.

Clearly the administration of the markets is on a trust basis and not on a commercial basis and therefore does not fall within the definition of a business under Article 2 of the Goods and Services Tax (Jersey) Law 2007 and as such the rents are not subject to any charge which is made with relation to this law.

When I received the invoice in December 2012 for the rent for quarter 1 of 2013 I immediately represented to your good selves that you had made an error in seeking to levy GST on the rents of the market.

You indicated that you had not made a mistake and thus we entered into dispute.

In line with the Law of Contract I immediately served upon the sole agent legally authorised to collect the rents; that being the Inspector of Markets, a Notice of Understanding and Intent, indicating that I would not pay the GST portion of the invoice unless you could demonstrate that it was due in Law.

In the absence of any response to this legal notice, after the expiry of 14 days, I served upon the Inspector of Markets a Notice of Default advising you that unless I received a response I would proceed on the basis outlined in the Notice of Understanding and Intent.

28 days have now expired since the Notice of Default was served and as such I now make payment of the invoice in respect of the rental for quarter one of 2013 on the premises 73,74 & 80 Central Market without the disputed sum in respect of GST. Such payment has been made by bank transfer.

Should you now wish to claim the amount in respect of GST, a Court hearing must be convened at which you will be required to first provide the Court with a good reason why you have acted with dishonour and failed to respond to the notices lawfully served upon you before the Court will deal with the dispute itself.

As I have now completed the legal process required when disputes arise in contract I have further advised all other tenants of the Public Markets of your error in seeking to charge GST on the rentals of the public markets.

Any further communication received on this issue, including but not limited to demands for payment or statements which show a balance due, will now incur a £20 administration charge, any response will further be charged at two thirds of the standard rate (£350 per hour or part thereof). To avoid incurring these charges please ensure that you take the necessary steps as they will not be waived.

I then received a letter assuring me that they still felt that GST was due, but giving no reasoning for this position. A letter for the most junior member of the shared services team was thoroughly rejected.
Thank you for 'your' letter, however it is insufficient simply to state 'we maintain that GST is due'. You do not make the law. 
Please note that under the 1885 law the levying and collection of rents is the sole responsibility of the Inspector of Markets and the Minister of Transport and Technical Services, I therefore assume you are writing to me in their name and that they have approved your communication.

I have asked 'you' to show in law, that GST is chargeable, something which 'you' have again failed to do. I require 'your' full argument, and its basis in law, in order to be able to respond properly. I also require you to demonstrate why you did not respond to my earlier lawful notices in good time. 
I have given 'you' the courtesy of pointing out the exact laws which clearly demonstrate that it is not, I expect a counter argument in the same terms, as indeed will the Court. It will also assist the Court if 'we' can agree the points of contention in advance and thus limit the time for which the Court has to deliberate on the matter. 
Please initiate proceedings with all due haste as I would greatly like to have this matter concluded sooner rather than later and clearly I cannot initiate them.
I then finally received a response from the head of Jersey Property Holdings, which simply stated, "We have taken legal advice and GST is chargeable".

To which unfortunately I had to reply,
The definition in law of a business is 'any activity or enterprise entered into for profit'. (Blacks Law Dictionary) 
The 1885 Law clearly states that the States of Jersey and the Inspector of Markets are allowed to charge sufficient rents to cover the operating costs (specifically maintenance and administration), there is therefore no legal authority for the making of a profit because if there were it would specifically state this or would not include a list of expenses that are to be covered by the rents. This rule of legal interpretation is Expressio unius est exclusio alterius ("to name one thing excludes all others"). 
Without the intention to make a profit, it is not a business and therefore GST is not liable as this is only liable on commercial transactions. Under another rule of legal interpretation Generalia specialibus non derogant ("the general does not detract from the specific") it is clear that the general rules of the Goods and Services Law does not overrule the specific and special nature of the public markets in Jersey as specified in the 1885 Loi touchant l'administration des Marches Publiques. 
I am afraid I cannot accept your assertion that you have taken legal advice without a) sight of that legal advice which highlights the specific part of the law that allows for profit to be made on the rents charged in the public markets or b) you are able to highlight to me the specific part of the law that allows for profit to be made on the rents charged in the public markets. 
Should you be able to provide an explanation of where I have made an error in reaching my conclusion then I will concur GST is chargeable, otherwise please can we proceed and allow a Court of Law to deliberate on the matter. I am afraid that neither I nor indeed a Court of Law can simply take your vague assurance that it has been properly looked into and is correct, when I have provided a detailed argument with proof to the contrary. 
I have been as clear and open as I can be on this matter, my argument is well founded in law and in return all I have heard is that either you don't agree or a vague assurance that someone else agrees with you. I trust you can understand my frustration at not being able to have a proper debate on this matter enabling us to reach an evidenced conclusion which we can mutually agree on. 
I will however not be fobbed off with vague assurances particularly when my own friends in the legal profession accept my interpretation as correct. 
I should therefore be grateful if you would proceed with all haste to initiate these proceedings as I am sure you can accept that it is in our mutual interest that this difference of opinion is resolved at the earliest opportunity.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Side-stepping the Employment Law

In deliberation 
So we are soon to go back to the Employment Tribunal. I am now clear on what exactly it is that has already been established, namely that the Employment Tribunal does have jurisdiction.

What is next to be determined is whether the applicant was an employee or not and who exactly the employer was. I shall also be seeking to show that the applicant has committed perjury and/or misled the tribunal and have requested that they order the production of the sworn statement made to the Social Security department.

I have been reviewing the judgement in the matter of an application by Darius Pearce and trying to see where I allowed the Commissioner to misinterpret the facts of the case before him or perhaps I even confused him because of my unpreparedness.

I was terribly unprepared, which is never a wise move but I had misunderstood the purpose of an application for leave to appeal and what it entailed, a rookie mistake but you can only learn from your errors. I also had missed the relevant part of the Royal Court Rules 2004 during my research which meant that my appeal would fail but I am now that bit more knowledgeable.

Of course they will not want to have so obvious a means of side-stepping the law which is the source of a substantial chunk of government incomes and so widely hated in the Island.

It seems to me that the Commissioner was seeking to define something fixed, whereas the actual relationship as defined by myself was something which was intrinsically mutable and that way very much by design. Whereas a standard contract of employment defines in great detail what is, I merely sought to define what is not, namely that it is not anything that is referred to in the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003.

The best analogy is to ask you define what it is to be human, it is a more complicated process than it first appears, it can be many things at the same time, in fact it is far easier to describe what is not human than what is.

So the first point is that if there is no contract then there is no employment, but if there is a contract (either express or implied) then it must be a contract where one party is a customer of the other. So in my case I was the customer purchasing the services of my alleged employee, rather than an employer.

One of the key points here is that if a person is contracted to execute a service personally or there is specification of how and when it should be done then the likelihood of a Court finding that a person was 'employed' is increased. A contract which does not specify, time, place, person actually undertaking the work etc., is clearly more likely to be regarded a contract on a customer basis.

Of course a Court must consider the intentions of the parties when the contract is formed. A contract can only be entered into knowingly and willingly, so I cannot see how they can prove on the balance of probabilities that I intended to enter into a contract which would fall under the auspices of the Employment Law when my clear intent and focus was that it should not - but let's see what happens.

Now that they have established jurisdiction I have duly complied with the process and submitted the necessary evidence.

I have reviewed the previous cases and all I can say is that this will be breaking new ground.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Minister outlines plans for slavery of the Jersey people

Keeping the wage slaves working for government 
The States of Jersey want you working hard, earning tax revenue and social security contributions for a cash strapped government.

Over the past few days the Minister for Social Security has made public a number of 'innovations' to the Social Security system.

GETTING YOU INTO WORK

The minister unveiled a new scheme under which local people would be given a tax free sum of £650 at the end of a period of six months of employment. Employers too would be paid £2,080 to take people on for a post which lasted at least six months and £1,000 if the post was subsequently made permanent.

The most striking feature of this offer is the insistence on a minimum period of six months which means of course that the relationship has to fall under the auspices of the widely reviled Employment Law (Jersey) 2003.

KEEPING YOU IN WORK

Then once an employee is established in a position new plans unveiled reveal that if you leave 'without a good reason' then you will not be entitled to income support (or some parts of it) for an extended period. One can only assume that a 'good reason' is something which will give rise to a hearing of the Employment Tribunal and then your former employer will be paying for the first month or so of your unemployment.

COMBINED EFFECT

So the combined effect of these is to encourage people to take positions for six months and then once they have their bonus and are bored of the work, to mess around and drive their employer to distraction by not working and costing him money.

A BETTER WAY

Repeal the Employment Law and I will take on two staff tomorrow.

Once again the government seeks a solution in greater complexity when the only viable solution is in the simplification of the system.

Fundamentally a contract is a contract and they must be entered into freely and willingly without coercion. All employment contracts have clauses for the dissolution of the employment, why should an employer suffer for exercising the terms and conditions of that contract, there is absolutely no reason why you need a reason to terminate an employment contract.

If you are employed and the company does well and you work hard then there is no danger of you losing your job.

Monday 11 February 2013

McScandal plays a blinder

A masterpiece from Harry McRandle in tonight's newspaper; who would have thought that they could take an event that happened six months ago and managed to fill half a page under the caption 'news'.

I should give warning to all that like me, you are just four ifs away from a two year prison sentence.

1) If someone makes allegations against you (true or false)
2) If the Attorney General decides to prosecute
3) If you are found (or plead) guilty
4) If you are sentenced to it.

Of course not everyone has this pointed out by the Jersey Evening Post, and no I have no idea why I have earnt this honour.

Still Harry has said he will cover my eventual win and actually has provided me with significant assistance in achieving this aim - I should point out that this was not as a result of collusion between Harry and myself, just a fortunate coincidence.

I'm glad I can help the JEP sell some papers, love em or loathe em they do keep us bloggers going!

Golden Jackass: Pitched Currency War


After six weeks of silence the Golden Jackass is back with the latest economic news on the global macroscopic perspective.

Just a quick reminder of where Jersey is in the grand scheme of things - the US runs the world, the City of London is the offshore finance base for Wall Street, through which all things fraudulent emanate and Jersey is the offshore finance base for the City of London.

The UK is totally dependent on the crumbs from the US table and Jersey likewise depends on the crumbs from the crumbs.

The entire Soviet style bureaucracy which Jersey has developed is built on these shifting stands and the edifice cannot stand forever...

And now without further ado, the Golden Jackass writes...

Friend of gold Jim Sinclair, captures the theme of this article when he said, "It is the constant drop in the dollar's usage as a contract mechanism internationally. No one sees this but it is the Hammer of Thor on the head of the dollar." 

The rejection of the USDollar in global trade will mean the end of the abused privilege in a currency turned toxic. Its rejection is the marquee event in the financial world for 2013, following isolation. It is unstoppable and all-encompassing, certain to have geopolitical consequences, as it alters the economic and financial landscape in harsh ways much like a band of violent marauders brandishing machetes alter the neckline of their victims. See the Tonton Macoute in Haiti. The greenback is cornered; it is done!

The central bankers and sovereign wealth fund managers are running scared. The Official Monetary & Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) is a forum of central banks, sovereign funds, financial policy makers, and market participants. It recently issued a report on the global monetary system, emphasizing the possibility of a major breakdown in international monetary relations as a result of the currency wars, which hinder productivity. It accepts that the present system is collapsing. It argues a formal role for gold is required to play in international finance. 

But they turn to the despised corrupt savage callous Intl Monetary Fund, and its broken currency vehicle, the discredited discarded SDR basket. They will be swept aside despite eyes partly open.

The opponents to financial hegemony have spent the last four years in planning a new order that can viably sustain the global trade system without a USDollar at its central role. On one side, foreign nations must avoid the toxic effect of the asset bubble USTreasury Bond as the core to their banking systems. 

On the other side, foreign nations must react to the accelerating threat to their national economies from both a uniform cost inflation effect and a rising currency effect that punishes strength, success, and prudence. 

The Competing Currency War has reached a new elevated fever pitch, with the major central banks delivering powerful damage to each other while defending themselves. The unintended consequences have been a predictable unfolding of events to the sound money gold crowd, with years of warning and even a label given to the conflict. It comes as an unwelcome surprise to the mainstream sheeple crowd, still entangled in the paper wealth corner. 

The process continues, the pathogenesis relentless as paper securities erode in value. The world is slowly coming to the realization that only a Gold Standard can cure the world of its financial cancer from metastasized paper insecurities. The contact of Silver will cleanse the hand that has held paper since 1971, when the era of modern chronic unsolvable financial crisis was born. That is, unsolvable without a primary role for Gold itself, the despised stable metal. Gold is the ultimate currency.

SHOCK YEAR 2013

So the Jackass call is that 2013 will see the USDollar finally isolated and put in a position for rejection. It might not suffer a sudden death, but it will be corralled after being identified as the toxic agent flowing within the global financial arteries. However, the quarantine will be conducted in an extraordinarily clever fashion.

Since the United States and United Kingdom, with its loyal court of followers in Western Europe, control the global banking system, the sovereign bond system, and the FOREX currency system, even the commodity markets including Gold & Silver, the solution had to be loaded with innovation if not guile. The alternative to the USDollar as a solution had to be formulated and planned as a counter-attack, but done so outside the oversized pockets of strength where the Anglo bankers ply their trade and controls. 

As many trade partners have been public about their objectives, when two parties come together to conduct trade, no rational reason can dictate that the USDollar should be used as a vehicle to settle trade, when both parties are located halfway across the globe. The New York and London bankster crowd cannot dictate Gold's new role, when their vaulted gold supplies are being vacated to points in Asia, when their vault contents are demanded in official accounts for return, when their past gold shipments have been contaminated with tungsten. These banksters are being outed as criminals.

The end to US & UK hegemony is coming. It will arrive like a grand lasso cast around the set of trade partners seeking a fair system. Their proffered solutions will be ignored, like the QE lunacy in the United States and the ESM lunacy in Europe, both discredited totally. The IMF will not play a role in the next chapter. The irony is thick and inescapable. If the Anglo bankers insist on NOT considering, using, and relying upon Gold as a currency of utmost validity, robustness, and strength, then the rest of the world will devise a system for trade settlement that will evolve toward gold itself. The settlement of trade will not therefore pass through either the banking system or the currency marts. 

The solution will come in global trade that no longer requires the USDollar, but rather a simpler system where value is perceived more clearly, where the two participants will transact as peers, where payments will not rely upon the big banks, where the ignored super currency Gold is the basis. The deceptions of paper-based IOUs will be averted. The corruption in the banker shell games will be cast aside. The USDollar will be isolated, ignored, shunned, then put to death by the Americans themselves during its uncontrollable fever.

THE KEY: NON-USDOLLAR TRADE

The grand hint to the end-around solution in search for a USDollar alternative has been in front of the nose for several years, dating back to the China-Brazil bilateral swap deal in 2005. Little attention has been given a long sequence of similar bilateral swap deals that have centred upon the Chinese Yuan for initiating and settling trade. 

Nation after nation have lined up with the Beijing leaders to conduct trade in something akin to a credit card account based in Yuan currency, which converges toward zero over time on balance. Trade is initiated by one side delivering goods. The swap facility is tapped. Trade goes in the other direction, and the swap facility is credited toward zero. Numerous nations have signed up with China on such bilateral swap facility deals that enable brisk trade, in essentially a barter framework. The word barter is never used, since it might upset the powerful banker groups that shuffle bonds and currencies like so much stained wampum and contaminated salt at the corrupted trading posts.

With Russia, South Korea, Japan, Iran, India, and Australia onboard with Chinese Yuan swap deals, one must suspect that a critical mass of perhaps half of global trade is conducted outside the USDollar shadow. This is a growing critical mass that acts much like scattered pylons on which to place a new trading platform. The key is that the collection of bilateral trade conducted by China is no longer done in USDollars. 

The objections are openly stated, that nations do not find it obligatory to settle trade in a third-party currency like the USDollar, especially when the US central bank is flooding the system with USDollars of highly suspicious origin but with very certain negative ramifications on the value of nationally managed reserve systems. The other big more recent hint is that Turkey is serving as a test site for trade settlement in Gold. Ankara bazaars are providing Gold in giant quantities, used in satisfying trade payments. So far the sleep Anglo bankers consider it minor, and operating in the Iranian shadows. They are wrong.

An important dynamic must be made clear. In the past decades as nations engaged in trade, in particular with crude oil, the trade was settled in USDollars. Therefore nation after nation accumulated USTBonds in their surplus reserves account as part of banking systems. They followed the lead set forth by the Saudis as they managed the Petro-Dollar functions. The Saudis recycled their surplus funds into USTBonds, so as to keep the balance of FOREX currencies intact even as massive imbalances built up quickly over time. 

As a result, the entire world of major nations, the global producers and traders accumulated USTBonds within their banking systems. The norm became USTreasurys with which to build national banking systems. 

So the Saudi-led Petro-Dollar established global trade done in USDollar terms, even outside the energy market. In a sense, their reserves management as agreed upon between the USGovt and Saudi royals (King Fahd), induced the global trade participants to follow suit and create banking systems built upon USTBonds also. All that is changing, since the Chinese Yuan swap facilities have taken on critical mass globally. However, the final blow to the USDollar will come from standard non-energy trade being settled outside any US$-based terms. The practice is accelerating, initiated in Asia, but spreading westward fast, urged along with a giant push in response to the Iran trade sanctions. Every action brings about an equal and opposite reaction.

The crux of the non-US$ trade vehicle devised as a USDollar alternative will be the Gold Trade Note. It will enable peer-to-peer payments to be completed from direct account transfers independent of currency, and most importantly, not done through the narrow pipes and channels controlled by the bankers with their omnipresent SWIFT code system among the world of banks. The Gold Trade Note will act much like a Letter of Credit, serve as a short-term bill, and maybe even push aside the near 0% short-term USTreasury Bills that litter the banking landscape.

Any bond or bill earning almost no interest is veritable clutter. The zero bound USTreasurys open the door in a big way for replacement by a better vehicle. The new trade notes will involve posted gold as collateral, whose entire system for trade usage will bear a massive gold core that also will include silver and platinum, maybe other precious metals. The idea is to avoid the FOREX systems, to avoid the USDollar, and to avoid the banks as much as possible in a peer-to-peer system that can be executed between parties holding Blackberry devices or simple PC to complete the payments on transactions. 

If Gold is ignored by the corrupt bankers, then Gold will be the center of the new trade system and the solution in providing a globally accepted USDollar alternative.

Do not be surprised to see the Chinese Yuan later as interchangeable with the Gold Trade Note. But first the Yuan must be convertible into the many major currencies actively traded in the world. Numerous reports have come in recent weeks that the Yuan currency will soon have a gold backing, yet unconfirmed. 

My expectation is for the Chinese Yuan eventually to be interchangeable with the Trade Note. That will signal its implicit gold backing. While many events and steps are not known, and many surprises will be thrust on stage, the guiding pathways are slowly coming to light.

CURRENCY WAR AMONG CENTRAL BANKS

The Competing Currency War has grown in intensity. The competitive devaluations of currencies is causing severe damage among the major players. National reserves are suffering loss, while growing in size to dangerous levels. Protection of export trade has become of paramount importance. Nations are speaking openly through their central banks about the distress and urgency of the worsening situation. Russia has directly identified the currency battles as war. Nations are acting in their best self-interest, and in the process defying other nations, rendering them harm. 

With Switzerland and Japan enduring the brunt of the currency wars, look for them to each arrive at the conclusion that a Gold Standard would eliminate many problems. They are important pivotal nations. Successful nations and safe haven nations are put at great risk, even punished by having their floating currency rise. Great distortions are occurring as the Euro is propped, the beneficiary of colossal USDollar swap facility influx in the $trillions. The nearly constant US DX currency index is a lie, a false soothing signal that all is well. In fact, the USDollar is seeing instability with several currencies within the index.


The list of nations undergoing active currency intervention is growing markedly. Currency manipulation actions are routine, each action inviting a reaction by other nations. It is not just Japan and the United States, the usual suspects. It is Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, and Brazil. Heck, even the venerable England has taken steps to create a Chinese Yuan swap facility. They do not wish to be left out when the Yuan becomes a more global currency, with full convertibility. 

London is aiding the path to a convertible Yuan. Who'd a thunk it? London wishes to remain a major trading center. Look for someday soon a Chinese Govt Bond auction denominated in Yuan, the offering managed by London banks. Such a development is not welcome news for New York, which must be seething with anger and flush with disgust. 

This is the more than a currency war, but rather a global currency tumult and transformation, with grand tectonic shifts, on the disruptive path to a return of the Gold Standard.

Some important events within the financial wars over control of money and determination of value is underway. Many details are analyzed in the January issue of the Gold & Currency Report for the Hat Trick Letter. Big disruptions are coming very soon to both the FOREX currency market and the Gold market. Gold price breakouts will occur in various currencies, but not in US$ terms, the defended bunker. The new dangerous phase of the competing currency war has the propped Euro keeping the US DX index up, since the Euro has an absurd overweight in the queer index (artifact of past era). The Gold price rise will come like a sudden burst of wind. 

The speculators who trade Gold based solely on the DXY index will not understand the processes going on behind the scenes. They will be greatly surprised and taken off guard by the poweful upward move in Gold when it arrives. Watch for the Swiss and Japan to knock on the door for entrance in the Eastern Alliance, which will produce the USDollar alternative. It requires a critical mass for success. The stress felt in these two nations will motivate their pursuit of the USDollar alternative solution. They are being seriously wounded by the fiat paper currency system with floating rates.

Russia spoke out viscerally on the growing global awareness of an open currency war. Events are not of a fresh war, but rather a climax. Russia's central bank head Alexei Ulyukayev seems only recently aware of the battles among central bankers that have raged for a few years. The climax could result in a Gold Standard implemented in place, with the Anglo-Americans deposed. The practice of competitive devaluation has turned routine. All actions taken by individual nations invite quick reactions by affected partners. 

Conversely, the successful nations do not tolerate punishment with a higher exchange rate. A return to gold in a central role would provide reward instead of punishment. This is the currency war entering the final phase, where the Gold Standard could potentially emerge as the global solution. 

The returned imposition of the standard would enable successful nations to garner more gold as reward (see Norway, Switzerland), and punish sluggish wayward parasitic sclerotic socialist nations which run chronic trade deficits by sending them to the Third World. Recall the shattered objective made in 2009 by central bankers. Their vacant call was reiterating just three months ago, to refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies. No nation refrained, as it is total empty rhetoric. When pressured and under attack, individual nations will act in their own domestic best interests, to defend their industries, to fight to survive.

The world has NEVER seen so much direct currency intervention and protective action taken by central banks. History is being made. The currency tremors augur some truly historical events, with the return of the Gold Standard coming, although by indirect means via trade settlement. By consequence the FOREX currencies and their crumbling bond foundation will be indirectly declared ruined, toxic, and unworthy of widespread global usage as a monetary platform. Some important events highlight the Competing Currency War clashes:

  • Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega first dubbed a currency war in 2010 in open terms, engaging the richer nation. He must be credited with the initial challenges and confrontations of the major central bank powers.
  • Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained of a dangerously high Euro. Its 7% gain against the USDollar in the past six months poses a fresh threat to the EuroZone economy. The European Central Bank states that it is not prepared to favor a weaker currency.
  • Switzerland has been blocking the Franc appreciation against the Euro since September 2011. Their central bank balance sheet has gone over 70% of GDP, but will fail to achieve any success. Great losses await in the blowback.
  • The central bank of Norway (Norges Bank) has received pressures from the finance ministry, in reaction to a strong Krone currency. The ministry urges more accommodation, and not to continue conducting a tight fiscal policy. The Krone has been rising due to a responsible government, and long successful North Sea oil project with about $1.6 trillion held in sovereign wealth funds.
  • The central bank of Sweden wishes to execute a rate cut in order to avert a stronger Krona currency. The Riksbank head has argued for deeper rate cut than the 0.25 basis point enacted. They prefer the basic self mutilation method.
  • Japan has reignited new major battles, as newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged a more aggressive central bank, turning it into more of a political arm. The result has been an 11% Yen decline since December against the USDollar. Their 22-year interventions are a total disaster, and example to observe. Expect Japan to join forces with the Chinese in common goals.
  • The Bank of Korea has formally stated an urgent response is needed to defend against the falling Japanese Yen. Concern is over the harmful impact to exports and investor confidence. Their finance ministry wishes to put forward an agenda item at the G-20 talks in Moscow, on adverse effects of monetary easing in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Expect South Korea to join forces with the Chinese, as they diversify out of USTBonds.
SWITZERLAND POISED FOR GRAND LOSSES

The official program launched by the Bank of Japan delivered some powerful blows to the Swiss bankers and their lunatic peg against the Euro currency. Defense of Japanese industry has translated into outsized losses for the Swiss central bank portfolio, simply put. Extreme risk continues to rise toward a break point in Switzerland. Their Euro-Franc peg cannot be held firm. As the Euro continues to crumble (regardless of exchange rate), investors are flocking to the Swiss hills. The Swiss National Bank cannot hold the 120 declared peg.

 Their short Franc position and long Euro position, with other major currency long positions from some diversification (like into the Japanese Yen), will assuredly break as each major nation manages according to their own national priorities. The urgent Euro defense has prompted other nations to take defensive action. The war is on. A new phase has begun, with damage done to other nations rising. 

The Swiss Natl Bank has converted itself to an ill-fated hedge fund in danger of massive losses. Its losses are mounting. Its reserves from Franc defense are in the 75% range of their national GDP, the size of their economy. The Euro-Franc peg is doomed to fail, with gigantic losses to come in the cascade of ruin. Note that the Japanese Yen has moved down hard in four months time, and continues down.


A look at a 50-year chart  should cause alarm, since the trend over two generations appears to be in the early phase of an important reversal. The JapYen is falling rapidly by designed pressure from their central bank, which has been politicized radically in recent weeks. Massive losses are coming from the Swiss bets on the Yen, along with catastrophic losses from an explosive upward move in their own Swiss Franc currency. 

The focus of the Competing Currency War right here right now should be squarely on the Swiss and Japanese. They are at war with each other, blowing up the Swiss reserves. 

The Swiss thought they were acting prudently by diversifying out of the Euro and into the British Pound and Japanese Yen. The BPound is down from 163 on January 1st to 156 today, almost a 5% decline in merely five weeks. The JapYen is down strong, from 129 in late September to 107 today, falling with powerful momentum. The Asian currency is down a monstrous 17% in the last four months. Japan is trying to push down their currency in order to make cheaper their exports. On the other hand, England is just falling apart, in a nasty recession.


The Swiss National Bank went all in three times and counting in the last several months, with heavy commitments to defend against a fast rising Swiss Franc currency. The Swiss have a truly massive and deadly commitment, seen by the size of their central bank balance sheet. It is like a giant boil on the Swiss face. Details of the interventions are full of intrigue, if not highlights of the futility. Huge losses await the small nation dominated by its banks. The bankers have gone coo-coo, like their clocks. Compare. The USFed has a big balance sheet, equal in size to over 20% of the USEconomy size, as measured by GDP. The Euro Central Bank goes further, with a balance sheet of 30% of GDP for the EuroZone. The Swiss take it to a new level, two to three times larger. 

The balance sheet of the Swiss National Bank contain assets amounting to about 75% of the Swiss GDP. They have literally bet the bank on three separate occasions recently. The nation is small, but the carried risk is staggering, enough to collapse their financial system. It is already badly damaged from a) the loss of secret private accounts, b) the loss from underwriting mortgages in Eastern Europe, and c) the loss from US$-based toxic bonds. Next comes potentially catastrophic losses from currency regime defense, compounded by legal challenges on Allocated Gold Accounts with accompanying multi-$billion lawsuits kept quiet.


The big irony in the Jackass viewpoint is that the Swiss will become a key force as an important swing vote. The potential is there for a hidden role. They might join the global gold-backed currency movement that replaces the USDollar in trade settlement. This is the currency war entering the final phase, where the Gold Standard could potentially emerge as the global solution

Imagine Switzerland with its impressive flow of funds into the Swiss hills, seeking safe haven from the collapse of Europe. A Gold Standard would mean that gold bullion would follow the flow of funds, the exact opposite impact as the current situation for the historical land of banks. So Switzerland could serve as a big swing state in the financial sector, like Turkey could serve as a big swing state in the trade settlement sector.

G-20 FLASH POINT

Rumor is circulating in London that neither the United States nor the United Kingdom will attend the G-20 Meeting in Moscow. Refusal to attend by the Anglos would open a giant gate to coordinate plans by the leading Eastern nations (trade participants) on the new trade settlement system with attendant platforms.

Rather than creating a new and better currency, they are more likely to establish a gold-backed trade settlement process that will render the USDollar obsolete. Failure to attend by the US-UK tag-team of financial fascists would ignite the Eastern-led consortium on motivation toward the launch of the new system in a more open public vocal manner with press conferences. The Third World awaits the nations that refuse to become part of a growing critical mass in global trade, which desires a more fair and equitable system of trade settlement. It is coming, but awaits a climax of collapse.

TAINTED GOLD CHART

The Jackass finds little value in the Gold chart, the object of criminal control. Honestly, rarely is the so-called official gold price checked for months. By happenstance, it flashes across the television screen when the bumblers on the financial news networks are silenced by my mute button. Their gold price is controlled within a boring false range of meaningless that does not attract my attention or interest. The actual Gold price is 10% higher than the posted COMEX corrupted price, in many parts of the world where it is actively traded in volume, with authentication and verified bars bearing certification. 

Much of the New York and London gold is either stolen or confiscated, their stated inventory as full of fiction as the economic reports. Moreover much of the exported Anglo gold has tungsten centers. Their gold bars are as imaginary and contaminated as their sovereign bonds and mortgage bonds. So the Jackass sticks with the gold and currency wars, the developments by the stubborn resistant East, and trends toward the sunset of the USDollar after it is cornered like a rat. Ignored are the marquee billboards with false prices from leveraged fraud, naked shorting (see the Big Four US Banks), theft of client accounts awaiting delivery (see MFGlobal), surrogate wars to confiscate foreign gold accounts (see Libya), and raids of the Gold ETFund often called the bullion central bank kitty. 

The Jackass refuses to permit syndicate whores and harlots to define virginity or purity, or to set the price of taking a lady out to dinner, a show, and whatever follows. The entire pack of Western bankers can go to hell, whose doorkeeper prince of darkness is their object of worship in rituals.

REQUIEM FOR THE NATION

A sweeping captivating question will dominate in 2013: What happened to the United States? The answer cannot be made simple. As preface, the key to comprehension must bring focus to extreme banker thefts in the multiple $trillions, which began in a virtual theft of the bulk of the national home equity in the mortgage bond fraud. The problem is far more pervasive, if any degree of depth is to be grasped. It was the refusal to liquidate the broken sacred banks steeped in criminal activity, the extreme corrosion to the economy from adopted sanctioned urgently requested hyper monetary inflation, the burdensome war costs hidden within the mammoth unfixable federal budget deficits, the compromised Congress whose constituents are lobbyists, the cancerous growth of the state which is realized in higher taxes, onerous regulations, an expansive welfare network, and a forced tiresome war on terrorism that conceals a broad confiscation of gold hoards during a global capture of the narcotics trade, upon which the New York banks are hopelessly dependent. 

A military element has been prevalent in the breakdown, an extension of the Fascist Business Model into the business sector. It saw impunity of big banks from prosecution, devotion to war, permission of narcotics by the security agencies, the obfuscation of liberty as it vanished, the perversion of patriotism (including honor guards at sporting events), the subjugation of the press, the salute to an aggressive national socialism (often dubbed nazi by the enlightened). Enter systemic failure from a military standpoint.

The short answer on what went wrong would cite the departure from the Gold Standard, the advent of war beginning with Vietnam War and continuing through the Cold Soviet War and transitioning into a deceptive War on Islamic terrorism. The overly strong and active US labor unions caused a reaction to seek Asian outsources. 

The overly dominant financial sector led to dependence upon a series of aberrant asset bubbles, each and every one blessed by the wayward heretic US central bank, which owns a giant responsibility in the systemic failure in progress. The devotion to war has resulted in an added $3 trillion in the USGovt deficit just since 2003, and half the overall $17 trillion in total.

A deadly decision was made in late 1999 that assured the demise of the nation, questioned by few, never having sat well with those in possession of an active economic brain stem. The discharge of the bulk of US factories to Asia, mostly to China, sent the legitimate income producing capability away, only to be replaced to a deeper dependence upon asset inflation. 

The resulting deficits for the USGovt cannot even remotely be repaid, nor even financed. Creditors have fled. The forced endless 0% rate is kept in place to enable debt service itself. Enter systemic failure from an political and fiscal standpoint.

When the Hat Trick Letter began in May 2004, the Jackass was very clear that the US housing market and mortgage finance sector would eventually enter a bust period. Due to the extreme dependence by the USEconomy on home equity extraction and bond security trades, the nation would enter a period of deadly insolvency followed by systemic failure since no monetary policy could pull the nation out of the toxic quicksand. It had no traction in industry from which to derive stimulus of low interest rates. 

Imagine a car spinning its engine with a Weimar stamp on the block, whose RPMs rise multiples past the red line of danger, whose transmission spins the bank-made tires endlessly, creating a din of noise and a thick mist of burning oil, but whose wheels have no connection to the roadway. No critical mass of industry means no locomotion for the USEconomy, as simple as that. Besides, the United States cannot compete on a wage basis with Asia, nor a union basis, nor on a government regulatory basis, and increasingly on a quality basis. Enter systemic failure from an industry standpoint.

In the last couple years, the systemic failure has extended from the USFed hyper monetary inflation, which kills capital itself in a manner that not 5% of economists comprehend. Central bank monetary policy to print nearly unlimited amounts of money, including funds destined for Europe, and to keep the official lending rate at the zero bound has resulted in a rising cost structure with no discernible increase in wages or income. Worse, the accumulated funds in savings and pensions earn nothing, therefore go negative when price effects are factored. 

The corrosive cost effect and the wet blanket savings effect on the USEconomy perpetuate the recession that has been firmly in place since 2008. No recovery has occurred in five years, despite the chatter and deception and lunatic pronouncements from the policy makers, compromised bankers, and poor excuses for economists (banker harlots & promoters). The USGovt deficits are covered over 80% in volume by the printing press with a Weimar nameplate. Foreign USTBond investors have vacated the auction pits and other financial premises. The reliance upon interest rate derivatives has been exposed, starting last spring and summer 2012 in JPMorgan admissions, in order to keep the absurdly ultra-low official interest rates in place. Enter systemic failure from a financial standpoint.

The cast of leaders has converted treason into a facade of patriotism, as they defecate and urinate on the tree of liberty, preparing their drones and black aircraft for assaults on cities. The battles politically remind a history student of a localized conflict between Nazism and Stalinism, with a surefire blend in targeting the population with a parade of assaults typical of each camp. 

Anyone who has overlooked that Neo-Con means Neo-Nazi, and the march to Socialism in the other party has a striking tone of Soviet Collectivism, simply misses the big trend in American politics.

The FEMA Camp influx for indoctrination, along with psychotropic drug treatment for those who fail to salute, should convince the masses a bit more. Events in the sky over Miami and Houston in the past week should do more than awaken, even frighten, as they spread to other cities. The collection programs for guns will be eclipsed by collection of private pension funds and perhaps gold itself. The exit strategy for the US Federal Reserve might be extremely simple, enabled by the heavy Big Brother hand. 

Over $19 trillion in private pension funds in IRAs, 401ks, and Keoughs might be forced out of their current positions and dragged into a new special USGovt Bond that is backed by unwanted USTBonds racked by QE storms and worthless USAgency Mortgage Bonds racked by lost collateral that the big US banks eagerly dumped on the USFed. The $3 trillion central bank toxic balance sheet could be passed onto the gullible helpless and victimized American public. Their only real choice is to flee, like the USTBond creditors.

Self-protection will be deemed unlawful, either for personal safety or financial security. Speaking out in opposition will be deemed unpatriotic, if not subversive. Orwell, Huxley, and Thoreau are watching the obscene steps taken by the state. For some reason, fond memories of Richie Havens strumming his guitar and belting his tunes about freedom have been running in my mind for weeks, an icon from the 1970 decade, which produced the best music ever created in rock & roll.