Rothbard: The Constitution Was a Coup d’État

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Our Republic was corrupted before the paint had time to dry…

“Basically, urban merchants and artisans, as well as many slaveholding planters, united in support of a strong nation-state that would use the power of coercion to grant them privileges and subsidies. The subsidies would come at the expense of the average subsistence yeoman farmer who might be expected to oppose such a new nationalism. But against them, to support a new constitution, were the commercial farmers aided by the southern plantation-farmers who also wanted power and regulation for their own benefit. Given the urban support, the split among the farmers, and the support from wealthy educated elites, it is not surprising that the nationalist forces were able to execute their truly amazing political coup d’état which illegally liquidated the Articles of Confederation and replaced it with the Constitution. In short, they were able to destroy the original individualist and decentralized program of the American Revolution. (p. 128)”

Source: Rothbard: The Constitution Was a Coup d’État | Mises Wire

Foreign Policy – Jacob Hornberger for President

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The United States was founded on the principle of a non-interventionist foreign policy, one in which the federal government does not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy.” That was the title of a speech delivered to Congress by John Quincy Adams on the Fourth of July, 1821, in which Adams summarized America’s founding foreign-policy principle of non-interventionism.

Adams observed that there are lots of monstrous conditions under which people around the world suffer — tyranny, oppression, war, revolution, starvation. It was not the role of the U.S. government, however, to go abroad and save people from such horrors.

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Wyoming Bill Would Establish Bullion Depository; Help Facilitate Transactions in Gold and Silver

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Feb. 12, 2020) – A bill introduced in the Wyoming House would establish a precious metals bullion depository in the state. It would not only create a safe place to store precious metals; it would also facilitate the everyday use of gold and silver in financial transactions in Wyoming and set the stage to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Source: Wyoming Bill Would Establish Bullion Depository; Help Facilitate Transactions in Gold and Silver | | Tenth Amendment Center Blog

Peace Is Profitable

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leerip

 

In honor of my fallen brother’s birthday, I share one of his most memorable published articles… 

Most discussions about the costs of war focus on two numbers: the cost in dollars and cents and the more profound and heartbreaking cost in lives. Yet even as depressing as these numbers are, the figures discussed rarely encompass the whole truth. Over many generations those in power have learned there are benefits to keeping the populace as ignorant as possible when it comes to the true costs of war.

American politicians never talk about all the people killed in war, just American service members. Everyone else who is killed, even Americans arbitrarily classified as “enemy combatants,” are marginalized as mere collateral damage. Dollar costs consider only the “official” Defense Department budget, not the funds scattered and hidden throughout the federal budget. And the tally sheet deliberately excludes the cost of caring for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines physically and emotionally scarred by war.

The Eisenhower Study Group at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies has compiled a comprehensive study of the human, economic, social, and political costs of war. It’s available online. As you might imagine, the real numbers of wars we are involved in are staggering and stunning: more than 224,000 dead, more than 365,000 wounded, and more than 7 million refugees.

The total estimated cost to the American taxpayer for our current wars is $3 trillion to $4 trillion through 2020 — plus an additional $1 trillion just to pay the interest on the money borrowed to fund war. Funding war by borrowing money is one of the devices politicians have devised to pay for war, particularly for unpopular wars. This means our children must pay tomorrow for the wars we are involved in today.

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