After an unfortunate five year hiatus, The Tavern on the Green threw open its doors once again on April 24th of this year, restoring some of that old New York charm to Central Park West. While the return of The Tavern on the Green is no doubt a triumphant one, the venerable restaurant, which was built eighty years ago, is not in our opinion Central Park’s most legendary restaurant, that title belongs to the long forgotten Central Park Casino.
Situated on the opposite side of the Park from where The Tavern on the Green sits today, The Casino was a rambling cottage style restaurant that bustled nightly with the sounds of upbeat jazz bands and chatter from the tuxedoed clientele. Though it was first constructed in 1864 as a rest stop for the single women who would stroll through the Park, it wasn’t until 1929 that The Casino hit its (sadly short-lived) stride.
In the time between its nineteenth century debut and the Jazz Age, The Casino had slowly been worn down from a ladies social club to what Variety Magazine described in the early twenties as “a somewhat dumpy nite-club style.” All that changed in 1926 with the inauguration of Mayor “Gentleman Jimmy” Walker. With his convivial attitude and free-spirited policies, Walker was the epitome of a roaring twenties politician and it was his eccentricity that brought him to the center of The Casino story.
In a story that seems almost like something ripped from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, Walker essentially gave The Casino (which was in the Park and therefore under the ownership of city) to his friend, hotelier Sidney Solomon as a way of thanking him for introducing Walker to his tailor. Now, Walker was quite the natty politician so this may have been a fair trade off, but regardless the deal cemented The Casino as a nightlife hotspot for years to come.
Solomon made quick work of revamping The Casino’s bruised reputation, installing a board of governors that was pulled from the upper crust of New York social life, and hiring The Metropolitan Opera’s theatrical designer Joseph Urban to revamp the interior in a dazzling modernist style. On opening night, June 4, 1929 five hundred of NYC’s most elite took to the ballroom, including Gentleman Jimmy with a showgirl at his side of course.
The Casino was an instant smash – parties rolled onto three in the morning, the parking lot was constantly packed with luxury cars, and even though prohibition would last until the end of 1933, the alcohol still flowed freely every night. The good times could not last forever though, and by the mid-thirties Walker had resigned his mayorship in disgrace (for taking bribes of course) and The Casino was on its last legs. This isn’t to say that business wasn’t good, in fact it was great, in five years the restaurant grossed three million dollars which by today’s standards is about fifty million. In fact it could be said that business was far too good at The Casino, and for this they became an easy target.
With the tides turning and the riotous days of the Jazz Age coming to a close, conservatism in every sense was sweeping across Manhattan. Now that Walker was out of the picture, City Park’s commissioner Robert Moses, who had long held a vendetta against The Casino was finally able to freely plot his attack against the Central Park nightclub. Despite the enormous profit that The Casino pulled in each year, they were still only paying the Park’s department $8,500 in yearly rent thanks to one of Walker’s signature sweetheart deals. Moses wasn’t having any of this though, and after a brutal court battle he won the right to tear down The Casino in 1936. In a gesture that was more symbolic than pragmatic, Moses built a playground in the now vacant spot and forever erased any trace of the Jazz Age’s most jumping hot stop.
Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (top right) with US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Cairo Conference, 1943. (Photo via)
This month marks 100 years since Britain entered the First World War. That decision—like most decisions made by various European countries during the summer of 1914—preceded a bloody four-year massacre that claimed millions of lives. War is hell for everyone involved, and this war was no exception. But it may have been especially hellish for one British soldier in particular.
During WWI, Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was shot twice in the face, losing his left eye. He was also shot through the skull, ankle, hip, leg, and ear. He lost his left hand in 1915, tearing his own fingers off when a doctor refused to amputate them. Reflecting on his experiences once the Allied forces had all returned home and the full human toll of the conflict had set in, Carton de Wiart wrote, “Frankly, I enjoyed the war. Why do people want peace if the war is so much fun?”
The one-handed, eye-patched army officer sounds more like a Rowan Atkinson creation than a real serving soldier: an impossibly lucky—or unlucky, depending on how you see it—caricature of British resolve. But he was very much a real trooper, fighting not only in WWI, but both the Boer War and Second World War, suffering multiple gunshot wounds, surviving two plane crashes, and escaping capture twice in the process. He also served as an emissary on some of the most historically important events of the 20th century and was branded a “model of chivalry and honor” by Winston Churchill.
Born in Brussels in 1880, Carton de Wiart he was the son of Leon Constant Ghislain Carton de Wiart, an international lawyer who lived in Cairo—though some argue that he was really the illegitimate son of Leopold II, the King of Belgium. His early years were spent riding donkeys in Cairo and learning to speak English, French, and Arabic fluently.
When his father married an Englishwoman, it was decided that Carton de Wiart would be sent to boarding school in England once he turned 11. In his memoirs he recalls finding it tough to settle into British public school life. He engaged in as many sports as he could to ingratiate himself among the other schoolboys.
From school, Carton de Wiart went on to study at Balliol College Oxford, but he never excelled academically. After failing his preliminary law exams, he realized it was unlikely he’d be able to follow the footsteps his father had laid out for him. So, the advent of the second Anglo-Boer War in October of 1899 came at the perfect time. “At that moment, I knew that war was in my blood,” he wrote. The young man enlisted under a false age and name, because as a foreigner he was ineligible to fight for the English in the Boer War.
During a battle in South Africa Carton de Wiart was shot in the stomach and groin, forcing him to return home to a father who’d now discovered he’d abandoned Oxford for the battlefield. But parental disappointment and two gunshot wounds wasn’t enough to put him off war. In fact, it just made him thirst for the frontline even more. After a brief spell at home, Carton de Wiart was commissioned with the Second Imperial Light Horse and returned to South Africa, before being posted to India with the 4th Dragoon Guards. There, he spent most of his days hunting, until war broke out in 1914 and his military career really took off.
Carton de Wiart began World War One on the East Africa Campaign, but longed for action on the Western Front, referring to his initial posting as like “playing in a village cricket match instead of in the Test Match.” During a battle in Somaliland he was shot in the ear and the face. This didn’t stop him from continuing his attack after he was “stitched up,” but another bullet soon ricocheted into his damaged eye, leaving him in “bad shape.” Forced home to receive medical treatment, Carton de Wiart managed to persuade a bemused medical board that he was fit to fight in France.
In the trenches, a now eye-patched Carton de Wiart finally found himself where he wanted to be, ready for his body to be pummeled with a few more bouts of rapid-flying lead. During the battle of the Somme he was shot in the skull by a machine gun the second he moved his head over the parapet. Rescued by his beloved servant Holmes, he was taken to the surgeon, who told him the bullet had passed through his skull without “touching a vital part.” The doctor ordered a bottle of champagne and Carton de Wiart was back in battle three weeks later.
Later, at the Battle of Passchendaele, Carton de Wiart was shot in the hip. Then, he was shot in the leg at Cambrai and through the ear at Arras. He lost his left hand to bullet wounds and was repeatedly hit by shrapnel—pieces of which surfaced decades later after another operation. In 1916, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and throughout the war was promoted up through the ranks, until he was made a major in 1917.
A portrait of Carton de Wiart by the painter William Orpen (Photo via)
At the end of the war he was sent to Poland as second in command of the British-Poland Military Mission, spending the next two decades keeping himself busy with a set of remarkable diplomatic and military escapades. One of those was being captured by a group of Lithuanian soldiers, another was fighting off a group of Soviet cavalry using only a revolver. He retired from the army in 1923 and spent the next 15 years shooting on a Polish estate the size of Ireland.
When World War Two broke out, he left Poland and, in 1940, was recruited to lead an Anglo-French force in the taking of Namsos, a small town in Norway. This mission was a catastrophe and Carton de Wiart’s troops were shelled by German destroyer ships, attacked by German ski troops, and left waiting for German infantry to arrive, “sitting like rabbits in the snow.” Eventually a retreat was organized and Carton de Wiart arrived safely back on British territory on the 5th of May 1940, his 60th birthday.
Despite his unique take on bravery in battle, Carton de Wiart wasn’t promoted into senior command during World War Two. The award-winning British historian Max Hastings believes that was because he lacked the diplomatic skills required for such positions. “He was a warrior, and that’s what he liked doing best,” he told me. “And yes, his adventures were remarkable, but was he an important figure? No, I don’t think he was.”
For Hastings, Carton de Wiart was an inspirational “adventurer and eccentric who added hugely to the gaiety of nations and the gaiety of war.” But the historian feels the soldier was a little mad—admittedly, for good reason—and a relic of a former time.
A portrait of Carton de Wiart taken by the acclaimed photographer Cecil Beaton (Photo via)
“He would have done brilliantly under the Duke of Wellington’s command in the Napoleonic wars,” he said. “Churchill liked him for a time, because Churchill always liked these heroes and there was no question that Carton de Wiart was fantastically courageous. But people like him are a menace when you put him in charge of armies, because you never know what they're going to do next.”
In place of being promoted to high command, Carton de Wiart was sent on a series of diplomatic missions for the rest of the war. Of course, that didn’t slow him down. In April of 1941 he was appointed head of the British-Yugoslavian Military Mission and sent to Cairo to negotiate with the Yugoslavian government, but his plane crashed into the sea off the coast of Italian-controlled Libya. He lost consciousness when the plane hit the water, but was able to swim ashore with the rest of the crew, only to be captured by Italian policemen.
Taken prisoner by the Italians, Carton de Wiart tried to escape a number of times, including one attempt that involved him disguising himself as an Italian peasant. He was eventually brought to Rome when the Italians made plans to leave the war and wanted him to help negotiate a peace treaty. After two years overseas, he was finally repatriated on the 28th of August, 1943.
Carton de Wiart at the Cairo Conference, 1943 (Photo via)
Back only a month, he was called to spend a night at Winston Churchill’s home, where the prime minister asked him to go to China as his personal representative. On his way there he attended the Cairo Conference, which outlined the allies’ plans for post-war Japan. He spent the next four years on diplomatic missions, reporting back from the headquarters of the Nationalist Chinese Government in Chungking.
According to Hastings, it was here that demonstrated how he really did lack any of the diplomatic skills needed to progress in the army. When he met Mao Tse Tung at a dinner party, for instance, he had no qualms “cutting short” his speech on the success of the communist organization. To round everything off, Carton de Wiart was involved in one more plane crash during his time in China.
The soldier retired in 1947, with the honorary rank of lieutenant-general. He lived the rest of his years out peacefully in County Cork, fishing and hunting. He died on the 5th of June, 1963 at the age of 83.
Despite all the brutality of warfare he saw during his time, seemingly nothing could drive him away from his main passion in life—being shot at in a field. Writing in his memoirs, he affirmed: "Governments may think and say as they like, but force cannot be eliminated, and it is the only real and unanswerable power. We are told that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I know which of these weapons I would choose."
Kickstarter is the premier crowdsourcing platform. It offers a way to finance your project by enabling current fans and wanna-be customers to pay you before you do your project. You don’t pay back your backers except indirectly with creative rewards as thanks. Often the reward is a unit of your project — a device, book, game, etc. Kickstarter is not the only crowdsourcing venue, but it is the largest, most active, and the most refined. So far, over 35,000 projects have been successfully funded — all kinds of creative dreams including games, gadgets, documentaries, music, shows, and one-of-a-kind happenings. One of those winners was a project I launched in 2012 — a graphic novel. We successfully raised $42,000 to complete a second book in our fictional universe. Like many financed projects, I believe that if we could not have crowdfunded it, the project probably would not have happened. In this way, Kickstarter is a fantastic cool tool.
There’s an art to running a successful crowdfunded campaign. While there are several guide books that offer advice on how to raise “big bucks” on Kickstarter, none of them (yet) are better than the simple free Kickstarter School section on the Kickstarter site. It tells you how to prepare the essential “video pitch” that seems to be needed, and gives suggestions on structuring your rewards (what backers get by funding you). Yet it is missing some things I wished someone had told me before we began our Kickstarter campaign:
1) We didn’t have enough cheap seats. Have a lot of different levels of support — including a lot of inexpensive ones of only a few dollars — to give everyone a chance to contribute. And don’t be shy about adding a few really high levels either.
2) Don’t rely on Kickstarter to find funders. You need to gather your fans first before you start, and then once gathered, use Kickstarter to engage them with your project. Once you pull the trigger, there’s no time to find new fans — and they don’t come from Kickstarter. Fans first, then Kickstarter.
3) It’s a full time job. Kickstarter campaigns ordinarily run about one month and during that time, it takes almost full time work to cheer, coax, and promote the project to your fans. There is nothing automatic or easy about it. Somebody has to lead the crowd during the whole time.
4) It all happens at the end. Even with successful grants, the bulk of the contributions come in at the end. So don’t stop drumming; keep sprinting till you’re past the finish line.
5) Don’t forget the Man. When calculating how much you need, remember not only to include the cost of delivering your supporters their rewards, but don’t forget the 8% commission Kickstarter and Amazon will take. That’s a hefty chunk of your total that you need to compensate for when setting your goal amount.
I have friends who skipped Kickstarted and opted for other crowdfunding sites. For instance Indiegogo will deliver funds even if you don’t meet your goal (Kickstarter is all or nothing), 33Needs shares profits with backers for ongoing enterprises (Kickstarter only funds projects), and so on. However for most projects I think Kickstarter is the place to start; it’s well crafted. I hope to do another crowdsourced project, but not as large. In fact, while the giant successes get the most ink, what Kickstarter really excels at is financing medium and small projects that one or two people can reasonably achieve.
Policymakers don’t really care what you think. Laws don’t just well up from the general population like we were told in school. No, laws come from the connected and powerful. The cronies run the show, and have long run the show. Occasionally your interests and those of “the powers that be” might dovetail, but this is very rare. For the most part there are the things you and your neighbors care about and then there are the things the plutocrats care about. Guess which agenda in pursued?
Well, there is a good bit of it on this website that’s for sure. And it is growing. Today crony capitalism is talked about openly. A few years ago few people knew the term. Read More
Ms. Pelosi knows how to work a deal. As such opportunities just seem to fall into her lap from nowhere. Before Pelosi was in Congress she was comfortable, but she wasn’t rich. Yet now she’s worth tens of millions of dollars.
A brilliant application of material science toward simple living, this portable self-inflating structure folds up into a manageable miniature package but expands to create a small dwelling space.
Created by Martin Azua, the Basic House is a genius “habitable volume; foldable, inflatable and reversible … made from metalized polyester” that uses body or solar heat to inflate itself. As its designer explains, “is not a product, rather a concept of extreme reduction.”
In a clever twist, this tiny portable space is made to be inverted so that it can deflect solar heat (for cold situations) in one configuration but capture it (to warm its interior) when reversed. Versatile and durable, the design could be used for everything from homeless shelters and travel tents to emergency housing and much more.
More from its maker on his motivation: “Our habitat has turned into a space of consumption in which an unlimited number of products satisfy a series of needs created by complex systems and relations that are difficult to control. Cultures that maintain a more direct interaction with their environment show us that the idea of habitat can be understood in more essential and reasonable terms.”
Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:
In cities around the world, people are feeling the effects of a weak global economy and homeless populations continue to rise. Taking shelter in cardboard ...Click Here to Read More »»
Amid the various conceptual designs for addressing large-scale homelessness, this working prototype stands out as refreshingly realistic, practical and ...Click Here to Read More »»
German designer Phillip Stingl envisions a bleak future in which society has collapsed, and a growing population of elderly people live in dumpster houses.
Click Here to Read More »»
Warren Buffett has famously supported the Obama administration and other Democrats, even lending his name to the so-called “Buffett Rule,” which calls for raising income taxes on high earners. As such, it may surprise you to learn that a key person in Warren Buffett’s life was an ardent proponent of political views diametrically opposed to those of the “Oracle of Omaha.”
111 years ago today, Warren’s father Howard Homan Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Buffett, like his son Warren, worked in the investment business, but also served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1943-1949 and then again from 1951-1953, as an anti-New Dealer, anti-Fair Dealer and overall anti-interventionist of the Republican “Old Right.” Politically, it could be said that Buffett was the Ron Paul of his day.
Buffett even corresponded with leading libertarian Murray Rothbard, asking Rothbard in one letter where he might be able to procure a copy of his “The Panic of 1819,” so that he could pass it along to his son.
Unlike his son who has lauded the Federal Reserve and in particular its former chairman Ben Bernanke, along with others who intervened during and after the financial crisis of 2008, Howard Buffett was an outspoken proponent of laissez-faire economics and sound money. In a 1948 article he wrote:
Is there a connection between Human Freedom and A Gold Redeemable Money? At first glance it would seem that money belongs to the world of economics and human freedom to the political sphere.
But when you recall that one of the first moves by Lenin, Mussolini and Hitler was to outlaw individual ownership of gold, you begin to sense that there may be some connection between money, redeemable in gold, and the rare prize known as human liberty.
Also, when you find that Lenin declared and demonstrated that a sure way to overturn the existing social order and bring about communism was by printing press paper money, then again you are impressed with the possibility of a relationship between a gold-backed money and human freedom…
The subject of a Hitler or a Stalin is a serf by the mere fact that his money can be called in and depreciated at the whim of his rulers…
Under such conditions [of depreciating currency] the individual citizen is deprived of freedom of movement. He is prevented from laying away purchasing power for the future. He becomes dependent upon the goodwill of the politicians for his daily bread. Unless he lives on land that will sustain him, freedom for him does not exist…
Buffett argues that the lack of a gold standard meant that Congress was unrestrained in spending money to cater to various interest groups, stating “With no bad immediate consequence it becomes expedient to accede to a spending demand. The Treasury is seemingly inexhaustible. Besides the unorganized taxpayers back home may not notice this particular expenditure — and so it goes.” Further:
Far away from Congress is the real forgotten man, the taxpayer who foots the bill. He is in a different spot from the tax-eater or the business that makes millions from spending schemes. He cannot afford to spend his time trying to oppose Federal expenditures. He has to earn his own living and carry the burden of taxes as well.
But for most beneficiaries a Federal paycheck soon becomes vital in his life. He usually will spend his full energies if necessary to hang onto this income.
The taxpayer is completely outmatched in such an unequal contest. Always heretofore he possessed an equalizer. If government finances weren’t run according to his idea of soundness he had an individual right to protect himself by obtaining gold.
With a restoration of the gold standard, Congress would have to again resist handouts. That would work this way. If Congress seemed receptive to reckless spending schemes, depositors’ demands over the country for gold would soon become serious. That alarm in turn would quickly be reflected in the halls of Congress. The legislators would learn from the banks back home and from the Treasury officials that confidence in the Treasury was endangered.
Congress would be forced to confront spending demands with firmness. The gold standard acted as a silent watchdog to prevent unlimited public spending.
Buffett ends his column with this warning:
Because of our economic strength the paper money disease here may take many years to run its course.
But we can be approaching the critical stage. When that day arrives, our political rulers will probably find that foreign war and ruthless regimentation is the cunning alternative to domestic strife. That was the way out for the paper-money economy of Hitler and others. In these remarks I have only touched the high points of this problem. I hope that I have given you enough information to challenge you to make a serious study of it.
I warn you that politicians of both parties will oppose the restoration of gold, although they may outwardly seemingly favor it. Also those elements here and abroad who are getting rich from the continued American inflation will oppose a return to sound money. You must be prepared to meet their opposition intelligently and vigorously. They have had 15 years of unbroken victory.
But, unless you are willing to surrender your children and your country to galloping inflation, war and slavery, then this cause demands your support. For if human liberty is to survive in America, we must win the battle to restore honest money.
There is no more important challenge facing us than this issue — the restoration of your freedom to secure gold in exchange for the fruits of your labors.
We’ll leave it to you to judge the merits of Buffett’s words.
The greatest man made societal and economic collapse in history is unfolding before our eyes. This Journey to the collapse of the developed world’s civilization and empire began over 100 years ago during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson with his subversion/betrayal of the constitution of the United States and creation of a privately owned banking and currency monopoly called the Federal Reserve and the creation of the income tax to fund the beginning of the Confiscationism of the progressive socialism we see today. In exchange for a monopoly on money to multi century banking cartels which allowed the country to be run for the benefit of the banking systems. In exchange for unlimited funding for government. Private property rights began its road to demise at that time.
In Part I of this series we covered the transformation of the monetary system from sound reserve backed constitutionally mandated currency system to what now has become completely unsound Fiat currency and credit system. Money has changed from a system for storing wealth, purchasing power and ones labor for the future to a confiscation scheme run for the benefit of Banksters and socialist progressive government. Do not miss this as UNSOUND money and Reserveless banking is the master thread and foundation of all the chaos unfolding in the world today.
In PART II of this series we thoroughly covered how the ACCOUNTABLE LOCALLY controlled education systems have been highjacked and transformed into FEDERALLY CONTROLLED UNACCOUNTABLE public school MONOPOLIES designed to create sheeple and Useful Idiots ripe for exploitation. The Locally controlled school systems that created the most prosperous country in the history of man are now nothing more than PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST indoctrination centers. Designed to mentally cripple the futures of our children and stunt their ability to create a prosperous wealth creating economy. It is now an insidious Potemkin educational system used to create morally and fiscally insolvent citizens, bereft of histories lessons, contemptuous of the thoughts and ideas which created our exceptional country and its burgeoning middle classes. Useful idiots are unable to produce more than they consume, live prudent and productive lives and DON’T have the BASIC knowledge needed to build a prosperous and independent life upon. Both previous parts of this series are critical foundations to this edition: DON’T MISS THEM. Now onto part III;
As Inflation has eaten our standards of living alive, and public school monopolies have created curriculums that spew out toxic waste and call them educated our society has become DIVIDED. Those that have a proper classical education versus those that don’t. It is as simple as that. This next illustration by Pew research shows the PROGRESSION of the split between socialist, progressive democrats (the takers, educated to be socialists) separating ideologically from OLD school Conservative Republicans and independents (the makers, trained to be self-sufficient independent of government) as the school systems produce their USEFUL IDIOTS:
Look at the CHASM growing. Notice how as we move forward from 1979 the divide grows and grows. That is the propaganda expanding as successive generations enter and exit the public school systems building and EXPANDING constituencies of socialist KNOW NOTHINGS. I promise you will find big age disparities as well as the young skew socialist and the older generations and a few younger students learn more classical educations head into the conservative direction.
Today’s students are now taught Government dependence is now an acceptable LIFESTYLE, not something to be avoided or shameful, that personal failure is not their fault. Therefore they believe they are the MIDDLE class and by showing up are entitled to the rewards that go to those that work hard, take care of themselves, live a prudent lifestyle, save, and serve others the most. That has been the recipe for personal success which has served the developed world so well. NOW NONE of these virtues is taught in today’s schools, thus students no longer give these things ANY THOUGHT or work to achieve them unless taught so by their parents... Now after almost half a century since the Dept. of education was created legions of citizens are on one form or another of Government assistance, relies on it to supply or supplement their incomes which they can no longer earn due to general incompetence, inability to produce more than they consume or economic weakness caused by the economic policies of centrally controlled federal and state governments:
Look closely at the breathtaking climb of those on one form of the dole or another. They are sucking wealth out of the US economy rather than being wealth creators in the private sector. The President and his supporters in Congress have exploded government DEPENDENCY since supermajorities were elected on his coattails of “HOPE and CHANGE” in 2008. The social safety net system is and has been overwhelmed with responsibilities the government has chosen to PROVIDE. This is part of the plan of the president and his supporters to collapse the economy in a socialist dictatorship and it is called Cloward-Piven strategy. Look it up.
It has simply become a lifestyle choice for many people who choose to live on the fruits of others. Food stamps, welfare, Medicaid, Obamacare, section 8 housing to name a few. Recent studies put the benefits received by a family as high as $60,000 dollars a year. Why work as they are taught in school it is OK to be on the government dole. National bankruptcy looms as you will see in the next part of this series. Those charts are over 2 years old and the legions of DEADBEATS are much higher at this point. There is no shame connected with government dependence as children are taught it is the norm, not their fault and are entitled to it.
“There are 46 million Americans on food stamps. 44% of people in the US pay no federal income tax. Only 83 million people pay taxes, which means that each working person supports about three other people. I would like to meet the three I support. Perhaps they are very nice. But how long can this situation continue? Where is the tipping point?”
- Bert Dohmen
What would we do if these people had to stand in old fashioned SOUP lines rather than receive a debit card in the mail box? Soup and benefit Lines would EXPOSE the shameful behavior and OUTRAGE of poor governance and the failure of personal character that this represents; instead it is hidden from the public by modern paperless money and electronic benefits of one sort or another.
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
- Benjamin Franklin
These people no longer work for a living they vote for it. The president calls them the MIDDLE CLASS! Tells them they are playing by the rules and should support him in robbing others to deliver on the falsehoods they were taught in PUBLIC schools. You can see them behind him at every photo op they create, clapping at his COMMON SENSE. They believe they are OWED a good living for supporting progressive government.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.”
The PUBLIC schools QUIT teaching people how to fish and created people dependent on government for their futures. They know nothing else and have been taught that capitalism is the boogeyman and they are incapable of providing for themselves. They are AFRAID of being independent and self-reliant and look to the government to cradle them in its arms. In reality capitalism is the ticket to escape from their government masters.
“It is not an endlessly expanding list of rights ---the “right” to an education; the “right” to health care; the “right” to food and housing. That is not freedom. That is dependency. Those are not rights. Those are the rations of slavery – hay and a barn for human cattle.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville
These people BELIEVE government is there to SUPPORT THEM rather than they supporting themselves. They believe the impossible dream that they can live at the expense of others rather than provide for themselves. They have not been taught the things they need to KNOW to support themselves! ON PURPOSE!
"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."
- Samuel Adams
Once the public has been impoverished by DECADES of unsound money and their living standards slip away along with their ability to see, understand and solve problems. And they HAVE BEEN CRIPPLED by an educational system that DOES NOT TEACH. They become RIPE for MANIPULATION through economic desperation, misinformation and FEAR. They want security and believe government is the key and guarantors of it rather than the BARRIER and PURVEYOR of it. They have been taught this since birth, believe it, and vote for it as they know nothing else.
The Third element of a CREATING a Something for nothing Society and useful idiots is a MAIN STREAM media that reports misinformation as facts and BLACKS OUT or censors critical reports of public or private (crony capitalism and banksters) wrongdoing.
Throughout history powerful empires have held the media in their hands, the Politbureau of the former Soviet Union, Xinhua news of China, The ministry of information of Nazi Germany are just a few examples. In the US and Europe it is known as the MAIN STREAM MEDIA. Controlling the thoughts and minds of the public by elites is as old as man. The main stream media used to be quasi monopolies on information before the internet. These are very powerful tools to manipulate the unthinking part of the public. Look no further than modern day Russia whose economy is failing, living standards are declining and the public victimized by official cronies of the kremlin. They support Putin’s expansionism and aggression by record margins of up to 80%. The Chinese are no different, nationalism in the face of the boogeyman they don’t know. Chinese media is tightly controlled and censored to keep ideas and broader information for evaluation by the public OUT OF REACH. They manipulate the minds of the useful idiots presenting information in a manner that is favorable to them and omitting anything that is not. The minister for public information for Nazi Germany sums it up nicely:
"It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion”
- Joseph Goebbels, Minister for public information, Nazi Germany
In the United States the media has been tightly controlled since World War II, only the invention of the Internet has brought widely disseminated alternate (true) views to history and current events. Before that is was all officially approved VERSIONS of past and current events. Now investigative journalism is virtually extinct and bad news BLACKED out or not reported in any way. It is all politically sanitized by editors who do not agree with your need to know to better conduct your affairs or who to vote for. Government malfeasance is now only reported by accident whether you look at the national debt, politically correct economic reports, the hoax of climate change, the state of government finances, regulation, inflation, all are now politically correct reports rather than reflect the facts which may be inconvenient to the powers that be and cause them trouble in the next elections.
Recent reports of Facebook painting the reports going to users to manipulate their thoughts and impressions was greeted with great uproar. Those techniques have risen to an art form by the main stream media and practiced daily over the last half century.
"Whoever controls the media controls the mind."
- Jim Morrison
Most news now is slanted as a positive view of the future regardless of the facts, or FEAR to chase people into the safety of government arms. The main stream media is OWNED by the same elites which control the banks and government. Once a powerful barrier to misinformation and falsehoods it has now become the purveyors of it. And due to the poor quality of their educations the useful idiots cannot sift through it to SEPARATE the truth or lies.
Make a middle class into SERFS and slaves to government and banks in one form or another. Create desperation for growth and personal progress in their lives.
Standards of living are in free fall properly measured in purchasing power:
I defy anyone to show me a government statistic that is an accurate MEASURE of REALITY. GDP, Consumer prices, Unemployment, inflation, wages etc. ALL are POLITICALLY CORRECT and practically INCORRECT GARBAGE and compiled to do only ONE THING: HIDE the economic MISMANAGEMENT and FAILURES of CENTRAL PLANNERS in the DISTRICT of CORRUPTION also known as Washington D.C. Government Ministers of MISINFORMATION. And the main stream media present it as TRUTH.
Taxes and Fees have risen to confiscatory levels throughout the developed world!
Including, sales, and Vat taxes in Europe, fees, and other taxes on most activities humans do taxes range from 40 to 70% in Europe and the United States. With the people making median wages paying virtually nothing and the top 25% of income earners mostly all taxes collected. The more you produce the more that is confiscated for redistribution to the Useful idiots and Something for Nothing Society’s. Robbing peter to pay Paul and collect his VOTE.
“When people who earn more than the average have their ‘surplus,’ or the greater part of it, seized from them in taxes, and when people who earn less than the average have the deficiency, or the greater part of it, turned over to them in hand?outs and doles, the production of all must sharply decline; for the energetic and able lose their incentive to produce more than the average and the slothful and unskilled lose their incentive to improve their condition.”
- Henry Hazlitt
UNSOUND money allowed government to COVER UP poor economic policies and to grow in excess of economic growth, while yoking the private sector as DEBT SLAVES to the banking systems!
"I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Based upon the debt to gdp chart above it now requires about $12 dollars of new debt to create one dollar’s worth of GDP. The GDP is for one brief instant in time but the interest owed on it compounds against the borrowers aka taxpayers and our children. Why is this issue virtually unreported by the main stream media? This is how the bankers take the public’s money with their powerful lending operations and transfers it to themselves. The banksters who printed it out of thin air and lent it to them. In REAL terms incomes are not up even 24%, they have declined almost 80% in purchasing power terms since 1971:
That is why the middle class is desperate for wage and income growth. Literally the public has become rats on a spinning wheel. Working, working, working and getting nowhere but poorer. Since they no longer know what money is and why it can’t be printed out of thin air they accept their government and banking system torture in quiet desperation. Since 2000 the gap between real inflation and reported has become especially pernicious:
Most people also don’t understand that inflation is an unseen TAX, and that it represents a theft of their labor and savings by the Federal Reserve and the governments and commercial banks its system SERVES. But it is felt by the PUBLIC when going to the grocery store, buying a car, paying for insurance, clothes for the kids. As you can see on a compounded basis, purchasing power of the money of the US has been murdered by printing press and runaway fractional reserve banking. The official MEASURES are poorly masked politically correct lies. Used by progressive Government, banksters and the Federal Reserve to eternally goose the economy thorough ultra-loose money and interest rate policies. Now let’s look at the other side of the coin (expenses for major expenditures) as a result of unsound Money:
Are your incomes up these amounts since 1978? Do you think that people who FEEL the purchasing power of their money DISSOLVING might feel like a frog in slowly boiling water? Become more desperate for income progress in their lives. This is socialism and unsound money working on the public and useful idiots in particular. This is the RESULT of UNSOUND money losing its purchasing power; it is an illustration of living standards in FREE FALL since August 1971 (see part I of this series) when money WEALTH was confiscated and IOUs (money printed out of thin air) was substituted. This creates SERFS and DEBT slaves of the public at large and transferring the fruit of their labor to themselves. This is the face of Leviathan government, banksters, FAKE MONEY and CENTRALLY PLANNED socialism destroying capitalism. If competition was really allowed and pre 1971 semi sound money was still circulating these prices would not be running away to the upside. In addition the government is on the buy side and PRICE is no object if the money goes to crony capitalist enterprises and inflated union wages.
This is how government, crony capitalists and the banking system LOOT the PUBLIC at large of the CURRENT and FUTURE fruits of their labors. In the something-for-nothing society you can still have these things your fathers paid cash for, but to do so you must borrow the money from banks which PRINTED the MONEY out of thin air, who lend it to you at interest rates which cause the price YOU PAY to be MULTIPLES of what you borrowed through the magic of compounding. This is the picture of the public being yoked like an ox to the fractional reserve credit system and the transfer of wealth from you to them.
What a disaster for the citizens of the United States. This is the picture of the slow boil the public has been subjected to; notice how incomes and savings PEAKED shortly after Breton Woods II in 1971. This is when credit creation was substituted for wealth creation to create growth. Do you think these people are desperate for change, sound money and a return to a prosperous and growing economy and incomes? Those are the CHAINS of DEBT being placed around the citizens of the United States and the keys and beneficiaries to them are in the BANKING SYSTEM. All condoned under the auspices of Washington DC. Interest rates once called USURY are common today in credit card lending, pay day loans, and revolving credit of all kinds. Condoned by your representatives in government who get campaign contributions for not legislating predatory lending away. The banksters control them lock stock and barrel.
Author’s Note: In my opinion the greatest manmade disaster and OPPORTUNITY in history is unfolding in every corner of the world. Are you diversified or operating with EYES WIDE SHUT? Are you prepared to turn it into opportunity by properly diversifying your portfolio? Adding absolute return investments which are designed with the potential to thrive (up and down markets) regardless of what unfolds economically or politically? This is what I do for investors; help them diversify into investments which are created to potentially thrive in the storm. For a personal consultation with me CLICK HERE!
In closing, we covered how the citizens of the developed world have been STRIPPED of their wealth through the destruction of the money they are paid and store their wealth in thinking it is money. They don’t know what money is so they don’t know why they can never get ahead. Told inflation is 1-2% when in reality it is near 10% a year. Their bank accounts have the same balances as before but it always buys LESS. It is the transfer of wealth from themselves to the government and banking systems which fleece them like the sheep they have become. As Keynes put it in part 1 of this series, debauch the currency debauches the society. Now over the last 40 years they have been turned into TAX and DEBT slaves as a result of this moral and fiscal bankruptcy of leviathan government and the banking systems. SLOW TORTURE! It has been a long process and fed to the public in little doses just as the proverbial frog in hot water as it heads to boiling. What was just an ever hot bath over the last three decades for the evolving something for nothing societies is now becoming BOILING water and social unrest can be expected to rise RAPIDLY as we enter the endgame of these MAN MADE policies. These broad societal and social trends are SET in STONE and can be expected to continue. They are unstoppable at this point. Anyone (politicians like Ronald Reagan, the tea party, etc.) trying to change the course of this societal suicide will be professionally or personally crucified by the powers that be and media that control our world. The useful idiots and something for nothing societies are their UNTHINKING mobs, ripe for manipulation. Only Mother Nature, god and the teachings of Charles Darwin can defeat them at this time. They have never failed to defeat this particular type of insanity in HISTORY. It collapses under its own weight as history repeats itself. This insanity will only be ended when an APOCRYPHAL crisis unfolds, overwhelms the elites and there is no alternative than common sense. Just as Deng Xiao Ping did when he discovered to get rich was glorious.
In the next final issue of Useful idiots and the Something for Nothing society will be covering the other aspects which add up to slowly unfolding societal and economic collapse and SUICIDE throughout the developed world today. Why its continuation is assured and all the elements not covered yet. This is Austrian economic analysis at its best. Don’t miss it. Subscriptions are free CLICK HERE
DISCLAIMER AND TERMS OF USE: While TedBits strives to present accurate and useful information, we make no guarantee of accuracy or completeness. All information and opinion expressed herein is subject to change without notice. Opinions and recommendations contained herein should not be construed as investment advice. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell any securities or commodities. Do not assume that any recommendations, insights, charts, theories or philosophies will ensure profitable investment. The information contained herein is for personal use only. Any redistribution of this information is strictly prohibited.
Gold and silver backed means that various commodity options strategies in gold and/or silver may be used. When buying options, you may lose all of the money paid for the option. When selling options, you may lose more than the funds received for selling the option. Strategies using combinations of positions, such as spreads or straddles, may be as risky as taking a simple long or short position. A high degree of leverage is used to buy or sell a sufficient quantity of options and/or underlying futures contracts equal to the value of the entire portfolio. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you and lead to large losses as well as large gains. Absolute-return is not meant to imply that a positive return can or will be achieved. Absolute-return describes investment strategies which are designed to have the potential to succeed in rising, market-neutral and falling market conditions. Gold and silver backed and absolute return investments do not mean the investor will take actual physical possessions of any precious metal. Nor should any promise or guarantee be implied that such investments will perform better than any other investment in any possible future scenario described herein nor that such investments can or will preserve or protect in such possible future scenarios.
TedBits may include information obtained from sources believed to be reliable and accurate as of the date of this publication, but no independent verification has been made to ensure its accuracy or completeness. Many of the statements and views made are the opinions of the author. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. This report is not a request to engage in any transaction involving the purchase or sale of futures contracts or options on futures. There is a substantial risk of loss associated with trading futures, foreign exchange and options on futures. This letter is not intended as investment advice, and its use in any respect is entirely the responsibility of the user. Past performance in never a guarantee of future results.
A spork may be a simple thing, but this one is handmade in the U.S. from medical-grade titanium that is recycled from military and aerospace scrap. It’s lightweight and virtually indestructible. I’ve had it for two years and suspect that it will not only outlast me, but my children as well.
Why titanium? It’s lighter, but stronger than steel. Titanium is also rustproof, hypoallergenic, and bacteria-resistant.
The handle also contains a bottle opener, an oxygen bottle key, a 0.325 inch hex nut key, and a 0.25 inch hex nut key.
Andy Eggebrecht, president of Andros Boatworks, brought the Andros Tarpon 26 down to Miami from Sarasota for a firsthand look. The Tarpon 26 can be described as a combination of stable offshore fishing craft and shallow-running flats skiff. A foam-filled under-deck provides positive flotation for the hull. At 26 feet, 2 inches and with the high-flared bow of a Caribbean panga, this boat handles well in offshore swells. Conversely, with only 10 inches of water needed to run, this boat can fish the flats.
Base features include composite, no-wood construction hull; 1,500 gph automatic bilge pump; 40-gallon baitwell in the transom; trim tabs by Lenco; 21-inch motor-mount PortaBracket; aluminum leaning post with four rocket launchers; two insulated fish boxes in the forward casting deck; and heat-shrink, sealed wire connections throughout.
Andros Boatworks is located in Sarasota at 1520 Northgate Boulevard.
Phone number: 941.809.3505 www.Androsboats.com
Docked at the Sea Isle Marina in Miami. The hull comes with a 10-year transferable structural warranty and the gelcoat is guaranteed for at least seven years. This color hull is sea foam; there are many others available.
A look at the steering controls. Tournament-style console can be rigged with flush-mount electronics. Below, two-way console door slides out for easy access.
The basic aluminum leaning post consists of four rocket launchers and three cup holders. Stainless popup cleats amidships.
Currently being used as life jacket storage, in-deck castnet compartment can also be plumbed as a self-filling wet well. Andros boat decks feature easy-to-clean, nonskid surfaces. At top, leaning post supports are through-bolted in-deck before being bonded to the hull.
Forty-gallon LED-lit baitwell highlights the transom. Port and starboard compartments provide storage. This boat was maxed out with a 300 hp Evinrude E-TEC.
Andros Boatworks president Andy Eggebrecht shows off an enticing option for the Tarpon 26—the T-top tower. Cobia anglers should be drooling.
A close-up of the baitwell lid. All hardware is stainless throughout the boat. Hatches (not shown) feature double-back hinges so hatches lay flat when opened.
Easy access to plumbing, wiring and hydraulics.
A forward look at the Andros Tarpon 26. Notice where the hull begins to tunnel. Boat features a vinylester resin skin coat, Divinycell-cored decks, and overboard scuppers.
Andy Eggebrecht shows off what can be described as a “dual-station mini tower.” Andy stands on a custom platform above the helm controls, about 4 feet off the deck. A second set of controls up top allows him to control the boat while scouting the fishing grounds.
At left and right, two 7.5-foot-long, lockable fish boxes air out. A lockable, scuppered dry box sits at the center of the forward casting deck.
Console features backrest and cooler with seat. Frigid Rigid cooler keeps the ice frozen all day long.
A shot of the Tarpon 26 in front of the Miami Beach skyline—ideal angle to see the characteristic panga sheerline descend from the bow to the relatively flat running surface at the stern.
HOUSTON, Texas—A South Texas Rancher in Willacy County, north of the town of Raymondville, Texas, is reporting an increase of illegal immigrants trespassing through his ranch due to the heavy law enforcement presence in the western portion of the Rio Grande Border Sector. The rancher, concerned for the safety of his family and employees has instructed his workers to carry a firearm with them at all times when out on the ranch.
“I cannot take the chance of one of my employees being hurt by these smugglers,” said Dr. Frank Yturria, age 91. “My ranch foreman reported to me last week that he saw a group of about 20 illegal immigrants being escorted by a smuggler openly carrying a pistol on his hip.”
Breitbart Texas contacted Dr. Yturria after seeing an article on KRGV.com that said Yturria has never seen so many smugglers crossing his land as he has seen this summer. At age 91, the spry, older gentleman has plenty of experience upon which to base that opinion. Yturria is a third generation rancher on this land.
Yturria took a Channel 5 News reporters on a tour of his ranch and showed them the damage that was being done by the trespassing smugglers and their human cargo. Damaged fences, gates and littered debris left behind are commonplace now.
The increase of traffic through his land appears to Yturria to be a direct result of the Border Surge by Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety and now, the Texas National Guard in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties. “As they have increased pressure in the west, we are seeing more immigrants moving east across our lands,” Yturria told Breitbart Texas in a phone interview. “When you drive up Highway 77, you don’t see any border patrol or highway patrol vehicles. They are all off of Highway 281 in Brooks County or Highway 83 along the border.”
Yturria expressed concern for the people being dropped off on his land. “These immigrants are headed to Houston,” he explained. “The smugglers tell them Houston is five to ten miles up the road when they drop them off. They tell them to follow my ranch roads to get there.” The reality is, Houston is a four to five hour drive by vehicle and Yturria’s ranch is a good 50 miles south of the Highway 77 Border Patrol checkpoint located in Kennedy County.
“I blame this all on the Democrats and President Obama,” Yturria told Bretibart Texas. “The message these immigrants are receiving is that if you make it to America you will not be deported, you will be given a bus ticket anywhere you want to go. This action by President Obama is directly leading to the deaths of these people who are abandoned in the ranches in this area.”
As to why he wants to arm his employees, Yturria told KRGV “They have threatened my employees…’get out of the way, or else.’” He said it feels like a kill or be killed situation.
Bob Price is a staff writer and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
Marine combat veteran Bing West explains how to defeat our enemies in today's National Review. We reprint here.
By pulling our forces out of Iraq in 2011, Mr. Obama claimed, he “ended the war.” Three years later, the winner of that war is a barbarous Islamist army that has seized the northern half of Iraq, threatening both Kurdistan and Baghdad. An alarmed Iraqi parliament has just elected a new prime minister, opening the door for American assistance.
So what should we do? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Martin Dempsey, has suggested that we “initially contain, eventually disrupt, and finally defeat [the Islamists] over time.” Notice that the general used the word “defeat.”
What is necessary to put flesh on Dempsey’s objectives? First, both parties in Congress must agree that this Islamist army is a mortal threat to America’s core values and must be destroyed. General James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, has testified that ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, poses a potential threat to the homeland. The phrase “potential threat” is fraught with ambiguity. Until catastrophe occurs, many will argue that ISIL is a murderous religious cult confined within regional geographic boundaries. That was how Mr. Clinton viewed Osama bin Laden before 9/11. If the commander-in-chief does not perceive a mortal threat and if the press grossly underreports the persecution of Christians and other minorities, then the public will see no reason for our military to become heavily involved.
With the Obama administration, nothing is ever what it was or may be in the future. There is no constancy. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has described the threat in terms of “some of the most brutal, barbaric forces we’ve ever seen in the world today, and a force, ISIL, and others that is an ideology that’s connected to an army, and it’s a force and a dimension that the world has never seen before like we have seen it now.” The Visigoths, Attila, and Tamerlane have a new rival. Obviously this new scourge upon mankind must be destroyed.
But wait: Then Mr. Hagel delivered the punch line. “I recommended to the president, and the president has authorized me, to go ahead and send about 130 new assessment-team members.” Mr. Hagel is holding the rest of our force in reserve in case the Martians attack. One hundred thirty assessors are sufficient to deal with “the most barbaric forces we’ve ever seen.”
We have to get serious about this: Does the U.S. view the Islamist army as a threat that must be destroyed by American force of arms, or not?
Second, to contain, disrupt, and defeat ISIL, our policymakers and generals must view themselves as virtual warriors. War is the act of killing until the enemy is defeated. During his seven-month tour in Afghanistan, a Marine grunt takes one million steps on patrol, never knowing when he will be blown up. His goal is to kill the enemy and to finish every firefight standing on the enemy’s position. That image of implacable violence should be seared in the policymaker’s mind. It is the gritty foundation of policy. The Marine goes forward to kill or die. If the policymaker is not as deadly serious, then don’t send the grunt.
Daily Caller, by Brendan Bordelon Posted By: KarenJ1- Thu, 14 55 2014 02:55:36 GMT ABC reporter Jon Karl grilled deputy White House spokesman Eric Schultz about a new report showing how many executives who pursue corporate mergers overseas to avoid onerous U.S. tax laws a move Obama has called unpatriotic have donated millions to the Democratic Party and President Obamas former campaigns. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that top Obama and Democratic donors including an investment banker who hosted a fundraiser for the president, a co'chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention and a bundler who raised $200,000 for Obamas reelection campaign are all guilty of pursuing corporate inversions, which Obama
Washington Free Beacon, by Elizabeth Harrington Posted By: KarenJ1- Thu, 14 12 2014 03:12:26 GMT Rep. Diane Black (R., Tenn.) sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Wednesday warning that fraudulent Obamacare subsidies could cost taxpayers billions if the administration fails to remedy over 300,000 inconsistencies relating to applicants immigration status. Black, who sits on the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees, introduced legislation that would prohibit the payment of subsidies unless an applicants information is fully verified. The income verification system within Healthcare.gov, which is used to determine subsidies, has still not been completed. The numerous delays by HHS and the inability to resolve inconsistencies within the 90'day window required in statute has
There it is, I said it. I’ve been holding it back for years, before I even knew I wanted to be a photographer and it feels good to put it out there. I’ve told exactly two photographers about my handicap before tonight but I feel like its time to put it out there publicly. I was ashamed of it but I’m not anymore. It’s part of who I am.
It started when I was in kindergarten. I just couldn’t get the colors right. My mom told me that in the beginning, she just thought I was being a goofball but after a while, it was hard to ignore that sometimes, I just couldn’t tell certain colors apart. It never got better, and after a while, the teachers understood my struggle and life went on.
That didn’t stop me though. I was creative as a child and I liked to draw — a lot. I drew G.I. Joes, Street Fighter characters and all sorts of weird stuff that little boys were into. I’ve always been creative but at that age, color blindness really didn’t matter to me.
I never really considered how much it might impact my future, only that I could never be a fire fighter, a commercial or military pilot or an electrician.
After watching movies like Star Wars and Indiana Jones obsessively as a kid, I did know that I wanted to be a filmmaker though. I tried that and I was never able to break into the world of professional film, only skim the surface with a number of spectacular failures and many lessons learned. Most of it was in my head though.
I know that I knew what looked good, but if someone asked me to grab a gel ( a colored filter that is placed in front of a light for color balancing or effect), I’d be petrified that I might grab the wrong one and ruin the shot. It probably wouldn’t have ruined anything, but it would have been embarrassing and I didn’t want to feel or look dumb in front of a set full of film people.
After spending a little bit of time trying to break into the film world any way I could ( and a TON of support from my parents) I decided to return to school to study journalism.
Fast forward to now. I’m 27, I’m a professional photographer working my first staff job at a newspaper and people pay me to make pictures for a living. I’m working in an industry that embraces diversity and where the most talented people are often the most unassuming. It’s not all about the light, or the color, although those things are important. It’s about the story, the moments and the deep exploration of subjects and the human experience. I’ve finally come to that understanding after going through periods of intense self-doubt and it feels great.
I’ve been in one situation during my short time as a photojournalist where an editor has questioned the color in one of my photos, and I was too afraid to say anything then, but I’m not anymore. I learned from that experience though. I edit much more carefully (and sparingly) now and know to trust my editors.
I also now know, that without a doubt, I’m meant to be behind a camera in order to tell stories. I know that I’m handicapped, but some of the stories that I’ve covered and that I’m going to cover are too important to be jeopardized by self-doubt.
Do I wish I wasn’t colorblind? Sometimes. But I am one of the 8% of colorblind men out there and nothing is going to change that. All I can do is push on and keep making pictures. In some ways, my color blindness might help me by seeing things differently from everyone else. Maybe I’ve been forced to focus more on content, composition and other visual elements that I do have control over. I don’t know.
I just know that I have a deep love for photojournalism that won’t go away, color blindness or not. It’s time to focus on what I do have control over and push myself to the next level.
Thanks for reading and for the people who have believed in me, even if I can’t tell the difference between colors every now and then.
About the author: Aaron Lavinsky is a visual journalist based out of Western Washington. He is a staff photographer for The Daily World in Aberdeen and previously interned for The Arizona Republic and The Seattle Times. When he isn’t hauling around his cameras, Lavinsky enjoys traveling the Pacific Northwest, hiking, camping and catching an occasional fish or two.
You can find more of Aaron’s work by following him on Twitter and Instagram, or by visiting his Tumblr where this article was originally published.
[Editor’s note: Tim Price, frequent Sovereign Man contributor and Director of Investment at PFP Wealth Management, is filling in while Simon is teaching at his entrepreneurship camp.]
On September 9th, 1965, US Navy pilot James Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam and seized by a mob.
He would spend the next seven years in Hoa Lo Prison, the infamous “Hanoi Hilton”.
The physical brutality was unspeakable, and the mental torture never stopped. He would be kept in solitary confinement, in total darkness, for four years.
He would be kept in heavy leg-irons for two years and put on a starvation diet.
When told he would be paraded in front of foreign journalists, he slashed his own scalp with a razor and beat himself in the face with a wooden stool so that he would be unrecognizable and useless to the enemy’s press.
When he discovered that his fellow prisoners were being tortured to death, he slashed his wrists to show his torturers that he would not submit to them.
When his guards finally realized that he would die before cooperating, they relented.
The torture of American prisoners ended, and the treatment of all American prisoners of war improved.
Jim Collins, author of the influential study of US businesses, ‘Good to Great’, interviewed Stockdale during his research for the book. How had he found the courage to survive those long, dark years ?
“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” replied Stockdale.
“I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining moment of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”
Collins was silent for a few minutes. The two men walked along, Stockdale with a heavy limp, swinging a stiff leg that had never properly recovered from repeated torture.
Finally, Collins went on to ask another question. Who didn’t make it out ?
“Oh, that’s easy,” replied Stockdale. “The optimists.”
Collins was confused.
“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’
And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’
And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving. And then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
As the two men walked slowly onward, Stockdale turned to Collins.
“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, this is hardly a ‘good news’ market. Ebola. Ukraine. Iraq. Gaza.
In a more narrowly financial sphere, the euro zone economy looks to be slowing, with Italy flirting with a triple dip recession, Portugal suffering a renewed banking crisis, and the ECB on the brink of rolling out QE.
What are the implications for global stocks?
On any fair analysis, the US market in particular is a fly in search of a windscreen.
Using Professor Robert Shiller’s cyclically adjusted price / earnings ratio for the broad US stock market, US stocks have only been more expensive than they are today on two occasions in the past 130 years: in 1929, and in 2000.
Time will tell just how disappointing (both by scale and by duration) the coming years will be for US equity market bulls.
But we’re not interested in markets. We’re interested in value opportunities incorporating a margin of safety.
If the geographic allocations within Greg Fisher’s Asian Prosperity Fund are any guide, those value opportunities are currently most numerous in Japan and Vietnam.
The Asian Prosperity Fund is practically a poster child for the opportunity inherent in global, unconstrained, Ben Graham-style value investing.
Its average price / earnings ratio stands at 9x (versus 17x for the S&P 500); its price / book ratio stands at just one; average dividend yield stands at 4.2%.
And this from a region where long-term economic growth seems entirely plausible rather than a delusional fantasy.
Vice Admiral Stockdale was unequivocal: while we need to confront the “brutal facts” of the marketplace, we also need to keep faith that we will prevail.
To us, that boils down to avoiding conspicuous overvaluation and embracing equally conspicuous value – where poor sentiment is likely to intensify subsequent returns.
In this uniquely oppressive financial environment where the skies are darkening with the prospect of a turn in the interest rates, optimism could be fatal.
This is from a few days ago, but somehow I missed it. Wanted to make sure you didn’t.
Looks like he’s in Nantucket, where he vacations. Here’s the other half of our team, which is bravely taking on Hamas, Isis, Putin, China, and anybody else that gets in their way.
Don’t mess with these guys. They’re not afraid to break a nail.
This past summer I joined Carlos Miller and Jeff Gray here at PINAC. In doing so I brought together PINAC and The Open Records Project, which I began about ten years ago in an effort to educate, inform and activate Citizens in the effective use of state public records laws as a means to empower them to hold government agencies and officials accountable to the public and under the law.
I was also recently asked to produce an “television” program for the newly formed internet based “station,” OccupyTV. The show airs each Thursday night at 7 pm, 10 pm, and 1 am EST. The topics covered in the show will often overlap with the issues associated with PINAC: misuse and abuse of police power, citizens’ rights to record law enforcement and other public officials, and the public’s right to know and to have unfettered access to public records.
In the first episode I introduced myself and my own work in these areas by focusing on one struggle that I had with corrupt police and politicians in Alachua, Florida that began in 2006.
The story entails issues of police brutality and abuse of authority, rights to record public officials, rights to access public records, and government corruption.
In April of 2006, having been convinced that I could offer something positive by running for the State (Florida) House of Representatives in North Central Florida, I engaged in my first official act as a candidate.
I lived in Gainesville, the county seat of Alachua County, eleven miles south of a small town of approximately 7,000 known as Alachua. In the twenty years that I lived in Alachua County I had never spent much time in the city of Alachua – mostly driving through it on the way to the springs along the nearby rivers.
I had no idea that what I would find in Alachua was a City racked by corruption, ruled with an iron fist assisted by a government enforcement agency (the Alachua Police Department or APD), and existing in a world where the Civil Rights era never had an effect. Literally, those with dark skins still lived – consciously kept to their “proper place” – on the other side of the tracks.
Grapski’s Speaks as Candidate for FL House
It was April – and that meant it was the season for local municipal elections throughout the County. Thus on Tuesday April 11th I went to the City of Alachua to obtain ballot access petitions, so as to place my name on the ballot without paying the high fees, and to meet the citizens of the city and hear about their concerns.
I was not expecting what I encountered. Numerous residents came to me, knowing me by reputation from past challenges to corruption from taking on Florida Blue Key, the State’s “Good Ole’ Boy System” which was rooted and based at the University of Florida in Gainesville – culminating in a prominent lawsuit filed in 1995 and finally taken to trial in 1998 and 1999, to an attempt the previous year to have my then boss, University President Bernie Machen, found guilty for knowingly and willfully destroying and denying access to public records.
What they told me was difficult to grasp – even with my experiences with some of the most extreme and overt corrupt actors in the State. What I was told was that there was a fear by residents of retaliation from the local police force if anyone challenged the authority of a small ruling elite, of a handful of prominent land-holding families, of retaliation against the African American community by the local elite if they did not “know their place,” and retaliation against local businesses by City Hall if they dared challenge the status quo. Many of those who brought these stories to me – while I stood outside of the local Recreation Center which served as the largest of the polling locations in the election – broke down in tears. Their fears, I was to learn quickly, were well-founded.
I stated that I would inquire into all of what I was being told – but one allegation stood out as one that could be looked into, in fact directly observed in part, that very night. I was told about a history of election fraud in the local City Commission elections of the years – and particularly of a history of tampering with the absentee ballots to swing elections in the direction of the local regime’s candidates. And I was given information about similar activities in that year’s election.
The 2006 election was actually quite unique in Alachua. The incumbent, James Lewis, had served relatively unchallenged in that office – for forty consecutive years. That alone raised a red flag. But in this year’s election another notable local man, from a prominent family, Lewis Irby had been able to muster a serious challenge to the local cabal’s candidate. A larger turnout than usual had been coming to the polls. And although there were valid reports of direct threats to people who dared post Irby signs in their yards or at their places of business, among other attempts at coercing the local population to capitulate to the pressures of the ruling elites, it looked as if the challenger was likely to win. That was when the rumors of problems with the absentee ballots began to spread.
So that night, as I had promised, I went to the Canvassing Board meeting. What I witnessed there that night set off a multi-year Odyssey which still affects my life negatively to this day.
I literally watched as the City Manager along with several others on the City staff who were directly, but inappropriately, associated with the Lewis campaign reacted to my presence at City Hall that night.
After the precinct results were turned in and tabulated – indicating that the challenger, Lewis Irby was ahead by 18 votes – there was a strange hiatus with no explanation.
The Canvassing Board, consisting of three members: the Mayor, the City Manager, and one local resident chosen by them, left the chambers. Several individuals were then unlawfully gathering in the Deputy City Clerk’s office where the absentee ballot box was being stored. The Assistant City Clerk was serving as the Supervisor of Elections. This function was delegated to him by the City Manager, Clovis Watson, because Watson was supposed to be Supervisor because in addition he held the office of City Clerk. But as he was also on the Canvassing Board he could not serve in both capacities. Watson, it turned out, held several positions in the City – including a position created just for him: Police Commissioner.
Clovis Watson currently serves in the FL House of Representatives in the Seat for which Grapski was Running
While Watson and the Supervisor of Elections were huddled in the locked office, for over an hour, with the ballot box – another City staff member kept exiting the room, going to the parking lot, and conferring with the candidate and his campaign Treasurer, Hugh Calderwood. Calderwood was the Mayor’s husband (and she was, as stated above, along with Watson one of the three member Canvassing Board charged with determining what votes would be counted and what would be deemed invalid and from that determining the initial ballot count in the election). The staffer, Traci Cain (now the City Manager), would go from the Deputy Clerk’s office with messages for Calderwood, who at one point had me directly pointed out to them as they conferred in the parking lot, and then hurriedly scurry back to the locked office.
After more than an hour of this it was announced that the absentee ballots were ready to be counted. The Deputy Clerk, in his capacity as Supervisor of Elections, made an overly zealous display of carrying the box raised high in the air – and loudly proclaiming that he had the “only key” to the “as yet unlocked box.”
What I witnessed from that point on made it clear. The City officials had, in fact, been tampering with the absentee ballots. And in the process of conducting the election had violated nearly every single law applicable to municipal elections in Florida.
By the next day I had begun an investigation and had obtained sufficient evidence to confidently assert wrongdoing in the conduct of the election. And as the week continued I obtained far more, and far more troubling, evidence.
I offered to bring a lawsuit challenging the elections – but wanted a local resident as a plaintiff, and not just myself (I actually brought the lawsuit on behalf of another organization that I had created in the years prior, known as the Fair Elections Initiative). It took a lot of discussion before someone would volunteer for that role – because of the fear that residents had against retaliation. The initial resident who signed on to the case was about to move out of the state – and thus felt safer to be the first to take this risk. (Eventually we added a number of others who had voted in the election – including some who had cast, or attempted to cast, absentee ballots).
There is a lot more to this aspect of the story that cannot be recounted here – but the next set of events is important to set forth at this time. Working with a University of Florida Law Professor with whom I had taken a number of other cases in the past we filed the legal challenge the following Monday.
I immediately filed a public records request to look at the absentee ballot records (note – I did not say it was limited to the ballots themselves). I did not want them to know, specifically, what I wanted to look at – because I knew they would attempt to alter or destroy the evidence. On Friday I went to City Hall, armed with a digital voice recorder, and demanded to see the records.
All Hell broke loose as the Deputy Clerk reacted to my presence and request, made an issue of my recording, and called the police to have me removed. I had learned that the City had routinely used their local police to remove any citizen who went to City Hall with questions they did not want to hear or answer.
I stood my ground and demanded to meet with the City Manager. He was not in the office (it turns out he almost never was) but agreed to come in. The police reluctantly moved on.
When Watson arrived I had already been seated, with Eileen McCoy – the brave resident who placed her name on the lawsuit along with mine, in Watson’s office. I overheard the ranting of Alan Henderson, the Deputy Clerk/Supervisor of Elections, about my recording what was going on and the particular records (the log of absentee ballots – recording who requested one, when, when it was delivered to them, and whether and when it was received – a document that by law had to be available to me by noon during any day during the election cycle) that I specifically demanded that I be given at that time.
Watson entered his office, sat down, recognized I was recording him (stating “I see you’re recording me, I have no problem with that”), but telling me that even though he consented, legally I had to have that permission to record him. I corrected him. In Florida, as a public official doing public business in a public office, he could be recorded without either his knowledge or consent – because any and all of his actions or statements were by definition public.
Watson did not give me access to the records, contrary to the law, but did say he would get back to me via the phone. He called me later that day as well as emailed me over the weekend. I was given an appointment to review the absentee ballot records on Monday – at 10 am – in City Hall. But he demanded I provide him with a copy of my digital recording (he and the State Attorney’s office were conspiring to arrest me for “wiretapping”). I declined.
Grapski Arrested at City Hall Inspecting Election Records
On Monday I arrived and began to go through the records. But I did not do what Watson expected – simply count the ballots and learn, lo and behold, they added up to the number the Canvassing Board reported (after they counted the absentee ballots they declared the incumbent the victor by eight votes). Instead I was meticulously studying the envelopes within which they were claimed to have been submitted – and taking copious notes on every detail about them (date, postmark, signature, handwriting, ink color, seal, etc.).
Watson interrupted me with a nervousness clearly in his voice. “Mr. Grapski,” he said, “are you going to do that with ALL the envelopes.” (There were approximately one-hundred and fifty). “Yes,” I abruptly stated, and continued on with my work without raising my head.
Watson then left the room. A few minutes later he returned – this time his voice turned from nervous to clearly “authoritarian.” Mr. Grapski we have to deal with a matter – he said. I barely glanced up – to see Watson, a former body-builder, standing flanked on both sides by armed, uniformed officers and the Chief of Police.
Watson ordered the officers to place me under arrest and taken to jail for wiretapping. He was not only the alleged “victim” – he was the “arresting officer.”
Grapski is Taken in Handcuffs while Inspecting Absentee Ballots
This set off that Odyssey which took several turns for the worst over the next two years. I had proven the election was tampered with and numerous laws violated – including those that constituted felonies by Watson and other City officials. I also filed several other civil actions against the City – including for unlawfully refusing to produce public records, for unlawfully allowing Watson to hold two offices (City Manager and Police Officer), and for Watson and the City defrauding the Police Retirement Fund – to the tune of $1.5 million – by falsely reporting him as a full-time law enforcement officer rather than City Manager.
In retaliation – after I forced the wiretapping case to trial, representing myself in the end, after nine months in which I was literally “banished” by a Court from the City in which I lived – I would be arrested at least two more times. First, in February, at a City Commission meeting. It was not at City Hall – since, mysteriously, City Hall burned down – well, a fire occurred at about 1 am on a Sunday night. No alarms went off – but, given that the building shared a parking lot with the Fire Department, when one of the firemen stepped outside to smoke a cigarette – he smelled smoke, caught the fire in its initial state, and they put it out. The next morning, on the am News, Watson declared that the “heroic acts” of the Fire Department saved almost everything – “except” he added … and then listed a set of records that I had requested under the public records law the week before. Including all of his emails and that of the Mayor – which were not even held on the computers in City Hall which were claimed to be the source of the fire – but on a remote server.
Gainesville Sun Editorial on Grapski Arrest
Several months later, a week after Watson learned that I had gotten the State’s Department of Management Services, which is where the Retirement System is managed, to remove his fraudulent status and thus losing that extra $1.5 million, the added percentage he would be given on his pension for being an officer under dangerous duty (in the line of fire), and a two year early retirement date – Watson had the Police Chief attempt to investigate me for potential charges for writing bad checks (the problem is – there was no such issue let alone grounds for a local police department to investigate this) – and even to, without a warrant, obtain private financial information from my local bank.
After meeting with the Deputy Chief of the Department, one of the few I knew who was not corrupt, I was given information and instructions on how to file a complaint about the police involvement in that matter. The following Monday I went to the Police Station to file that complaint – as was required to be given to me under State law.
Instead, after waiting patiently and quietly for nearly twenty-minutes, the Chief came to me, asked me to step outside, and tried to convince me that there was nothing to be concerned about. When I insisted that I was going to file a formal complaint, which the State Attorney said was necessary because he would not directly accept such, I was told that I would not be permitted to do so and was subsequently locked out of the building.
Upon knocking on the door – the Chief followed by two other officers, including the Mayor’s son (the Mayor’s husband had been given a report written by the Chief, over the weekend, by the City Manager – and placed it on the internet. The report concluded I committed no crime – but was a three page diatribe trying to make me look bad as well as revealing private and personal financial information).
The Chief slammed my wrist to knock my digital recorder to the ground and attempted to grab it. When I bent down to pick it up – Officer Patrick Barcia (the Mayor’s son) grabbed me and threw me head-first into the glass wall.
Gainesville Sun Editorial After Grapski Wins in Court
Eventually, as they dragged me into the Station, they banged my head on the metal door jam – briefly knocking me unconscious. I was taken to jail and charged with Trespassing, Disorderly Conduct, Resisting Arrest with Violence, and three counts of Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.
The next day, while in the custody of the jail, the State Attorney made claims to the Court that I had been engaged in “violent” activities – building on a multi-hundred page dossier the Chief and Watson had provided to the State Attorney demanding I be arrested, charged, prosecuted and sent to prison. Included in it were claims that I was a domestic terrorist.
While I represented myself before the Court, demanding my right to a reasonable condition of release as I was neither a risk of flight nor a risk to the safety of the community, a female Detention Officer assaulted and battered me and tried to forcefully remove me from the video courtroom. I was in the process of addressing the judge as my own counsel.
Grapski Representing Himself while in Jail
After the proceeding was over – upon getting me outside the video courtroom – the female officer said she was going to strip search me. I objected on two grounds: it is unlawful for a member of the opposite sex to engage in such activities and only with a case-by-case authorization by the head of the jail can such a strip search be conducted. I demanded to speak with the Sheriff – who I personally knew – and who oversaw the jail.
I was tackled from behind, while on the floor with several officers on top of me, beaten including having my face pummeled into the concrete floor, then sprayed with OC-spray, point blank in the eyes, with an extreme series of slow and meticulous passes across my face. I went into involuntary convulsions. I could not breathe. My airway was closed off by a combination of the swelling as well as the mucous. And then placed head first under a running shower – the equivalent of water-boarding in effect – as the water filled my lungs and further caused me to be unable to breathe.
I was then taken to a holding cell, thrown down forcefully and head-first on the ground, and left there nearly unconscious. I called as best as I could for help – and at one point pulled myself up to the door and attempted to pull myself up to the glass so I could see and be seen. Before standing all the way – I passed out unconscious – hit my head on a metal bench and then the concrete floor.
It would be nearly a week before I got any medical attention. Two days after I was finally admitted to the infirmary, which only happened after a local newspaper did an interview with me in the jail accompanied by photos of my condition, I was taken to the hospital with “weak vital signs.”
Photos from Jail Interview Several Days After Grapski is Beaten and Tortured and a Few Days before he found himself in a Coma
Two further days later – and I awoke, like in the movies, from a coma.
There is much more to this story – but it is briefly told in the video above. I will also provide you with the legal documents from the Federal Civil Rights suit I eventually filed against the City and its officials.
Editor’s note: After publishing this post, it came to our attention that President Obama reportedly called the families of Brian Terry and Amb. Stevens. Twitchy apologizes for the error.
In the interest of transparency, Twitchy does not remove posts once they have been published. The original post remains below.
President Obama has yet to comment on the killing of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene in an attack in Afghanistan that wounded many others. It’s hard not to notice the situations Obama comments on publicly when he wants to, not to mention the phone calls he finds time for:
Obama phone calls:
• Brian Terry's family ❌
• Sandra Fluke ✔️
• Amb Chris Stevens family ❌
• Jason Collins ✔️
• General Green's family ❌— Hair (@SHannitysHair) August 06, 2014
Well, there is a good bit of it on this website that’s for sure. And it is growing. Today crony capitalism is talked about openly. A few years ago few people knew the term. 
Ms. Pelosi knows how to work a deal. As such opportunities just seem to fall into her lap from nowhere. Before Pelosi was in Congress she was comfortable, but she wasn’t rich. Yet now she’s worth tens of millions of dollars.
