Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"The Texas Constitution is clear in setting the condition of our state leaving the Union: 'Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States; and the maintenance of our free institutions and the perpetuity of the Union depend upon the preservation of the right of local self-government unimpaired to all the States.' Clearly, that condition has been met. Therefore, how long will our leaders make us endure a federal government that actively denies us our rights and each day seeks to take more away from us before we start applying the 'T' word to them? At what point in the encompassing federal tyranny do the Remainers that deny the people their choice and right to peaceably leave the Union deserve the label of traitor? For as those that collude with EU to prevent the People their rights are seen as traitors, perhaps we should view those who collaborate with Washington to deny us our constitutional liberty as deserving a place in the ranks of Vidkun Quisling, Benedict Arnold, and Guy Fawkes."
Ryan Thorson

"Like Presidents Bush and Obama, Trump is just shifting U.S. troops around like pawns on a chessboard, ready to sacrifice them for the good of the empire and the national-security establishment. Trump’s unwillingness or inability to bring all the troops home from Syria and elsewhere, despite the prettiness of his 'endless wars' rhetoric, is a testament to the overwhelming power and influence that the Pentagon, the CIA, and the rest of the national-security establishment wield in our land."
Jacob Hornberger

"Hypocrisy is anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most
penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it,
and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised."
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi

"Human liberty can only exist or be restored with an accurate perception of reality. Mind distorting fictions of government must be exposed. To do otherwise is to keep us dependent on an ivory tower mysticism based on lies and the duplicity of politicians and bureaucrats. 
Government is a parasite cult, organized, and disguised behind a peculiar language of code words and phrases. Without anyone taking notice, change agents distort keywords in our language. This blunts, diminishes and distorts our thinking process to the great advantage of unseen authority. This process is so gradual as to be imperceptible. Out of it evolves very sophisticated control and plunder. When our words are manipulated, our thoughts are manipulated into false realities and illusions. Consequently, our competitiveness and survival instincts are reduced in favor of dependence on government authority."
Bob Livingston

"Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.”"
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"I have mentioned before that there is no such thing as limited government; that is simply the orchid hothouse for the future prosperity of the expansion of government.
I do advocate self-government but that is the only self-limiting government in human affairs. Mind you, this is a dystopian vision in which the individuals, businesses and entities will fail and even perish but is nothing compared to the bureaucratized slaughter that has been the story of man for time immemorial under the illusion that GOVERNMENT COERCION AND VIOLENCE IS THE SOLE ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE OF HUMANITY."
Bill Buppert

"My God, we’re nearly 18 years into a 'war on terrorism' that’s a glaring failure at a cost of $5.6 trillion and counting. And now the same tactics are to be applied to 'white nationalism.' What could possibly go wrong? We’re sure it’ll turn out just as well as the war on drugs, the war on poverty and so on.
But that’s the 'do something' mentality of the Beltway class."
Dave Gonigam

"Socialists want everyone to have the vote, including all immigrants, none of whom would be illegal. Socialists advocate extending the welfare state by Medicare for All or single-payer, free college, housing benefits, and laws favoring labor. This set of giveaways combined with unlimited immigration and voting bankrupts taxpayers.
Unlimited immigration combined with an unlimited welfare state cause much higher taxes and inflation. These destabilize America by creating deep conflicts and deep economic distress. The economic system breaks down.
Democracy (everyone votes on anything) combined with unlimited immigration and the big government of the welfare state shatters freedom, property rights and capitalism, causing widespread economic distress and lower standards of living. This leads to drastic political changes, just as drastic political changes lead to drastic economic changes."
Michael Rozeff

"Our rulers have led us from one unnecessary slaughter to the next; and, to make matters worse, they have exploited each such occasion to fasten their chains around us more tightly. Like the ancient Israelites, we Americans shall never have real, lasting peace so long as we give our allegiance to a king—that is, in our case, to the whole conglomeration of institutionalized exploiters and murderers we know as the state."
Robert Higgs

"I’ve spent a lot of time in the Spanish-speaking world south of the US border. Other than quaint sombreros, some local food, and some basically primitive handicrafts, they don’t have a culture that’s worth anything.
That’s absolutely true of Africa. Africans should be eternally grateful to the West if, when da Gama was rounding the Cape in the 15th century, he’d just thrown out a wheel. But he would have also had to throw out an instruction book. But nobody could read it, because the entire continent south of the Sahara was illiterate.
This is true of most of the primitive world. I hesitate to say 'developing world' because development is solely due to imported capital and expertise. If that inflow stops, Africa could go back to the bush, with mass starvation.
The only cultures in the world that can compete with Western civilization are those in the Orient. But what do they have? Frankly, not much, apart from Taoism, Zen, yoga, martial arts, and some great cuisines. Some things of value but not much by comparison to the West."
Doug Casey

"Politics, as it exists today, never wastes a chance to make the beautiful ugly, and, even more so, the ugly even uglier
Let’s be honest about something we see nonstop but seldom appreciate: Politics makes life ugly. Politics turns people you disagree with into twisted, cartoon images of what they really are, and it pushes you into degrading and hating them. In short, it’s vile, corrosive, and hate-filled."
Paul Rosenberg

"It is enough to drive a person to despair that among the abundant evidence of American election interference, no attention is given by Democrats to interference by the Israel Lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the oil lobby, the Wall Street Lobby, the military/security complex lobby.  Sheldon Adelson, a single individual with a fortune from casino gambling of $33 billion, 300 million dollars, has more clout on the outcome of US presidential elections than Putin. These few lobbies mentioned above have resources between them in excess of the GDP of Russia.  It is totally impossible for Russia to outbid them."
Paul Craig Roberts

"We can no longer deceive ourselves with notions of absorbing Washington D.C. or Wall Street and making them work for us. The hope that this is possible is poison, and the elites use that poison to weaken public resolve. While we sit around waiting for the system to police itself the Earth turns and they become more powerful. Without a dramatic change in our own strategy, without direct action on our part instead of action through political middlemen, I predict our situation will only become worse."
Brandon Smith

"Any time you find yourself starting a sentence with, 'There should be a law,' you’re probably wrong. Here’s a helpful thought experiment for you to use from now on. Whenever you think there should be a new law, picture the person in government you hate the most and ask yourself if you want that person in charge of writing and enforcing your new law.
I understand that can be uncomfortable, but you need to start accepting the reality of what government can and will do to you. Government employees are not your betters, and they do not have your best interests at heart."
Jesse Kelly

"Government and its corporate partners have mastered deceit, in that this partnership has been able to purposely diminish the importance of the individual by exposing our differences instead of promoting our common human desires. Those long-standing common desires include love, family, peace and harmony, non-aggression, community, freedom, mutual respect, and caring for one another. By pitting us against each other through political means and fear, an almost uncontrolled opposition amongst us has emerged. There is nothing of value to be gained from this behavior, and only harm can result from such a detachment from common cooperation."
Gary D. Barnett

"Indifference is the opposite of love, it is the opposite of good, and it is the opposite of anything of value. It is worse than hate. Apathy in the face of depravity has become common among many around the world, but especially so in this make-believe land of the free called America. This attitude of emptiness breeds despair, but it is important to remember that the evildoers among us can only succeed in their efforts of madness so long as those watching remain silent and do nothing."
Gary D. Barnett

"The main grievance I have with any political structure is bigness. 
Some form of “democratic socialism,” after all, might be a great fit for a small community of 300 people who share the same values… goals… and lifestyles. 
Nitty-gritty, here’s what it comes down to: 
If it is voluntary, it is A-OK. If you want to live in an 'ecosexual' community that battles climate change by humping moss... you do you.
Why would I stop you? 
If it is mandated by law… by force… at the point of a gun… 
That’s where I start to quiver in paranoid fear at the potential implications. 
As we all should."
Chris Campbell

"To be sure, that generation of Americans that seceded from British rule in the late-18th century took the imperative of liberty as a given. They had benefitted from centuries of intellectual work by true liberals who had demonstrated that government does nothing for society but divide and loot people in big and small ways. They had come to believe that the best way to rule a society is not to rule it at all, or, possibly, to rule it in only the most minimal way, with the people’s consent.
Today, this social order sounds like chaos, not anything we dare try, lest we be overrun with terrorists and drug fiends, amidst massive social, economic, and cultural collapse. To me this is very interesting. It is the cultural condition that comes about in the absence of experience with freedom. More precisely, it comes about when people have no notion of the relationship between cause and effect in human affairs."
Lew Rockwell

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Frank Herbert

"Folks keep talking about another Civil War. One side knows how to shoot and probably has a trillion rounds. The other side has safe spaces, crying closets and is confused about which bathroom to use. Now tell me, how do you think that’s going to end?"
Zarathrusta