Canary in a Coal Mine

I feel more like a canary. Been singing a warning, been singing my heart away. And my heart feels worn, and broken,   My voice is harsh, but I still sing today. And when I'm gone, that should be warning to you. Because I'll leave my song.
Christopher Hartly Holte

Dealing with Nukes, Dealing with Iran

Boehner should be charged for violating the Logan Act. We can't arrest him til the term is over, but he broke the law:

Netanyahu didn't propose a solution to Israel's fear that Iran will get "The Bomb". He tried to prejudice our negotiations with Iran and sabotage our efforts to negotiate an agreement to get Iran to agree to not getting the bomb. All so he could win re-election in Israel. He's got a point. A better deal? I don't think is his goal. His real goal seems to be to sabotage any deal. As I've said before:

"No nuclear program is completely peaceful. They all exist so that governments can do zen proliferation. If they aren't building bombs now, the plants give them the option to in the future. To me the real problem is that nuclear power plants are themselves massive dirty bombs primed for accidental detonation and meantime poisoning their own people. Dimona is more dangerous to Israel than what the Iranians are doing. But an Iranian program under international monitoring is still better than an Iran buying bombs from N Korea, and the best way to guarantee attacks on Israel is to attack Iran."

He also played Balak ordered to curse Israel and praised Obama and his efforts on behalf of Israel when Boehner wanted him to attack him. I still think Boehner should be indicted (he can't be physically arrested til Congress is out of session) for violating the Logan Act but obviously that's not happening.

Attacking Iran might set back Iran's nuclear program, but more likely it would start a war. The only way to guarantee Iran doesn't build atom bombs in that circumstance would be to destroy the country. We could do that, but the Karmic retribution for Israel and the United States might be worse than if Iran were to get the Atom Bomb. Netanyahu is afraid of proliferation. Israel is the only country with atom bombs right now.

Nuclear energy is dangerous to those who have it. If we really want peace in the middle east and around the world we need to shut down Dimona, shut down our program, shut down Iran's program, and shut down nuclear programs around the world. But we aren't going to do that by having the head of a foreign country sabotage diplomacy. And sadly, we can't do it unilaterally without other countries using their own opportunistically.

The best thing that could happen to Israel would be to throw Netanyahu out of the Prime Ministry. It's not like he has any long term strategy for Israel except to beat up on Palestinians, put settlements in the West Bank, and war monger. He wants us to take the heat for Israel and keeps saying the same things. He'd sound like a broken record if you substitute the word "Iraq" for Iran from 20 years ago:

Netanyahu cheerleading the Iraq Invasion: [http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/31/1117211/netanyahu-iran-iraq/]

Individual Enterprise is Free Enterprise not Corporate enterprise

I've made my reading project to read through 12 volumes of works by Alexander Hamilton. This has already yielded dividends. One argument I have is with those libertarians and conservatives who confuse individual initiative with corporate initiative. During Hamilton's time there was a clear distinction. Alexander Hamilton said this about Corporations, referring to the model for modern conglomerates, the "East India Company" in 1795:

"The European intercourse with Asia is, in most cases, conducted by corporations or exclusive companies, and all experience has proved that in every species of business (that of banking and a few analogous employments excepted), in conducting of which a competition shall exist between individuals and corporations, the superior economy, enterprise, zeal, and perseverance of the former will make them an overmatch for the latter; and that while individuals acquire riches, corporations engaged in the same business often sink their capital and become bankrupt." The Works of Alexander Hamilton, (Federal Edition), vol. 6: [http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hamilton-the-works-of-alexander-hamilton-federal-edition-vol-6]

When Adam Smith and Hamilton talked of "free enterprise" they were talking about individual freedom, not corporate freedom.

I may revisit this article in the future. But I saw this quote and wanted to share it.

Ignorant Morons in Mosul

Ignorant morons in Mosul;

destroying great memories.

What would they replace them with?

decapitated heads?

 

Gross Angry buffoons,

Knocking down staid, timeless women,

beating their alabaster bodies to dust.

Fetishing their fear!

Thou shalt not image your God

And thou shalt not image that which is merely a thing of beauty.

An object of the past talking to ourselves.

Not an image of God, just a lovely work of art.

 

Yes, thou shalt not image your God!

But can't you leave other people's images alone?

Is your head misshapen like a cone?

Is your blood sugar low?

Do you need to eat a scone?

Are you really that stupod?

 

Yet I see you in a museum smashing ancient things.

Don't tell me your prophet said to do that.

You image a God who is a hateful destroyer.

Can that possibly be the True God?

I don't think so!

Your image of God is smashed stone dusting a museum floor.

You are idolators of destruction.

Imaging a destroyed world.

 

Your image of the future is dreck

Your image of God is a Ruler of hell.

Ignorance is Ignorance, stupidity is stupidity.

You cannot image the ineffable one.

And who would image God as broken stones on a museum floor?

 

Even if you try;

You can't speak for God, or tell H-m what to do.

Either you are a dead soul of false faith,

or deeds speak for you.

Either you walk in divine footprints,

Or you tread on the divine with brutal stupidity.

 

We Choose;

Nurture a World beauty

Or break the world in two.

 

But you put tires

around the necks of the innocent

and light them with lies

that make your prophet look like a Barbarian

It is you who defame your prophet.

It is you who blaspheme in the name of the Lord.

Not innocent statues broken on the floor.

 

Maybe you are jealous,

that these images stood for millennia

While people ignore your PR profile.

Maybe you are jealous,

That man could create such beauty,

in honor of the ineffable one,

and that you feel nothing but hate.

 

Maybe you are jealous,

because in your delusion

you hear no divine voices

and though you pray in front of others

silence greats your pleas.

 

Maybe you are angry because

Your sermons on Friday are preached by charlatans

And your scholars are liars who see a path of hate.

 

Don't tell me that it's I who make fun of your prophet

You walking parodies absurd with pretense.

You don't speak for God, that is the real Blasphemy

I doubt you even hear him.

I hear a voice in the night and it says:

 

He says "what manner of stupidity you do,"

assuming it is in MY name.

 

Meanwhile a museum has lost an invaluable collection

to a bunch of morons.

Christopher H. Holte

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/sacrificial-books-mosul-150227060556341.html

Morning

The Sun rose up

til it was high in the sky.

I saw new things.

I saw old things die.

 

Shadows spread,

then grew softer,

and died away.

 

Flowers bloomed quietly,

then faded to brown,

and fell to the ground,

 

Butterflies danced gently,

then laid their eggs,

and fluttered to the ground;

 

...and there was not a single sound.

 

CHHolte written March 11 1981

Erdogan proves to be even more corrupt than the Secular leaders he displaced

In Latin America "fearless Leaders" are known as "Caudillos" (among other terms) and sadly Erdoğan is turning into a typical Caudillo. Until we develop a system that is representative down to the municipality and has true bottom up democratic and Republican structures for representation in federated form, such people will continue to assert power and both fear and use fear to suppress opposition.

Of course he's up against the Former Ms. Turkey, Ms Merve Büyüksaraç. So I think he's the one who should be in trouble now. The poem she's charged with reciting is a humorous and satirical poem. The title translates as the "Master's poem" from the weekly humor magazine Uykusuz. I wanted to post the poem's translation. Apparently it's based on Turkey's National Anthem and so could probably be sun. But our World Wide 1984 censors seem to have deleted it from the entire internet. If I find it I'll update this post with it. I'm more upset with the connivance of our cowardly Internet guardians than with Turkey. Caudillos will be Caudillos, but the real sort of Cowards are the folks who won't challenge them. Erdogan can kiss my Pettuty. (I would kiss Marve's anytime)

And of course this illustrates "Social Dominance" behavior in action. Erdoğan couldn't get away with repression without the lying and connivance of his followers. The Washington Post version of the report quotes A Turkish official, the prosecutor, one "Mr Tepe":

"Mr Tepe does not believe Ms Büyüksaraç's remarks were an example of freedom of speech and in his indictment wrote: "The remarks shared by the suspect could not be considered within the terms of freedom of expression."

So political speech is not "free speech", in Turkey at least. She's of course denying she meant to insult him. But the fact is that she should have meant to insult him. I would be insulting him. He's a political figure not God. Disgusting [Daily Telegraph Article]

Of course political speech, especially satire and criticism, are precisely what "free speech" is about. Our Turkish friends don't get it. Folks like Erdogan are the real ones insulting their countries by subverting and corrupting them. I guess I can cross visiting Turkey off my Bucket List. Wouldn't want to go to jail for criticizing a crook.

People like Erdogan are willing to break their countries to get to the top. Even if they succeed it will It will all fall apart again when they die and in the meantime all their tyrannical power does is to result in corruption for the few and misery for the masses. What does this "Social Domination" get them? Nothing. Seriously, are you a http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/01/are-you-social-dominator.html? Or the kind of enabler that keeps jerks like Erdogan in power?

One Clue for both Social Dominators and Authoritarian Enablers is No Sense of Humor, or humility. The ones insulting these people or insulting the Prophet when folks make fun of how folks use his narratives, are the ones assaulting the humorists. Draw a little Hitler Moustache on his face and we could cast him to play the role.

Three stories on his behavior:

Former Miss Turkey, Ms Merve Büyüksaraç faces a prison sentance for political activity and faces prison for ‘insulting’ Erdoğan" http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/former-miss-turkey-faces-prison-for-insulting-president-erdogan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=78838&NewsCatID=341

Guilt feelings over the Armenian Genocide

Turks still deny there ever was an Armenian Holocaust. The ethic cleansing of Greeks, Armenians and others is denied. The later efforts to ethnically cleanse or launder Kurds into Mountain Turks also gets denied. This is one of the drivers of Turkeys drift rightward.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/795191/turkey-paid-muslim-brotherhood-$1-million-dollars-to-eliminate-armenian-genocide-documents.html

Attacking his own Central Bank:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/25/turkey-cenbank-erdogan-idUSL5N0VZ44P20150225

Another article on him and the model

http://news.yahoo.com/turkish-model-faces-jail-terms-insulting-erdogan-135345796.html [http://armenpress.am/eng/news/795191/turkey-paid-muslim-brotherhood-$1-million-dollars-to-eliminate-armenian-genocide-documents.html]

Irving Fisher and Stamp Script

In the last chapter [Postal Banking, Stamp Scripts and fixing our economic system] I used Monbiot's article ["A maverick currency scheme from the 1930s could save the Greek economy"] on the subject to introduce the notion of Stamp Scripts and a bit of it's history and successful application. In Austria, Stamp Scripts were squashed by the famous Austrian School economist Von Mises, who lated damned the author of the concept, Silvio Gessel, with faint praise. Irving Fisher was also mentioned in Monbiot's article. And it turns out he literally wrote the book on Stamp Scripts and Booms and Busts.

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/roehrigw/fisher/

I've learned that it's not so much that the winner writes history, it's that the powerful do their best to bury it. This applies to the lessons of the great depression. Including both those learned and those suppressed and not learned. One of the great unsung heroes of the Great Depression was Irving Fisher, who belongs as much on the list of reformers and practical economists as does Keynes. If we want to get out of the system of boom and bust created by our perverse economics, we need to start with him. One reason his writings have disappeared is that like Smedley Butler's book "War is a Racket" the money business is a racket that causes our booms and busts. That has to change!. But in this article I'm going to focus on Stamp Scripts, which is more than a palliative means to fight the depressions created by bad money, is also a means to prevent money from going bad.

If you talk to an elitist, an Austrian, a Neo-Classical economist, or a conservative "bad money" is anything but Gold. To the conservative Gold is sacred and money is sacred, as long as it is their own money. But if you talk to someone like Fisher you find this expression:

"If proof were needed that overproduction is not the cause of the depression, barter is the proof - or some of the proof. It shows goods not over-produced but dead-locked for want of a circulating transfer-belt called "money." Many a dealer sits down in puzzled exasperation, as he sees about him a market wanting his goods, and well stocked with other goods which he wants and with able-bodied and willing workers, but without work and therefore without buying power. Says A, "I could use some of B's goods; but I have no cash to pay for them until someone with cash walks in here!" Says B, "I could buy some of C's goods, but I've no cash to do it with till someone with cash walks in here." Says the job hunter, "I'd gladly take my wages in trade if I could work them out with A and B and C who among them sell the entire range of what my family must eat and wear and burn for fuel - but neither A nor B nor C has need of me - much less could the three of them divide me up." Then D comes on the scene, and says, "I could use that man! - if he'd really take his pay in trade; but he says he can't play a trombone and that's all I've got for him." [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp2.html]

A stamp script is a credit instrument. It is a note that says after a set time the script is to be redeemed for an equivalent amount of money by the issuer. Further it requires a tax stamp for each week it is in circulation, and is null and void unless the tax is paid up to date for the day it is due. So there is a premium on holding onto the currency. It is only legal tender if it is paid up to date. Fisher describes the operation in:

CHAPTER III STAMP SCRIP DESCRIBED[http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp3.html]

In Chapter 4 he describes the various experiments using Stamp Script and their successes in Austria [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp4.html]. In Chapter 5 he describes how it worked in various towns in the United States [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp5.html]. In Chapter 6 he describes the organization and execution. He suggested it be done by a municipal Government. [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp6.html] I have my own ideas on this, but they are pretty close to what he describes in chapter 8 [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp8.html]

In Chapter 9 he proposes why it should have been a national program, and how it should operate nationally:

"Reflation and stabilization are worked on the same principles - chiefly credit control; but reflation is a more radical application. Sweden did not try to reflate, but her stabilization has kept her price level steady since September 1931, while America's price level, since that same date, has kept foundering worse and worse. Yet many of us (ignorant, I fear, of Sweden's case) are still denouncing all reflationary principles as too radical. Evidently we need some reflationary force more radical than Sweden applied. But not without safeguards."

If John Turmel's observations are correct, the money supply doesn't so much inflate money as charging interest on issuing notes. The stamps could add some inflation, but nowhere near what happens when banks make loans based on an arbitrary pretense of reserves. A stamp script is a note that retires itself. It doesn't inflate permanently, though it will reflate. As Fisher noted:

"Even Sweden has a safeguard. Indeed, the safeguard is an integral part of the whole reflation-stabilization method. The safeguard consists of the average price of all commodities, the index number of prices. This index number and the level to which we want to raise and maintain our American price level are duly provided for in Senator Bankhead's proposed legislation. His goal for the price level is four-fifths of the price level of 1926. This, in the Senator's opinion, will give to both debtors and creditors a practical average of justice, and will restore the rank and file of business debtors to a degree of activity. At that precise point (four-fifths of the price level of 1926) Stamp Scrip is to retire. Thus, instead of threatening us with uncontrolled inflation, Stamp Scrip would improve the control by enabling it to operate faster."

But if we don't return to a faulty reserve currency then Stamp Script doesn't have to retire. The fact that it needs simply reflects the currency centralization created by our privateering banks. Money goes to the Headquarters and to the wealthiest people in the world who essentially hoard it as a commodity. It doesn't stay in local circulation. In his day it was the same.

"There are also some of us who believe Stamp Scrip to be more than a temporary auxiliary currency for the present emergency, believing that (if its volume and stampintervals were regulated according to varying conditions) it would be the best regulator of monetary speed, which is the most baffling factor in stabilizing the price level."

As it is Stamp Scripts have tended to be temporary. When money is available and easy to get, who needs to pay a stamp every week? But for local government, the ability to pay bills right away, and enable people to pay for things based on their income and credit -- without paying usury -- is just as necessary now as it was during the great depression.

Irving Fisher included "some of the goodnatured and open-minded give-and-take which occurred between Senator Bankhead and his colleagues when he introduced his and Congressman Pettengill's proposed stamp scrip legislation.":

Mr. Bankhead:

"Mr. President, the Bible says, 'The love of money is the root of all evil.' I think that statement may safely be paraphrased at this time by saying that a lack of money is the cause of most of our present troubles. We hear at all times nowadays discussion of the money question. We know the very great and difficult problems that are confronting our country, growing out of our situation with reference to money. Bank credits since 1929 have contracted in the neighborhood of $13,000,000,000, and are daily growing smaller and smaller. Nearly every day information comes to us about the condition of banks in the various sections of the country. It is not my purpose, Mr. President, to make any statement here that will tend in any way to aggravate the situation or to increase the state of alarm that so widely exists throughout the country, but we do know, without going into detail, the money condition in this country.

And Mr Bankhead continued:

"We have now a theoretical circulation of as much as or more money outstanding from the Treasury than we had in 1929; but Mr. President, we are confronted with the unfortunate situation that $300,000,000 of that circulation, as estimated by the Federal Reserve Board, is in foreign countries; that $100,000,000 of it has been lost; and that more than $2,000,000,000, in my opinion, is being hoarded; so that we are really without a sufficient circulating medium in actual use. "So far as the hoarded money is concerned, it might as well be idle in the vaults of the Treasury and not be outstanding . . . . We shall either have to take some positive, affirmative action on that subject, or decide that we will go through the painful, distressing, heart-breaking process of complete liquidation in this country."

Hoarded money is the US term for what Keynes called in more fancy language a "liquidity trap."

"If we are going to liquidate, why not let liquidation go on now and take its regular course? If we are going to let the farmers lose their farms, if we are going to let the town people lose their homes, if we are going to let bank after bank continue to fail, if liquidation is to be the ultimate result, why not abolish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation? Why not quit pouring money into various institutions like pouring water into a rat hole? Why further involve the credit of the nation and further burden the taxpayers of this country if it is merely to be used as a braking process to let the liquidation take place slower and slower?"

Bankhead was being rhetorical. But the thing about a Depression, is that unchecked it can result in a "failed state", or a complete collapse of an economy. So he continued:

""Mr. President, if there is to be liquidation, I want to point out to the gentlemen who are coming here and telling us to balance the Budget and to save the old standard - and I favor both if it is possible to do so - that if liquidation goes to its ultimate end, not only will the farmers and the small business men in this country be liquidated, but inevitably the cities, the States, the counties, and the Government itself will be liquidated; and the time will come when it will be impossible to collect enough taxes from the taxpayers of this country, after having lost their property, to pay the interest or the sinking fund upon the bonds of our cities, counties, States, and the United States."

In short our money is built on a wealth of goods, institutions, homes and prosperity, not the other way around. Those with wealth forget that.

"That is exactly what we are heading for, unless, through some intervention, through some plan or measure which might be devised by Congress or by some international action, there comes about a restoration of business, an increase in commodity prices, a renewal of the employment of those now upon the unemployed list . . . . " [http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp9.html]

Sounds like now. Of course the same effect as they were proposing could be accomplished by using treasury money to pay people. But the goal of a stamp script is to provide temporary notes. I would suggest that stamp script be used for "future contracts" type notes; someone is to get paid next month, pay the with the script with the due date being payday. More importantly since the Constitution prohibits states and municipalities from having their own money the Federal Government should provide treasury services to States and municipalities so that they don't get treated badly by the wealthy.

Further Reading

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/

http://www.i-r-e.org/docs/blancaccelerated.pdf

Hard to read/poor translation: http://www.slideshare.net/LocalMoney/silvio-gesell-the-natural-economic-order-11957639?related=1

http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.com/2014/05/mises-and-great-depression-in-austria.html

http://chomsky-must-read.blogspot.com/2008/09/market-economy-without-capitalism.html

More on Stamp Scripts:

http://www.lietaer.com/2010/03/the-worgl-experiment/

http://www.bullnotbull.com/blog-archive/p49.htm

http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~roehrigw/fisher/stamp4.html

A Biography of Gesell:

https://www.wiwi.uni-muenster.de/cawm/forschen/Download/Diskbeitraege/Gesell_Ilgmann-2011-CAWM-Discussion-Paper.pdf

Related Articles:

Our Officers earn themselves a "black spot" -- piracy in Business Government http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/01/our-officers-earn-themselves-black-spot.html

The Great Deformation -- Introduction to the "Good Money" debate http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-great-deformation-introduction-to.html

The only trickle down I see, are them marking my feet http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-only-trickle-down-i-see-are-them.html

Long Con Swindle of America, legalizing swindles through corrupt politics -- http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/wall-streets-long-con-swindle-of-america.html

Money isn’t a Bubble or a Ponzi Scheme (or Shouldn’t be) http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/10/money-isnt-bubble-or-ponzi-schemes.html

"Coddling" the Giant Oligarchic Companies http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2013/06/coddling-giant-oligarchic-companies.html

Satan's Usury, John Turmel and some basic observation about our Banking system http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/satans-usury-john-turmel-and-some-basic.html

Postal Banking, Stamp Scripts and fixing our economic system http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/postal-banking-stamp-scripts-and-fixing.html