"The preservation of a free government requires, not
merely that the metes and bounds which separate
each department of power be invariably maintained, but
more especially that neither of them be suffered to
overleap the great barrier which defends the rights
of the people. The rulers who are guilty of such
encroachment exceed the commission from which they derive
their authority, and are TYRANTS. The people who
submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves
nor by an authority derived from them and are slaves….."
-James Madison
***
HEY, PEOPLE! Please don't just
read what I post here (or anywhere), and nod your head sagely or
approvingly and then move on to other things. I don't post in order
to affirm your sense of things. I post in order to equip you with
perspectives and arguments with which to
educate others, and in the
expectation that you will forward my posts to other people (or
direct them to those posts). PLEASE do those things.
We won't win by YOU knowing what I
present. We will win by LOTS OF OTHERS knowing what I present.
Reaping The Whirlwind
For eighty-five years American
parents, especially, have largely abdicated
their responsibilities and let bureaucrats
decide what goes into their children's
heads. It can be no surprise that what has
been coming out of them lately is hatred and
scorn for those parents and their values and
traditions.
THROUGHOUT MOST OF MY CAREER as
a writer, I have had two chief areas of
interest (aside from my overarching focus on
promoting a widespread and accurate understanding of American law).
The first and foremost has been the nature
and limits of the power of taxation allowed
to government. The second has been the
danger of "public" (that is, state)
education of children.
And danger it is. As was
famously said by Vladimir Lenin, "Give us
the child for eight years and it will be a
Bolshevik forever." The same dynamic plays
out with anyone else into whose hands are
entrusted malleable young minds, and there
is no safety from the resulting harm in the
simple fact that those hands belong to what
is imagined to be a benevolent state.
"Content neutrality" is a myth. Indeed,
the mere idea that content could be neutral
(or, at least, that the state would deliver
neutral content) is itself an ideological
position, the transmission of which
influences the perception of all things in
the mind of its recipient. Further, the
state, given the role of educator,
inevitably imprints upon children a view of
itself as not only benevolent, but also necessary, and an authority figure to be believed and
obeyed, as well as honored.
But of course, "education"
doesn't stop with state idolatry. History,
economics, civics, literature and all
aspects of the manner in which people
interact are within the scope of the
education project. Each of these areas-- by
which are established a person's broad
understanding of the world-- are susceptible
to manipulation in service to a preferred
view and inescapably must be so manipulated.
As observed above, "content neutrality" is a
myth.
However much you or I may think
that our preferred view of any given subject
of concern is the objectively correct view,
there are others who feel differently-- or
are prepared to behave as though they do, in
any event. It is no surprise that when we
put our vulnerable children into the hands
of others for imprinting, it is the
preferred view of those others which ends up
being imprinted instead of the views of the
children's parents.
To so deliver our children to
the hands and influences of others, of whose
preferred views we have little direct
knowledge and over whose decisions in
molding our children we have little direct
control is to cast those seeds-- from which
the next generation of neighbors (and
voters) will arise-- to the wind, to grow
outside our careful guidance and nurturing.
OVER THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS
PLUS, multiple generations of American
children have been turned over in their tens
of millions to imprinting by state
apparatchiks. Each day that these children
spent or now spend being filled with the
preferred views of these bureaucratic
functionaries (calling them "teachers"
changes nothing about their roles) is a day
in which the parents of these children have
abdicated authority over what sort of adult
will emerge.
With each such generation, the
boldness of those into whose hands these
children have been entrusted has grown, and
the radicalism of their departure from the
views of each generation of parents has
increased, as well. Both evolutions go
largely unremarked and each of those
generations of parents are themselves more
complacent in relinquishing their children
to the state for indoctrination, because
they have been conditioned to a favorable
view of the state during their own time in
its hands.
Now, our schools at all levels
steadily manufacture "social justice
warriors" entirely ignorant and scornful of
the careful underpinnings of the
civilization that has thus far protected
them from the barbarisms of slavery and
impoverishment. These children, who remain
children even as they mimic adults in
appearance and power, are clueless of the
delusions and dynamics successfully deployed
to ruinously rule all people at all times
before Thomas Jefferson penned the
Declaration of Independence with its
underpinnings of individual sovereignty and
true rule of law, emancipating the founding
generation from ownership by kings and
priests, and setting the stage for the
emancipation of everyone from all such
subjugations.
And so, we reap the whirlwind.
(There's a solution, of course:
Break the pattern and
homeschool your children. Encourage
others to do the same, and though it may
seem harsh, show no mercy in your criticisms
of those who do not. Parental sloth in this
regard forges the chains your children will
therefore wear in very short order.)
"Society in every state is a
blessing, but Government, even in its best
state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst
state, an intolerable one."
-Thomas Paine
***
P.S. THE LATEST ENTHUSIASM
OF THE STATIST COMMUNITY is denunciation and suppression of
"domestic terrorism". This is not a new
chew-toy.
I wrote about the precursor push
down this road to Hell
here back in 2009 (and predicted its
revival), and I recommend the article to
everyone.
P.P.S. AS MY CONTRIBUTION TO
the "new normal", these newsletters, which
have been a weekly affair for most of the
last 15 years or so, will now officially
become "occasional". It may well be that
editions continue to appear each week but,
for a variety of reasons, I'm no longer going
to commit to that schedule.
Let me remind everyone that
being assured of notification upon the
posting of each upcoming edition is easy.
Simply go to
this page and subscribe to the group--
leave all options in their default states.
Archived newsletters going back
the last several years can be found
here. Updates and additions to LHC pages
and posts will continue, on no particular
schedule, as usual. The LHC site map can be
found
here.
A Few Observations
About Bitcoin, TDS, "Gender Dysphoria" And
Section 230
An eclectic mix, I know. But
the mind goes where the mind wants to go...
BITCOIN HAS BEEN ON a lot of
people's minds, lately, especially now that
it is trading at $50,000 per coin and "tax
time" approaches. Having had some inquiries
as to my views of bitcoin's relevance to the
income tax, and especially with the IRS
trying to pre-emptively characterize
apparent (or real) growth in bitcoin value
as "capital gains", let me make a few
points.
First of all, as regards
"growth in value" of bitcoin, it is nearly
as legitimate a statement of economic
reality to say in such cases that bitcoins
have not grown in value; rather, the fiat
"dollar" has diminished in value. When
previously 100 federal reserve notes (FRNs)
could buy one bitcoin and now more are
needed to make the same purchase (or more
can be had in exchange for one bitcoin), it is
as much because the FRNs are worth less than
they used to be relative to the bitcoins as
anything else. No real "gain"
is necessarily involved.
Of course, bitcoin DOES grow in
value relative to FRNs to some extent
now and then, because it rides popularity
bubbles. But even in this regard, such
growth in relative value doesn't qualify as
"capital gains" relevant to the income tax.
Enjoying a simple growth in the
value of something one owns against fiat
"dollars" (or anything else) isn't itself an
engagement in a taxable activity.
Tax-relevance of such growth can only arise
if the growth is generated by the
performance of
inherently-taxable acts, and the growth
merely serves as a measure of how much
activity was conducted in order to determine
the proper rate of tax to apply.
The rise in value by itself has
no tax relevance whatsoever.
AS A SIDE NOTE, it is worth
observing that at one time there was some
color to the idea that gains in investments
could qualify for an excise even
without regard to the nature of the activity
which produced them-- if
realized by use of a formal stock exchange
or similar institution. This notion informed
the Supreme Court decision in Nicols v. Ames,
173 U.S. 509 (1899) quoted in
CtC on pp. 8-9:
"A tax upon the privilege of
selling property at the exchange...
...differs radically from a tax upon every
sale made in any place." "A sale at an
exchange differs from a sale made at a man's
private office or on his farm, or by a
partnership, because, although the
subject-matter of the sale may be the same
in each case, there are at an exchange
certain advantages, in the way of finding a
market, obtaining a price, the saving of
time, and in the security of payment, and
other matters, which are more easily
obtained there than at an office or a farm."
Over time, the Nicol
v. Ames reasoning was let quietly fade
into the memory hole-- likely in recognition
of the fact that to affix taxable status to
the use of mere infrastructure-- hardly a
real "privilege"-- was an indefensible
proposition (and also fraught with
problematic complications, such as when
gains are had from inherently-taxable
activity and are being realized
through growth in exchange-traded stock...).
But even were Nicols v. Ames still
being upheld as good and current law, growth
in the value of bitcoin isn't accomplished
or realized due to trade at an exchange and
instead falls into the category
distinguished by the Nicols court
as being NOT of the kind which is
excise-taxable.
Indeed, the Nicols
court declares a tax on a sale not availing
itself of an exchange as being effectively a
property tax:
"The latter tax is really
and practically upon property. It takes no
notice of any kind of privilege or facility,
and the fact of a sale is alone regarded."
Maybe that declaration is the
real reason Nicols v. Ames
has been allowed to slip into obscurity...
***
DURING THE POST-"ELECTION"
PERIOD it has been interesting to observe
how "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS) has
manifested in independents and nominal
members of the Republican party. Those
afflicted seem incapable of even considering
the possibility of a stolen election (and
therefore unwilling to even consider the
possibility that evidence exists of such a
steal) because they simply can't imagine
that large numbers of Americans would vote
for Trump (or vote against Biden).
In the alternative, these
TDS-afflicted Americans are themselves so
powerfully repelled by the idea of a second
Trump term that they can't bear to consider
that in fact, Trump may have won that term,
and for THAT reason can't bring themselves
to honestly consider the possibilities.
I WILL GRANT that I have not
made inquiries of any of the TDS-afflicted
by which to verify my suppositions.
Nonetheless, I express them with some
confidence. I seriously can think of no
credible alternative explanations for the
buy-in by these folks to the frankly absurd
proposition that Joe Biden, who couldn't
pull more than a literal handful of
supporters to a rally, was tanking in even
the Democratic primaries until he got an
engineered boost in South Carolina, and tied
himself to Kamala Harris, who was doing even
more poorly than Biden himself in the
primaries, pulled more votes than Hillary
Clinton in 2016 or Barack Obama in 2012.
And those are not the only
indicators making an actual Biden victory
ridiculous on its face.
There is the fact that 18 of
the 19 bellwether counties famously accurate
for predicting the winner picked Trump, who
even in the supposedly Biden-exceeded
"official" tally pulled more votes than any
incumbent in history and did better with
every demographic than in 2016 (including
with African-American and Hispanic voters).
Likewise, Trump did better last November
than in his winning run in 2016 in every
county across the board except a handful in
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin
and a couple of others.
It is the more-or-less
simultaneous early-A.M. miracle-dumps for
Biden in this handful of counties-- each of
which put the county squarely and
inexplicably out-of-sync with all their
counterpart counties, whether urban, rural,
minority-stronghold or not; and each of
which dumps are richly-tainted with serious
and indisputable evidence of fraud, even
unto real-time videos capturing the illegal
(and seemingly coordinated) behavior-- which
are the sole basis for the claim that Sleepy
Joe won the election.
Even with all that said, it's
only the tip of the iceberg. Many, many more
reasons exist for any honest person to
scratch his or her head and take every
opportunity to scrutinize the election with
skepticism-- not the least of which is the
downright creepy and deeply suspicious
monolithic chant by obviously-partisan MSM
organs that "there is no evidence". That
kind of hypnotic effort virtually screams
that there IS evidence, and damning
evidence. No one behaves like that for any
other reason, and in fact, the merest level
of professional pride would prevent any such
behavior in the absence of an agenda to
conceal and deceive.
I HAVE HAD TO SAY THIS every
time I've written on this subject over the
last four months--
I am no fan of Donald
Trump. I hate the idea of another four years
of many Trump behaviors and policies. Just
the idea of another four years of Mike Pompeo would be enough by itself to make me
dread the thought of a second Trump term (or
would if we weren't likely getting
more-or-less Pompeo-lite in the form of Tony
Blinken anyway...)
But Joe Biden's policies are
even worse, and the
straight-from-dystopia-central behavior of
those trying to cement the Biden
office-steal into place is so destructive
that it is enough by itself to demand a
rejection of the fraud. Plus, of course, the
matter of properly assigning the office to
the actual victor is one of upholding the
rule of law.
Let's remember, a lot of folks
weren't happy at all about Barack Obama
taking office, with his expected socialist
policies in tow. But there being no manifest
indicators of election fraud littering the
landscape and thus no threat or betrayal of
the rule of law at issue, no protests
erupted.
Now, the stakes are much
higher-- reaching the literal level of
"existential".
***
I WATCHED
AN INTERESTING FILM the other day, in
which the refreshingly brash, witty and
mostly-sensible Steven Crowder set up a
table on a university campus inviting any
one who cared to attempt to convince him
that there are more genders than the two--
male and female-- which have been
universally-recognized in all places and all
times by all of human-kind, including the
giants of philosophy, psychology,
anthropology and sociology down through the
ages-- even those from among cultures in
which homosexuality, cross-dressing and
other gender-bending practices were common
and tolerated-- as the sum total in the
category. I was prompted to a few thoughts.
Transgendered people want to
exercise or adopt characteristics of what
they imagine to be gender roles incompatible
with their biological selves. Their "dysphoria"
is just an unhealthy embrace of Hollywood
male and female stereotypes by which they
are led to believe that biological men or
biological women cannot have or exercise the
desired faculties or behaviors, such as men
being compassionate or nurturing, or women
being strong or entrepreneurial.
Equipped with a better-educated
(or more thoughtful) grasp of the realities
of human nature which is unbent by
ideological nonsense (probably) from the radical
feminist or homosexual communities (which
are doubtless happy to be pushed toward the
center of the spectrum by the growth of a
new element on the fringe),
those otherwise imagining "gender
transformation" as the only route to their
preferred social role would realize that
their baked-in, natural, biological self is
perfectly suited to the job (and much more
so than the contorted Procrustean solution
of pretending that they are what they
plainly are not).
At the same time, equipped with
a better-educated (or more thoughtful) grasp
of the realities of human nature unclouded
by a pointless compulsion to be what they
are not, today's "transgender" community
would cease its pressure on a
generously-spirited American population to
accommodate its socially destructive
delusions about the nature of sex and
gender. It's a win-win outcome.
***
THERE HAS BEEN MUCH IN THE NEWS
over the last few months about "Section 230"
of the Communications Decency Act, the
section behind which online platforms like
Facebook and Twitter crouch when exercising
censorship of content disfavored by their
owners. Technically, section 230 provides
that online platform owners shall not be
treated as publishers, and therefore not be
deemed liable for the content posted on the
platforms by others (that is, by
subscribers).
The problem with the provision
as a shield for platform owners is, of
course, that when those platform owners
censor content, they claim for themselves
the benefits of publishing-- picking and
choosing what content will and will not get
an airing on their private platforms, to the
benefit of favored content and its purveyors
and the harm of disfavored content and its
purveyors-- while also claiming the benefit
of liability protections only proper for
non-publishers. In short, these online
platform-owners want to have their cake and
eat it, too, pretending that Section 230
allows them to censor content while
retaining immunity for liability, a
two-pronged effect not actually stated in
the law.
Section 230: "No provider or
user of an interactive computer service
shall be treated as the publisher or speaker
of any information provided by another
information content provider." Nothing here
expressly allows platform owners to censor
content while retaining liability
protection. It may seem a fine point, but
this language indemnifies "providers" and
"users", not "censors".
Congress could have said "No
provider, user or moderator..." and actually
established that platform owners were
permitted, by virtue of Section 230, to act
as publishers (picking and choosing content)
while still being treated as though they are
not, had that really been its intent. And in
the law, when some things are specified
(provider, user) it means that what is not
specified (censors) are excluded.
I HAVE RECENTLY SEEN a
"defense" offered on behalf of Mark
Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook) and the rest
(in a piece in February 4th's Detroit News
absurdly titled 'Section 230 Protects
Your Free Speech' by Shoshana Weissmann
and Canyon Brimhall of the 'R Street
Institute', an alleged free-market think
tank) of the twisted exploitation of Section
230 as described above. Weissmann and
Brimhall argue that we should all be
grateful for that twisted exploitation,
because,
"Without Section 230,
websites would be forced to moderate
everything or nothing. If they moderate
nothing, they may face no liability for user
posts. But [if so they] face an unending
stream of spam, harassment, illegal content
and other content that harms users. ...
Platforms that chose not to moderate would
become the digital Wild West where anything
goes and nobody's safe."
I can barely pry my fingers
loose from my pearls after that "Wild West
where anything goes" thing...
HOW PRETENTIOUS, CONDESCENDING
and desperate an "argument". Once it has
imposed a log-in challenge to users of being
18 years old, no platform has any proper
business spending a moment worrying about
the content posted on what is presented to
the market as a communications medium.
Not only are all users
grown-ups capable of handling unpleasant
words and of sorting out the quality of
information for themselves, but no one on
such platforms need ever be exposed to
content of users other than those whose
posts they have agreed to receive.
FURTHER, CONTENT CANNOT "harm
users". The very idea that it can, and/or
that some platform provider can or should be
the arbiter of such supposed harmfulness, is
the creepy, skin-crawling essence of
dystopia.
There is only one kind of
speech that can harm users and that is speech that implicitly
or explicitly endorses censorship of any
other speech. It is in recognition of
this point that America recognizes the right
of every person to hold and express whatever
views seem right to that person, providing
for sanction only when expressions become
physical.
***
BONUS ITEM-- Here is a little
something everyone might want to encourage
as a new law for the state in which they
live (with appropriate addition on penalty,
and so forth), for reasons that will be
obvious to some:
ANY PERSON OR PERSONS HOLDING A
POSITION of trust and honor found to have
knowingly withheld, suppressed or obscured
information from the public for lack of
which an untimely death or disability
results shall be guilty of a felony.
THIS VIDEO PROJECTS THE PROGRESS of a nuclear exchange between Russia and
the United States. It's frightening, as it should
be, as well as sobering and instructive. My only
criticisms are, first of all, that it fails to
account for the imbalance that will now be present
in any such exchange due to
the new Russian
hypersonic weapons.
Secondly, the video fails to account
for China's contribution to the exchange against the
US, which is a virtual certainty. China knows that
if Russia goes, and the US survives, it goes soon
after. So, that will not be allowed to happen.
CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE how abysmally
stupid someone would have to be to continue to doubt
or deny that
CtC has revealed the actual, complete and insurmountable
truth about the income tax in light of the overwhelming
mountain of
historical,legal,
practical and
logical evidence to the contrary? (Not to mention
the
outright lies and even
ludicrous hoaxes the executive and some corrupt
members of the judiciary have been caught at in desperate
efforts to conceal the truth...)
Plainly any such denier must either be
abysmally stupid or be an abysmally corrupt government
official or other person who sees him or herself as
benefitting from the lies about the tax by which America
has suffered for 75 years now.
Isn't this true?
"A slave is one who waits
for someone to come and free him."
-Ezra Pound
*****
Did you know…
…The US may be
the only country in the world where people working
in the non-federal private sector must commit
perjury in order to owe and pay ‘God’s things
to Caesar’?
If you work in the
private sector, stop falsely swearing that your
private-sector earnings are federal “income”1.
Perjury is a crime. Exercise the law’s
provision for protecting your private-sector
earnings from the 154-year-old2 indirect
excise known as the federal income tax.
Rebut fraudulent allegations made by your payers
regarding the legal nature of your work and
the earnings derived therefrom, so that you
pay only your fair share. Join the hundreds
of thousands of honest, law-abiding Americans
who have been doing so for more than a decade.
Learn how for free at losthorizons.com.
1--“We must reject…
…the broad contention submitted in behalf of
the government that all receipts—everything
that comes in—are income…”.
United States Supreme
Court, So. Pacific v. Lowe, 247 U.S. 330, (1918)
2—The income tax in
the United States was first instituted into
law on July 1, 1862, during Lincoln’s presidency
under the excise laws of the United States.
The preamble to the 1939 Internal Revenue Code
traces its roots to this original income tax
law.
Important guest observations
and commentary with an important afterword
by Yours Truly
The
Decline of the West: American Education Surrenders
to 'Equity'
by Philip Giraldi
Public education in
the United States, if measured by results,
has been producing graduates that are less
competent in language skills and
dramatically less well taught in the
sciences and mathematics since 1964, when
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores peaked. The
decline in science and math skills has
accelerated in the past decade according to
rankings of American students compared
to their peers overseas. A recent
assessment, from 2015, placed the U.S.
at 38th out of 71 countries in math and
24th in science. Among the 35 members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development OECD), the United States came in
at 30th in math and 19th in science. Those
poor results must be placed in a context of
American taxpayers spending more money per
student than any other country in the world,
so the availability of resources is not
necessarily a factor in most school
districts.
Much of the decline
is due to technical advances that level the
playing field for teachers worldwide, but
one must also consider changing perceptions
of the role of education in a social
context. In the United States in particular,
political and cultural unrest certainly have
been relevant factors. But all of that said
and considered, the U.S. is now confronting
a reassessment of values that will likely
alter forever traditional education and will
also make American students even more
non-competitive with their foreign peers.
Many schools in the
United States have ceased issuing grades
that have any meaning, or they have dropped
grading altogether, which means there is no
way to judge progress or achievement.
National test scores for evaluating possible
college entry are on the way out almost
everywhere as they are increasingly being
condemned as “racist” in terms of how they
assess learning based solely on the fact
that blacks do less well on them than Asians
and whites. This has all been part of an
agenda that is being pushed that will search
for and eliminate any taint of racism in the
public space. It has also meant the
destruction or removal of numerous historic
monuments and an avoidance of any honest
discussion of American history. San
Francisco schools are, for example,
notoriously spending more than $1 million
to change the names of 44 schools that
honor individuals who have been examined
under the “racism and oppression” microscope
and found wanting. They include George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham
Lincoln, and Paul Revere.
The new world order
for education is built around the concept of
“equity,” sometimes described as using the
public education system to “ensure equitable
outcomes.” But the concept itself is deeply
flawed as the pursuit of equity means
treating all American unequally to guarantee
that everyone that comes out of the schools
is the same and has learned the same things.
That is, of course, ridiculous and it
penalizes the good student to make sure that
the bad student is somehow pushed through
the system and winds up with the same piece
of paper.
And the quality
overall of public education will sharply
decline. One might reasonably observe that
imposition of a totalitarian style “equity”
regime based on race will inevitably drive
many of the academically better prepared
students out of the system. Many of the
better teachers will also move to the
private academies that will spring up due to
parental and student demand. Others will
stop teaching altogether when confronted by
political correctness at a level that prior
to 2020 would have seemed unimaginable. The
actual quality of education will suffer for
everyone involved.
All of that has
been bad enough, but the clincher is that
this transformation is taking place all over
the United States with the encouragement of
federal, state and local governments and
once the new regime is established it will
be difficult or even impossible to go back
to a system where learning is actually a
discipline that sometimes requires hard work
and dedication. In many school districts,
the actual process of change is also being
put on the back of the taxpayer. In one
Virginia county the local school board
spent $422,500 on a consultant to apply
so-called Critical Race Theory (CRT) to a
new program of instruction that will be
mandatory for all employees and will serve
as the framework for teaching the students.
When schools eventually reopen, all
kindergarteners, for example, will be taught
“social justice” in a
course designed by the controversial
Southern Poverty Law Center and “diversity
training” will be integrated in all other
grade levels. Teaching reading, writing and
arithmetic will take a back seat to “social
justice.”
GIRALDI POINTS OUR ATTENTION to a truly
pernicious dynamic at work in places throughout
America that is not only fraught with danger for the
overall well-being of our nation, but imposes a
tragic injustice on our children. Where it has been
understood in every schoolhouse and in the dreams of
every budding scientist or athlete that hard work
and focus generate accomplishments and accolades,
the socialist dementia of "equity" teaches that hard
work is for suckers.
This trend of "equity"
considerations (which is to say, this
assault on meritocracy) is part of an
overall effort to destroy Western
civilization by those to whose agendas its
underlying principles of individual
sovereignty and
the rule of law are a hindrance. It
should be opposed strenuously-- which means
you and I must be at every school board
meeting voicing opposition, and taking
positions within the structures if need be.
A PARELLEL (AND MORE POWERFUL)
DEFENSE against the erosion of our
civilization by way of the schools is to
remove children from those schools. This can
be done easily by the simple expedient of
spreading and acting on
the truth about the income tax.
That truth frees parents from
the need for both to be in the workforce in
order to bring in enough to support the
household, freeing one to become the
educator of the children.
See this for a bit more.
Take charge, people, or someone
else will take charge of you.
I HAVE DONE MY BEST to lead this country
to liberty from the mis-applied income tax. I have labored
hard. I've shed a lot of sweat, a fair bit of blood
and more than a few tears. But I seem to be pretty poor
at that kind of work.
When I have asked all of you for what I
firmly believe is a necessary resource to move the ball
downfield and give all of us the best chance at justice
and an end to the assault on the rule of law-- simple
testimonial videos requiring nothing from any of you
but the phone in your pocket and three minutes of speaking
from the heart-- I have had only a handful of people
answer my call.
I CAN'T KEEP GOING THIS WAY. I have to
be able to turn my attention away from writing new persuasive
or skepticism-addressing articles week after week, and
toward research, analysis and educational presentations
that will benefit everyone already in this community.
I need time to do some suing, and to bring together
the resources and talent toward that end.
As said, it is my firm belief that your
testimonial videos are the resource that I need to make
big things happen, and they are unquestionably the thing
I need to allow me to turn my attention away from trying
to get horses to drink at the waterhole to which I have
led them. Your words, in your great numbers and all
in your own different ways, will do that better than
anything I write possibly could.
And yet, you are not providing them. This,
despite my having been asking you for them for many
years now.
Therefore, with enormous reluctance, I
am making portions of this website restricted access
only. People have been urging me to do this for years
now, telling me I should impose a charge to access my
work-product, so as to enable me to keep producing.
I have never been inclined to charge fees
for access. I ask for donations, and will continue to
do that, and if they do not come, then I will conclude
that my work is of no value to anyone, and I will close
shop.
But I now WILL charge a special
something for access to some key portions of that
work.
Opening selected pages on
LHC comprising higher level legal
resources now requires the submission of qualifying testimonial
videos, as discussed, described and demonstrated
here.
The videos must be accompanied by scans of a recent
educated filing along with responsive documents from
the IRS, whether in the form of a check, a notice
identifying and reflecting the filed return, or
"return" and "account" transcripts for the year for
which the return was filed. Names must be shown in
full.
Similarly, if
an email comes my way asking for guidance or assistance,
I had better already have your video posted.
I HATE TO PLAY IT THIS WAY. But I want
to win.
I'll tell you a story from when I was coaching
my kids in soccer. Both of my kids at a certain age
in their careers had run into a wall common to all but
the very exceptional. They had gotten to be pretty good,
and they wanted to enjoy the benefits of their hard
work. But the arrival of this interest coincided with
a new self-consciousness which made them reluctant to
risk failing and looking foolish. So, they were hanging
back from seizing the main chance when it appeared,
and driving for the goal.
My solution was to post on the wall of
our dining room a couple of simple points about self-discipline,
the chief of which is this: You can't score a goal if
you don't take a shot.
That's how it is here, too. If you don't
stand up, you are laying down, and you'll never score
that goal.
Here is what my kids live by now, in their
own version of that lesson. I hear it from them all
the time as they excel (accompanied by the sound of
a father's breast swelling with pride): Go hard,
or go home.
You, too. Go hard, or go home.
Send those videos.
Do I ask for a lot? I want your victories
to post, your financial support, your efforts at spreading
the word, and your beautiful faces and inspiring words,
too. It IS a lot.
But it's not too much. I'll let Thomas Paine explain:
"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder
the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we
obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows
how to put a proper price on its goods; and it would
be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as freedom
should not be highly rated.”
We each have our reasons, and our story.
It's time, and it's needed, for you to share yours with
the world.
P.S. READ EVERYTHING THAT
FOLLOWS, CAREFULLY AND THOROUGHLY!!
"The day we see truth and do not speak
is the day we begin to die."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
What does it for you?
Is it simply because no moral and upstanding
person has any choice when it comes to telling the truth
over his or her signature, whether on tax forms or anywhere
else?
Is it recognition of the critical importance
of the rule of law, and the knowledge that if everybody
leaves its caretaking to someone else, it will soon
be lost to us completely?
Is it the money?
Maybe it's just simple respect for your
own rights as a human being, who is not and cannot be
not involuntarily subordinated to others?
Maybe it's just simple respect for your
general civic responsibility to be the grown-up and
enforce frugality and restraint on a big, powerful creature
of our own devising which otherwise is like a badly-raised
teenage boy given whiskey and car keys and let loose
on the road to wreak havoc?
Or is it, perhaps, a more acute anxiety
that if our bonfire of a state isn't damped, and quickly,
it'll soon burn down the house around us all?
What IS it that firms up your jaw and stiffens
your resolve?
It's time to take off the bushel and
share your light!
I would like you to think about what it
is that motivates you for a few moments (or all day,
if you like), and then send me your thoughts. I want
to put YOUR reasons to work inspiring folks who don't
yet understand what this is all about.
In this day and age, the most effective
way for you to share your thinking for the benefit of
others is to video-record yourself talking about how
you feel, and explaining what inspires and motivates
YOU.
All you need is a webcam or cell-phone
equipped with a camera. If you don't have, or know how
to use, one of these, have a friend help. (And if
you use a cell-phone, please have the orientation
horizontal, not vertical-- that is, so that the
screen of the phone on which you are watching
yourself while taping looks like a TV or movie
screen.)
If needed, write a little script for yourself.
Better, though, to just speak extemporaneously, after
spending a little time sorting out your thoughts and
getting down into your heart. Perhaps make it a video
of someone in your family, or a close friend, interviewing
you.
Dress "business casual". Be well-groomed.
Keep yourself to no more than 2 or 3 minutes,
and keep in mind that the purpose is
not to educate,
but to INSPIRE, ENCOURAGE and ENERGIZE. Your video will
be one of many to be shared. If you need to go
longer to really say your piece, go for it (but long
or short I may edit if something strikes me as
wandering or off-key or unacceptable).
You needn't feel any obligation to be profound,
and you shouldn't try to explain anything about the
law, other than to say that you have read it and you
know it's on your side. You just need to be sincere,
and uplifting. Your object is to make your audience
want to have what you have, and to be where you are
in your heart.
Don't talk to ME, or to others in the
CtC-educated community. Make remarks that are suited
to the NON-CtC-educated community, and at the same
time, be mindful that you're speaking to an
audience that doesn't yet know ANYTHING about the subject,
and whose first reaction is, "This must be illegal;
this must be dangerous; this is too good to be true."
You want to pull that audience right past such things,
and straight to a focus on truth, morality, and our
American heritage of liberty and the rule of law.
Remember: INSPIRE, ENCOURAGE, ENERGIZE.
Speak about rights. Speak about morality,
and the obligation of a grown-up and responsible person
to speak the truth and to enforce the Constitution.
Speak about everyone's duty
to give to God what is God's, always, and to Caesar
only what is really Caesar's. Speak of your obligation
to respect yourself, and to look out for the current
and future well-being of your children and your fellow
citizens. Speak of
CtC, and what its information has done for your
understanding and resolve. Show the book.
If you have had victories, describe them.
Better still, show them, if possible.
Be clear about just what you accomplished:
EVERYTHING back-- Social Security, Medicare and all;
a "notice of deficiency" closing notice; an on-paper
agreement or acknowledgment that your earnings weren't
subject to the tax and everything withheld or paid-in
was an "overpayment"; a transcript showing all $0s;
or whatever happened.
When you speak of state victories, name
the state. If you had to overcome balkiness from a tax
agency before winning any victory, describe that, too!
If you're in a battle now, speak of your
resolve to uphold the law, come what may--
why you're not discouraged, and why you are not
standing down, not slinking back into the barn, and
not choosing to endorse the lies. Don't get
into details-- your audience is going to have no
idea what a "LTR3176" is, and you will NOT be
capable of explaining it adequately. This is an
subject area concerning which you should speak from
the heart, not the head.
If you haven't
yet begun to act, share the reasons for your decision to do so, and
your plans.
Remember, your purpose is to INSPIRE, ENCOURAGE
and ENERGIZE.
Watch your own video after you
record it and ask yourself: Putting yourself
in the place of someone completely immersed
in "the matrix"-- oblivious to any notions
that you might have been a victim of an
"ignorance tax", and comfortable with the
status quo-- would the video you just made
encourage you to push aside your comforting
illusions and learn the liberating truth? If
not, try again.
Identify yourself. Anonymity is for criminals and self-doubters, not
CtC
warriors. Naming yourself is a requirement, and your
name will appear as a subtitle on the video when I
prepare it for posting, in any event.
Mention what you do for a living, whether
you're a doctor, homemaker, lawyer, trucker, IT guy
or gal, retiree or student. Help people understand
that the company of grown-up activist Americans they
are being invited to join cuts across all demographics
and all interests-- with the common denominator being
respect for the law and love of the principles on which
this great country was founded.
This is your chance to get a LOT accomplished.
We've all had frustrating occasions of
trying to explain all this to a friend, neighbor, family
member or co-worker, only to pile up against the wall
of a mind not yet ready to listen and learn. Here is
your chance to address a self-selected audience of folks
who have themselves decided that it's time for them
to begin paying attention, and have clicked on your
testimonial for exactly that reason.
Further, think about this: You want judges,
bureaucrats, CPAs, lawyers, the HR people where you
work, your pastors, your neighbors and everyone else
to acknowledge the truth about the tax openly and straightforwardly.
How and why would these folks do this if YOU won't?
You want these folks to learn the truth.
Why would they even recognize that there is a truth
to be learned if you won't attest to having learned
it yourself? You've got to stand up, face forward and
chin up and tell these folks that you have studied and
checked and verified and seen the evidence and seen
the government evasions and you know that the tax is
not the capitation that the beneficiary government wants
everyone to think it is but a benign, strictly limited
thing, and that they need to study and learn that, too.
Again, if you have victories to show, that's
nice, and powerful, too. But you don't have to have
victories to display in order to declare your knowledge
of what the law says. I've never flown around the world,
but I've seen the evidence and considered the arguments,
and I'm not hesitant to declare it a sphere...
Even those of you who haven't yet studied
CtC have surely read
this short document, and have verified everything
in it for yourself. You should therefore be declaring
its veracity and its message, loud and proud. Again,
if you won't say it, how can you hope that others will
ever even bother to look at the facts?
Be the change you want to see in the world,
or there won't be any change.
So, please make and send those videos
right away! You can share them with me via a cloud-based
drive space like DropBox, OneDrive.Live.com or GoogleDrive
(if you do GoogleDrive you MUST give access permission to stategroups@losthorizons.com), or
mail DVDs to me at 232 Oriole St., Commerce Twp., Michigan
48382, or even email to me if each file is no more than
20 megs (and you can break a video up if need be-- I
can reassemble them). Render as .mpg or mp4, if possible;
if not, send them how you have them and I'll make them
work.
BTW: An encouraging and inspiring
video will earn you access to the restricted pages
on losthorizons.com and membership in the National
Forum if you have also sent me a recent educated
federal filing and IRS response (or relevant
"return" or "account" transcript). I will be the
judge of whether your submissions qualify
for access, but if you do your best you should do
fine.
Remember, the restoration of institutional
respect for individual rights and the rule of law depends
on enough individuals insisting upon it. Do your part
to let those starting to rub the sleep from their eyes
know that there is a community already waiting for their
fellowship with open arms and open hearts and shining
spirits.
See how some of your fellow warriors for
the truth have done their parts in videos sent over
the years, many of which are posted
here.
"It does not take a majority to prevail...
but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting
brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."
Getting Free Of The "Income" Tax Scheme Is As Easy As
Falling Off A Bike
To get an idea of how today's "income" tax scheme works,
try this little exercise:
Think of the federal government as a guy named Bob,
who lives down the street from you in a town that is
really big on bicycles. Bikes get used for commuting,
deliveries, shopping, etc.. In fact, other than walking,
bicycles are the exclusive form of transportation in
your town.
Your neighbor Bob has a by-the-mile bicycle-renting
business-- "Bob's Bicycles". Bob's Bicycles is far and
away the biggest business in town.
Part of Bob’s success is because he does a lot of contract
business. However, Bob doesn't just get paid by riders
who have signed an agreement with him, or even just
those using Bob's bikes. Bob gets something every time
anybody in town does any riding at all, through an odd
combination of circumstances that took many years to
come together.
Here's how it happened...
Bob's Bicycles was launched long ago by the great grandfather
of the present Bob (Bob IV). Great Grandpa Bob started
out not only with a main location for his contract business--
he also had the bright idea of setting up spots around
town where he parked some of his bikes for use by the
more occasional rider, on an "honor system". Anyone
could take and use one of these bikes, but they were
expected to keep track of their mileage, and send Bob
a "1040 Mileage Ridden/Rent Due Form" (and the appropriate
rent), periodically. The initial design of the form
was like this:
I, ______________,
rode a Bob's Bicycle a total of _____ miles
this year.
At Bob's rental
rate of $.15 per mile, I owe Bob $______
I said that Great Grandpa Bob planned to deal with these
occasional riders on the "honor system", and that's
true. But he liked his money, too, and didn't want to
miss anything that was due him. So, after setting up
the "self-serve" locations, Great Grandpa Bob went around
handing out "W-2, 1099 or K-1 Rider Reporting Forms"
to every other business in town. The forms-- accompanied
by notices that if Bob didn't get his rent from someone
riding a bicycle in connection with any business, he
would sue the company involved-- said:
You Can’t Fight Well When You Don’t Know
What You’re Fighting About
If you are having an argument
with the IRS or any other tax agency,
You are NOT being presumed to have made “corporate
profit”.
You are NOT being alleged to have received “foreign
income”.
You are NOT entangled in an invisible “adhesion
contract”.
You are NOT being obligated by a law whose subject
is never identified.
You are being targeted because REAL EVIDENCE exists
that YOU PERSONALLY HAD “INCOME” to which the revenue laws apply--
even though that evidence is almost certainly incorrect,
and CAN be corrected.
*****
Do You Know What Happens When
YOU Decide To "Let Someone Else Do It"?
NOTHING.
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can
do something. What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God,
I will do."
-Everett
Hale
(...and
every other person who ever really deserved liberty)
"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always
ready to guard and defend it."
-Daniel
Webster
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
-Edward
R. Murrow
*****
Doing A Little High-Payoff Math
IF EACH PERSON receiving this newsletter each week distributed as
few as 100 of any of
the great outreach tools featured here to co-workers, friends,
neighbors and family members (or just strangers on the street, in
the mall, etc...), we could have SEVERAL MILLION new Americans
suddenly introduced to the liberating truth about the tax!
Just like that! In one week!
C'mon, people, let's roll on this!
“Most of the important things in the
world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when
there seemed to be no hope at all.”
When directed to a page by topic or link, read everything.
I know that this can mean the investment of a lot of time, attention
and effort, but although some may imagine otherwise, I don't write
as much as I do because I can't think of any other way to spend
my time...
Furthermore, when you encounter a hyperlink within, or associated
with, the text you are reading, follow it!
It is pretty common these days for web-based material to be littered
with hyperlinks. Sometimes the purpose is to provide definitions
or examples, in order to ensure that folks reading the original
material aren't presented with a word or reference which they don't
understand. Sometimes the links lead to illustrations pertinent
to the original text.
It is common-- and perfectly understandable-- for folks who are
confident that they are familiar with language or references within
the main text they are reading to get in the habit of skipping over
included links. I do it all the time, myself!
However, I very rarely include links for definitional or explanatory
purposes; and when I DO make a link out of text in one page it is
generally to another self-contained page, rather than merely illustrative
material. These other pages contain material the clear understanding
of which I deem highly important for the proper and complete understanding
of the original page. (Links to
CtC, the
Victories pages,
CtC Warriors and so on are obvious exceptions to this general
rule. On the other hand, a link to the victory
Highlights or 'Every
Which Way But Loose' pages, which might seem like such exceptions,
are not. The special selection of victories on those pages, and
the filed docs and tax-agency correspondences included therewith,
themselves constitute highly instructive material which merits careful
attention. Thus care needs to be taken in all cases.)
Please make a habit of clicking on all provided links and at least
looking briefly to ensure that the linked page is one with which
you are completely familiar from another study session.
Finally, please keep in mind that, annoying though it may seem at
first blush (but not, I trust, upon reflection), I constantly tweak
material already posted. Obviously this doesn't mean that every
page is in flux at all times, but it does mean that if you are directed
to a page that IS familiar, it's worthwhile to read it through again
if it's been a while since your last having done so.
February 22- In 1732, George Washington is born. In 1819,
Spain sells Florida to the United States for $5 million. In 1856, the
Republican Party opens its first national convention. In 1879, the first
Woolworth's 5-and-Dime opens. In 1943, captured members of the Nazi resistance
movement in Germany-- the White Rose-- are executed after a show-trial in
Hitler's "People's Court". In 1997, a team of Scottish scientists announce the
successful cloning of an adult sheep.
Anniversaries of interest for
each day of this week will be found throughout the newsletter mid-edition update
below.
Btw, a copy of
CtC from anywhere except the link above
may not be a current edition. CHECK. It
matters. Also, there ARE no e-book, Kindle
or .pdf versions of
CtC. Don't get taken in by efforts to
sell you-- or even give you for free-- any
such thing.
Want to get these Lost Horizons
newsletters delivered to your inbox?
Click here and subscribe to the group. Leave all
options at their default settings. Done!
*****
Illuminating anniversaries of this week:
February 23- In 1836, the Battle of the Alamo begins.
In 1903, the puppet-government installed by the U.S. Marines in Cuba
agrees to lease Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". In
1904, the United States buys the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million. In
1954, mass inoculations of children with the Salk Polio vaccine begin.
In 1955, SEATO meets for the first time.
*****
A Wise Warrior With An
Uplifting Message
DON LA VIGNE, a long-time warrior
and real American grown-up, shares a nice and inspiring
testimonial on what
CtC has done for him for over nine years now:
"Like a muddied stream or a polluted fountain
is the righteous man who gives way before the wicked."
-Proverbs 25:26
"A nation of sheep begets a government
of wolves."
-Edward R. Murrow
*****
Illuminating anniversaries of this week:
February 24- In 1803, the United States
Supreme Court issues its decision in Marbury v. Madison, asserting its power of
"judicial review". In 1839, William Otis receives a patent for the steam
shovel. In 1863, the western half of New Mexico Territory is carved off to
become Arizona Territory. In 1893, the American University is chartered by
Congress. In 1920, the German Worker's Party adds "National Socialist" to its
name, thus becoming the "Nazi Party". In 1970, National Public Radio is
founded. In 1989, a United Airlines flight from Hawaii to New Zealand suffers a
fuselage breach over the Pacific. 9 passengers are sucked out of the plane. In
2008, Fidel Castor retires after fifty years as dictator of Cuba. During most
of that period a United States embargo succeeded in contributing mightily to the
impoverishment of the Cuban people, while also preventing the uplifting
subversion that exposure to the prosperity of a free society would have
engendered, and all without doing anything whatever to unseat the despotic
Castro regime...
An old joke, but in regard to this deceiver,
not a laughing matter at all.
*****
Illuminating anniversaries of this week:
February 25- In 1836, Samuel Colt
receives a patent for his six-gun. In 1862, the fiat currency known as
"greenbacks" are first issued by the United States. In 1870, Hiram Rhodes
Revels becomes the first black member of the United States Congress. In 1901,
J. P. Morgan incorporates U. S. Steel. In 1919, Oregon institutes the first
gasoline tax. In 1932, Adolph Hitler obtains German citizenship by
naturalization, allowing him to seek public office. In 1933, the first
custom-designed United States aircraft carrier (the USS Ranger) is launched.
*****
“When principles that run against your
deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle
is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must,
at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions
bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your
faith."
"Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will. Find out just what any
people will quietly submit to and you have the exact
measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed
on them, and these will continue till they have been
resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The
limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of
those whom they suppress."
February 26- In 1797, the Bank of
England issues its first irredeemable banknotes after war expenses had depleted
England's gold reserves. Redemption of its notes in real money resumed 24 years
or so later. In 1863, Lincoln signs the National Banking Act into law,
establishing a series of national banks in competition with private and state
banks (1,644 of them by the end of 1866). This was the first step in a process
by which non-federal currency was driven out of circulation, and which
culminated eventually in the establishment of the Federal Reserve system. In
1993, a truck-bomb explodes in the underground garage of the North Tower of the
World Trade Center.
February 27- In 1801, the District of
Columbia Organic Act of 1801 places the district under the exclusive
jurisdiction of Congress (within
Constitutional constraints). In 1844, the Dominican Republic declares
independence from Haiti. In 1900, the British Labour Party is founded. In
1933, Nazi false-flag operators ignite fires in the German Reichstag
(Parliament), using the "crisis" as a pretext for expanding government power.
In 1945, Lebanon declares independence from France. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution-- limiting the president to two terms, in disgusted
reaction to the socialist excesses fastened upon the people during FDR's
twelve-year reign-- is ratified. In 1973, the American Indian Movement occupies
Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
CtC WARRIOR SanDiegoScott has put together
a great little 20-question quiz to test your knowledge of the law
regarding the United States "income" tax. Test yourself, test your
friends and family! Test your accountant and tax attorney, and help
them learn the liberating truth!!
"Never must thou take up a false cry, or join hands
with the guilty by giving false witness in their favor. Never must
thou follow with the crowd in doing wrong, or be swayed by many
voices so as to give false judgment; even pity for the poor must
not sway thee when judgment is to be given."
-Ex-Exodus 23:1-3
*****
Illuminating anniversaries of this week:
February 28- In 1784, John Wesley
charters the Methodist Church. In 1827, the B&O Railroad is incorporated. In
1922, Egypt gains its independence from Britain. In 1935, nylon is invented.
In 1985, the Provisional IRA attacks the Royal Ulster Constabulary station at
Newry with mortars. In 1986, the Prime Minister of Sweden is assassinated in
Stockholm. In 1993, the BATF attempts to execute a bogus "firearms violation"
warrant by way of a massive, no-knock raid on the home of the Branch Davidian
religious sect in Waco, Texas, as a publicity stunt. In 1998, the unmanned
Global Hawk aircraft makes its first flight. In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI becomes
the first holding his office to resign in nearly six centuries.
*****
"Those who will not reason, are bigots; those who cannot,
are fools; and those who dare not, are slaves."
