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As some of you may be aware, MediaBistro – which organizes the Inside Bitcoins events across the world – invited me to speak at their Berlin, Germany event. I said yes. I highly suggest our readers, if they get a chance, attend one of the Inside Bitcoins conferences. They are always hotbeds of innovation and forward thinking.
It had already been seven years since I last stepped foot in Europe. This fact did not truly sink in until I arrived in Germany. "When was the last time I had been in Europe?" I asked myself. In 2007 I remembered. I was already pretty in-tune with the way the world worked back then, and I had a fun time drinking beer, talking to pretty girls and -oh yeah – learning German. (All three of those things go hand-in-hand by the way. One of the better pieces of advice I ever got from a professor was that the best way to learn a new language was in bed)
As I departed the US I ancticipated that things in Germany would be much different than they were nearly a decade ago. After all, the US had been going through a major restructuring of its services provided and those who provided them. One thing was for sure as I arrived, I was wrong. Compared to what the police drive around in the US, it is like they are driving around Jettas or something here, which are far from intimidating cars.
Germany had not kept pace with the United States, in terms of militarizing its domestic paramilitary forces, since last time I was here. Just how much the US has raced to build these forces up became just as clear to me as the results of such military buildups which can still be seen throughout Germany and Europe. On the Bundestag damage from World War II was partially left in order to serve as a reminder:
It's no wonder why Germans won't allow tyranny (just yet). They are much more sensitive to tyranny. (I wonder why)
You see here the river through which East Berliners had tried to swim through to get to the west:
Some were shot while in the act by East German military:
But they weren't the only victims of the wall.
The unknown victims of the wall
There is hope, though. The desire for the absence of force is a world language, and the children are getting the message:
Former East Germany
I've learned a lot in Berlin, as I always do when I travel. Of course economically speaking the European Union is going to fall apart and there will be great dislocation in Europe. But the police state in the US is miles out ahead. (kilometers even) And that's why the most heavily guarded places, even more-so than the Bundestag itself (!), are the Anglo-American Embassies. (Although the German equivalent of the NSA is using fake palm trees at their building to disguise something like a cell-tower, and the scene does not blend well… (I thought it'd be best not to photo that building). Bis Bald!
Regards,
Justin O'Connell, Head Researcher
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Welcome to Sunday, a time to review what we wrote about at TDV this week! But before that, let’s take a look at what was in our subscriber-only publication, TDV’s Dispatch.
First up in my “Memory Hole”, I discussed further abuses by the TSA. Next, Jeff Berwick delved into gold and Ed Bugos had a look at the markets and his outlook. Justin O’Connell treated us to two articles with very different looks at the ongoing bitcoin narrative. Next, Jeff took us around the world of the absurd in his weekly “Other News from TEOTMSAWKI and TDV Related Tidbits”. Finally, we profiled Rocking Philosophy, the brainchild of the ubiquitous Rocking Mr. E.
If you’re interested in receiving articles beyond what you read here, consider our weekly subscriber-only publications, like our Issue, Dispatches, and Homegrown. You may subscribe here.
Here’s what we wrote about this week…
MONDAY, February 10
What Does a Record Number of Renunciations from the US Mean for You?
Jeff Berwick on the effect of the alarming renunciation trend.
“There is a brain drain taking place. And no, it's not from Ethiopia, Malaysia, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa or any of the usual suspects. It is a little known brain drain, but it is a very real one, and it is taking place from the former sole superpower of the world: the United States.
Renunciations from the US have reached a new record for 2013, breaking the previous record set in 2011. People the world over are Going Galt.
Once this multi-year (or maybe multi-decade) process of increasing renunciations from the US is said-and-done, and the history books have been penned, it will unequivocally be understood as the nail-in-the-coffin for US society competitively on things like trade.”
TUESDAY, February 11
The Path to Dictatorship is Paved with Obama Intentions
Wendy McElroy on the dictatorial ways of Obama.
"What do you call a President who can choose which laws to enforce and how, a leader who can create new laws with the stroke of a pen? A dictator. Some would say a king.
Obama has denied both claims. In 2013, he told CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin, ‘I am not a dictator, I’m the president.’ By this he meant he could not bypass Congress to unilaterally impose his will. In a 2013 interview with the Hispanic network Univision, Obama explained his immigration policy with the words, ‘I think it’s important to remind everybody that, what I’ve said previously, I am not a king.’ A president who persistently denies being a dictator or a king is worrisome. It is like a stranger who tells you, ‘I am not a thief.’ It makes you wonder why the question arises.”
WEDNESDAY, February 12
TDV Latin America’s Editor-in-Chief, Adil Elias, with a compelling essay on statism.
"Statism is dying, sooner or later it will be nothing but a thing of the past, along with many of its primitive and archaic notions such as “nation-states” that barbaric and antiquated concept which consists on pledging faith to some imaginary borders invented and promoted by governments as a way to marking the territories that they stole.
It’s the delusional belief that you have the moral obligation to honor some drawn limits around a certain geographic area to the millimeter, and even defend them if need be, because of a simple accident of birth. So if your parents had fooled around twenty meters to the left, then you would’ve have had the “duty” to pay tribute and admiration or even protect another country all together.
I bet you didn’t think an orgasm could be so costly, or did you?”
THURSDAY, February 13
Affirmative Action Raps at the Door of American Homes
Wendy McElroy on geopolitical discrimination.
"’In what may be the most ambitious social-engineering project undertaken by the federal government, the administration is mapping every neighborhood in America by race. The stated purpose is to use the data to compel local officials to loosen zoning laws and build more public housing, thereby offering more poor inner-city minorities better opportunities for housing and education.’”
FRIDAY, January 31
Wholesale Savings Confiscation, Enforced Redistribution, & the Decline of the European Saver
Jeff Berwick on the EU’s latest thievery.
“The savings of 500 million Europeans is in danger of being stolen by the European Union. Why? Because the financial crisis is not over, according to an EU document.
In other words, what's happened already in Cyprus – the stealing of savers' money – will go continental, and eventually worldwide. Only more aggressively than in the Cyprus example. The logic is likely simple: there was hardly popular resistance to the confiscation of funds in Cyprus, so why not expand the program?”
SATURDAY, February 15
The Weekend Vigilante: February 15, 2014
Jeff Berwick checks in from Acapulco Bay in his weekly address to TDVers.
“Hello from Acapulco Bay,
Valentine's Day… blegh. I don't like any widely accepted ‘holidays’ just because of the collectivist nature of them. I look at the world as full of individuals, each with their own needs, wants and desires and don't like the feel of any holiday that everyone is almost forced to adhere to. Valentine's Day is definitely near the top of my list of the holidays I dislike.
First, it is clearly a contrived commercial holiday that, much like Christmas, forces you to go out and do some stuff you otherwise likely wouldn't do. If you want to have a romantic evening with a person you should just do it when you feel like it not because you have to. And much more comfortably, not squeezed into overfilled restaurants and pay twice the price for the pleasure so you can do it all on the same day and same time as the other sheeple.”
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