In Memoriam: Green Party of Lake County, Illinois Announces Passing of Chairman Ethan Winnett

Dear Fellow Greens:

   It is with heavy hearts today that we announce the sad and untimely passing of Ethan Winnett (a/k/a Ethan Windmillsky), who served as the interim chairman of our Lake County chapter since the mid-2010s.
     Ethan August Winnett was 38 years old.

   Ethan was a dedicated chairman, keeping the chapter open and populated through difficult years of low attendance, and drawing more people into the chapter and party.

     He was a busy activist, assisting the Waukegan area; including through preparing free meals for the homeless (despite struggling on-and-off with homelessness himself), and with neighborhood trash clean-up, and community gardening.

     He was also a veteran of the United States Army, and a tireless advocate for veterans’ rights, and for achieving peace worldwide.

 

     Ethan’s penchant for poetry, his love of music, and his fun-loving attitude touched the lives of everyone around him, and helped keep us in good spirits. His outspoken nature and his righteous indignation at the powers-that-be helped inspire us and guide us through years of oppression and antagonism. And for that, he will be sorely missed, and not soon forgotten.

     He is survived by his mother Lana; his sister Elanna, and was preceded in death by his father and hero, Buddy Winnett, Sr., who passed in 2019.

     As a lover of science and technology, Ethan was not religiously observant; so in his memory - in lieu of prayers - mourners are encouraged to do the things that Ethan loved; singing songs, sharing poetry, doing something to be close to nature (such as planting a tree), eating Ethan's favorite food (jap-chae / jap-che), or simply reminding someone they care about that they love them.

     Anyone wishing to be kept updated about memorial services should contact Ethan's sister Ela (by e-mailing earth2ela@gmail.com).

     Anyone wishing to make a donation in Ethan's memory can contact Clean Power Lake County, or the Green Party of Illinois.

     In solidarity,

 

Green Party Co-Chair Anna Schiefelbein

and

Joseph W. Kopsick

Ethan August Winnett

(January 31st, 1985 - October 19th, 2023)

Post-Script:

     [Caution: The following information, and articles, contain information which may be upsetting to sensitive and grieving readers.]

     The official cause of Mr. Winnett's death was provided, by the Lake County Coroner's Office, as smoke inhalation.

     Readers wishing to learn more regarding the circumstances surrounding Mr. Winnett's death can click on the following links to read articles.

     http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2023/10/man-found-dead-in-apartment-house-fire-on-grand-ave-waukegan/

     http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/ct-lns-fatal-waukegan-fire-st-1021-20231020-fpyys2b64rfyfgy2petocw6lly-story.html

     http://www.firemapchicago.net/2023/10/fatal-fire-at-apartment-house-on-grand.html

     http://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2023/10/19/firefighters-find-man-dead-rescue-2nd-victim-after-fire-breaks-out-in-apartment-building-in-waukegan/

Elanna Winnett contributed to the content and editing of this article.

Written and published on October 20th, 2023.

Originally published under the title
"Green Party of Lake County, Illinois Announces Passing of Interim Chairman Ethan Winnett".
Title changed several times since original publication.

Edited and expanded on October 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 31st, 2023.
Post-Script added on October 20th, 2023.

Photo added on October 22nd, 2023.
Two more photos added on November 3rd, 2023.

Edited on November 14th, 2023.

Yelp Review for My Father's Law Office

     The following was written as a review, on Yelp.com, for my father's law office, the Law Offices of Richard S. Kopsick, P.C. (based in Waukegan, Illinois). It was written as a warning for those who are considering becoming his clients.

      Richard Kopsick is my father. When I was 28 years old I recovered memories of him molesting me at age 8 and 9. This year I found out that in 1993 my father defended a child molester named Kenneth Hasty.

     My father emotionally and psychologically tortured me every week of my life; by screaming at me, mocking me for seeming affectionate and emotional, making gay jokes about me, and refusing to talk to me when I needed his help most, until I was a drug addicted homeless person. Richard Kopsick would rather make me - his own first born son - into a silent homeless drug addict, and try to put me on sedatives and send him to a mental institution, than admit what he did to me.

     He would rather see me kill myself than admit that he committed at least 3 aggravated counts of criminal sexual abuse, punishable by up to 6 years in prison each. He subjected me to overwhelming tickling, including tickling on the genitalia, and told me we were just playing.

     Richard Kopsick is an alcoholic who drinks and drives and tailgates and speeds, uses the fact that he's a lawyer to get away with it, and lets minors drink in his presence.

     He tried to put me on a sedative "antipsychotic" before I had been diagnosed with anything and without anyone telling me what the drug would do to me. I could have become paralyzed or mute or unable to remember the abuse he inflicted on me as a child. I knew this man had no morals when I was 8 years old, when he told me it wasn't unethical to defend someone you know is guilty.

     Richard Kopsick is a narcissist who pretends he is friendly and affable, it is all an act. This is a facade he puts on because he can't admit who he really is. He hates children and he hates seeing joy in the faces of people he should love. Richard Kopsick is a severely disturbed individual.

     He has destroyed the cohesion of the family he built with my mother, after my mother's side of the family was already affected by the tragedy of childhood sexual abuse.

     My father inflicted horrible emotional, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse on me, and did it privately and subtly enough to get away with it but also openly enough to desensitize his wife and his other son to my abuse.

     His former partner Scott Gibson also pinched kids' asses at his pool parties, he [Gibson] and his ex-wife are severe alcoholics, and Gibson used to do heroin in the 70s. Richard Kopsick exposed me to this child molester and nobody stopped his ass grabbing.

     Richard Kopsick helped me find attorneys to defend me on some nonviolent marijuana possession charges, but never admitted that anti[-]pot laws can be challenged in court through jury nullification, and never admitted to anyone that [I] started smoking pot to fix the dissociative and antisocial states that [he] put me in as a child.

     Would rate zero stars if I could.

Written and Posted to Yelp on March 15th, 2021

Published to This Blog on March 16th, 2021

Markets and Socialism Can Both Lead to Free Housing

     Many voters, with good cause, doubt politicians' ability to deliver on “free housing”. But in my opinion, that's because many voters are largely unaware of the true purpose of a free-market system.

     Decreasing and limiting the size and scope of government, simplifying the tax code, letting people keep more of their own money, and letting technology do its thing, could all help result in cheaper housing, and in more people getting housed. Making low-cost housing possible through voluntary and free-market means, instead of through the government, could help make people more free, while their rent goes down at the same time.

     Promoting multi-use zoning, for example, could help make it easier for people to work from home, or work closer to home. Land Value Taxation, rooftop reclamation, and building upwards, would all help to make land and housing less expensive, while also reducing urban sprawl, diminishing the influence of speculation on the land and housing markets, and leading to fewer unused parcels and fewer abandoned properties.

     Another thing that would help reduce the cost of housing, is to reduce the cost of land, in hopes that that would decrease the costs of building on land. It would also help to get the government out of all the lands out West that it owns or manages without explicit constitutional authority. There is no reason why progressives and conservatives shouldn't unite against large land and energy monopolies, especially considering that conservatism and environmental conservation have a long history of going hand-in-hand.

     I recommend that the single national Environmental Protection Agency be replaced with Community Land Trusts, and community trusts that protect air, water, and other natural resources (these trusts are one of the potential features of implementing Henry George's Land Value Taxation).

     Right now, we're seeing Donald Trump's E.P.A. make the exact same move that George W. Bush's E.P.A. made in the early 2000s; a move against California's ability to determine its vehicle emissions standards. This is an example of how government control of an industry with the purpose of protecting consumers, can easily cause that industry to become victim to regulatory capture, because the people assume that a good or service will be safe simply because there is an agency that exists which is supposed to regulate it (whether it does so or not).

     I strongly believe that it is better for many federal agencies to be abolished, than to continue existing and risk being used for evil. Don't be ashamed to cite California's 10^th Amendment “states' rights” to legislate on vehicle emissions, something that's not mentioned in the Enumerated Powers, and which is thus none of Congress's business. But back to land and housing.

     Housing is not free; but that's not primarily the fault of markets or voluntary exchange. Certainly it's because of capitalism, an also bad government, but not markets.

     It's because of land and mortgage speculation (which is capitalism, but with government protection). It's also because of bad legislation; such as 1) housing codes that favor flammable building materials (i.e., wood, instead of concrete and rock); 2) restrictions on architectural experimentation (look up Mike Reynolds and “Earth ships”); 3) subsidies to live in flood-prone areas, and loads of additional unnecessary measures that only make housing more expensive and more likely to be damaged.

     The best-case scenario of addressing these problems, is that we could we drastically undermine the financial and lobbying power of the “FIRE economy” (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate industries). Simply put – and speaking of fire - a home that isn't made of flammable materials (i.e., wood) doesn't have much use for fire insurance. Building more buildings out of glass, steel, concrete, and rock – including building into the rock naturally – could help reduce house fires, and drastically reduce the need to purchase fire insurance. And that means savings for struggling families.

     Markets aren't even supposed to exist for things which exist in abundance, like housing. Abundant goods exist in greater supply than is necessary to satisfy people's needs. People assume that land existing in a fixed supply, means that not enough of it exists.

     But of course enough of it exists; we're not falling off the planet, and less than 3% of land area is used for housing. So logically – according to free market principles of supply and demand; namely, that an abundant supply should mean not just low prices, but zero cost – housing should be free, because there's so much of it that it's a free gift from nature.

     But like idiots, we fence it off, evict whoever's on it, exclude everyone from it who refuses to pay us for access to it, sell it off piece by piece, and let governments and large companies own huge amounts of it, and even destroy it with no financial or legal repercussions nor compensation to the community.

You can learn more about mass eviction by looking up the enclosure of the English Commons, also known as the enclosure movement. Mass displacements of Native Americans, such as the Trail of Tears, parallel these mass displacements from land, as do similar events in other countries throughout time.

     This is the macroscopic explanation of why rent is theft; because what's being rented and leased is stolen, conquered property, which was not acquired justly. Whether it was acquired according to the letter of the law should matter much, much less than whether it was acquired without violating anyone's right to be free from other people's violence, aggression, and coercion.

     That is why “rent is theft”. While the Libertarian Party believes that “taxation is theft”, we at the Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the LP also believe that “rent is theft”.

     Rent is theft for the same reason that eviction is murder; they're both coercive, exploitative practices which are likely to result in the death and deprivation of the borrower or renter, who for all intents and purposes has been legally and logistically precluded from doing anything to make ends meet other than those methods which have been culturally normalized and authoritatively approved (i.e., selling his labor and renting his living space). Homesteading, foraging, mutual aid, charity, and gift/trade/barter/share combined, do not always supplement what we procure for ourselves through legitimized business and political avenues.

     Additionally, we agree with Proudhon that “property is theft”, and that “property is impossible”.

Basically, this is to say that one can't own a huge chunk of land; at least not without the government's recognition and help and police assistance, because otherwise, people would steal it from them. Call it “stealing”, or “seizing”, or even just “challenging” them for it. A person defending a property claim based purely on defense and conquest, cannot logically refuse someone's offer to fight him for his property, if those are the terms upon which he voluntarily chooses to wager that his property claim is valid.

     “Absentee ownership” is a scourge against which Georgists, Mutualists, anarchists, socialists, and communists all fight; it is the ownership is a property by an owner who rarely makes use of or even visits his claimed property (especially one who does little to no work to maintain or defend the property). The Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the L.P. fully supports the right to squat, as long as the squatters do not make the place unlivable or let it fall into further disrepair. Usufructory (use-based) property rights are not a defense when it is conquered land which is being “used better” or “used more productively”.

     The idea that poor people don't pay taxes is ridiculous, for the simple reason that there are sales taxes in 46 states. There's no reason that a homeless person should have to pay sales taxes on everything he eats.

     There's also no reason why people should need to hire a lobbyist to stop their tax money from going to fund police forces, and license private security guards, and protect the six empty residences that exist for every homeless person in America, and prop-up and bail-out businesses that they want to fully boycott but can't. Socialists and free-marketers both believe in boycott, but for all intents and purposes, boycotts are illegal. Not just because our tax money goes to corporate welfare, but also because secondary boycotts are illegal according to federal law (the Taft-Hartley Act), even though they would have no reason to be illegal in a libertarian society because they are perfectly voluntary.

     Aside from taxes and corporate subsidies, and the impossibility of boycott, the idea that poor people don't pay taxes is also laughable because of the “opportunity costs” that people lose; when they are ordered to obey this or that policy, ordered to submit to this or that authority figure or politician, or ordered to buy this or that product. The lives of soldiers are being paid around the world to finance the destruction we are causing; and the value of those lives lost are impossible to measure. Opportunity costs are an unseen tax, and so is inflation, which Ron Paul called a tax on saving money.

     Human beings can't help but take up space and area on the planet. Each of us has the natural right to homestead property to make it livable, and bequeath it to our children, and any government that deprives us of that right should at least compensate us.

     Conservative hero Thomas Paine proposed that each adult be paid a fixed sum of thousands per year; as a share in the land value, and as compensation for those deprivations of rights to freely homestead, inherit, and bequeath. However, some of Paine's own modern-day conservative admirers might call him a Universal Basic Income Guarantee -supporting “socialist” for espousing such a position. The same with John Locke, who said people have to leave enough land for others, so they have a place to live.

     Some say that the poor don't deserve a basic income, nor a citizens' dividend, nor even any food or jobs guarantee. No free identification documents either. Many of them say that the poor shouldn't receive any government services, unless they pay for them, i.e., through user fees. This is predicated upon the idea that only property owners should vote, and that therefore poor people who have no property should not vote, nor receive government services. However, to say this is to admit that even if homeless people have a few possessions, they have no property. Which is to say that there is a distinction; a distinction which anarcho-capitalists insist is not useful, so therefore they do not make it.

     Socialists do not “hate” private property, and they do not want to “steal your toothbrush”. Anyone who is trying to convince you that socialists want your toothbrush because it's private property, does not know what socialists mean when they say private property.

     A personal possession is any ordinary, small, cheap, mass-produced, easily movable thing; anything that isn't an important, rare tool, or something is not essential to the labor process, or wouldn't make sense to be cooperatively managed by a large group of workers, or something that people don't actually need in order to survive or earn a living. The latter are examples of private property.

     “Private property” (as people like Marx and Proudhon used it) does not include personal possessions; only private property in the means of production, like factories and plants, large machine parts, farms, and land. It includes things that are loaned out at interest; and the laborer's wage is taken as profit (and the laborer underpaid) as a form of “rent” on the means of production which the worker is borrowing for eight hours a day in order to avoid starvation. Which he does by paying an additional rent to a landlord who holds a title granted by government, which right-libertarians are foolish enough to fail to describe as anything but another ordinary law.

     Sucks to the law.

Written on July 4^th, 20^th, 26^th, and 27^th, and August 1^st through 4^th, and 6^th, 2018

Edited and Expanded on August 20th, 2018

Originally Published on August 20th, 2018

Links on Homelessness, Moneylessness, Food Waste, and Recycling

Homeless People Read Anti-Homeless Tweets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufngP5Du4CY

Response to a John Stossel Episode About Panhandling - article by Joe Kopsick

http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-panhandling.html

Facts About Homelessness

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/ten-facts-about-homelessn_b_5977946.html

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-becoming-illegal-to-be-homeless-in-america-as-houston-dallas-and-dozens-of-other-cities-pass-draconian-laws

Homelessness in Iowa

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/church-fights-back-against-outreach-center-closure/

http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/IC-emergency-winter-shelter-helps-homeless-and-police-456737943.html

Restrictions on Feeding the Homeless

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2017/11/08/malibu-church-told-they-must-stop-feeding-the-homeless/

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-becoming-illegal-to-be-homeless-in-america-as-houston-dallas-and-dozens-of-other-cities-pass-draconian-laws

Tiny Houses and Possessions Seized from Homeless People

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-tiny-houses-seized-20160224-story.html

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20151221/east-harlem/3-homeless-people-had-their-possessions-illegally-destroyed-by-city-nyclu/

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-belongings-20160331-story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/19/nyregion/property-of-a-homeless-man-is-private-hartford-court-says.html

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Homeless-have-right-to-reclaim-property-3843236.php

Tiny Houses in the United States

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/real-estate/tiny-houses-big-idea-end-homelessness-n39316

http://www.curbed.com/maps/tiny-houses-for-the-homeless-villages

http://www.greenwichtime.com/business/article/Tiny-house-trend-could-mean-big-things-for-12919917.php

http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/tiny-house-villages-for-the-homeless-an-affordable-solution-catches-on

Tiny Houses in Detroit, Michigan

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20121024/FREE/121029942/10-million-detroit-project-will-provide-housing-for-homeless 

http://www.businessinsider.com/detroit-homeless-tiny-home-neighborhood-2017-6

http://www.businessinsider.com/detroit-tiny-home-neighborhood-rent-to-own-2016-10

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/04/24/61m-project-creates-housing-veterans-detroit/83464350/

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/tiny-homes-homeless-detroit/

The Free Detroit Project

http://plus.google.com/communities/110963655334447780201

http://www.projectfreedetroit.com/

http://www.facebook.com/projectFREEdetroit

Libertarian Senate Candidate: Arm the Homeless

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/16/arm-homeless-with-shotguns-to-reduce-crime-us-senate-hopeful-says.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/15/us-senate-candidate-proposes-arming-homeless-people-with-shotguns

http://michiganradio.org/post/us-senate-candidate-wants-buy-guns-homeless-people

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/03/michigan_libertarian_us_senate.html

Tiny Houses in Seattle, Washington

http://crosscut.com/2018/05/seattles-new-tiny-house-village-homeless-women-only

http://mynorthwest.com/585204/tiny-house-seattles-homeless/

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/23/tiny-houses-solution-homelessness-seattle

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-teeny-response-to-tiny-houses-for-the-homeless/

http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/tiny-houses-have-a-big-impact/

http://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/north-seattle-homeless-tiny-house-village-to-open-wednesday/281-427764246

http://q13fox.com/2017/12/16/seattles-homeless-crisis-are-tiny-houses-the-answer/

http://q13fox.com/2018/03/02/tiny-homes-for-the-homeless-looking-to-set-up-space-in-your-backyard/

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=seattle+tent+city+homeless+video#id=6&vid=7b122341fdc9ebc852a83ee6f5421e62&action=click

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=seattle+tent+city+homeless+video#id=3&vid=8152bc37d8d13fca31059a58b6f8356f&action=click

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=seattle+tent+city+homeless+video#id=1&vid=7251449ab0e6c8771f602c9b0da24f64&action=click

Seattle's Tent Cities

http://grist.org/cities/tent-cities-seattles-unique-approach-to-homelessness/

Tiny Houses in Madison, Wisconsin

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/11/16/madison-homelessoccupy.html

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/one-year-in-madison-s-village-of-tiny-houses-wins/article_6d1a54cc-343a-5775-b3de-5fa341677580.html

http://wuwm.com/post/what-madisons-tiny-house-community-homeless-looks#stream/0

http://tinyhouseblog.com/humanitarian/madison-tiny-house-village-homeless/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/17/tiny-homes-madison-wiscon_n_6171634.html

Food Pantry in Wisconsin Offers Free Meals, Discount Clothing, and More

http://www.riverfoodpantry.org/

Trash Pickup Jobs for the Homeless

http://dose.com/articles/cities-are-paying-homeless-people-12-hour-to-pick-up-litter/

http://www.10news.com/news/city-of-san-diego-introduces-jobs-program-for-homeless

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/feb/23/san-diego-homeless-people-earn-10hour-cleaning-tra/

Underground Homelessness in New York City

http://narrative.ly/the-truth-about-new-yorks-legendary-mole-people/

http://books.google.ca/books?id=H7jfvdtA0hsC&redir_esc=y

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/18/nyregion/us-to-offer-housing-vouchers-to-lure-homeless-from-the-subways.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235327/

The I.B.W.A. (International Brotherhood Welfare Association)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Brotherhood_Welfare_Association

The I.B.W.A. (International Brotherhood Welfare Association) - article by Joe Kopsick

http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/06/on-reviving-international-brotherhood.html

Resource Map for Homeless People Living in Portland, Oregon - article by Joe Kopsick

http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2015/03/resource-map-for-portland-oregon.html

Portland-Focused Solution to Homelessness and Other Economic and Political Issues - article by Joe Kopsick

http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2014/08/party-for-mutualism-and-cooperation-us.html

Homeless Support Facilities in Portland, Oregon

https://www.tprojects.org/

http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/

Portland's "Street Roots" Magazine for the Homeless

http://www.streetroots.org/

http://relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/poverty/features/16467-street-roots-the-voice-of-the-homeless

http://www.pdxmonthly.com/articles/2018/2/27/meet-the-new-executive-director-of-street-roots

Mike Reynolds, Garbage Architect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Reynolds_(architect)

http://www.garbagewarrior.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104694/

Food Not Bombs: Direct Food Aid to the Homeless

http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/faq.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Not_Bombs

http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjEOXjnfouk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPz9Evko864

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H28poQG3U2c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQm8AnReOKc

Food Waste in the U.S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TDfjbpSBE

Zabaleen Coptic Christians in Cairo, Egypt Salvage Recyclables

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/garbage-dreams/film.html

http://vimeo.com/8673194

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1847755/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0s7WsoC528

Daniel Suelo, "The Man Without Money"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suelo

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=daniel+suelo#id=1&vid=7b96c61c0432f2370c0be00334921612&action=click

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=daniel+suelo#id=3&vid=3d4c3fefbc211fb9de62e41a3733c14c&action=click

Political and Economic Articles About the Causes of Homelessness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure

http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=ellen-rosenman-on-enclosure-acts-and-the-commons

http://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2015/09/the-commons.html

http://sustainabilityandthecommons.wordpress.com/tag/enclosure/

http://sustainabilityandthecommons.wordpress.com/tag/homelessness/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting

http://www.reddit.com/r/DebateAnarchism/comments/1rf2ly/what_is_the_occupancy_and_use_theory_of_property/

http://c4ss.org/content/41421

Reforming Property Tax Laws to Make Home Ownership Less Costly - article by Joe Kopsick

http://www.lclp.org/articles/geolibertarianism/

Shut Yer Yap: How to Starve Yourself Rich (A Numismatic Exorcism)

             Nought is clear, lest we view it through the Lens of the penetrated stone.

            Nought is clear, but that the study of rai (also known as raay, fei, the Yap Island stone coin, and on the international currency market, YIC) is essential to all future study and understanding of numismetaphysics.

This is why some more study of rai shall be necessary before we continue to our main subject, cryptocurrency.

In his 1991 paper “The Island of Stone Money”, Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman (Uncle Milty himself) discussed the similarity between the practices of marking gold stored in Federal Reserve vaults to signify a change in ownership, and the practice of marking rai for the same purpose.

In the paper’s conclusion, Friedman writes how important myth – “unquestioned belief” –

is “in monetary matters”. He continues, “the money we have grown up with… appear[s] ‘real’ and ‘rational’ to us”, while “The money of other countries often seems to us like paper or worthless metal”, even if its purchasing power is strong.

This ought to demonstrate to any savvy investor that talk of “the gold price”, “the iron price”, etc.^TM, is bull hockey in your pocket. Moreover, that the value is in the Eye of the (Arthurian) Stone. This is the maieutic source of currency’s value. So, then, if we are, indeed, destined to play a Game of Stones, we must ask ourselves whether it should, in particular, be a game of birthstones.

Do not let your Eyes be deceived; after all, The Book is made of paper (though it may have gilded edge). And the Almighty Emperor’s Commodity Fetish Records 999- Economic Unit Note be of paper.

So what, then, distinguishes The Book from gold? The Book from the Note, or the Note from gold? Gold from the Heart? Only the Beholder of the Light. Only the Truth and Truth of the One who makes the Promise to pay to the Bearer on demand. The Bearer of Light teaches that the Word is only as good as the heart it is printed on. Thus, the Word backs gold and paper alike. The Promise backs their value. This is what I saw through the flames.

But just as importantly, and to answer the Question directly, gold is alone among these in one key aspect: it cannot be burned for heat in an emergency. Aside from Friedman’s probably subconscious allusion to this phenomenon, that this fact makes gold inferior to the Book, the Note, and the Heart for use as a currency, has not yet been noted by mainstream economists. Thus, the Jungian Shadow cast by the spectre of gold has cast a scintillating Skynet to blind nearly all of the scientists of modern currency. This is to be remedied, for We know where the real gold is buried.

So, then, cryptocurrency. Currency reclaimed from the crypt. Is it a current currency, or not?

 Does the immortality inculcate (charge) a presence – a life – into the currency, or does its deadness (however imagined or falsely perceived) subvert its value as a “living document”? Only the numismancers know for sure. The answer might explain why we still have pyramids on our damn “money”. The only way to get through the Eye of the Rai, in a manner of speaking (and, also, quite literally), is by Numismancing the Stone.

We love our money like we love our own flesh and blood. After all, it’s backed by our own flesh and blood, isn’t it? Just as sure as the paper you’re printed on, just as sure as your dossier will survive you, if it backs your currency, then symbolically, it is your currency. We may say “I like money” or “I<3$” (now a publicly traded company), but how many of us would be willing to kill, or even die, for our money, and for its value?

One major determinant in the value of rai is the grandness of the story which can be told about one rai; what happened to it on its way to Yap from the distant island on which it was quarried. Aside from the size of the coin (ranging from 3 inches to 12 feet in diameter), whether those transporting it survived a storm, or whether a famous sailor brought the coin to the island, may boost its value.

Most importantly for the purposes of this discussion, rai may have high value because many people die bringing them to Yap, or (perplexingly) because nobody dies bringing them to the island.

This is why we must either kill many people, or else die (and take many others with us), in order to continue to bogusly inflate the value of our currency. Just as in the balancing act between relying on ubiquitous use and widespread acceptability vs. scarcity and uniqueness as the driver of currency’s value, it could not be clearer what we must do for our money, for our “own” flesh and blood.

That is why we must fight this currency war – and we shall fight them; on the Banks of every river, in every trench and every Bank vault – if we are to procure for our posterity a Currency of Blood. It is all for the sake of STABility. Remember, you’re worth more dead than you are alive, right? Just don’t go about trying to prove it, though. I mean (say it with me)… Just You Buy It!^(R)

This leads us to our next topic: how to strike it rich without working.

For example… take me… please! I don’t do shit, I make money. Read The Tao, be The Master, make shit happen. I mean… I get paid to make money.

I know we’re told that high earnings, and a lot of money, and rewards, are the inevitable result of hard work. And that if a man does not work, neither shall he eat. But I’ve eaten without being required to work for it, and I get paid to sit around and do basically nothing at my job.

That’s why I attribute all of my success and earnings to hard work. To do so may go against everything I’ve observed, but everyone else thinks it’s true, so I don’t object, because it’s all I can do to keep from shouting from the rooftops that it should be legal to steal from me. This is the Root of the Hole in the Coin. But back to my financial advice.

Are you starving, freezing, poor, broken? No, you’re not. You only feel that way. And for you to project your feelings onto my rights is unconstitutional. It’s a violation of my rights!

‘Ey, if you’re poor, spend less money. If you don’t want to pay taxes, then just refuse to pay taxes, or else stop working. If you can’t find work, get a job. If you’re disabled, work harder! If you can’t afford good food, eat garbage! If you’ve frozen stiff in your apartment, just walk away from the apartment and the landlord! I mean, if you’re in chains, break out! Amirite!?

As I suspect Jesse Ventura (Master of Mixed Metaphors) must have pontificated at some point, “Ask for work. If you can’t find work, ask for bread. If they don’t give you bread, steal bread. If you can’t steal bread, let them eat cake. And if you can’t have your cake and eat it too, then the proof of the pudding is in the eating of the cake bread pudding.” Man can live on bread alone! But only if we learn to Leave Breadney Alone.

These are the only paths to stable, rising financial gains. …Chris Gaines.

You’re welcome.

Oi, fucker, why do you think they needed to punch holes in Jesus’s hands for the Crucifixion? Well, how else are you going to insert his employment chip? I mean, Everybody Loves Revelaymond. Furthermore, is Jesus the type to charge rent for the privilege to occupy – and use – his holes, for whatever purpose we may imagine?

This is why I say, to fuck a hole in your money is to fuck a hole in yourself (as a reminder, the hole represents built-in debt). This is what it means to be unable to worship both God and Mammon (profit).

After all, the holes in Yap Island stone coins are not for the insertion of poles as axles, but only as transportation devices. To repeat, Fred Flintstone was not driving his moneymobile around Yap, that’s not in the historical records. Again, rai are as small as 3 inches; yet for some reason the holes are retained even at that size, though their light weight makes the use of poles unnecessary for transportation.

So, then, why not fill the hole with something else, such as your hopes and dreams? Your fears? A nice ottoman or a duvet? A sword? Your balls? The Resonating Light? Why not shove a jewel in there, make it nice and pretty? Remember, there’s more than one way to “charge” your purchase. Do some sacred services and an incantation, turn it into a portal so its demons can escape. Do a thing.

As Milton Friedman suggested, and as Emperor Ryan explains, “money is a magic[k] fetish”; an object believed (unquestioned) to possess a sacred, intrinsic, imminent value, including, often, a spiritual one. Emperor Ryan continues: “bank magicians use transference to charge paper into currency”. The money is charged much in the same way in which a sigil is charged.

Hence, voodoo economists are in good company; although a small but significant faction of them are currently waging a covert currency war against their fellow voodoo economists, as well as against the bank magicians, who favor the anthill (ANT) over the “petrodollar-weapondollar coalition” (USD). For more information, read the works of Jonathan Nitzan.

What all this means is that it is our dedication to refraining from questioning the value of our money, and the validity of our government’s public debt, which gives our currency much of its value. It is our suspension of belief which exalts our money to such heights. But, be assured, dead moneys cannot reign.

What do the smallest denomination of rai stone, a cross, and the Hand of God have in common? You can string all of them onto a necklace. But nobody cries when you do it to some rai. Remember: “Don’t cry; scry!”

Thus, the Punched Hand (or wrist) is, by all indicators, the best form of currency, but also, with its fingerprints, it can easily suffice as a form of INDENTification. Fingerprinting only makes human hands a more viable currency, due to its identifiability. A fingerprint is like a serial number, printed with a communion wafer printing press onto a slab of human dough; the Bread of Life, Sacred Manna from Heaven. It’s Time to Make the Donuts.

Even without fingerprinting, the early 2000s government of Afghanistan managed to run successful elections. They did this by taking the fingers of people who had already voted, and dyeing them with ink, and making sure nobody votes who already has ink on their hands. How nice it would be if we could use this idea to ban people with blood on their hands from participating in the democratic process!

So there you have it: The Hol(e)y Human Hand – the Hand of God – is like a bagel in its completeness, its roundness. It is a perfect currency; the Hand does not even have to be transported in order to serve as a useful currency, nor does it need to be separated from the body for the same purpose, nor must it be moved (and removed) in order to denote that its ownership has changed. Remember, idle hands are the Devil’s playground.

But to see the Light through the Lens of the Eternal Bagel – and to understand the artistic concept of negative space – will teach us that without the (w)hole, we are hollow and incomplete, yet complete in our incompletion. Can we be whole without the hole? Only by holding together our Hands, and our Money (which are one and the same), may we answer these questions. After all, without holes in our hands, how are we to be bound together? How are we to be strung up?

This currency – the Hand (or even the Finger) – is the Sigil which we must charge. It is the sigil which we must read in order to fully understand (that is, stand-under) the charges.

In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj (freedom) for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.” This is the test we must apply when choosing a currency.

To be required to work in exchange for our needs, eludes the truth; that in order to work comfortably, our needs must first be satisfied. The hole in our hands is the key; just like the Afghan election, to get what we need, all we should have to do is show our hand. Why, nearly all of us recognize the meaning – the value – of a Hand, or a Fist, held high. So, too, the Finger. It says “I AM A MAN”. …Or “Fuck you”. Same thing.

This is the Shibbolethic Talisman which was foretold in the ancient scriptures (i.e., articles 1 through 4). As I’ve explained, currency is, necessarily, a talisman, or fetish (magickal object). For a currency to additionally serve as a shibboleth is to use that currency, and to set the societal rules of the marketplace around it, in such a way as to cause its usage to create and cast a distinction between those who know the Hand not, and still worship dead money, versus those who recognize the Hand, and its meaning; its monetary and spiritual value.

I’ll take Gandhi’s advice.

Years ago in Nashville, I met a man who was selling newspapers about homelessness. He asked me for a donation, in order to, in his words, “relieve the stigmata of homelessness”. He meant to say “stigma”, but his choice of words reveals all.

The big questions in all of this are: With what will you fill such an outstretched, truly empty, punched hand? Will you be as a Doubting Thomas, and insert a pole, in order to transport and trade the unit of currency?

Most importantly: What do we have to offer one another, if all any of us has is our own outstretched empty hand?

I have no gift to bring, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum…

Written and Published on October 15^th, 2017