Friday, June 28, 2024

Supreme Court Overrides Chevron Decision, Federal Bureaucracies to Be Weakened As a Result

     This morning - the morning of Friday, June 28th, 2024 - the Supreme Court (part of the Judicial Branch) has decided to take back its power to interpret the law, from the federal bureaucracies (which are parts of the executive branch) that unduly wielded that power.

     This morning, it was reported that the Court has overridden the precedent of "Chevron deference". Chevron deference refers to deference to the 1984 decision, in the case of Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. National Resource Defense Council (N.R.D.C.); specifically, deference to federal agencies, in regard to interpreting how to enforce laws (or how to "construct" regulations), when the statutes are ambiguous or insufficiently clear. That initial Chevron ruling dealt with the enforcement of the Clean Air Act and the regulation of fisheries.

     Liberals and progressives will not be pleased by this new "decision" (which is actually the sum of two decisions, in the cases of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce), as the move stands to potentially increase corporate power.

     But in my opinion, this is a win for the separation of powers, and for the system of checks and balances.




     The separation of powers provides that the Judicial Branch interprets the law, the Executive Branch enforces the law, and the Legislative Branch writes the laws.

     Letting the executive branch bureaucracies both enforce and interpret the regulations, is contrary to the separation of powers which was outlined by Montesquieu and the Founders; especially when many of these agencies exist, and were formed, without formal constitutional authority in the first place.

     This decision could be the first step towards the dismantling and abolition of the E.P.A. (Environmental Protection Agency) [and perhaps more agencies, such as the Departments of Labor, Agriculture, and/or Health and Human Services].

     And if the E.P.A. is dismantled, then it will not be primarily the fault of the so-called "conservatives" on the Supreme Court.

     The job of the Supreme Court justices is not to enact policy, nor to be "activist judges"; their job is to call balls and strikes; that is, to rule on whether a law is constitutional. This job often entails "remanding" cases back to the states or to lower courts - essentially, accepting the previous decisions of states and lower courts - if and when the Court decides that it is not the highest court's job to make such a decision.




     Pro-life justice Antonin Scalia admitted that, if a pro-abortion / pro-choice policy were to be properly codified into law, then he would have to rule it constitutional and valid, and allow it to stand, even if he didn't like the outcome. On a fundamental level, the Roe v. Wade decision was never constitutional in the first place, because abortion is not mentioned in either the Bill of Rights, nor in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution (wherein the powers of Congress are listed), and because abortion was never made into exclusively federal or national subject-matter jurisdiction, through a constitutional amendment that would have given Congress the authority to make abortion policy. Therefore, any and all national-level policies regarding abortion should rightfully have been drafted by Congress, rather than temporarily held up, for fifty-one years, as Supreme Court precedent, waiting around to collapse, after a future Court would eventually and inevitably rule it invalid.

     If the E.P.A. is abolished, then it will be because the Democrats declined to make environmental policy into the exclusive subject-matter jurisdiction of the federal government, as opposed to the jurisdiction of the people and the states, which it is (until there's a constitutional amendment saying otherwise), due to the implications of the Tenth Amendment, and due to the fact that environment and ecology appear nowhere in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

     If federal agencies are dismantled as a result of this ruling - in much the same manner in which the Roe v. Wade decision collapsed - then Democrats will only have themselves to blame; for failing to understand how the law works, and the separation of powers.




Friday, June 21, 2024

Sixty-Two Ways to Decrease Your Dependence Upon the U.S. Dollar, Other Currencies, and Moneys in General

     The following is a list of sixty-two things that you can do to wean yourself off your dependence upon the U.S. Dollar (USD) – and currencies and moneys in general – in order to survive.

     Many of these methods would also help achieve easier access to water, food, clothing, medicine, and shelter – i.e., the basic means of survival – and/or would help make it legal (for example, more often legal, or legal in more places) to obtain access to, and/or possession or ownership of, such needs, without requiring the use of currencies.

     Readers should be cautioned that some of these suggestions do not actually achieve the direct nor immediate abolition of currencies; but instead are merely alternatives to moneys, currencies, and/or the Dollar. Many solutions listed below also do not necessarily threaten to abolish the systems of capitalism, exchange, the wage system, market systems, pressured and coerced labor, and perhaps even private property, most or all of which are likely to still prove to remain problematic, even if and after currencies are successfully boycotted (or even, potentially, abolished).
     [Notes: "Anagorism" is a term which refers to a system in which there are no markets. "Anideotism" is a term which refers to a system in which there is no private property.]

     This article is based on my February 2017 article, titled “You Don’t Need Money to Live”, which is based on things I learned from my research associate Tom o’Donnell and his father Tim o’Donnell. That article can be read at the following address:



     #1. Use – and/or work in exchange for – constitutional currencies, such as gold and silver. I refer to gold and silver as “constitutional currencies” because Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution provides that “No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”. This arguably renders fiat currencies, such as the U.S. Dollar, as a currency which is unconstitutional – and therefore illegal and invalid – given that it is not made out of gold and silver, and (since 1971) is not even backed by gold reserves anymore.
     Learn more at:



     #2. Use – and/or work in exchange for – “Gold CDs” and “Silver CDs” (i.e., gold certificates of deposit and silver certificates of deposit).


     #3. Use – and/or work in exchange for – “private currencies”, including independently minted coins made from precious metals. One example was the “American Liberty Dollar” (ALD) which was minted by Bernard von NotHaus, until he was arrested – essentially on a bogus charge of counterfeiting – for doing so.

     Learn more at:



     #4. Use – and/or work in exchange for – other precious metals, aside from gold and silver; such as palladium.


     #5. Use – and/or work in exchange for – interest-free currencies, such as “Greenbacks” (a type of Demand Note or United States Note).
     Learn more at:



     #6. Use – and/or work in exchange for – e-currencies (i.e., electronic currencies) and cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Tether (USDT; a “stablecoin”), and e-currencies which rely on blockchain ledger technology.
     [Note: I do not endorse the use of Bitcoin, nor of Tether, nor stablecoins; I am merely pointing out that they are arguably alternatives to the U.S. Dollar. However, Tether and stablecoins – and other Central Bank Digital Currencies (C.B.D.C.s) – are arguably not alternatives to the Dollar, since their values are pegged / tied / tethered to the value of the Dollar.]
     Learn more at:

     http://rumble.com/v1moyda-the-youtube-algorithm-was-invented-by-child-predator-marc-collins-rector.html

     http://rumble.com/v1vgi86-nikolai-mushegians-death-exposes-link-between-f.t.x.-and-pedo-elite-sex-tra.html

     http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/blog/financial-services/2024/06/20/central-bank-digital-currencies-accelerating-a-digital-economy-with-advanced-technology/#:~:text=To%20keep%20abreast%20of%20the,bank%20digital%20currencies%20(CBDCs).



     #7. Use – and/or work in exchange for – local currencies - including regional currencies and community currencies - such as Colorado Mountain-Hours. These currencies act as “complementary currencies”, complementing the use of national currencies.
     Learn more at:



     #8. Use – and/or work in exchange for – labor notes (also known as labour cheques, labor vouchers, labor certificates). These are non-transferable vouchers which are earned through individual labor and work. One intention of labor notes is to make it impossible to steal money and currency.
     Labor notes were used at Josiah Warren’s Cincinnati Time Store. Pyotr Kropotkin criticized labor notes as a “new form of wages”.
     Learn more at:



     #9. Use – and/or work in exchange for – “time-based currencies” (such as TimeDollars), or use time-based stores and banks (such as the Cincinnati TimeStore, which used labor notes; and TimeBanks).
     Learn more at:



     #10. Advocate for laws which would result in the abolition of fiat currency, fractional banking, and the “independent” private Federal Reserve System; and which would require full-reserve banking. This would prevent the U.S. Dollar from continuing to lose approximately fifty percent of its value every 20 to 25 years.

     Learn more at:

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-reserve_banking

    


     #11. Keep your money, currency, dollars, and/or valuables in safety deposit boxes, and/or bury them. This will help you resist the urge to use them, while you think of other things to use in exchange for what you want and need. Also, they may appreciate in value – whether for use as a currency, or simply as collectors’ items – provided that they are properly preserved.



     #12. Buy things. That is; exchange the currency that you have, for durable goods, which will help you survive more easily without currency or money. This will help you avoid losing value which you would lose in the course of exchanging your currency (which possesses no store of value) for the things you need (which do possess store of value).


     #13. Pay your taxes one last time (using U.S. Dollars), and then stop using money entirely.



     #14. Use – and/or work in exchange for – non-monetary forms of compensation; i.e., in exchange for your most important survival needs (such as food, clothing, housing, shelter, and/or medicine), or working in exchange for wants that are not essential to your survival.
     This will likely require urging your current employer – and/or future employer(s) – to offer you (and your co-workers) opportunities to be compensated for your labor, by working directly in exchange for the things you need to survive, as opposed to working in exchange for currencies and moneys.
     Types of working in exchange for your needs, include hunting and gathering.


     #15. Engage in hunting and gathering; i.e., hunt and trap in order to kill to obtain the meat of wildlife, fish for marine creatures, and/or forage and gather vegetables. Hunting and gathering are forms of “working” (or recreation, or play, depending on how you want to look at it) in exchange for your needs.




     #16. Reject and boycott the wage system; by refusing to work in exchange for an hourly wage, and by encouraging others to do the same.


     #17. Barter. That is: provide resources to others, which they need and/or want, in exchange for receiving resources that you need or want.
     One example of bartering is “trading-out”.
     Learn more at:



     #18. Trade your possessions and/or labor in exchange for the things you need, without involving money or currency or taxation (i.e., “trading-out”). Trading out is a form of bartering.
     Learn more at:



     #19. Gift / give gifts / give to others without expecting anything in return.


     #20. Share; i.e., allowing others to have, use, and/or borrow your possessions, either temporarily or permanently (while indicating whether and when you want them back).


     #21. Hold goods in common / hold goods in commonwealth; i.e., possess resources in common, in coordination, and in conjunction with others (a form of sharing).


     #22. Make “time-share” agreements, which provide for the coordinated, planned, temporary use and sharing of the same resources (most notably, occupiable spaces such as residences and campgrounds); most importantly, those which do not involve or require the use of either Dollars, currency, nor moneys.


     #23. Participate in Native American “potlatch” ceremonies, and “give-offs”. These are ceremonies in which people use opportunities to display their wealth, by showing how much they can give away to others. Potlatch can also involve the intentional destruction of valuable items, in order to demonstrate such wealth.
     Learn more at:

     http://www.diggers.org/free_store.htm



     #24. Donate your time voluntarily, and/or work for free. Also, persuade others to do the same (but do not pressure them, nor coerce them; only persuade them to work for free if – and to the extent to which - they can afford to do so).


     #25. Shop at “free stores” - for example, the (now-defunct) Diggers’ Free Store in New York City – or work with others to open your own free store. These stores operate on the same principles as the “take a penny, leave a penny” system which is sometimes found in convenience stores, in the form of penny trays. People can voluntarily donate goods to such “free stores”, out of the surplus contained in their own homes; and then whomever needs such goods are free to take them. Of course, such stores can only be sustainable if and when more goods are donated than the amount of goods which are taken out of them.
     A similar concept is the “Nic-at-Nite” system; in national and state forests in the United States, hippies hold “Rainbow Gatherings” in which they camp in the woods, and avoid using money as much as possible, because it may be illegal to use U.S. Dollars in some of the park systems. Here, you can find “Nic-at-Niters”; people who volunteer to collect free donations of tobacco and rolling papers, and walk around offering free cigarettes to people, saying “You want a cigarette!? I got a cigarette! You got a cigarette!? I need a cigarette!”
     Learn more at:



     #26. Use – and participate in - social credit systems which do not require the use of money or currency or the Dollar (some of which do, and some of which don’t).
     Learn more at:



     #27. Use – and/or work in exchange for (and encourage others to begin using) – mutuum checks / mutuum cheques. A mutuum cheque can function as a loan for the purpose of consumption, a contract or proof of legal promise, a check / cheque, a bill of sale or bill of lading, a receipt, a certificate of deposit, a promissory note or I.O.U. (“I owe you”), a currency representing a real store of value, or all of the above.


     #28. Watch the T.L.C. (The Learning Channel) show “Extreme Couponing”, to learn tips on how to find, print, and use coupons, and plan your purchases efficiently in order to save time at the store. You can combine your purchases of expensive items at grocery stores, with coupons which provide significant savings on small, mass-produced, inexpensive items, for which customers often have little need. Many episodes of “Extreme Couponing” show customers buying large amounts of goods, worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars, for free, or in exchange for very small amounts of currency.


     #29. Pay it forward. “Paying it forward” involves giving or paying to an uninvolved, new, third party, as opposed to giving something back to the person who paid or provided something to you. You should only “pay it forward” if the person who gave to you, doesn’t mind you refraining from paying them back.
     Learn more at:



     #30. Use – and donate to - mutual aid networks and mutual aid societies, and “friendly societies” and “benefit societies” (including food aid networks such as “Food Not Bombs”).
     Learn more at:

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid_(emergency_services)



     #31. Survey your town or city - looking for water fountains, free meals, food pantries, homeless shelters, restrooms, and electronic charging stations, whose owners allow poor and homeless people to access their resources for free – and make a map of where these services are located. Then, print these maps – using your own money – and distribute them to homeless and low-income individuals, without expecting anything in return.
     Learn more at:



     #32. In the event that the U.S. Dollar undergoes serious inflation which renders it nearly worthless, dollar bills can be made into wallpaper, or bundled together into building blocks that children can use for playing. Hyperinflation rendered the currency of Weimar Germany worthless, and so, German citizens resorted to using their currency, in such manners, to make use of what little store of value it actually held.


     #33. Make clothing – including armor – out of currency, in order to make use of it for its actual store of value. U.S. Dollars are made out of cotton and linen and other materials, but dissolve easily in water, so their utility for the purpose of making clothing is limited; however, it can be done, as long as the owner of the clothing is careful with the item, or makes it out of materials which are more physically durable than U.S. Dollar bills.
     Learn more at:



     #34. Use and develop food-based currencies. Unlike fiat currencies, food-based currencies hold a real store of value, because they can be eaten. Food-based currencies include Chinese tea-bricks, which can be eaten, or used to make tea, or hardened so as to operate as construction material. Foods which don’t expire or go bad – or are meant to expire or go bad – are the best food-based currencies. These potentially include honey, beef jerky and other meat jerkies, croutons, and sour cream.
     Learn more at:



     #35. Advocate and lobby for the relaxation of homesteading laws, in a manner which would make it easier to claim that you have homesteaded your residence and the land upon which it sits. This could involve amending homesteading laws, in a manner which would shorten the duration of time over which a person would have to continuously occupy a residence in order to claim it as their own.


     #36. Advocate and lobby for the extension of homesteading tax credits (also known as homestead credits), so that they can be claimed in more states, and so that they can be made to apply to small residences (such as apartments, trailers, and “tiny houses”).
     Learn more at:



     #37. Advocate and lobby for the offering of tax credits, and/or other tax incentives – to landlords and managers, and housing boards – in exchange for allowing homeless and low-income people to sleep and/or reside in whatever units they own which may be going unused or empty.


     #38. Advocate and lobby for the passage of laws which would abolish absentee property ownership (i.e., the legal claiming of ownership of properties which the actual claimed owner plays no part in using, and/or no part in participating in their daily defense).
     Learn more at:
     http://www.rockethomes.com/blog/housing-market/absentee-owner



     #39. Advocate and lobby for the offering of tax incentives, to the owners and landlords and managers of apartment buildings – and to housing boards – to allow homeless and low-income people to sleep in whichever of their housing units may be going empty and unused.



     #40. Simply let people go get the things they need. Ensure universal and open access to the basic means of survival; i.e., make it illegal for law enforcement officials to use force and initiatory violence in order to administer and apply laws which prohibit people from collecting resources essential which are to their survival, which were provided to them for free by nature. These include – most notably and obviously – air and land (which people cannot help but use and occupy, except for killing themselves), as well as water (which is abundant, and falls from the sky).



     #41. Advocate for the repeal or relaxation of laws which limit or prohibit people’s freedom to collect rainwater (provided that they are not stealing water from their neighbors, and/or altering the water table in a way that harms local plants or wildlife).
     Learn more at:
     http://source.colostate.edu/extension-offers-fact-sheet-on-how-to-harvest-rainwater-under-new-colorado-rules/

 



     #42. Advocate and lobby for relaxing and/or repealing laws which limit or prohibit people from growing edible plant produce, and raising small livestock (such as bees, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and goats) on or outside their homes.
     Learn more at:
     http://news.wttw.com/2018/02/05/chickens-and-goats-backyard-raising-livestock-chicago



     #43. Advocate and lobby for the repeal of laws against vagrancy; for example, laws which allow police officers to arrest travelers, vagrants, and homeless people provided they do not have enough money to stay in a hotel in the pertinent town for the night. One example would be to advocate for the repeal of laws against loitering.
     Learn more at:
     http://www.law.virginia.edu/scholarship/publication/risa-goluboff/640716#:~:text=Vagrancy%20laws%20took%20myriad%20forms,some%20jurisdictions%20criminalized%20loitering%20separately.



     #44. Advocate and lobby for the relaxation and/or repeal of laws against sleeping (sometimes referred to as “camping”) and of squatting; especially on town and city and other municipal property, and other public lands.


     #45. Advocate and lobby for the relaxation of local building and construction codes, in a manner which would allow for a wider range of experimentation in architecture. One way would be to amend the law to allow homes to be made from recyclable and reusable materials. Components of these homes – called “Earth Ships” – often include dirt packed into tires, aluminum cans wrapped together with pieces of twine, and colored glass bottles stacked together in mosaic patterns. These homes are usually built with windows facing the sun, and have been known to retain heat and cold well, which makes it extremely cheap (or even free) to regulate their temperature, allowing such homes to go entirely without modern H.V.A.C. (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning).
     Architect Mike Reynolds successfully lobbied the government of the State of New Mexico to do this, and then he travelled to Indonesia to teach locals how to gather recyclable materials, and build houses from them, after the 2004 tsunami in Banda Aceh.
     Learn more at:
     http://earthship.com

     http://theministryofarchitecture.com/earthships/earthship-pros-cons/

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_ZTiocr3LU

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



     #46. Advocate and lobby for the repeal of laws which hinder people from – and/or punish people for – donating foods, clothing, and other goods, to the homeless. One example would be to take down signs which advise people not to give to panhandlers, and to instead donate to homeless shelters and other homeless services. Raise awareness that voluntary giving is not a crime.



     #47. Urge your local homeless shelters to set up free laundry services for the people who use said shelters. Such services could be funded through additional donations from the public, and/or by whatever funds those shelters may already have available.


     #48. Advocate and lobby for the repeal or relaxation of laws against public nudity, and of other legally binding dress codes which apply to the public (provided that such repeal would not result in the legalization of indecent exposure). This would help reduce the annual cost of clothing which is incurred by the poor.


     #49. Lobby governments to stop sending public taxpayer money – and other forms of public assistance – to food companies, especially “Big Ag” (big agriculture) companies which make billions of dollars each year and would likely thrive without public assistance.
     Examples of such public assistance include bailout funds, government contracts, monopoly privileges (such as patents), bankruptcy assistance, corporate subsidies, trade promotions and trade protections (such as finance and insurance from the Export-Import Bank), easy credit and low interest rates (from the Federal Reserve System), discounts on public utilities (such as roads and electricity), small business loans (such as P.P.P. loans), and favorable zoning laws and professional regulations, among others.

 


     #50. Advocate and lobby for the offering of tax incentives, to grocery stores and supermarkets, to donate food (especially excess / surplus foods, and foods that will spoil and go bad if they are not soon used) to the homeless and needy. Also, advocate and lobby for requiring such stores to donate unsold foods to the homeless and needy; or for revoking the charters of businesses which do not do so.
     Learn more at:
     http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets

     http://recycle.ab.ca/newsletterarticle/france-becomes-first-country-to-ban-supermarket-food-waste/

     http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/is-frances-groundbreaking-food-waste-law-working


     #51. Raise awareness about gleaning, the gathering of plant produce which is going unused, sitting in fields, because it is not suitable for sale. Such food is often perfectly edible.
     A related task could be to advocate for the repeal of laws which prohibit “dumpster diving” (i.e., “diving” into dumpsters in order to find food that could still be eaten).
     Learn more at:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaning

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



     #52. Instead of using mass-produced, specialized, processed foods (which are often unhealthful and expensive), buy generic foods, and engage in bulk purchasing. This is easy to do, if you shop at wholesale food distribution stores (such as CostCo and WinCo), and food cooperatives / grocery cooperatives. Generic foods are often sold in bulk, but it is only efficient to buy bulk foods if you live in a housing cooperative, and/or routinely share meals with other people.



     #53. Advocate and lobby for the repeal or relaxation of laws which require local food and health inspectors, and/or the F.D.A. (Food and Drug Administration) to inspect any and all foods offered for potential purchase by the buying “public”. Foods which may be subject to such inspection include farm-to-fork meals (meals which go directly from farm to the dinner table), homemade baked goods offered for school bake sales, and children’s lemonade stands. [The freedom to start a lemonade stand is referred to as “Lemonade Liberty”.] The laws could be amended so as to prohibit the destruction of such foods (including with bleach) simply because they were offered for sale before or without inspection.
     Learn more at:
     http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/blog/2012/12/18/revisiting-the-farm-to-fork-fiasco/

     http://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/bake-sales-should-follow-basic-food-safety-precautions/

     http://www.northfortmyersneighbor.com/2011/09/20/lemonade-liberty-a-lesson-in-freedom/

         


     #54. Agree to work, washing dishes or cleaning, in exchange for food, provided that the owners of the restaurant are okay with you doing so, and that you are not planning on doing it solely in the event that you get caught attempting to “dine and dash” (i.e., eat, and then run out of the restaurant without paying).
     Musician Jon Bon Jovi opened a restaurant, called "JBJ Soul Kitchen", which advertises no prices for meals, and which is funded largely on donations and volunteering.
     Learn more at:
     
http://jbjsoulkitchen.org/




     #55. Advocate and lobby for the reduction of patent terms on foods. This will allow generic versions of patented foods to enter the market sooner, rather than later, usually in a manner which allows such a food to be purchased more cheaply.



     #56. Advocate and lobby for the reduction of patent terms (sometimes called patent “lifespans”) on medications. This will allow generic versions of patented medications to enter the market sooner, rather than later, usually in a manner which allows such a food to be purchased more cheaply.
     I have proposed a law called “E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C.” which would do just this. “E.M.P.A.T.H.I.C.” stands for “Eliminating Medical Patents to Achieve Technology for Immortality Cheaply”. I like to say that we should make medical patent “lifespans” shorter in order to help make human lifespans last longer.



     #57. Advocate and lobby for the passage of a new law which would offer doctors and nurses opportunities to voluntarily submit to legally enforcement of the provision of the Hippocratic Oath which prohibits them from declining to treat people due to inability to pay. The same oath also requires doctors to share medical knowledge for free, and even to give their own money to patients who are in need. Such enforcement could potentially provide for the revoking of medical licenses for any and all health care workers who promise to provide free care, but then renege on their promises.
     The Hippocratic Oath reads, in part: “…when he is in need of money to share mine with him… to teach them this art, if they want to learn it, without fee or indenture; to impart precept, oral instruction…”.
     Such a law, if widely adopted, would drastically reduce not only the costs of health care, but a
lso the costs of medical education.

     Learn more at:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath




     #58. Raise awareness that architect Buckminster Fuller said that "one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest." This would imply that it would only require the volunteer labor of about 800,000 people in order to support the current human population of eight billion.





     #59. Increase awareness that scarcity is a myth, because it is an illusion, and artificial, and manufactured, for the purposes of making us think that shortages are natural and normal and occur frequently. Additionally, raise awareness that scarcity, shortages, fixedness, finitude / finity, and limitation / limitedness, are not the same thing; and that schools of economics are trying to lead us to think that they are the same thing.
     For more information, please read my May 2023 article, titled “Economics Uses a False Definition of Scarcity (and Ignores Abundance)”, which can be read at the following address:
     http://aquarianagrarian.blogspot.com/2023/05/economics-uses-false-definition-of.html



     #60. Read articles about – and/or watch video interviews with – Daniel Suelo, “the man who quit money”, in order to get more ideas about how to live without using moneys and currencies.
     Learn more at:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suelo

     http://www.becomingminimalist.com/the-man-who-quit-money-an-interview-with-daniel-suelo/



     #61. Start a campaign which involves urging and encouraging others to boycott the U.S. Dollar, and/or to quit currency and/or money entirely, using the other tips which are listed, above and below, in this article. Remind people that you don’t die if you stop needing money, and that money is not one of our basic means of survival; rather, air, water, food, clothing, shelter, and medicine are. Show this article to anybody you know, who claims that “you need money to live” or that “you need money in order to survive”.
     Learn more at:
     ht
tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-monetary_economy


     #62. Stop associating with people who use money and currencies and the U.S. Dollar. This will only be practical and practicable on a mass scale, if, after, and when more people begin to attempt to boycott currencies, and are able to share this knowledge with others, and recover from their addiction to currencies, successfully.










Written, and originally published incomplete,
on June 21st, 2024.

Originally published under the title
"Fifty-Seven Ways to Decrease Your Dependence
Upon the U.S. Dollar, Other Currencies, and Moneys in General"

Edited, expanded, and completed
on June 22nd, 2024.



Based on my February 2017 article
"You Don't Need Money to Live",
which was written on February 17th, 2017,
edited on February 18th through 20th, and 25th,
March 19th and 23rd, and April 4th, 2017,
and August 16th, 2019.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Open Letter to Liz Wolfe Regarding Chase Oliver's Views on Puberty Blockers for Minors

     1. Introduction

      [Author's Note:
     This article previously contained inaccurate information. Please scroll down, to the other author's note, if you wish to read it before reading the remainder of this article.
      The Aquarian Agrarian regrets the error.]

      On Monday, May 27th, 2024, the Libertarian Party nominated Chase Oliver to be its presidential candidate, at its national convention in Washington, D.C..

     Within the following several days, numerous Libertarian Party members - especially those who didn't vote for Oliver to be the party's nominee - expressed concern and disapproval regarding Chase Oliver's stance regarding puberty blockers for minors.

     Oliver has stated that, while he does oppose giving bottom surgery (i.e., genital surgery) to people under the age of 18, he does not think that the state should be in the business of preventing parents from, or punishing parents for, making the decision that puberty blockers are appropriate for their children.


      On May 31st - four days after receiving the L.P.'s nomination - Chase Oliver appeared on the "Just Asking Questions" podcast, hosted by Zach Weissmuller and Liz Wolfe, to discuss the issue. The "Just Asking Questions" podcast is affiliated with libertarian news outlet Reason Magazine, whose website is www.reason.com.

     That interview was published to YouTube, under the title "What does Chase Oliver believe about trans kids?". That video can be viewed at the following address:

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obFBd8AAMNs

     I would urge my readers to watch that video before proceeding, as the remarks which follow below, are a direct response to the comments made by Oliver and Liz Wolfe in that interview.





     2. The Letter

 

     On June 12th, 2024, I sent an e-mail to Liz Wolfe, to explain why I agree with her concerns and criticisms regarding Mr. Oliver.

 

     [Notes about the formatting of this article:

     1. The portions of the letter below which appear in brackets, and/or italics, were added to the text after it was sent.

     2. For the reader's convenience, lengthy author's notes have been placed between brackets and appear in italics, in order to contrast against the original portions of the e-mail, which appear without either brackets or italics.]

     3. Single words which appear within brackets were either added, or edited (but without significantly modifying the meaning of the text).

     4. Paragraph breaks and spaces between lines have also been added for the reader's convenience.]

 

     That e-mail read as follows:

 

 

     Hi Liz. Thanks for pushing back against Chase Oliver in your recent interview. I appreciate your trying to get him to be consistent.

     I'm a former Libertarian and this is one of the reasons why I left.

 

     Oliver isn't even correct that bottom surgery is irreversible. Walt Heyer underwent bottom surgery, and then had it reversed.

     Not that that makes it OK, of course! The damage which bottom surgery and puberty blockers do to the body should not be underestimated, and Oliver was clearly trying to avoid discussing it.

     Some women have described testosterone as "poison to women", and one of the puberty blockers commonly used is Lupron, which is used to chemically castrate sex offenders. So we are treating "gender-questioning kids" like sex offenders, while ignoring the possibility that they feel that way because they were sexually abused as children.

 

     Oliver also avoided discussing how these forms of transitioning re-affirm harmful gender stereotypes (like the stereotypes that tall people cannot be feminine, and that short people cannot be masculine; and that if you are a boy who is attracted to other boys then you must really be a girl inside).

 

     The conversation also got nowhere near entertaining the possibility that diagnosing a kid with gender dysphoria tends to distract from any and all prior ailments from which they may be suffering, which may have overlapping symptoms with gender dysphoria, or which may have caused that dysphoria. Particularly, Dissociative Identity Disorder, general body dysmorphia, gender-based bullying and harmful gender stereotypes, and prior sexual abuse [as well as homosexuality, bisexuality, autism, fear of being sexually assaulted or abused or objectified, and/or desire to please adults to want to send the child chest binders]. In my book, ignoring previous sexual abuse is basically the same thing as pedophile enabling.

 

     Walt Heyer was forced to wear a dress by his grandmother, and raped by an uncle, and developed gender dysphoria. I suspect that Heyer internalized that harm, and reasoned that he might have an easier time getting penetrated by his uncle, if he were to attempt to transition to female.
     [Note: Heyer has stated that he desired to become a female in order to get away from the abuse, but in my opinion, it's possible that making the abuse easier on himself could have been a subconscious additional motivation. And even if he didn't feel that way, it's possible that other people who suffered similar fates, have felt that way.]

 

     Also, there is a man who is developing a line of swimsuits, for his gender-dysphoric "daughter", which tucks the genitals back.

     [Source:

     http://www.today.com/parents/dad-designs-swimwear-transgender-girls-daughter-t206361]

     I would be shocked to discover that that father did not sexually abuse his child.
     Even if he didn't, the sheer amount of attention being paid to the child's genitals is creepy, and amounts to indirect sexual abuse.

     But according to these "pro-trans" people (such as Briahna Joy Gray), wanting children to remain unmutilated is the only real form of "obsession with children's genitals".

 

     Oliver was clearly trying to suggest, indirectly, that your [i.e., Liz Wolfe's] concerns are motivated by the desire to paint all pro-trans people and gays as pedophiles and groomers.

 

     He claims to be against tattooing and giving plastic surgery to minors, but nowhere in his interview did he discuss what to do about it. I would say that he has a knee-jerk reaction to any attempt, by the state, to "make decisions on parents' behalf", but he is clearly biased when it comes to his own community.

     [Note: By "his own community", I am referring to "G.S.M.", an initialization which stands for "gender and sexual minorities". Oliver is a same-sex-attracted cisgender male; i.e., a homosexual.]

 

 

     And his admission that he'd support a "religious exemption" to a ban on circumcision for minors, is idiotic. There is a pedophilic cult called the Children of God. They have a [“]holy book[“] that depicts adults raping minors. I shudder to think what society would be like, if their book The Story of Davidito could not be legally banned from children's libraries, or if the Children of God were to receive a "religious exemption" to a ban on minors having sex.

     [Note: The possibility that bans on people under 18 years of age getting married or having sex, could be defeated - based on the need to account for the supposed need to provide religious exemptions - is not as far-fetched as some of my readers might imagine. In 2017, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declined to sign a law that would have prohibited marriage for people under the age of 18, saying that it would "violate the cultures and traditions of some communities" if an "exclusion without exceptions" for parental and/or judicial consent were to become law.

       Source:
     http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-jersey-chris-christie-child-marriage-ban-fails-religious-custom-a7735616.html
     New Jersey is far from being the only state where judicial and parental permission can override the minor's lack of ability to consent; other states have this law too. The website of the Tahirih Justice Center has more information about various state laws regarding this topic. Governor Phil Murphy signed a law banning marriage for people under 18, without exceptions, in June 2018.

      Source:
     http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562018/approved/20180622b_child_marriage_ban.shtml
]

 

     Also, his statement that parents should make decisions about transitioning, because "parents have unconditional love for their children", is patently absurd. My father raped me when I was [eight] and [nine] years old. He did not have unconditional love for me (unless you count lust as love).

 

     If I had been any stupider, or more gullible, or had become financially independent from my parents any later in life, then there is a good chance that I would have fallen for the lies told to me by my peers and family, which is that I seemed gay or effeminate, or that "If you decided to come out as transgender, we would support you." If I had not begun to recover memories of the childhood sexual abuse at the age of [twenty-seven], then for all we know, I might have begun identifying as gay or transgender out of confusion.

 

     There is a study that says 20% of minors with gender dysphoria suffered previous sexual abuse.
     [Note: The study to which I referred, which says that 19% (not 20%) of transgender minors experienced sexual abuse, can be found at the following address:

     http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8344346/]

     The same study says that minors with gender dysphoria are twice as likely as the general population to have suffered sexual abuse.

     These studies are out there, and Oliver either doesn't know about them, or doesn't want to talk about them.

 

     I don't know if Oliver is afraid to look like a "self-hating homosexual", or maybe he sees that there is a lot of money in being pro-transition (for example, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's "sister" Jennifer is the world's only transgender billionaire, and "she" has been supporting pro-transition causes).

 

     [Author's Note, added on July 15th, 2024:
     The following five paragraphs - including the first, which was sent to Liz Wolfe, and the following four, which were not - were based on incorrect information. This article previously claimed that "O
liver tweeted the message [']The age of consent is too damn high[']". That claim was based on a tweet that was actually sent by Democratic operative Harry J. Sisson, who was (and still is) posing either as Chase Oliver himself, or as a Chase Oliver supporter, using the username @ChaseOliver2024.
     The Aquarian Agrarian regrets the error, and plans to take Sisson to task for his deception soon.]


     It's also possible that Oliver is an actual pedophile. He said that "the age of consent is too damn high". (see attached image). Which he wouldn't say, if he knew about the "federal generic age of consent" of 16 years old. He wouldn't say that if he knew about the case of Esquivel-Quintana v[.] Sessions (which essentially held that state laws establishing an age of consent of 17 or 18 are now invalid, giving an incentive for 16-to-20-year-olds to traffic their victims across state lines, if they're less than four years younger; because then, it would be a federal case instead of a state case). He wouldn't say that if he knew that there are reduced penalties for someone between 16 and 20 if they rape someone less than four years younger than they are. This is why some people claim that the age of consent is actually twelve years old.

 

     Libertarians began this discussion, about [five] or [ten] years ago, by (appropriately) criticizing making teenagers into registered sex offenders for life, if they sext-message other teenagers and acquire nudes of other minors that way. But after that, they stopped paying attention to the erosion of the rights of the child, which ha[s] played out in the courts since then. He is probably not even aware that there are several states that have failed to establish an absolute minimum age for tattooing and marriage, because their laws allow judges and parents to make decisions on children's behalf. You read that correctly; there are states where an infant could theoretically get married (and have sex) or get a tattoo, if the parents and/or a judge are stupid or insane enough to allow it.

     [Note: In my opinion, many Libertarians fail to understand that some activities are so dangerous for children to engage in, that parental, judicial, and/or physicians' permission, could not possibly turn that dangerous activity into something that is safe, or wise, or harmless, as if by magic. I blame Libertarians' adoption of the idea that adults' permission can safely guide children through something harmful, on a line of thinking which I heard an approximately 70-year-old man say to a ten- or twelve-year-old girl at the 2018 Illinois Libertarian Party Convention: "There's a safe way to do everything".

     I suspect that this line of thinking is motivated by the idea that the approach which the government of the Netherlands takes towards activities such as drug use and prostitution. This holds true for adults, but unlimited freedom - and the freedom to take dangerous risks which carry lifetime consequences - is not for children; it's for adults.

     This regulatory approach is arguably indistinguishable from the approach which the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration undertook during the New Deal, when it closed banks and then opened them back up again just several days later, and then created the F.D.I.C. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), in order to create the illusion that the regulations being passed, were really for everybody's benefit, and were really working, and were really being written and enforced by moral and well-meaning people. They weren't. And Libertarians, as some of the staunchest critics of the New Deal in America, ought to notice this. But sadly, most of them they haven't.

     Early libertarian C. Frederic Bastiat once said that people should not accuse liberals of wanting nobody to raise grain, simply because they don't want the state to do it. And that is a valid statement. But while some Libertarians wisely reason that the state shouldn't be trusted to solve a problem, they sometimes then fail to explain whom, aside from the state, should solve that problem, and so, the problem continues, and festers.]

 

     Please reach out to me if you have any questions or [need] clarifications. I am so tired of seeing people drastically oversimplify how age of consent and statutory rape laws work, and treat people concerned about kids as if they're full of hate.


     Thanks for reading and keep pushing back.

     - Joseph W. Kopsick
     
jwkopsick@gmail.com
     618-751-3229

 

 

 

E-mail written and sent on June 12th, 2024.

This article originally published, in shorter form, on June 12th, 2024.

Edited, expanded, and completed - and most notes added - on June 17th, 2024.

Author's notes regarding Harry J. Sisson's fake tweet about Chase Oliver
added to this article on July 15th, 2024.