Standing armies are indeed an invitation to escapade. Standing police force armies are why you pay your taxes. The property tax is heinous, supports your local enforcement army, and they in turn ensure that you contribute mightily to any galvanizing cause under the sun cooked up by both grifters who can't ranch/farm or produce tangible goods and services and by idle rich who have nothing but boredom to contend with and countless windmills at which to tilt.
If you haven't, go read Bastiat's essays. Guaranteed you will find masterpieces.
Maybe do an essay from first principles in concert with Bastiat's positions and walk it up to the present. A lot of people could benefit from the journey. Right time to reassess a lot of things.
If you know the Stanley MIlgram experiment at Yale, then you know that only 20% of the public is capable of independent thinking. He proved that 70-80% of the public will murder another person if an authority figure tells them to. Covid era makes sense from that standpoint. Reflects almost exactly the compliance vs. non-compliance percentage of the population.
I don't know said it, but I read a view saying - the people we elect to represent us should not be able to do anything collectively, that we cannot do as individuals. We would live in a sane world if that applied rather than thinking as stated in this piece that our representatives should be in a lunatic asylum.
I completely agree regarding the capitulation of the human spirit to government. For me it has remained the strangest and most tragic act of spiritual surrender of the human race. I have close friends who remain preternaturally loyal to big government, as though it were one of Plato’s perfect forms. It makes my head explode. I can neither understand it nor place it in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It is our undoing as a species.
As a Christian I should add that one of my biggest struggles with Scriptural truth is Romans 13. It presents this topic of how we as believers should think about government. I have never been able to grasp it. The Apostle Paul basically says that we should always respect and obey the government. Always. There are no qualifications to this admonition. Interestingly, Paul wrote these words when he was under the rule of Emperor Nero right around 64AD. Nero was one of the worst of the worst as far as heads of state go, throughout history. This was a man Paul knew well and who, not long after he wrote the words words contained in Romans 13, beheaded him. This is something I heavily ponder.
I too have thought about that, and I wonder if a Roman patrician told him the congregation in Rome would be left alone if evidence were presented to administration that Christians posed no political threat. He was also doubtless thinking about Pilate, who initially stated he did not believe that Jesus posed a threat to Roman authority. For a fun novel about this era, check out "Quo Vadis?"
Read Boehnhoffer by Metaxas. The book provies Pastor Boehnhoffer's views on this topic, which might give you some clarification. And it is an excellent read. Very
I imagine that most average, everyday, decent people do not sit around fantasizing about acquiring power to force their will on others. But some people do. And I assume that is how a decent percentage of political, large scale industrial, and organized criminal positions are filled.
Over time, a sort of self perpetuating and self selecting system seems to naturally form and filter out any good or decent people.
We can all read history books. We are not the exception.
I'm in the middle of Whitney Web's book, One Nation Under Blackmail, vol 1. It's not the history we are told in school.
Yes, seems clear that he and his apparatus captured the entire stratum of ruling degenerates. Trump's vicious attack of Thomas Massie and M.T. Greene for pushing for full release told us everything we need to know about him.
Yeah, I recently realized that his statement, "It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!" in 2025, was his best personal attempt to divert the desired war. But, he is not in charge obviously.
"Not a poetic book." Absolutely not. I don't know if I'll ever get all the way thru it (two volumes). Whitney Webb has been praised as "diligent," which she is. Lots of footnotes and references.
Haha, so true. I'm working my way through volume 1 for the second time because I gave up the first go round. The release of the small portion of the Epstein files, that are highly redacted, gave me the will to try again. I will make it through vol 1 this time! And I will eventually get to vol 2. :)
I assume Whitney will add another volume someday if we ever get more Estein files.
Thanks for sharing the link to her blog and podcast.
I think about the plight of us average people too. I'm not sitting around thinking "I hate those Russians, Afghans, Palestinians, Chinese, etc." And I have to believe that they're not spending a lot of time thinking about me either. Yet somehow we are in conflict. Long ago, I met an uncle in Germany who was on the wrong side of WW2. The nicest and most fun guy you'd ever meet. He said to me "I didn't hate Americans, but a man gave me a rifle and told me to shoot." All I can think of is Milton Friedman's quote: "Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by good intentions."
If you aren't sitting around hating people from other countries, you obviously aren't being properly propagandized. For the love of war, please turn on the news!
But seriously, it so sad to see how humans are just constantly pressured into wars. It seems to me to be one of the greatest tragedies of humankind.
I’m as much a critic as anyone of big government and all the swamp creatures who infest it. But I completely support our president because he is the only one who, in just over one year, has made a very significant contribution to cutting out the imbedded bureaucracies. Think of how many government employees are no longer on the payroll. And the total dismantling of USAID which was a gigantic slush fund that massively subsidized government bureaucracy and the Democrats. He closed our borders almost overnight. He has instituted a massive effort to deport illegals. America is once again energy independent. You seem to routinely dismiss the long list of terrorist offenses brought against our country and other allies by Iran. Iran was a global menace which needed to be destroyed. The region and the world will be massively Improved when this excursion is completed. You are losing credibility in your fine work in the medical/healthcare areas. This journey into appeasement and passiveness is completely illogical. Trump is winning and nation and our hemisphere will greatly benefit from his leadership and achievements.
Another Leake post just dripping with cowardice. It’s all implied, Orange Man bad, Orange Man bad. You’re steeped in TDS and too shabby to present a full-frontal critique.
lol, on another man’s blog. You’re cucked like the store clerk in “No Country for Old Men”. You married into this.
Too ignorant and afraid to see Trump is taking us through the necessary wringer to the free future beyond it. You don’t understand Trump because you are unworthy of Trump.
Interesting that you compare me to an old man suddenly confronted by the Antichrist, who intimidates him into staking his remaining life on a coin toss. Is that your idea of just and prudent power?
You mean the "Empirical" Lies?. I use the word to refer to the Empire that controls this country and Britain. The one paying for the science, you know our Overlords. You mean THAT "Empirical evidence"? Here's quickie anyway:
I was thinking about the US consul to Germany in 1933, George Messersmith, who cabled to Washington that the men who'd just come to power would, under normal circumstances, be in mental asylums. Because the German people were so traumatized by hyperinflation and onerous reparations imposed by Versailles Treaty, they couldn't see they were being seduced by psychopaths. Messersmith advised that reparations be rescinded to help ordinary Germans return to sanity, but our bankers wanted none of it.
John, I believe you will enjoy the following commentary on the historical use of the military for political purposes.
"Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, baron de La Brede et de (1689-1755) was truly perhaps the most influential of the political French philosophers who did more to alter the course of the world than anyone of this time."
"Pay it and you continue to encourage bad behavior on the part of the govt." That part is true. "What the US govt doesn't want you to know is that Income Tax is voluntary." That part is not true. What they mean is that they depend on voluntary compliance with sending them the information to tax you, as they don't have the capability to dig up everyone's income.
These kinds of arguments are referred to by the IRS as "frivolous" and the fine is $5000 last time I checked. They even have handy web pages explaining all the frivolous arguments at:
"The income tax is voluntary" is at the top of the list.
There are thousands of web pages and schemes telling people various reasons why the income tax is unconstitutional, or voluntary, or wasn't ratified, etc. and they know how to help you avoid it if you just send them money. ALL of these are frivolous arguments that will get you a $5000 fine.
It’s not the government that’s the problem, it’s the politicians and judges who get elected by low information voters and noncitizens, and bureaucrats and judges appointed by these politicians.
Standing armies are indeed an invitation to escapade. Standing police force armies are why you pay your taxes. The property tax is heinous, supports your local enforcement army, and they in turn ensure that you contribute mightily to any galvanizing cause under the sun cooked up by both grifters who can't ranch/farm or produce tangible goods and services and by idle rich who have nothing but boredom to contend with and countless windmills at which to tilt.
If you haven't, go read Bastiat's essays. Guaranteed you will find masterpieces.
I am a fan.
Maybe do an essay from first principles in concert with Bastiat's positions and walk it up to the present. A lot of people could benefit from the journey. Right time to reassess a lot of things.
I haven't read Bastiat, an oversight I'm sure. But Étiênnne de La Boétie's "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude" is essential reading also on this topic:
https://cdn.mises.org/Politics%20of%20Obedience.pdf
If you are a student of Boetie, then you definitely must read Bastiat. In fact, Bastiat may undermine the foundation of Boetie.
I look forward to it. Thanks. Another great writer on voluntary serviture is Robert Altemeyer of Manitoba, who wrote "The Authoritarians":
https://theauthoritarians.org/
He explains authoritarian followers.
If you know the Stanley MIlgram experiment at Yale, then you know that only 20% of the public is capable of independent thinking. He proved that 70-80% of the public will murder another person if an authority figure tells them to. Covid era makes sense from that standpoint. Reflects almost exactly the compliance vs. non-compliance percentage of the population.
I don't know said it, but I read a view saying - the people we elect to represent us should not be able to do anything collectively, that we cannot do as individuals. We would live in a sane world if that applied rather than thinking as stated in this piece that our representatives should be in a lunatic asylum.
That's why the reference to Bastiat above. He explains WHAT government should be allowed to do and why.
I completely agree regarding the capitulation of the human spirit to government. For me it has remained the strangest and most tragic act of spiritual surrender of the human race. I have close friends who remain preternaturally loyal to big government, as though it were one of Plato’s perfect forms. It makes my head explode. I can neither understand it nor place it in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It is our undoing as a species.
As a Christian I should add that one of my biggest struggles with Scriptural truth is Romans 13. It presents this topic of how we as believers should think about government. I have never been able to grasp it. The Apostle Paul basically says that we should always respect and obey the government. Always. There are no qualifications to this admonition. Interestingly, Paul wrote these words when he was under the rule of Emperor Nero right around 64AD. Nero was one of the worst of the worst as far as heads of state go, throughout history. This was a man Paul knew well and who, not long after he wrote the words words contained in Romans 13, beheaded him. This is something I heavily ponder.
I too have thought about that, and I wonder if a Roman patrician told him the congregation in Rome would be left alone if evidence were presented to administration that Christians posed no political threat. He was also doubtless thinking about Pilate, who initially stated he did not believe that Jesus posed a threat to Roman authority. For a fun novel about this era, check out "Quo Vadis?"
Read Boehnhoffer by Metaxas. The book provies Pastor Boehnhoffer's views on this topic, which might give you some clarification. And it is an excellent read. Very
"an apparatus of centralized power run by people who should probably be in an insane asylum."
Correction: 'insane asylum' should changed to 'prison' or to 'exile from planet earth entirely'.
You have given me something to think about. Thanks
I imagine that most average, everyday, decent people do not sit around fantasizing about acquiring power to force their will on others. But some people do. And I assume that is how a decent percentage of political, large scale industrial, and organized criminal positions are filled.
Over time, a sort of self perpetuating and self selecting system seems to naturally form and filter out any good or decent people.
We can all read history books. We are not the exception.
I'm in the middle of Whitney Web's book, One Nation Under Blackmail, vol 1. It's not the history we are told in school.
I've been meaning to check out that book!
It's not a poetic book but if you want to know how we got to the point that neither party will release the full Epstein files... this is the book.
Yes, seems clear that he and his apparatus captured the entire stratum of ruling degenerates. Trump's vicious attack of Thomas Massie and M.T. Greene for pushing for full release told us everything we need to know about him.
Yeah, I recently realized that his statement, "It was my great honor to Destroy All Nuclear facilities & capability, and then, STOP THE WAR!" in 2025, was his best personal attempt to divert the desired war. But, he is not in charge obviously.
"Not a poetic book." Absolutely not. I don't know if I'll ever get all the way thru it (two volumes). Whitney Webb has been praised as "diligent," which she is. Lots of footnotes and references.
She blogs and podcasts at https://newsletter.unlimitedhangout.com/
Haha, so true. I'm working my way through volume 1 for the second time because I gave up the first go round. The release of the small portion of the Epstein files, that are highly redacted, gave me the will to try again. I will make it through vol 1 this time! And I will eventually get to vol 2. :)
I assume Whitney will add another volume someday if we ever get more Estein files.
Thanks for sharing the link to her blog and podcast.
I think about the plight of us average people too. I'm not sitting around thinking "I hate those Russians, Afghans, Palestinians, Chinese, etc." And I have to believe that they're not spending a lot of time thinking about me either. Yet somehow we are in conflict. Long ago, I met an uncle in Germany who was on the wrong side of WW2. The nicest and most fun guy you'd ever meet. He said to me "I didn't hate Americans, but a man gave me a rifle and told me to shoot." All I can think of is Milton Friedman's quote: "Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by good intentions."
If you aren't sitting around hating people from other countries, you obviously aren't being properly propagandized. For the love of war, please turn on the news!
But seriously, it so sad to see how humans are just constantly pressured into wars. It seems to me to be one of the greatest tragedies of humankind.
That's a very relevant quote by Friedman.
Thanks for the laugh!
The T.S. Eliot quote is one of my favorites. Loved how they used it in The Magus, a mediocre film based on a great idea. (Novel.)
I’m as much a critic as anyone of big government and all the swamp creatures who infest it. But I completely support our president because he is the only one who, in just over one year, has made a very significant contribution to cutting out the imbedded bureaucracies. Think of how many government employees are no longer on the payroll. And the total dismantling of USAID which was a gigantic slush fund that massively subsidized government bureaucracy and the Democrats. He closed our borders almost overnight. He has instituted a massive effort to deport illegals. America is once again energy independent. You seem to routinely dismiss the long list of terrorist offenses brought against our country and other allies by Iran. Iran was a global menace which needed to be destroyed. The region and the world will be massively Improved when this excursion is completed. You are losing credibility in your fine work in the medical/healthcare areas. This journey into appeasement and passiveness is completely illogical. Trump is winning and nation and our hemisphere will greatly benefit from his leadership and achievements.
Well said Ron!
Please, can someone advise again on how to remove myself from this Substack and remain on only Focal Points with Dr McCullough?
Another Leake post just dripping with cowardice. It’s all implied, Orange Man bad, Orange Man bad. You’re steeped in TDS and too shabby to present a full-frontal critique.
lol, on another man’s blog. You’re cucked like the store clerk in “No Country for Old Men”. You married into this.
Too ignorant and afraid to see Trump is taking us through the necessary wringer to the free future beyond it. You don’t understand Trump because you are unworthy of Trump.
Interesting that you compare me to an old man suddenly confronted by the Antichrist, who intimidates him into staking his remaining life on a coin toss. Is that your idea of just and prudent power?
Perhaps you could favor us uninformed folk with an explanation of why the wringer is necessary and how it will get us to a better situation.
Yes.. very thoughtful.
What the US govt doesn't want you to know is that Income Tax is voluntary. Pay it and you continue to encourage bad behavior on the part of the govt.
Where does it say it is voluntary and what is your empirical basis for believing that to be true?
You mean the "Empirical" Lies?. I use the word to refer to the Empire that controls this country and Britain. The one paying for the science, you know our Overlords. You mean THAT "Empirical evidence"? Here's quickie anyway:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-Ph_-sKp2g
Then ask yourself how America funded "the govt" before 1913...
I think you are perhaps too generous, John. The apparatus of centralized power is run by people who should probably be in prison.
I was thinking about the US consul to Germany in 1933, George Messersmith, who cabled to Washington that the men who'd just come to power would, under normal circumstances, be in mental asylums. Because the German people were so traumatized by hyperinflation and onerous reparations imposed by Versailles Treaty, they couldn't see they were being seduced by psychopaths. Messersmith advised that reparations be rescinded to help ordinary Germans return to sanity, but our bankers wanted none of it.
John, I believe you will enjoy the following commentary on the historical use of the military for political purposes.
"Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, baron de La Brede et de (1689-1755) was truly perhaps the most influential of the political French philosophers who did more to alter the course of the world than anyone of this time."
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/the-real-reason-why-the-constitution-preserved-the-militia-right-to-retain-arms/
"Pay it and you continue to encourage bad behavior on the part of the govt." That part is true. "What the US govt doesn't want you to know is that Income Tax is voluntary." That part is not true. What they mean is that they depend on voluntary compliance with sending them the information to tax you, as they don't have the capability to dig up everyone's income.
These kinds of arguments are referred to by the IRS as "frivolous" and the fine is $5000 last time I checked. They even have handy web pages explaining all the frivolous arguments at:
https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/the-truth-about-frivolous-tax-arguments-introduction
and
https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/the-truth-about-frivolous-arguments-section-i-a-to-c
and
https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/the-truth-about-frivolous-tax-arguments-section-i-d-to-e
"The income tax is voluntary" is at the top of the list.
There are thousands of web pages and schemes telling people various reasons why the income tax is unconstitutional, or voluntary, or wasn't ratified, etc. and they know how to help you avoid it if you just send them money. ALL of these are frivolous arguments that will get you a $5000 fine.
Good call John on the insane asylum. I can’t think of a better place for them.
It’s not the government that’s the problem, it’s the politicians and judges who get elected by low information voters and noncitizens, and bureaucrats and judges appointed by these politicians.
Thank you for this essay.
I have never considered "...a standing government is inherently prone to capture by a small group who can use it to pursue their special interests."
I never considered this as inherent or intrinsic.