"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
"If you propose that the world is full of bad people then why would you want a monopoly organisation that people can gain control of? If you propose that the world is full of good people then what would you need a monopoly organisation for? If you propose that the world is full of good and bad people then wouldn't the bad people be attracted to the monopoly organisation of force and privilege?" Unknown
"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." H. L. Mencken - Prejudices, First Series 1919
"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods." H. L. Mencken - Prejudices, First Series 1919
Over the next couple of years I will be adding examples of government lies and deceit to this page - Ardeet, June 2010
Index to the strange land of Pollietopia
- Some useful rules of thumb
- Some questions to consider
- Resources
- Dangerous Behaviour and Strategies
- The Red team versus Blue team charade
- Some well know lies and deceit
- Some classic examples of the jackals turning on themselves
- The War in Iraq deception
Resources
From my blogTagged articles on government deceit and danger
Tagged articles on goverment interference
Tagged articles on government force
Useful resources
Politifact
Shadowstats
AntiWar
Podcasts
Free Talk Live
Liberty Conspiracy
Dan Carlin Commonsense
Financial Sense Newshour
Books
Healing our World - Dr Mary Ruwart
The Market for Liberty - Linda and Morris Tannehill
Some useful rules of thumb
- Government programmes and legislation nearly always achieve the opposite effect of their stated aim.
- Always suspect what government tells you to believe.
- A politician's loyalty is to him/herself first, then the party, then the contributors, then to you.
Some questions to consider
- How many times in your lifetime so far has government (of either side) broken their promise or changed what they originally stated would be delivered?
- How many times have you felt like what you voted for was not what was delivered?
- Would you let your children behave like members of the government?
- Would you be happy if your children or partner's word was as reliable as a politician?
- Are you happy with how government spends your taxes?
- Do you fully support every tax that the government implements to take money from you?
- Would you be happy running your household budget in the way that your government runs it's budget?
- Do you sincerely believe that the current leader of government represents your views?
- Are you genuinely comfortable that your government is murdering people in your name in other countries when you know that these people are basically families like yours?
- Substitute the phrase "gang of thugs" for "government" when considering policies or legislation and decide if it would be OK.
- If x is such a good idea then why isn't it voluntary?
- Can I say no to participating in x?
Dangerous behaviour and Strategies
Going to war for political and/or financial gain
- "War is a Racket" by U.S. Marine Major Smedley D. Butler is a classic (and succinct) observation of this government perversion. It can be read for free at The Internet Archives.
Taxation
Bread and Circus
Word games to create deniability
Interference in the con
Some well know lies and deceit
Australian government
1993
The Australian government reneged on the promised tax cuts that Keating had said would be ‘L-A-W—law’ two weeks earlier.
United States government
2010
Passing legislation that has not been read, debated and/or examined (not just confined to the US). For example, Nancy Pelosi on the Health Care Bill - "We have to pass the Bill so that you can find out what is in it" [ref]
2010
(also pre 2010) Food and Fuel are not included in CPI calculations [ref]
1966
To artificially manipulate egg prices, president Lyndon Johnson directed the US surgeon general to warn the nation about the hazards of cholesterol in eggs. [ref]
1974 - Current
The last eight U.S. Presidents have all given assurances that the U.S. will become energy independent. Currently the U.S. is dependent on overseas sources for around 60% of their energy needs. [ref]
United Kingdom government
2009
Over 80 British government MPs rort their expenses. [ref]
To be categorised/expanded
sinking of the Maine, the show trials of Stalin, the justifications for executing Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, and the austro-hungarian justification for WWI
Bush/Cheney/Powell Iraq war lies
The Red team vs Blue team charade
United States government 100 ways Mitt Romney is just like Barack Obama [ref]
Some classic examples of the jackals turning on themselves
Australian governmentSacking of Kevin Rudd for political expediency.
Steve Bracks breaking his promises to the elected independents that helped him hold onto power.
The (undeclared) war in Iraq deception
QUESTIONS THAT WON'T BE ASKED ABOUT IRAQ
Congressman Ron Paul
U.S. House of Representatives
September 10, 2002
Soon we hope to have hearings on the pending war with Iraq. I am concerned there are some questions that won’t be asked- and maybe will not even be allowed to be asked. Here are some questions I would like answered by those who are urging us to start this war.
1. Is it not true that the reason we did not bomb the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War was because we knew they could retaliate?
2. Is it not also true that we are willing to bomb Iraq now because we know it cannot retaliate- which just confirms that there is no real threat?
3. Is it not true that those who argue that even with inspections we cannot be sure that Hussein might be hiding weapons, at the same time imply that we can be more sure that weapons exist in the absence of inspections?
4. Is it not true that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency was able to complete its yearly verification mission to Iraq just this year with Iraqi cooperation?
5. Is it not true that the intelligence community has been unable to develop a case tying Iraq to global terrorism at all, much less the attacks on the United States last year? Does anyone remember that 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and that none came from Iraq?
6. Was former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vincent Cannistraro wrong when he recently said there is no confirmed evidence of Iraq’s links to terrorism?
7. Is it not true that the CIA has concluded there is no evidence that a Prague meeting between 9/11 hijacker Atta and Iraqi intelligence took place?
8. Is it not true that northern Iraq, where the administration claimed al-Qaeda were hiding out, is in the control of our "allies," the Kurds?
9. Is it not true that the vast majority of al-Qaeda leaders who escaped appear to have safely made their way to Pakistan, another of our so-called allies?
10. Has anyone noticed that Afghanistan is rapidly sinking into total chaos, with bombings and assassinations becoming daily occurrences; and that according to a recent UN report the al-Qaeda "is, by all accounts, alive and well and poised to strike again, how, when, and where it chooses"?
11. Why are we taking precious military and intelligence resources away from tracking down those who did attack the United States- and who may again attack the United States- and using them to invade countries that have not attacked the United States?
12. Would an attack on Iraq not just confirm the Arab world's worst suspicions about the US, and isn't this what bin Laden wanted?
13. How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air force, and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years ago, which even then proved totally inept at defending the country?
14. Is it not true that the constitutional power to declare war is exclusively that of the Congress? Should presidents, contrary to the Constitution, allow Congress to concur only when pressured by public opinion? Are presidents permitted to rely on the UN for permission to go to war?
15. Are you aware of a Pentagon report studying charges that thousands of Kurds in one village were gassed by the Iraqis, which found no conclusive evidence that Iraq was responsible, that Iran occupied the very city involved, and that evidence indicated the type of gas used was more likely controlled by Iran not Iraq?
16. Is it not true that anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 US soldiers have suffered from Persian Gulf War syndrome from the first Gulf War, and that thousands may have died?
17. Are we prepared for possibly thousands of American casualties in a war against a country that does not have the capacity to attack the United States?
18. Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a 100 billion dollar war against Iraq, with oil prices expected to skyrocket and further rattle an already shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30 years occupation of Iraq that some have deemed necessary to "build democracy" there?
19. Iraq’s alleged violations of UN resolutions are given as reason to initiate an attack, yet is it not true that hundreds of UN Resolutions have been ignored by various countries without penalty?
20. Did former President Bush not cite the UN Resolution of 1990 as the reason he could not march into Baghdad, while supporters of a new attack assert that it is the very reason we can march into Baghdad?
21. Is it not true that, contrary to current claims, the no-fly zones were set up by Britain and the United States without specific approval from the United Nations?
22. If we claim membership in the international community and conform to its rules only when it pleases us, does this not serve to undermine our position, directing animosity toward us by both friend and foe?
23. How can our declared goal of bringing democracy to Iraq be believable when we prop up dictators throughout the Middle East and support military tyrants like Musharaf in Pakistan, who overthrew a democratically-elected president?
24. Are you familiar with the 1994 Senate Hearings that revealed the U.S. knowingly supplied chemical and biological materials to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and as late as 1992- including after the alleged Iraqi gas attack on a Kurdish village?
25. Did we not assist Saddam Hussein’s rise to power by supporting and encouraging his invasion of Iran? Is it honest to criticize Saddam now for his invasion of Iran, which at the time we actively supported?
26. Is it not true that preventive war is synonymous with an act of aggression, and has never been considered a moral or legitimate US policy?
27. Why do the oil company executives strongly support this war if oil is not the real reason we plan to take over Iraq?
28. Why is it that those who never wore a uniform and are confident that they won’t have to personally fight this war are more anxious for this war than our generals?
29. What is the moral argument for attacking a nation that has not initiated aggression against us, and could not if it wanted?
30. Where does the Constitution grant us permission to wage war for any reason other than self-defense?
31. Is it not true that a war against Iraq rejects the sentiments of the time-honored Treaty of Westphalia, nearly 400 years ago, that countries should never go into another for the purpose of regime change?
32. Is it not true that the more civilized a society is, the less likely disagreements will be settled by war?
33. Is it not true that since World War II Congress has not declared war and- not coincidentally- we have not since then had a clear-cut victory?
34. Is it not true that Pakistan, especially through its intelligence services, was an active supporter and key organizer of the Taliban?
35. Why don't those who want war bring a formal declaration of war resolution to the floor of Congress?
