America - Governed By Johns and Prostitutes

08/30/16

Today I was scanning the investment news headlines. One said that Home Depot and Lowes were set to take advantage of the ‘housing recovery’. Three headlines later, another read that applications for mortgages have been down six months in a row. In america, truth is dead. Truthsayers like Jullian Assange and Edward Snowden have fled the US for protection in Ecuador and Russia. Liars have taken their place. Liars take political office. Honesty seeks refuge. How did we descend to this sewer we are now in?  

A few months ago, a Chinese economic minister said the world economy is ‘grim’. An ex-ECB banker said ‘Europe is quite sick’. Yet, the american president continues to sell us on economic recovery. And, he thinks the economy recovered due to higher taxes and more regulation. 

Currently, asset markets around the world are in a perpetual state of confusion. Central banksters have essentially nationalized former stock markets. Banksters hold on the their power with the aid of populous ignorance and stupidity. But, we must ask a question. Why are citizens so ignorant of literally everything in the age of information exchange? The answer is simple. Data is only useful if it is truthful and accessible.

Stupidity is rampant. The idiots that inhabit certain areas around the country have been busy raising minimum wages in their cities like Seattle. The Washington Post ran an article recently stating the economic results. As anybody with a functioning brain cell already knew, these areas are experiencing what Isaac Newton already told us with his third law of motion. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. According to the Post, Seattle minimum wage earners have indeed been given a pay-per-hour increase and an pay-per-week decrease. That is, increased wages have resulted in less hours worked and less pay disbursed. And, prices have risen giving the recipients of the pay increase another decrease in purchasing power. What would one expect of idiots led by idiots? Governments cannot impose wage standards. Wage standards must be set by productivity and unfettered capitalism. Government imposed wage increases have never, and will never, add to affluence.

Further, another study that I read published by the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) said that the minimum wage in 1968 was equivalent to $10.74 per hour in today’s dollars. The minimum wage in 1968 was $1.60 per hour. Today’s federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. In other words, by minimum wage standards, american workers paid per hour are making much less than they did in 1968. Worse yet, the gooberment estimates that 40% of hourly workers today make less than that 1968 figure of $10.74 dollar equivalent. Stated differently, in 1968, no workers in the US made less than $1.60 per hour. Today, more than 40% of workers make less than $1.60 per hour. What ‘recovery’ are our politicians talking about?

Maybe their own. In 1968, pay for a US Senator was $30k per year. Today, it is $174k per year plus the best benefits package on earth. Mandating minimum wage increases as Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders have suggested is not only stupid but it fits the definition of insanity. That is, trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Minimum wage increases don’t help workers but the increased wages also serve to raise taxes. Ah, there’s the real reason. 

Obama is a good example of this bureaucratic mentality. He piled another $10 trillion (and counting) of debt on all of us (so his rich bankster friends can stay rich) and our children and their children virtually guaranteeing that future generations will be worse off than previous generations. Yet, as he prepares to leave office, he requested a 19% bump in living president’s pensions. I wish my pension could get a 19% bump. I wish I had a pension. He is trying to force the trucking industry to instal speed control devices in their vehicles (at company expense of course). Mr. Obama continues to try and think of every way possible to damage the US economy before he leaves office. What will he do on his last day - flatulate in every room in the White House?

Why is the economy still so weak? Why are personal liberties in the US under attack? Why will Mr. Obama’s legacy be that of the only US president in history to preside over the country for eight years and not once see an economic growth rate of 3%?

The early 20th century writer H.L Mencken once wrote, “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

We have now perfected ‘democracy’. However, in the spirit of Mr. Mencken, I believe that democracies all eventually fail because they inevitably become ‘dumb-ocracies’.

Governments take advantage of populace stupidity. Governments eventually turn on the electorate and rule rather than represent. There are 535 members in the US Congress. None of them ‘represent’ me. None of them. Not a single one. I have come to view all 535 of them as simply prostitutes who will do whatever the paying John requests of them. Is it any wonder to anyone that the economy is such a mess?

The business of running the US is no longer (if it ever was) about doing things for the average citizen. It’s about what’s good for the politicians. They don’t represent us. They represent themselves.

Witness two cases of recent acts of prostitution passing as ‘legislation’. These are examples of how america’s business is done today.


Case 1 is the August, 2016 ruling on electronic cigarettes.

E-cigs vaporize a liquid generally made of propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin (derived from soy and palm oils), flavors, and liquid nicotine (where nicotine is added). Since nothing burns, e-cigs do not produce tar or smoke like tobacco cigarettes. The liquid is heated by a battery and the vapor released is inhaled. However, since the product uses nicotine, and since the gooberment wants to control and tax anything that moves, and most importantly, since the prostitutes work for the Johns, the US gooberment has moved to force this industry under the control of the FDA by using the Tobacco Act. As such, the FDA just brought e-cig makers and e-juice makers under their authority. New government rules will require these companies to submit products for sale to the FDA for approval. Well, along with hefty fees for each individual product submitted that could range from a quarter million dollars to a million dollars per product. Many businesses in this industry will likely be extinguished.

This ruling also applies to cigars and hookah tobacco. Does this make sense or is this just another gooberment shakedown of business? Or, are the prostitutes just doing what they are told by their paying Johns? At any rate, the legislation is a job killer and a personal liberty infringement.

Who benefits if e-cigs in the US are effectively banned? Big tobacco, big alcohol, and big pharmaceuticals. Since e-cigs without question help tobacco users quit tobacco, big pharma feels threatened as they make smoking cessation products that are very profitable. In addition, big pharma benefits from the health problems caused by tobacco smoking. Big pharma makes drugs that treat cancers related to tobacco smoking and chewing. Big tobacco, big alcohol, and big pharma are the Johns. It’s that simple.

Back to Newton’s third law of motion. The makers of the liquids that are vaped by e-cig users have come up with a synthetic nicotine. It will be interesting to see how this develops given that nicotine is the chemical that ties the electronic cigarette industry to tobacco. Will the US Tobacco Act then control a product that has no connection whatsoever to tobacco? Perversely, some e-liquids have zero nicotine. Are they under the Tobacco Act? Yep, according to the gooberment. With this kind of logic, I suspect the gooberment will eventually pull chewing gum and lollypops in under the Tobacco Act and then tax them out of business.

This really seems ridiculous when we realize that in the US, tobacco companies are not required to test for and list the nicotine levels in their products. E-liquid companies, however, will be required to test, verify, and list the nicotine content on their product. And, if nicotine is so harmful, why doesn’t the gooberment just ban tobacco cigarettes and cigars? Why is the gooberment trying so hard to put this industry out of business? Is it really for our own good?

What do the scientist say about the dangers of e-cigs?

The Science and the Truth

The UK health authorities have stated that e-cigarettes are 95% less dangerous than tobacco cigarettes and they can help smokers to stop smoking tobacco. Given the health problems of tobacco cigarettes, this is good. Not in the US. The FDA cares nothing about health. They are just another prostitute in the brothel.

Neither claim can be made in the US. The authorities won’t allow it. They would rather people continue to smoke rather than vape. The FDA claims e-cigs could be unhealthy. In other words, they don’t know but since a John paid them to try and ban the product, the FDA is acting on the John’s behalf and not ours.  

From another study: "Our findings suggest that e-cigarette use may effectively reduce exposure to toxic and carcinogenic substances among smokers who completely switch to these products," study co-author Neal Benowitz, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a Roswell institute news release.

And, another study: "This study suggests that smokers who completely switch to e-cigarettes and stop smoking tobacco cigarettes may significantly reduce their exposure to many cancer-causing chemicals," said lead author Maciej Goniewicz, an assistant professor of oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.

Britain’s Royal College of Physicians, which found that “large-scale substitution of e-cigarettes, or other non-tobacco nicotine products, for tobacco smoking has the potential to prevent almost all the harm from smoking in society.”

Yet another survey found that 70% of doctors advise smoking patients to switch to e-cigs and 50% believe they are less harmful.

Another researcher found that tobacco smokers of at least 12 years who switched to an e-cig for just two weeks could greatly reduce the negative effects of smoking (as measured by 17 bio-markers related to smoking).

Even the head of Philip Morris’ business in Japan recently said that his goal was to get all smokers in Japan converted to vaping e-cigs because the e-cigs were less damaging to health.

Yet, the US gooberment has moved to try and extinguish this product by taxing and regulating it to death.

US gooberment types claim that not enough is known about e-cigs. They might be hazardous to the health of the users. Then again, they might not be but that isn’t the point. What we do know is tobacco cigarettes can contain some 4,000 chemicals and at least 50 of them are known carcinogens. 

E-cigs on the other hand only contain a handful of chemicals and the main ingredient, propylene glycol, is the propellent in nasal and bronchial inhalers that many people already use. The CDC says there are 443,000 premature deaths in the US every year related to smoking and tobacco use. The cost to the economy is almost $200 billion per year.

Sadly, the Johns pay the prostitutes to report bad science. For instance, scientists say that heating propylene glycol to 700 degrees fahrenheit produces the carcinogen, formaldehyde. While that may be true, no one would be able to drag on a cigarette that is that hot. And, it is not likely that any of the vape products on the market would heat up a liquid to reach that extreme of temperature. As a point of reference, most e-cig products produce vapor at less than 400 degrees. But let’s not let the truth get on the way of government control. 

Additionally, a study done in 1942 found that inhaling a vapor of propylene glycol can actually help protect the body against influenza. 

The point is the Johns get what they want if they pay the right prostitutes. Obviously e-cigs pose a danger to tobacco companies. If the two or three big tobacco companies could put the e-cig makers out of business, then they would have the new e-cig business all to themselves. Of course, the gooberment does not force any business to close. They simply use the power of federal law, taxation, fees, and regulation to bury what they are paid to bury. For instance, I read a recent study that found that 15% of current e-cig users would go back to tobacco cigarettes if e-cigs were no longer available. Well, good for Philip Morris and RJR! How do they bury this new competition? They find the prostitutes and pay them.

The Johns (tobacco companies) have spent $8.9 million in lobby money so far in 2016 and about $1.7 million of that has gone directly to the prostitutes (members of congress). How do you think the Johns voted on this e-cig mandate? Whose side do you think congress is on?


Case 2 - DEA continues to keep cannabis as a ‘Schedule 1’ drug

Another related decision on the part of gooberment this summer was the DEA’s decision to keep cannabis on the ‘schedule 1 drug’ list. Schedule 1 drugs are the most dangerous drugs on the planet with no known medicinal uses.

Again, who benefits by this decision? Obviously the DEA gets to keep their jobs. The US charges US taxpayers billions per year for the ‘war on drugs’ that is a complete failure. The prison system benefits as most people in prison are there for drug possession. Cannabis is the leading drug for which people are arrested. Courts, lawyers, and rehab people feed off this arrangement. Where cannabis is legal alcohol consumption drops so big alcohol benefits from the illegal status of cannabis. Pharmaceutical makers surely don’t want competition that comes from cannabis. These are the Johns.

Just as an aside, there is an herb known as Kratom that has been used for centuries throughout Asia for pain and relaxation. It also seems to be a very effective alternative to opioid pain killers like Oxycontin. Kratom seems to actually help opioid dependent users kick the opioid habit. The DEA has just moved to ‘temporarily’ ban Kratom. With a heroin and opioid epidemic currently underway in the US (due mostly to the success of the military operation in Afghanistan protecting the poppy plantations that resulted in the best heroin crop ever), we’d hate to see addicts stop shooting heroin and doctor prescribed opioids. Who really gains from this ban? 

The Science and the Truth

Nevermind that doctor prescribed drugs kill tens of thousands of people every year and cannabis has never once killed anyone. The CDC says that in 2014 there were 28,000 deaths in the US related to opioid use and over half of them were from doctor prescribed drugs. Nevermind that the DEA claims that cannabis has no medical use whatsoever even though the US government owns a medical patent from cannabis. Nevermind that the government’s own Veteran’s Administration allows for cannabis to be prescribed for PTSD. Nevermind that cannabis has been recreationally legalized in the DEA’s headquarters of Washington, DC. Nevermind that some 25 states have voted to legalize cannabis for medical uses as it has been shown to very effectively treat diseases like a form of childhood epilepsy. Nevermind that Briton’s GW Pharmaceuticals markets medication derived from cannabis and the company trades on the NYSE.

The medical community admits to not having an antidote for cannabis overdose since the medical community says that’s impossible. The president’s own daughter was photographed dragging on a joint recently and she is going to Harvard next year. How did cannabis harm her again? Nate Diaz is a UFC mixed martial artist. He runs triathlons. He is one of the best in the world at his sport. Yet, he was dragging on a vape pen less than hour after his recent fight. What was in the pen? CBD oils derived from cannabis was his response. Michael Phelps just completed his third Olympic games and won something like his 23rd gold medal. That makes him the greatest Olympic athlete ever and he smokes cannabis. How, again, is it so dangerous that the DEA wants to keep it illegal? If it were legalized, cannabis would carry less of a danger warning than toothpaste. (Tubes of toothpaste carry a warning that if swallowed, we should call Poison Control. Doctors tell us that if too much cannabis were to be consumed, the patient should just sit down and wait a few hours. They will be alright.)

Facts

Where cannabis has been legalized, teen cigarette smoking has decreased and so too, paradoxically to the thoughts of the DEA, has teen cannabis use.

Where cannabis has been legalized, consumption of alcohol has decreased.

Where cannabis has been legalized, tax revenues have increased.

Where cannabis has been medically legalized, prescriptions paid by Medicaid have decreased.

Given that Medicare is already bankrupt, readers should read that last line a few times.

So why does the federal government in the US continue to keep cannabis illegal?

Enter the Prostitutes

Money. The Johns pay the prostitutes to do things. That’s the way america works. Some people call the Johns ‘lobbyists’. These are the firms that special interest (like tobacco companies) use to bribe the prostitutes (US congress members). Once elected to congress, members don bright red lipstick, a very short skirt, and put a red light over their office door. They are open for business.

How much do Johns spend in america? How much does it cost to buy america?

The website www.opensecrets.org is a great resource.

In 2015, there were 11,514 registered lobbyists in the US and they spent some $3.22 billion or 6% of the overall GDP of the US. A lot of that money winds up in the hands of US politicians.

So far in 2016, Pharmaceutical and health care concerns were the top Johns spending $61 million in the second quarter of 2016 in lobbying. In second place was business associations spending about $40 million.

How much do the prostitutes get in exchange for their support?

As it turns out, it apparently costs more to hire a republican than democrat. The average republican in 2016 received about $28k and the average democrat received about $19k. Members of congress made more as their status in Congress rose. Chuck Schumer (member of several congressional committees) from NY has received about $375k and is near the top of the list. This is of course in addition to his lavish senate salary that is paid by taxpayers. One member though, greatly exceeds Mr. Schumers hiring fee. That member has received over $1.2 million so far and her name is Hillary Clinton. Bought and paid and ready to perform any task at the whim of the paying Johns.

An Example

Let’s look at the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) that Hillary voted for as a senator and now claims to dislike. This trade deal was ‘fast-tracked’ through congress by the obamanistas but like everything, it had a price.

Certain Johns of the world look to take advantage of this agreement. To get things done in america, the Johns know they have to pay and they know who to pay. Of the total $1,148,971 paid by Johns to help push this legislation through, an average of $17,676.48 was paid to each of the 65 “yea” voting prostitutes (congressmen and women). The average Republican member received $19,673.28 from corporate TPP supporters. The average Democrat received $9,689.23 from those same donors. (Data from opensecrets.org.)

The amounts given rise dramatically when looking at how much each senator running for re-election received.

Two days before the fast-track vote, Obama was a few votes shy of having the filibuster-proof majority he needed. Ron Wyden and seven other Senate Democrats announced they were on the fence on 12th of May, thus imperiling the passage of the agreement. Countering the agreement in the Senate were 54 Republicans and handful of Democrats. Let’s be clear. These senators weren’t really for or against anything. They were just holding out for more money.

In just 24 hours, Wyden and five of those Democratic holdouts – Michael Bennet of Colorado, Dianne Feinstein of California, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Patty Murray of Washington, and Bill Nelson of Florida – caved and voted for fast-track.

What swayed their vote? Did they re-read the bill and decide it was best for american citizens? Ha! Give me a break!

Bennet, Murray, and Wyden – all running for re-election in 2016 – received $105,900 between the three of them. Bennet, from Colorado, received $53,700 in corporate campaign donations between January and March 2015 (according to Channing’s research). Since the prostitutes running for re-election are more expensive to bribe than members who may be retiring soon, the Johns pay them more money for instance.

Conclusion

Now we have TPP in place. Okay kids, how did the agreement get passed in the Senate? Is the TPP advantageous to the average american? Who cares? That’s not the point. The Johns paid the prostitutes to pass it and they did. Are electronic cigarettes good or bad? Is cannabis really that harmful and useless so that it stays on the Schedule 1 drug list? Is Kratom a real health risk? Most likely, we will never be told the truth. Johns don’t pay prostitutes to tell the truth.

The funny thing in all this is the current regime adamantly argues that ‘science’ validates ‘climate change’. Mr. Obama mentions ‘science’ whenever he tries to sell ‘climate change’. Well then, what about the science that says e-cigs are safer than tobacco cigarettes? What about the science that says cannabis is not as harmful as, say alcohol or sugar or tobacco or doctor drugs?

We can only conclude that truth and science are never part of the equation when the US congress does anything. Rather, what matters is how much the prostitutes get paid and what the Johns want in return for their bribe. Welcome to america - totally governed by Johns and prostitutes!

Still wonder why the economy is a mess?


Disclaimer: The views discussed in this article are solely the opinion of the writer and have been presented for educational purposes. They are not meant to serve as individual investment advice and should not be taken as such. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell anything. Readers should consult their registered financial representative to determine the suitability of any investment strategies undertaken or implemented. BMF Investments, Inc. assumes no liability nor credit for any actions taken based on this article.