D. Stewart Armstrong
Introduction
Fodder for the masses has to do with how “the powers that be” address all of the turmoil in which we as a nation currently find ourselves in mid-2008 and how those same political entities downplay, manipulate, orchestrate, and deal with this turmoil. It doesn’t matter that they have created this turmoil through misguided policies and printing and wasting humongous amounts of fiat currency which is being created at an ever increasing pace. This will of course end in rampant inflation which cannot be hidden or bluffed away. We will once again reiterate that inflation can be classically acknowledged as an increase in the monetary supply and that rising prices are a result of too many dollars chasing too few goods.
For many years, the masses have been told that “inflation was under control”. This is what I call “fodder for the masses”. But is it under control? Ask any housewife that does the shopping at the local market or anyone who fills up their car with gasoline?
We are the masses—you and I—doctors, lawyers, writers, teachers, carpenters, nuclear physicists, and Indian chiefs. We are fed the fodder and we are supposed to believe it! What the government tells us, what financial TV tells us, what society tells us, and what one left wing, right wing or other group tells us is supposed to be truth. But is it?
Any time you go against one major entity or another you pit yourself against some formidable forces.
We’re not looking for a fight, we’re looking for the truth.
But here is the crux of it. You can make fodder as simple as you want or as complex as you want. You can accept it or you can reject it. I think it was Jim Sinclair who suggested that all of the fodder constantly being thrust upon us to manipulate the masses to accept the status quo and to reject gold is nothing but “noise”. Noise is all around us just like fodder. It’s up to us to choose, but when you really break it down to the lowest common denominator it is really about the truth. All the rest is noise and the fodder is simply a smokescreen to cover the lies.
It’s just like we all learned in the second grade. Tell the truth (don’t lie), get along with your classmates and your fellow students, don’t steal, and play nice.
Protect yourselves and your Families!
You read these pieces that I write with the understanding that hopefully I will bring some enlightenment into your life. By writing these pieces, you bring enlightenment into mine. It is a quid pro quo. So, I’ll cut to the chase. It is not too late to participate and invest in the precious metals complex. But there are three things that I would suggest to you. The first is don’t do anything that is uncomfortable for you such as dealing with futures contracts and especially options. There are no get rich quick schemes in precious metals. We must always have a full understanding of what we are doing, and why we are doing it. We must also listen to people who can be trusted. That can be a sticky one so I recommend you once again review: “The Gift to the Gold Community”, and article found on www.seacoast-consulting.com
Secondly, it is not too late to purchase physical gold or silver. You can do this and still achieve a profit or you can do it as many people do and simply purchase the physical metals as a safe haven. You can still double or triple on your money over the next 5 to 10 years simply by purchasing the physical metal and storing it in a safe place (but not in a safe deposit box). Finally, do not purchase exchange traded funds or ETFs. They make too tempting a target for any government entity which finds itself in a pickle. I will also reiterate that you can start with a simple roll of pre-1964 (90% silver) dimes or quarters.The issue is simply to do something–get started now!!
Mining stocks of all shapes and sizes are still viable and we are afforded the luxury of being able to purchase some very good companies at extraordinarily attractive prices. The last 18 months has been dismal for the juniors but that doesn’t mean the juniors are dismal. It simply means that the environment in which gold shares have been depressed has never been worse. This is because once again, gold competes with fiat currency. Gold is the barometer of the economy and if you can break that barometer you can fool many people most of the time. But remember, you will never fool all of the people all the time. I will update some of the junior mining companies in the very near future. When I update a company, remember that I do it within the context of the market at large because nothing occurs in a vacuum.
Nothing occurs in a vacuum!
First of all, why do I say this? I want you to keep remembering that the world is interconnected and nothing occurs without some prima facie cause. The Housing Crisis didn’t occur out of the blue because people stopped wanting places to live. The dot com bubble in 2000 didn’t happen because people stopped using computers. And people don’t hate the United States because we have a “pretty country”. For the most part, Americans are a kind and generous people willing to give you the shirt off their back if you ask them for it. Most of them will also allow you to “cut in line” if you simply ask them. Force the issue, i.e., butt in without asking, and you’re likely to initiate an ugly exchange. Think about that one because it’s a simple metaphor for “cause and effect”. Most educated Americans do understand what is occurring in this Country–at this point it is simply easier to go along to get along. But this can only continue for so long and when the hard earned money of Americans is at stake, the rules and the attitudes will change overnight–on both sides of the issue. This is what Mr. Ginrich accentuates in his piece posted below.
I feel Americans are a good and decent people; we’re tolerant and exceptionally generous. We simply want a level playing field–this is why the immigration issue causes such heated emotions. The masses are told one thing or another; but they never seem to happen leaving Americans feeling violated because they are paying for illegal health benefits when Americans themselves are paying through the nose for their own very expensive health care and health insurance. Illegals walk into just about any emergency room and have the same health care as most Americans. All the extraneous reasons and excuses given for this state of affairs is simply fodder for the masses.
So, How many times have you heard me say that “nothing occurs in a vacuum”? When we hear about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and all of the things that have gone wrong in our financial system, we understand that these issues have all been predicated upon one misguided policy or another. Invariably somebody has not been telling the truth and there is certainly a lack of transparency centering on many of the issues facing the United States today. It is downright frightening and if we don’t find a way to the truth, we won’t find our way at all. It’s that simple. There is a huge disconnect between Washington, DC and the individual states just as there is a huge disconnect between local politics and individuals in those communities. Then there is the largest disconnect between Washington DC and the citizens of this Country.
The fodder for the masses has gotten so ingrained in the public consciousness that we don’t even challenge the mis-guided policies, we don’t even fight for the truth. It’s just too much trouble because we “feel” we don’t have the power to do anything, and besides “they’re” going to win anyway. So don’t fight City Hall; just try to get by. After all, something is amiss when the presidential election process costs in excess of $2 Billion dollars. “What do you expect me to do about it”? That is a prevalent attitude.
This kind of a national mentality develops over years and slowly but surely our civil liberties are eroded away (by design), and the principles upon which our country was founded begin to dissipate. We are all left scratching our heads saying how did this happen? Where did we go wrong? We should know how it happened. It happened because little by little we were manipulated, we were apathetic, we made bad political choices, and we probably spent too much time trying to make a million dollars as opposed to trying to make the country and ourselves just a little better.
Currently this country is not “by and for the people”—it is by and for the special interests. These are the same special interests which have a great deal of power and really only care about themselves and the bottom line– oh yes, they do care about the quality of that fodder. It wouldn’t be so bad, it would almost be acceptable if they contributed something towards our dying planet, and our “bought and paid for” political system, our debased currency, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Its war over dialogue, it’s ostentatious over substance, and its “bait and switch” on a national level. Look, I don’t want to get too macabre here, too depressing, but I would challenge each of us to spread the message that we are on a fast track to hell in a national hand-basket.
But surely this can’t be a surprise. If it is, you haven’t been reading between the lines. In actuality, we are all so busy trying to raise a family, trying to make a living, accepting our status quo, that we’d just don’t feel we can make a difference. So we accept the fodder which eventually turns into a slaughter of the real freedoms and liberties which are slowly disappearing. It is all interconnected–nothing occurs in a vacuum.
Fodder, Politics, and Gold.I don’t think of myself as a self-absorbed political animal but if you’re involved with gold, or gold-mining, in some ways you are indeed involved with politics—like it or not. The reason is that gold is currency and gold competes with fiat currencies. Therefore, like it or not, I’m involved in politics because gold is a political metal as Bill Buckler so eloquently puts it.
Yesterday (June 18, 2008) in Bill Buckler’s weekly Gold letter (www.the-privateer.com) he stated that a prosperous nation really doesn’t take that much to function. It takes private property being sacrosanct; you need free exchange (I would add in both dialog and ideas) for which you need sound money first and foremost. After that you need a set of inviolable and unchanging laws designed specifically to protect individuals against force and/or fraud perpetrated by anyone including the government (I would add especially the government). For the latter, a well thought out Constitution is also necessary, a constitution laying down the laws which the government must obey. That’s about it.
This brings us full circle to the simplicity issue. I think that the entire financial fiasco facing the US today is really because government, special interests, and multinational corporations have been extraordinarily preoccupied with hiding the truth from us so they can maximize profits, solidify power at the expense of the ideas of our founding fathers.
I honestly believe that we have some congress people that would like to do the right thing but their arms are twisted by fellow legislators, and tainted with party politics to the point that if they want to get reelected, or if they want to be appointed to any of the powerful subcommittees, and they have to go along to get along. And of course there’s always that question of getting reelected– which is far more important than any other issue facing them. They all get caught up in this ego maniacal self- importance of participating in the halls of power we know as government.
Fodder and The war on terror.I had a friend send me a very brief video where in Newt Gingrich offered up his insights into the war on terror. It was prefaced with: “like him or not, the man has an irrefutable point. This is a short video that carries a profound and very sobering message that every American, and every person who enjoys freedom should view. This video has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the survival of the free world.” Here is the link:>
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/08/08/gingrich/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Mind you, this was sent to me on March 1, 2008 and I think this speech was given sometime in August of 2007. This is not a biased political statement but rather some real common sense and a vision as to how we might lose even more civil liberties. It was truly sobering and I think if you follow his line of thinking you can see how there may be a plan to consolidate power on both ends of the geopolitical spectrum which places the average American in the middle of the proverbial jaws of a vise as a proverbial pawn.
Please remember as I share this information with you that I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat but more of a libertarian. I am making no political statement here. I, like most people in America, are “center of the road”–I lean towards peace and common sense. It’s almost a “live and let live” philosophy with less government being a better idea. However, I am not naive and like you I realize there are some things worth the fight. I won’t go into a debate on politics as this is not the focus of this article but I do want you to remember one thing, and that is things are a mess in this country. It could become much worse. Consider that it took America at least sixty years to paint ourselves into this corner and we are not getting out of it in sixty days. Try and prepare yourselves and your families for unrest. Be prepared on every level. Be as self sufficient as you can wherever you live. Food, water, the basic necessities of life. Be prepared to “hole up” for at least a month.
We are living at the epicenter of sea changes in the environment, in domestic and international politics, while simultaneously, witnessing a shifting of geopolitical dogma towards the emerging economies and away from the US. America, whether we like it or not, is moving away from the established idea that we “deserve” to be in the center of the Universe where most of our citizens already mentally reside. We will have a very difficult time regaining our position in the world unless ordinary Americans step up to the plate and share their views with each other and with their political representatives.
Simplicity Revisited This brings us full circle to the simplicity issue. I think that the entire financial fiasco facing the US today is really because government, special interests, and multinational corporations have been extraordinarily busy hiding the truth from us so they can maximize profits, solidify power at the expense of the ideas of our founding fathers. I don’t want that to sound hokey but we do have to face reality.
I honestly believe that we have some congress people that would like to do the right thing but their arms are twisted by fellow legislators, and tainted with party politics to the point where that if they want to get reelected, or if they want to get on any of the powerful subcommittees, and they have to go along to get along. And of course there’s always that question of getting reelected– which is far more important than any other issue facing them. They all get caught up in this egomaniacal self- importance of participating in the halls of power we know as government.
I will tell you this–most of these people would not run their families the way they run their country. I’ll say it again, most of our congressional representatives would not run their own families, their finances, their relationships, the way they run the United States. First of all their friends wouldn’t talk to them, their children would disown them, they would go broke, and at the end of the day they would lose all respect from those who mattered most–their families.
But the same people who run the government, feel they are doing something extraordinarily special and they are going to leave their mark for the world, for their constituents, and for their own pensions come hell or high water. However, in some ways, they don’t have to run their families the way they run the country because government has a different set of standards for everything in their lives–from pensions to power.
Yes, fodder for the masses has been going on since the country was founded but in the age of superfast communication that fodder has to be “in play” 24/7 and the spin machine has to be playing along with it or nothing really gets done. But then nothing gets done anyway so why worry? You worry because the country, the currency, and the real principles upon which this country were founded are at risk.
Speaking of expense, I have yet to hear any presidential candidate except Ron Paul, talk about the necessity of cutting expenditures. The waste in this country is absolutely prodigious and no one ever talks about it. Programs that were begun in the 1940s for those without electricity are still in effect today even when electricity runs through every rural community in the country. But Armstrong’s Law states that any financial program set in motion by the government will remain in motion until hell freezes over. After all, financial programs buy votes.
Conclusion
This is all fodder for the masses. And the fodder has created a situation in which our national currency is in serious crisis. Silver, gold, and quality mining shares are your personal safety net; second only to our own intelligence and our willingness to learn and adapt. Most of the hard money advocates are talking about it. But the rest of America does not even appear to be aware of the problem. The debate is about whether or not we are in a recession. Are you kidding me? Look around! Our world is contrived, manipulated, and orchestrated. Of course there is a recession and we’re on a fast track to something much worse because Americans are only to happy to accept the word of those out to destroy us and save themselves.
The masses are only to happy to accept the fodder because to face reality would be too frightening. The more that we can spread the word, the more educated we become as middle-class American citizens willing to fight for what we know is the truth, the more we make a positive impact for America, the better the chance that the Republic (most of us appreciate) will survive and prosper.
Join with Ron Paul and is Campaign for Liberty and do one little thing–anything positive–but acknowledge the truth and you”ll help save Americ. The one thing we can all do is to write a simple letter to your congress person and let them know you’re fed up and tell them their “job” is in jeopardy. Lets stop buying into the political party rhetoric that gets fed from the same pocketbook–the same funding. If we learn to think for ourselves relying upon simple common sense, we transcend the fodder and the falsehoods.
In conclusion I will return once again to the idea that nothing occurs in a vacuum. When we hear about our economy, about the greatest transfer of wealth in history (from west to east), about illegitimate wars, about how some people dislike America, about a housing crisis, a mortgage crisis, an environmental crisis, a .com crisis and so on and so forth, remember that none of these things occur or were created in a vacuum. The result was cause-and-effect and there is always fodder for the masses–but only if we accept it, believe it, and then act upon it.
I would urge you, I would urge all of us to take just one hour a week and do something positive for our country, our community, for our endangered environment and the endangered animals, and make that hour count for something positive. We then transcend being fodder for the masses, and we become an intelligent, freethinking, freedom loving group of people working to save their country, their environment, their future, and even their world.
Until next time,
D. Stewart Armstrong
consulting@seacoastpub.com
Posted by D.Stewart Armstrong in Articles