The gadfly
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
According to the writings of Plato, the Greek philosopher Socrates pointed out during his defense when on trial for his life that dissent, like the “gadfly,” was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high: “If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me” because his role was that of a gadfly, “to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth.”
In this modern era, I like to think that I am following in the footsteps of Socrates as a “gadfly” standing upon my soapbox, pointing out that not only is the emperor not wearing any clothes, but that our empire is in rapid decline and that we shouldn’t be an empire anyways.
Our nation is currently $33.686 trillion in debt, a number that is rising with each passing second. “If” our Congress were to create a payment plan where it would pay down the national debt at a rate of $1 per second, that would equate to $86,400 per day, or $2,629,800 per month, or $31,557,600 per year, … it would take another 1,067.5 years, or to the year 3090 before our debt would be paid in full.
Our national debt is absolutely unsustainable, yet the majority in Congress go to work every day to work bipartisanly to increase our debt. I do not care which political party you choose to affiliate with, please contact your representative in the House and both of your U.S. senators and plead that they take action to reduce the national debt!
Compounding the problem of our national debt is the devaluation of the U.S. dollar because of artificially manipulated inflation by the Federal Reserve. Prior to 1965, a true “silver dollar” contained 26.73 grams of pure silver. Likewise, a half-dollar contained 12.5 grams of pure silver, a quarter-dollar contained 6.25 grams of silver, and a dime contained 2.5 grams of silver. A dollar was literally worth a specific weight of silver, and a paper dollar, known then as a “Silver Note,” was an IOU for a silver dollar coin.
Today’s paper dollar is what is known as “fiat” currency; the dollar has value only because the government says it does, and the coins no longer hold any metal of value. Through inflation, prices go up, not because there is a change in supply or demand, but because the value of the dollar has deflated, thus requiring more dollars to purchase an item.
The scrap metal value of those original silver dollars is now approximately $17.56 a piece, which means that the dollar you were paid on payday is worth 94.3% less than the silver dollar of the pre-1965 era, and it is still losing its value with each passing day.
Meanwhile, our current president at 80 years of age is a geriatric embarrassment, and the leading candidate to oppose him in the 2024 election is younger by only three and a half years, with both of them facing criminal implications. I know that most of y’all that vote will vote for whomever your party says is their final candidate, but I implore you to please consider anyone below the retirement age in the upcoming party primaries!
The war in Ukraine continues. The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza continues. As China eyes Taiwan; Iran, North Korea and a dozen other countries hate us. Between the first two, Ukraine needs more help than Israel. We are better off with them as allies, fighting our enemies, than we ourselves having to fight Russia directly, but at what cost?
We are already broke. Our debt exceeds our GDP by $11.2 trillion. Just the difference between our debt and our GDP would cost every single U.S. citizen (regardless of age) $32,941 each. So, unless you have that kind of cash lying around, we cannot afford to increase the debt. That means that if we are to provide any aid to Ukraine, or any other foreign nation, that we will need to do so by first cutting those funds from elsewhere in our annual budget.
Therefore, what non-essential funding are you willing to forego in order to fund the defense of foreign nations? If nothing, then let your congressman know that you do not support any more funds going overseas.
All of this, while our Southern border is a mess. In FY 2023, Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border apprehended just over 1.496 million illegal migrants whom it processed under the INA (in lieu of expulsion under Title 42). Just 177,630 of them — 11.9% of the total — were processed for expedited removal. The remaining 1.318 million illegal immigrants that the Border Patrol processed are still here in the U.S. Note that none of these figures account for any of the illegal immigrants that made it into the U.S.A. that were not apprehended by the Border Patrol, nor does it account for the millions upon millions that have crossed north since Senior Biden took office in January of 2021.
And lastly, our children have been robbed by the Department of Education that has mandated that our children study to pass a multiple choice test, rather than learn an actual subject. This while school districts grapple with gay pride and what gender people identify with rather than focusing on actual knowledge that will better the students for their future, and our future as a nation.
I am reminded of John F. Kennedy’s plea in his inaugural address in 1961, to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” I challenge every American to contribute in some way to the public good, either through civic action or public service, in my dearest hope that we can save our Republic from the impending doom that we are presently fast-tracking towards.