244 lines
12 KiB
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244 lines
12 KiB
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 12 Num. 09
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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BIG TROUBLE
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===========
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Ill fares the land,
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To hastening ills a prey,
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Where wealth accumulates
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And men decay.
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-- Oliver Goldsmith
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First there is money. Then someone gets the idea, "Why not turn
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the money itself into a commodity?" From its normal use as a
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medium of exchange, the very money becomes something to be
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trafficked in and profitable in itself.
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Writes Aristotle in *On Politics*:
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Money being naturally barren, to make it breed money is
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preposterous and a perversion from the end of its
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institution, which was only to serve the purpose of
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exchange and not of increase.
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Usury is most reasonably detested as the increase arises
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from the money itself, and not by employing it to the
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purpose for which it was intended.
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In Rome, in 48 B.C., the issuing of money was done privately by a
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few wealthy families. "Julius Caesar took this privilege from
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them and restored it to the government to whom it belonged." [1]
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For this, Julius Caesar was assassinated.
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Jesus Christ dared to oppose the "money changers," and for that
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he was murdered. "As long as Christ confined his teachings to
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the realm of morality and righteousness, He was undisturbed; it
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was not until He assailed the established economic system and
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'cast out' the profiteers and 'overthrew the tables of the money
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changers,' that He was doomed." [2] Jesus accused the "money
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changers" of turning the Temple into a "den of thieves."
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Subsequently, "the scribes and the chief priests heard it, and
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sought how they might destroy him." [3] The day after Jesus
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challenged the money system, He was interrogated. The next day,
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He was betrayed. The following day, He was tried, and on the
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fourth day He was executed.
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Private banks such as the "Bank of England," "The Bank of the
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United States," and the "Federal Reserve" are given misleading
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names, implying they are government banks. The First "Bank of
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the United States" was owned by private interests, most of them
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British, including Mayer Amschel Rothschild who said, "Permit me
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to issue and control the money of a nation and I care not who
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makes its laws."
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When the charter for the First "Bank of the United States" was
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not renewed in 1811, the bank's British owners were enraged.
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There followed the War of 1812, during which the British invaded
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the U.S. and burned Washington, D.C. to the ground. Shortly
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thereafter, in 1816, a charter for the Second "Bank of the United
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States" was approved by Congress. Vehemently opposed to the
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First "Bank of the United States" had been Thomas Jefferson, who
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warned, "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous
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to our liberties than standing armies."
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When the time approached for renewal of the Second "Bank of the
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United States'" charter, our president was Andrew Jackson.
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President Jackson called the Second B.U.S. "that thing," and felt
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it was a menace. Said Jackson, "If Congress has the right under
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the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to be
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used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or
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corporations." The big money interests fought Jackson through
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their newspapers and by withdrawing money from circulation. With
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less money in circulation, there was an economic depression and,
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of course, Jackson was blamed. Nonetheless, the People stood by
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Andrew Jackson and the Second B.U.S. was defeated.
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In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln went to the New York bankers
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to obtain loans with which to fund the Union armed forces. The
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bankers told him, "Sure. We'll lend the money -- at 30 percent
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interest." Disgusted, Lincoln turned down their offer and
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devised a plan of his own. He persuaded Congress to pass a bill
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authorizing the issuance of legal tender treasury notes. The new
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money, called "greenbacks" because of the green ink used to print
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them, worked. They were taken "at par" and stayed "at par" until
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the Money Barons used the legislators they owned to hurry through
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a "refinement" on the greenback law. On Feb. 25, 1862, an
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"Exception Clause" Act was passed. Henceforth, the greenbacks
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would be "good for all debts both public and private" =except=
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duty on imports and interest on government debts. =Then=, the
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banksters had an excuse to discount the greenbacks by 30 percent;
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if you paid the banker a greenback dollar, he only allowed it to
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count for 70 cents.
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During the Civil War, the Money Power bought up government bonds.
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They paid greenbacks for these bonds. When the Civil War ended,
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the government owed these ultra-rich a bonded debt worth billions
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of dollars. And these super-wealthy manipulators controlled
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things so that, instead of being repaid with the same greenbacks
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with which they had bought the bonds, they were repaid with gold.
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In April of 1866 "The Contraction Act" was passed. U.S.
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currency, including greenbacks, was to be burned. Between 1866
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and 1879, the amount of money in circulation evaporated. In
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1873, an "Act Revising and Amending the Laws Relative to the
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Mints, Assay Offices, and the Coinage of the United States" was
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passed. Hidden within the law was a clause which repealed the
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"unit clause," previously passed by Congress in 1792. Up until
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1873, the monetary unit had been based on silver. Gold was also
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money, but its value was based =on silver=. We were =not= using
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a "bi-metallic" system. (The wisdom in having silver as the
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monetary unit was that silver was less easy to hoard by
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unscrupulous persons wishing to make money scarce.) Thus, gold
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became, for awhile, the only official money and the Money Barons
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who had bought government bonds for greenbacks were repaid with
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gold.
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As always happens, the shrinking of available money brought on a
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severe economic depression. In 1873 alone, 500,000 men lost
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their jobs. For those lucky breadwinners who still had work,
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their wages were drastically reduced. But the hard times led
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many to a political awakening. "A large number of people in the
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United States discovered that the economic premises of their
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society were working against them." [4] In the South and the
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West, the Farmers Alliance was born. More than a political and
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economic movement, the Farmers Alliance was "a new way of looking
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at society, a way of thinking that represented a shaking off of
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inherited forms of deference." [4] With their political
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awakening came self-respect and self-education. The Alliance
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"pioneered a new political language to describe the 'money
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trust,' the gold standard, and the private national banking
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system that underlay all of their troubles." [4]
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In August of 1886, the allied farmers issued what became known as
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The Cleburne Demands
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(Excerpts)
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1. All land held for speculative purposes (much of it held by
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foreign syndicates and domestic railroad syndicates) should be
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taxed.
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2. Laws to prevent foreigners from speculating in American land.
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3. Certain railroad lands to revert to the government (which
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had, through bribed legislators, originally given away the lands
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to the railroads) and be declared open to purchase by actual
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settlers.
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4. A halt to "the dealing in futures of all agricultural
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products."
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5. "A federally administered national banking system embracing a
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flexible currency, to be achieved through the substitution of
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legal tender treasury notes."
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In the latter 19th century, besides the money monopoly, a new
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power group emerged: The Associated Press. "In an era of
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trusts, it was one of the nation's most effective monopolies."
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[5] Most Americans were "aghast," writes J. Anthony Lukas in his
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magnificent book, *Big Trouble*, "that a 'great octopus' like the
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AP could embrace eight hundred member papers." Wrote one
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independent newspaper editor of the time, "Here is the most
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tremendous engine for Power that ever existed in this world. If
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you can conceive all that Power ever wielded by the great
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autocrats of history... to be massed together into one vast unit
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of Power, even this would be less than the power now wielded by
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the Associated Press." [5] And controlling the Associated Press
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was, of course, the Money Monopoly.
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The Oliver Stone movie, "JFK," reportedly financed by Rothschild
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family funds, focused on the Vietnam angle as the motivation
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behind President Kennedy's murder. Not well known is that,
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shortly before he died, John F. Kennedy had quietly overseen the
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issuance of interest-free notes (some of which are still in
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circulation). [6] And Oliver Stone, although a talented
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film-maker, portrayed Henry Kissinger as if he was the icon for
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elder statesmen in his movie, "Nixon." Why would "rebel" Stone
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show Kissinger in such a good light? And why is it that the
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high-power public relations firm, Hill and Knowlton, which
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coordinated propaganda favoring U.S. entry into the Persian Gulf
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War, handled the publicity for Stone's film, "JFK"? [6] Could it
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be that, on the road to success, Oliver Stone has had to make
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little "compromises"? To paraphrase Mayer Amschel Rothschild:
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"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation and I care
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not who makes its movies."
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When the late J. Anthony Lukas decided to call his book "Big
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Trouble," was he thinking, "Big Trouble THEN; Big Trouble NOW"?
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The Money Power has gone hog wild lately. Citicorp illegally
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merges with Travelers Group and takes it for granted that
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the Executive branch will not enforce the law and that Congress
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will even =re-write= the law and get the newly-formed Citigroup
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off the hook. And get ready now for "SuperMarket Banks" allowed
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to handle all financial transactions under one roof, including
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the buying and selling of stocks. Meanwhile, the average
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American worker begs for decent employment, competes with
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imported foreign labor for survival wages, has little job
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security -- AND turns on his TV to hear that "the economy is
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good."
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Ill fares the land.
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---------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------
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[1] *Lincoln: Money Martyred* by Dr. R.E. Search. Omni
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Publications, PO Box 900566, Palmdale, CA 93590
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[2] *Money and Its True Function* by F.R. Burch. qtd. in
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*Lincoln: Money Martyred*.
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[3] Mark 11: 18.
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[4] *The Populist Moment* by Lawrence Goodwyn. London: Oxford
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University Press, 1978. ISBN: 0-19-502417-6.
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[5] *Big Trouble* by J. Anthony Lukas. New York: Simon &
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Schuster, 1997. ISBN: 0-684-80858-7.
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[6] *...And The Truth Shall Set You Free* by David Icke. ISBN:
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0-952-6147-1-5.
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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http://www.netcom.com/~feustel
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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New mailing list: leave message in the old hollow tree stump.
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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