In May 2016, when discussing the race for the Democratic Party nomination between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, I wrote the following with regard to ways Trump could attack Hillary Clinton:

“I think the next step will be to link Bill Clinton with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  Clinton has taken repeated trips on his private jet.  Personally, I would be surprised if Bill Clinton isn’t a pedophile.”

I linked to an article in that paragraph.  The link is now dead (like so many things linked with the Clintons).  In 2016, almost nobody had heard of Jeffrey Epstein.  Yet, just because of a little curiosity and research, I knew about Bill Clinton’s close affiliation with Epstein and his crimes.

I have almost no resources or budget for research other than the internet.  Where is the establishment media on this?  There were no investigations by NBC or CNN that we know of.  In 2019, Project Veritas released a video of Amy Robach.  At the time, she was an ABC news anchor.  She wasn’t aware she was being recorded, but she said that they had the Epstein story three years ago that linked him to people like Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.  Robach was frustrated that ABC spiked the story.

This is why the so-called mainstream media should never be trusted.  The people making the decisions at the top are evil.  If they weren’t evil, they wouldn’t get in that position.  They purposely distort news stories. Worse, they choose not to investigate or publish things that are damaging to establishment politicians and the establishment narrative.

COVID Hysteria

In March 2020, I could already see that COVID was being oversold, to put it mildly.  I knew the statistics about a 3 to 4 percent mortality rate were fake.  They were basing that on the sick people going into the hospital in China.

I did minor in math in college, but it doesn’t take a statistician to figure out that the numbers being spit out by the government, and repeated by the establishment media, were misleading at best.

It’s only because I had a little bit of curiosity and used a little logic that I figured out that COVID was not some great threat to humanity.  The reaction and totalitarian controls with COVID as an excuse were the big threat.  Even some so-called libertarians fell for it.

I am not a doctor, yet I immediately questioned the hysterical call for ventilators.  I didn’t trust the so-called experts.  I remember when Cuomo, then governor of New York, was calling for something like 40,000 ventilators.  I knew almost nothing about ventilators, but I had never heard of them as a treatment for a respiratory virus.  Why didn’t anyone in a position of power question this narrative?  It’s hard to say how many tens of thousands of people died because of this medical malpractice, to put it kindly.

At some point, you have to consider the fact that the powers in the establishment media are completely inept or they are evil.  While there may be some incompetence at times, I have to go with evil as the main source.  If they just weren’t that bright, they would still occasionally shine a light on something damaging to the establishment narrative.

Questioning Everything

The default position on everything should be to question the establishment narrative.  When a story comes out, it is best to take a deep breath and think things through.  Who benefits from this story?  Are there details that haven’t come out yet?  Does the narrative even make sense?

When I heard about the Jussie Smollett story, I instantly suspected it was false.  Some celebrity just happens to be walking alone in downtown Chicago in the middle of a winter night when he is attacked by MAGA Trump supporters.  Because when I think of downtown Chicago, I really think of MAGA country.  The whole thing was so ridiculous, yet the establishment media couldn’t help themselves because it pushed their anti-Trump narrative.  In this case, they may have been more stupid than evil.

The death of George Floyd is another incident.  On this one, I’m not sure if I got played a little bit at the beginning.  The videos that first came out were pretty damning against the cops.  Still, I was pretty sure that they weren’t trying to kill George Floyd, even if it wasn’t handled very well.  I was almost positive that it had nothing to do with race.  It was only later that I learned that the autopsy showed that Floyd likely overdosed on fentanyl.

Again, the point here is to question any narrative that is fed by the establishment media.  You should question alternative media too, but the average person doesn’t get sucked in as easily by something they saw on TikTok or social media or heard on a podcast.

It amazes me that people get duped over and over again by the same charlatans.  Even when they realize that they were duped, they still fall for it again the next time.  “Well, they may not have gotten everything right with COVID, but surely this story has to be right.”

Where I’ve Changed

I have been a libertarian for over 20 years now.  I had libertarian tendencies when I was a child and young adult.  When I was in my 20s, I started following Harry Browne, which made me more of a hardcore libertarian.

My biggest interest has always been in economics and the financial markets.  It is just part of my personality.  But economics is no longer the big issue for me politically.  It is certainly very important, and I like to write about it, but it isn’t the big thing I use to judge people and how they would be in office.

I would much prefer someone who opposes war and the national security state than someone who is sound on the minimum wage.  I would prefer someone who is sound on all of the major issues, but foreign policy is more indicative of someone’s character in a lot of ways.

Sometimes it isn’t even foreign policy but an opposition to the deep state.  If someone is sound on economics but doesn’t have a hardcore opposition to the establishment, then they are no good for me, especially on a federal level.  Maybe they would be fine on the city council.

When it comes to the presidency, it is useless to be good on economics but bad on other issues.  Even if the person really does believe in a more free market economy, it won’t do any good if they are fighting wars and funding the evil intelligence agencies.  Does anyone really think that Nikki Haley will cut spending as president?  She will need all the money she can get to fight wars and run a world empire.

Even using the case of someone who doesn’t stress foreign policy or the national security state, I would prefer the person who does and somewhat gets it right.  Larry Elder briefly ran for president, but he was shut out of the debates.  I wish he had been in the debates.  I like the guy when I hear him, and he tends to be very good on economic issues.  The problem is that I sense he has no hatred or even concern for the deep state.

As bad as Trump is on economics, I would probably prefer a Trump presidency in many ways over a Larry Elder presidency, even though Elder is thought of as a libertarian.  Elder would likely not oppose the deep state.  With Trump, at least there is a chance of him exposing some of the lies and evil that goes on.

On the Israel/ Gaza conflict, there are some libertarians who vocally oppose the indiscriminate bombing and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, as they should.  Some conservatives will say, “How can you align yourself with these leftist whackos?”

And to be sure, many of them are leftist whackos, and I wouldn’t say some of the things they are saying when it comes to Israel.  But some of them are saying good and rational things too.  My retort is, “How can you align yourself with Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton?”

I would much rather align with AOC on an issue than Mitt Romney or Nikki Haley or Joe Biden.  AOC is completely stupid when it comes to economics, despite her supposed degree in the subject.  I also think she is purposely inflammatory, and she knows she is exaggerating when she talks about how climate change will destroy the planet in 10 years.  Still, I think she has at least an ounce of good in her, and I would much rather align on an issue with her than any of the establishment creeps.  I disagree with Joe Biden and Mitt Romney on almost everything of any significance, and they come from a place of evil.

The Enemy Within

In conclusion, I think being sound on economics is very important.  But the most important thing is not trusting the establishment.  Understanding the minimum wage didn’t do much good in 2020 when you were locked in your house because of a virus that the media told you was really bad.

The number one thing people must learn is that the establishment is evil.  They are doing things that are opposed to the average person’s interests.

I hate it when I hear conservatives talk about how China is doing this or that, or that China is our biggest threat.  This is completely wrong, and I don’t even understand this way of thinking.  It is obvious that the U.S. government is by far the number one threat to the people living in the United States.

If we are ever to make great advances towards liberty, the majority of Americans must lose all faith in the establishment media and U.S. government officials.  They can figure out the minimum wage stuff later on.