Today is the day someone special can get a new job, at the expense of fishermen (and fisherwomen?) and consumers. Read on for more…

Thanks to a recent court ruling, Sesame Street’s Count von Count, the vampire with the obsessive-compulsive need to “count things”, could get a new gig.

On Friday, January 29, US District Court Judge Joseph Laplante denied a request by New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel, and a fishing interest nonprofit called Northeast Fishery Sector 13, to stop a US Department of Commerce/National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration mandate that northeastern fishermen pay for special “at-sea monitors” to count the number and kinds of fish they catch.

The monitors have been mandated by the feds since 1985, but until now, lucky taxpayers paid the salaries of the bureaucrats. Thanks to Judge Laplante and the feds, the fishermen will be forced to pay $800 per day for these “services” to which they can’t say “no”.

$800 per day – expenses that will put many long-time fishermen out of business.

But Washington isn’t listening, because its vampire-puppets who love to count will do very well.

“One! One fisherman out of work! Two! Two fishermen out of work! Three–!!” (Cue lightning and thunder.)

“Fishing is my passion and its how I’ve made a living, but right now, I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors,” said Mr. Goethel upon bringing suit on December 10, 2015.

Evidently, Judge Laplante disagrees, and he says he’s constrained by the original law, which prohibited federal suits over the imposition, even while its federal promoters told the public that the law was a “good thing” and would help maintain the fish population.

The feds have messed with fisherman since the days of FDR, but, starting in 1976, the US government really ramped things up. Since the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of that year, DC has established “unquestionable” limits and regulations, flown spy satellites, imposed needless costs, and placed “fish monitors” on boats; and now a lifetime-appointed judge has said it’s perfectly fine to charge for the “monitor” that the fishermen never wanted in the first place.

“Our sector will be effectively shut down if these fishermen are forced to pay, themselves, for the cost of at-sea monitors,” said Northeast Fishery Sector 13 Manager John Haran. The results will be crushed businesses, higher costs for fish, and decreased competition. Only large fishing companies with wide margins will survive.

All of which forces observers to learn the political-economic lessons of this debacle, and search for ways to avoid future situations like it.

One of the big lessons comes in “spheres of control”… The larger the area of control, the less efficient it will be, the more it will lack local information, the more likely it will be to harm lots of people when bad decisions are made, and the harder it will be to escape.

The other is in the term “Tragedy of the Commons”. Economists use that term to describe any resource/property that is “commonly held”, i.e., for which there are no defined ownership rights. If “everyone owns” something, then no one has an incentive to husband the resources for the long term, to make sure the resource is renewed or used in a way that allows for conservation and long-term profit. Instead, everyone rushes into or onto the “commonly held” sphere and tries to take everything he or she can get before the other person does. A great example of this can be seen in fisheries where there are no property rights managed by the people who do the work. The government claims control, and, unless the government imposes more and more top-down controls, the fisheries will be over-fished. Viewers and readers of “The Hunger Games” might have noticed that the author, Susan Collins, created two metaphors to the “Tragedy of the Commons” in her story. The first is the artifice of the “Games” themselves: death battles in which the winner’s “District” will receive all the spoils of food, medicine, heat, etc., that the government offers. She also created a smaller version of the “Tragedy…” in the “Cornucopia Scene”. Here, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, is warned by “Game” vet Haymitch to stay away from the cornucopia when she enters the arena. At the cornucopia, the government lays out supplies and weapons, and Haymitch explains that all the competitors in the “Games” rush to it to get everything they can before the other guy does. It always results in fighting and death.

Which is what governments/states always do: they pit us against each other. We already live in the “Hunger Games”.

On the flipside, a positive alternative to the top-down, bureaucratic government prescription that politicians adore is called… Let’s see… They didn’t really cover this on Sesame Street. It’s called… Oh yeah! “Private property”! Recognition of property rights facilitates free trade, resource allocation, and the best management of supply and demand. Through real property rights, owners have incentives to manage their claims. Decreases in resources are reflected in higher prices, and incentivize cost-cutting, productivity, and, if the resource becomes more dear, switches to other items that are relatively cheaper.

At one point in history, whales were killed for their oil, which was used to fuel lamps all over the world. But as the number of whales declined, the cost of whale oil increased, and as it increased, this higher price incentivized people to find alternatives. The result? Kerosene refinement became economically feasible, that industry grew, became efficient, and the whales were saved. The market is a beautiful thing if allowed to operate.

In fact, there are so many examples of free markets and property rights protecting the environment and helping maintain natural resources, the Count might never be able to stop counting them.

Perhaps that’s a better line of endeavor if he ever leaves Sesame Street. Get into free market economics, Count. Help establish real property rights for fishery homesteading, and get off the public dole.

We could use a brain like Count von Count’s doing good work, not following court orders and bankrupting fishermen on the decks of their ships.

 

 

Wow.

This Yahoo news piece tells us just more of what we already know: the Constitutional requirement that Congress declare War is out, and has been out for a long time.

But remember, this is the “Peace President”. 

It was less than a year ago that Obama was merely a weekend away from launching an attack on Syria’s President Assad. “Assad launched chemical weapons against his citizens” we were told — a claim that was later proven false by MIT researchers (and barely published in the US, ya had to go to the UK press for that). 

ISIS is composed of members of multiple Syrian rebel factions, some of which received military and financial aid from the US and NATO (through the CIA, Libyan routes and Turkish routes). John McCain had his picture taken with one of these Syrian rebels a year ago. The ISIS members themselves suddenly came together in very little time to drive south, and RECORD IT for all to see. 

Now, the O admin is claiming that this out-of-nowhere group is the greatest existential threat to the US in a decade — a group that was aided by the US and US-fed surrogates… And when he could have taken them out months ago, he did nothing? Now Obama wants to unilaterally work with the very guy he unilaterally wanted to overthrow, President Assad?

Something doesn’t wash here — especially the speed with which ISIS became a sudden powerhouse. Mere weeks and they are ready to bomb US cities, possibly with nukes? Something is not right about this story.

Be Seeing You!

To follow-up the topic we explored in our most recent post here at the site, and our most recent podcast at Podomatic, we would like to draw your attention to two items. First, we have this news story from Oakland, which gives us another example of how the agents of the state – who are paid via forced payments of taxation (aka statutory theft) — cannot be everywhere to protect you, and have been shown to NOT defend people and not have a “legal duty” to do so according to their own courts. Take a look at this story, which ties in to the pod from 8-20-14. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/08/20/oakland-liquor-store-clerks-fight-back-against-alleged-repeat-thief/

And here is an overview of court cases in which agents of the state to which people are forced to pay have determined that the state has no legal responsibility to protect those very people forced to pay for it. This shows us that the entire rationale offered for the existence of the state (i.e. to protect people from aggression) is not only a fraud, it is a smokescreen used to allow agents of the state to steal. 

Take a look: Court Cases on “Duty” to Protect Not Being a Duty At All

Thanks for reading! Spread the word about the podcast! Lots more to come!

Take a listen! Our new Audio is now available! Check it out! And spread the word! 

http://libertyconspiracy.podomatic.com/entry/2014-08-20T16_23_47-07_00

As our title indicates, this program focuses on the well-documented police misconduct during peaceful protest marches in Ferguson, MO. We offer audio clips and testimonials from people on the scene, and then go further, exploring the fundamental issue of the right to self-protection, how the people in Ferguson protected their neighbors without police and sometimes DESPITE police interference, and we discuss the long line of court cases that say the “state” has no duty to protect you. Gardner Goldsmith dissects that logic, especially when it is taken on from the perspective of their supposed “social contract”, and shows us, once more, that the “contract” they force on you, the “contract” they say you signed but you really didn’t, will be abrogated by the state at any time.

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