A Low-Key Workaround for Staying Mobile

I don’t generally write about the many inventive ways Jews manage to evade the State of Israel’s predatory plunder, for fear of sabotaging my own side. But a handy new technique seems invincible.

The free market, non-monopoly “Driver” industry is currently booming. Now they often insist the passenger pays cash for obvious reasons and refuse to accept payment by credit card.

But what if you don’t have cash on hand? Answer: offer to help pay for fuel (you may need to supply the four-digit security code or your Teudat Zehut number)! Obviously, it won’t work if everyone does this, but it has worked for me.

Am I helping break their “laws”? Yes.

Instead of Reading Economic News, I Read Ron Paul’s Summaries…

The Real Affordability Agenda

Ron Paul

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election was due in large part to his promises to pursue an America First foreign policy and rein in inflation. One year later, prices remain high, and President Trump is more focused on overseas meddling than on the American people. This has helped enable Democrats to win governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, and self-described Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to win the New York City mayor race by running on “affordability.”

Since the election, President Trump has made a number of proposals to ease the burden of high prices. One of the president’s proposals is changing federal housing regulations to encourage lenders to offer 50-year mortgages. Though a 50-year mortgage in comparison to a 30-year mortgage could reduce monthly mortgage payments by over a hundred dollars for a median price home, it could also roughly double interest payments made over the life of the mortgage. So, while the longer mortgage may provide a short-term benefit, in the long run it is a losing proposition for potential homeowners.

President Trump also proposed using the revenue from his tariffs to give most Americans at least 2,000 dollars. This may provide some help for struggling Americans, but it does not compensate for the damage inflicted on the American economy by the tariffs.

President Trump has also announced plans to reduce tariffs on some countries in regard to coffee, bananas, and other agricultural products. This reduction in the tariffs has come with an admission from the Trump administration that the high tariffs have led to increased prices and thus harmed Americans. Hopefully, President Trump will provide more relief from his tariffs, including relief aimed at helping American manufacturers who rely on imports for raw materials and tools.

While Democrats talk about “affordability,” most are unwilling to support the free-market policies that produce abundance and affordability. Instead, they want more government interventions in the marketplace — even though history shows government interventions cause price increases and shortages. For example, New York City Mayor-elect Mamdani thinks the way to address housing costs in New York City is through new price controls on rent. He does not seem to understand that a reason housing costs are so high in New York City is because of the city’s existing rent control law.

Another example is congressional Democrats’ “solution” to the large increases in Obamacare premiums being to extend the 2021 “temporary” Obamacare subsidies enacted as part of covid relief legislation. Unfortunately, the Republican alternative appears to be to just send Americans money to use to pay medical costs.

Politicians with both parties ignore the real cause of price inflation: the Federal Reserve. When the Federal Reserve increases the money supply, it reduces the dollar’s value, thus increasing the average American’s cost of living. A major reason the Fed devalues the dollar is to monetize the ever-increasing federal debt by purchasing Treasury securities. Therefore, an important action the president and Congress could take to make America affordable again would be to reduce federal spending and start paying down the over 38 trillion dollars debt. Congress should also pass legislation forbidding the Federal Reserve from purchasing federal debt.

Congress should also pass the Audit the Fed bill, legislation exempting precious metals and cryptocurrencies from capital gains taxes, and a repeal of any other laws that prevent Americans from using alternative currencies. Auditing and ending the Federal Reserve is the true affordability agenda.

Originally published by the Ron Paul Institute. 

From Mises.org, here.

The Only ‘Realistic’ View of Israel Is the Miraculous One

A slight adaptation and translation (by AI) of a recent column by Yehuda Epstein:

Let us be realistic…

In recent months, scarcely a day passes without another blow from our “good friend” in the White House. Now we hear of the sale of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia; earlier we witnessed the spectacle of Donald Trump warming relations with New York City’s mayor of Islamist-tinged sympathies. As we rub our eyes in disbelief, the commentators explain that we must recognize the limits of our power and “be realistic”—that one simply cannot oppose the President of the United States, and even a friendly president marks out red lines for us. Meanwhile America is already preparing a “path” to statehood for the murderers in our midst, and the political left senses an opportunity to revive the insane idea we thought had died.

“Be realistic,” say the men of logic. “We cannot manage without America,” proclaim the diplomatic experts. Some in the study hall echo them, arguing that since we are in exile we must bow our heads—unaware that the expiration date of exile’s oaths has passed, and the hour has come for renewed love between us and our Father in Heaven. At the very point where trust in the Almighty is demanded—He Who has shown His mighty hand and manifold miracles since our return to the Land—there gather all the faint-hearted, clicking their tongues and insisting we must heed the voice of the American president. The secular skeptic, the left-leaning thinker, is startled to find that some observant Jews—precise in every commandment, punctual in prayer, devout in concentration—remove their tefillin, fold their tallit, and then declaim—like that same secular man—that the Holy One has abandoned Israel and that our fate depends on “the special relationship with America.”

The Jew who read the Binding of Isaac; the Jew who weeks ago read of the covenants with Abraham—Brit Bein HaBetarim and Brit Milah—the Jew who daily recites the verses from Nehemiah (9:7–8) about God choosing Abram, bringing him out of Ur, finding his heart faithful, and promising the land to his descendants—this Jew imagines that Donald Trump can nullify that eternal covenant. Ask him whether he believes the verse, and he will answer: certainly — only that he is being “realistic.”

There is, however, one problem with such realism, whether secular or religious: it tends to lead one to conclusions that are realistic to the point of despair. For example: that Israel cannot truly survive against a hostile world; that even unimaginable concessions will never satisfy the Arabs; that it is irrational to plant a small nation of Jews in the middle of a vast Muslim world; that America, our supposed great ally, is itself becoming saturated with Israel-haters on right and left; that even the Republican Party now contains growing anti-Israel elements; that political, economic, social, and military data are all stacked against us, while enemies abound, armed with the most advanced technology and wholly dedicated to Israel’s destruction. The “realist” will eventually conclude that the Balfour Declaration was a wild and unrealistic adventure, and that the Jews ought to have stayed in Europe—and perhaps pleaded that the mustached tyrant of Germany also “be realistic” and abandon his murderous plans. One never knows where realism will lead…

Israel does not exist according to the cold realities visible to human eyes. Our people run on a different operating system: higher, spiritual, guided by the Creator toward the purpose of Creation. Our foremothers were barren to teach that by nature Israel has no existence at all. Its existence is from beyond nature. Thus we were born, thus we survived, and thus we shall reach final redemption—despite all the “realistic” data.

Trump’s election planted in many an illusion that we could evade our calling to trust in God alone and rely instead on some covenant with a flesh-and-blood leader. For this we owe Trump a certain gratitude: he helps open blind eyes. May we finally grasp that the rules of history that govern the nations do not govern Israel. We have a covenant with the Almighty; we have a mission to sanctify His Name. The more we flee it, the more He will pursue us in mercy until we return.

Instead of lamenting the collapse of the fragile tower of “special relations” with America, we must return to the covenant that has proven itself throughout our existence. That is the true reality of the Jewish people.

So let us—finally—be realistic.