Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Back in June 2013, I was suddenly inspired to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s thoughtful, powerful and provocative “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” It struck such a chord with me that I decided to write a post on it, in which I highlighted key excerpts.

Today, January 20th, is Martin Luther King Day for those of us in these United States. With the Republic at such a crossroads, one filled with peril, but also with tremendous opportunity; it would serve us all well to heed the words this great man wrote so many years ago, during another troubled and dynamic time in our history. As such, I am reposting my piece from last summer below.

Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal”

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Even if you have read Martin Luther King’s celebrated “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I insist you read it again. For those that have never read it, the inspired prose may very well change your life.  The letter’s message is eternal and extraordinarily relevant in the current global struggle of the 99.9% against the criminality, corruption and oppression of a very small, but very powerful 0.01%.  One of the key tactics this tiny minority uses is to claim that their immoral deeds are “legal.”  He spends much of his time in the letter outlining the distinction between “just laws” and an “unjust laws,” and one of the key points he makes that we should all keep close to our hearts and minds in these trying times is:

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.

I also think it’s important to recognize that many of his contemporaries referred to his tactics as “extremist,” very similar to how the term “terrorist” is used currently to demonize public dissent in America.  Below are some of the excepts I found most powerful:

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal.

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

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Inaugural Interview with Hard Assets Alliance – India’s War on Gold, Bitcoin in China and More…

This past week I sat down with Andy Duncan of the Hard Assets Alliance for an inaugural podcast and we discussed a variety of timely topics. From India’s “war on gold,” the emergence of new political parties around the world and, of course, Bitcoin.

This is the first interview in which I discuss my view that the Chinese attacks on Bitcoin are actually a sign of the regime’s weakness, and I take issue with certain gold bugs hoping for a Chinese run gold standard or something similar. I am of the adamant belief that we need to separate money from the state. Enjoy!

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Inaugural Interview with Hard Assets Alliance – India’s War on Gold, Bitcoin in China and More… originally appeared on A Lightning War for Liberty on January 18, 2014.

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Want to Buy the FBI’s Bitcoins? Here’s How…

Yesterday, Forbes reported that a judge had signed off on a forfeiture order for 30,000 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road by the feds. This means that the coins are likely to be sold in the near future. So the question on everyone’s mind is how and where will they be sold. Forbes explains that:

There is no legally certified U.S. Bitcoin exchange dealing in these kinds of volumes, and I doubt the feds want to sell the coins via Mt. Gox, which got in legal trouble last year for operating in the U.S. without a license, or via BTC-e, the mysterious exchange based in Bulgaria. It’s likely that the U.S. Marshals will instead auction off the Bitcoins as if they were Bernie Madoff’s penthouse or a drug dealer’s cars. When the FBI first seized the coins in October, they were worth about $6 million; they’re now worth four times that. This is a bust that keeps on paying off. The proceeds will go to the U.S. Treasury.

So if you are interested in bidding for the BTC, it makes sense to keep a close eye on the following website (click on the image to get there).

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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Want to Buy the FBI’s Bitcoins? Here’s How… originally appeared on A Lightning War for Liberty on January 17, 2014.

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The States Strike Back: Washington Introduces Bill to Cut Off Power to the NSA

We know the NSA shares data with state and local law enforcement. We know from a Reuters report that most of this shared data has absolutely nothing to do with national security issues. This bill would make that information inadmissible in state court. This data sharing shoves a dagger into the heart of the Fourth Amendment. This bill would stop that from happening. This is a no-brainer. Every state should do it.”

– Mike Maharrey, National Communications Director of the Tenth Amendment Center 

In case you haven’t heard of the OffNow coalition, the group is leading a nationwide charge to convince state legislatures to put a stop to the NSA’s unconstitutional spying by restricting crucial state resources such as water and power to NSA facilities. This tactic first received national attention earlier this year when California introduced such legislation, but it does not have actual NSA facilities in the state. Washington State does.

The NSA operates a listening center on the Army’s Yakima Training Center (YTC), and there is a bipartisan effort in Washington to prevent the allocation of state and local resources to the facility as long as the spy agency continues to violate Americans’ 4th Amendment rights. The Bill is called HB2272 and it is based on model language drafted by the OffNow coalition.

Kudos to Washington state, which has been leading the way in various freedom related issues, such as the drone debate as well as marijuana legalization.

More from OffNow:

In a bipartisan effort, Washington became first state with a physical NSA location to consider the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, designed to make life extremely difficult for the massive spy agency.

Rep. David Taylor (R-Moxee) and Rep Rep. Luis Moscoso (D- Mountlake Terrace) introduced HB2272 late Tuesday night. Based on model language drafted by the OffNow coalition, it would make it the policy of Washington “to refuse material support, participation, or assistance to any federal agency which claims the power, or with any federal law, rule, regulation, or order which purports to authorize, the collection of electronic data or metadata of any person pursuant to any action not based on a warrant.”

Practically speaking, the bill prohibits state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their jurisdiction. This includes barring government-owned utilities from providing water and electricity. It makes information gathered without a warrant by the NSA and shared with law enforcement inadmissible in state court. It blocks public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds. And it  disincentivizes corporations attempting to fill needs not met in the absence of state cooperation.

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Why China’s Attack on Bitcoin is a Sign of Weakness

For myself and many others back in the 2008/09 period, it seemed obvious what China should to do from an entirely nationalistic perspective on the grand geopolitical chessboard. With the reputation of the U.S. laying in tatters following a gigantic financial collapse and an utterly embarrassing, unlimited taxpayer bailout of the criminals that caused the crisis, the entire world (including Americans) was looking for something else. Something new, something more lawful. Something more just and more stable. The U.S. dollar and the Federal Reserve System had been exposed and entirely discredited in many people’s minds. One of history’s most bold and monumental geopolitical moves was ripe for the taking. China could attempt to back its currency with gold, something I discussed with Max Keiser in a May 2010 interview. Immediately, capital flows would flood into the country, Chinese consumer purchasing power would explode and a rebalancing of their economy would experience a traumatic, but monumental and necessary shift. They could have announced such a plan and then implemented it slowly and with safety nets for manufacturers. It wouldn’t have been easy, but the window of opportunity was open. Instead, they did nothing, and now I think it’s too late.

I think there are two obvious reasons why the Chinese authorities failed to take bold action on the world stage. First, many of the wealthiest billionaires and elites in China have benefited greatly from so-called “free trade” partnerships with the West. The ponzi relationship in which we print pieces of paper and give it to them for manufactured goods has resulted in fabulous fortunes for the Chinese power players. Not to mention their existing personal, social relationships with Western elites. So why rock the boat?

The second reason has to do with the likely political and social turmoil that would have resulted from such a move. The enormous economic rebalancing from such a power play would financially ruin many people during the transition period. Some of them might be locally powerful figures who could then rile up newly unemployed peasants and the conditions for revolution would be ripe. That’s not to say this would be the outcome, but pulling off such a grand move would open up the political situation to such a risk. A risk no one in power was willing to take. So they didn’t.

There is a third possible reason, and that is the U.S. quietly threatened China militarily if they attempted such a move. This is certainly possible as well.

All of these questions were on my mind back on May 2012 when I wrote an article titled: China Better Have a Plan. Here’s a passage from that piece:

The fact that the Central Planners in China are basically standing around like deer in headlights as their economy plunges into the abyss is nothing short of astounding.  Sure they have lowered the bank Reserve Requirement but so what?  That is an epic joke of a move in light of the gargantuan problems that economy is facing, and is blatantly pathetic in its irrelevance.  I’m not going into detail for the thousandth time why China’s economy is nothing more than a Keynesian Centrally Planned house of cards on steroids with mal-investments that make the U.S. housing market look benign.  I have done that too many times over too many years to exert energy on that topic once again.  That said, what I do want to do is look back at the post 2008 period and try to figure out why they never really took polices to rebalance the economy away from fixed asset investment toward consumption.  In fact, not only did they not rebalance but they doubled down on the prior strategy!  Well now the chickens have come home to roost and we are about to find out if China has any real “long term” plan to get themselves out of this mess.

Ultimately, what I think the authorities in China decided to do was let the U.S. hang itself. The Chinese elites didn’t want to be held responsible for the collapse of the U.S. dollar or the world monetary system. So instead, they decided to wait it out, buy gold and prepare to take over on the world stage once the monetary system imploded in on itself. This seemed like a reasonable plan, but they didn’t anticipate one very, very important thing. They didn’t anticipate Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is the monetary equivalent of some genius programmer coming to the global chessboard, picking it up over his or her head and then throwing it on the floor thus scattering the pieces all over the place. This is why I and so many others were shocked that the control-freaks in China were seemingly supportive of it. I believe this was the result of some very forward thinking and brilliant Chinese entrepreneurs seeing the technological achievement for what it is and convincing others of its incredible potential. However, that didn’t last long. Why?

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Want to Receive Part of Your Paycheck in Bitcoin? Here’s How…

I’ve covered Bitcoin payment processor BitPay on many occasions over the past year or so. The pioneering company provides an invaluable service to merchants that want to allow their customers to pay for goods and services in Bitcoin without taking on any currency risk. Well, they have now branched out into what seems to be a perfectly complimentary business, allowing employers that don’t deal with Bitcoin directly to pay their employees in Bitcoin should they so desire.

This will be achieved via the Bitcoin “Payroll API,” which is currently in beta release open to employers in the states of Georgia (where BitPay is based) and South Carolina. All 20 of BitPay’s employees receive some of their compensation in Bitcoin, and the project got kickstarted after many of BitPay’s own employees asked for something similar. CEO of BitPay Tony Gallippi receives 100% of his pay in Bitcoin.

However, this is not the only milestone for the company. A few days ago I pointed out that the company was signing up a staggering 1,000 merchants a week, and now it has been announced they have surpassed the 20,000 merchant threshold.

It’s interesting to think that a currency originally involved primarily in online gaming, which can be accessed at such venues as BitBet.com, has now spread so quickly into the mainstream with retailers such as Overstock accepting it.

This development is truly incredible, and allowing people to receive a small part of their salary in Bitcoin will only further its development as an genuine real world currency people and businesses want to both use and hold on to.

More from Coindesk:

What’s the easiest way to get bitcoins into your wallet? Answer: Get paid in bitcoin. BitPay, the world’s largest digital currency payment processor, now lets employees do that with the beta release of its Bitcoin Payroll API for employers.

American W-2 employees (see below) can elect to have all, or part, of their salary paid in bitcoin for every pay period. It works as a ‘net payroll deduction’, meaning taxes and garnishes are removed from an employee’s gross income first, and the bitcoin portion is deducted from take-home pay.

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How Erik Price, Founder of Blackwater, Will Help China Subjugate Africa

China’s ongoing colonization of Africa represents yet another sad development in the continent’s tragic history. I briefly highlighted this topic once before in December 2012, via a “Guest Post” I suggest reading titled: Africa in the Crosshairs.

Unfortunately, Erik Price of Blackwater infamy is now coming to town, which can only mean more pain, suffering and servitude for Africa.

From the South China Morning Post:

Shares of DVN Holdings, controlled by Hong Kong businessman Johnson Ko Chun-shun and state-owned Citic Group, surged 7.3 per cent after it appointed Erik Prince – former owner of controversial US security firm Blackwater – as chairman, and granted him more share options.

This is in addition to five-year options granted to him that allowed him to buy 205.1 million shares at 73 HK cents each in late November, as part-payment for a start-up East African aviation and logistics firm injected by Prince into DVN. The two options mean he could own about 23 per cent of DVN.

Prince last November sold to DVN a company that plans to build a pan-Africa provider of aviation, logistics, risk management, security services and exploration support services, needed by many Chinese businesses active in Africa. He received US$3 million plus the first batch of options.

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Wanna Be Dictator Obama Claims “I’ve Got a Pen” as He Vows to Legislate via Executive Order

If this isn’t one of the creepier things you’ve seen in a while, then I don’t know what to tell you. Obama’s emotional expressions in this clip are one of a man who has been utterly defeated following several years of rampant cronyism and epic public failures. As such, it seems as if he is prepared to step up further to the “wanna be dictator” plate and just start doing whatever he wants via executive orders.

I mean, why even bother pretending to have a Congress at this point? Hasn’t this guy done enough harm…

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Wanna Be Dictator Obama Claims “I’ve Got a Pen” as He Vows to Legislate via Executive Order originally appeared on A Lightning War for Liberty on January 14, 2014.

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Jon Stewart on Chris Christie…Absolutely Hilarious

Regular readers know that I am no fan of Chris Christie. Just yesterday, I highlighted a post written by Chris Hedges on the New Jersey Governor, which is a must read expose if you haven’t already.

While Hedges’ criticisms of Christie are nothing to laugh about, Jon Stewart’s certainly are. Have fun with this hilarious clip!

 

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Jon Stewart on Chris Christie…Absolutely Hilarious originally appeared on A Lightning War for Liberty on January 14, 2014.

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Supreme Court Decision – Electronic Devices Granted Some Protection at Border Crossings

Border crossings are a great place for government bureaucrats to harass the citizenry. Over the past several years, most of us have heard horror stories in this regard. I highlighted several stories of border crossing concerns last year, with the two most interesting being:

Why I Will Never, Ever, Go Back to the United States by Niels Gerson Lohman

and

If Flying into the UK, Your Phone Can Be Seized and Data Downloaded Without Suspicion

One of the greatest fears of activists, journalists and average citizens alike, is that some border patrol agent can confiscate your electronics on a whim and then use sophisticated software to break your passwords and look through all your personal files and data. Fortunately, the Supreme Court just let stand the ruling by an appellate court, which ruled that a deep forensics analysis of one’s electronics can only occur if there is “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity. That’s at least a start in the right direction.

From Wired:

Without issuing a ruling, the justices let stand an appeals court’s decision that U.S. border agents may indeed undertake a search of a traveler’s gadgets content on a whim, just like they could with a suitcase or a vehicle. That is known as the ”border search exception” of United States law, where travelers can be searched without a warrant as they enter the country. The Obama administration has aggressively used this power to search travelers’ laptops, sometimes copying the hard drive before returning the computer.

However, in a rare win for digital privacy, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last year concluded that a deeper forensic analysis by border officials using software to decrypt password-protected files or to locate deleted files now requires “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity — an outcome the justices refused to tinker with today.

That means, in essence, the authorities must have some facts, rather than a hunch, that illegal activity is afoot to perform a forensic analysis on electronics seized along the border of the western United States.

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