The Argument for a Market-Based Approach to Military Action for Defense

Excerpt from HI: Human Investment
Historical Examples of the Free Market utilizing Percentage As You Earn (%AYE) Finance & Finansurance for solving major problems and with large numbers of individual agreements.  
Written by Brock d’Avignon, 1978; Edited by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster, 2017
Historical Probe #2
Privateering Goes to War 1775 – 1782, & 1812 - 1815



Privateers' %AYE Financed Defense of Free-Market America

Once upon a time, 792 stock-share owned and privately armed rebel warships set sail against their government's barriers to free trade. Over 3, 100 of His Majesty's vessels were captured or destroyed by American Revolutionary warships, each entirely outfitted and operated with Percentage As You Earn (PAYE) finance. Joining the fray to end the Crown's legalized monopolies, the Colonial Burgesses and later Continental Congress taxed or printed enough money to finance in a similar manner, 64 republican warships.

On 15 April 1775, four days before the Lexington Commons and Concord Bridge Battles, the Massachusetts State Ship Tyrannicide hoisted anchor. Congress requested dividends from its U.S. Navymen of 66% percent of any captured prize-ship and cargo. By contrast, typical American investors, such as little old ladies with 20-dollar gold pieces, who were interested in thwarting subsidized tea monopolies; invested into capitalist cruisers.  The investors in Privateer ships, requested dividends of only 33% percent, leaving to the crew the two-thirds of whatever enemy vessels the Privateersman boarded and brought to ports' maritime title company courts' condemnation hearings, or government Admiralty courts to verify they were actually British ships that were captured. Not surprisingly, the skilled seamen signed aboard the instruments of war that would be loaned to them at the much lower rate:

Comparative List of American Armed Vessels:  Years 1776 - 1782

Circa 1775, Americans calculated the return-on-investment in the quite literal removal of the British Roi's taxation-subsidy cycle. Idle ships were bottled up in harbors and were thus useless to the owners. Their " opportunity cost" was no less beneficial in risking the equal loss of the ship at sea, while enlistee privateersmen loaded a gesture of defiance at the Crown's enforced protectionism. Since blockaded shipowners were often broke, the outfitting of the vessels was usually underwritten by a popular stock offering to other colonial rebels who had seen the strategic wisdom of a unilateral declaration of free-trade. The number of American stockholders grew:

Comparative Number of Guns Carried By the American Vessels:  Years 1776 - 1782

According the author of Pirates, Privateers, and Profits, by James G. Lydon. Introd. by Richard B. Morris, both owners and operators floating on percentages, decided to structure privateering's merit pay incentives aboard ship in three ways:

1) Smugglers like John Hancock had early defined 18 basic jobs in high-risk operations plus 2 incentives; so aboard Privateers the 2/3rds "earnings" of the crew were formally divided into brackets of 20ths by shipboard tasks.  

Custom was established aboard square-rigged ships that cabin boys, for instance, no matter how many, received a sub-bracket of 1/5th of 1/20th; still a sum enough on some voyages to place a boy into the middle class economically. If seven or eight cabin boys were optional, then they decided if they wanted more hands-on task, or cut their numbers down to seven so as to receive a larger payout per cabinboy.  The same 1/20th bracket concept applied, no matter how many occupied that bracket, all the way up to the First and Second Mates who split a full 20th each.  Sometimes the ocean-crossing privateers captured six ships and manned them.  

2) The "captain's purse", however, was a notably outsized 3/20ths or 15% of crew booty. There were two good reasons for the size of the captain's purse, and they were encouraged by the crew. It was widely recognized by these sea-going mercenaries that no one dies for money.  

Tactical ideas counted as did obligated duty; but risking death more than other crewmates were willing to risk, had better account for something more than the thrill of a fight. The captain allotted merit pay percentages from his purse based on sub-bracket percentages according to any specified success totaling 1/20th of the booty, equaling a third of his purse.   Examples: for gallantry (the first man to board an enemy vessel would receive an extra meritorious wage, or his widow at home would); for marksmanship (the first Kentucky Rifle up in the marines' "fighting tops" to pick off the enemy captain); for a lookout's eyesight from the crow’s nest; or for an excellent cook.  The captain usually kept 1/20th for his own.

3) The last third of the captain's purse merit pay incentives was a 1/20th designated by the captain and the owners for the crew if they achieved some extra-un-ordinary feat. This action might be the burning of a specific revenue cutter or capturing a patrolling frigate.   This 1/20th or third of the captain’s purse was often nailed to a mast, and the impossible became the routine. For instance, Privateer Captain Jonathan Haraden captured over 1, 000 British naval cannon during the Revolution. Never heard of him, hmmm.  

The Revolution's sea-power became self-financing within 3 years, which attracted more participants, Unlike most forms of capitalism that make money, privateering set out to take money back as a reprisal for financial suppression and impressment servitude. Privateers went to sea with an overload of men and materials for the purpose of re-outfitting and skeleton crew re-manning several captured prize vessels. Fortunes rose or sank in prize vessels on their way to American or French ports, Prisoners-of-war often rose to recapture prizes back from the skeleton crew; sometimes a ship changed hands and navigation several times. 

For this reason of disparity of luck among the same original privateer crew, the admiralty courts judged that all hands who sailed off together would be entitled to their agreed portion of wages and dividends in the overall venture. This trend concerning reprisals was standard throughout the former colonies. All previous and future reprisals, accrued to the privateersman no matter where  they are now, "in heaven, in port, at sea, in hell, or worse as prisoners in Britain" dank hulks. If the original Privateer ship was lost, it was not usually deducted from the crew's pay but from the stockholders'  “capital gains"; although a refundable insurance bond accumulated from prizes sent in, until the original ship's return. The admiralty courts clearly sided with the sailors since they were in fact risking their lives on the high seas whereas the stockholders were not. Many sailors became "men of property" and could vote in the title company maritime courts  or State admiralty courts to sustain judges on their bench.

During this era, through the Revolution and the War for Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights, there were two female privateer captains who inherited their ships at sea.  The daughters and wife of Captain Uriah Sears, returning from China trade, were surprisingly attacked by French privateers in the Caribbean on their way back in 1803, and sunk the French ship.  My ancestors’ armed merchantman wommaned by Chloe, Keziah, and Hannah Sears sunk the French ship. The French had cracked the hull of their prey, allowing water to expand silks and tea to burst their planking.  A British frigate out of Jamaica rescued both crews.  

When a prize vessel came in, it often carried financial instructions from some of the privateersmen who captured it regarding investment in it to create yet another Privateer. Some privateersmen used their wages from the prize to buy or barter stock shares in its venture or re-outfitting.  This practice aided cash flow in the war effort and became known as "waging war" against England's not-so-commercial empire.  Several such wage warrior stockholders in a prize vessel, for some reason, made the best watchful prize crew imaginable. Thus, whenever a spyglass sighted a convoy of the Crown's mercantilistic “business" underway with a warship, eyeing it was referred to as “taking stock" in the situation.  Indeed, the word “enterprise” means to enter a captured prize. It has come to mean more peaceful ventures since yet still requiring courage to be creative. 

Many privateersmen who didn't invest in gambling that prize vessels would reach port, retained their bloody hard-won hard silver specie while sailing the currents of war.  A Privateer captain could rely on his crew's stout self-interests down in the holds of captured ships; much in contrast to the U. S. Navymen who were paid in ever-inflationary paper currency. 

While subsidized British commerce lobbied in the lobby of Parliament for more restrictive laws, sail, and cannon to inflict more economic woe on the untaxable colonials---American seaboard political pressure in October 1776 rose with the tide of Congress' inflation of money. Congress acquiesced to lower its 66% "rePAYEment" from Navymen to 50% on cargo craft captured. Congress would forego revenue if the crew captured an enemy man-o-war or British Privateer; and would pay in paper money a bounty for the destruction of any British vessel of half its adjudged value in a governmental admiralty tax court. For the Continental Navy then, the policy to attract volunteers was translated into the orders: burn, sink, & kill. To an American Privateersman's point of view, it seemed as if Congress had institutionalized the bloodthirsty failure to bring capturable ships of any sort to any port.  Glance again at Maclay's table to see how well regarded these measures of vague "national interest" were, and how few signed aboard USN warships in the name of "national security” 

Navy Captain John Paul Jones wrote Congress decrying, "the impossibility of manning a government vessel whenever a Privateer was outfitting and recruiting in the same harbor, which is most all the time. Alas without a Navy!" Some republican navy captains became desperate enough to try involuntary servitude, which crossed against the individualist grain of most other revolutionaries and what they thought they were fighting for.  Congress was dominated by Privateer interests; the man they chose to command the fledgling U.S. Navy was Commodore John Barry due to an incident of principle on the Delaware River. He was selected because as Privateer Captain Barry, he had been already primed to fire a broadside into a Continental sloop commanded by a USN lieutenant under Navy Captain Seth Harding. The Navy ship had sent an impressment gang to Barry's Privateer to conscript his privateersmen. Barry piped the would-be draft board aboard and simply pointed to a gunner's mate holding a lighted fuse and silently saved the Revolution. It is Commodore Barry's statue in front of Independence Hall today that stands as a testimony against upholding the sins of governance with efficient PAYE finance.  

Barry knew that State mis-determinations will cause tax-revenue over-reliance, causing inept use of bonds, causing a desperate need for inflated printed money.  As government loses its power base to the free-market using the same financial method: governments will excuse their lack of insurance liability on its "good faith & credit" based on its tax-supported military's ease in killing and enslaving to "man" its programs of "national service' -- all ironically in the name of" national defense education acts for liberty.  Perhaps we won't get fooled by that line anymore than the Commodore.  

Freedom makes living worthwhile, and a living worthwhile. Percentage As You Earn (%AYE) finance is determined by both "worth" and "while". Its PAYEment systems are relevant to only those tools and services that increase a borrower's erratic yet ever-increasing capability to be more productive. Freedom itself, in this case was the service sought, the tools were gun platforms. PAYE finance was well suited to build freedom's defensive infrastructure in 1775, again, in 1803, as Jefferson cut the Navy budget in order to encourage privateer action against the Barbary Pirates. Six United States Marines, two US Navy ships, along with six hundred ship-wrecked Greek sailors and a Libyan army under the command of a 7-foot tall, black, Egyptian Republican Revolutionary in Haiti and a future American privateer named King Dick, captured Tripoli after sweeping across the desert.  Declaring a constitutional sultanate of the United States of North Africa, its victory was given away in diplomacy to save the sensibilities of US southern states.  How different American history would be if there were neither a Pentagon today nor slavery yesterday.      

Thus, the investors' strategic orders were very precise: raid only British commerce, since that was the raison d'etre of the Royal Navy blockades and its influence in Parliament. American Privateers' orders were aimed at protecting the salubrity of all vessels in a fight, making the resale of enemy vessels profitable. Privateers captured 16,000 well-equipped "redcoats" on the high seas during the Revolution, as compared to the 8, 000 not-so-well-equipped Kingsmen that George Washington captured on land, until Yorktown. Prisoners were worth $20 at the exchange rate in America. The investors' orders translated into: capture, extinguish fires, minimize loss of life, and run blockades to port with prize vessel, cargo, and exchangeable prisoners, Thus, new Revolutionary warships returned to sea flying the 13 gold and black striped Privateer ensign emblazoned with an American rattlesnake proclaiming, "Don't Tread On Me”.

American Privateer's revolutionary success in comparison to their U.S. Navy compatriots was of little note as compared to their practical success against the formidable foe of the Royal Navy. His Majesty's incentives to gain enlistments were lumps on the head, lump sum fixed bounties, pension installments, and occasionally an insurance company's salvage reward for recapturing a formerly British cargo ship.

The British Navy was embarrassed by American Privateer tactics being blatantly concerned with retaliation against their commercial empire. Instead of a suicidal nationalistic urge to go up against the King's majestic ships-of—the-line with three times their armament; the American's lightweight, fast, shallow-draft, 16-gun platforms would dart from Merchantman to Merchantman. Privateers found themselves capturing several 36-gun frigates anyway, as they turned the Merchantmens' carronades upon King George's folly. 

The only desire the Americans ever had to dare attack the even larger "hell ships" manned by the impressment of Americans enslaved for years, was to show-off gunnery skills. The Royal Navy did not practice gunnery as did the pernicious Privateers who had to make every shot count; but relied on massive multi-decks of firepower. The Americans would quickly capture and sail away the dreadnought' s little cargo convoy, leaving the lumbering slow warship without a purpose.

The British taxpayer quickly grew tired of paying for such worthless objects of nautical art.  Lloyds of London ship insurance went up 6,000% and was the major contributing argument in the House of Commons for making peace with their break-away cousins.  

Whenever a British fleet actually nabbed an American Privateer that wasn't quite quick enough downwind, the British sailors couldn't handle the amount of sail crowded on them because it wasn't Navy Regulation. "Going by the book" they cut down masts and spars, and then after filling the hull with rock ballast; they wondered why it couldn't catch other Yankee designed vessels.  Meanwhile, Yankee Privateer Captain Jonathan Haraden invented the “jackass brig” air rudder to run circles around enemy ships; as well as the swinging plumb-bob to order level broadsides.  When out of ammunition Haraden loaded his cannon with silverware and crowbars, tearing an English Privateer to shreds off the Spanish coast.  This inspired a Spaniard named Farragut to join the American Revolution, his son would command the Union Navy in the Civil War.

Thomas Paine's 1776 challenge to Americans was to build with their forests enough Privateers to deny British business the fruits of its Navy's tyrannical canvas and cannons. Paine had been in America one year before he gave this advice. He was probably not expecting ocean-crossing Privateers to dare attack English cities in the Thames, nor sink the Dover fishing fleet for being loyal to the royal's protectionism. After such actions, Ben Franklin personally financed three Privateers from France with Irish crews to raid the English Channel. These too were PAYE financed and PAYEment operated.

The Royal Navy could not fathom the lack of concern American Privateers had for not carrying permission of a government to attack them; a ”letter of marque and reprisal" or in modern business license parlance, a " certificate of public need". The British Admiralty always referred to their own few Privateer ships as "letters of marque" and hoped they would envelope something. Fortunately, the British did recall the Elizabethan principle of a stock market deciding on the number of warships at sea instead of a maritime bureaucracy, so only early in the Revolution were any rebels hung as pirates. Yet as monarchists they could not comprehend people contracting on their own as sovereign individuals without a Sovereign authority. To Americans of the era, corporations were not creatures of the State; to the British they were chartered by the Crown. British political pressure at sea ironically caused the legitimacy of the Congress to rise, at least in the subjective eyes of the British sailor.  

The Continental Congress and the various United States were happy to remedy the difficulty in gaining Royalist and Loyalist respect by issuing letters-of-marque like they were licensing the waves of the sea, 3, 000 marque "coasters" from Massachusetts alone kept their ports and sea lanes open before they returned to peaceful pursuits of happiness.   

The British mind was satisfied, but to Americans such national permission was a sham.  Investors were interested in eventual free trade with England. When the Crown recognized its loss by surrender and treaty, only 2 American Privateers remained at sea to become pirates in 1783. Seaboard America defined them as rebels without a cause and sent a fleet of Privateers with one Navy ship to end their aggression.  Only three US Navy ships were left operable in 1782.

Most muskets and gunpowder that General Washington had to use, came from intercepted royal vessels. The General lamented to Congress for supplies for years, yet they came not from Congress but Privateers -- often given him or a severe discount for mere transport to his ever retreating army. Little was said in the "London Times" about Washington or Congress; the news was all maritime disasters. When Lloyd's of London insurance rates rose 6000%, it was time to tell the Royal Navy that the war for mercantilism's empire in the Atlantic was over. They decided to send Cornwallis to India to impose intolerable acts upon a different set of Indians -- who didn't use such savage PAYE finance incentives against their imperialism. The British merchant-adventurers has used %AYE finance to send dissident emigrant religionists to America. It was no surprise the new Americans used this successful business model against their forceful arrogance not allowing them a voice in counter-productive government policies. 

Such lessons did not go unheeded 29 years later during the War for Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights, according to Privateer Captain Coggeshall’s  History of American Privateers, published in 1856; and Theodore Roosevelt’s War of 1812.  This time 517 ocean-crossing American Privateers again captured over 3, 100 vessels from the British Navy and Merchant Marine. The U.S. Navy's 23 ships didn't do too bad either.  The Navy honors names like Jones, Preble, Decatur and Rogers.  However, tax-supported history books in schools do not tell the amazing tales of Privateer Captains like Haraden, Crowninsheild, and Boyle, nor commodores Barney and Barry who believed in popular defense instead of centralizing it.  

Perhaps the most valuable lesson taught us by American Privateers was their keen insight into how to motivate employees within wide-spread sophisticated, contractual enterprises that floats on a percentage-of-income. Their activities were deadly yet hold managerial lessons for those into constructive pursuits of Human Investments in collegiate education for all in the free market, medicine for all in the free market, subscription anti-ballistic missile systems, mortgages without fixed installments nor repossession, and craftsperson tooling today allowing retail sales to expand. These lessons are: an objective view of organizational co-operation with individual contracts, pay scale identification by function, merit pay for both individuals and the crew, and benefits recognized for brave souls whose buckle got swashed. These were ordinary beings who could calculate the odds of risk that today we call econometrics, and gambled with their lives on improving those risks with commensurate rewards. Heroism increased their capacity to "earn" beyond the stockholders' investment in rigging masts with “green hands”. Freedom isn't free; yet it can have its rewards in peace.

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Brock d’Avignon -  has been a student of privateering issues since 1977 as it was relevant to providing as example for paying employees in a hospital empire that would use Percentage As You Earn (%AYE) finance & medical finansurance for all to provide finance of pre-existing conditions and insurance for unexpected events. William E. Simon Sr., then recent Secretary of the Treasury asked him about how this could be done when he was advising 11 medical empires while with Booz Allen and Hamilton Management Consultants as a actuary. William H. Donaldson, Chair of the New York Stock Exchange, couriered Brock's research to the Clinton Economic Summit to Vernon Jordan who had endorsed PAYE finance for collegiate tuition at Duke and Yale to get minority and female faces into the Ivy League, for relay to a former Yale Law School student who had once used PAYE finance to get through college. Jack Kemp, Secretary of Housing and urban Development, used Brock's research to sell all government housing to the people with erratic incomes that were living in them, never fearing repossession and gaining pride of ownership with no defaults. This at one time eliminated homelessness. Kemp later used Brock's research to raise $596-million for Habitat for Humanity for fixer-uppers that could be sold to people with inconsistent income. Brock is today a credentialed Social Sciences teacher in California, and economist and Adjunct Professor with the Women's Institute for Individual & Political Justice, when not ramping up a PhoneVoter Interactive TV Networks.  He describes himself as an individualist feminist.  

A Commentary on the National Libertarian Party - What went wrong

See the original booklet, The Great Experiment Revisited, published 1999

Why does everyone assume the dishonesty and frauds committed on behalf of the National Libertarian Party can be tolerated or ignored without consequence?  Yes, some state parties and local groups have experienced problems, but far, far fewer. 

The National scams and lies remain there, hanging like dead bodies, tainting the air with a stench that has never faded.  It is wrong.

The LP was intended to be a tool to help all of us enact freedom. 

Seen any freedom lately?

Do you keep paying a plumber who can’t fix your toilet?  Of course not.

The LP is not alone. 

The Main Stream Media, crony capitalists and government agencies we are forced support, supposedly guardians of the truth and enforcers of our individual rights, are all guilty of the same kind of wrongdoings.  I could name names, and perhaps sometime I will in a book yet to be written.  But it is hardly necessary.  Determined and ardent supporters of the truth have done yeoman’s work to make the facts available. 

The stark fact remains, no one can compromise, mixing facts with fraud, without being compromised themselves. The whistle blowers have long since walked out.  How many turned away and refused to see or lined up with the guilty for their own reasons?

I became active in the LP in 1974 while I was pregnant with my third daughter, who I named Ayn. I left in 1988 because the LP had violated every value I hold.  I had encountered dishonesty toward donors, dishonesty about motives and goals, fraud and incompetence.

My comments about fraud were a reflection of the calloused lies told to activists and donors by the cadre who had taken over the LP and were raising money to pay their own salaries and write themselves checks for pointless projects approved by the National Committee. Holding on to control had become their ticket to unearned wealth, extracted by stealth and lies.

Gary Johnson is just another example of the same thing.  If I thought it was worth the time I would write an expose but why bother?  If you enjoy spending money and time pointlessly, go for it.  

Demonstrating the power of freedom remains the goal and many of us from all political perspectives have been working on these. Demonstrating how freedom works does not mean vote totals.  It means ending the view government is the right solution at all.  Instead, seek free market and community-driven solutions which solve the problems we face today in every part of our lives. 

Here were my recommendations in 1999:

"1999 - What is the appropriate function of the National Party and Office? 

We need to maintain the formal structure of a political party while we organize first at a local level. Many of our supporters first contact us through the LP or its state affiliates. We do not want this to change. 

Basically, the NLP performs three functions. It maintains a mailing list, publishes a newsletter, and puts on the National Convention. The presidential campaign is separate. It has to be. 

The LP National performs one function well, another marginally, and a third with varying success. 

The first is to maintain an informational service that makes lists available. Their model is to use the list as a fundraising resource. A better use is to make it available free to candidates and at a slight markup to others but make it clear that use of the list does not imply endorsement of any activity for which it is used. 

The second is to publish a newsletter. Presently, the national newsletter functions as an in-house organ for the National Office. It should instead encourage the dissemination of success stories and help people connect in useful ways. 

The third function is to put on the national convention. This should be run to enable members to optimize their local projects. Instead it is used to promote the projects of the National Office and its employees and contractors. This must change. "

Communication must flow between activists around the country uncensored and unimpeded by anyone.  The Internet today provides a means for sharing, dialog, cooperative action, and common resources. Copying what works is a great way to lower your transaction costs.  This was one of the most powerful practices of the Ron Paul Revolution.  We shared resources and helped each other.  No one was paid but those who were 'working' for the Campaign.  

Once, activism was challenging.  We stretched ourselves to do more.  In some few places this is still true, but a nexus site for sharing, communicating, and learning from each other is still the tool needed if the LP is to fulfill its early promise.  

I hope it happens but I am not holding my breath and I will no longer be silent.  

Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Hear! Hear! Just today I told Adam Wagener [Yes, B.J.'s son] when he mentioned running for office or attending public meetings to go for the meetings, speak and become known for persuading local officials to solve local problems locally. No requests for grants funded by unknown taxpayers so the local officials are not accountable. I like that line - stop requesting Grants from the state or the feds - it protects the grantee [city or county] from being held accountable. Gkl

Stay tuned for commentary across the present divides, both libertarian and otherwise.  Our first will include the insights of San Konkin and Brock d’Avignon on the evils of Privatization without competition .  

Why Hillary and the Corporate Cabal Lost - And Solving Problems Using Freedom

Hillary did not lose because Trump out-thought her, out-spent her, or held more power.  She did not lose because she is a woman. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton had all the cards normally available in the game of politics; more money, more experience, and a far larger and experienced campaign team.  But she was playing against a tide which has been building far longer than anyone realizes. 

Donald Trump’s victory was a rejection of the corporate elite which has controlled America since the Revolution.   Control by an elite, instead of governance by the people, has always been the issue.

You do not know about the first attempt by ordinary Americans to affirm the intent of the Declaration of Independence, including their natural rights, so eloquently enumerated by Thomas Jefferson.  The truth on this was buried by men, many of whom we have revered as Founders.  Probably none of us can view these facts without an emotional reaction.  I could not.

I read Dr. Richards’ book once.  Then again and a third time.  Richards lives in the area where the Rebellion took place. He was uninterested in a subject he believed had been worked to death.  As a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, he was in a position to know.  Now, he admits he was wrong.  Running across 4,000 names of Shaysites in a footnote he changed his mind. With the help of town archivists and historians the real story emerged.  

A dispassionate examination of their actions provides insights which should not be overlooked and remain relevant today. 

The event of 1786 took place before a U. S. Constitution was considered and was a direct response by the elite to the protest by the people against the issues which were shredding their finances through unjust laws and a consistent refusal to address the grievances of soldiers who had honorably served in the Revolution.  The U. S. Constitution was reaction to an uprising of ordinary people which then established our present Federal government.

Not surprisingly, the successful establishment of federalized governance established a far more entrenched and powerful hierarchy, though it would be many years before this was obvious to most Americans.  The establishment of hierarchy into the system of government was an originating purpose of bicameral legislatures, which perpetuate hierarchy, and today’s Constitution.

It started in Massachusetts.   

The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 installed a bicameral legislature over objections from towns in the West, who were excluded from voting because travel from the West was impossible.  No member from the West had been included in the committee which wrote the draft for the Commonwealth’s constitution.  The vote was held during a winter so severe Boston Harbor had frozen over.  No travel was possible.

This Constitution created the conditions which resulted in the Shays Rebellion six years later.

The events of 1786 remain shrouded in disinformation, exactly as we still experience today from the same elite as well as the Main Stream Media.    

In 1786 thousands of former Revolutionary soldiers, many decorated for their service, took up arms in response to the confiscatory actions of the government most of them had risked their lives to create.

Beginning in Massachusetts, former soldiers and citizens began closing the courts because of the injustices being visited on them and their fellow citizens by the established elite who ignored the right of ordinary citizens to participate in the governing of Massachusetts. 

The belief all people would have equal voices was the pivotal reason participation in the Revolution had been nearly universal.  Elite families participated in the Revolution but were far fewer in numbers.  The war could not have been won without the people.

The elite was made up of wealthy individuals and speculators who profited by a practice, which by design, impacted only those with more limited financial means.

Notes for Consolidating State Debt were issued to former soldiers to be honored in the future during the war.  These were accepted in good faith by these same men. 

After the close of the war  soldiers who received Notes could not even use them to pay their taxes to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which had issued them.

The bicameral General Court for Massachusetts was then writing laws which made it impossible for some of these men, now farming and struggling to feed their families, to keep their property. Bicameral legislatures weighed to the benefit of the elite, in this case, speculators.   

Facing the loss of property and bankruptcy, veterans were forced to sell these notes at a tenth their face value. Those purchasing them were friends and relations of the elite ensuring these notes could not be otherwise used. 

It was wrong – and the ordinary people of Massachusetts objected, asking these wrongs be amended in many pleas over a period of years.  But these civil attempts to obtain justice were ignored.  The needed changes to the Massachusetts Constitution, voted into law in 1780, were not made.

The assembly for the vote was held in Boston, far from the homes of most ordinary citizens.  The Assembly was scheduled for winter.  That winter had been so severe few towns in the West could make their way through the snow to vote.

The word, “Regulator,” then referred to an ordinary citizen who joined with others to correct the wrongful actions of their government.  Action by Regulators had taken place before the Revolution.  Now, they had the authorization of America’s founding mission statement to support them.

Quoting the Declaration of Independence, men took up arms and closed the courts, which they had done prior to the Revolution for the same reasons. A minority of these men were struggling farmers, most of were veterans and respected members of their communities.  Many were more well-to-do.

Calling themselves Regulators, meaning they, the people were empowered and required to regulate their government, were numbered in the thousands.  They were opposed by the elite who were profiting from the sale of the notes owed to ordinary people by this same government who had intentionally made it impossible for their voices to be heard and their votes counted. 

The elite asserted the need of government to remain in their hands, acting to make this fact.

The ideas of freedom which took us to war in 1775 at Lexington Concord remain with us.  For the last 242 years we have been controlled and manipulated by new generations of the same corporate elite who controlled us then.  The individuals have changed, but not their business plan. 

 Hillary was their choice.  The elite believed we would vote for a woman as a symbol as we had for Obama as a black American.  Both Hillary and Obama were corporate placements.

Voting for Trump the people were delivering a message -  NO to the continuing control of a corporate elite.  This is not to say Trump or his supporters understood this, but it is true.  The surges in popular support for Ross Perot in 1992, Ron Paul in 2008, and Bernie Sanders during this election cycle confirm the steadily increasing anger of ordinary people to government by a self-serving elite.   

Americans are hungry to fulfill their intended role for self-governance denied to them for so long.  America was intended to be an exemplar to the world for equality.  It still can be.

Will Trump now listen and let the people assume governance of their lives and communities?  If he fails to do so the people will soon have recourse to the tools for dialog and consensus technology has made possible.  

Despite the efforts of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, these exist.

Violence did not work. Politics does not work. But together Americans can build a path to a future where all of us are free. 

The elite believed they were uniquely qualified to decide the destiny of others.  They were wrong.  Each of us must be able to do this for ourselves. And we can.

Contrary to the elites the ability to find solutions is wide-spread in human-kind. In California a teacher for Linked Learning found that no matter where he taught, the ghetto, challenged areas, or to solidly middle class students when given the opportunity kids could solve problems, some of these resulting in patents for problems long unsolved by experts.

We can do it ourselves.   We can return America to the vision which captured respect around the world, solving our own problems. 

Today, people are dying for corporate profits in wars; On the streets after they return from war, Vets are dying, homeless and alone. Families, individuals from all races, viewpoints, and backgrounds, are finding themselves financially shredded and thrown away. And all of us are watching it cost more to just live every day. 

We will provide solutions, real solutions which have been tested and are known to work.

One of these is Percentages As You Earn.  This is an alternative form of financing major purchases, for instance student loans and mortgages.  Ask Bill Clinton about it.  He had a PAYE loan as a student and was proud to announce he was the first in his class to pay it off three years after graduating from Yale Law School.

Jack Kemp found out about PAYE loans and used them to help low-income families buy the homes held by HUD during his tenure there.  Not one foreclosure took place when tens of thousands of homes were purchased by low income families.  (Website coming)

These are the kind of solutions Hillary knew existed but did not want you to have.  Hillary knew about Percentages As You Earn in 1993.  She preferred mortgages which provided more corporate profits and the potential for foreclosures when people ran into financial problems. 

Haunted by a student loan?  A PAYE loan can fix the problem, providing stability and a road to prosperity.  All our problems have solutions, we just need to identify them.  Solutions to health care, student loans, and homelessness already exist.  

Health Care – Mutual Insurance and a Portal to Health that let’s you see what works and get it for yourself.  You decide, and improving your health is part of the program.  

Student Loans – Refinance with Percentages As You Earn (PAYE)

Homelessness – Use the model begin in Utah in 2005.  First, provide homes.  Today the problem of homelessness in Utah has shrunk over 90%.  And the innovations are not over.  We can do more. 

We provide the meeting place and ideas.  You improve these or identify better ones. 

At Hi TV Networks we are working to put the tools for prosperity, justice, and individual rights directly into your hands. 

The solutions are out there.  The problem has been with making them available.  Join us to be part of the solutions using as our tools television, dialog, and our inherent ingenuity.  Together, we can change our world.  

      

America was intended to be a union of states where the people govern themselves and our rights are affirmed and protected.  We and our families can have that future, if you choose it. 

Read Shays Rebellion by Leonard L. Richards. Professor Richards was surprised when he finally did the research to see the story he thought he knew well was created to hide the truth about this rising of the people in protection of their rights.

What the Right Candidate for President Will Do - Action, not Talk

Introduction

        The suggested plan at the end of this explanation was written long after Governors Johnson and Weld were nominated as our Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates for the Office of President. This is what I, personally and only for myself, would like to see happen now.

Change How the Libertarian Party is Viewed

       I'm not running for president. I did that once at the suggestion of my Editor and found it to be a less than fulfilling experience. However, I do want Gary and Bill to adopt this plan as a lead for their campaign. This election provides more potential for change than anyone has ever seen. Therefore, it is not an opportunity to be wasted.

       Since nothing we have done heretofore has worked trying another approach could have merit, especially since the first part of the Plan includes some proof these approaches are already working.

       Objectively, Gary and Bill are now positioned as 'spoiler' candidates. This always comes up when they are interviewed. Launching this plan will change the questions asked. And while it is true the GOP is in trouble and melting, down just like the Wicked Witch of the East, that does not move us toward freedom. A NONE-OF-THE-ABOVE form of support or interest only puts us in the present paradigm as having the potential to 'screw things up,' for the real candidates.

       We need to represent a real choice, a better way, a solution to the problems our nation and the world now face.

      Voting for Gary and Bill must become an affirmative statement which positions the LP as equally representing the real natural and God-given rights of all Americans, supporting local governance and justice for all of us. I want the world to see what freedom, free markets, and the good conscience of people can accomplish. 

      Over the last 40 years the LP has became an adjunct for the GOP, thanks in large part to folks like the Kochs. That was always wrong. America faces a problem which is harming all of us.

     The problem is that our nation and our very lives have long since been hijacked by a corporate elite (I call this Greedville) . Most of us, from all perspectives, now realize this but not what to do about it that can work.

The Solution

      Extracting ourselves from the grid of Greedville is critical to any hope for freedom. We are mice in the cage with a python who will eventually get around to us. Stalling is not a strategy.

      Each time one of us puts our hard-earned money into their pockets it impacts their profits and their power. Tiny, incremental amounts of power and money can mount up. That is why they use laws and regulations to stop us from making those No-Profit-For-Them choices. We can change this if we come together across the chasm which now divides us behind the common goals laid out in the Plan.

     Death and destruction cannot build a new future. This only allows those without power to make a statement as they die for their principles. I understand and respect the acts of so many who have done this through history. We need to use the power of commerce and freedom, enforcing our right to choose what we will pay for and what we will leave on the shelf.

     We can begin the Third American Revolution, the one which reaches the goal.

     This time we need an affirmative offensive, one which is non-violent and brings Americans together.

     The mission was, and remains, most eloquently, enunciated here.

     IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Extracting Ourselves from the Greedville Grid

      I suggest we throw out Greedville by extracting our selves from the big, sucking money machine they have built to bleed us dry. This, we can accomplish because the intermediate goals are things to which all Americans are already committed.
      Let me share with you how the Second American Revolution, the one you never heard about, ended. Then, and now, the problem was an elite.

The Real Story of Shays Rebellion

      In 1786 Americans rose up in response to the confiscatory actions of the government most of them had risked their lives to create. In Massachusetts former soldiers and citizens began closing the courts because of the injustices being visited on them and their fellow citizens by a corporate elite, most of them speculators who profited as they bought up the Notes for Consolidating State Debt issued to former soldiers to be honored in the future. The bicameral General Court for Massachusetts was then writing laws which made it impossible for some of these men, now farming and struggling to feed their families, to keep their property. The Notes could not be used, even to pay taxes. Most were sold at a tenth their face value so these honest, hard-working people could survive.
      It was wrong – and the many pleas over a period of years did not move those in power to change what they had created when the Massachusetts Constitution was voted on in 1780. That winter had been so severe few towns in the West could make their way through the snow to vote.
      So citing the Declaration, men took up arms, closed the courts, which they had done prior to the Revolution for the same reasons. A minority of these men where struggling farmers, most of whom had served. But many were more well-to-do, respected Veterans, decorated for bravery, who returned home to continue their lives as leading citizens in their communities. The Regulators, which is what these rebels called themselves, were numbered in the thousands.
       Read Shays Rebellion by Leonard L. Richards. Professor Richards was surprised when he finally did the research to see the story he thought he knew well was created to hide the truth about this rising of the people in protection of their rights.
The People lost, some fled, but most of then conceded and returned to live out their lives.

The Third American Revolution

 

       Violence did not work. Politics does not work. But together Americans can build a path to a future where all of us are free by removing ourselves from the Grid of Greedville. This way, we focus our energies on one set of goals, removing the barriers which Greedville will place in our path. I'm not telling you this will be fast, or easy. I'm not even telling you people will not die. They are dying now, for corporate profits in wars; On the streets after they return from war, Vets are dying, homeless and alone. Families, individuals from all races, viewpoints, and backgrounds, are finding themselves financially shredded and thrown away. And all of us are watching it cost more to just live and facing problems when we try to exit the Grid.
      One instance of this is allowing electric companies to continue charging us when we go off the grid. We, the People, must be free to choose.
      This is why I wrote the plan. I want our candidates, two former governors from Blue states, to run on issues of substance which unite us as one, leading the way to freedom. Their credentials are the best we could have for this purpose.
      And I also say, ”let the Nazis, and anyone else, bake their own cakes,” if the baker declines.



For Liberty, Justice and Rights for Each of Us,



Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
Rebooting Libertarianism

What the right candidate for President will propose and do for Americans

One of the systemic problems with government programs for everything is that they are not tested and proved to work in advance. Our approach uses tested technologies and approaches which are in use widely and are proven to work well as a starting point. Our proposals solve problems created by government and the corporations which have been using government to augment their profits since at least 1913. 

 

There is no reason a presidential campaign needs to limit itself to using government to solve problems. It is better to remove government where it is preventing problems from being solved. For all of the problems we could identify government failed to ensure the problem, for instance, holding oil companies accountable for pollution which causes health problems, death, and impacts the air, water and land which is the property of real people. 

 

The solution is a legal system which delivers justice at a cost ordinary people can afford to pay. Electing a president who would take this approach is a candidate real Conservatives (now without a political home), Libertarians, and Liberals can all support.

None of our proposals are speculative. All point to proof the concept works. Carrying them out depends on election a president who will commit to doing the job and people who will support this work, ignoring traditional politics. It ever America was ready for this, now is the time.

Lowering the Cost of Social Services – Healing Lives

Proof of Concept

Housing First in Utah began to solve a problem and at the same time reduce costs for social services, which were increasing. The record of costs for homeless individuals and families was rising but the cost to the state for these same populations when they were provided with a place to live appeared to drop.

A program to test these figures was carried out and this proved to cut the cost for services then provided by about 30%. This resulted in a move to provide housing first, before other services were provided. This has proven to work. The State of Utah The program is being used in other states, counties, cities and towns across the country. In Utah, the number of chronically homeless has dropped 91% in the last ten years. 

Non-profits have come into spread the concept, for instance Pathways to Housing.

People provided with a place to live become productive, they find jobs, open businesses, and become active in their communities helping others. This is the working program which provides homes to the homeless and lowers the cost to government. It is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. Our proposal begins with this proven model.

Why are so many people being marginalized and homeless?

Everyday more of our fellow Americans are being made homeless or financially marginalized through the failure of government to hold corporations accountable. Regulations have not worked. Instead of adding public employees and complexity government should have fixed our system of justice.

For Libertarians, this is the transitional step which removes the justification for growing government. It is a 'get back to the basics' approach for Liberty.

Americans from all professions and backgrounds who have been financially destroyed by the criminal behavior of the financial industry and the mortgage meltdown are suffering along with everyone else, including retirees and disabled people who lost their savings and are now destitute. Veterans are left homeless because they cannot function, returning from the wars started to benefit the Multi-National Corporations. Wars should not be fought so oil companies can gain access to property belonging to people in other countries.

 Financial loss, loss of your home, loss of your standing with people who at first pity you then reject you as a 'loser' causes shock and emotional trauma, resulting in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Veterans suffer from this and also Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), both of which make normal functioning difficult or impossible.

The reason for this leads us to another area for simultaneously healing lives and saving money.

Proof of Concept

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are problems now associated with returning Veterans which make normal functioning for those impacted from their service impossible. Homeless Veterans are now dying on the streets at a rate of two a day while technologies exist which can heal the brain and make return to normal life successful.

Neurofeedback has worked over a wide range of individuals plagued by problems including PTSD, ADHD, alcohol and drug addiction, among other conditions. It is inexpensive and technologies for treating the problem are growing more common. One example of a provider whose is at the edge of the industry is NeurOptimal. Dr. Janet McCulluch, therapist who has used the technology successfully and lowered the number of people on welfare in Kingston through her Clinic, Kingston Institute of Psychotherapy and Neurofeedback. 75% of those treated return to normal functioning.

The use of alcohol and drugs has been deemed to be a form of self-medication which helps the individual cope with post traumatic impact in their lives.

Treatment using the NeurOptimal unit, which looks like a lap top, is simple and can be completed in three months with three sessions of 35 minutes a week. Therapists, referred to as Trainers by NeurOptimal, can be trained in a short period of time and do not need a professional background. The unit costs around $10,000. No drugs are used for treatment.

Many effective therapies for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) are also available and treat multiple conditions. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), is one of the most effective among these and is now moving into wide-spread usage. Dr. Paul Harch pioneered the use of this therapy and has used it successfully to treat 70 different cerebral disorders, including stroke, dementia, autism and traumatic brain injury.  No drugs are used in therapy.

For some reason pharmaceutical companies are very resistant to the use of Neurofeedback and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Who Pays for This?

The need for housing for the victims of greed is large and growing. The housing we propose for the marginalized, homeless, and others in need costs less than any traditional housing and is much faster to construct. It is also sustainable and we have designed it to be off the grids.

Providing working therapies for those rendered incapable of working saves money, heals lives, and will move Americans from needing help to caring for themselves, reuniting families, and helping others in their communities. Instituting the use of these technologies saves money by accomplishing these goals. But the costs extracted from all Americans can be repaid by holding those corporations who caused the problems and those who prevented the use of these technologies, accountable.

An incoming president can order the Department of Justice to investigate the activities of the banks and mortgage companies which caused the wide-spread financial instability which stole the savings of so many. An incoming president can ensure Veterans receive compensation, perhaps one of the homes which will take them off the grid, and treatment for their neurological problems, PTSD and or TBI.

Right now, all of us are paying for the massive transfer of wealth carried out by the financial institutions and banks. We are paying through the mounting depression America is experiencing, the inflation of our money, and more. We are also paying for social services which cannot keep up with the demand for housing for these victims of corporate greed and government incompetence.

First, we need to provide housing for the victims instead of letting them die. Then, the incoming president can prosecute those responsible. Restitution to victims and compensation to government for the costs of housing must be included in the judgment. No bank or corporation is too big to fail and many question the efficacy of the Federal Reserve System. Local banks, responsible to their members or depositors worked far better.

The cost of providing quality housing need not be excessive. Using our suggested technologies and materials completely sustainable homes of 2,500 square feet can be built for around $40.000 each. The cost will be paid by the banks are part of their ordered restitution.

Materials which cost less are generally viewed as inferior. But this is not necessarily the case. Through innovations which came about in the late 1970s the world, except the United States, is using Green Concretes which are stronger, much more durable and lasting and resist natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. Those in use in Europe are much more expensive than what is available within the US now. These innovations have produced formulas which lower the cost of building, especially when used with technological innovations which reduce the time required for construction to days or a week instead of months.

This is a transitional program during which infrastructure deemed useful would also be repaired using these materials now available at a far lower cost than projected, which, in the trillions, is unaffordable.

At the end of four years America will have less government. Then, it will be more like a government which is doing the job Americans want done. 

NOTE:  The specific material mentioned here is now being patented and the business plan will be read by qualified investors this coming week.