Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr.: the Coming Military Crackdown

The Daily Bell is pleased to publish an interview with the distinguished libertarian attorney and activist, Edwin Vieira, Jr.

Introduction: Dr. Vieira holds four degrees from Harvard: A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School). For over thirty-six years he has been a practicing attorney, specializing in cases that raise issues of constitutional law. He has presented numerous cases of import before the Supreme Court and written numerous monographs and articles in scholarly journals. His latest scholarly works are Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution (2d rev. ed. 2002), a comprehensive study of American monetary law and history viewed from a constitutional perspective, and How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary (2004), a study of the problems of irresponsible "judicial supremacy", and how to deal with them. With well known libertarian trader Victor Sperandeo, he is also the co-author (under a nom de plume) of the political novel CRA$HMAKER: A Federal Affaire (2000), a not-so-fictional story of an engineered "crash" of the Federal Reserve System, and the political revolution it causes. He is now working on an extensive project concerned with the constitutional "Militia of the Several States" and "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms."

Daily Bell: Thanks for sitting down with us. Let's get right to it. In your view, what are the most critical domestic problems facing America?

Edwin Vieira Jr.: Two stand out. The foremost problem-because it is the source of, or contributes significantly to, almost every economic difficulty now plaguing this country-is the inherent and ineradicable instability of the present monetary and banking systems centered around the Federal Reserve System.

The second problem derives from the first. It is the ever-accelerating development of a first-class para-militarized police-state apparatus centered around the United States Department of Homeland Security, with its tentacles reaching down into every police force throughout the States and localities. Fundamentally, this apparatus is not, and never was, designed to deal with international "terrorism". If that were its goal, its first task would be absolutely to secure the southern border of the United States, which it has never seriously attempted to do. Rather, it is being set up to deal with what the political-cum-financial Establishment anticipates (and I believe rightly so) will be massive social and political unrest bordering on chaos throughout America when the monetary and banking systems finally implode in the not-so-distant future-surely in hyperinflation, and probably in hyperinflation coupled with a gut-wrenching depression.

Of these two problems, the second is actually the more dangerous. For if (on whatever pretext) this police-state apparatus does succeed in clamping down on America, the likelihood of effecting basic reforms in money, banking, or anything else favorable to the American people will be reduced to something approaching nil, absent a veritable political uprising in this country.

Edwin Vieira Jr.: The problem of money and banking breaks down into two interrelated parts: one economic, the other political. Economically, the problem lies in the commonly accepted fallacy that debt-whether the private debt of banks or the public debt of governmental treasuries-can function as sound currency over the long term. "Money" is supposed to be the most liquid of all assets-which is why the best moneys have always proven to be the precious metals, silver and gold. "Debt", conversely, is not an asset at all, but is someone's liability, the value of which is contingent upon the debtor's ability and willingness to pay, and often the creditor's ability to force the debtor to pay. The attempt to put into practice the self-contradictory notion that a liability payable in money can be an asset that functions as money-and that the ultimate debtor or surety in this scheme can be a governmental treasury, which usually cannot be compelled to pay in any event-has been tried again and again, in country after country, and failed again and again. For Heaven's sake, it was tried in this country with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and only about twenty years later utterly failed with the banking collapse of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt's seizure of the American people's gold, and the ensuing Great Depression that lasted throughout the 1930s! Right now, we are witnessing what will soon prove to be a more catastrophic failure of that same false idea embodied in that same pernicious institution. Apparently, as the old saw has it, "No one ever learns anything from history except that no one ever learns anything from history." Obviously, massive efforts in public education will be necessary to overcome this deplorable level of ignorance.

In our particular case, the problem also appears in a political form, actually dating from well before 1913: namely, the coupling of bank and state, whereby the government empowers private special-interests groups by statute to "manage" the monetary and banking systems-primarily for the economic benefit of those groups, but as well to the political advantage of the public officials, politicians, and political parties that support the system and receive support from it. The Federal Reserve System is such a coupling: the hermaphroditic creature of private enterprise and statute, at once both quasi-private and quasi-public in source, form, and functions.

Edwin Vieira Jr.: Strictly speaking, it is a classic example of a corporative-state arrangement in the particular field of banking, exactly parallel to what Benito Mussolini set up throughout the economy of Fascist Italy, and to what Franklin Roosevelt established for all other American industries in the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (until the Supreme Court declared that act unconstitutional in 1935).

The reason for this unholy alliance between bank and state lies in the operation of "debt as currency": namely, that using "debt as currency"-and particularly "debt as currency" that can be paid through the emission of new "debt as currency"-allows for the essentially unlimited redistribution of real wealth from society to the issuers of the currency and their immediate clients.

When the redistribution favors bankers and their clients among private businessmen, it is called "forced savings"-the average America being compelled by the system to lose real wealth so that the bankers and businessmen can employ that wealth in their own speculative ventures. When the redistribution favors bankers and their clients among public officials, it is called "hidden taxation"-the average America being compelled by the system to lose real wealth so that public officials can buy more votes with more governmental spending (with the bankers taking a cut of the proceeds). In both cases, by the system's very design, the financial and political classes always benefit, the masses are always looted.

The truly vicious nature of this scheme, though, is now appearing in all its ugly nakedness in the multi-trillion-dollar bailouts that the financial Establishment is extorting, and will continue to extort, ultimately from the taxpayers and the victims of inflation, on the threat that, without such payoffs, the entire economy will melt down into irremediable chaos.

So, here we see the ultimate practical truth of the matter: Private financial special-interest groups buy politicians; in public office these politicians empower the special-interest groups by statute to manipulate the monetary and banking systems; to the extent that these manipulations succeed, the profits are largely privatized; and to the extent that the manipulations fail, the losses are almost entirely socialized. In either case, the general public is held hostage to the racket, and foots the gargantuan bill for its operation. And the guilty parties escape scot free to steal again, and again, and again.

Edwin Vieira Jr.: In principle, this problem can be solved, if America enforces her Constitution. In practice, implementing such a solution will take no little time and effort, though, because: (i) the Federal Reserve System cannot simply be "abolished" at one fell swoop without generating massive dislocations throughout the markets; and (ii) the necessary reforms cannot arise out of the snake pit of Congress in the foreseeable future. Instead, Americans need to create an alternative constitutional and sound currency-actually consisting of, not simply "backed by", silver and gold-to compete with Federal Reserve Notes in the marketplace.

This step must be taken at the State level, for several reasons. First, it cannot be done through Congress, because Congress is thoroughly in the vampiric embrace of the financial Establishment. Second, the States enjoy the legal authority to adopt an alternative currency-indeed, as the Constitution declares, "No State shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts". Third, the States' exercise of their legal authority to adopt an alternative currency is constitutionally immune from interference by Congress, as even the Supreme Court has held on more than one occasion. Fourth, the States have a political and legal responsibility to their own citizens to protect the public health, safety, and welfare-which necessitates adopting a sound currency to replace the collapsing Federal Reserve Note before it is too late. And fifth, among the fifty States there must be at least a few in which the political and economic climate is such that State legislators can be convinced to take appropriate action.

Once the experiment has been tried and proven workable in one State, it will quickly spread to others, because no alternative exists, other than supine and stupid acquiescence in the collapse of the Federal Reserve System, with all the dire consequences that will entail.

“Third, the States’ exercise of their legal authority to adopt an alternative currency is constitutionally immune from interference by Congress, as even the Supreme Court has held on more than one occasion.”

Oh c’mon! Disrespecters of the Constitution will do as they damn well please and as they require. That’s the nature of the beast.Does soneone somewhere think The Law actually means anything to the “elite”?

Outstanding interview. Too many good points to catalogue.

It is a sad thing to realize at my age that the country I once grew misty-eyed over is gone.

Maybe it can be regained.... but I doubt it. The great change that has occurred in America is ideological. The political shift is just an outgrowth of that.

The American people are like a packed out jalopy racing for a cliff. Until the people get rid of the idea that the solution is not to change the paint color on the car, but to junk the damned thing and disable it, even the good guys will only hasten our destruction. The reason is that
they change our course by degrees, but soup up the engine to make it faster and more powerful. The next group of folks to take the wheel have new powers and mash that pedal to the floor and take us back towards the cliff. By the time we all wake up, all we can do will be to leave skid marks.

Government is an evil. It is not a blessing, and cannot be. It is true that anarchy is evil, as well, but preaching the horrors of anarchy to Americans today is like screaming about the dangers of overhydration in the desert. It is simply not where the danger is. If we were on a continuum, we could move about 98 per cent of the distance from where we are towards anarchy and still be safe.

I do not understand many Americans today. They seem to want Government to do lots and lots of things not provided under the Constitution, and then are genuinely perplexed when the state uses that power to oppress us.

You cannot keep a rattlesnake as a pet. You have to kill it.

I don’t know how old you are, but I’ll be 60 next year. There is no doubt that we do not inhabit the America we did when we were young. I think the blame for that collapse can be laid at the feet of the radical left, which took over public education in the 1970s and proceeded to destroy it. Political correctness is the malignant segue to that, and it has so taken root in our society that it has become not only a revolutionary act to oppose it, but often a criminal act, as well.

We can only restore the United States to the Constitutional Republic it was created to be by eliminating the radical left in its entirety, and thus destroy its influence.

We have our work cut out for us.

Very good analyses - brief & on-point. The only issues I would differ are two-fold:

o The threat of domestic para-military forces is greatly exaggerated. Who is going to pay their bills in an economic collapse? Don't you think they have friends, neighbors & families (to protect), and/or are facing the exact same situations (unemployment, inflation, etc) millions of other Americans are confronting?

o Spending any time & effort attempting to influence state action. I've got news for you - the economic train (crash) has left the station. Actually, more like we've already driven over the cliff. The point is, events have been set in motion - there is absolutely nothing we need to do. States will begin issuing their own scrip/IOUs simply due to economic necessity. This will ultimately spell the end of the Fed.

“When the redistribution favors bankers and their clients among private businessmen, it is called “forced savings”-the average America being compelled by the system to lose real wealth so that the bankers and businessmen can employ that wealth in their own speculative ventures. When the redistribution favors bankers and their clients among public officials, it is called “hidden taxation”-the average America being compelled by the system to lose real wealth so that public officials can buy more votes with more governmental spending (with the bankers taking a cut of the proceeds). In both cases, by the system’s very design, the financial and political classes always benefit, the masses are always looted.”

Hard to believe this kind of thinking survived Harvard. So an immediate first step is to take back state legislatures? governorships?

"The threat of domestic para-military forces is greatly exaggerated. Who is going to pay their bills in an economic collapse? Don't you think they have friends, neighbors & families (to protect), and/or are facing the exact same situations (unemployment, inflation, etc) millions of other Americans are confronting?"

The thinking of someone who grew up in a relatively free society - but it will not be the same society.

In such a scenario, should it come to pass -The para-military could be driven by a combination of: the threat and execution of extreme arbitrary punishment (aimed at both the member and their family). And, actual and promised rewards for the member and ESPECIALLY for the member's family (emotional justification for the member). These scarce goods will be obtained by confiscation through the force capability of the unit; the supremacy of which will be clear to all. Think, at MINIMUM, Mussolini.

Mr. Semantic, you write:

The threat of domestic para-military forces is greatly exaggerated

Please don't be a polyanna. The para-military is the first goal of a totalitarian regine. They can't trust their military so they set up their special cadres. i.e. the Revolutionary Guards in Iran. Hitler had his SS. Obama is in the process. We hear rumblings but this is a cagy operation. He must have undying loyalty. Maybe he starts with ACORN, but they lack brains. Perhaps some labor elements. These loyal cadres and their families are the first at the table.

Now lets have a article on the logistics of this getting done across America at the same time.

You will quickly find what he is saying is not possible since the number of all military and state law enforcement compared with all the people in the US is more than laughable. In my state alone, that ratio is 4000 citizens to 1 law enforcement or military member.

When the SHTF, our law enforcement is going to only be able to handle protecting all of the state and county offices and the politicans holed up inside. Maybe a few hospitals too. My guess is, they wont be able to do that either. Sorry for the elected officials.

Remember Hurricane Katrina and how many of those officers left the street and decided that their families were more important than protecting a city. They lost their jobs for doing so. I dont blame them one bit and I would have done the same.

Many in the military will not fight the citizens if they are given an illegal order to do so(OATHKEEPERS.ORG).

Whoops! More people to guard while the rest are taking bullets while wearing their uniforms. They will quickly shed these and join the rest of us protecting their families from harm against roving gangs of criminals hell bent on robbing, raping and looting to feed themselves.

The so-called smart politicans are jumping ship now in order to save their sorry butts later, dont you agree?

What you say is human compassion. I was talking to a clerk at a hardware store about the price of what I bought. I used my VISA card and it asked if $27.34 was correct? I brought up the point that if or when Bread were to reach $10 a loaf how many do you think will pay it? She said; “I will go somewhere else”. I replied; “How are you going to do that when that is the cost everywhere”? When all the bread on the shelves don’t get bought & go moldy, the store has lost big Capital. Something will have to break! This is true with everything. Most Americans like you have stated in various ways have tunnel vision. They only want to see whats in front of them instead of having a full view of this picture. As for the BREAD, sooner or later, (probably more sooner) the owner/clerk is going to have to ask, what can you pay for it? What we are experiencing is what I have called; ‘Social Empire of Economical Destruction’ or SEED. In other words; let me sell you on the idea. Advertising 101 - First there was TIDE: then NEW TIDE: now NEW BOLD TIDE: The exact same has happened in the Social Empire of Economics. The venue of costs actually starts with ourselves and the responsibility and the accountability to show forth respect with-in our system and to other people. Ignorance is no excuse to willing abuse this free will or dis-respect the accountability that has been given to us or what we have earned by losing this tunnel vision. This is TRUTH. We are ALL guilty of IT by wanting MORE of one thing or another. So a mistake has been made. Lets get on board together, and start repairing the mistakes that has lead us to this point. It starts with OURSELVES.

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