Former U.S Marine Brigadier General Mark Bircher has joined The R3VOLution!

He is running for U.S Congress in Florida CD 13 in the Special Election Republican Primary, which will take place on January 14 2014.

District 13 is located in Pinellas County Florida, it includes an area from Dunedin to western and northern St. Petersburg.
Click these links to see if you are in the district:
http://house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=33772
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida%27s_13th_congressional…

If he wins, he will be in the March 14 2014 Special Election.

http://www.bircherforcongress.com/

Thanks to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Tampa Bay for sending this survey to Mr. Bircher and the other candidates.

Economic Issues & Taxes

1. What can Congress do to help return manufacturing jobs to the United States?

Bircher: No US trade negotiator may sit on any foreign company board of directors or similar organization for ten years after leaving government service. Everything Congress does must either add to the security of the states or relate to enhancing US business interests, jobs, trade, economic growth, markets, etc. Everything else is purview of state legislator.

2. How should the federal government proceed in addressing the national debt?

Bircher: Require federal government to adhere to 10th Amendment and point to where in Art I, Sec 8, federal authority exists within enumerated powers. Also, please see answer #3 below, debt and taxes are related.

3. Do you support a reconsideration of the US tax code? If so, what changes do you propose or support?

Bircher: Return to Founder’s intent of politicians being directly accountable for spending (through the election process) every other November. Essentially, return to the “apportionment” system that existed prior to the 16th Amendment. Short term change = balanced budget. Long term change = repeal 16th Amendment, and end the IRS as being unnecessary.

4. Do you support a full and complete audit of the Federal Reserve?

Bircher: Please see Ron Paul’s comments for my position.

Foreign Policy

5. When is US military intervention in other nations justified?

Bircher: US Const Art I Sec 8, clauses 11, 12, 13, control. Depends upon the nature of the situation requiring intervention and the intervention forces anticipated. For example, military intervention to evacuate an embassy staff and American citizens during civil unrest in a foreign country, as opposed to major actions like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, etc. NO undeclared wars. Only US Marines allowed to intervene without war declaration, (clause 13 – congressional authority to maintain a Navy, Marines in Dept of Navy,). The President and Congress have the constitutional authority to deploy Marines, but Congressional approval by “up or down” vote of Congress is required to deploy US Army, (clause 12) . “Since only the People actually pay in ‘Blood and Treasure’ for war, only the People may properly decide upon war.” Thomas Jefferson. George Washington’s “Farewell Address”, probably the best source for cogent policy on this issue.

6. What are your thoughts on the current policy of targeted drone strikes in foreign countries?

Bircher: Drone attacks are a “bright line” violation of the US Constitution unless Congress declares a war.

7. Is foreign aid a worthwhile expenditure for our government? What changes, if any, would you propose to our current foreign aid program?

Bircher: For the immediate future, I favor a total suspension of foreign aid until the budget crisis is solved. If and when we are fiscally solvent, we then review our foreign aid expenditure within the scope of George Washington’s “Farewell Address” and the mindset of, “Policy follows interests.

Civil Liberties

8. Do you favor scaling back or ending the NSA’s domestic surveillance programs? If so, what changes do you propose or support?

Bircher: Domestic surveillance by warrants only.

9. Do you favor a repeal of the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA of 2012? Why or why not?

Bircher: The ancient based writ of habeas corpus is arguably the most powerful tool of free men over injustice ever invented. Arbitrary imprisonment is the most pernicious indicator of government tyranny that exists. I favor repeal of all government actions that trample the US Constitution. If history is a teacher, the people of the US are closer than they can ever imagine to the abuse the government now projects on “enemy combatants.” Detained people are either prisoners of war, or suspected criminals. There are no other possibilities. In either case, the process of law controls. Inventing new classifications of detainees, e.g., “enemy combatant” and new processes “ad hoc” are Orwellian in there circumvention of law. “‘Necessity’, is the justification of tyrants and the creed of slaves.” William Pitt.

10. How can the War on Drugs be improved?

Bircher: Mostly by getting the federal government out of the process. This is a state issue.

The US Constitution

11. Do you support the Constitutional restrictions on federal government powers enumerated in Article I, Section 8 as an absolute limit on all government functions and programs?

Bircher: Yes. All civilian and military officers take a personal oath, on their honor, to the Constitution. I believe the voluntary decision to take the oath, answers the above question.

12. Do you support a state’s right to nullify federal law, as many have already done for example by legalizing medical marijuana, or blocking implementation of the Affordable Care Act?

Bircher: The federal government is an invention of the states to serve state interests. The “supremacy” clause, Art VI, Sec 2, only applies when there is a conflict of laws within the enumerated powers of the federal government and a state. In my view, states do not need a “right to nullify” federal law outside the enumerated powers because state law is already supreme in those instances; please see 9th and 10th Amendments.

13. Are there any departments of the federal government that you believe could be significantly scaled back, reallocated to the states, or ended completely? If so, which ones, and why?

Bircher: All departments, agencies, bureaus, etc., in the Executive Branch that are outside of the enumerated powers, e.g., Dept of Educ, HUD, H&S, etc., should be eliminated in their entirety. We are actually losing our liberty faster on the “regulatory” side of the federal government, e.g., TSA, than the statutory. All other organizations with federal and state shared responsibilities should be eliminated or “right sized” in accordance with what the states say is required to support state interests.

14. Do you support a repeal of the Affordable Care Act?

Bircher: Yes, outside enumerated powers

15. What reforms do you propose to make healthcare more affordable and accessible?

Bircher: Any regulation of healthcare should be decided by the state legislatures, and not by the federal government. There is no reason central government is involved in healthcare. The word “affordable” is actually meaningless in the context of health care, except for its populist appeal. No has ever actually defined what “affordable” means in the ACA context; affordable to whom? Concerning healthcare, I am aligned with the ideas of Dr. Benjamin Carson.

Social Issues

16. In what way(s) should government be involved with marriage?

Bircher: None at the federal level. Whatever the states decide through their legislatures at the state level.

17. What involvement should the federal government have in regard to abortion?

Bircher: The Framers had abortion and covered the issue completely in the 9th Amendment. Again, a state issue. SCOTUS should never have granted certiorari to hear Roe v. Wade, or Doe v. Bolton because there is no valid federal question (privacy basis was specious at best, frivolous at worst) to provide jurisdiction.

Government Transparency

18. Currently, one US Congressman utilizes social networking to promote government transparency by sharing every single vote he casts in Congress, and providing an explanation for that vote. Will you promise to provide a similar level of openness and accessibility to the votes you cast?

Bircher: Yes. As a public servant, bright lights and transparency must be a component to enable the people’s scrutiny and review of their Rep’s voting record.

Additional comments or thoughts:

Bircher: “A Republic deserves the government it elects or tolerates.” Thomas Jefferson

https://rlctb.org/florida-cd-13-candidate-questionnaire-resp…

Remember to vote on January 14th in the Republican primary, and March 11th for the general election!

If you found this questionnaire useful, please consider offering a small contribution, so that we may continue our work and reach new people with the message of sensible limited government, free markets, and individual Liberty. https://rlctb.org/

Thanks to the Daily Paul for this!  Here is a link, apparently this guy is responding to the emails that the Ron Paul folks are sending him.  They discuss it in their threads.

Dirty Job’s host Mike Rowe meet one young man in his 20s making a hundred dollars an hour being a mechanic.  This is an interesting take on the College question.

Overall smoking is likely a negative health decision but the demonetization of smoking by the press and the government is overblown.  Popular hatred of smoking is culturally chic but it does most is not based on sound science.  This article goes into how there are actually a number of benefits to smoking.  Though it is unlikely that most people will consider the costs to out weigh the benefits it is worth noting number of interesting findings.

Smoking have

 50% lower rate of Parkinson’s disease

50% lower rate Alzheimer’s disease

50% lower rate of Endometrial cancer

50% Lower rate of Prostate Cancer

30% to 50% Lower rate of Colon Cancer

Tobacco can also help in famine situations by reducing the feelings of hunger.  This is a large reason why the founding settlers in American used tobacco in the first place.

I went to Dallas last week in a personal tribute to the place where President Kennedy was killed.  A couple months ago I did not know a whole lot about JFK during his time in office or about his assassination.  This fall with the 50th anniversary approaching I started to familiarize myself with the most recent books that have been written about the JFK assassination recommended by the libertarian community.  These include JFK and the Unspeakable,  Bush: Family of Secrets, Dr. Mary’s Monkey, and Mary’s Mosaic. I was shocked to find so much information about the Kennedy assassination and the overwhelming evidence that there is far more to the story than what the official government version puts forth.

I don’t intend to convince anyone in this article that there was a conspiracy to assassinate JFK.  There are mountains of research pointing to conspiracy and more information comes out every year through Freedom of Information Act requests.  A small article like this is unlikely to convince anyone either way.  The books I mentioned previously are good start if you want some well researched reading material.  I want to focus on the the general narrative, the story of what happened on November 22, 1963, the coverup, and what it means for us today.

The killing of President Kennedy was a highly risky task.  It took months of planning and the subversion of some of America’s most trusted institutions.  When I visited Daley Plaza it was obvious that the killers could not have chosen a better spot to assassinate the President.  Such places seem large when you read about them and imagine them in you mind but when I arrived in Daley Plaza I was surprised how small it really was. No security detail would ever send  VIP in such a dangerous area.  To get into Daley Plaza the motorcade would have had to make a sharp 90 degree turn which would have brought it to a almost complete stop.  It was against secret service policy to never drop the motorcade’s speed below 45 MPH.  The first of many violations of the SOP so conveniently happened that day.  Other violations included open windows along the presidential route.  This not only violated the Secret Service SOP but any person thinking about the basics of security would have found this extremely odd.  The Secret Service on any other day would have placed themselves along the route hours ahead of time.  They would have made sure every window was closed along the route.  Each building would have snipers on the roof to look out for any open windows. Each building along the route would also have teams of secret service inside.  Any window that was opened would have been radioed in by the snipers.  The snipers would radio to the teams within the building who would rush to the room where the window was open.  This is pretty basic procedure but it was completely ignored that day.  Additionally, Secret Service agents were always placed on the rear bumper of the President’s car but that day they were ordered off.  Dallas Police Motorcycles were supposed to be placed beside the President’s car but this was not done either. The Secret Service was in charge of directing the Dallas police that day but they chose not to place any officers along the motorcade.  The Secret Service claimed that they had no officers Daley plaza but a police officer claimed to have been confronted by a man with Secret Service credentials as he ran over the crest of the grassy knoll in response to the shots.  Investigators would later claim that this man with Secret Service credentials was one of the assassins.  The Warren Commission would later ignore this police officer’s claim.  It is obvious that the perpetrators of the assassination had the ability to subvert the Secret Service but what is more disturbing is the coverup that came after.

The coverup of the JFK assassination was a much larger challenge.  It is a story that is as fascinating as it is disturbing.  How could so many institutions become subverted?  How could so many people be brought into the coverup.  Just thinking about what it would take to pull a cover up like this off boggles the mind. The video below documents how a conspiracy was perpetrated against the American people.

Looking back at what happened in November 1963 I no longer find it strange that such crime was pulled off.  Obviously this is shocking and even depressing to realize that the American power structure could be subverted in open day light right in front of the American people.  Upon more thinking, what better way to dispose of a President that was inconvenient?  Any assassination behind closed doors would have caused intimidate suspicion and likely popular revolt.  There had to be a fall guy.  In no way could JFK’s assassination appear like a coup.  Once the assassins were successful all effort had to exerted to ensure that the American people believed the lone gunman story.  This would require American Intelligence agencies to subvert other members of government and likely members of the media.  It is my opinion that most of the people used to perpetrate the coverup did not really know what happened either.  The members of the Warren Commission were likely told that Oswald was soviet agent, and that this revelation to the American people would cause world war.  Upon reading further documentation it might also be true that intelligence agencies told the Warren Commission that CIA agents did kill the president but that they were rouge agents and could not be controlled.  In this situation the CIA would tell the Warren Commission members the critical need to coverup such a crime because the American people would demand the complete dismantling of the CIA which in turn would leave the U.S. vulnerable to attack during the height of the Cold War. I think many people might consider such a coverup their patriotic duty.

What about the media?  Did the media intentionally coverup or are they still covering up for one of the biggest crimes in American History?  I think the answer to this is yes and no.  Certain members of the media had to be brought in and told of the importance of “reassuring the American people” that Oswald was the lone assassin.   Remember that assassination took place thirteen months after the Cuban missile crisis.  America and the rest world almost went over the cliff into a fiery nuclear Armageddon.  The tension and fear that existed back then would hard to understand today.  It is likely that the media was told the same things that the Warren Commission was.  The truth about the JFK assassination would either plunge the U.S. into world war or leave the U.S. very vulnerable to global Communism’s seemingly unstoppable march around the world.  Some things after all were “too important for the American people to know about.”  Is this so hard to believe?   I think it is very likely that the ego’s of the media were played upon as well.  They were to become the sacred guardians of the “America Story”.  Any deviation from that story had buried. A new term was invented by the CIA and used by the media specifically for that purpose. The term was conspiracy theory.  Anyone who deviated or questioned the government account was termed a conspiracy theorist whose belief’s were considered ludicrous by definition.  This discrediting of opposition would prove very effective over the years and has lead journalists and the public both to avoid any express any ideas that were too unconventional or that questioned Authority a little too much.

What about the American people?  Why did American’s accept the Warren Commission report and how did the members of the conspiracy know that they would?  I think this is the easiest question.  The American people trust their institutions.  The American government had no higher prestige than after the decades following World War II. The American government had defeated the greatest evil on earth, Nazi Germany,which seemed to place America on that mythic city on a hill, a force for good on earth. Not only this but the American government was needed more than ever as a protector.  An enemy armed to the teeth with nuclear missiles, and espousing atheistic collectivist ideologies was disturbing enough to the American people.  An enemy at home within America’s most revered institutions would have too much for the American mind to handle.  People would literally want to be told a lie as long as it would reassure them and let them sleep at night. The alternative was simply to scary to even consider.

Fifty years later thousands of documents surrounding the JFK assassination are still classified. It is time to declassify these documents. No truth is so horrible that it should remain secret for 50 years. People often view the world around them as a kind of story or narrative.  They believe certain things because it generally fits the narrative that they have come to believe about the world around them.  Part of narrative for citizens of the U.S. is that the United State’s government is positive entity and a force for good at home and around the world. This is why it is so hard for many people to even consider that an assassination of an American President could be executed by forces within their own government.  Such a revelation would cut to the very core of the American system and the mythology that has been built around it. Many people would have to question some of their most sacred beliefs.  It is likely that many people would feel fear and other types of mental stress when they realize that their government that has been entrusted in protecting them is in fact a potentially very dangerous entity.  It is a psychological defensive technique to deny such claims out of hand.  It is called cognitive dissonance.  Such information is threatening to psyche and unconscious mind will fight it at all costs.  Ideas define who we are, to question such fundamental ideas is to question the deepest parts of yourself.   It may take years for somebody reconcile past false but reassuring information with what they have learned to be true. It is not an easy process.  Unfortunately in way, the American people are going to have to come to terms with what happened to JFK.  It will be difficult but the alternative is to live a world of lies.

Surprisingly, Fox News does some reasonable reporting on the JFK assassination.  Strange that more liberal stations are not more sympathetic to those reporting the truth about one their icons  Click here to watch the video

Stand tall my friends.   It will actually change your brain chemistry and make you more confident.

How a person thinks about stress literally changes their physical reaction to stress. People that believe that stress is harmful are much more likely to do die early as opposed to a person who does not believe stress as harmful but still experiences the same amount of stress.  The most obvious take away from this is to make sure you look at stress as a normal or even healthy.  Your body will respond in a healthy way if you literally think stress is healthy!  Yes, what you believe literally changes how your cardiovascular system.

Apparently we are still paying of the national debt from the World War I.  This is not surprising when one understands Federal Reserve is a private bank.   The more debt the U.S. government is in, the more interest the private stock holders make.  It is even uglier when you understand that the private bank simply prints off the money that it is loaning out.  If you or I do that it is called counterfeiting but luckily for Fed stockholders, the Federal Reserve has a government granted monopoly on the printing of money.  Yes, other private individuals have the government mandate to print and loan money at will to U.S. government.  This is why the U.S. government will never get smaller nor will the national debt be reduced baring some kind of massive economic crisis.

Here is the Judge

It seems the government plans to use Trans-cranial Magnetic Cranial Stimulation to control human beings.  There is a business in Omaha that already uses Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation in neurotherapy to help people all kinds of people that suffer a wide range of brain ailments.  Unfortunately, governments usually have darker motives when using brain altering technology.

This technology will be both the great frontier for healing human beings and the brave new world for government oppression.  People who think this is far fetched watch the video below.

Of course people think that they know this question.  I certainly thought so.  I would eat just Tuna and rice and run five miles a day.  I would lose weight to an extent but it was hard to keep such a life style going for long.  I started putting on extra weight when I was 26 or so.  I was not sure why.  I was even confused by it and thought that maybe my frame was getting bigger!  It just kind of sneaks up on you. What happened?  I ate what I considered healthy.  I did not eat fattening foods and never ate fast food, drank soda, or ate chips.    I never had anything close to a sweet tooth so what happened?   Well, it turns out that modern science is completely wrong when it comes nutrition.  What people are told is that fat makes you fat.  Only one problem, the science was never really done on this.  In fact before the 1970s people it was common knowledge that starchy foods and sugar made people fat.   This was well understood by not only the general public but to health professionals as well.   Then everything began to change and the all of health science was flipped on its head for the worst.