It’s Time to Step Into the Arena

There’s a passage in Teddy Roosevelt’s famous 1910 “Citizenship in a Republic” speech I want to share with you today:

If a man’s efficiency is not guided and regulated by a moral sense, then the more efficient he is the worse he is, the more dangerous to the body politic. Courage, intellect, all the masterful qualities, serve but to make a man more evil if they are merely used for that man’s own advancement, with brutal indifference to the rights of others. It speaks ill for the community if the community worships those qualities and treats their possessors as heroes regardless of whether the qualities are used rightly or wrongly. It makes no difference as to the precise way in which this sinister efficiency is shown. It makes no difference whether such a man’s force and ability betray themselves in a career of money-maker or politician, soldier or orator, journalist or popular leader. If the man works for evil, then the more successful he is the more he should be despised and condemned by all upright and far-seeing men. To judge a man merely by success is an abhorrent wrong; and if the people at large habitually so judge men, if they grow to condone wickedness because the wicked man triumphs, they show their inability to understand that in the last analysis free institutions rest upon the character of citizenship, and that by such admiration of evil they prove themselves unfit for liberty.

The above words strike me as a perfect description of the deep hole we find ourselves in presently throughout these United States of America. It takes a whole nation to screw things up as badly as we have, and boy have we ever.

Yes it took parasites, sociopathic oligarchs and a power drunk national security state to bring us to our current state of affairs, but it also took the rest of us. For far too long we as a people have been apathetic, hoodwinked spectators to the life unfolding around us. Voting for “the lesser of two evils” for decade upon decade thinking it might be different this time. Putting up with the economic game that’s been put in front of us, despite the fact that it demonstrably and systematically rewards and incentivizes predatory and destructive behavior. As a people, we have been superficial, indifferent and gleefully ignorant of reality. It’s time to change all that.

You can consider today’s post a rallying cry to step into the arena. Stepping into the arena is often portrayed as becoming involved in national politics or some other large platform action, but I see it differently. If you think the only way to have a real impact is by voting or running for Congress, you’re likely to give up and remain passive. The truth is your entire life can be repurposed to be an expression of increased kindness, wisdom and strength. It’s the most impactful long-term action most of us can have on this earth, and anyone can do it.

I think what keeps a lot of people on the sidelines of a conscious life is an inability to intimately process the above. Many people discount the little things, the countless actions of daily existence that impact those around you and cumulatively make you who you are.

I think one reason mass media puts so much emphasis on voting at the national level is the owners of these propaganda channels know voting will change absolutely nothing. The oligarchy and national security state are fully in charge, and they’re not going to allow the pesky rabble to get in the way of such a lucrative racket by voting. Getting those who are politically inclined to spend all their time and energy on a rigged and completely corrupt phantom democracy in D.C. is a great way to keep them busy with nonsense. It’s also a perfect way to demoralize that portion of the population which understands it’s just theater. If you can be convinced that voting at the national level is the only way to change things, you’re much more likely to recede into apathy and become intentionally disengaged. This happens to a lot of people, but it’s a big mistake.

When I look back at my life thus far, it was during my decade on Wall Street when I was the most ignorant and superficial . So focused on stroking my ego, making a bunch of money and career advancement, I lost a lot of who I am at my core during that time. I often wonder if that’s the case for a lot of people who achieve conventional success within the current paradigm. It’s fortunate I removed myself from that situation and began thinking more deeply about who I am and what really matters.

Stepping up and getting into the arena will mean something different for each of us, but the one word that keeps popping into my head is resilience. There are several clear ways to become more resilient. There’s mental and emotional resiliency, there’s financial resiliency and there’s physical resiliency (where and how you live). I see all three as fundamentally important and functioning best when working together. Resiliency starts at the most basic level because if you and your family aren’t resilient, then you won’t be much use to anyone else. If the people of a community or nation lack resiliency it provides the perfect space for authoritarianism and evil to manifest and flourish.

Case in point, see the following comments by Alan Dershowitz during a recent interview.

This is despotism plain and simple, and it’s being expressed by a guy who still has considerable influence despite his many Jeffrey Epstein related controversies. It’s going to take a resilient, courageous and ethical public to stand up to scoundrels like this and just say NO. No, you will not grab me, drag me off somewhere and inject something into my body without my consent. We’ve been passive spectators in the destruction of our society for far too long. It’s time to both say no and to create something better.

When I walked away from New York City and Wall Street ten years ago it was clear what sort of trajectory the country was on, and it’s only gotten worse since. We’re now in the crucial period spanning 2020-2025 that will decide what the next several decades look like. The big battle for the future is here. Right now. If there’s ever been a time in your life to step up, this is it.

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43 thoughts on “It’s Time to Step Into the Arena”

  1. “Resiliency starts at the most basic level because if you and your family aren’t resilient, then you won’t be much use to anyone else.”

    There seems to be a ideological battle between making oneself resilient as an individual vs. resilient as a collective. The real right seeks individual resilience, but ignores collective. The real left seeks collective resilience ingones individual, generally. From my perspective you need to be resilient as both. A collective unit is basic in the family unit but can expand to your friends, your neighborhood, your job, your locality, etc.

    There also exists an idealogical battle in what resilience is. The list seems to follow the same division of sides and listing as the negative/positive freedoms topic. Again I think it’s not either or, but both that build resilience.

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  2. Why do you assume changing ourselves is necessary ? Do you need change ? What I see missing is young people protesting ala Vietnam … they certainly are in a worse situation now than back then.

    I think our youth expects our government to take care of everybody. Our government is taking care of itself with the support of immoral lobbyists. It does not require changing oneself to draw this conclusion.

    I am seventy-two years old and I expect to see a purge of the elite oligarchy and a renewed respect for true moral capitalism … meaning reward productive behaviour.

    It is clear now that without a rudder capitalism does not tend toward the national good. It take the will of a majority of citizens to change our culture back to what made America great.

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    • You contradict yourself. You start no need to change yourself and end with a majority of citizens to change. How does that happen w/o individual change?

  3. The U.S. government, these huge corporations, have implicit faith and trust, that the American people will continue to be gullible, distracted and complacent – this then allows them to whatever they want – endless wars, corporate pillaging, vicious vote and minority suppression.

    If all of us. collectively, get still, quiet, and present, there is no political power or secret police that could defeat that over time. We would not be playing their game anymore – we would not be buying their products, we would not invest in Wall Street, we would not be traveling in their planes, we would not allow our tax dollars to be spent on hideous wars for profit. Their game would be over. It would be our life then, our simple, precious lives full of peace and fulfillment.

    We can do this. We have to start now.

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  4. The elites are so arrogant, and the common people so insouciant, that both cannot comprehend that their selfishness and decadence will lead to mutually assured destruction, no nukes needed.

    I often thought conspiracy theories that the globalists “want” to cause disaster in order to fulfill some occult purpose to be utterly stupid — after all, mass destruction causes the wealthy to lose wealth, and even the smallest loss causes misers the biggest pain.

    However, Caitlin Johnstone recently declared that power is more important to the elite than wealth, and those with access to power do not mind sacrificing their portfolio in order to keep their claws on the levers of power. I presume she had Trump in mind, who has lost quite a lot of commercial value over these couple of years.

    But the fanatical wealth destruction committed by all of the elites in government, not least the legislators who are surrounded by their gollum-like lobbyists, seems to confirm that, indeed, the elites will run this country into the ground and be satisfied to rule the ruins —

    …and the stupid peasants will not mind being herded into the slaughter house as long as RuPaul’s latest season is playing.

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  5. And of course Mikey uses someone connected to Trump to single out. Dozens of examples of tyrannical leftist politicians pushing the same talking points right now but nope, got to use that guy connected to Trump. Never democrats/leftists that are ever singled out by Mikey when talking about the system.

    I like the crickets as well regarding the whole fallout from the Russian collusion delusion and the attempted coup they took part in. I’m thinking if it were a republican admin or republicans doing that to a dem admin/president that you’d be talking about it given how much it shows what a banana republic the country has become.

    You are such a fraud. You’re just a typical lefty or former lefty that realized they could pretend they are for freedom and all that stuff but will never call out the people from their current or former cult. Always biased.

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    • And if you want to prove me wrong then do it. Write a post on the tyrannical left. Write something that specifically criticizes a democrat.

    • All I can say to your comment is, wow, humanity really is hopeless. You have to be government. Have to be.

  6. I spent the entire eight years of Obama’s presidency crapping on him for what a total fraud he was, as well as all of the people surrounding him.

    Hundreds of posts and they are all right here and easy to find. Don’t get all bent out of shape because you’re too mentally deranged to see anything outside of a red team/blue team perspective.

    You’re either being intentionally dishonest or are simply a moron. Most likely both.

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    • You’re a good man, Mike. I respect you for being principled and consistent in your principles. I thank ZeroHedge, which I no longer visit, for turning me on to you and a couple of others. I’m pretty sure fatsolio is government. They are kind of stepping up their game lately.

  7. I was born in a log cabin in the back woods of Oklahoma. For the first eight years of my life there was no electricity, no television. I was about ten when I decided there were two things I would never have time for: television and a lawn mower. I am 70 and have never owned either. Because of this, I am in a unique position to see the damage that television has wrought upon this nation. I harbor no hope for this nation. Nothing will change until people can see again. America has come to love their servitude and their masters. You have earned it, you deserve it. Stop complaining and revile in it.

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    • Yes Tom, I’m the same in regard to TV ! But then I suddenly found one day that I had a telephone, then a Smartphone, computer, internet………..I still don’t have a TV (it is all on the internet now anyway) and I’ve thrown my smartphone away, but I find that others have NOT, and now find it extremely difficult to find anyone willing or capable of having personal conversation about anything not dictated by the NEWS.

  8. Mr Krieger read your opinion piece read The Rough rider book
    Fear GOD and take your own part
    The Declaration of Independence study what Absolute Despotism real is an the list of evil in our Declaration.
    Understand stand that what has happen in the democracy created in 1916 by the Poolitical bands has now been bought an paid for by they Poolitical bands stealing our TAXS and literally shove shi! Down we the peopleS throat thru the use of every evil of the Declaration these Poolitical bandits have recreated .
    And now real tyranny is in motion and to hope or feel it will end because a governor proclaims the curve is what ever the NewTYRANT says is proof positive these petty tyrants are all in to dissolve we the people .
    Mr Krieger you are a Patriot not a doubt in my mind and with what the political bands are doing now we real do not have much time now to try and reach the few seeking the sprit of 76 and realize the cause is right in front of the Declaration of Independence
    The book by Theodore Roosevelt truly describes our potus trump and what the bandits have set in motion for more than 100 years .

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  9. Very nice quote and essay- thank you. Reading it I found myself thinking of people like Steve Jobs – a hero to so many business people, but a real asshole to his own family. Probably a real asshole to anyone who had to be around him.

    Trump fortunately does not posses any “courage, intellect, or masterful qualities” beyond shrewdness and the ability to spread paranoia, division, and hate. I think some of us are well aware of the situation you describe, though it isn’t despondence or apathy preventing us from “stepping into the arena,” rather it’s smart to live by this point of view: “Do not seek to fight evil, rather to avoid it.”

    On resilience I think you are correct, and a lot of us are incredibly resilient and scrambling to gain in many areas including securing food stores, stores of value, weapons, tools, things that might run out, and racking our brains for things we will need… My wife, kids, and I planted a huge garden. We have two chest freezers full of meat. If food gets scarce I have ample things to share or barter with neighbors, including cash, so a lot of what you’re talking about is being taken very seriously by a lot of people across the country right now.

    Implied in your piece is also a call to arms. This scares me, though whenever I see “Eat the Rich” I for some reason imagine should some such thing come to pass I wouldn’t grieve for the losses except for a few who have shown some integrity and given back to the world. The crowd of spectators in the arena would surely relish this, but without exception the oligarchs are untouchable.

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  10. I think the “change yourself” idea is wonderful but I expect it will take serious pain before Americans are willing to work together. As the article states the people themselves played a large role in how we got here, and Fatsolio’s post shows how much people want to fight. They’re amped up and more angry than ever, often in misguided or counterproductive ways.

    I’ve had a weird life where people either bent over backwards for me or they treated me like an enemy for no reason. Therefore, I’ve had periods that were fantastic and others that were just awful, and strangely not many average, in between times like most people. What I learned from the rough patches is that when people are feeling truculent, there isn’t much you can do to change their minds. The best course of action is to get out of their way so they can turn their wrath toward someone else. Unfortunately I think this is where the US is now, people are spoiling for conflict and they won’t be denied. Many of them won’t even necessarily care what they’re fighting over.

    Thoughtful people will already realize that something is seriously wrong and that quarreling over red/blue or the other distractions will accomplish nothing. To me it seems best to seek out these people and let the others bash each others’ brains in. At some point they will get the animosity out of their systems and understand that blood letting isn’t the answer, but everything I’ve ever experienced in my life tells me that they have to figure that out for themselves.

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    • ive been all over the country since 2010 i started in indiana then i was in misissippi then off to nola breifly back to indiana and then to az from az to a tiny town in texas and then back to indiana yet again kind of like a dog and vomit im sad to report….i was homeless for about 7 of those years injured unable to hold a job i finaly got ssdi about 4 years ago…i spent years on the bottom rung my only income was food stamps…no i am not a drug addict nor a drunk nor a whoremonger….but i can report to you that all of those things are going on in maximum overdrive and more depraved things than i care to talk about seem to be the norm and these folks that i speak about revel in it and hate any thing moral or right minded these folks are the majority in the population centers that i have lived in such evil is on display and the evil doers are PROUD of there evil so dont count on like minded people to be much more than a remnant a tiny minority in a population of 335 million people….so maybe you might be a sheep dog and have a few sheep to protect from the coming insanity or at least i hope you have found some inocents to defend in this coming tribulation

  11. Great post, again! Appealing to our deepest sense of humanness which at its core is centred around moral values i.e. good characters such as courage, selflessness, a sense of duty, higher purpose etc… Men with wealth but without good moral always in all healthy human societies were despised. The Rockefeller were a good example of that back in the days. But then they set out to deconstruct the human psyche and with a powerful machinery reduce it to its lowest, vile darwinistic reptilian self. Decades down the road a new man emerged, a new paradigm is set. Their “moral” becomes the norm, those who embody in its fullest enjoy the highest social recognition and are set as examples. Success then is solely measured by the size of your material possession which in most of the cases is coupled with a decaying moral. “Greed is good” become the slogan of the most ambitious amongst us. The less “fitter” become “gamified” and kept in a constant state of adolescence and promiscuity. This explains the very passive and shallow nature that we find ourselves in. However, deep down we all still have our humanity otherwise it would be too much for the soul to bear. We would just die! Hence your call for resilience must be echoed and will not necessarily fall into deaf ears.

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  12. too much bullshit mike. you gotta start focussing on keeping it simple.
    focus on specific collective actions.
    here are some possible examples.
    1) tax protest
    2) debt protest
    3) property protest

    protests are individual actions, and if enough people join in, it becomes a swarm collective by default, without need for group resilience, because you have a major groundswell.

    the difference between individual protests such as those exmaples given above and disruption/occupation protests, are that you can only disrupt that which is vulnerable, namely a dense city, by physical presence of a large robust group. occupy wall street is a forgotten chapter of group resilience because it didn’t accomplish much, if anything. so i would argue that is not a great example to follow of calling for actionable resilience.

    i suggest you find specifics instead of generalisms. i like your philosophizing, but you sound more and more like cognitive dissonance from zh. i like him, and nothing wrong with his blog, nor that of the headless horseman. One isn’t guilt for enjoying their armchair , a creative writing blog, or a hobby farm to table lifestyle, while watching the world burn. but i don’t think that’ s what your aiming for with LB.

    is it?

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    • With everything closed, turning off the TV and avoiding the internet (since covid-19 is all that’s talked about everywhere) leaves nothing. “Tune it out” is no longer feasible advice, especially when they’re threatening to forcibly vaccinate you, eliminate cash and put dissenters into camps any day. I kind of want to be a couple of steps ahead of that.

  13. I know vaccination, put as “dragging somebody and forcibly injecting something into your body” sounds pretty harsh. But only until it dawns on you that government regulates everything you eat. Have you ever eaten supermarket-bought food? Silly question. Of course you have. Well, the way that food has been produced is a matter of government regulation. If the government decides that certain poisonous pesticides aren’t in fact poisonous, you are being force-fed poison, and you don’t have a say in the matter, if the government doesn’t require labeling for pesticides, which generally, they don’t.

    So I really don’t get what’s the big deal with vaccines. The government is conductive massive experiments on the population all the time with the food they eat, and very few people even consider trying to do something about it.

    Oh, and even if you raised all of your own food to high standards (unlikely unless you are a farmer, and if you are a farmer, you know how hard it’s to make a business growing food at high standards), you still breathe air and drink water. Which has been allowed to be polluted by countless pollutants. Just hope none of them are too bad.

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    • They’re the ones who decided to remove the illusion of freedom, and now that they have, as a black man I can tell you without a doubt that I will not be submitting to slavery. And as far as the vaccine goes, where was all the news coverage when the massive scientific breakthrough of being able to cure and prevent viral infections occurred? That means herpes is over, and so are colds. That is a fucking HUGE story. HUUUUGE. And this breakthrough suddenly occurred because of covid-19? Yeah, sure. The result? I didn’t distrust vaccines before, but I do now, and I didn’t doubt viruses exist before, but I do now, and I will never trust doctors or hospitals or medical science again, beyond treatment of traumatic injury and routine surgery. So you can take your “so what, we’re slaves” attitude and……

    • We are being literally poisoned to death by a combination of glyphosate and vitamin A (take a look at a box of breakfast cereal and a carton of milk in the USA—both are fortified with retinyl palmitate and contaminated with glyphosate), which causes deficiency of B vitamins, and messes up mineral metabolism in the body leading to disease states.

      Those whose bodies are already damaged by the mass poisoning are the ones dying from the virus, and they are also the ones who will be injured by the vaccine.

      I have no idea if this is intentional, but when you look at how much money the drug industry makes medicating sick people you know they have little to gain from promoting wellness.

      We need to heal ourselves from the poisoning and help others who are suffering.

      Eat organic, avoid food fortification and multivitamins. Ignore the people promoting ridiculously high doses of vitamin A and D to combat the virus—it is a bad idea and will make everything worse:

      https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1336/rr-9

      We need to listen to scientists like Mawson.

      Do a web search for “Grant Genereux,” read his free ebooks, and share them with any friends who are ill. Watch Dr. Garrett Smith on Nutrition Restored:

      https://youtu.be/WX_HU7FwxBU

      Vitamin A toxicity is widespread and it is killing us.

  14. With schools closed, parents are coping ……when they reopen don’t send your children back. That’s a good start to your own battle against what has been done to us…..easy, as well as the children can actually learn some basics at home. MSM TV off as well for the whole family…they can’t , for now at least, force you to watch their propagandizing commercials.

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  15. A common thief can steal a watermelon off of a boxcar on a train.
    But if you give that same thief an education without teaching him that he is responsible before God, then he will steal the whole railroad.

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  16. I love how the weak and down trodden always become the WE when something goes wrong. When the wicked go unpunished it is demanded of the poor,”why didn’t you do something?”. In this lawfair state it is demanded of the poor to go hire attorneys and fight this fight,when the poor are struggling just to survive. The term WE is never defined. So write your essay, get paid and go have a latte.

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  17. Great article, Michael, and I thought the Teddy Roosevelt quote was the ideal lead-in.

    I too am reminded of one of Caitlin Johnstone’s recent articles in which she proposes that changing ourselves is what the world currently needs most, and actually the only thing we have any control over (Collective Revolution And Individual Enlightening Are The Same Thing – May 12).

    It is the course that I have chosen over the past couple decades: essentially unplugging from the Matrix and scaling Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. One should not underestimate the effect (resilience) which this process confers on mere mortals (any disoriented idiot like myself). Once engaged, you discover every effort is rewarded tenfold. Maybe not in the way you want, but in the way you need in order to develop into a fully self-actualized being, and thereby finally equipped morally and rationally to embark on your true purpose for being here: to serve others. Again, not in the way you want, but in the way they need.

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  18. Great article and so true. I was reminded of something back after 9/11 when President Bush was on his drumbeat for war with Iraq, I noted some descrepancies in the official story, decried what I saw as a never ending quagmire, and noted that if their were insiders involved in whatever had happened that would constitute treason. I got roundly decried as a conspiracy theorist and was accused of being anti patriotic. One person in the online chat room I was in told me that if I hated America so much I should move out, which was an ironic comment considering I was living in Thailand at the time. I gave up on a lot of folks then, but ironically I turned off the television and worked on myself a lot. I now find US television news so distasteful I usually do not like it invading my mental peace of mind in the background, like at restaurants or gas station pumps. I’ve been teaching my 13 year old how to disseminate propaganda a few nights ago. I am hopeful that this time is different, for a few reasons. The agenda that came about due to the GFC or 9/11 most affected people in faraway lands or were so abstracted that average Americans didn’t understand it enough to be disgusted and outraged. This time it is so ambitious and far reaching that everyone is personally affected, the lower classes far more obviously than the elites. The herd mentality isn’t going to work anymore. I think the blowback of unintended consequences will ultimately break the system of control. What if everyone started taking vitamins and exercising and finding that their health improves?

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  19. Politics is violence and political government is the bane of humanity; it is not Christian; it is Satan’s wickedness. Voting is an act of violence as it sanctions the politicians to use force to impose the voter’s opinions, beliefs, views, prejudices and “false religion” on those who do not share the same, i.e. voting is immoral. No one has the right to use force to compel another to abide by his opinions. It is immoral to hire thugs to use force against one’s neighbors who differ in beliefs. The Bible teaches us that the troika of evil, that wicked consort of politics, commerce, and “false religion,” will be destroyed in the end. Do church leaders approve of political governments? You bet most of them do. We would be wise to heed the message and terminate/abandon political government. How many churches are 501(c)(3) tax exempt? Do these churches then submit to diabolical political government?

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  20. I believe the fundamental CHANGE everyone is groping and hoping for is VALUES. – Standard of living, poverty, richness, well off, good health, successful life, etc, all must once again come to be measured (valued) in terms COMPLETELY disregarding money.
    Hard to imagine now, I know, but it was not that long ago that “money lenders or money traders” were shunned and completely outcast or barred from public opinion shaping, including any form of voting or public policy discussion forums.

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  21. This is discourse is comprehensive, inciteful and applicable to everyone, everywhere. I live in the Caribbean and everythind said can be referenced there.

    Based on my personal experience Stepping into the arena started when i recognized that the arena i see before me is in fact not real but a drama, a theatre that is being played out to distract me from the real arena which exist in the battle for sovereignity over my mind.

    I encourage others to step into that arena, that battle and reclaim sovereignity over their minds. Once you reclaim your mind it is to identify all the distraction like voting, politics etc and focus on what is infact real . Your freedom is real. claim it and so is your happiness, health and underlying wealth. No politician or central bank has that power unless you allow them to distract you with their theatre and control your mind.
    TAKE BACK SOVEREIGNITY OF YOUR MIND NOW!

    Reply

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