"someone in the US recently took possession of approximately 30 million ounces of physical gold." https://w3.do/p73Plxtp

> Written documents such as Magna Carta or the United States Bill of Rights were not advances in liberty but signs of its decay. In response to the kings’ newly claimed powers, these documents set “limits” on what areas the government could not intrude on. Not only do we see how these written documents no longer work, but they give the impression, and set up the provision, that all other areas of life are open to the possibility of government control as well. Further, a written document to “preserve” rights simply means those rights can also be taken away when their preservation is no longer desired. > > Even worse, it says the rights written, protected, controlled, and “interpreted” (always in the direction of more government control) by federal judges are dependent on human agents. The Declaration of Independence claims our rights come from the creator, but those rights are only valid when written, ratified, and interpreted by federal judges and politicians. In other words, God is secondary, and his inalienable rights must first be filtered through the government to ensure and adequately understand and apply the rights God has granted. We have set up a secular priesthood to interpret God’s desires for us. Documents such as the Bill of Rights could be better understood as people submitting to their government to rule over them while desperately holding on to a few cherished liberties – for a time. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> The freedom and self-governance known to peasants under the kings of the Middle Ages have never been achieved in “the west,” and the replacement of monarchs with elected officials has only worsened the situation. Moreover, the later revolutions overthrowing the local lords were not led by “the people” but by the upper class, wealthy urban capitalists who transferred the power of kings to themselves and removed the old limitations while preferring to enact new legislation. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> If we were to abolish the political oppression of centralization; if we were to emancipate ourselves from tyranny; we could have thousands of tiny self-governing communities as our forebears enjoyed. If we abolished centralized governance, so much anger and hatred towards each other would disappear. People could live with like-minded people governed as they desire. All of “we the people” would benefit. The ones who would suffer would be bureaucrats and our overlords in D.C. If we were a Christian society loving others as we love ourselves, we would not force them to suffer under a political system they did not ask for and do not desire. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> In 800 A.D., Ireland was made up of perhaps 150 separate kingdoms. At the same date, sparsely-populated Norway was divided into 31 principalities. By 1200 A.D., there were 200 autonomous city-states in Northern Italy. In the 14th century, Germany was made up of 600 autonomous realms. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> The level of taxation seen under Roman, Arab, and Byzantine systems did not appear in the West until industrialization. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> Multiple counts refused to enforce France’s first kingdom-wide tax to help fund the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1166. In 1199, Pope Innocent the Third taxed the clergy at 2.5%, which led to open rebellion. When later King Phillip II introduced a tax (which was agreed upon by the nobles and the Church) within a year, it was abolished, and he was forced to apologize for introducing it. In the 1490s Germany first tried a realm-wide tax, and even then, Bavaria refused to ratify it. Most of northern Europe still had no permanent national tax until after 1500. > >Because it was considered theft, the “hidden” tax of inflation was almost non-existent. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> How very different we are today from our medieval forbears! We blindly follow any dictates coming from DC no matter how unconstitutional, immoral, or unlawful they are. We accept the “divine right of the state.” Anything it declares, any decree it passes, is now declared “law.” In modern times, we have entirely changed our definitions of traitor and rebel based on blind obedience. Today, anyone who does not follow a federal declaration is a traitor or rebel. In the Middle Ages, any ruler who went outside of law and tradition was a rebel and traitor and was to be resisted by law. Thus, a medieval peasant would say the greatest outlaws in America were not those of the Old Wild West but are its elected officials and judges of today. > > If a man from the Middle Ages observed a citizen in a democracy, he would conclude we were all slaves. Slaves must obey the dictates of a master, while freemen contrast and compare their ruler’s actions to their law, contesting them as needed. He was a very different creature; “compromise” or a slow bus ride to totalitarianism was unknown to him. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> Here, we see one of the reasons why tyrants desire a secular society. In secularism, there is no higher law, no eternal law, and no limits on rulers’ authority; there is no justification to limit government power within the secular worldview. While a population steeped in ideas about the laws of God would produce a people ready to rebel against any man who attempted to usurp them. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> I wish to abolish the great evil of our time, the beast primarily arising from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. I want to abolish man’s idea he is above other men and God’s law—something we have struggled with since Genesis 3. I want to move us to a future devoid of our current evils and political structures. I am the opposite of a conservative; I wish to conserve nothing of what is evil; our entire system has become corrupt. I want to abolish democracy and legislative governments as the abolitionists in America were “progressive” in abolishing the evil of their day, slavery. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

> Disregarding misinformation and falsehoods, the feudal, Catholic, and Germanic kingships of the Middle Ages provided many of history’s longest-lasting libertarian and self-governing societies. The peasants had far greater liberty and self-government than modern democratic citizens. The entire political structure was built upon consent rather than coercion, with no professional regulatory state-imposed taxes or other regulations. The rulers could not interfere with the rights of the people or manipulate them in any way. –Jeb Smith *Missing Monarchy: Correcting Misconceptions About The Middle Ages, Medieval Kingship, Democracy, and Liberty* (2024)

https://fountain.fm/episode/Nyt3vIj8NJ2y8MWDHWdt "Steve Patterson is an iconoclast who always seeks to puncture the orthodox narrative. In this episode, he defends the book he helped Roger Ver write, in which they lament the alleged "hijacking" of #Bitcoin away from Satoshi's original vision."