As I was beginning my glorious move away from Dirty Denver (about two years ago), I started noticing an oddity: It seemed I was always stuck in traffic behind fire trucks, yet there were never any fires around to match up with these fire trucks. It was like the universe was playing a practical joke on me.

My surprise grew when I realized that a fire truck was dispatched even for a slight fender-bender. It was a revelation that left me in disbelief.

Then I figured it out ( and by now you all have too)

This practice isn't just about safety; it's a calculated move by fire departments to document every outing. At the end of the year, they can proudly showcase their mission count, directly tying it to their revenue stream. This fire truck example is really how we run our entire country and it highlights our troubling reality of wasteful government spending and the absurd lengths some agencies will go to justify their budgets.

In an era where we have still not corrected the causes of the Great Financial Collapse of 2008, one might expect government agencies to tighten their belts.

Instead, we're witnessing a disturbing trend of wasteful spending and bureaucratic bloat that would make even the most ardent big-government advocate blush.

Let’s get back to my metaphor. (But sadly it’s beyond being a metaphor, it’s now the playbook)

Consider the local fire department's new strategy: dispatching fire trucks to every fender bender in town. This isn't about public safety; it's a cynical ploy to justify bloated budgets. It’s the misallocation of public funds.

If a fire truck three years ago responded to 10 calls annually at $100,000 per dispatch, why not bump it up the following year to one per week (or 52 annually) or this year to every day, a 365 x $100,000 budget bonanza?

Simple math reveals the staggering potential for waste: $5.2 million or $36.5 million per year, respectively

But why stop there? Let's send a school bus for every band practice and call SERVPRO Restoration or hazmat teams for kitchen spills. While we're at it, let's summon an ambulance for every headache. It's absurd, but it's the logical conclusion of this "use it or lose it" mentality.

"Use it or lose it" refers to the practice where bureaucratic agencies must spend their allocated budget within a fiscal year, or risk losing those funds in future budgets.

Does this scenario seem grandiose. No!
Let's rewind the tape a few years back. Anyone with a brain in their skull knows that 9-11 wasn't about being hit by foreign actors but a way to justify invading Iraq and stealing their gold and oil.

Yet the "Patriot Act" is somehow a living piece of legislation; we're still stuck with some dystopian authoritarian thing called "Department of Homeland Security" while told we are safer if we follow the cattle call being poked and prodded by people in blue shirts (some may even hold a GED) telling us we can't have water or an itsy bitsy bottle of shampoo in our bags.

This wasteful thinking extends far beyond local government. Since 1990, over 250 wars and conflicts have erupted worldwide, according to Congressional records.

Shockingly, members of Congress openly trade war stocks after classified briefings, profiting from these conflicts. It's a form of legalized theft, incentivizing the promotion of endless warfare.

The corruption doesn't end there. Imagine a fire chief who sends trucks out daily not just to pad the department's budget, but because his wife owns the company supplying cleaning products for the vehicles. It's a perfect storm of inefficiency and self-dealing, all on the taxpayer's dime. Except now it’s not the taxpayer’s dime, it’s approaching $36 Trillion dollars.

This systemic waste and corruption is not victimless. Every dollar squandered on unnecessary fire truck runs or insider stock trades is a dollar not spent on education, infrastructure, or genuine public safety. It's a betrayal of public trust and a mockery of fiscal responsibility.

The solution isn't more government oversight – that's just adding fuel to the fire. Instead, we need a fundamental shift in how we approach public spending. We must demand transparency, accountability, and a return to common sense.

Our public servants should be just that – servants of the public good, not their own interests.

It's time to put out the flames of bureaucratic excess before they consume us all. The taxpayers deserve better than this circus of waste and self-interest masquerading as public service.

What reasons can I think of off the top of my head to trade in Federal Reserve paper for real silver and gold

• Because of Government waste and debt of over 35 trillion dollars.

• Because the Federal Reserve note is just a war bond and not real money.

• Because interest on the US debt is now $3 billion per day.

• Because unrealized losses by banks are 10 times worse than GFC numbers.

• Because many commercial real estate projects in so-called “blue chip” real estate markets like San Francisco, DC, NY, Miami, Denver, Seattle, and Portland often sell for 65% off the last sales price.

• Because banks will not be able to absorb that kind of stress.

• Because the US dollar has lost over 97% of its purchasing power in the past few decades.

• Because the US stock exchange is held up by the not-so-magnificent 7.

• Because both sides of the aisle are engaged in full-on theft (we lost our democracy and plutocracy and replaced it with kleptocracy)

• Because the US abandoned over 40,000 vehicles, 100 planes, and billions of pieces of equipment in a 20-year war that replaced The Taliban with …….. The Taliban

• Because this war was 5 times the price tag of Vietnam (that was only paid for because we abandoned a constrained monetary system)

• Because we are in wars currently in the Middle East and against Russia (a superpower)

• Because under Trump or Harris, this trend will continue.

• Because the majority of the world is selling US treasuries to buy gold

• and Because those US dollars will be like a Tsunami as they return to our shores setting off another inflation bomb

• Because the US lost its manufacturing advantage.

• Because the US government tells you unemployment is 4% when the real unemployment number is 24%

• Because the US government funded a virus that was really a biological weapon.

• Because the US government hit its own people on 9-11 to justify an illegal and immoral war in Iraq (to steal their gold, oil and send a signal to other nations to never trade outside the US dollar)

• Because The Federal Reserve allows their friends (war profiteers, politicians, Wall Street) to stand closest to money printers to profit at the expense of villagers.

• Because there is a new law on the books changing the legal definition of ownership called security entitlement (banks will be saved from their derivative exposure through a clearing house made up of our money)

• Because when you think you are depositing into a bank, you are really surrendering to the bank an unsecured loan.

• Because there is no reserve requirement.

What is a simple fix to all of this?

1. You are going to want to trade in US Federal Reserve notes and exchange them for Gold and Silver.

2. So you are not buying Gold or Silver, you’re just trading paper for real money.