Strawman Saturday: 1st Issue!

June 15, 2013

By: Kelly Diamond, Publisher

We at Global Wealth Protection think it is our job to stay – and help you remain – informed with the latest news about asset protection, privacy and liberty.  We develop asset protection and offshore strategies to help you minimize financial risk and maximize gain.

However, some of our content pieces manage to set a few folks off, and their feedback ranges from absolutely unhinged to thoughtful to everything in between.  While most companies would only showcase the most flattering testimonials… we share the feedback of some of the more entertaining folks who can’t stay on topic, but offer some damn good entertainment.

Ever have a neighbor who played their music loud, and when you went to complain about the volume, rather than turn it down, they turned it up even more?  We are that neighbor.  There will be NO toning down the rhetoric here… 

So, WELCOME, to the first edition of Strawman Saturday!

“A straw man argument occurs in the context of a debate―formal or informal―when one side attacks a position―the “straw man”―not held by the other side, then acts as though the other side’s position has been refuted.”  This is the working definition offered in the Fallacy Files.

Consider this the highlight reel!  And Strawman Saturdays are for entertainment purposes only, so sit back and check out some behind-the-scenes communications…

GWP v PM

Paul Seymour and I both made editorial contributions for Memorial Day.  Paul authored “Memorial Day: Rah, Rah” and I wrote “What is Noble?”  That went over gang-busters!

We were told by one guy, who shall be known as “PM”, in a separate email to Bobby: “You are a sick greedy person, leave this great country and do not come back.”

To which our own Bobby Casey says, “If ignorance is bliss, you must be the happiest man on earth!”

Not to be outdone, GWP’s Paul Seymour chimes in with, “Well, I HAVE left forever, and wouldn’t even consider returning to such a fascist, fucked up place.  Thanks for recognizing Amerika for what it really is.”

PM offered his well wishes: “BYE, BYE, and FUCK YOU!”

Good talk, guys!  It’s one thing to disagree.  It’s another to pound your chest and roar and expect us to work with so little.

GWP v KS

An individual, who shall be known as “KS”, had a few choice words for us with regard to my Memorial Day piece as well.  Here is the exchange:

KS writes:

“…A person engaged in the asset protection business might want to avoid tying themselves to opinion pieces such as one in particular written by Kelly Diamond. 

“I appreciate the fact you are an entrepreneur, as am I.  Kelly’s Memorial Day piece appears to have touched a nerve with many, likely old veterans such as myself.

“I am under no illusions that this government, most of the western world’s governments (and all the rest for that matter) are by and large, evil and corrupt, but Ms. Diamond has failed to understand that most people hold honest and noble values taught by their parents and experience (especially as we get older), and institutions (such as corporations and governments) are made up of their values, which are mostly evil, greedy and corrupt). 

“Fault a veteran, who stands for what they stand for (in this case, positively the best of all that is American; our values, history, et cetera), and you’ve crossed a line. 

“I know personally veterans who’ve been spit upon, cursed and reviled on the street and on college campuses; heck, I’m one of those veterans.  People in the armed forces die at the behest and machinations of political operatives still today, because many of those malcontents now occupy high positions in government and academia.  Do you have any malcontents in your organization, or do they simply have no respect for veterans? 

“Most Americans, if paying attention to such things, would likely make it a point not to do business with your company.  Managers tend to back their people, and that’s okay; I get it.  However, last time I checked, Bobby, your values and information appeared to be more in line with mine than Kelly Diamond, and your business appeared to be asset protection services, and not an organ for anti-American, pro-radical views.  Is the publication the product?  If so, I cannot in good conscience buy it.

“I thought that you should know.  I admire your entrepreneurship and your willingness to speak truth to power, and your Publishing editor has First Amendment rights, of course, but the Constitution never guaranteed I had to do business with folks operating with loose cannons.”

Bobby responds:

“I agree wholeheartedly with Kelly in her post.  While I do grant her complete freedom to write what she pleases as it relates to freedom, privacy and protection of wealth we do not always agree.  In this case, we do.

“Personally, I am revolted by the flag waving holidays.  This is a celebration of the unnecessary wars fought to build wealth for the wall-street bankers and politicians while sacrificing human lives.  Disgusting.  The only way this celebration is tolerated is due to most Americans’ complete ignorance of reality.

“Don’t you find it a bit ironic that shortly after the former CEO of Halliburton took the position of US VP, we went to war with a country that had repeatedly refused to do business with big American companies.  And following the war Halliburton was granted (not awarded since there were no other bids) 10’s of billions of reconstruction projects?

“It sure makes me feel good to know that thousands of soldiers were killed in order for Cheney and Co. to reap over $30B in profits from Iraq alone.  Is this what I should be celebrating?

“Ironically many of our readers are vets and many of them wrote letters thanking us for speaking the truth.  At some point I hope you wake up as well.”

I offered to engage in a discussion based on facts, but his sprint to Bobby’s email box and deafening silence tells me he’s a no-show.  Offer still stands, though!

*crickets*

GWP v ML

I had the lovely privilege of a former public school teacher psycho analyzing me and my presumed “anger issues” in response to my article “Nanny State Mission Creep: Parental Rights”.  How the exchanges derailed from the topic of parental rights to name calling and some ridiculous attempts at my supposed emotional instability, is beyond me.  But diverting the discussion away from the actual topic, toward me personally, is about as respectable a tactic as having a date tell me I have nice tits when the conversation takes an uncomfortable turn toward the topic of commitment.

Here’s what was submitted to Bobby via email:

ML writes:

“I have problems with the Global Wealth Protection philosophy. You advise to your readers/subscribers ways to protect their money by sending it outside the USA. I have no feelings about that, being a Canadian citizen. What I have a problem with is the extreme some of your columnists are willing to go to justify their point. Kelly Diamond, one of your writers, has a very strong point of view on some issues. After discussing with him, I realized that no dialogue could be established with him. In fact, his comments were pretty aggressive.” 

So let me get this straight: He has a problem with our philosophy.  This is all we know of his beef with our philosophy.  He is okay with us instructing Americans on how to move their money offshore… so long as we don’t do it to Canadians?  And he has a problem with the “extremes” some of the columnists are willing to go to justify their point.  My comments were aggressive.

I’ll forgive the gender confusion, as I am admittedly a pretty ballsy chick.  Ha ha ha…

I guess a mother passionately and uncompromisingly defending her parental rights against state intrusion offended his statist sensibilities, but you will find the condescension and name-calling to be quite one-sided on the comments thread.

Bobby v ML

ML then goes on with Bobby suggesting we use the state to fix the state!  Yes, because I often make it a practice to use broken things to fix themselves….

ML writes:

“Is it me or have you given up on the United States of America? Running away is one thing; how about finding ways to clear the mess the US economy and politics are in now. … As an impassive outsider, I can suggest one or two things your Libertarian friends might not like. First of all, impose controls on all banks so that the 2008 debacle does not happen again. I know that federal overseeing is, for some of you, an abomination. Try to explain that to a Lehman Brothers employee who lost his job and his pension fund at the same time. The lax regulations of the Bush administration and the relentless pressure from stockholders for profit created the economic mess which we are still trying to clean up.

“Another problem is the greed which feeds the American economy. When a CEO of any company in the US get X number of millions of dollars as a salary, is there a problem? Is it justified? Is the company making profits paralleling the administrators’ salaries?  I question this rat-race retribution: profit for the company=profit for the shareholders=profit for the CEO. In a perfect world, this scheme is acceptable. Where things go wrong is when the CEO will do anything to increase profits on the short term simply to satisfy the shareholders and get a bigger salary. What about the consequences of his decisions on a longer term? Will the company thrive or shrivel? The CEO doesn’t care; he won’t be around to see the results. So here is another place where some form of control has to be imposed, for the common good.

“As you can see, there’s a lot of work to do. If you suggest to your readers to invest their money elsewhere, why not ask them, since their money is safe, to try to change things in your country?”

Bobby responds:

“I would suggest doing some research on banking in general before jumping to conclusions that more regulation solves the problems.  Start by reading, “The Creature from Jekyll Island”.  This gives a pretty good insight into the realities behind the banking cartel.  More regulation is the exact opposite of what is needed if you truly understand the puppet-masters behind the curtain.  Your understanding of the economic crisis and banking in general is significantly off base.

“The US is a minimum of 2 generations away from solving its issues.  I don’t imagine I will live for 2-3 more generations so for me the best solution is to live my life as I chose.  My quality of life has significantly improved since leaving the USSA.  I am an individual and thus make decisions that are best for me and my family.  I would hope everyone follows the same path as it is the only rational way to live.” 

Bobby v SB

In response to my blog about Edward Snowden, “R.I.P. to the PRIVATE Citizen: Part 2”, SB writes:

“Being a veteran, he has jeopardized our nation’s security he should be tried and hung or shot.  I truly feel that he has hurt our nation and the security of people who trusted him. Don’t mule him out to be a hero, not unless you are an American.”

Bobby, unapologetically fires back:

“I am an American and Snowden IS a hero.  He exposed the scam of the CIA and military in general and how the citizenry is subject to 100% unconstitutional surveillance.  Shame on you for supporting the disgusting puppeteers.”

Perhaps a distinction should be made between the government of America (to which no one at GWP is loyal) and the individual rights of the people there (to which all at GWP are loyal).

Hat-tip to the Grammar & Spelling Nazis

I’ll tell you now: I suck at spelling and I throw darts at homonyms because essentially the only distinguishing characteristic between them is their SPELLING…  But in a sea of nearly 1,500 words depicting a current event that could have a direct impact on your personal liberties, if all you walk away with is a misspelled word or a missing Oxford Comma, then humanity just took a serious blow for the worse.  That, or you do better with spelling than reading comprehension, and you’re just playing to your strengths.  Either way, whenever my orthographic incompetence worries you or has you questioning whether GWP is capable of delivering great offshore banking and business services, think of a doctor: chances are, he can’t print worth a damn; but he still manages to provide effective medical care.