February 11, 2015

Puerto Varas, Chile

On August 13, 1961, the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) began to establish an “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”.

The idea was to, you know, protect people… from fascist terrorists who intended to do harm in the country.

Just weeks after government officials stated that they had ‘no intention of erecting a wall’, they closed the border and started reinforcing the defenses with barbed wire. Concrete came soon after.

When it was finally erected, the wall stood for decades as a symbol of tyranny over freedom.

And in the ensuing period, people within the Iron Curtain suffered the misery of secret police, centrally planned bread production, and some of the worst indignities imaginable.

This is starting to happen once again… now in Ukraine. The ongoing conflict with Russia has fueled a resurgence in totalitarianism.

Two days ago, the government registered a draft to ‘improve’ the criminal code of Ukraine, essentially making it a crime to even question Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

In other words, if you don’t buy the Ukrainian government’s official (and US-funded) propaganda, you’re looking at up to three years in prison.

In addition, the Ukrainian government has been arresting people who criticize the war, and they’ve established a hotline where people can rat out anyone with anti-government views.

They’ve also forcibly impressed citizens into military service (and thrown people in jail who refuse).

And as of this morning, the government of Ukraine started… “reinforcing”… the defenses of Kiev with eight barricaded checkpoints.

Why? In order to protect citizens from terrorist attacks.

Walls are never, ever erected to keep people out. They’re built to trap people inside.

This is a country whose economy is in shambles. The currency continues to plummet to levels never seen before. The government is inches away from default. A deep recession is mounting. And the banking system is extremely fragile.

This is an epic disaster. And anytime that happens, history shows that governments reach into a very limited playbook. Their answer is to dig their heels in even further and tighten controls.

Capital controls. Exchange controls. Wage and price controls. Border controls. People controls.

They lie. They deceive. They wave flags and tell people about their patriotic duty to suffer and die.

I hope my friends in Ukraine see the writing on the wall and get the hell out of there.

And I hope anyone else paying attention heeds the lesson that desperate actions by politicians have consequences. And these consequences aren’t worth waiting around for.

Rational people don’t wait for disaster to strike. Rational people have a plan B.

And yes, even if you think everything is just fine and dandy at home, when all the objective evidence indicates that your nation is a warmongering terminal bankruptcy case, having a plan B sometimes means having another place to go.

It’s an insurance policy. You hope like hell you’ll never need it. But it’s not a conversation you’ll want to start having while you pack your bags.

The world is a big place and there are lots of great options out there. Start thinking about yours now while time is still on your side. That can all change in an instant.