STORY TIME – WHEN DID YOU WAKE UP?

Dustwallow suggested a thread on when people woke up and realized our economic and political system was corrupt, rigged, dysfunctional, and designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many. I’ll start it off.

I turned 40 in 2003. I knew the world had changed after 9/11 but I was still a diehard Republican. I had voted for Bush in 2000. I was outraged by the 9/11 terrorist attack and fully supported the invasion of Afghanistan. I didn’t question the rapid passage of the Patriot Act. I had never even heard of Ron Paul. I also believed the rhetoric from the Bush administration leading up to the Iraq War. I particularly trusted Colin Powell, so when he went before the world showing pictures of weapons sites and mobile labs, I was convinced.

As the Iraq War got under way and no weapons of mass destruction were found, I began to question the entire story. This coincided with my personal disillusionment with the company I had helped go from $80 million in revenue to $1 billion in revenue. My fourteen years of dedicated service was ending badly as a clueless CEO ruined the company and people I thought were friends threw me under the bus.

After leaving IKEA and being so angry at Bush’s lies that I actually voted for Kerry in 2004, I began to read the writings of Bill Bonner, John Mauldin, Richard Russell, John Hussman, Robert Shiller, Doug Casey, and many of the websites listed on the side of this page. These people opened my eyes to the evils of the Federal Reserve, inflation and debt financed “prosperity”. I began following Ron Paul and reading his

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