Since Parkland, we’ve seen a number of banks change their policies on doing business with firearms manufacturers and retailers. Some have made the decisions on their own and some have no doubt been pressured to cut out gun companies by some of their biggest customers.

Lowell Ponte has been watching this trend and is raising an alarm based on the trend toward an increasingly cashless economy.

Cashlessness in surprising ways gives vast power to government. Days ago, for example, liberal Democrat and New York State comptroller Thomas J. DiNapoli, who controls where the state invests its $209.1-billion pension fund, sent out a letter. It went to institutions that control our credit cards – Visa, MasterCard, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, American Express, Discover Financial Services, and others.

DiNapoli’s message was about as subtle as a guy wearing a pinstripe suit, black shirt, and white tie saying: “You gotta nice place here. Too bad if anything happened to it. But maybe I can provide you some protection.”

What do you suppose the comptroller wanted?

DiNapoli suggested that these companies should consider whether gun transactions should be classified with restricted high-risk purchases like pornography, illicit drugs, and crypto-currencies.  “If gun violence continues unabated in society,” he wrote, “public outcry … may grow and create significant financial risk for the company.”

Hmmm. And how should a financial institution that cares about its image deal with this potential financial risk?

DiNapoli suggested that these companies look into implementing ways to block credit card purchases of firearms, ammunition, and gun accessories. The implied threat was clear: stop extending credit to gun- and ammo-buyers, or risk having New York State investment money taken away from your bank or credit company because the left wants to ban guns.

That’s about as subtle as an unexpectedly long stop at a causeway tollbooth. If it sounds familiar, that’s because that’s basically what Attorney General Eric Holder tried with Operation Choke Point. Holder’s tactic was . . .

…the naked weaponization of regulatory power to injure or kill ideological targets. Consumer Research analyst Beau Brunson noted that Operation Choke Point “used reputational risk as a tool for bank coercion.” Now so does DiNapoli. With “cashlessness,” when customers have no other way to buy, such nuclear warfare can crush businesses and products.

Ponte sees the controls that cashlessness could impose on how companies and individuals spend their money as the tripwire that will get the US financial system off of fiat money and back on the gold standard.

The future will eventually rediscover the Framers’ constitutional money. We will return to the 5,000-year tradition of precious metal that needs no government or computer to give it value. We will learn again that gold and free are not “four-letter words,” but two words that go together.

Uh huh. We’re not quite so sanguine about the prospects of shifting back to a precious metal-backed currency. Particularly if it means government relinquishing controls they may have accrued should we ever get to a truly cashless economy.

Is Ponte all wet? Chicken little or canary in a coal mine?

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62 COMMENTS

  1. I think Crispin Glover’s Mr. World would have been a more appropriate model for the picture.

  2. It will and it’s a great concern of mine, not just for guns, but for everything. Who is to say that if I make posts on social media that are critical of Syrian migrants or of the narrative that Russia poisoned a former KGB spy or Syria gassed its own people that I won’t be allowed to buy food or pay my electrical bills?

    • What’s funny, is that’s exactly how the system in Cuba works…and yet there’s still a legitimate-illegitimate capitalist economy that exists in parallel. There has to be, or everyone would die.

      This ‘cashless’ stuff is the same sort of exaggerated promise of tyrants as Lenin and his claims that electrifying Russia through slave labor would increase productivity to the point that the serfs could all retire (that was the exact sales pitch, btw; sounds similar to the universal income guys, don’t it?). OK, so we can process economic transactions some small percentage more efficiently (in theory). In exchange for what, though? Loss of privacy, economic freedom, ability to dispose of wealth to future generations, and a veritable Sword of Damocles above the heads of every consumer that threatens to destroy their existence in a manner reminiscent of Idiocracy (“no tattoo!”), 1984 (“un-persons”), or Brazil (the ‘clerical error’ that sees the lead character tortured to death)

        • Unless someone or something intervenes, I think we will be there within 15 years: banks will refuse to serve people with the “wrong” values.

    • Your fear is very real(quoting):
      “The objective of such studies is to acquire the know-how to set the public economy into a predictable state of motion or change, even a controlled self-destructive state of motion which will convince the public that certain “expert” people should take control of the money system and reestablish security (rather than liberty and justice) for all. When the subject citizens are rendered unable to control their financial affairs, they, of course, become totally enslaved, a source of cheap labor. ” end quoting. -Silent Weapons for quiet Wars, Operations Research Technical Manual
      TW-SW7905.1 Dept of the Navy, Office of Naval Intelligence

    • I have posted this before but Lauren Southern created a video called “The Imminent Digital Exile” that highlights your concerns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGO1bI9q_U

      China is trying to roll out a state controlled Social Credit System that encompasses your entire life value: honesty in government affairs” (政务诚信), “commercial integrity” (商务诚信), “societal integrity” (社会诚信), and “judicial credibility” (司法公信). You can learn more here if you want more nightmare fuel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

      In America, private corporations have more unchecked power to control speech and commerce than the Federal government so we are seeing the tyranny actually coming to fruition here first from the private sector.

  3. Ever wonder why government hasn’t smashed crypto currencies yet? Remember when they shut down people making silver and gold coins for money and convicted them of a crime? Yet they have a private bank making their own fiat notes to be lent to the US for their currency needs.

    In Japan, it wasn’t common for businesses to accept credit cards. People paid in cash…

    • Ultimately, the system they want is all digital and you will use things like your phone to pay for everything.

      The cell phone is one of governments favorite tools to use to track, spy, collect personal data (for a dossier) and control the people.

      Shifting the payment method from plastic cards to solely your cell phone is a goal they are working on. In some Asian countries you can pay for some services by swiping your phone, using an attachment for the phone to swipe a card or you take a picture of a unique code. RFID/NFC can be used to pay for toll roads, public transportation and gasoline.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8AvpsimQAs

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKCiWDMLAaw

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj2Fh8aX148

      You can imagine the control they will have.

    • They can’t “smash cryptocurrencies” the best they could do is go after end points in the system where cryptocurrencies are exchanged for state currencies, and that’s easier said than done. The state is not all powerful. Despite it’s size, the US government doesn’t have the resources to put a stranglehold on human liberty. Nothing is stopping any of us from acquiring whatever we want, regardless of legality. As long as you’re smart about it and understand how law enforcement actually works, you won’t be caught.

      • Tracking you on the network isn’t hard. It’s much harder to keep yourself hidden. They have total control of the network.

        Once they make the decision to get rid of crypto (I don’t think they will because it benefits them) people are not going to invest in something that has no growth potential and exchange points are not going to risk going to prison for 15 years. Businesses are not going to want any traces of crypto to fiat being on their systems… A virtual item is not worth the risk — you can’t take the money and run.

  5. Won’t matter, we’ll be living as serfs without any civil liberties at that point anyway.

    • Americans already work half the time for the government. They have to give up their cars to register to drive on roads, they have to pay a yearly fee to rent land they paid for, they have to register themselves with the government to get a unique number for taxation and work purposes. I hear that Americans have to use a government ID more than Japanese people will ever have to.

  6. Some European countries are moving towards cashless, but I don’t see it happening in the USA. Not for a *long* time, anyways.

    Americans have a different concept of privacy, and value it.

    We will demand the right to pay for our drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling debts, etc. without leaving a paper trail…

    • That’s why they have a Facebook. They became as big as they are because of Americans.

      I don’t know why Americans act surprised that all the personal information you gave to a company is being used by the company. That’s the whole point of them requiring your personal information to use their service. They make money off the data they acquire from you, that’s how they can not charge you for their service. The government loves companies like this because they do all the work for them, which is why the big tech companies are located in California.

      I remember when people first started to post pictures or videos of themselves online. Just one picture was enough data to figure out where that person lives. No surprise that attractive girls ended up having some guy from the internet following them around in real life.

      Now people put everything on the internet: cell phone numbers, addresses, licenses plates, personal photos, relationship status, their schedule, etc. Young people wear masks at political events because they know once you see their face you can learn almost everything about them via the internet — they call it “doxing.” This leads to girls being stalked by murderous psychos without even knowing it, immature passive bullies sending SWAT teams to someone’s home to try to get them murdered, internet tyrants harassing and coercing businesses to fire someone because they didn’t like the things coming out of their heads and so on.

  7. No guns? Who the fuck is retarded enough to believe that toothpaste is going back in the tube?

    Guns are available world wide for those that want them. Just like booze. Drugs. And anything else that big brother outlaws.

    • Donald Trump wants to murder (unlicensed) drug dealers. Muslims think the same way and they actually do it. So Trump has something in common with extremists.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyrLCWVpIdM&t=45s

      If people allow government to control and punish with extreme measures, they will generously carry out the death penalty for a lot of different unlawful things. Do drugs, get the death penalty. Make weapons, get the death penalty. Own a gun, get the death penalty.

      • Cops would hate this, as anyone who has a gun and wants to keep it will potentially fight to the death, since they would have nothing left to lose.

  8. YES…all part of the endtime. No buying or selling without the mark of the BEAST…digitized dough,no privacy and heavens no firearms. No secret stash,no hustle jobs ,no control and no cash transactions. That’s the endgame…oh and already underway in India.

      • India=1.3 billion souls. Sweden=less than Illinois. India is the next superpower. They’ve already destroyed the savings of hundreds of millions of lower caste people. Wait’ll they replace all USA bills…oh and Sweden gets zero sympathy from me.

        • “They’ve already destroyed the savings of hundreds of millions of lower caste people.”

          Yeah, heard about that.

          It’s a bit more complex in terms of how it happened.

          What they did was, they announced they were discontinuing all notes r500 and higher, at a certain date.

          They were free to deposit the large notes in a bank up to a certain date.

          In effect, they were forcing the citizens to declare their wealth to the government. They were having bad problems with public corruption.

          So that if a lowly civil servant suddenly deposits a massive fortune they could tax them on it. The lower castes tend not to trust the government (likely with good reason!) The don’t trust banks and tend to keep it at home.

          The ones who had money they shouldn’t have had were the ones who got burned.

          It was considered to be a cagey move by the government to fight public corruption…

          https://mashable.com/2016/11/09/india-scraps-rs-500-1000-currency-notes-corruption-terrorism/#2HSElRAbWqqx

  9. Don’t worry, the one world government will be in power and will protect us all

  11. I suspect it’s a pipedream in multiple regards.

    While some people may want a cashless economy for the control it provides I suspect the majority of people do not want such a thing and won’t accept it.

    Further, some companies will go along but others, seeing an opportunity for a bigger slice of a $30B/year (and growing) industry will not. Especially because compound interest, which Einstein noted is the most powerful force in the universe.

    Finally, even IF everything went “cashless” there would other ways to pay for firearms. It’s not an industry that’s going away without 2A repeal and that simply isn’t going to happen.

    • They couldn’t convert us to the metric system and they think they going to get cashless? Nigga, pleasz.

      • It’s not just that. Ever tried to use a credit or debit card during a power outage? No one even has the carbon paper slider things anymore so you’re SOL on that.

        People ain’t gonna put up with that shit.

        • New credit cards don’t even have raised numbers, some don’t even have numbers printed on the front, and I’m pretty sure credit card companies wouldn’t honor transactions done that way anymore regardless.

        • Credit cards can be manually entered into the machine in case the chip and the strip fail.

          Time was a power outage meant you went back to a carbon slider and then entered the transaction into the machine when the power came back. I did this exact procedure as recently as 2006.

          Raised numbers or not depends on the issuing company. I have both. The replacement Amex card I got just last week have raised numbers just like they always have.

        • “No one even has the carbon paper slider things anymore so you’re SOL on that.”

          I believe the term is ‘zip-zap’ machine…

  12. “Will a Cashless Future Also Be Gunless?”

    WILL A LAW OFFICE EVER GO PAPERLESS?? ? ?

    Take out any credit/debit card in your wallet and cram it wrist deep in your ass if you think it constitutes any form of ‘currency’.

    “Guns” are an evergreen and continuously springing idea that will outlive the idea of stupid idiots asking how long they’ll be around.

    Only the Federal Reserve (at the behest of the U.S. Federal Treasury) prints “money”. Everyone else is a glommer.

  13. Going cashless is one of the most insidious things a government could do to it’s people, however I can see the younger generation embracing it like Jews fresh off the cattle cars embracing a nice hot shower.

    • It suddenly strikes me, is using checks (remember those?) considered “cashless”? If so, I’m close right now. Although plastic cards. I’m entitled, cuz I’m old.

  14. I would be the cash less thing is actually going the other direction. Besides it would be antidiversity and discriminate against “undocumented immigrants”/wetbacks and can’t be doin that.

    • This is probably the biggest roadblock to America going cashless – the side that wants to enhance government power is also the side that professes to champion the people it would most hurt. Oh who am I kidding? They throw the illegals under the bus in a nanosecond if it gives them more power over us. Then they’ll blame Republicans.

  15. Crypto currency is the future. Not necessarily Bitcoin but many crypto currencies. They are not issued, controlled or tracked by governments and that terrifies the collectivists.

    In the mean time, I’ll pay cash for all my guns.

    • I think current crypto currencies are a scam, a pyramid scheme, a ponzi scheme. They are “created” through using resources to create a virtual item that is supposed to be “money.” It’s like how Valve creates a digital market place where you put in Dollars (or resources) and get some virtual item that is supposed to be of value to you in the real world. Ultimately, you have to convert that virtual item to some kind of real world “money,” be it a physical item or a government’s currency. That virtual item can’t be melted down and reformed into something new; it holds no real world value and can easily be taken away without sending a body to get it. You are simply wasting real world resources to create an item that doesn’t exist.

      The government doesn’t care so much about crypto currencies because they can benefit from them and they can easily shut them down. It’s not a threat to them or the banks. Governments might even start their own or license companies.

      I rather spend money on a gun and ammo than a piece of a crypto currency. I rather own some precious metals that are used for various things. Young people think differently, they don’t mind virtual items that require the internet.

      • They think life is a video game, apparently also believing it is played on a flat Earth. And, I’ll bet my bippy on a gold coin a jullion times before throwing money away on “bitcoin”. They are very clearly a scam.

  16. Oh I’m sure some shit will be pulled in the future. It won’t matter. We are rapidly breaking down as a society due to cultural marxism. There will be a breaking point, and all the paper money (or electronic for that matter) in the world won’t stop pissed of group of hungey and disenfranchised people.

    DiNapoli needs to be tried and sentenced to death for treason. Period.

  18. The recent breakthroughs in medical implant chip and RFID technologies have increased interest in the mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation chapter 13. It is possible that the technology we are seeing today represents the beginning stages of what may eventually be used as the mark of the beast. It is important to realize that a medical implant chip is not the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast will be something given only to those who worship the Antichrist. Having a medical or financial microchip inserted into your right hand or forehead is not the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast will be an end-times identification required by the Antichrist in order to buy or sell, and it will be given only to those who worship the Antichrist.

    • Antichrist, huh? Is there a season on them, or is it like piggies? Shoot the mofo, mount and hang in Cabella’s, end of story. Especially if we also shoot anyone crazy enough to think that shit is real, or try to convince others it is.

  19. I must be the only gun owner that likes being cashless.

    Thanks to Steam and cryptocurrencies, I was able to buy a box of ammo the other day with a PayPal balance that was filled up by random people on the Internet.

    Some of them likely anti-gun. It’s great.

  20. No and No. Too many businesses will either only take cash or offer a discount for cash. So while the usage of cash will decline over time, too many people still use cash for it to be eliminated entirely.

    And as for a gun free future? The market will provide despite distortions caused. Someone will think there is money to be made providing to this market.

  22. We’ve been cashless for decades. Fiat currency is only “backed” by debts owed to the Chicoms and other countries who hate us.

  23. The Leftists want to force a baker, against his personal religious beliefs, to create a cake for a gay wedding by utilizing “public accommodation’ laws while at the same time they want powerful corporations to refuse to serve businesses that are legally providing arms to citizens so that the citizens can exercise their Constitional right to bear arms.

    I guess we need a Federal public accommodation law that simply states that publicly-traded corporations must serve all legal citizens and all legal transactions equally.

    • I think “publicly traded” is an excellent line of demarcation. Family owned bakery serves who they please. Publicly traded chain or whatever serves all comers.

      • Glad you noticed.

        The large, publicly-traded, corporations have become so powerful they are defeating the purpose of the Electoral College.

        The corporations are promoting mob rule like the direct democracy utilizing polls through network television portrayed in the sci-fi series Max Headroom.

  24. As a guy that hates debt, I love cash. As a manager of an air conditioning supply store I had several smaller contractors that did business with me in cash. The debt hating part of me liked that. These guys were never going to have their account cut off for non payment and were never going to spend money they didn’t have.

    As the manager I hated it. I had to secure cash, count it, ensure I was able to make change for it, then I had to take it to the bank where if I had more than 10 grand, they wanted my SSN to report the transaction to the Feds even though the money went into a corporate account. With credit cards, the system added up the take and I applied it to my books. I had a very high margin business with a fairly large transaction average so the fees weren’t a major consideration. Power outages were a bear, not only because we couldn’t access the CC system, but also because we couln’t look anything up or check inventory.

    In the end though, I think cash is freedom. Everyone should have to accept cash so that liberty may flourish. giving into a cashless society is giving into the beast.

  25. “Control the coinage and the courts. Let the rabble have the rest” -Jacob Broom

    When a government has control of these two things, they decide what is legal/illegal.
    And they decide when and where resources may move (“hydraulic despotism”- control the people by shutting off things like water, food, etc.)

  26. After the proof of concept is done using the EBR as the subject, how long will it take for other mandatory virtue signaling controls to be put in place? “We won’t do business with any company obtaining loans for fossil fuel powered vehicles.” Or non-eco approved houses or you can’t buy meat with our credit card. The opportunities for this fascist social control are endless and are greatly accelerated with the trend toward credit/cashless.

  27. Never be a gunless society , but the current status of feel like buying a gun , run out and buy one , these days are already numbered and a cashless society will absolutely see an end to most manufacturing and sale of firearms as we have know it for hundreds of years . Cashless changes everything . No more black market of anything as it has existed for centuries . You will still have guns , even if they are banned and made illegal to own . All black market will be barter , the original form of exchange of goods . The barter price of a firearm will be beyond the reach of most average people because the penalty will be so extreme , but as I have been predicting ( warning ) for some time , buy now , while you can and , of coarse you must immediately throw your purchase in the ocean , but buy , buy , buy , if you are so inclined , because a barter firearm could prove to be as valuable as gold , ounce for ounce , and if all this shit doesn’t hit the fan , they still hold their value . The digitization of the worlds monetary systems into a single digital currency is inevitable , it’s already been gamed out and worked out by the globalist and is actually being implemented into some of the worlds largest SECULAR economies , the religious nations will be last . It is foretold in scriptures and is approaching fast . A single catastrophic economic event may be all that is needed for worldwide implementation .

  28. This is why I shamelessly promote cryptocurrency whenever I can. For those who think it is a scam, well, that’s cool. To each his own. But in the meantime, the “scam” is putting some extra change in my pocket and is helping me buy things without the need for cash, banks, credit cards, or Paypal.

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