Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 1

China or the U.S.: Which Will Be the Last Nation Standing?

by Richard Heinberg article link

Posted Feb 3, 2010

Silly me. Here I had thought that world leaders would want to keep their nations from collapsing. They must be working hard to prevent currency collapse, financial system collapse, food system collapse, social collapse, environmental collapse, and the onset of general, overwhelming misery—right? But no, that's not what the evidence suggests. Increasingly I am forced to conclude that the object of the game that world leaders are actually playing is not to avoid collapse; it's simply to postpone it a while so as to be the last nation to go down, so yours can have the chance to pick the others' carcasses before it meets the same fate.

I know, that sounds unbearably cynical. And in fact it may not accurately describe the conscious attitudes of leaders of some smaller nations. But for the U.S. and China, arguably the countries most likely to lead the way for the rest of the world, actions speak louder than words. ...

For these two nations, avoiding collapse would require solving a range of enormous problems, of which at least four are non-negotiable: climate change; peak fossil fuels (in effect, stagnating and, soon, declining energy supplies); the inherent instability of growth-based financial systems; and the vulnerability of food systems to factors like fresh water scarcity and soil erosion (in addition to global warming and fuel scarcity). If they fail to address any one of these, societal collapse is inevitable—in a few decades certainly, but perhaps in just the next few years.

So how are our contestants doing? There's not much to report on the climate score—just vague promises for future action. So their apparent strategy in this case is to delay (not to delay the impacts, mind you, but to delay efforts to address the problem).

Likewise, there is little positive action occurring regarding food systems: the assumption appears to be that conventional industrial agriculture—which is responsible for most of the global food system's enormous and growing vulnerabilities—will somehow shoulder the task of feeding seven to nine billion humans. We just need to continue with what we are already doing, but on a larger scale and using more gene-engineered crop varieties.

Officially, peak energy is not even a concern, so evidently the strategy being adopted here is denial. We'll see how that works out.

How about the financial mess? Here the U.S. and China are in situations so different that a more extended discussion seems justified.

China Surges to the Lead!

The U.S. is in debt up to its eyeballs and has mortgaged the paychecks of every generation approximately until hell freezes over in order to bail out its "too-big-to-fail" banks. In contrast, China has piles of cash (resulting from its enormous trade surpluses) and has bought a mountain of U.S. debt in order to keep its main customer's currency from losing value. It would seem that, in this department, one nation is set to flag while the other is poised to leap into first place as world economic superpower. ...

And that happens to be the conventional wisdom on the subject. It's not hard to find commentators who say the United States is a has-been for a variety of reasons. In addition to its huge debt burden, the U.S. also suffers from a shrinking manufacturing base, a big trade deficit, eroding quality of education, and a foreign policy that serves the interests of arms manufacturers while undermining the long-term interests of the nation. Regarding the last of these items, a 2006 World Public Opinion poll showed large majorities in four leading ally nations (Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and Indonesia), together accounting for a third of the Muslim world's population, believe the U.S. is determined to destroy or undermine Islam. Within those countries, most people surveyed support attacks on American targets. And it just so happens that most of the world's future oil supplies will be coming from Muslim nations. Brilliant.

By contrast, China is enjoying springtime on amphetamines. It now has the biggest car market in the world. And, according to Stuart Staniford in a recent fact-filled article, "if present trends continue, the Chinese expressway system will likely grow larger than the U.S. interstate highway system within the next couple of years, and Chinese car ownership will exceed U.S. car ownership by somewhere in the neighborhood of 2017." As of 2010 China is the leading producer of hydroelectric and solar power and by 2011 will be the top producer of wind power. China's smart grid investments dwarf those of the U.S. by 200 to one. The Chinese are also investing heavily in nuclear energy. Staniford goes on: "Oversimplifying greatly, it's as though the U.S. borrowed a pile of money from China in order to fight a war to free up oil supply in Iraq in order that China could become the greatest industrial power the world has ever seen."

China's foreign policy consists largely of buying friends by purchasing rights to oil, gas, coal, and other resources (in Canada, Australia, Venezuela, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and throughout Africa), while the U.S. spends money it doesn't have rooting out bad guys and making more enemies in the process. ...

... China has been the primary beneficiary of globalization, and it has been largely insulated from the financial crisis. For the West, and the U.S. in particular, the crisis was an internally-generated event [that] led to the collapse of the financial system.

For China, it was an external shock [that] has hurt exports, but left the financial, political, and economic system unscathed. ...

China Stumbles!

... there is a school of thought that says China's apparently unstoppable economic miracle is a bubble waiting to burst. Beijing's housing market is overheated, like that of Las Vegas circa 2006. Last year, the Chinese economy enjoyed 9 percent GDP growth—on paper. But in order to achieve that goal, the government and banks had to loan out 30 percent of China's GDP (the rate of growth in loans accelerated during the latter part of the year; at year-end rates, banks were on track to loan out an amount equal to the nation's entire GDP in 2010). In any case, much of that growth probably occurred through speculation on real estate and questionable stocks.

Generally, China is at a Wild West stage of economic development: it is a collection of powerful local capitalist power bases unaccountable to anyone, all jockeying to create and inflate assets and credit. While the central government has recently exerted control over the banks, its ability to halt regional Ponzi schemes is still limited. ...

Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 1

Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 2

What Does It Mean to "Win"?

... So: How is the U.S. doing today in terms of collapse preparedness as compared to China?

After six decades of nearly uninterrupted economic growth, Americans have developed unrealistic expectations about the future. They are urbanized consumers whose manufacturing capability has shriveled and whose practical survival skills are in most cases vestigial. The Chinese, in contrast, have less of a steep fall ahead of them. Most still dwell in the countryside, and many who live in the cities are only one generation removed from subsistence agriculture and can still draw on their own, or their parents', practical skills learned during decades of poverty and immersion in a traditional farming culture.

Both nations face fierce political challenges. In the U.S., the central government has reached nearly complete paralysis: it is evidently incapable of solving even relatively minor problems, and confidence in it among the citizenry has largely evaporated. Political leaders have succeeded in polarizing the people geographically with "hot-button" issues, few of which have anything to do with the factors currently undermining the nation's ability to survive. The Chinese central government appears far more capable of acting decisively and strategically, but it is confronted with nasty facts of geography and history: there is an extreme and growing economic and social division between the wealthy coastal cities and the poor, rural interior; and a demographic schism between those 40 years old or younger who have high economic expectations, and the older generation who grew up under Mao, with an ethic of collectivism and self-sacrifice. The young, especially, have accepted a trade-off between civil freedoms and economic prosperity. If the latter is not delivered, there will be shrill demands for the former. These divisions are so deep and profound that they could tear society apart if expectations are dashed—and the leaders know this.

Thus, in the event of collapse, both nations face the possibility of a breakdown in their political systems, entailing widespread violence (uprisings and crackdowns).

The Geopolitics of Collapse

It's easy to see the advantage of collapse preparedness for the citizenry—with better preparation, more will survive. But does a higher survival rate during and after collapse translate to some sort of geopolitical advantage?

The process of collapse will be determined by many factors, some hard to predict, and so it is difficult to know the size or scope of the political power structure that might re-emerge in either country. It's possible that one nation, or both, could devolve into smaller political units squabbling among themselves and unable to engage much in global jockeying for resources. All new political units emerging within the present territories of China or the U.S. would be immediately beset with enormous practical problems, including poverty, hunger, environmental disasters, and mass migrations.

Presumably some potent weaponry from the age of global warfare would remain intact and usable, so it is possible in principle that one or another of these smaller political entities could assert itself on the world stage as a short-lived, bargain-basement empire of limited geographic scope. But even in that case "winning" the collapse race would be small comfort.

The possibility of armed conflict between the two powers prior to mutual collapse is not to be entirely excluded if, for example, U.S. efforts to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions were to set off a deadly chain reaction of attacks and counter-attacks possibly involving Israel, with world powers being forced to choose sides; or if the U.S. were to persist in arming Taiwan. But neither the U.S. nor China wants a direct mutual military confrontation, and both nations are highly motivated to avoid one. Thus all-out nuclear war—still the worst-case imaginable scenario for homo sapiens and planet Earth—seems thankfully unlikely, though in the few decades ahead the use of some of these weapons, on some occasions, by one nation or another, is probable. ...

How likely is the prospect for the last nation standing to be able to, as I put it in the first paragraph above, "pick the carcasses" of its competitors? Such a scenario presupposes that one nation will be able to stay on its feet for at least a few years after others fall. But this may not be possible. Recall the prophetic words of Joseph Tainter in The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988):

"A nation today can no longer unilaterally collapse, for if any national government disintegrates, its population and territory will be absorbed by some other [or bailed out by international agencies]. ... Collapse, if and when it comes again, will this time be global. No longer can any individual nation collapse."

When the U.S.S.R. crashed, the U.S. and various multinational corporations were able to sweep in and gobble up some of the treasure left lying around. One example: U.S. nuclear power plants have for many years been using uranium fuel cannibalized from old Soviet missile warheads. Soon, international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF helped organize new financial structures for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Estonia, and the other nations born from Soviet political and economic disintegration, so as to limit and reverse the process of social disintegration that had already passed beyond its early stages.

But now the game has changed. A collapse of the U.S. would leave China devastated. Not only would Beijing lose its main customer, but the hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of treasury notes it has accumulated would be rendered worthless. If China were internally stable, such impacts could be absorbed with difficulty. But in light of China's own simmering social and financial predicaments, a U.S. collapse would almost certainly be enough to tip Beijing's economy into a tailspin, resulting in both social and political crises.

A collapse of China would similarly devastate the U.S. Obviously, the loss of a source of cheap consumer products would discomfit WalMart shoppers, but the shock soon would go much deeper. The Treasury would lose its main foreign buyer of government debt, which means that the Fed would be forced to step in and monetize that debt (in common parlance, "turn on the printing presses"), undermining the dollar's value. The result: a hyperinflationary economic crash. Such a crash is probably inevitable at some point anyway, but a collapse of the Chinese system would hasten and worsen it.

In neither instance would international institutions be capable of preventing substantial social and political fall-out. The last nation standing would not stand for long. We have reached the stage where, as Tainter says, "World civilization will disintegrate as a whole."

Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 2

Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 3

The Transition Marathon

Okay, so there is no serious effort on the part of U.S. or Chinese leaders to avoid collapse in the long run (say, over the next 10 to 20 years). Perhaps this is because they have concluded that it is impossible to do so—there are just too many trends leading in the same direction, and actually dealing with any of those trends head-on would entail huge, immediate political risks. In reality, however, it is much more likely that they simply refuse seriously to think about these trends and their implications, because they do have another option—to postpone collapse through deficit spending, bailouts, and more financial bubbles, while enacting their parts in a climate-policy kabuki play and engaging in resource geopolitics. This way blame will at least fall on the next set of leaders. Postponing collapse is itself a big job, enough so as to take all of one's attention away from having to contemplate the awfulness and inevitability of what is being postponed.

Do these short-term efforts in any way reduce the risk of dissolution? Hardly. In fact, the longer the reckoning is delayed, the worse it will be.

What would make more sense than just trying to put off the inevitable is quite simply to build resilience throughout society, re-localizing basic social systems involving food, manufacture, and finance. There is no need to rehearse the existing discourse about this strategy: readers who are not familiar with it can find plenty of useful pointers at transitiontowns.org, or in the books and articles of authors such as Rob Hopkins, Albert Bates, David Holmgren, Pat Murphy, and Sharon Astyk (and in some of my own writings, including Museletter #192).

It is understandably hard for national politicians to think along those lines. Building societal resilience means disregarding the dictates of economic efficiency; it means systematically reducing the power of the central government and national/global commercial institutions (banks and corporations). It also means questioning the central dogma of our modern world: the efficacy and possibility of unending economic growth.

So if the best outcome lies in a strategy of resilience and re-localization, and our national leaders can't even contemplate such a strategy, that means those leaders are, in one sense at least, irrelevant to our future.

Some blog readers are so in tune with this line of thinking that they no longer see any point in paying attention to the global scene. They may even think this article is a waste of time (and I expect to get an email or two to that effect). But following world events is more than a matter of infotainment: when and how China and the U.S. come apart at the seams is a question of far greater consequence than that of whether the New Orleans Saints or the Indianapolis Colts will win the Superbowl. The reality is that no nation, and no community will be able to completely protect itself from the sudden, harsh winds that will rush to fill the vacuum left by an implosion of either superpower.

By the way, my apologies to the other 190 or so nations of the world, large and small: my singling out of the U.S. and China for discussion does not signify that other countries are unimportant, or that their destinies will not be as unique as their cultures and geographies; merely that those destinies will probably unfold in the context of a global collapse spreading from the two nations we have been discussing. For any nation—India, Bolivia, Russia, Brazil, South Africa—and for any community or family, survival will require some comprehension of the direction of large events, so as to get out of the way when debris is flying and to anticipate opportunities to regroup. ...

Richard Heinberg MuseLetter web page

post carbon institute home page

Richard Heinberg: Last Nation Standing 3

Mankind's Thin Veneer Of Humanity

God is an influence in the world and is influenced *by* the world ... the God "agency"; how we construct our identity(-ies) [I approve of myself ??] - *prosecution* by war is an illegal act !! - a "War On Terror" by use of a War *of* Terror is criminal; this is not disarmament of Iraq/Afghanistan, this is the dismemberment by the corporate; one tyrant replaced by another: former "benefactors" claiming the OIL PRIZE and geo-political position !! -- WAR INDUCED HUMAN COSTS HAVE TO BE BORNE BY ALL, INCLUDING THE *GUILT* !! -- the "corporate war" has continued long after the initial military fighting ended: MONEY LOVES WAR !! - engendering continued conflict, the taking from the "peace" to pay/reward those who made/make war possible is INSANITY: "WEAPONIZING BRUTALITY" IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, NOT SOMETHING TO PROFIT FROM !! - many victimized people have-and-will-be abandoned to ensure corporate success, maintenance, and reconstruction - THE RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMANITY MUST BE OUR PRIORITY, *OUR* HUMANITY !! -- WE MUST GRIEVE OUR RESORTING TO VIOLENCE !!

God's SWORD [SacredWORD] is NOT the "knife-edge of extinction" !! - mankind's thin veneer of humanity is easily cut/ripped, and many enter and/or are pushed through !! - appreciation/gratitude is necessary for, and an aspect of, a deeper level of awareness, but requires a form of faith in the giver, and identification with the gift: WAR IS NOT THE GIFT OF PEACE [a "peace" to conduct business is NOT the Peace of God] !! - PEACE IS NOT A BUSINESS TERM; PEACE IS A GOD TERM [can only be defined in terms of God (Agape Love)] !! - a peace imposed and then enforced is NOT "peace" !! - the introduction of war [by those complicit] under the guise [pretext] of humanitarian intervention vs. brutality, in support of benefactor claim, is of itself the "same" brutality [as previously supported] -- Business is sedation of God-consciousness [we are asleep to LIFE, to a "true" Life (God *is* Truth)]; MAMMON CONSIDERED AS SAVIOR !! -- WAR IS A TESTAMENT TO OUR *FAILURE* AS HUMAN-"BEINGS", OF OUR HUMANITY !!

Mankind's Thin Veneer Of Humanity

Paul Craig Roberts: Rule by the Rich

Rule by the Rich

by Paul Craig Roberts article link

Global Research, January 27, 2010

Creators Syndicate - 2010-01-25

The election of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate by Democratic voters in Massachusetts sends President Obama a message. Voters perceive that Obama’s administration has morphed into a Bush-Cheney government. Obama has reneged on every promise he made, from ending wars, to closing Gitmo, to providing health care for Americans, to curtailing the domestic police state, to putting the interests of dispossessed Americans ahead of the interests of the rich banksters who robbed Americans of their homes and pensions.

But what can Obama do other then spout more rhetoric?

The Democrats were destroyed as an independent party by jobs offshoring and so-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA. The effect of"globalism" has been to destroy the industrial and manufacturing unions, thus leaving the Democrats without a power base and source of funding.

Obama and the Democrats cannot be an opposition party, because Democrats are as dependent as Republicans on corporate interest groups for campaign funding.

The Democrats have to support war and the police state if they want funding from the military/security complex. They have to make the health care bill into a subsidy for private insurance if they want funding from the insurance companies. They have to abandon the American people for the rich banksters if they want funding from the financial lobby.

Now that the five Republicans on the Supreme Court have overturned decades of U.S. law and given corporations the ability to buy every American election, Democrats and Republicans can be nothing but pawns for a plutocracy.

Most Americans are hard pressed, but the corporations have only begun to milk them.

Wars are too profitable for the armaments industry to ever end. High unemployment is now a permanent state in the U.S., thus coercing job seekers into military service.

The security industry profits from the police state and regards civil liberties as a hindrance to profits. By announcing that he intends to continue the Bush policy of indefinite detention, a violation of the Constitution and U.S. legal procedures, Obama has granted the Democratic Party’s consent to the Republicans’ destruction of habeas corpus, the main bastion of individual liberty.

Jobs offshoring is too profitable for U.S. corporations for Obama to be able to save American jobs and restart the broken economy.

Americans are being squeezed out of health care not only by the loss of job benefits, but also by corporate takeover of medical practice from physicians. Today medical doctors are wage slaves of corporate health providers that leverage doctors by turning them into supervisors of physician assistants, lower-paid people without medical degrees who perform the services that doctors once provided. As neither doctor nor physician assistant has any independence, there is no one to represent the patient’s care against the profits of the corporation.

Even environmental concerns are being used to create "cap and trade" rights to buy and sell the ability to pollute. Wall Street is licking its lips over a new source of leveraged derivative instruments.

The American public cannot even get reliable information about their plight as the "MainStream Media" has been concentrated into a few corporate hands that do not permit independent reporting. The media is as dependent on corporate money as are politicians.

How can President Obama restart an economy that has been moved offshore? Millions of manufacturing jobs are gone, as are millions of jobs for college graduates, such as software engineering, Information Technology--indeed, any intellectual skill the product of which can be conveyed via the Internet. Even those intellectual skill jobs that do remain in the U.S. are filled increasingly by foreigners brought in on work visas.

The wipeout of blue collar and middle class job growth has stopped the growth of American incomes except, of course, those of the super rich. For a decade American consumers substituted increased personal indebtedness for income growth. In order to maintain and to increase their consumption, Americans consumed their assets, such as their home equity. Americans reached their maximum debt load just as the real estate bubble burst and just as the banksters highly-leveraged, toxic financial instruments brought down the stock market and the values of Americans’ pensions.

The enormous damage done to the U.S. economy by jobs offshoring, work visas, and financial deregulation cannot be offset by government stimulus plans, which expand the debt burdens that are crushing Americans. The federal government’s massive budget deficits and the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy are setting the stage for an inflationary depression to follow a deflationary depression.

The Federal Reserve chairman says not to worry about inflation, because the Fed can take the money back out of the economy. But can the Fed take the money out without contracting the economy?

The Federal Reserve says not to worry about financing the federal budget deficit. Banksters are buying the Treasury bonds with the proceeds from their sales of their toxic derivatives to the Fed.

So what is happening to the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet? And when will the Fed have no recourse but to print new money in order to finance the federal deficit?

How long can the dollar retain its reserve currency role in such circumstances, and how does the U.S. pay for its imports when this role is lost?

Don’t look to Washington for answers to these questions.

© Copyright Paul Craig Roberts, Creators Syndicate, 2010

The Financial Crisis Is Not Over. The Economic Recovery is "Not Real"

by Paul Craig Roberts

Global Research article link

It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt

Global Research article link

The Economic Collapse article link

The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy

by Prof Noam Chomsky

Global Research article link

Global Research home page

The Economic Collapse home page

Paul Craig Roberts: Rule by the Rich

Freedom In Service To Control

MM Addendum 1-20

Confidence is faith in-and-of one’s self; we must achieve self-confidence and confidence in/of-and-with God(-Family) – there is no greater enemy than one’s own fears (real or imagined) – our fears will be/are manipulated / controlled by our would-be protectors/saviors, the very same who created/produced the very systemic to which we are so inured; their/its fears have become/are our fears, yet they/it fear us the most – the banality of evil, our complicity, our sin, must be recognized and repented of; only then will we be response-able.

Each and every Human Being is essential to, and for, the survival of the Human Race; the SAGE Agenda will ensure the elimination of the “systemic unneeded” as a resultant; the very survival of the majority of Humankind is threatened; this is Holocaust on a massive scale, systemic extermination (as previously exampled in Russia/Germany pre-/during WWII, and as preliminarily exampled in today’s world: 30-50M needless deaths/yr., one sacrificial death per 1M$ of world economy (to maintain value and markets); to extrapolate further, 1000 Human Beings die/are sacrificed each and every year to maintain the value held by one Billionaire); SAGE authority is considered supra-divine, as Messianic, as binding/bound in Heaven as-well-as on Earth; the SAGE are beyond consideration and examination by the vulgar; Mammon’s systemic/mechanisms ensure and enforce privacy and compliance; the “Bilderberg Meetings”, previously private, are now a vulgarization for public focus/consumption, seeming “approval at large”.

MM Addendum 1-22

The more fear there is in the world, the more people are willing to be ideologically imprisoned and shackled – imprisoned within the prevailing SAGE national systemics, the mechanisms of subjugation and control; democratic-fascism must produce (as a profit/loss) supposed-freedom(s) as its operating theatre (freedom as servant/in service to control); usurpation /misuse/misrule of the “power of the people”, now used against the same and against those considered outside; the idolization, the apotheosis(-sys) of the Nation-State (the identification with, and the defense of); obedience /obeisance as measure (of freedom(s)/of right(s) of Mammon) — Governments ensure/effect compliance — “war is terrorism of the rich against the poor; terrorism is war of the poor against the rich” [quote: BBC.Intelligence2(squared), Debate, Sat.Jan.19.08] — the 1700’s, the “New World” Order established – the concept of America is the “wool pulled over the eyes” by the SAGE (grievous wolves in sheep’s clothing) and their “merchant nation”. ...

MM Addendum 1 web page

MM Addendum 1 blog home

Freedom In Service To Control

Richard Skaff: The Terror Card 1

The Terror Card: Fear is the Key to Obedience

The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)

By Rev. Richard Skaff article link

January 31, 2010 "Global Research"

Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. [1].

However, the United States code defined terrorism as “(An) act of terrorism means an activity that (A) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any state, and (B) appears to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population: (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping.” [2].

This is an official congressional definition of terrorism that applies only to other nations. However, the psychological end results of terror, is always fear that eventually leads to resignation and submission. Fear and terrorism are interconnected, therefore, we should discuss their connection in order to understand their impact on our behavior, and their use to control people. Fear has been the glue that has kept people attached to their dictators and to their gods. It is worth our time to take a brief look at this phenomenon that rules our existence.

Fear is the key to obedience

Man’s self-awareness is the progenitor of his alienation, fear, egocentrism, and anxiety; therefore, the unexamined life is worth living for the human herds, because it gives them a sense of false security and pseudo-belonging. Fear is the ulcer of the masses that cripples their psyche and vanquishes their freedom. [3].

Biblically speaking, fear was always used by the clergies to ensure that people would obey the rules that were allegedly bestowed by God upon humanity to avoid burning in hell. These rules were actually written by men to control the masses and to perpetuate the power of the religious leaders. As a result, telling the truth and challenging the establishment will only lead to ridicule, crucifixion, and death.

Unfortunately, fear is the driving force and the main psychological component of terror. Fear incapacitates people and renders them impotent. Fear is conducive to regressive behaviors by responsible adults, where people become dependent on an illusory parent figure like the government or a corporation per example, in order to protect them from the evildoers. So they become willing to relinquish their most intimate and sacred rights in order to feel safe. [3]. ...

The media has been spreading terror for years in the hearts of the American public, in order to force them to watch their trivial programming. Just as in Orwell’s Oceania , the airwaves are bombarded with 24 hours news channels that would resort to any twisted strategy to keep their distorted coverage going. “If it bleeds it leads. The airwaves are also inundated with shows and stories that promote fear, exaggeration of situations, twisting of the truth, psychological propaganda, bloody and gory stories, and buzz words (i.e. flesh eating bacteria, shark attacks on our shores, weapons of mass destruction, SARS, West Nile virus, carjacking, hijacking, war of the sexes, violence, epidemics, pandemics, child abductions, gay marriages, bird flu, H1N1, and so forth and so on). All designed to frighten, brainwash, manipulate, create conflict, confuse, liberalize, and mesmerize their audiences into watching their programs where anything is acceptable. “Instill fear in them and they shall watch and follow”. This is a policy of terror not of democracy. [3]. ...

Purpose of terrorism

According to Herman and O’Sullivan, terrorism has served other purposes in the West beyond mobilizing of populations in support of counterinsurgency operations in the provinces. It created a generalized fearfulness and irrationality that give leaders greater freedom of action. Per example, the Reagan administration needed a terrorism threat tied to a foreign enemy to justify its enormous arms buildup of the early 1980s and to distract attention from its regressive economic and social and social policies. [5]. Thorstein Veblen (American economist and social critic) pointed out in 1904 that militarization to combat a foreign enemy is the natural and best hope of the American elite as “a corrective for ‘social unrest’ and similar disorders of civilized life” and as the route to “popular submission and squalor.” [6]. Therefore, opponents of militarization and harsh measures against dissident minorities are paralyzed by terrorism propaganda, and it is very difficult to do something that demagogues can interpret as “helping terrorists.” ...

Racism as a tool to promote terrorism and suspend natural rights

Give up your freedom or die! That is the logo that most Americans believe in at this point of time as told by their government. What is a loss of a few sacred rights when we can keep you safe and alive, our government asks? In addition, our government implies that they are not discriminating against you, but they are only targeting a specific ethnic and/or racial group who doesn't look like you and who wants to kill you. It’s our holy (Jihad) war against the evil dark skinned man versus the good and pure white Christian man (even though purity is a myth and humanity is a pool of mutt who has shagged each other for thousands of centuries). The government will also tell us that they will use the terrorists’ violent tactics to eradicate as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the dogma of our alleged born again U.S. Christian government.

Historically, every dominant race and culture has appointed itself as the supreme one and the rest had to follow. In contrast to the bible, the meek shall not inherit the earth, but shall perish like an insignificant cockroach. Racism like hate and destructiveness is part of the human character. It is definitely a great political tool to create division among the masses in order to dominate them; in addition, down-grading people justifies their eradication. The establishment has the ability to define a race and to alter that same definition based on the political climate of the day. The illusion of belonging to a superior group helps compensates for the person who feels like a flee, and in lieu the group membership leads him to feel like a giant by appealing to his or her narcissistic biases. Group narcissism is a key factor in racism. It is fueled and perpetuated by politicians. Racism and fear go hand in hand. Fear is a natural response for self-preservation. By connecting fear to racism and artificially inducing it in people, weakens the masses and divides them, fabricates consent, and makes racism a mechanism of pseudo self-preservation. [3]. ...

Richard Skaff: The Terror Card 1

Richard Skaff: The Terror Card 2

A brief view of The Terrorism Industrial Complex (TIC)?

According to Herman and O’Sullivan, the terrorism industrial complex consists of security agencies closely connected to the government. Many of their employees are previous government employees from the intelligence community and the military.

The private sector terrorism experts in the west who reaches the mass media are generally affiliated with the terrorism industry institutes and think tanks. A large fraction of these experts also has revolving-door relationships with governments and government intelligence agencies, and many are connected with private security firms.

They therefore reflect official views and a state agenda, and they rarely depart from the assumptions of the western model of terrorism. Some of the experts have a material interest in “threat inflation.” [5]. The security industry serves business and government; it therefore approaches “terrorism” from the standpoint of its employers and principals. Some segments, especially those providing security services and recruiting and training mercenaries, are often arms of the government that carry out covert actions for which the government does not want to admit responsibility.

Leaders of the security business organize and participate regularly in conferences, hearings, and seminars on terrorism, and are experts consulted by the media to explain and show how to cope with the terrorist threat. Because of their structural position and role, members of the security industry look at terrorism strictly within the frame of the Western model. And they have a material interest in inflating the threat of terrorism in order to elevate, their own importance as supplier of counterterrorism services. Since the West engages in and supports a primary terrorism under the guise of responding to the violence of others, the security industry naturally gravitates to the support of and participation in real terrorism, as exemplified by advising the Guatemalan and Honduran military on apprehending and interrogating so-called terrorists and aiding the Nicaraguan contras. In the West this is all known as counterterrorism. [5].

The industry naturally excludes the terrorism of the West and its clients from the terrorism agenda, and in fact, makes primary terrorist like the governments of South Africa and El Salvador victims of terrorism engaging in counterterrorism. The press follows closely in the terrorism industry’s wake. ...

Manufacturing terrorism

There are several forms of manufactured terrorism. One is the inflation of the menace on the basis of modest and not very threatening but conceivable real actions (as with the weather underground and the West German Kurds). Another is the false transfer of the responsibility for a terrorist act to a convenient villain, as in the case of Agca's shooting of the pope. The spate of terrorist bombings in western Europe during the early and mid-1980s had the earmarks of being, at least in part, manufactured terrorism. The bombings were all too convenient for Western propaganda needs; many of them, especially those directed against NATO installations , were symbolic and ineffectual. [5]. The examples of manufactured terrorism are innumerable, and will continue to go on and on to advance Western governments political agendas. Terrorism is also manufactured in the private sector to incriminate union leaders, activists, and political enemies, sometimes in collusion with agents of the state. In addition, the West has produced an industry of institutes and experts who formulate and channel analysis and information in accordance with Western demands. These institutes as part of Terrorism Industrial Complex are designed to give authoritative status to experts who will confirm and reinforce state propaganda, to occupy the informational space that might otherwise be used by dissident voices, and thus to ensure closure of fact and opinion. The government and corporate wealthy nourish the institutes and think tanks that service and sponsor suitable intellectuals and journalists who will convey the proper messages. The function of experts is merely to clarify and elaborate on pre-established truths, which reflects an effective propaganda system. [5].

Terrorism as a tool for power and for grand theft of public money

As we have seen, there are several factors that influence terrorism and they're all connected and manipulated to serve political purposes, in order for the elite to increase their wealth, power, and global domination. The key ingredient to take away people's money, long standing systemic privileges, and their natural rights such as freedom is for governments to snatch it in increments through what social psychologists call the inoculation effect. Per example, you don't take away people’s social security privileges overnight, instead you will surreptitiously do it in small doses by regularly and gradually reducing these benefits to nothing, while the herds become totally desensitized to the idea of losing it. Like religious leaders, our public-private partnership (PPP) democratic governments have consistently and regularly robbed the proles [the common man] of their money. Through taxation and inflation (indirect tax) induced and justified by deliberate and profligate spending to finance their alleged political agendas, they have transferred the wealth of nations to themselves and to their other half in the global private industry. Meanwhile, contrived terror will continue to be a great tool of control and wealth for the elites who have rendered their mercenaries and bandits into famous terrorists and global stars.

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U.S. Agrees To Timetable For UN Gun Ban

NAGR Gun Rights Blog

U.S. agrees to timetable for UN Gun Ban

January 12th, 2010 article link

The United Nations and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are moving forward with their plan to confiscate your guns.

The United States joined 152 other countries in support of the Arms Trade Treaty Resolution, which establishes the dates for the 2012 UN conference intended to attack American sovereignty by stripping Americans of the right to keep and bear arms.

Working groups of anti-gun countries will begin scripting language for the conference this year, creating a blueprint for other countries when they meet at the full conference.

The stakes couldn’t be higher.

Former United Nation’s ambassador John Bolton has cautioned gun owners about the Arms Trade Treaty and says the UN “is trying to act as though this is really just a treaty about international arms trade between nation states, but there’s no doubt that the real agenda here is domestic firearms control.”

Establishing the dates for the Arms Trade Treaty Conference is just the first step toward their plans for total gun confiscation.

The worldwide gun control mob will ensure the passage of an egregious, anti-gun treaty …

... and that’s where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton steps in.

Once the UN Gun Ban is passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations it must be ratified by each nation, including the United States.

As an arch enemy of gun owners, Clinton has pledged to push the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty. She will push for passage of this outrageous treaty designed to register, ban and CONFISCATE firearms owned by private citizens like YOU.

That’s why it’s vital you sign the special petition I’ve made up for your signature that DEMANDS your U.S. Senators vote AGAINST ratification of the UN’s “Small Arms Treaty.”

So far, the gun-grabbers have successfully kept the exact wording of their new scheme under wraps.

But looking at previous versions of the UN “Small Arms Treaty,” you and I can get a good idea of what’s likely in the works.

Don’t let any of the “experts” lull you to sleep by saying “Oh, we have it handled” or “Until you know exactly what’s in the treaty you can’t fight against it.”

Judging by Ambassador Bolton’s comments — who certainly knows what to expect from the American-freedom-hating international crowd that infests the U.N. — we are certain the treaty’s going to address the private ownership of firearms.

If passed by the UN and ratified by the U.S. Senate (which is where we must ultimately make our stand), the UN “Small Arms Treaty” would almost certainly FORCE national governments to:

* Enact tougher licensing requirements, making law-abiding citizens cut through even more bureaucratic red tape just to own a firearm legally;

* CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms (all firearms owned by the government are excluded, of course);

* BAN the trade, sale and private ownership of ALL semi-automatic weapons;

* Create an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION. So please click here to sign the petition to your U.S. Senators before it’s too late!

You see, this is NOT a fight we can afford to lose.

Here’s what you can do to help the National Association for Gun Rights fight Hillary Clinton and her United Nations cronies:

• Click here and sign our petition to DEMAND that your United States Senators vote AGAINST the United Nations Small Arms Treaty.

• Forward this petition to your friends and relatives who share your concern for American sovereignty and protecting our right to keep and bear arms.

• Please consider making a generous contribution to the National Association for Gun Rights to help us fight Hillary Clinton and the United Nations “Small Arms Treaty.”

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U.S. Agrees To Timetable For UN Gun Ban

Porter Stansberry: The Bankruptcy of the United States

The Bankruptcy of the United States is Now Certain

by Porter Stansberry article link

It's one of those numbers that's so unbelievable you have to actually think about it for a while... Within the next 12 months, the U.S. Treasury will have to refinance $2 trillion in short-term debt. And that's not counting any additional deficit spending, which is estimated to be around $1.5 trillion. Put the two numbers together. Then ask yourself, how in the world can the Treasury borrow $3.5 trillion in only one year? That's an amount equal to nearly 30% of our entire GDP. And we're the world's biggest economy. Where will the money come from?

How did we end up with so much short-term debt? Like most entities that have far too much debt - whether subprime borrowers, GM, Fannie, or GE - the U.S. Treasury has tried to minimize its interest burden by borrowing for short durations and then "rolling over" the loans when they come due. As they say on Wall Street, "a rolling debt collects no moss." What they mean is, as long as you can extend the debt, you have no problem. Unfortunately, that leads folks to take on ever greater amounts of debt... at ever shorter durations... at ever lower interest rates. Sooner or later, the creditors wake up and ask themselves: What are the chances I will ever actually be repaid? And that's when the trouble starts. Interest rates go up dramatically. Funding costs soar. The party is over. Bankruptcy is next.

When governments go bankrupt it's called "a default." Currency speculators figured out how to accurately predict when a country would default. Two well-known economists - Alan Greenspan and Pablo Guidotti - published the secret formula in a 1999 academic paper. That's why the formula is called the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. The rule states: To avoid a default, countries should maintain hard currency reserves equal to at least 100% of their short-term foreign debt maturities. The world's largest money management firm, PIMCO, explains the rule this way: "The minimum benchmark of reserves equal to at least 100% of short-term external debt is known as the Greenspan-Guidotti rule. Greenspan-Guidotti is perhaps the single concept of reserve adequacy that has the most adherents and empirical support."

The principle behind the rule is simple. If you can't pay off all of your foreign debts in the next 12 months, you're a terrible credit risk. Speculators are going to target your bonds and your currency, making it impossible to refinance your debts. A default is assured.

So how does America rank on the Greenspan-Guidotti scale? It's a guaranteed default. The U.S. holds gold, oil, and foreign currency in reserve. The U.S. has 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold (it is the world's largest holder). That's 16,267,000 pounds. At current dollar values, it's worth around $300 billion. The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve shows a current total position of 725 million barrels. At current dollar prices, that's roughly $58 billion worth of oil. And according to the IMF, the U.S. has $136 billion in foreign currency reserves. So altogether... that's around $500 billion of reserves. Our short-term foreign debts are far bigger.

According to the U.S. Treasury, $2 trillion worth of debt will mature in the next 12 months. So looking only at short-term debt, we know the Treasury will have to finance at least $2 trillion worth of maturing debt in the next 12 months. That might not cause a crisis if we were still funding our national debt internally. But since 1985, we've been a net debtor to the world. Today, foreigners own 44% of all our debts, which means we owe foreign creditors at least $880 billion in the next 12 months - an amount far larger than our reserves.

Keep in mind, this only covers our existing debts. The Office of Management and Budget is predicting a $1.5 trillion budget deficit over the next year. That puts our total funding requirements on the order of $3.5 trillion over the next 12 months.

So... where will the money come from? Total domestic savings in the U.S. are only around $600 billion annually. Even if we all put every penny of our savings into U.S. Treasury debt, we're still going to come up nearly $3 trillion short. That's an annual funding requirement equal to roughly 40% of GDP. Where is the money going to come from? From our foreign creditors? Not according to Greenspan-Guidotti. And not according to the Indian or the Russian central bank, which have stopped buying Treasury bills and begun to buy enormous amounts of gold. The Indians bought 200 metric tonnes this month. Sources in Russia say the central bank there will double its gold reserves.

So where will the money come from? The printing press. The Federal Reserve has already monetized nearly $2 trillion worth of Treasury debt and mortgage debt. This weakens the value of the dollar and devalues our existing Treasury bonds. Sooner or later, our creditors will face a stark choice: Hold our bonds and continue to see the value diminish slowly, or try to escape to gold and see the value of their U.S. bonds plummet.

One thing they're not going to do is buy more of our debt. Which central banks will abandon the dollar next? Brazil, Korea, and Chile. These are the three largest central banks that own the least amount of gold. None own even 1% of their total reserves in gold.

I examined these issues in much greater detail in the most recent issue of my newsletter, Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory, which we published last Friday. Coincidentally, the New York Times repeated our warnings - nearly word for word - in its paper today. (They didn't mention Greenspan-Guidotti, however... It's a real secret of international speculators.)

Crux Note: The S&A Digest comes free with a subscription to Porter Stansberry's Investment Advisory. Porter says his latest issue is the most important he's ever written. If you don't act right now to protect yourself from the dollar, he thinks the odds are very high you'll be wiped out over the next 12 months. To learn more, click here: www.thedailycrux.com

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Porter Stansberry: The Bankruptcy of the United States

Bob Chapman: Global Insolvency

The Market Oracle: Global Insolvency, How will the U.S. Service its Debt?

Posted on February 3, 2010 article link

Global Insolvency, How will the U.S. Service its Debt?

Economics / US Debt

Feb 03, 2010

By: Bob Chapman

The administration says it will cut non-defense discretionary spending by about 13%, but they just increased such spending by 17%. We might ask why didn’t they just rescind the increase? The reason is there can be no deficit reductions. In fact, if there is not more stimuli added then the economy will dip back into depression. This is the same mistake FDR made in 1937, and as a result America had to create another war to save itself from collapse. FDR’s methods are what are being used today and as in the 1930s, they won’t work today. Both are Keynesian nightmares created to put ultimate power into the hands of the elitists so they can force the world to accept world government. The tactics being used now are the same as in the 1930s, a 2-stage depression to be followed by a WWIII. We are now seeing the 1934 type rebound, that could last a few years, if enough stimuli are supplied. Deficits do not produce a solid recovery; they create a transitory recovery. Business knows this and as a result they won’t commit to expansion. They have no confidence in such plans, because they know once stimulus stops the economy will fall back again.

Adding more to the soup 40 states are essentially broke. Do you really think the crisis is over with 22.5% unemployment? We do not think so. There is no easy exit short of a purge of the system, which is inevitable. Any kind of stringent financial reform will bring the system down. Aggressive bank lending would bring about more monetization and more inflation. The markets believe it is back to business as usual. The only events that can bring us back to reality is a purging of the system and the end of Wall Street and the banking control of our country. The revolving door between Washington and NYC has to be dismantled. The credit system is broken and has to be changed and fixed. The shift has begun. The reign of Goldman Sachs over our government is in the process of ending. The successor will be JP Morgan Chase, which has been and will be every bit as bad as Goldman as been. The control is going to change but not the looting of the American people. The changes won’t come and the system will collapse, that is how the elitists retain control over our country. The final war for our freedom is underway.

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Bob Chapman: Global Insolvency

Sondra Shepley: Greed Is God

Greed is God: Exporting the Values of America’s Prosperity Heresy

by Sondra Shepley blog link

01-27-2010

America, dominating the global economy, imports more goods than it exports. What is less tangible, but possibly more important, is how America exports its values to a rapidly interconnecting global society.

Arguably, most wars that America has fought aim to export U.S. values of freedom and democracy. However, a major lesson from Vietnam reveals that military intervention as a means to change values and political ideology can often backfire with indefatigable resistance. Today, we see Islamic extremists using terror as a means to communicate their values in opposition to Western ideals. However, if terrorism is fundamentally a form communication, what values do we represent when we respond militarily? We have chosen to speak their “language” of violence, and only time will tell if we will dominate the conversation.

Changing global values through the economy, however, is a completely different matter. We are winning this fight; we are changing how the world fiscally relates. What economic credo are we exporting to the rest of the world, you might ask?

Jim Wallis names that credo, “greed is good,” in his new book Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street—A Moral Compass for the New Economy. Wallis rightly assesses the current global financial crisis as primarily a moral crisis with severe economic consequences.

But McDonalds, Nike, Coca Cola, along with all other major U.S. corporations, have not been alone in the trenches winning this global values shift. I am particularly embarrassed to say that they have received significant help from one of the very establishments that should confront this immorality — American Christianity.

Perhaps one of America’s biggest exports of the 20th and 21st centuries is the prosperity gospel. Growing like wildfire internationally, this brand of Christianity says that every believer is entitled to any material possession they desire — if prayed in the name of Jesus.

The prosperity gospel has such transnational appeal because it taps into the universal self-interest of the human heart. However, when repackaged in a theological context greed is not merely good, it’s God.

Ironically, the prosperity gospel has found its most fertile ground in developing nations, where conspicuous and bloated consumption is the least realistic. Poorer nations are more susceptible to this lie not out of greed per se, but because of its inherent germ of truth: God does want us to be prosperous. God’s emphasis, however, is on us, not just me. Probably the most quoted Bible verse among Evangelical Christians is John 3:16. It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…” God’s heart is for the entire world, not just for me, my family, or my country. In other words, prosperity achieved through social justice is the theological corrective to the prosperity gospel.

In the absence of a global gospel witness that includes social justice, poor nations will eagerly receive a false prosperity gospel hungering to hear the incredible sliver of truth: God cares about them! All of them, not just their soul, but their whole physical and spiritual well-being.

The gravitational center of Christianity is shifting in our world. By the year 2050, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that the Christian population in the global South will nearly triple that of American and European Christians. This century, the global South is poised to radically reshape the international face, witness, and history of Christianity. In many ways the Church should highly welcome this enormous shift, freeing itself from its historical captivity to Western culture. However, as scripture says, you ‘sow what you reap’, and I wonder what will sprout from the greedy gospel we planted among our sisters and brothers in the global South?

Our exported American lie, based on our value of greed, is a sin of global proportions. May we repent, and may God forgive us for the mass production of our immoral values. May we also confess and seek the forgiveness of the nations to whom we sold this bill of goods.

Sondra Shepley is the speaking events manager for Sojourners.

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Sondra Shepley: Greed Is God

Gerry Spence: We, The New Slaves

We, the New Slaves

by Gerry Spence blog link

January 25, 2010

We are the new slaves, enslaved by the Corporate King. The king disguises itself as our democratic government. But it lies to us and betrays us. The king owns our minds.

We are the new slaves, enslaved by the king’s propaganda and lies. We are told we are free. But money controls all, and the people have little. The money I speak of buys elections and lying politicians who are the minions of the Corporate King. The Supreme Court, itself owned by the Corporate King, has just delivered our country over to the power of money with the court’s latest decision in which it proclaims that the king may spend whatever the king wishes to further enslave the people, by feeding the people lies, feeding their prejudices, feeding their fear, feeding their hatreds and suspicions and claiming it is all for their benefit and their freedom.

We are the new slaves, enslaved by the king’s voice, the television that educates us and our children, that corrupts our values with violence, that dumbs us down so we can no longer think for ourselves. We turn to the tube to think for us. It tells us what gadgets, what things to buy and how to become further enslaved to pay for them. We once enslaved the aborigines in this country by trading them trinkets and mirrors in exchange for their land. It is an old trick that those in power play on the powerless. We are the powerless.

We are the new slaves. We are enslaved by banks and their demand for interest. The banks own our homes. We pay the banks rent in the form of interest, and we keep up their property at our expense. The banks are the soul of the Corporate King. But king is governed by no moral code. The king is governed only by its greed.

We are the new slaves. We pay tribute to the Corporate King from the sweat of our bodies to finance the king’s wars, wars not for our benefit, but for the king’s further enrichment and power. Our people die in such wars. Our people die without adequate health care. Millions of our children go to bed at night hungry and uneducated. The king does not care. It cares only for its wars and its profit.

The king sits back and laughs. To control the minds of hundreds of millions of people is divine. But such power is in the hands of fools who are the collective mind of the Corporate King. That mind is terminally diseased with greed. And the people are in jeopardy, for the king will continue to betray the people and lie to the people until it has sucked out the last of our lives. The Corporate King is insane.

What shall a desperate people do? We will do nothing until we learn the truth of our slavery. Will it then be too late except to scream in the streets?

But the king is deaf.

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Gerry Spence: We, The New Slaves

Paul A. Moore: American Corporatocracy

"Information Clearing House"

American Corporatocracy

By Paul A. Moore article link

January 22, 2010

Schools teach that the United States of America is a democracy. The government was established as "of, by, and for the people" and later on, a President Abraham Lincoln called the nation's people to join and die in a civil war that such a thing might never perish from the earth. Aside from the extent the lesson was ever in accord with the truth, it has today become an outright absurdity. The Supreme Court has declared once and for all that the corporations will rule. The United States of America is now better described as a corporatocracy. The government is owned and dictated to by these capitalist creations whose God is Mammon.

Corporations are, of course, different from people. They are devoid of human emotion. They are constitutionally unable to generate empathy. They feel nothing if people suffer exploitation, if people live in misery, or if people die horribly. Union Carbide was unaffected by the thousands dead and dying in Bhopal. It registered only on the balance sheet, a $470-million loss taken for the sake of future corporate viability under a new name, Dow Chemical. The corporation will not be reasoned with, pleaded with, or shamed into changing course even when life on the planet hangs in the balance. McDonald's is in the process of teaching Starbucks that even the pretense of a social conscience is a losing marketing ploy.

The corporation recognizes and reacts only to threats to its air supply-profits. So in one sense corporations do share something with human beings. They have an instinct for self-preservation and if they are deprived of a life giving element they die. While human beings must have oxygen and water, the corporation's lifeblood is those quarterly profits. The corporation must make a profit and then ever greater profits into the future. Corporate profits must grow, forever! Irrational, impossible, unsustainable but that is in the nature of the beast-much as lemmings rush to the sea.

The parameters are the same in every corner of the globalized economy. The greatest possible profit is a product of the highest possible productivity and the lowest possible wage. US corporations have moved everything that isn't nailed down to lower wage countries. Nothing is made in today's de-industrialized United States. American consumer's service calls are answered in Ireland, India, the Philippines, and the Dominican Republic. Major League baseballs are made in Haiti and the recent deadly earthquake won't change that. AirJordans come out of Nike's sweatshops in Indonesia. Microsoft conducts 85% of its research in the US so Bill Gates fights to lift H-1B visa restrictions to bring the low wage high-tech workers here from India and Taiwan. Halliburton is now headquartered in Dubai and preparing to receive its old boss, Dick Cheney, in his retirement years.

To survive under their profit imperative corporations must undertake a never ending process of consolidation. There is consolidation by horizontal integration. For instance, numerous US corporations once dotted the auto making landscape. In the recent past it was down to the Big Three. Today Chrysler is doomed, Ford is on life support, and General Motors is on its knees. In the corporate world of the near future cars will be made in Japan, or China, or India. Ultimately, the industry will settle in one corporate entity.

There is consolidation by vertical integration and its champion is Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation. Wal-Mart has made a partner of the Chinese government. Working together, the partners have turned China into a vast subsistence-wage labor camp. China supplies Wal-Mart so it has no need of domestic vendors like the now destroyed Rubbermaid. Armed with the lowest production costs, Wal-Mart's rise up on every other street corner selling every commodity imaginable and every service the corporation can get its hooks into. Wal-Mart lays waste to local economies and then picks up the pieces to become the only butcher, baker and candlestick maker in town. The corporation recently moved to provide banking services in its stores.

The US government has been hollowed out during the rise to absolute power of the corporations. Elections have become an elaborate "reality show" that plays out on corporate television for viewers entertainment. If you watch FOX, your reality is filtered through Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp, NBC is General Electric news, CNN is Time/Warner news, ABC brings you into Disney's world, and Viacom regularly checks the iconic CBS news department to make sure Edward R. Murrow is still dead. That is when Viacom is not preparing America's youth for slavery and death through MTV and B.E.T.

The actual counting of the American people's votes is done by the corporations. Little wonder giant defense contractor United Technologies recently moved to take the job off Diebold's hands. Corporate sentinels, the lobbyists, roam the halls of government enforcing discipline among their hired hands, allowing the most servile to feed longest at the public trough. So the Congress has not passed legislation and the Supreme Court has not decided a case, in which significant wealth was involved, in favor of the people in thirty years. Each and every decision of US government now transfers wealth from the people to the corporate masters.

The corporations now have in their sights the last remaining institutional pillars of American democracy. The Business Roundtable, the Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation have been working mightily to crash the public schools. Wall Street is funding the effort to gain control of the Social Security trust fund for its investment bankers. And the whole corporate gang is intent on "starving the beast" or killing state and local governments. Their success in this effort is probably best expressed in Hawaii where the number of days children spend in school has been paired from 180 to 163, and in Detroit where teachers will give $500 a pay period back to the state, and in New Orleans where there are only a handful of public schools left, and in the states from California to New York to Florida where public school budgets have been slashed to the bone.

Then finally, there is the most ominous development of all. The corporations have begun forming their own Praetorian Guard. The massacre of Iraqi civilians and the patrolling of the hurricane ravaged streets of New Orleans have made Xe, formerly Blackwater Worldwide, formerly Blackwater USA, the most famous of the rising corporate armies. Contrary to any notion of cost effectiveness, mercenaries protect US State Department personnel in Iraq instead of the regular military. It seems not to make sense, unless the corporatocracy is looking ahead to a day when they can no longer trust the US military to carry out attacks on an American people's resistance.

Paul A. Moore

Public School Teacher

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Paul A. Moore: American Corporatocracy

Dropout Nation: The Lust For Profit 1

Dropout Nation

MAMMON, MONEY, MAYHEM AND MISERY

by Richard W. Posner (ColdWarBaby)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2010 article link (removed at site)

The lust for profit over life has debased human morality to a point nearly beyond recovery. It is and has been the primary cause of oppression, poverty, war and revolution throughout history. In my opinion, it has caused more conflict, suffering and death than even religion, though distinctions between state and church have at times been indistinguishable, each using the other when it seemed expedient. Since both exist for the purpose of controlling and subjugating populations, both share the burden of blame and guilt.

The source of all this malevolence, since the concept of representative currency was born, has always been those who seek to privatize and control economies in order to completely dominate the people, nations and societies of the entire world. These money masters have hidden behind all manner of governance and social structure. They have owned kings, emperors, presidents, dictators and heads of state of every description. They have been called monarchists, socialists, communists, royalists and claimed allegiance to every nation, religion and social order imaginable. It is only a matter of chance and the times we live in that they are today called free market capitalists.

They are a cabal of international bankers that has, at the beginning of the new millennium, nearly achieved the goal their cult has always sought; absolute control of the total, global economy. Whatever their names, no matter the titles or designations they are given or give themselves, they are still the same money changers that were allegedly driven out of Herod's temple by a man named Jesus. Whether that event is fact or myth, the money changers are very real and go back at least to ancient egypt. ...

As long as history has been recorded, a theme has recurred that has evidently failed to impress itself upon the masses of humanity. In every instance, in every society, civilization or empire, when the great bulk of wealth has become concentrated into the hands of the smallest segment of the population, utter ruin has followed as surely as is life by death. This is not a lesson taught in the typical history course. This scenario or one very much like it has been repeated many times throughout history. It is being reenacted once again in modern amerika and thereby spread to other nations around the world. Our educators have failed to impress the significance of this lesson upon our generations so we continue to suffer under the yoke of usury. ...

Conversely, when a true public system, governed by law, not private interests, is engaged, the resultant economy, with a more equitable distribution of wealth, generally results in greater prosperity for everyone. Some may have more than others but none are left wanting. The smaller the gap in riches, the more civil the society. The relative wealth of a few does not lead to the oppression and enslavement of the many. ...

It is only when the issuance and control of currency is ceded to the private sector and interest is charged for its use, that the ills of inflation, deflation and the profit motive begin to fracture a society. From the first day that an economy is privatized, all wealth begins an inexorable upward transfer into the hands of ever fewer individuals.

Once money is privatized and commodified it can no longer be considered true fiat currency. It has been moved outside the sphere of legal control. A fiat is a matter of law, not an instrument of private enterprise or a creation of nature.

Because it would show that privately controlled economies are nothing more than fraudulent ponzi schemes and highly detrimental to any society, the history of money and the truth of its manipulation has been largely ignored and frequently intentionally obscured by those fallaciously calling themselves economists. In some cases, even numismatists, whose business it is to study the history of money, have contributed to the obfuscation. Those who have become indoctrinated to the theoretical reasoning of the likes of Adam Smith and the Austrian School refuse to accept the facts on the ground and continue to insist that all currency must also be a commodity. ...

Note: excellent historical context/review/comments continue in article ...

... The purpose, the only purpose, of free market globalization is to assist the international banking cartel in the accumulation and concentration of all wealth into the hands of the smallest possible number of people. There is no interest in meeting human needs. Taken to its logical extreme the end result would be all wealth, down to the last square inch of the planet being the “private property” of a single individual. ...

Dropout Nation: The Lust For Profit 1

Dropout Nation: The Lust For Profit 2

War, The Most Profitable Of All Disasters

The fictional “War on Terrorism” is in fact not a war against anything but rather a war for an utterly unrestrained free market. It is the corner-stone for the latest stage in building the empire of mammon.

Many nations are not overly eager to be added to the list of the globalized and plundered. The terror war provides a ready excuse to pry open the doors of countries reluctant to submit willingly. If some naturally occurring crisis, a tsunami, an earthquake, is not conveniently at hand one can be easily fabricated; an economic collapse created by the "free" market, a "terrorist attack", a coup d'etat or the ever popular "peace keeping mission".

If all else fails, the threat of military intervention can always be applied. How simple for amerika to say "Your nation is harboring terrorists", " There are terrorist training camps in your country", You are in possession of weapons of mass destruction or best of all, "You are attempting to obtain nuclear weapons".

The perpetual war on terror is a free market wet dream. The enemy can be anyone, anywhere at any time.

War profiteering is nothing new but the boogeyman of global terrorism has taken disaster capitalism to a new level. Halliburton, Xe (formerly Blackwater), Bechtel, CACI, Titan, Aegis Defense Services and General Dynamics are just a few of the dozens of corporations that have capitalized on the death and destruction being wrought in iraq and afghanistan. Those are the only “wars” that get much attention these days. You may rest assured however, that wherever people are killing each other in noticeable numbers, there are multinational corporations providing whatever weapons and “services” the combatants can afford. Being very fair minded it’s also certain that they’re selling to both sides of any given conflict as the market allows.

The promotion and proliferation of disaster capitalism is a multifunction weapon. The utterly unrestrained exploitation of resources and disasters, both real and fabricated, reap windfall profits. Meanwhile the consequential degradation of the environment and the death toll from said disasters significantly reduces the numbers of the inferior lower classes. This leaves more resources and a smaller, more manageable slave-labor pool available for the exclusive use of the elite ruling class.

Welcome to Earth, the third world planet. ...

For once, let us honestly consider what capitalism really means. It exists for one purpose only and that is to obtain perpetual, unlimited “profit”. When the decisions of an individual or an “immortal corporate person” are motivated by that purpose, they are not made with the best interests of the human species or its environment in mind. Rather, they are made exclusively for the acquisition of wealth, property and power for the few at the expense of the many. Profit can only be had by one individual at the loss of another. ...

The concept of profit as motive is flawed from its inception. In such a system, things like scruples, honesty, fairness and ethics are not assets. They actually become very costly liabilities, which must be diligently avoided. ...

... This system not only demands that profit endless, but must also constantly increase both in amount and speed of accumulation. This in turn forces consumption and profit-taking to increase beyond the capacity of the environment to provide resources for exploitation. ...

Anyone who cannot see the intrinsic fallacy of such a system is delusional. These methods can be and have been applied to many isms throughout history. It is nothing more than the choice of words that makes capitalism the name of the system that is today destroying the human race. You may call it anything you like. No name given it will change the reality. If you call it communism and apply the same principles of transferring all wealth to a few individuals, the results will be the same. Call it socialism, democracy, monarchy, theocracy or despotism and it will still destroy humanity. Unless and until we can learn to live in Peace and share the Earth fairly with each other, things will only get worse. ...

The Best Things In Life Are Free?

Food, water, health, arable soil and all the resources that Earth (Gaia) provides for everyone, free of charge, are real wealth. What gives any individual the right to claim ownership of such resources? We can answer that question with a single word: MIGHT.

Money could be of benefit to all, were it not dominated by private interests. It is only when control of money is given over to the private sector, commodified and subjected to interest charges, that serious problems arise. The pretense that money has intrinsic value, that it constitutes wealth in and of itself is a fallacy. Again, money is a fiat of law, not a commodity or product of nature. As long as it is issued and controlled by private interests for profit, it will always be an instrument of usury. It will continue to enable a parasitic, psychopathic minority, which contributes nothing to humanity, to continue its ascendency to the self-proclaimed, godlike status it craves so desperately.

In order to move to the next level of "civilization", we must move to a global economy based on a uniform, international currency, which would eventually be transitioned to a resource-based economy requiring no currency at all.

Such an economy, based on the efficient and equitable distribution of resources, would lead to a world of freedom and equality such as has never before existed. In such a world, the people could devote most of their time and effort to expanding knowledge, advancing technology rationally and raising the awareness of the human species for the purpose of promoting its continued evolution. ...

That could lead to the first civilization on Earth.

There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.

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Joseph A. Palermo: Corporate Power

The Huffington Post

"Citizens United" for More Corporate Power

by Joseph A. Palermo article link

Author/Associate Professor of History

Posted: January 24, 2010 12:51 PM

With the Supreme Court ruling by the "Fabulous Five," Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a single corporation will be able tap into its deep pockets and disfranchise a million citizens. A group calling itself "Citizens United" has just won a fight to give huge corporations more control over our politics. Even the 1886 "ruling," Santa Clara Co. v. Southern Pacific, that established a corporation as "a person" was fraudulent. Now these fictive "persons" have been granted more political rights than real human beings. What's to stop these conglomerates from using their vast stores of cash to implant their servants at every level of municipal, state, and federal government? ...

Corporations are immortal. They don't need health care, or minimum wages, or pensions, or food stamps. They don't raise children and have families. They have no morality or ethics other than maximizing their profits. They are sociopathic. ...

And there are countless other examples of corporations egregiously violating societal norms and humane conduct that far exceed the level of damage that an individual citizen could ever cause, such as when Big Coal chews up rural communities with "mountain top removal" mining; or the McWayne foundry brutalizes its workers; or Cargill uses meat processing subcontractors that spread E. coli across the country; or Nestlé's rips off Sacramento's municipal water supply in a time of drought; or Wal-Mart and other "big box" stores obliterate main street America; or Blackwater and Haliburton profiteer from war; or media conglomerates function as corporate propaganda ministries; or Aetna and other health insurance giants prey on the American people like vultures; or ExxonMobil and the energy monopolies flaunt environmental laws and gouge consumers; or the financial services companies bring down the American economy and trade derivatives based on life insurance policies betting that Americans are going to die sooner than later; and so on, and on, and on.

Today, we have levels of inequality worse than the Gilded Age and the "trusts" are bigger, more powerful, and possess a global reach that is greater than ever. The corporations have already given the country years of disastrous public policy. The health care fiasco shows their power to pull the strings in Congress. And George W. Bush's Supreme Court drops enormous new political powers in the laps of these corporate behemoths? So much for Chief Justice John Roberts' promises during his confirmation hearing to respect stare decisis. Just when you think our politics couldn't get worse you get surprised again.

Wikipedia stare decisis

Stare decisis (Latin) is the legal principle by which judges are obliged to obey the precedents established by prior decisions. The words originate from the Latin phrase Stare decisis et non quieta movere, "Maintain what has been decided and do not alter that which has been established".

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Joseph A. Palermo: "Citizens United" for More Corporate Power

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NAME: ljmck comment page

Now corporations won't have to buy elected officials (although they will). Just running ads, a corporation can swing an election--no messy dickering with candidates necessary. They do not "speak," they advertize!

Targets: any politician who supports minimum wages, consumer protections (e.g., child protection caps on medicine), environmental protections (look for turn-of-the-century-coal-blinded-London right here), building regulations (we'll be the new Haiti), corporate taxes (only actual citizens will pay taxes). OSHA supporting politicians--gone. Banking protection--gone. Privacy--not if a corporation wants to know something about you (but they'll definitely increase their own privacy).

Corporations have a citizen's most important rights, but without the responsibilities. They don't vote and they don't join the military (just usurp it). They have multiple, global citizenship; try achieving that as an actual citizen. They don't need passports. They don't have to take a citizenship test if they were born overseas. They certainly don't make a voluntary pledge of allegiance. They don't have to register to vote--but make no mistake, they do vote (on the floor of the House and Senate). And they do exercise their freedom of choice concerning religion--their god is mammon. The one way these person/hoods resemble actual citizens is that they do cheat on their taxes.

Ain't it just wonderful--the freedoms of this country have been extended to person/hoods that have neither brains nor hearts nor conscience. They do have fists and very big feet. Monsters.

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Joseph A. Palermo: Corporate Power

Robert Koehler: The Source Of Corporate Power

Published on Thursday, January 28, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

The Source of Corporate Power

by Robert C. Koehler article link

"If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."

The words are those of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in last week's landmark Supreme Court decision marking some sort of culmination in the long corporate trek to personhood. It's the word "simply" that gets to me: Exxon-Pinocchio is a real boy now, and has his opinions, and the government has no right to stop him from "simply engaging in political speech."

What a cheap cover story; it's up there with "bringing democracy to Iraq" in its tawdry manipulation of iconic national values to justify a raw power grab. The 5-4 decision in the long-awaited Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case overturns restrictions on corporate spending to influence election results, giving entities with millions (in some cases, billions) of dollars at their disposal unlimited license to electioneer for the candidate with the friendliest attitude toward their interests.

The tendency of money and power is to concentrate, of course. The big trick, from a human perspective, is to make sure our core values remain pre-eminent, that they are served by the ways in which we concentrate power. Democracy is the great mechanism for doing so, the hope of the world, or so we are told, but the wakeup message in this nakedly cynical ruling by the Roberts Court, with its slim (but sufficient) right-wing majority, is that the concept of democracy is mortally wounded. ...

The interests of Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Coal, agribusiness, the financial sector, the insurance sector and, of course, the military-industrial complex, have infinitely more clout in government than the collective popular will and the voices calling for eco-sanity, universal health care and an end to war. Note: This is already the case.

Corporate entities have thoroughly gamed the system, leaving us with little more than a textbook-democracy façade. What the latest Supreme Court decision does is legitimize all this, shoving the corruption in our faces by declaring the absurd: Corporations are people too! They have a right to weigh in on the candidates just like the rest of us - to get their billion-dollar opinions out to the public throughout the election campaign. ...

The good news is that the decision has generated a huge outpouring of anger around the country. Within a day of the ruling, the website MoveToAmend.org had garnered some 40,000 signatures (it's now close to 50,000) in support of a constitutional amendment to establish that money is not speech and only human beings have constitutional rights. The amendment would also guarantee our right to vote and participate in elections, and to have our votes count. ...

No matter what, though, the Roberts Court has hastened the propagandizing of the national discourse, mostly through the medium of television, as corporate interests amp up their thought-control machines in the name of free speech. I see little hope for a gullible nation that allows the tube to hemorrhage urgent inanities directly into its consciousness for 18 hours a day. This gullibility is the source of corporate power. Democracy can only thrive where people think for themselves.

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Robert Koehler: The Source Of Corporate Power

Evil Growing Deeper 1

BBC: Iraq inquiry hears defiant Blair say: I'd do it again article link

BBC: Blair questions remain after Iraq evidence article link

Friday, 29 January 2010

Evil Growing Deeper

The threat to an Islamic future perception; humiliation deeply felt by many Arabs; Arab helplessness, vulnerability to western power/force is being exploited to "the extreme" - the "manner" of US/UK Policy was-and-is the determinant, the "promise/reaction" equation vs. an imposed corporate oil-garchy, and its new economy addressing Iraqi nationalism/tribalism; the psychological impact of continued US/UK occupation !! - the Sunni [many still Ba'athist] vs. the majority Shiite [Kurds 20% of population]; Sunni/Shiite violence / retribution [EVIL GROWING DEEPER; ROOTS OF CONTINUED CONFLICT] -- the "corporate" western perception continually voiced by the media [the rhyme and reason], is a shell of deception: the imposed [SAGE] systemic and their imposed compliant regime(s) [FREEDOM | BUSINESS]; LIBERATION BY SYSTEMIC ENSLAVEMENT !! - DEMOCRACY DOES *NOT* ARRIVE IN A TANK !! - WINNING A WAR DOES *NOT* EXCUSE IT, especially when you are cleaning up your own mess [and creating another in the process] !!

"Post-conflict reconstruction" in the image-and-likeness of the US/UK [the imposition of "democratic-fascism", the corporate "blare" (media), the unholy, burning (war systemic) "bush" continues - the secular Thorn Ministry: the SAGE] -- the Arab and Islamic "world" perception of the US/UK "agenda", the (self-)protection of [corporate] interest(s), remains: WAR DOES NOT CHANGE EMBEDDED PERCEPTION(S), IT SHARPENS AND STRENGTHENS THEM !! - the imposition claimed by self-proclaimed friends and liberators [occupation denied] of a compliant government does not give "legitimacy" to the corporate agenda in Iraq / Afghanistan [by-and-through democratic imperialism; a single, sovereign authority] -- deep fundamental change in the culture(s) of the Middle East has been, and will be, sought and achieved by MAMMON [war is the first stage in its imposition], first by the Mammonization of elites [already achieved], then the populace [removing the whip from the elites, and putting the whip in the hands of the slaves] - Islamic Mammon | Christian Mammon [claim; democratic gradualism | Mammonization]: Mammon is Mammon no matter the flavor - THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE [GOD] WILL HOLD MOST IN SERVITUDE TO, OR IN MAINTENANCE OF, MAMMON !! - people are *held and (ab)used* by the commodification of life !!

Evil Growing Deeper 1