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Guest Post: The New Civil Wars Within The West
Submitted by www.oilprice.com
The New Civil Wars Within the West
Internecine civil wars are underway almost everywhere within the West, and most virulently in the United States of America. They are not yet kinetic wars, but wars of grinding prepositioning, the kind which lead to foregone conclusions without a shot being fired. They are wars of survival, nonetheless, because the basic architecture for national strength is being altered incrementally or dramatically. And, in many cases, consciously.
Almost all of the strategic restructuring of states is occurring in large part as a result of an accumulation of wealth; an accumulation and value of which is seen as permanent. This has resulted in the hubris — expressed by those who did not earn it — of triumph in the Cold War. This is a Western phenomenon because the widespread growth of wealth, the creation of freedoms classically associated with democracy, resulted — as it must inevitably result — in complacencies which in turn led to a “vote too far”: the extension of the democratic franchise to those who do not help in the creation of wealth.
Once the voting franchise of the West reached the point where those who sought benefits outweighed those who created benefits, the tipping point was reached. The situation of de facto “class warfare” thus emerges automatically under such circumstances, and the envy of those who take against those who provide erupts into “rights” and “entitlement”. By deifying “democracy” above justice, the enfranchised non-producers could always outvote the producers. We are at this point. The result can only be collapse, or restructuring around a Cæsar or a Bonaparte until, eventually, a productive hierarchy reappears, usually after considerable pain.
The United States of America
Virtually every conscious step of the Administration of Pres. Barack Obama and the overwhelming Democratic Party majority in Congress has been to increase the size and role of government in the economy and society, and to decrease, limit, and control the position of private enterprise and capital formation. Given that this progressively contracts and ultimately eliminates production, and reduces the inherent asset base of the country — its raw materials and productive intellect — to a null value, the tradable value of the US currency will inevitably decline. We cannot be swayed by the enormous wealth of the North American continent. Almost all areas have an inherent wealth of some kind, but assets left idle in the ground or infertile in the brain define countries which fail, or are not victorious in their quest for unbridled sovereignty.
Thus, a decline in currency value is exacerbated, or accelerated, by the increasing supply of money, inextricably depreciating its value, particularly at a time of decreasing productivity in vital perishable and non-perishable output.
The US Obama Administration has focused entirely on an agenda of expanding government — the seizure of the envied (and often ephemeral) “wealth” of the producers — without addressing the process of facilitating the production of essential commodities and goods. Even the USSR and the People’s Republic of China, during their communist periods, focused — albeit badly — on the production of goods and services, when they realized that the “wealth” to be “redistributed” existed only as the result of production and innovation. The US, meanwhile, heavily as a result of policies of the former Clinton Administration, has “outsourced” production, and the State — that is, the Government — cannot easily, in the US, become the producer.
Pres. Obama has addressed the US’ economic crisis by expanding government, and government-related, employment in non-productive sectors, while at the same time blaming and punishing the private sector for all of the US’ ills. Empowered by the extended franchise, this was the politics of envy now becoming enabled.
Moreover, the populist, short-term response to the major oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico was clearly geared toward (a) transforming a crisis into an opportunity to pursue a green energy agenda by highlighting the evils of the fossil fuels on which the US remains dependent; (b) ensuring that the President was not blamed for the poor crisis response; and (c) ensuring that the Democratic Party did not suffer from the crisis in the November 2010 mid-term Congressional elections.
The result of all the Obama initiatives has been to expand government and reduce or absolutely control and tax the private sector, even though, without the private sector, the US has no viable export or self-sustaining capability. The net effect has been to mirror — and overtake — the situation in which, for example, Germany found itself a decade ago: without the ability to retain capital investment or attract new capital investment.
And in order to restrain capital flight from the US, the Obama Administration seeks to further control worldwide earnings of US corporations and citizens. For other reasons, the US, believing that it still dominates the technology arena, has imposed greater and greater restrictions on international exports of technology through its ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
All of this conspires to limit investment in US manufacturing and restrict foreign interest in US exports because the regulations are being enforced merely for political punitive reasons. The US is making itself increasingly unappealing to foreign investors and has, as this writer has noted, made the appeal of the US dollar as the global reserve currency evaporate, saved, for the moment, only by the lack of a ready alternative. That situation will change within a very few years.
Thus, the US has, in the space of a couple of years: (i) so dramatically inflated money supply that the value of the dollar is only shored up by the lack of international alternative currencies to act as reserve trading currencies; (ii) so dramatically inflated public debt, without stimulating economic growth, that US economic performance will continue to decline on a national and a per capita basis while competitive economies, such as the PRC and Russia, will grow, reducing strategic differentials; (iii) severely punished the private sector, thereby reducing the opportunities and incentives for strategic capital formation, and in particular punishing the industrial production and energy sectors, almost ensuring major dislocation to the delivery of US basic needs in the near-term; and (iv) so blatantly reduced its strategic capabilities through all of these actions and in its diplomatic and military posture as to guarantee a reduction in US strategic credibility. Concurrent with all of this is an increasingly punitive taxation framework.
The near-term impact will include rising domestic energy prices, possibly even before the November 2010 mid-term Congressional elections, which could result in the Democratic Party losing its substantial majority in both Houses. Even on this matter, Democratic Party ideologues have attempted to suggest that this is exactly what the country needs: expensive energy in order to facilitate change to “green” solutions. This defies the historical reality that pre-eminent powers must always have vast energy surpluses and use.
So much damage has been done to the US strategic posture in just two years (although building on a base of inefficiencies which have been growing since the end of the Cold War), in many respects equal to the 1917 Russian Revolution (but without the bloodshed), that it is difficult to forecast whether — because of a changing global environment — the US can, within a decade or two, recover its strategic authority and leadership.
Domestically, the massively statist and interventionist approaches of the Obama Administration have polarized the country, and the response will be reactive rather than innovative, inducing a period of isolation and nationalism, but with grave difficulty in rebuilding confidence from the international investment community.
Europe
Artificial, wealth-induced complacency following the end of the Cold War led to fury when economic collapse inevitably occurred in 2010, leading to draconian restraint in public spending in many societies, but particularly Greece and Spain. It is said that tourists are warned not to feed bears in Yellowstone National Park (in the US) because the bears do not understand when the tourists have run out of food. State-fed populations in Europe, the US, and Australia (see below) equally do not understand when the free ride is over, and work must recommence.
Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have begun the arduous path back to recovery, but the euro may, as a currency, have been irrevocably damaged, and the European Union itself may have spent the term of its virility. Clearly, the wealth-induced complacency, which had the compounding effect of allowing a decline in a sense of national survival and national identity among the European Union (EU) component states, has led now to a revived — but as yet unrealized — sense of nationalism.
This is beginning to lead to the recognition of the cohesive national efficiency required for survival and competitiveness. It can be said that the EU destroyed nationalism, without replacing it with any mechanism to create a new sense of social cohesion, thus removing Europe’s capability for economic competitiveness, self-defense, or ability to define a new culture (and identity) to replace the national identities.
Had the British Labour Party Government of outgoing Prime Minister Gordon Brown persisted in office with his slavishly doctrinaire governance — and demonstrably unworkable socialism, led by a privileged élite of Labour mandarins wallowing at the trough — it is possible that an economic recovery in the UK would have been problematic. It may still be problematic. And in this, Brown was a prototype Obama, with his rank sense of entitlement.
Even now, the British political psyche is fractured along geographic lines, and, wealth-induced, considers itself effectively “post-industrial”, and therefore beyond the need for a manufacturing (or even agricultural base). Thus, even though the UK is now far more dependent on a maritime trade base than at any time in its history, it is incapable of defending or projecting that maritime base; neither does it have the wherewithal to trade.
Australia
The Australian Government has — like the Obama Administration in the US and the Brown Administration in the UK — demonstrated its absolute lack of experience in management, economics, or real-life work skills. A decision by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to impose a new “super tax” of some 40 percent on resource companies — miners, who produce most of Australia’s export wealth — suddenly highlighted the reality that the mining companies did not need to put their investment into Australian projects.
This “tax and spend” approach so damaged Prime Minister Rudd’s popularity in the run-up to a November 2010 election, that his deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, an extreme left-wing feminist, mounted a rapid campaign within the ruling Labor Party to overthrow him. But apart from some temporary back-peddling on the Resources Super Profits Tax until the next election is out of the way, don’t expect incoming Prime Minister Gillard — the first Australian female head-of-government and the most left-wing ever — to back off her punitive stance against the private sector.
The Australian Government’s punitive tax approach, initiated by Rudd but likely to continue for as long as Labor governs, also highlighted the fact that foreign investors did not need to invest in Australia, and that capital could move — as it always does — away from draconian tax regimes. As Chilean Mines Minister Laurence Goldborne said in June 2010, “Just because you have resources doesn’t guarantee investment.” This is something which the governments of most African states know.
In Australia, the realization of the over-reaching greed — and envy-inspired approach of the proposed new tax laws — in turn led much of the ruling Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the profoundly leftist Australian media to begin their drift away from Rudd, leaving him with the prospect that he could either be abandoned as party leader before the late-2010 general elections, or be faced with the prospect of becoming Australia’s first one-term Prime Minister.
Gillard’s unbridled ambition also saw to that. The question remains as to whether she will be able to win the November 2010 general election. A more important question remains, however, as to whether the markets will still be there when the ruin of trust in Australian export and investment reliability is addressed by a future government. The People’s Republic of China (PRC), Australia’s major export client state, and Russia are now developing vast iron ore reserves on their mutual border, possibly — in the near future — obviating the need for much of what Australia exports.
In the meantime, both Kevin Rudd and the opposition Liberal Party have essentially embraced the move by Australia to see itself as a pseudo-post-industrial society, gradually eroding the independent and innovative manufacturing sector which had been a hallmark of Australian economic growth. A pseudo-post-industrial society is one which believes that it can live solely on the intrinsic value of its currency, without the necessity to sustain a balanced agricultural and industrial base to preserve sovereign independence. A true post-industrial society — something thus far a utopian dream — can produce all of its food and goods with a minute fraction of its population, which would largely be left to address intellectual pursuits.
Australia, thus, faces a major challenge to its comfort, wealth, and security when value perceptions, investment, and clients evaporate. We see, then, in the very deliberate acts of envy and entitlement politics, the seeds of national collapse in Australia, the US, and Western Europe.
Conclusions
Some of the Western powers have slumped before, and recovered. The United States has yet to demonstrate this resilience. Other Western societies have slumped, and have yet been protected by a strong regional system so that their societies could prosper under foreign protection. The Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, for example, retained stable and individual prosperous societies and yet never recovered their strategic leadership, relying, instead, on the power of their region for economic and security protection. States which remain dependent on others for their protection never fully regain their wealth and freedom.
States such as New Zealand depend on their greater neighbors for protection. But wither New Zealand if Australia fails? Wither the Netherlands today if the European Union fails? And wither the United States if its fortunes erode? Re-birth is, as Britain has found through history, as did Rome, more arduous than that first, pure flush of strategic victory.
The West is at its watershed, not because of a threat from a less-productive society. The collapse of the West is not because Islam is at the gates. Islam is at the gates because of the collapse of the West.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/International/The-New-Civil-Wars-Within-the-West.html
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley for OilPrice.com. This article first appeared in the OilPrice.com Global Intelligence Report. For Energy, Finance and Geopolitical News visit http://www.oilprice.com
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Maxine Waters agrees with your assessment as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUaY3LhJ-IQ
Outright nationalize oil industry. Why stop there?
- Ned
Excellent analysis. Post industrial society - beyond the need to produce its needs. Isn't this what they're teaching in the schools?
Show me a nation that doesn't produce anything (Haiti, for example) and I'll show you a nation that isn't worth anything.
The author of this post is part of the problem, not the solution.
Andrei, is that you! You made it out of the Gulags!
Tyler: Brilliant analysis but permit me to quibble. Britain lost its first empire in North America but proceeded to consolidate its second in Asia and Africa. Rome succumbed in Italy but endured another millenium in New Rome-Constantinople. The U.S. as you correctly point out has reached a similar crisis. Our unique geography and current position of strength, albeit attenuated, portend a successful metamorphosis. What we will look like in ten or twenty years is anybody's guess but I wager a not unrecognizable landscape where we are still primum inter pares and a force for good.
Many want to make China the next world leader and they have the gumption but geographical constraints and our will to see the crisis through will keep them in a box. Sure hope so though I do love egg rolls
A little short sighted isn't it? These generational events always start with a pessimistic end scenario only to end right back where they started and a strengthen US.
Germany of the 30's, USSR of the 50's, Japan of the 80's, Mid-East of the 90's and now China. Ironically, it's the US that both supported and nurtured these supposed threats to US hegemony only to see them finally collapse. How is it any different this time??
Yeah, the author forgot to mention the Civil War and the economic depressions. He's on point regarding the federal government expansion though--he just forgot to mention that the current administration is just the most recent in a series of power grabbing administrations.
Excellent points. I can't believe someone junked you. There are some people obsessed with the world collapsing around here.
what the hell is Jesse and Rosenberg smoking today ?
Rosy says that the Austrian school has no answers for the problems we have today. Well no shit, the idea of Austrian economics is to prevent this retardation from happening.
Who knows what to do now that the Keynes freaks have distorted and fucked everything completely to hell.
+100
the political party currently in charge was "happily, apparently" presiding over the nation's decline, "which in fact may be one of the purposes."
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2010/06/class-war-and-decline-of-west.htmlI agree with most that this seems written from a repub v demo point of view, painting democrats as the bad guys.
In reality though it is not a party issue it's a bad policy issue and it stretches back decades, and if we really wanted to find ground zero for our problems today we could localize it to events/policies/promises from the depression that have persisted and grown.
Given that, if you strip out the devisive party language I agree with the author that we are fast approaching a tipping point. The backs of the few are not strong enough to carry the whole, especially when backs of the entitlement class are healthy.
Now that you mention it, I've noticed an increase in the partisan hack-jobs on ZH lately. I can't say I'm surprised, but it is disappointing. I guess ZH is just another safety-valve.
There was nothing else worth posting today?
Look....there is no need for labels...
It's just numbers....
One cannot earn $100 and spend $200....
It's not there...
And if one tries to print the extra $100...one degrades their currency....
..........................
What has to occur ...is to create the environment whereby $200 is earned...some saved ...some spent...
...................................
This subject is too complicated for the politicos....
Garbage in...garbage out........
Bullshit. To see what has really undermined widespread prosperity in America Google "The Origins of the Overclass" by Steve Kangas. Also, see:
http://tarpley.net/online-books/george-bush-the-unauthorized-biography/
and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22578561/Drugging-America-A-Trojan-Horse-2nd-ed
Says it all.
...today's apocalyptic fantasy.
So in two years the Obama administration has destroyed the free world? Give me a break! Try going back a few decades if not centuries and you'll get to the root of our present problem. The wheels that define our reality were put in motion centuries ago... It's not like the vagueries of Empire were created wholesale since WW2. I'm amazed at the ignorance out there regarding our World Wars. For a good number of people living in Europe or Asia at the turn of the Century (to the tune of 100 million +) the Apocaplypse has come and gone.. And while many people recoil at the VERY THOUGHT such idiocy can happen again the evidence is mounting on a daily basis that a replay is more and more likely.. We probably won't be sending GIs to the far reaches of the Earth against their will to die in the name of freedom (we'll continue to leave that up to volunteer conscripts who can't earn a living any other way) but I suspect there will be plenty to contend with on OUR SIDE of the pond this time around as the Western economies continue along in their decline. Think cyber attacks or attacks on power facilities..anything to knock out as much of the Net as possible which would be a nasty blow to our ability to do anything for very long. And don't rule out this happening under a false flag.
The story of unlimited compound growth is OVER. If our financial systems didn't have the political leadership of the West by the balls there might be a chance to turn things around by allocating the most urgently needed capital to the most pressing issues of the day... namely developing technology to allow us to live in harmony with the environment while funding education in the liberal arts so that we can start getting a grasp on why life is worth living again..unfortunately the fact that so many "free market" thinkers consider such thoughts so hertical for the check it puts up against their innate urge to destroy everything for a profit is evidence enough that even with well capitalized and regulated markets we wouldn't have much of a chance at turning this bitch around.
I am tired of hearing people say that every time there's been a crisis people cry that the sky is falling and then it doesn't. In fact,every time it doesn't fall we push it that much further into the stratosphere and I kid you not we are running out of emergency measures to keep it from falling flat on our heads. And even if we do somehow manage to get by a few more times, have those who are drunk on hubris not noticed that the collateral damage just keeps getting worse and worse... We've gone from personal debt crisis to corporate to sovereign.. The next stop on this highway is planetary after which there is nowhere else to go but HELL... I'll see ya all there!
Well played, sir.
The next stop on this highway is planetary after which there is nowhere else to go but HELL...
Actually, thanks to astronomy theres a lot left after planetary before we have to reach for the allegorical use of hell.
Fair enough but I doubt there will be any Night Flights to Venus or manned trips to Mars before we transit through Hell on our way to some kind of recovery.
"the seizure of the envied (and often ephemeral) “wealth” of the producers"
What BS!
The majority of wealth created in last decade is not from "producers" (producers provide jobs) but by 40% growth in profits of the parasitic financial industry. People aren’t protesting against the Bill Gates of the world, the are protesting against GS bonuses…
Bush did as much, if not more, than Clinton to fuck things up.
And outsourcing was going on under Reagan, maybe even sooner.
What's with all the goddam junking here folks?
Disagree? Then say something, or take your thin-skinned ass someplace else.
Junk that.
I was halfway through the article when I decided to log in and post a comment (which I seldom do although I hit refresh on ZH 30 times a day) about what a ridiculously slanted and simple-minded perspective this idiot had on the mono-corpo-oligo-klepto-poly ring fences that control the world economy. I actually decided this before I read the ensuing comments.
Then I read the comments and noticed our distributed readership had already slid this pinhead into the Cuisinart and pressed "fine mist".
So, I guess, nevermind etc
I love this fucking site.
So, wealth producers are those same "financial innovators" on Wall Street, for ex? And those evil consumers who won't stop demanding more and more are nothing but a bunch of welfare queens... Damn, shit is stupid.
If y'all didn't like a lot of what was going on under Bush, you should really despise it under the Obamination. He has accelerated the expansion of guvmint control to warp speed, and anyone who can't see that is truly naive.
On the other hand, I don't think it's fair (and I'm conservative) to just name President Clinton alone here. Arguably he might have accelerated things a bit compared to Bush 41, but he is by no means responsible all by himself.
"On the other hand, I don't think it's fair (and I'm conservative) to just name President Clinton alone here. Arguably he might have accelerated things a bit compared to Bush 41, but he is by no means responsible all by himself."
What a wonderfully reasoned statement. Thanks.
This opinion piece is amazing in it's one sided view.
Bush and all previous administrations have participated in the same thing.
It was Bush I administration that started NAFTA. It was Bush II administration that brought us th Patriot Act. (Not to say the Demo's don't have their hand in those very same things).
And this horrid goal of having goverment involved in overseeing business is so scary...ooooooooh. Of course since the goal of business is to make money for their managers first before the share holders and lastly have to consider any sort of regulations both financial and environmental, I'm sure we as the people will be protected by [their] good will.
This ongoing push to polarize thing is a great game play, but if you are the ones being polarized that means you are the game pieces.
Big government, small government...how about good government? That which is a government to protect ability of the people to enjoy life in the way they see fit.
The clumsy attempt of this article is just the sort of thing that I believe ZH is good at revealing as foolish.
I had a conversation once with a relative. We got on the subject of the 'old days' when anti trust laws kept companies from growing too large. The suddenly in the early 80s it started being all about mergers and aquisitions.
He 'blamed' the anti trust period on the 'liberal media'. Normally I don't respond to this type of stupidity in family discussions for the sake of peace.
But I carefully pointed out that for one, there is no such thing as the 'liberal media' in mainstream. All he had to do is look at who owned them. Is Ted Turner a 'liberal'? How about Rupert Murdock? or G.E. as a 'person/entity' (sorry I can't leave that one alone thanks to the Supreme Court)
But then I asked him if he was so against anti trust laws (being that evil government control thingy) how did he feel about the 'too big to fail' status that some companies have attained.
Still waiting for an answer.
Again, as posted above, the argument of 'big government' versus 'small government' is a slacked jawed vacuous label to obfuscate the actual situation of government by lobbiest.
And both of the 'parties' seem to support this type of system.
Ted Turner is one of the ideologically progressive people in media. Get your facts straight.
Ted Turner is one of the ideologically progressive people in media. Get your facts straight.
Actually you are correct.
I think I meant to refer to him in another context but am typing too fast.
My post stands corrected in regards to Mr. Turner.
The guy IS full of manure...the pendelum had swung way over to private enterprise in the last 30 years of Republican Deregulation. Financial Crisis 2008 is an example. Obama and Dems are letting the little guy back onto a still-crooked playing field again. Or trying. Typical Laissez Faire Big Gov Boogie Man stuff....but then Republicans always prefer a one sided playing field.
I didn't realize the republicans had control of the WH and Congress for the last 30 yrs...amazing!
You are trapped in the 2 party mentality of pointing fingers at the other party (just as the article does the same from the otherside). Both parties got us where we are today. The present arrangement has done nothing to let the 'little guy' back in, but rather continued the programs of the previous administration...in some cases doubling down. Fed. govt has continued to expand, liberties continued to be quashed. Small business is being absolutely brutalized from the federal level down to local with those entities clamoring for more revenue to keep their massively bloated workforce (and pensions) afloat.
pointing fingers and lamenting who's fault it is over the last 30 yrs is fine for history books, but fails to address the immediate and future situation. This will continue to a heated pitch as we approach Nov 2.....only to have nothing solved and most likely the situation much worse.
I understand this is holiday for everyone here in America, and probably TD and the rest who run the day to day on this great website.
Is it an in effort to post content on these slow days that garbage like this (and the earlier post providing a fiction of the history of the banking system in the US) is posted?
You guys deserve a vacation, no one worthwhile will take umbrage in this site being shut down for a day. Closing up shop for a few hours is a much better alternative that publishing this claptrap. Really, it is embarassing.
Perhaps they are giving authors guest chances to see how their writings do? Time to go tend to the tomatos before the afternoon rain oil arrives.
Come on junk man...if you are going to flag something as junk...at least have the balls (or ovaries) to comment as to why....Or are you a chickenshit lameass?
You got junked because they are jealous of your tomatoes. That's my guess anyway.
I made a comment on the serial junking above.
Somebody must be sport junking.
Some perfectly benign comments are being trashed.
Man, ZH is looking Tea Party central lately. The hard right wing turn in the last few weeks is embarrassing.
Rat Scabies
"Man, ZH is looking Tea Party central lately. The hard right wing turn in the last few weeks is embarrassing."
I'm not certain Tea Party is "hard right".
I'm of the opinion a fair amount are plants to denigrate the veracity of this site.
I agree with the plants bit. I just ignore them, can't be feeding trolls.
_
This article was a sophomoric waste of bandwidth.
_
But your comment was a brilliant remark that will ring through the ages.
No, but it got one dummy's attention.
Two!
On top of being a total fucking idiot this guy is also a liar (surprise, surprise).
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=USGOVT,USPRIV,
Ex-census, the US government has actually LOST jobs since January 09 when Obama took office. During the Bush 2.0 years the government ADDED jobs. But hey, don't let facts get in your way here.
I recommend you change the graph setting to last 5 yrs and do percent change for both civ/gov.. You might change your position.
Pay vs Civ:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm?csp=usa...
Dc surrounding area has see a population increase as well as one of the few areas of housing price increases due to demand.
"According to Lummis, the federal civilian workforce has grown by 188,000, or about 15 percent, since 2008, not including temporary census-related hires."
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0610/060410e1.htm
Really? Bush was in office until January 2009, not 2008.
Do an index plot with 100=first day in office for Bush and Obama:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=USGOVT,USPRIV
Let me know what you see.
Look, O'Bambi is a tool, just like Dumbya and I don't give a rat's ass about either of them. Both have horrible economic policies. However, I do care about the truth and in this case the idea that O'Bambi's government is on a hiring spree is just fucking false.
I see fed jobs above the 100 mark and civilian declining below 95 mark from Feb 2009 to June 2010.
Please don't get me wrong...Bush (or whoever was in control) absolutely increased the size of govt.....but the present gaggle is doing the same.
I put "Index = 2009-01-19" and plotted until today. For gov workers I get below 100 except the census. Either way, there is no significant increase in the number of government workers.
The sad truth here is that neither party is capable of acting like adults, look at the facts and act accordingly. They're both just throwing the same idiotic factless rethoric around. It used to be bread and circus... but now the bread is gone and we're supplementing with more circus. Good thing we have a shitload of calories in our fat asses.
we see the harsh and rigid outlines of political absolutism straining to break through this pedantic lecture of an intellectual schoolmaster. I must concur with so many of the more perceptive ZH posters here who were insulted or simply mostly indifferent to this kind of shallow analysis. I must admit though that the fractured metaphor concerning the bears at Yellowstone and the naughty lazy bones in the Eurozone looking for another handout was good for a laugh. bwahahahaha
All because government artificially repositioning wealth rather than creating it. Unleashing a monster feeding on itself. As when the natural flow of the food chain is sacrificed on the alter of expediency. Example is a small neighborhood co-op selling raw organic diary, meats and vegetables, etc. Membership expanded exponentially during the last five years. Giving work to Amish dairies in Penn and Illinois (co-op flew in raw organic dairy products once a week for sale to members), goat farmers in northern California, independent bee keepers and growers of organic fruits and vegetables. Raided last week by federal and state police with guns - yes, real live guns. Holding the volunteer staff for five hours while they confiscated every single nut and seed, bottle of milk and jar of honey on the selves. What would you call this if not government expansion to control people's lives.
As much of as ass I can be in life, this is the most important reason right now why the austerity nor the pumping of fiat is working.
Even the USSR and the People’s Republic of China, during their communist periods, focused — albeit badly — on the production of goods and services, when they realized that the “wealth” to be “redistributed” existed only as the result of production and innovation. The US, meanwhile, heavily as a result of policies of the former Clinton Administration, has “outsourced” production, and the State — that is, the Government — cannot easily, in the US, become the producer.
Well done sparky.
"The US, meanwhile, heavily as a result of policies of the former Clinton Administration, has “outsourced” production..."
So much bullshit in one article takes is not easy to achieve.
Look at who was at the event when NAFTA was signed, who touted it and who benefited?
This writter has his head up his ass so far in that the light he sees at the end of the tunnel comes from his throat.
NAFTA at this point is moot, they fact is the Canadian logging industry is destroyed. The Oil is seized properly but multi-nationals, there is no manufacturing in Canada that cannot be outsourced for the effect of media relations.
Same goes for the US and Mexico. Between all three, I don't think anyone is making anything in all three places on earth other than people.
Time to take it back is all. If you are thinking Canucks are having a great time of it, you would be sorely mistaken. Canada has the population of NY state in total and enjoying the same profit like NYC. The banks are doing well, but everyone else is sucking a cock.
Nafta is a piece of shit, it's a hinderance to capitalism to all three countries. We were all getting on well enough before, why create a /b/rotherhood from it? Why honestly?
Lumber was by price point fair and mills got paid...
Here's an idea. R U a web designer? I make some wicked infrarstructure. Let's give the lumber commodities traders a run for their money. Seriously.
So who's the junk man here?
It's the junkyard in here. And I'm sure to get junked for mentioning it.
Some spineless, sniveling, illiterate, low-life retard jealous of the high level of discussion on ZH. Can't contribute? Then junk!
Good article.
Special thanks for putting together some overall view of Australia.
drivel
Totally unrealted...instant storm bitches! The weak low pressure system off the coast of LA decided to spool up and is now packing tropical force winds with a 60% chance of formation before landfall.
From the NHC:
A SMALL WELL-DEFINED LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM LOCATED ABOUT 50 MILESSOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA IS MOVING ONSHORE
TERREBONNE PARISH NEAR CAILLOU BAY. DOPPLER RADAR AND SATELLITE
DATA INDICATE THAT SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE COULD
OCCUR ACROSS TERREBONNE PARISH...ESPECIALLY IN TERREBONNE
BAY...LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING AS THE SYSTEM MOVES
ONSHORE. THERE IS A HIGH CHANCE...60 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM
BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE BEFORE IT MOVES ONSHORE. THIS SYSTEM
WILL MOVE SLOWLY NORTHWESTWARD AFTER LANDFALL AND PRODUCE LOCALLY
HEAVY RAINFALL OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTERN
LOUISIANA. INTERESTS SHOULD MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY THEIR LOCAL
NATIONAL WEATHER FORECAST OFFICE FOR ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND ANY
WATCHES OR WARNINGS.
Wow, the comments almost scared me off.
I liked the simplistic direction of the writer. I am simple. The tipping point is in the past.
We are one good EMP from total destruction and we are yammering about a few,, well maybe 10's of millions, well just about half pay no federal income taxes getting free lunch?
Come on, wake up. I am trying to grow our families food, pretty f'in hard, stay lightly attached to the grid and keep paying the rising taxes. Never mind that some same old idiots in Warshington are trying to give away what is already gone, our national wealth.
Smarten up and get ready, cause the fat lady is almost done singing.
Sophistry - a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.
Junk this too oilprice.com. Next time I see your url on an article, I'll hit the "back" button.
Your junk is hot!
"(i) so dramatically inflated money supply that the value of the dollar is only shored up by the lack of international alternative currencies to act as reserve trading currencies"
Why does no one understand the role collapsing credit and overhanging debt(yet to be destroyed) play in currency valuation, albeit temporarily?
Gregory Copley, in this excellent article, draws comparison between the severe impact on Russia following the 1917 revolution and the damage to America by the Obama Administration. As taboo as the subject is, isn’t it time to compare the Jewish influence in the Russian Revolution with the increasing Zionist influence in the Obama Administration? The Obama Administration has more positions filled by Jews than any Administration in history.
And it’s important to review history and the Jewish makeup of the Russian revolutionaries.
“The Bolshevik Revolution,” said a leading American Jewish community newspaper (American Hebrew) in 1920, "was largely the product of Jewish thinking, Jewish discontent, Jewish effort to reconstruct.”
Winston Churchill, pointing to the crucial role played by the Jews in Bolshevism in an essay published in the February 8, 1920, issue of the London Illustrated Sunday Herald warned: Bolshevism is a “worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality… There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution by the international and for the most part atheistical Jews… With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews…”
Summing up the situation at the time, Israeli historian Louis Rapoport wrote:
“Immediately after the Revolution, many Jews were euphoric over their high representation in the new government. Lenin’s first Politburo was dominated by men of Jewish origins.
“Under Lenin, Jews became involved in all aspects of the Revolution, including its dirtiest work. Despite the Communists’ vows to eradicate anti-Semitism, it spread rapidly after the Revolution—partly because of the prominence of so many Jews in the Soviet administration, as well as in the traumatic, inhuman Sovietization drives that followed. Historian Salo Baron has noted that an immensely disproportionate number of Jews joined the new Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka… and many of those who fell afoul of the Cheka would be shot by Jewish investigators.
‘The collective leadership that emerged in Lenin’s dying days was headed by the Jew Zinoviev, a loquacious, mean-spirited, curly-haired Adonis whose vanity knew no bounds.”
Robert Wilton, correspondent of the London Times in Russia for 17 years, in his foreword to Les Derniers Jours des Romanoffs, listed the members of the [Bolshevik Party’s] Central Committee, of the Extraordinary Commission [Cheka or secret police], and of the Council of Commissars functioning at the time of the assassination of the Imperial family.
“The 62 members of the [Central] Committee were composed of five Russians, one Ukrainian, six Letts [Latvians], two Germans, one Czech, two Armenians, three Georgians, one Karaim [Karaite] (a Jewish sect), and 41 Jews.
“The Extraordinary Commission [Cheka or Vecheka] of Moscow was composed of 36 members, including one German, one Pole, one Armenian, two Russians, eight Latvians, and 23 Jews.
“The Council of the People’s Commissar [the Soviet government] numbered two Armenians, three Russians, and 17 Jews.
“According to data furnished by the Soviet press, out of 556 important functionaries of the Bolshevik state, including the above-mentioned, in 1918-1919 there were: 17 Russians, two Ukrainians, eleven Armenians, 35 Letts [Latvians], 15 Germans, one Hungarian, ten Georgians, three Poles, three Finns, one Czech, one Karaim, and 457 Jews…”
Effective governmental power, Wilton continued, is in the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party. In 1918, he reported, this body had twelve members, of whom nine were of Jewish origin—Bronstein (Trotsky), Apfelbaum (Zinoviev), Lurie (Larine, Uritsky, Volodarski, Rosenfeld (Kamenev), Smidovich, Sverdlov (Yankel), and Nakhamkes (Steklov). The three Russians were Ulyanov (Lenin), Krylenko, and Lunacharshy.
Said Wilton, “The other Russian Socialist parties are similar in composition,” and he gives the compositions.
A public opinion poll conducted in 1990 found that three out of four Soviet citizens surveyed regarded the killing of the Tsar and the family as a despicable crime. – The Nation, June 24, 1991, p. 838
One isn’t supposed to say it, but America sealed her fate when, under the Clinton Administration, “the White House, the Senate, and much of the American media” (and now the House of Representatives and soon to be the U.S. Supreme Court) fell, as the Israelis put it, “in our hands.”
This statement came from Israeli columnist Ari Shavit in an article reprinted from the Israel newspaper Haaretz in the May 27, 1996 issue of the New York Times as he reflected sorrowfully on the wanton Israeli killing of more than 100 Lebanese civilians that April. Bill Clinton, “the lover of peace,” had raised no protest when the Israelis drove 400,000 innocent Lebanese out of their homes in “retaliation” for rockets launched into Israel, wounding one Israeli.
Do you have a link to the article?
Let me explain what has happened in a way that isn't quite so 'anti sematic' or racist toward Jews.
The American majority, 'Whites', 'Europeans', 'Caucasions' however you want to say it are far from a homogeneous group. Germans in Germany had solidarity because they were all German. The 'Whites' in America are not a majority or a 'people'... there are many different cultures, beliefs, and divisions amount the 'Whites'. In America it is relatively easy for a cohesive minority to play the system to their advantage. Minorities with cohesive cultures (such as the Jews but also some Asians) will recruit from within and only hire/help those of their class. This raises the sails of everyone else in the group to the disadvantage of other minorites and the 'White' majority. They cannot be called into question about this activity because they are 'minorities' and in some cases persecuted minorities.
If the 'whites' got together at a special church (not called a synague) even if they were atheist or irreligious and went on about only promoting from within there would likely be a big stir-up due to the perceived 'majority' status. However, minorities can and do get away with it.
In order for America to work properly, any culture must be disintegrated and reintegrated into the American culture. Love or hate the American culture, this is the necessary evil for the country to work. Small factions can 'wag the dog' and there is nobody to stop them.
America was a cohesive culture and was founded and continued on a theme that was above and beyond most all cultural themes in the world--namely that of individual freedom and liberty. That would have held any people together until the enemies of free enterprise--that is the Socialists, the Communists, and the oligarchs--began to vastly change the immigration policy of a like-minded people. Instead of an emphasis on immigrants who would bring contributions to the society or who were escaping political tyranny, it moved toward favoritism of welfare-oriented peoples, potentially low-information voters who would support a Socialist agenda, the work needs of corporations seeking low salaries to compete against the livelihoods of Americans, and those who would take away not only her borders, but her Christian values, Christian culture and moral-based Constitution.
Thanks for your comments. But your term “anti-Semitic,” as you are probably aware, is a Jewish term used by the minority you describe to stifle debate and fact. You suggest that “small factions can 'wag the dog' and there is nobody to stop them” and in that claim you are mistaken.
I wrote the article: my several references are in the article. And this is not politics. This is mathematics.
JR, I've followed your posts and am impressed by the insight and controversy you bring to this site. I always pause to take them in. Your thoughts are provocative and bold displaying depth of thinking and courage in airing opinions which go against the grain, challenging the shibboleths of often contrary opinions apparently opposed but actually similarly mired in conventional and formulaic assumptions leading nowhere.
Thanks, Yardfarmer. And thanks for your work, much of which I've saved for my files. Dr. Carroll Quigley admitted in Tragedy and Hope that nothing panics the international Establishment like the possibility of a threatened exposure. He described the conflict between grassroots Americans and the Establishment as “the Midwest of Tom Sawyer against the cosmopolitan East of J.P. Morgan and Company, of old Siwash against Harvard, of the Chicago Tribune against the Washington Post or The New York Times…” He left no doubt as to where the power centers are, but IMO that is changing rapidly now in spite of intimidation and vicious attacks by the Establishment on those who would expose the unvarnished truth …because of the Internet, and the caliber of sites such as Zero Hedge.
Exposure, IMO, is our greatest weapon against forces that seek to destroy freedom..
Seriously dude, if you want to invoke mathematics, how brilliant and deceptive is a conspiracy that immediately indicts the ostensible participants that are so clever and devious that they convict themselves?...reminds me of 9/11 and the stooges of that affair... but here's some grist for the mill that steps back another layer of the onion (that said, I believe a lot of the bias from this article is fundamental Protestantism)...so you decide: fun? duh? mental? true? All of the above?
With all due respect, America and western liberty is clearly under siege.
That said, exhaust all the options. Be skeptical and avoid being played by hate (ostensibly or by suggestion). The prize is big and the struggle has been one of stealth for centuries IMO.
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/blackpope.htm
Who will stop them and how? It seems they have more control over the government than ever.
The Roman Empire was meant to last for eternity, spanning the then known globe. From their ditches the slaves watched the chariots pass; would it never change? Looking back, we see how it changed: the thirst for liberty was ever to prove stronger than the legions.
Our current visit with tyranny makes one wonder if we are returning to the old world tragedies. But looking at the faces and hopes and, yes, the frustrations growing to uncontrolled anger of my fellow citizens, I no longer doubt that we are experiencing one of those regular setbacks on our march for freedom. Every day more and more Americans are nationally alerted to their loss of independence. Soon, they will reach to pull the charioteers from their perches. Americans will not willingly be slaves in ditches
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.” -- J.K. Galbraith
The revolution will start within the GOP. Ratbags v constitutionalists.
It wont do any good. The constitutionalists need the ratbags and the conservative christians or their numbers are just too small.
A tad OT, but Jesse got this great article on hiw website.
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2010/07/trashing-of-iceland-and...
double post.
Nice..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLmEAdQJejU&feature=related
Here’s one for the Red Pill crowd.
Saw the reference to Bonaparte and I just had to ask ...what if?...
(Perhaps a lesson for all those burgeoning AntiChrists out there...those who giveth will (when it suits them)... taketh away)
Well here’s what 15 minutes on the Interwebs will get you:
Brace yourselves (linklength-wise) because Google Books + Napoleon + Illuminati will get you this fascinating gem:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=laVjAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=bona...
Cutting to the chase, the relevant hits are Page 26 and 28 but to get the real feel for the narrative, start at page 24.
This is an amazing first-hand account from the memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte and his experiences essentially real-time as told By Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne in Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume 4.
From page 24 [snip]:
We were at Schoenbrunn, I give Rapp's own narrative as entered in my notes at the time where the Emperor was holding a review I had for some time remarked a young man at the extremity of a column whom just as the troops were about to defile I observed to advance towards the Emperor at that moment standing between Berthier and myself The Prince of Neufchatel Berthier supposing he had a petition to present went up and directed him to apply to me as I happened to be the aide de camp on service for the day.
The youth returned for answer that it was with Napoleon himself he wished to speak and Berthier again told him to address himself to me. He then removed to a short distance still repeating that he wanted to speak to Napoleon.
A second time he advanced and approached very close to the Emperor I desired him to fall back speaking in German and stating that after parade if he had any thing to ask he would be heard I marked him with attention for his insisting began to render me suspicious I observed that he had his right hand thrust into the left breast pocket of his surtout whence he allowed a paper to appear I know not by what chance but my eye at this moment met his I was struck with his expression and with a certain air of determination which appeared to me constrained.
Seeing an officer of the gendarmerie standing near I desired him to secure the young man without violence and to detain him quietly in the chateau till after parade. All this passed in less time than my relation has occupied and as every body's attention was at that moment taken up with the review no one remarked the occurrence.
Soon afterwards I received information that a large carving knife had been found upon the prisoner who had given his name Staps.
I went instantly for Duroc and we proceeded together to the room where Staps had deen confined. We found him seated on a bed thoughtful but not intimidated, Near him lay a portrait of a young female his pocket book and a purse containing only two pieces of gold. [Rapp, I think told me these were two old louis d-or].
“First”, continued Rapp, “I asked him his name?” he replied, ‘I will confess only to Napoleon.’
Again I asked what us he meant to make of the knife.
Always the same answer- ‘I will confess to no one but Napoleon’
‘Did you’ added I, ‘intend it for an attempt against his life?’
‘Yes sir.’-- ‘Why?’-- ‘I shall make no answer save to Napoleon.’
“This altogether appeared to me so strange that I conceived it my duty to inform the Emperor on relating what had passed; he betrayed a slight degree of anxiety; for know,” added Rapp, “how strongly he is haunted with ideas of assassination. After a pause he desired me to order the young man to be brought in; but gave me this direction in a tone, such as neither you nor I ever knew him to assume.
He continued to pass his right hand across his forehead and regarded with scrutinizing glance all present. Berthier, Bernadotte, Savary, Duroc, besides myself were there and I remarked that the Emperor fixed his eyes alternately upon several of us, although he might have known well that amongst us there was not one who would have hesitated to there was not one who would have hesitated sacrifice life to do him service. Two gensdarmes to the orders I had been charged brought Staps into his presence. The poor youth spite of his intended crime exhibited personal appearance something prepossessing it was impossible not to feel interested. I would have willingly have heard him give denial of criminal intentions; but how the devil save a young was bent on his own destruction?
‘Do you speak French ?’ demanded the Emperor.
Staps replied that he spoke the language very imperfectly. As you know,” continued Rapp “that, next I am the best German scholar in the imperial court, the duty of interrogating in that language devolved upon me. But in this examination I was merely interpreter.
Such was Napoleon's to know the replies, that, in the following dialogue, the Emperor and Staps are the speakers; I only the instrument of communication,rendering Emperor's questions into German, and the into French.
“Emperor, ‘Whence came you?’-- Staps, ‘From Narremberg.’-- ‘What is your father's profession?’-- ‘He is Protestant minister there.’-- ‘How old are you?’ -- ‘Eighteen.’-- ‘What were you to do with your knife?’ -- ‘Kill you.’-- ‘You are mad young man; you are one of the illuminati.’-- I am not mad; I do not know the meaning of illuminati.’-- ‘You are ill, then?’-- ‘I am not ill; I am perfect health.’-- ‘Why would you kill me?’-- ‘Because you are the cause of the misfortunes of my country.’.....
Napoleon continued, Rapp exhibited a state of stupefaction such as I had never witnessed in him The replies of Staps and his unshaken resolution had reduced him to a condition that I cannot describe. He ordered the prisoner to be removed.
When the latter had been led away Behold said Napoleon to us the results of the illuminism which infests Germany. These are fine principles on my word and charming lights which transform youth into assassins. But there is no remedy against illuminism a sect cannot be destroyed at the cannon's mouth.
After some farther declamation against the illuminati Napoleon with Berthier withdrew to his cabinet and the event which it was endeavoured to conceal became the subject of conversation to the inhabitants of the castle of Schoenbrunn. In the evening the Emperor sent for me. Rapp said he truly the occurrence of the morning is most extraordinary I cannot believe that this young man alone could conceive the design of assassinating me. There is something more at the bottom I shall not easily be convinced that the courts of Berlin and Wismar are strangers to the affair....
You know pursued Rapp, how desirous the Emperor always is that every one should go in with his opinion. I had a proof of it here for all at once, Still the Emperor was so struck by the enterprise of Staps that he spoke again to me on the a few days after when we were to leave. We were alone when he remarked tome,-- ‘That unfortunate Staps, I cannot get him of my mind. When I think of him my thoughts lost in perplexity. No--I cannot conceive that young man of his age--a German one who had a good education above all a Protestant have imagined and designed to execute such a crime.
Consider for a moment the Italians are regarded as a nation of assassins; well! not one Italian attempted my life. It is beyond my comprehension.
Inform yourself of the manner in which Staps died and let me know.’ I made the necessary at General Lauer; it appeared that Staps, whose attempt was made on the 23d of October was executed on the 27th at seven in the morning and not tasted food from the 24th.
On provisions brought he refused to eat saying I have sufficient to carry me to death. When informed that peace was concluded he expressed great sorrow and a trembling passed over his whole frame.
Having reached the place of execution he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Hail liberty! Germany for ever! Death to the tyrant! and fell.”
For your consideration [Rod sterling V.O. not an option...]...check out the date of the attempted assassination (October 23) and the exclamation of the assassin ‘Death to the tyrant’
and compare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic_semper_tyrannis
Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants". It is sometimes as "death to tyrants". It is most known as the official motto of Virginia and for its usage during the assassinations of Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln.
OK.....Here’s your Illuminati John Wilkes Booth weblink
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/uspresidentasmasons_1b.htm
(admittedly questionable but apparently historically accurate)
Napoleon Bonaparte. Conspiracy theorist or realpolitik warrior?
Strange world indeed.
+interesting!
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