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Paul Craig Roberts: A Prescription For Peace & Prosperity
Submitted by Paul Craig Roberts,
The question is often asked: “What can we do?” Here is a prescription for peace and prosperity.
We will begin with prosperity, because prosperity can contribute to peace. Sometimes governments begin wars in order to distract from unpromising economic prospects, and internal political stability can also be dependent on prosperity.
The Road to Prosperity
For the United States to return to a prosperous road, the middle class must be restored and the ladders of upward mobility put back in place. The middle class served domestic political stability by being a buffer between rich and poor. Ladders of upward mobility are a relief valve that permit determined folk to rise from poverty to success. Rising incomes throughout society provide the consumer demand that drives an economy. This is the way the US economy worked in the post-WWII period.
To reestablish the middle class the offshored jobs have to be brought home, monopolies broken up, regulation restored, and the central bank put under accountable control or abolished.
Jobs offshoring enriched owners and managers of capital at the expense of the middle class. Well paid manufacturing and industrial workers lost their livelihoods as did university graduates trained for tradable professional service jobs such as software engineering and information technology. No comparable wages and salaries could be found in the economy where the remaining jobs consist of domestic service employment, such as retail clerks, hospital orderlies, waitresses and bartenders. The current income loss is compounded by the loss of medical benefits and private pensions that supplemented Social Security retirement. Thus, jobs offshoring reduced both current and future consumer income.
America’s middle class jobs can be brought home by changing the way corporations are taxed. Corporate income could be taxed on the basis of whether corporations add value to their product sold in US markets domestically or offshore. Domestic production would have a lower tax rate. Offshored production would be taxed at a higher rate. The tax rate could be set to cancel out the cost savings of producing offshore.
Under long-term attack by free market economists, the Sherman Antitrust Act has become a dead-letter law. Free market economists argue that markets are self-correcting and that anti-monopoly legislation is unnecessary and serves mainly to protect inefficiency. A large array of traditionally small business activities have been monopolized by franchises and “big box” stores. Family owned auto parts stores, hardware stores, restaurants, men’s clothing stores, and dress shops, have been crowded out. Walmart’s destructive impact on Main Street businesses is legendary. National corporations have pushed local businesses into the trash bin.
Monopoly has more than economic effect. When six mega-media companies have control of 90 percent of the American media, a dispersed and independent press no longer exists. Yet, democracy itself relies on media helping to hold government to account. The purpose of the First Amendment is to control the government, but today media serves as a propaganda ministry for government.
Americans received better and less expensive communication services when AT&T was a regulated monopoly. Free trade in communications has resulted in the creation of many unregulated local monopolies with poor service and high charges. AT&T’s stability made the stock a “blue-chip” ideal for “widow and orphan” trust funds, pensions, and wealth preservation. No such risk free stock exists today.
Monopoly was given a huge boost by financial deregulation. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan’s claim that “markets are self-regulating” and that government regulation is harmful was blown to pieces by the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Deregulation not only allowed banks to escape from prudent behavior but also allowed such concentration that America now has “banks too big to fail.” One of capitalism’s virtues and justifications is that inefficient enterprises fail and go out of business. Instead, we have banks that must be kept afloat with public or Federal Reserve subsidies. Clearly, one result of financial deregulation has been to protect the large banks from the operation of capitalism. The irony that freeing banks from regulation resulted in the destruction of capitalism is lost on free market economists.
The cost of the Federal Reserve’s support for the banks too big to fail with zero and negative real interest rates has been devastating for savers and retirees. Americans have received no interest on their savings for seven years. To make ends meet, they have had to consume their savings. Moreover, the Federal Reserve’s policy has artificially driven up the stock market with the liquidity that the Federal Reserve has created and also caused a similar bubble in the bond market. The high prices of bonds are inconsistent with the buildup in debt and the money printed in order to keep the debt afloat. The dollar’s value itself depends on quantitative easing in Japan and the EU.
In order to restore financial stability, an obvious precondition for prosperity, the large banks must be broken up and the distinction between investment and commercial banks restored.
Since the Clinton regime, the majority of the Treasury secretaries have been top executives of the troubled large banks, and they have used their public position to benefit their banks and not the US economy. Additionally, executives of the large banks comprise the board of the New York Fed, the principal operating arm of the Federal Reserve. Consequently, a few large banks control US financial policy. This conspiracy must be broken up and the Federal Reserve made accountable or abolished.
This requires getting money out of politics. The ability of a few powerful private interest groups to control election outcomes with their campaign contributions is anathema to democracy. A year ago the Republican Supreme Court ruled that the rich have a constitutional right to purchase the government with political campaign contributions in order to serve their selfish interests.
These are the same Republican justices who apparently see no constitutional right to habeas corpus and, thus, have not prohibited indefinite detention of US citizens. These are the same Republican justices who apparently see no constitutional prohibition against self-incrimination and, thus, have tolerated torture. These are the same Republican justices who have abandoned due process and permit the US government to assassinate US citizens.
To remove the control of money over political life would likely require a revolution. Unless prosperity is to be only for the One Percent, the Supreme Court’s assault on democracy must be overturned.
The Road to Peace is Difficult
To regain peace is even more difficult than to regain prosperity. As prosperity can be a precondition for peace, peace requires both changes in the economy and in foreign policy.
To regain peace is especially challenging, not because Americans are threatened by Muslim terrorists, domestic extremists, and Russians. These “threats” are hoaxes orchestrated in behalf of special interests. “Security threats” provide more profit and more power for the military/security complex.
The fabricated “war on terror” has been underway for 14 years and has succeeded in creating even more “terror” that must be combated with enormous expenditures of money. Apparently, Republicans intend that monies paid in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes be redirected to the military/security complex.
The promised three-week “cakewalk” in Iraq has become a 14 year defeat with the radical Islamic State controlling half of Iraq and Syria. Islamist resistance to Western domination has spread into Africa and Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the oil emirates are ripe fruit ready to fall.
Having let the genie out of the bottle in the Middle East, Washington has turned to conflict with Russia and by extension to China. This is a big bite for a government that has not been able to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan after 14 years.
Russia is not a country accustomed to defeat. Moreover, Russia has massive nuclear forces and massive territory into which to absorb any US/NATO invasion. Picking a fight with a well-armed country with by far the largest land mass of any country shows a lack of elementary strategic sense. But that is what Washington is doing.
Washington is picking a fight with Russia, because Washington is committed to the neoconservative doctrine that History has chosen Washington to exercise hegemony over the world. The US is the “exceptional and indispensable” country, the Uni-power chosen to impose Washington’s will on the world.
This ideology governs US foreign policy and requires war in its defense. In the 1990s Paul Wolfowitz enshrined the Wolfowitz Doctrine into US military and foreign policy. In its most bold form, the Doctrine states:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”
As a former member of the original Cold War Committee on the Present Danger, I can explain what these words mean. The “threat posed formerly by the Soviet Union” was the ability of the Soviet Union to block unilateral US action in some parts of the world. The Soviet Union was a constraint on US unilateral action, not everywhere but in some places. This constraint on Washington’s will is regarded as a threat.
A “hostile power” is a country with an independent foreign policy, such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have proclaimed. Iran, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and North Korea have also proclaimed an independent foreign policy.
This is too much independence for Washington to stomach. As Russian President Vladimir Putin recently stated, “Washington doesn’t want partners. Washington wants vassals.”
The Wolfowitz doctrine requires Washington to dispense with governments that do not acquiesce to Washington’s will. It is a “first objective.”
The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in Boris Yeltsin becoming president of a dismembered Russia. Yeltsin was a compliant US puppet. Washington became accustomed to its new vassal and absorbed itself in its Middle Eastern wars, expecting Vladimir Putin to continue Russia’s vassalage.
However at the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy, Putin said: “I consider that the unipolar model is not only unacceptable but also impossible in today’s world.”
Putin went on to say: “We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way. This is visible in the economic, political, cultural and educational policies it imposes on other nations. Well, who likes this? Who is happy about this?”
When Putin issued this fundamental challenge to US Uni-power, Washington was preoccupied with its lack of success with its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Mission was not accomplished.
By 2014 it had entered the thick skulls of our rulers in Washington that while Washington was blowing up weddings, funerals, village elders, and children’s soccer games in the Middle East, Russia had achieved independence from Washington’s control and presented itself as a formidable challenge to Washington’s Uni-power. Putin and Russia have had enough of Washington’s arrogance.
The unmistakable rise of Russia refocused Washington from the Middle East to Russia’s vulnerabilities. Ukraine, long a constituent part of Russia and subsequently the Soviet Union, was split off from Russia in the wake of the Soviet collapse by Washington’s maneuvering. In 2004 Washington had tried to capture Ukraine in the Orange Revolution, which failed to deliver Ukraine into Washington’s hands. Consequently, according to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Washington spent $5 billion over the following decade developing NGOs that could be called into the streets of Kiev and in developing political leaders who represented Washington’s interests.
Washington launched its coup in February 2014 with orchestrated “demonstrations” that with the addition of violence resulted in the overthrow and flight of the elected democratic government of Victor Yanukovych. In other words, Washington destroyed democracy in a new country with a coup before democracy could take root.
Ukrainian democracy meant nothing to Washington intent on seizing Ukraine in order to present Russia with a security problem and also to justify sanctions against “Russian aggression” in order to break up Russia’s growing economic and political relationships with Europe.
Having launched on this reckless and irresponsible attack on a nuclear power, can Washington eat crow and back off? Would the neoconservative-controlled mass media permit that? The Russian government, backed 89% by the Russian people, have made it clear that Russia rejects vassalage status as the price of being part of the West. The implication of the Wolfowitz Doctrine is that Russia must be destroyed.
This implies our own destruction.
What can be done to restore peace? Obviously, the EU must abandon NATO and declare that Washington is a greater threat than Russia. Without NATO Washington has no cover for its aggression and no military bases with which to surround Russia.
It is Washington, not Russia, that has an ideology of “uber alles.” Obama endorsed the neoconservative claim that “America is the exceptional country.” Putin has made no such claim for Russia. Putin’s response to Obama’s claim is that “God created us equal.”
In order to restore peace, the neoconservatives must be removed from foreign policy positions in the government and media. This means that Victoria Nuland must be removed as Assistant Secretary of State, that Susan Rice must be removed as National Security Adviser, that Samantha Power must be removed as US UN ambassador.
The warmonger neoconservatives must be removed from Fox ‘News,’ CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, and in their places independent voices must replace propagandists for war.
Clearly, none of this is going to happen, but it must if we are to escape armageddon.
The prescription for peace and prosperity is sound. The question is: Can we implement it?
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I'd love to go back to the early 80's.
But we know that wont happen, until this thing dies.
Were going back to the 30's
Yeah, the 1730's. "When a long train of abuses...."
You can't stop the machine. Wanting change in particular facets of the machine's features or operation... that is naive. Thanks for the hopium, PCR, but it's gonna take a lot of hungry stomachs to start marching, and by then it's too late.
Exactly right, Skateboarder: Thanks for the hopium, PCR
PCR writes: Americans received better and less expensive communication services when AT&T was a regulated monopoly... I call BS on this one. Monopolies are almost always bad - whether they are government or private!
Why the next great depression is dead ahead...
http://econimica.blogspot.com/2015/08/maybe-this-is-what-fed-is-worried-about.html
and why slowing population growth is the driver no central bank can overcome....
http://econimica.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-imminent-demographic-collapse.html
replying to dutti: i think you're right on att but the payoff section of pcr's piece is this (the emphasis on republican, from a republican, is true but perhaps needlessly divisive; clinton and obama have much shame to bear):
This requires getting money out of politics. The ability of a few powerful private interest groups to control election outcomes with their campaign contributions is anathema to democracy. A year ago the Republican Supreme Court ruled that the rich have a constitutional right to purchase the government with political campaign contributions in order to serve their selfish interests.
These are the same Republican justices who apparently see no constitutional right to habeas corpus and, thus, have not prohibited indefinite detention of US citizens. These are the same Republican justices who apparently see no constitutional prohibition against self-incrimination and, thus, have tolerated torture. These are the same Republican justices who have abandoned due process and permit the US government to assassinate US citizens.
To remove the control of money over political life would likely require a revolution. Unless prosperity is to be only for the One Percent, the Supreme Court’s assault on democracy must be overturned.
PCR thinks that the problem is too little regulation and the failure of free markets. What planet is he living on? The corporatist state exists because of regulation. Regulation maintains the status quo and keeps the little guy down. Glass-Steagall was never "repealed" as so many like so say, it was replaced with an even more verbose and onerous regulation called Grahm-Leach-Bliley. Free markets have not existed in the US since at least 1912 so why blame free markets? Does anyone out there feel feel unfettered and unregulated? I certainly don't.
"The better alternative is to repeal privacy busting government regulations. The same approach applies to Glass-Steagall and S. 900. Why not just repeal the offending regulation? In the banking committee, I offered an amendment to do just that. My main reasons for voting against this bill are the expansion of the taxpayer liability and the introduction of even more regulations. The entire multi-hundred page S. 900 that reregulates rather than deregulates the financial sector could be replaced with a simple one-page bill." -- Ron Paul
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRECB-1999-pt20/html/CRECB-1999-pt20-Pg2905...
When I was a kid I had a strong metal box that my coins would go into until you reached $10, then it would open and give your money back, i'm certain we can do better today with the options.
How about a wood-chipper that we feed politicians into until it reaches the 'obey the constitution' mark?
Just kidding - there isn't any such mark. The idea is that you just keep feeding the psychopathic bribe-whores in until you run out of them. They'll never obey the constitution - there's no money in it for them!
When I was a kid I had a strong metal box that my coins would go into until you reached $10, then it would open and give your money back, i'm certain we can do better today with the options.
That's very cool and sounds like lots of fun. I want one.
That's very cool and sounds like lots of fun. I want one.
Buy a slot machine.
I love PCR's anti US foreign policy rants because he's right on the money.
But his mercantalism shows economic ignorance.
Agreed. Hang the banksters, the complicit politicians, the mealy-mouthed equivocating money-grubbers.
Punish sloth, greed, and all the other seven deadly sins with swift justice.
It's going to take a lot of dead people, unfortunately.
no. let's not punish the seven deadly sins. let's just, first, enforce the laws we have and stop the greatest control fraud in history. then overturn citizens united.
In which government court will you enforce those laws? Just curious.
eigth deadly sin? guess? DEBT
YEA, THATS RIGHT AND I'M AN ATHEIST!
eigth deadly sin? guess? DEBT
YEA, THATS RIGHT AND I'M AN ATHEIST!
Debt is bad? Are trading promises ok?
The economic basis of the evils that PCR so well describes is the ever-increasing concentration of capital, i.e., fewer and fewer hands control more and more money. Marx long ago found that concentration is an essential feature of capital expansion. Nonetheless PCR's remedies are about as good as you can find.
Unfortunately, Marx proved right about the historical tendency of centralization of capital. Is there any way that PCR's eminently sensible remedies could reverse that? I doubt it. But, let's give it a try and see. Marx also said, "the reality of ideas is a practical quesion."
The economic basis of the evils that PCR so well describes is the ever-increasing concentration of capital, i.e., fewer and fewer hands control more and more money. Marx long ago found that concentration is an essential feature of capital expansion. Nonetheless PCR's remedies are about as good as you can find.
Unfortunately, Marx proved right about the historical tendency of centralization of capital. Is there any way that PCR's eminently sensible remedies could reverse that? I doubt it. But, let's give it a try and see. Marx also said, "the reality of ideas is a practical quesion."
We won't escape armageddon as long as Neocons run American foreign policy. Or without a free and fair press.
The Deep State running this country has always sought military solutions. That will not change.
So peace in our time is highly doubtful
Silly rabbit, Trix are for Kids. Allow me to correct your post.
We won't escape armageddon as long as Club of Rome runs American foreign policy.
Goto war and chainlink the remaining countries who don't have a Bank of International Settlements Central distribution money laundry satellite office.
The problem is not the tax rate the corporations pay. The problem is that there are corporations. Remove their protected status and make them all proprieterships and partnerships and things will rapidly change for the better. The state will be an enemy to successful businesses again. War will be bad for everybody - including politicians - again.
Remove ALL TAXATION from all business.period. consumers pay the taxes of business now, except we tax our corporations at 35% (except for those who buy protection) while foreign companies pay nothing while selling to us. The exact opposite of protectionism. The elimination of business TAXATION would make a huge difference in their competitiveness and we would be simply paying a very transparent tax on our consumption. We pay it now except it is hidden. That is the joy of VAT as it is buried in the cost of goods, on multiple layers, and the consumer never sees the actual tax amounts they are paying. Government hates transparency....their transparency. Further, American jobs are leaving our shores because Americans are not buying American made products. Until they do, until they are told and recognize they cannot buy foreign made goods and imported cheap labor forever without losing their jobs or at least seeing wage growth dead, our bleeding of jobs will not end. There is no doubt that taxation can effect jobs, but until WE actually take responsibility for how we are contributing to this ongoing disaster, nothing will change.
Well, not taxing business (or wages) would be a step ahead of our current system, but why do I have to hand over a cut of everything I consume to .gov?
Let .gov be paid for via resource taxes; ie, market-rate land value taxes & electromagnetic spectrum rights. Hard to avoid, and less market distorting as the principle function of government* has always been to allocate monopolistic access to natural resources.
*apart from protecting the interests of the elites, obviously
They claim the reason we don't do as you suggest is because it is "regressive". The little guy (poor is not the correct term) pays more than his fair share.
Well, if corporations and businesses weren't taxed at all, then as the comment states "taxation would be in the open". People are known to resist taxation when they see it.
Thus, if we did as this comment suggests, and only have individuals pay tax ... and only pay tax on what they actually use, I predict the huge disparity between the little guy and the big guy would eventually narrow dramatically.
The big guy can only get big by hiding from the little guy what he does to the little guy.
So... Is it the "Neocons", or the "Deep State" that run the show here? Are you Trying to ConFlagRate Me with BullShit?
EveryThing between "We won't escape...", and "highly doubtful" Could be can be Stated in Two Words...
More War! Warmonger
neocons and the deep state are largely the same now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
WTF?
Americans received better and less expensive communication services when AT&T was a regulated monopoly. Free trade in communications has resulted in the creation of many unregulated local monopolies with poor service and high charges. AT&T’s stability made the stock a “blue-chip” ideal for “widow and orphan” trust funds, pensions, and wealth preservation. No such risk free stock exists today.
AT&T---- This is Zero Hedge bitchez
I'll eat this article one paragragh at a time.
The rationale in favor of regulated monopolies, or even state-owned monopolies has always been a topic for debate in economic circles. As an economic policy advisor in the Reagan White House, Paul Craig Roberts is clearly in favor of them. At its core, the debate boils down to the advantages of economies of scale Vs. the inefficiencies of government control. In the case of AT&T it is more efficient to provide wired coverage with one set of cabling rather than multiple sets hanging from the same poles, owned by competing market participants. The same can be said for your local power company. I agree that in these sorts of public infrastructure situations, the government does indeed have an important role to play.
But the resulting utility companies could be described as stodgy: A steady and reliable income stream without the prospect of either large capital appreciation nor attendant risk of loss for investors. Perfect for “widows and orphans” sorts of investments where risk is not a good idea. Roberts makes the point that the result of “deregulation” (read selling off state and regulated monopoly assets) has been increased costs to the consumer, reduced levels of service, and the elimination of investment vehicles suitable for such pension funds.
You make some good points. However, when you write: In the case of AT&T it is more efficient to provide wired coverage with one set of cabling rather than multiple sets hanging from the same poles, owned by competing market participants.
A better solution would be: The one set of cabling has to be made available to different carriers at the same rates as for AT&T.
AT&T is .gov leftovers from the '70s and '80s.
I'm not sure if you understand de-regulation and monopolies.
The primary Tel-Co's were deregulated knowing full well they controlled the infrastructure of the networks.
Instead of fighting deregulation they EMBRACED it, and rewarded "multi tier" carriers that sold fiber with free fibre and discounted rates.
These multi tiered, secondary carriers were just reselling discounted time on the same network under a different name!
AT&T did not invent the telephone. If it was not deregulated would we have seen the technology advances that have since occurred? How much advancement has there been in the post office? We want the advancement that competition creates but we want the stability that government is supposed to supply. Personally I would still rather take my chances with deregulation and the ass raping they will provide than the eternal hell that an all powerful and "efficient" government would imprison me with. Our history with government monopolies has been far too short to project a great deal, but we have lots of history with tyranny and dependency. I'm just another free range chicken that would rather take my chances with the coyote than the farmer's secure coup.
My comment was edited.
You know me better "oldwood".
I took a screenshot.
See Bell Labs for innovations under the monopoly of Ma Bell.
The best justification of regulated or government-run monoplies is if the service they provide was only set up by government exercising eminent domain in the first place.
So, because landlines require access to either public property (like roads) or to cross multiple private property boundaries, it would be virtually impossible to set up a competing business if the owner of a landline monopoly started price gouging.
Same with water pipelines, sewage, power lines, gas pipelines, etc...
In the case of AT&T it is more efficient to provide wired coverage with one set of cabling rather than multiple sets hanging from the same poles, owned by competing market participants.
But as we saw with the break up ... it wasn't about the wires. It was about what connected to the wires. They did the same thing with coaxial cable ... and what do you know? The same thing happened.
Then came cellular phones ... and they didn't do it. You decide.
But what are they doing now? Forcing us onto their "backbone" (digital voice and video real time communication can't work with more than 20 hops) and into their "cloud".
The next step will be a complete node based system using ATM, UWB and dynamic self forming mesh network connections which no one controls ... one that can do 10,000 hops while the current system does 1. With that, we have arrived ... and we can get on to next big problem government has imposed on us.
Thanks Tyler. I didn't write that.
AT&T Factually has destroyed the lives of millions in the Tel-Com industry.
AT&T sucks for trunk links and high fibre requirements. T3-T7.
AT&T and NSA are synonymous.
Just go lease some office space, and call me in the morning.
Looks to me like natural selection is about to bite back.
Humans will one day be a dead twig on the tree of life.
Just a shame we (I use the term loosely) seem to be rushing it.
Uh oh, logicalman, you'll upset the creationists clogging up the ZH forum with all that sciency talk...
But while progressives embrace evolution, they also believe they can subvert it or even stop it. They are universally aposed to natural selection rewarding the strong or superior. It's equality of outcome which has never occurred naturally on earth. Next we will determine the optimal earth temperature and subsequently pass a law (or Obama will simply set forth a rule) to make it so. The power of a collective government is omnipotent.
Ah yes, "evolution". The "scientific" theory based on the ramblings of a mad man, wherein you believe that two tadpoles can mate and create a lion, or whale or a cabbage.
Dr. Kent Hovind was recently released from prison after serving NINE YEARS on completely bogus, trumped up charges. Why?https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IHFqFP-Li_o
Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin all believed in evolution. It was not a problem for them to kill millions as they believed they were eliminating the dead wood in order to create "the superman". And all you evolutionists are buying this bullshit.
TD its just what is. You can recreate the micro biology in the lab.
Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin all believed that water is wet.
to reference madmen is lol. and really who is right? let the facts speak, and keep religion out of it so YOU can think clearly. oh, too late, obiously...
Like it or not science and magic have always been used as an excuse to murder and oppress. Even economists look to "science" even if it is a contrived one to explain the destructive and corrupt shit they do. It does not science wrong or bad, only highly suspicious when coming form a government funded mouth.
This guy still thinks NATO works for the US?
How quaint.
The u.s paid 75% of NATO's budget of 585 billion in 2015. That's about 440 billion going to the military alliance.
For sure NATO works for the u.s...
The u.s paid 75% of NATO's budget of 585 billion in 2015. That's about 440 billion going to the military alliance.
For sure NATO works for the u.s...
NATO is a jobs program for MIC that outlived it's usefullness at the fall of USSR. It's high fucking time Europe grew the fuck up and wiped their own collective asses. Applying your logic to say... Congress and you can understand where I'm coming from. NATO does not work for US. Just because someone pays your ticket does not mean they operate in your best interest or work for you.
"How quaint"? Duc888, you're supposed to save the sarcasm for when you have some sense of what you're talking about.
This is why its improtant to make the distinction between a people and a government.
PCR has a good point here but the problem is it wouldn't interest anyone outside a small circle of friends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMeG6dAFqXw
What he is saying is we need Natural Law. Not Government Laws. Nothing needs to be changed. All that's necessary is for US citizens to follow the moral behavior known as Natural Law. Turn our backs on government, Take care of agression in a more moral way. Take back the country
"The Market for Liberty" - PDF, Epub file
PCR doesn't support liberty he opposes it.
The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalismhttp://www.amazon.com/Failure-Laissez-Faire-Capitalism/dp/0986036250/ref...
Unfortunately if the "we" were to read this article the vast majority of them would not have the slightest fucking clue what PCR is talking about.
Hedge funds and small central banks are caught on the wrong side of the currency trade.
The RBA numbers are hot and the China numbers are hot.
The euro is NOT a funding currency YET.
I understand the idea, but it's very risky.
Remember the $usd carry trade had to be hedged.
Hypothetically, the euro carry trade can be Naked, AS THE EURO IS DEPRECIATINGvs other currencies.
The second Feds. funds rates rise officially, short term borrowing costs will explode.
Bwahahaha.... There is no possible way to bring middle class jobs to this country. Manufacturing is automated and uses so few unskilled labor that it will not employ enough people to create a source of wealth creation. So where the fuck will the productivity. Come from that drives economic expansion. Even if you had the industrial production it would be so inefficient and useless that products would not sell at near cost but way way under cost. The workforce is illiterate and lazy I know I am in a auto plant right this minute. The country will fall to pieces with factions fighting over scraps. These are the last comfortable days of your freaking life amigos buckle up get your boots and rain coat you are about to join the homeless helpless refugee masses on the road to hell
You are correct EC, there is no way to go back in time to the way things used to be. Robotics is taking over manufacturing and that's only going to increase as the technology advances. Those jobs are gone. Even China is using robots instead of people.
Robotics is taking over manufacturing and that's only going to increase as the technology advances. Those jobs are gone.
So why don't we find a way to enjoy the leisure our automation has made possible? Why do we fight over who gets to do what work is left to be done?
One way to test an idea is see if it works at the limits. Just before the limit, one guy is working and makes all the money. Everyone else is his dependent. He's likely to declare all of them surplus.
Easy way to get money out of politics: If it can be shown that more than one dollar was spent lobbying for any federal law passed since 1900, compliance with said law shall be voluntary. If a law is so vital that 320 million people must be compelled to obey it, yet not so obvious that Congress would pass it without lobbying, try passing it at the State level.
Foreign policy is not so simple, because you're not the only player in the room. For America in the 1800s, foreign policy was simple: kill Indians and steal their land. For Poland in the 1930s, foreign policy was pretty much "we're fucked no matter what we do".
Get politics out of money. Stop taxing business and income and tax consumption instead. 99% of all legislation has something to do with somebody's money, and you want those who are most directly effected by this legislation to be restrained from defending their interests. If you are going to do that you might as well nationalize all business and end it quick. When government can fully consume business as their cash cow, there will ZERO resistance to tyranny. A big problem we have now is the perception that taxes are being or should be paid by someone else, preferably business and rich folk, with no acknowledgement that those entities can pass their taxes on to us. It's dumb, designed for dumb people. By eliminating business taxes we will give our businesses, our jobs, a much greater competive advantage. Get government out of money, out of business.
Just get rid of politics altogether.
Politics is the ultimate expression of our "humaness". Manipulation and deceit to obtain power over others is something that most other species have avoided.
Politics is the excuse which the looters and moochers use to justify theft. I'm so sick of all the talk, talk, talk that leads nowhere except for more burdens on those who do rather than those who talk.
How about this:
Break into two sets of groups of 50. The first set is made up of people who share an ideology. The second set is made up of people who share a geography. No person can be in more than one group in each set but otherwise choose the set they want to be in.
Where a issue can't be handled at the individual level, it's brought to the first set of groups (ideology or geography as appropriate) and dealt with there.
If it can't be dealt with there but must be dealt with, each of the groups selects one representative to go to the next set down. So now we have two levels of groups of 50.
If you take this to six levels, you can represent all the people in the world several times over. And each person will be represented by someone they can personally know and who can know them personally.
Now, considering such a system, how much money would it require to get any measure of control of it?
The big picture is to harmonize control through a Globalisation process of allowing agroithms to maintain systematic risk fallout.
It will fun to watch Utopian nutjobs lose their wealth in a millisecond. It will be like watching a dog flee the the scene with its tail tucked between the ass.
Armageddon = negative net energy, and/or EROEI below about 10:1. As we all know, the current bad-joke of a civilization was built on rising EROEIs between 50 and 100 to 1.
PCR is another drone programmed for 1950s Americana nostalgia and nothing else. His proposal curiously leaves out a detailed theory of how to return all of the light sweet crude back to American wells ... as well as a general theory of stone-bleeding and blueprints for a reactor fueled by derivatives contracts.
Copywrite: Counsel on Foreign Relations.. No Bout A Doubt it...
PCR's heart is in the right place. I'm sure most will say it can't be done and of course as long as we're saying that.... it sure as hell can't be done.
The whole country has a loser complex that is going to be hard to shake.
Bottom line,,, at least he is putting forth ideas.
We aren't going to fix anything until we reduce all the 'white noise' in our lives. We are behaving just like Calhoun's rats did. Overpopulation effects aren't just from physical crowding, they can occur when people can't get away from each other socially as well.
Everyone is connected, almost all the time. Just because we aren't living in stacked one-room pods and eating the remains of our dead doesn't mean we haven't suffered the effects of serious overcrowding. Only it isn't physical crowding and starvation, it's MENTAL crowding, where you can't get away from each other no matter where you go. Like the internet has changed the nature of bullying...before, you had to deal with them at certain times, and could always avoid them by staying home and hanging out with friends. Now, you hang out with friends on Fakebook, where all your bullies can find you too...
Everything today is in-your-face, piss on everyone's azaleas. And if anyone tries to retreat to a corner to recover, just get sticks and dig him the fuck out of there, because he should be part of fucking society!
Your point is stupid. You are posting comments ON THE INTERNET that being connected is bad. OK, so put your money where your mouth is, walk away from the keyboard, and turn off your computer. Or is this a case of "do as I say, not as I do"?
First, to have any chance at change, you have to vote out the incumbents. Just vote for the least-financed individual in whatever party the incumbent is in. Then repeat the next election. Since 99% of folks are NON-sociopathic, it would be the fastest way of getting a NON-sociopathic congress. Sociopaths have controlled the top of all parties due to finances, so you are not gonna get rid of them via parties. It won't cost you anything, either. Make NO campaign contributions. Period.
"To reestablish the middle class the offshored jobs have to be brought home, monopolies broken up, regulation restored, and the central bank put under accountable control or abolished."
Talk about swinging for the fence....
Distribution of risk and concentration of reward. A social contract that will not stand....
Great steaming piles of cow flop! Gee, wouldn't it be nice if blah blah blah... I'll give you a qualified maybe on that, and then I'm gonna bet one great big Reality chip. Whatcha gonna do now, Sparky?
How could we screw up every major decision since the mid 90s? or is it 80s? or is it since 71?.....
....
That is not one mistake. That is a systemic process that generates the wrong answers for every question....
A nice, informed, thought experiment. But Roberts is not going far enough. We must eliminate poverty too, and excessive wealth. The greatest danger, that Roberts the economist seems oblivious too, is environmental desruction. The people are too apathetic and brainwashed to save themselves. The only sad way out, as he himself seems to realize, is a revolution. That is what it boils down to: Are there enough people out there with enough moral and physical courage to strategically and violently fight back?
Environmental destruction is caused by issuing only enough fiat currency but not issuing the fiat to repay the interest. As today's fiat economy grows ever larger and with debased currency the amount of funds is even greater than say in 1920 for the same amount of economic activity. It could be 100x larger. Environmental destruction is the irresistible shorttrrm solution to this lack of fiat issuance. But the relief is fleeting. Soon more denuded forests and ruined coral reefs will be piled on in an endless course of destruction.
Boils down to: Are there any leaders with enough moral and physical courage to strategically lead the people and violently take back their nation. Every team has a leader. Fragmented band of armed desperate people would be useless. Organizing requires strategy and cooperation which means a plan. Leaders will not step forward (OWS) for obvious reasons. Ruined life. Underground railroad is needed.
People are too apathetic and brainwashed to act in their own best interests, yet they will rise up in revolution? To what end? It is a cycle of stupidity that no revolution can repair. Revolution is simply an act of mob revenge for people taking advantage of their ignorance and weaknesses. We must blame someone, right? It cant be our fault.
The American Constitution was the best effort yet to provide liberty for a people who desired it, but no document can force us to accept freedom and liberty. The costs are just too damned high for most, and that comes long before actually putting their life at risk. It can be as simple as buying a Chinese import rather than something your neighbor might make as it is just so much cheaper. Or voting for someone who will take from another what you cannot earn for yourself. It's the little things that make the big things impossible.
In every industry I can think of, except one, efficientcey has caused a shrinking workforce and Paridigm change.
Better techniques. Faster and cheaper computing. Automation. Less humans, more production. More and more, done with less and less. Driving down costs, screwing with the supply demand curve we are accustomed to.
What is that ONE industry that has resisted?
That hires more and more? Provides less and less per "worker"? Salaries rise, independent of the economy? While others loose defined benefits and pensions, theirs increase? If there is not enough money, they just take it? And it is a monopoly. And as a side note, uses outdated technology, so the worker bees are comfortable, and don't get kicked to the curb by new techniques and people who implement them?
Your Govenment. Thank you, thank you for your support and contribution.
We are not given a choice as to their growth. The left/right choice is one of a constantly increasing government power versus the absolute. As was recently explained by the top democrat, the difference between a democrat and socialist is a matter of degree, not ideology. It is now the same for republicans. Government has become self aware as an entity ant it will continue to pursue domination of its environment at all costs, even if it means destruction of everything....it has no choice, no other consciousness.
Are there enough people out there with enough moral and physical courage to strategically and violently fight back?
With our revolution it started with just a handful and never raised to the level of a majority.
Same with Hitler ... except I think his did raise to a level of a majority.
I have already engineered armageddon March 10th 2008 when the bear raid started the ball rolling with Bear Stearns, Dr. Roberts. Tactically, the Wolfowitz Doctrine, and NATO, are defunct for all intents and purposes. Moreover, Thomas Hobbes characterized us as 'brutes' so we can dispense with the phony prospects of peace in the distant future. Furthermore, with tax base dwindling in the USA it would appear that the MIC, and the Pentagon, are going to systematically get effin' fucked out of their funding just like the cocksuckers on Wall Street are going to get effin' fucked out of their funding too.
I admire President Putin and the Russian Federation very much, but when it comes to mopping the floor with America, NATO, and the MIC, Wolfowitz Doctrine, and the cocksuckers on Wall Street, I already did it, BuckO.
"The purpose of the First Amendment is to control the government, but today media serves as a propaganda ministry for government." --PCR
Have you guys ever perused some of the news headlines and articles cranked out during the 19th and early 20th centuries? Check out some of the NYT rah-rah articles during their WWI ramp up... ridiculous. As far as I can tell, the mainstream media has been serving as a propaganda ministry for government for generations -- maybe even since the birth of our so-called "republic". Whether it's six corporations dominating the multimedia landscape or six hundred, TPTB will get out whatever messaging they want. If any journalist foolish enough to stand on his First Amendment rights should seek to report with integrity, he'd get silenced, squashed, or both. The consent of the governed will be stamped out with printing press efficiency, one way or another.
Folks, we've seen this movie before. Let me fast-forward you to the end: they win, we lose.
Check out some of the NYT rah-rah articles during their WWI ramp up... ridiculous.
And listen to old time radio on SiriusXM. It's kind of humorous when you hear how amateur they were at creating and delivering the propaganda ... but then their subjects were amateurs at detecting it too.
I like the stall thingy as plan A. Plan B, its not all bunny rabbits and sunshine.
It's not going to happen peacefully. The rich aren't going to give up their stranglehold on power without a fight. The rich are going to use the power elites from all sectors to maintain their grip on power. All this talk, while interesting, is irrelevant. It's going to take action to rid America of the scourge of the rich and powerful.
It could happen somewhat peacefully. But for that to happen lots of years of dogma must be put in its place.
We are making way more progress on this front than I ever thought possible. The clock is ticking tho.
Hey can we hang a few just to get the whole thing going.
There are soooo many beneficiaries of the current it can't be changed only self destruction will 'fix' it.
.Imagine cops giving up their pension plans. They will of course, ....but not voluntarily. Look at Illinois. Every government plan is grossly underfunded (firemen by 70%) They certainly won't be talked into lower pensions. They will have to have cities go BK....even then as the county and state are dying the cops will be fighting to take funds from hospitals and roads and schools.
I'm not just picking on cops (OK I am but they deserve it the most cuz they sucked up to politicians to get their outrageous pensions.) Everyone who has a dime coming will scream until they get what they want. No one will give in....and it would take everyone giving up hard fought gains.
So it will take a good collapse, an enema of dramatic effect, a magnificent cleansing to get things to balance. All paper will and must burn. The hardest lessons must be learned again.
...it will be a great, horrible thing...can't wait...
There are soooo many beneficiaries of the current it can't be changed only self destruction will 'fix' it.
.Imagine cops giving up their pension plans. They will of course, ....but not voluntarily. Look at Illinois. Every government plan is grossly underfunded (firemen by 70%) They certainly won't be talked into lower pensions. They will have to have cities go BK....even then as the county and state are dying the cops will be fighting to take funds from hospitals and roads schools.
I'm not just picking on cops (OK I am but they deserve it the most cuz they sucked up to politicians to get their outrageous pensions.) Everyone who has a dime coming will scream until they get what they want. No one will give in....and it would take everyone giving up hard fought gains.
So it will take a good collapse, an enema of dramatic effect, a magnificent cleansing to get things to balance. All paper will and must burn. the hardest lessons must be learned again.
...it will be a great, horrible thing...can't wait...
Paul Craig Roberts is another typical reactionary revolutionary, who presents relatively good analysis of the problems, followed by bogus "solutions," which tend to be based upon nostalgic nonsense. Since we ARE inside of entrenched systems of debt slavery, which HAVE generated numbers which have become debt insanities, those necessarily MUST drive death insanities. To speak about preventing or preparing for that appears to be useless. There is no going backward, there is only going forward. To go forward will necessarily amount to developing different systems of organized crime, operating different death controls, to back up different debt controls.
ONE SHOULD ASK THE SERIOUS QUESTIONS,
WHAT IS THE POINT OF CORRECTLY STATING:
Guys like Roberts are still STUCK inside of the various old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies, and the related impossible ideals. Upon the basis of still taking for granted those DUALITIES, guys like Roberts promote bogus "solutions" that they already know and admit are NOT going to be be implemented. My view is that we should go through series of intellectual scientific revolutions, in order to profoundly change the paradigms through which we perceive political problems. Superficial approaches like Roberts' tend to NOT be able to better connect human systems with natural and environmental systems, due to still taking too much for granted perceiving things through DUALITIES, instead of through attempting to use more UNITARY MECHANISMS.
The existing problems actually are globalized electronic monkey money frauds, backed by the threat of force from apes with atomic bombs. The ONLY genuine solutions would have to be based on political science surpassing the paradigm shifts that have already been achieved in physical science. The real problems are trillions of times WORSE than ever before in human history, and therefore, can NOT be resolved with some nostalgic nonsense about somehow going backwards, to restore anything (which never really was anyway.)
Real radical revolutions would have to develop better death control systems, with the human murder systems being the more extreme form of that. Guys like Roberts are quite correct about the established systems having become runaway criminal insanities. However, guys like Roberts never engage in the kinds of deeper analysis which would be required to PERHAPS cope with the development of weapons of mass destruction, due to progress in physical science. Overall, I find it quite peculiar how totally typical it is for most people to somehow somewhat perceive that the REAL problems have become globalized electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs, and then still be able to go on to promote bogus "solutions" which have no coherent and consistent basis within that physical science.
Militarism, or the ideology of the murder system, is the supreme ideology, and it deserves to be. Roberts' prescription for peace and prosperity is NOT based upon better death control systems. Roberts provide no coherent theory for how to replace the currently best organized gangs of criminals that are dominating governments with any different, better organized gang of criminals. We are well past the point of any possible "reforms," which are not going to be implemented anyway. We are already committed to having to go through some sort of "revolutions" ... which will primarily be due to the runaway debt insanities provoking death insanities (especially since that "money" made out nothing was "paying" to strip-mine the planet's natural resources, in ways which are running into limits of diminishing returns, unlike anything that ever happened before.)
We are already committed to have to go through some sorts of "revolutions." Those should be guided by series of intellectual scientific revolutions. I repeat what I already stated before: after the development of globalized electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs, the only remotely possible theoretically possible better solutions to political problems must be developed in ways which are consistent with the progress in physical science that enabled those technologies to be accomplished. Of course, Roberts, and other reactionary revolutionaries like him, are doing NOTHING LIKE THAT, as demonstrated by another impossible ideal, that must necessarily backfire badly, and continue to cause the opposite to happen in the real world:
That is ABSURD. Money is measurement backed by murder. It is NOT possible to get "money out of politics." Rather, money is the mother's milk of politics, and the oxygen to any political fires, for absolutely necessary reasons. Governments exist because organized crime exists. Neither can be stopped, as long as human beings still exist. The problems we have now are due to the best organized gangs of criminals, the biggest gangsters, who are primarily the banksters, being able to effectively control governments, as the biggest forms of organized crime. The ONLY genuine solutions must necessarily be better organized crime, because that is the only realistic ways that better governments can actually exist.
Roberts' article above articulates the basic problems with respect to a wide variety of other somewhat similar reactionary revolutionaries. Their "solutions" are bogus, due to their analysis being too superficial. Although their analysis is correct, upon the superficial level at which that is presented, because they almost totally fail to engage in deeper levels of analysis, their "solutions" continue to be the same old-fashioned bullshit, based upon impossible ideals, which are NOT possible ever be implemented. What exists are systems of organized crime. What will continue to exist, as long as human beings exist, will be some different systems of organized crime. It is NOT possible to get money out of politics, rather, it would only be possible to better understand that money is measurement backed by murder, in order that it MIGHT be possible to develop better death controls that backed up better debt controls ... Meanwhile, we are rushing towards the debt insanities provoking death insanities, and it will be inside of that context that we will be forced to develop different death control systems.
Militarism deserves to be respected as the supreme ideology of the human murder system. That militarism is what most needs to go through profound paradigm shifts in the ways that the death control systems are perceived, because it is imperative to change and adapt to the existence of weapons of mass destruction. Of course, at the present time, it appears most probable that human civilization will continue on its tragic trajectory towards committing collective suicide. At the present time, it seems far more probable that the technologically amplified Neolithic Civilization will FAIL to change and adapt, by developing sufficiently radical and revolutionary political science, based upon profound paradigm shifts that surpass those already achieved in physical science. But nevertheless, theoretically speaking, nothing less could be sufficient.
There is NOTHING remotely close to those kinds of intellectual scientific revolutions to be found in guys like Roberts' old-fashioned nostalgic nonsense, about bogus "solutions" based upon going backward, in ways which even he admits are NOT going to be implemented anyway. On the contrary, human beings and civilizations necessarily operate as entropic pumps of energy flows, and should be transformed through understanding that better. Such better ways of understanding politics eschews false fundamental dichotomies and the related impossible ideals. There are nothing but the dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies. In that context, what currently exists are those whereby there is almost nothing but a core of organized crime, surrounded by controlled opposition groups. That is how and why we have governments as the biggest forms of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangsters, the banksters. However, instead of engaging in a deeper analysis of that social situation, guys like Roberts stay on their preferred superficial levels, which are correct enough, given those are being presented on those superficial levels, but then, guys like Roberts switch gears to promote impossible ideals, as the basis for their bogus "solutions." They do that despite simultaneously admitting that those "solutions" are NOT actually going to be implemented.
My recommendations are to engage in deeper analysis, and then switch gears to promote genuine solutions which are consistent with that deeper analysis. The ONLY way to achieve a realistic prescription for peace and prosperity would be through radical changes in the ways that we perceived the death control systems. "Peace and prosperity" only can actually exist as relatively better dynamic equilibria between different systems of organized lies operating robberies. The history of warfare and militarism, or the history of organized crime on larger and larger scales, was NOT a "mistake." Rather, it was ways that human beings developed systems of artificial selection within the overall context of natural selection pressures. Human beings and civilizations were always operating as entropic pumps of energy flows. However, those paradoxically developed to become most socially successful when based upon the maximum possible deceits and treacheries, which then gradually morphed to become the current systems whereby governments ENFORCE FRAUDS by privately controlled banks. Current political events are mostly those banksters attempting to consolidate their global hegemony over the public "money" systems. However, again, those were not "mistakes" but rather necessary accommodations to to chronic political problems which were inherent to the nature of life. The banksters have developed the most expedient sets of solutions to those problems which benefited them. We should develop better set of solutions.
It is NOT possible to get money out of politics. It would only be possible to change the ways whereby money was measurement backed by murder. Although I may well agree with most of the superficial analysis of the social facts that Roberts presents, the degree to which that analysis was ridiculously superficial become more apparent when he switches gears to being to discuss "solutions," since his solutions are nothing more than absurd nonsense, almost totally based upon the same old-fashioned false fundamental dichotomies and the related impossible ideals. Roberts provides a good example of how reactionary revolutionaries "think" as forms of controlled opposition. They are not able to think in sufficiently different ways to engage in deeper analysis, and then promote better solutions which are consistent with that deeper analysis.
Of course, I am somewhat sympathetic with that, since facing the facts that there are now globalized electronic frauds, backed by the force of atomic bombs, means that our real problems are WAY WORSE than ever before in known human history. To fully face those facts demands series of intellectual scientific revolutions, which take the form of profound paradigm shifts in political science generally, which then most necessarily applies to the ways that the debt controls are backed by the death controls.
Basically, Roberts, as another typical reactionary revolutionary, correctly presents the social facts regarding what the best organized gangs of criminals are really doing when they control governments. However, then Roberts does not stay consistent with that, in order to promote genuine solutions, which would necessarily have to be better organized crime. Therefore, instead of better monetary systems, backed by better murder systems, guys like Roberts have no problem promoting impossible ideals, such as recommending that we get money out of politics, despite at the same time admitting that is not possible! Roberts still proposes impossible ideals as the basis for bogus "solutions," in ways which continue to present all of that through absurdly backward mechanisms. On the contrary, what I am endeavouring to do is recognize that we ARE headed towards the ENFORCED FRAUDS having generated debt insanities, that are going to provoke death insanities, and that it will be only in that context that it MIGHT be possible to develop revolutionary, radically different, combined money/murder systems. Of course, those should be done in ways which are as consistent as possible with the series of intellectual scientific revolutions that enabled there to be constructed the existing systems of globalized electronic frauds, backed by atomic bombs.
Rock on Rad !
I did like Roberts's tax scheme however, and of course the re-etablishment of Glass Steagal is a prerequisite for any semblance of a democratic Republic.
Jail terms for Bernanke, Weill, Rubin, Summers, Blanfein, Dimon, and of course the crazy mormon Henry Paulson is also a prerequisite.
The only path to survival requires the rejection of delusion. History has proven paradigms for survival and with each cycle we are become deluded into themes of something for nothing that always eventually lead us back to reality that nothing is free worth having. Unfortunately no amount of preaching and lamenting will endow this illumination in the eyes of the deluded. Only the hard slap in the face of reality does that, and usually takes more than one try.
Find a system that eliminates delusion and you have the answer, but maybe a world without it has been determined to be a life not worth living.
1977 words.
OKAY
Who farted?
Fraudlent, organized criminal farts? Which, if superficial, would be a lot easier to take.
Phew
************************************************
Just kidding RM. I still love you.
Aren't you and Roberts both guilty of the same falsehood?
There is not now, nor will there ever be a solution to the death-like grip and criminal behavior of powerful governments and their enabling banksters.
Dude.
Just come out and say it in modern English, instead of your neo-Elizabethan political scientific word salad.
Anyway, you're still the best.
Hugs
bid
Rad M, nice to see you posting again. I appreciate your insight.
What do the SEC and FDIC have in common? They're both supposed to report to the government on how good it is to be a white collar criminal, since no other such organization exists to do that. The CIA should be regulated to have the power of justice only, as I think the white collar crime extends beyond the shadow banking industry and the debt industry. The cops should too, but if any ask I'll just say "No thank you sir".
Such ideals!
Government effectively regulating itself.....and we wonder how it all went wrong. There was a theory that by dividiing government into various competing branches they would effectively regulate themselves, but once they all realized that it was us against them it, took about ten minutes to align their interests.
PCR, this is quite simple. We have peace and prosperity when we get rid of the war machine ..
Now, there is more than one way to skin a cat ..
http://wantarevelations.com/2014/01/wanta-plan-macro-financial-economic-...
But there is only one individual that I'm aware of that has the net worth of 3x the GDP of China ..
http://eagleonetowanta.com/
- Bill Hicks
Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it...
No, stop taking money altogether. Taking money is theft. Let the people who earned the money spend the money. Those with bright ideas about how to spend other people's stolen money should spend less time pontificating and more time earning their own money which they can then spend as they please.
Billy, Billy....when will you learn? Downvotes already, for that comment.
We strong, able and capable must accept the fact that we are slaves to the imbeciles of the world. We need to run things. Fix things. Construct things.
It is our destiny. We would do it anyhow, but they require it of us.
That waddling blob of blubber, with three ducklings in tow, sucking on a Super Sized Big Gulp in the middle of the day, as you are out working and slaving, deserves it's existance. It gives the bleeding hearts in your magnanimous government something to work for. And provides votes, so they can maintain their station in life. And at the end of their "career", when the Gold Plated Pension kicks in, they can look back and say they deserve it.
They helped people.
Back to work, slave.
"earned"?
Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world,
Or better yet "don't" take all that money.
PCR is a very thoughtful thinker. He knows his stuff and is a lightning rod for establishment trolls which is evident in some of the comments here. I would take PCR over any current of future US politician. At least he sees some sense of purpose for we humans. Which, by the way, has morphed into some kind of neanderthal i-splat, Facebook, Candy Crushing, gamer, tweeting, TV watching, ignorant, uncultured zombie society. I suppose we deserve what is coming.
"If only I were King ... "
01-14-2016
PCR
This is my explanation of events (everybody is tired of reading it so I'll be brief). In 2009 it was obvious and nothing has occurred since that refutes it.
And whether the US military gets most of it when the Great Oil Peak occurs in the middle of this century. We hit 'peak oil' in 2006. The shale oil boom brought us out of it, but was only going to last until 2022 -25. The bursting of the subprime mortgage backed securities bubble was engineered to collapse demand and it succeeded in doing so. The price of oil today attests to that. The invasions of Iraq and recently Libya put the production of their reserves in the hands of Western producers who aren't shy about pumping it up. After priming the pump in Venezuela, America is sitting back and watching the Maduro government self destruct.
American sponsored terrorism is raging in the Middle East and Africa, areas with little defenses against terrorism. Terrorism which is designed to put the fear of the Mongol Horde into Americans and Europeans, who then will gladly give up their rights to protect themselves.
Except for 911 and the Boston attack, America has been relatively free of terrorism, although the FBI is constantly claiming to have foiled a few, which were probably ones they set up so they could bust them.
Russia and China have seen more terrorism and are being encircled by NATO and Pacific allies of Washington.
There are two endings in this scenario:
The first is the aforementioned Armageddon. I need elaborate on it. RES IPSA LOQUITUR.
The second, arguably as bad as the first, is a world, like Gallia, in tres partes divisa est. The establishment of the three multi nations described by George Orwell and the unending, but phony, war between them
All this as provided by The Treaty of The Forbidden City.
In 2009 it was obvious and nothing has occurred since that refutes it.
On 9/11/2001 it was obvious and nothing has occurred since that refutes it.
Except for 911 and the Boston attack, America has been relatively free of terrorism, although the FBI is constantly claiming to have foiled a few, which were probably ones they set up so they could bust them.
And both of those were theater brought to you by those who protect you from terrorism. What's a little collateral damage when you know what's best for your subjects.
We live in an occupied country.
Why did WTC7 fall down?
If you got "peak oil" and the Pentagon's refusal to accept America's low reserves of crude oil without engaging a fight by mid 21st century then you are the Edgar Cayce of zero hedge.
I didn't start putting it together until Bush made obvious his intention to invade Iraq.
I never had any doubts that the Saudi Secret Service was responsible for 911. I assumed that the towers were knocked down by Saudi agents to elevate George Bush's approval prior to the war he was going to declare. It was unimportant to me if explosives were involved or not. The NSA wanted them down and down they came.
And thanks to 911, today America reacts to terrorism, the way it would react to the Black Plague or an invasion of body snatchers.
Bid the soldier: I never had any doubts that the Saudi Secret Service was responsible for 911.
Do you know that WTC7 "fell" down that afternoon?
And thanks to 911, today America reacts to terrorism, the way it would react to the Black Plague or an invasion of body snatchers.
I see America reacting superbly to propaganda. But the propaganda didn't include WTC7 falling down. So it looks like if we want to give thanks to 911, we also want to give thanks to those who kept so quiet the news of WTC7 falling ... for going on 14 years.
Do you suppose the Saudis had elevator passes to WTC7?
Did passenger jets fly into the twin towers in the first instance and start the fires?
Were the jets hitting the tower the Key Event of 911 or not?
Did they crash into the towers before or after WTC7 fell down?
How different would America's beliefs about 911 be if WTC7 had not come down? How different would my view of 911 be if WTC7 had not come down?
NOT DIFFERENT AT ALL.
Show me where I ever said the Mossad (the dancing rabbis) or the NSA WERE NOT INVOLVED.
Without the Saudi Secret Service, there are no Saudis flying planes into the towers.
Without the planes crashing into the towers, there is no 911.
sometimes it takes two to tango, sometimes it takes three
Did passenger jets fly into the twin towers in the first instance and start the fires?
I don't know. It's unlikely a terrorists passport was able to make it out of the inferno but "no" jet engines did.
Were the jets hitting the tower the Key Event of 911 or not?
They were not. And even if they were, cavemen couldn't have been flying them as the government conspiracy claims.
Did they crash into the towers before or after WTC7 fell down?
Before ... about 7 hours before. The announcement by the BBC that WTC7 collapsed also came 30 minutes before. How can that be? Did they get off script?
How different would America's beliefs about 911 be if WTC7 had not come down?
By my personal poll, with only 7% knowing it even "did" fall down, probably not much. The propaganda and information filtering machine "America's beliefs" depend on is unbelievably effective. 100% of the people I asked knew about WTC1&2 falling down. Only 12 out of 164 so far knew what they were looking at when I show them WTC7 falling down? How can the same information source accomplish that? Is a 47 story building covering a whole square block not important enough to tell them?
I'll tell you why. Because while most Americans are stupid enough to think jets could have brought down the twin towers as they saw before their very own eyes, they're not about to believe WTC7 could fall in the same free fall fashion with "nothing" hitting it. So they (the brainwashers of Americans) had to forever keep it quiet.
How different would my view of 911 be if WTC7 had not come down?
You tell me. They're your beliefs.
When I saw WTC1&2 come down as they did, it was obvious to me that the planes didn't cause that. The immediate detailed reporting about amounts of fuel; cars in airports with flight manuals; and all the other scripted nonsense just reinforced it. And then WTC7 falls down ... and nothing hit it. And they kept that quiet.
That, sir, is the obvious smoking gun and the first attack vector that should have been explored. It was never explored. Just covered up by a ridiculous NIST report four years later. Read the report. It's worse than laughable. WTC7 "proves beyond any doubt" that 9/11 was an inside job and we live in an "occupied" country.
Show me where I ever said the Mossad (the dancing rabbis) or the NSA WERE NOT INVOLVED.
I don't even know who you are. And I'm sure I never attacked you for saying Mossad and the NSA were not involved. I don't know who was involved. I do know 19 cavemen with box cutters were "not" involved.
Without the Saudi Secret Service, there are no Saudis flying planes into the towers.
Without our air defenses standing down there are also "no" planes flying into the towers. If the Saudi's really were the bad guys, why did we immediately invade Iraq and Afghanastan? Wouldn't it seem more logical for us to invade Saudi Arabia?
Without the planes crashing into the towers, there is no 911.
This is "obviously not true". WTC7 falling down and the silence around it proves that. There's thousands of architects and engineers that will tell you, and can prove to someone who understands some pretty simple concepts, that jets flying into those buidlings would not have brought them down ... especially in that fashion. And for sure WTC7 wouldn't fall down like it did with nothing hitting it. The jets (and remember no jet parts were found at the Pentagon) were either a distraction or a total fabrication.
Sometimes it takes two to tango, sometimes it takes three
Isn't that the definition of a conspiracy? In this case it took many many many people tangoing. And they're still doing it (just like you are here). That's what is so perplexing. How can there be so many tangoers out there? There's no question they're there. Everytime the subject of 9/11 comes up (which it has many times in the republican party debates yesterday), someone should come right back with "why did WTC7 fall down". They never do? Why is that?
I wish I did know who you are. Your debating like this makes you one of the tanogers. Why are you tangoing?
Todd Marshall
Plantersville, TX
PCR is saying that there needs to be a thorough purge of the Wolfowitz & Co marxist/fascist doctrine that has permeated Washington's political system since the days of GW Bush and probably before and which roams the world for looking for new wars and revolutions to engineer to turn the victims into vassals of Washington.
A whole new approach to geo-politics is needed, one where America leads by example, not at the end of a gun barrel.
Some chance.
{sigh}
PCR : Recipe for BRAVE NEW WORLD (not the ALdous Huxley version which anticipates the current one).
But who will bell the cat of neo-con dystopian construct, the Hatchery of permanent wars meme ?
There is good and there is evil and there are those who can't tell the difference.
Unfortunately, the ones to worry about are those who can't tell the difference.
All people have to do is refuse to accept $US for international settilement, and half the changes he mentioned will happen as a result of that.
this might work if the elite in control were human. THEY LIVE.
Paul Craig Roberts has some very constructive ideas here but I don't think they strike at the heart of the problem even if they were attainable which of course they are not. The heart of the problem is this societies love affair with technology. As Einstein said: "I fear the day when our technology will surpass human interaction. We will have a generation of idiots." And that's what we have, a generation of idiots who cannot think their way out of a paper bag. We are decayed as a civilization and it is going to take a total collapse and a great reorganization based upon communities not technology before we recover. A generation of technocratic idiots cannot rebuild society.
Our salvation lies in the next President appointing PCR Secretary of State
Americans received better and less expensive communication services when AT&T was a regulated monopoly.
Absolute nonsense Roberts! Go back and read the Carterphone decision. You're my age. You can't claim ignorance on that one.
AT&T’s stability made the stock a “blue-chip” ideal for “widow and orphan” trust funds, pensions, and wealth preservation. No such risk free stock exists today.
Try the Southern Company (SO).
Too much regulation, so we need to regulate.
Monopolies need to be broken up and new monoploies put into place.
Seems legit.
Why is this a..hole blaming neoconservative when all that's happening is caused by his fellow communist the Democrats and Obama. He says get rid of neocons but he names Nuland, Rice...these are all commies taking orders from the head commie Mr. O.
Why is this a..hole blaming neoconservative when all that's happening is caused by his fellow communist the Democrats and Obama. He says get rid of neocons but he names Nuland, Rice...these are all commies taking orders from the head commie Mr. O.
Paul Craig Roberts is part of the problem. He should lead every one of his essays with "Why did WTC7 fall down?". He doesn't even act like he knows it happened.
The Wolfowitz doctrine requires Washington to dispense with governments that do not acquiesce to Washington’s will. It is a “first objective.”
I'm no fan of Wolfowitz, but if he knows how to dispense with a government let's pick his brain. We have one we need to dispense with. Ours.
In order to restore peace, the neoconservatives must be removed from foreign policy positions in the government and media.
This suggest that peace existing at some time. Read Maclay's Journal. With the appointment of Knox to Secretary of War he correctly predicted a permanent standing army and a war (in this case with the Indians) in six months. And this was before our dear free republic was even a year old.
The prescription for peace and prosperity is sound. The question is: Can we implement it?
Well, the southerners tried to implement it in 1861. It's called secession.
Notice all Roberts' tonics are tweaking the government we have. The real solution is first cutting the government(s) we have down to 1/10th their current size ... and then forcing them to stay there. The constitution hasn't done it. Seemingly obvious clauses like the commerce clause (that was obviously intended to make adjacent states have no advantage in trade over non-adjacent states) immediately led to the co-option of our whole states-rights government.
And Mr. Roberts: You know 9/11 was an inside job. So you know we are an occupied country. Do any of your insights and recommendations sound like things people in an occupied country should be focused on?
The solution: Secede. Then secede again. Then secede again. And do it until those you choose to represent you are those you actually know ... and who know you.