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Fourth Turning: Crisis Of Trust, Part 2
Submitted by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,
In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I will ponder possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy.

The nearly seven year reign of Barack Obama has resulted in furthering wealth inequality, in spite of his socialistic rhetoric. Notwithstanding his Nobel Peace Prize, military spending is at all-time highs and we are engaged in actual and proxy wars across the Middle East and in the Ukraine. Race relations have never been worse. Poverty levels have never been worse. Real median household income is lower than it was in 1989. Real hourly wages are at 50 year lows. Home ownership has plunged to 50 year lows, as middle class workers have been kicked out of their homes and young people are saddled with so much student loan debt and bleak job opportunities they will never have an opportunity to own. The ownership society pushed by Clinton and Bush, with the proliferation of Wall Street created “exotic” subprime mortgages, peddled to people incapable of paying their mortgages, blew up the world in 2008, and the fall out will last for decades.

Meanwhile, Wall Street banks have reaped $700 billion of ill-gotten profits since 2010 as the Federal Reserve has handed them trillions of interest free funds to gamble with, while rigging the financial markets, and paying their executives obscene bonuses. The hubris and arrogance of the Wall Street titans is appalling, as they buy politicians, write toothless financial regulations (Dodd Frank) for their bought off politicians to pass, report fraudulent financial results with the stamp of approval from the FASB, blatantly rig interest rate, currency, stock and commodities markets, and use deception and propaganda to distract and mislead the public through their corporate media mouthpieces – dependent upon Wall Street advertising revenue to thrive.
And still, Obama has not prosecuted one banker for the largest control fraud in world history, as he assumed the role of useful puppet to the vested financial interests. I’m sure he will be paid handsomely after he leaves office in 2017, just as Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, and Ben Bernanke have been richly rewarded by their Deep State benefactors for a job well done.

Illegal immigrants are pouring over our borders with encouragement from the Obama administration. Obamacare has proven to be a giveaway to health insurance conglomerates, hospital corporations, and drug companies, as insurance costs are driven higher, care deteriorates, and deficits soar ever higher. The welfare state has grown to immense proportions, with 46 million Americans remaining on food stamps, proving the reported unemployment rate of 5.1% to be a fraud. The labor participation rate of 62.6% is at levels last seen in 1977 and far below the 67.1% rate achieved from 1997 through 2000. The politicians and corporate media applaud $600 billion deficits as an achievement, while 10,000 Boomers turning 65 per day is guaranteed to drive future deficits back over $1 trillion per year.
Laurence Kotlikoff, economics professor at Boston University, reveals the truth about our true fiscal mess. Our unfunded liabilities are too damn big and our current deficits are a lie:
“I told them the real (2014) deficit was $5 trillion, not the $500 billion or $300 billion or whatever it was announced to be this year. Almost all the liabilities of the government are being kept off the books by bogus accounting. The government is 58% underfinanced. Social Security is 33% underfinanced. So, the entire government enterprise is in worse fiscal shape than Social Security is, but they are both in terrible shape. So, how much is America on the hook for in the future? If you take all the expenditures that the government is expected to make, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), all the spending on defense, repairing the roads, paying for the Supreme Court Justices’ salaries, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, everything and take all those expenditures into the future and compare that to all the taxes that are projected to come in, and the difference is $210 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap. That’s our true debt.”
We now know for sure Barack Obama is not the Grey Champion of this Fourth Turning. He has only worsened the three core elements of this Crisis – debt, civic decay, and global disorder. Since his ascension to power, U.S. and global debt has expanded at an astounding rate never seen in world history. Class, race, political and cultural divides have grown to vast proportions. The world is exploding in violence, refugees flooding over borders, civil wars, proxy wars, riots, currency wars and economic depressions caused by U.S. military interventions and monetary policies.
The world is becoming increasingly chaotic and the American people are seeking a leader who can bring order, make tough decisions, and capture the zeitgeist of this moment in history. They are in search of a prophet generation (Boomer) Grey Champion, whose arrival marks the moment of darkness, adversity and peril as the Fourth Turning careens towards its climax. The Grey Champion doesn’t necessarily have to be a good person, but they must lead and display tremendous confidence in their cause and path. Franklin, Lincoln, and FDR have many detractors, but during their Fourth Turnings, they most certainly led, casting aside obstacles (sometimes illegally) and enduring dark days and bleak prospects for success. Is there someone of that stature ready to lead the American people now?
Gray Champion?


“Americans have always been blind to the next turning until after it fully arrives.
Most of today’s adult Americans grew up in a society whose citizens dreamed of perpetually improving outcomes: better jobs, fatter wallets, stronger government, finer culture, nicer families, smarter kids, all the usual fruits of progress. Today, deep into the Third Turning, these goals feel like they are slipping away. Many of us wish we could rewind time, but we know we can’t – and we fear for our children and grandchildren.
Many Americans wish that, somehow, they could bring back a saecular spring now. But seasons don’t work that way. As in nature, a saecular autumn can be warm or cool, long or short, but the leaves will surely fall. The saecular winter can hurry or wait, but history warns that it will surely be upon us.
We may not wish the Grey Champion to come again – but come he must, and come he will.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
When Strauss and Howe wrote these words eighteen years ago, halfway through the Unraveling, the American Dream was already turning into a nightmare. Perpetually improving outcomes have turned into a perpetually declining standard of living for most Americans. Fear for the futures of our children and grandchildren were warranted. Millennials have been lured into and enslaved by $1.3 trillion of student loan debt, left with limited job opportunities and low pay, priced out of the housing market, and handed a $200 trillion bill by their elders. Despite factual data showing that default rates on for-profit student loans were even three times as high as subprime mortgages in the early 2000s, the government took over the student loan market in 2009 and proceeded to dole out $500 billion (taxpayer money) in new debt over the next six years to anyone that could fog a mirror and scribble an X on a loan document.
The criminal enterprises known as for profit colleges such as: University of Phoenix, Corinthian, ITT Tech, Strayer, and Devry, have absconded with the money, provided dreadful education, graduated about 20% of enrollees, and left millions of suckers with billions of debt. With default rates now exceeding 50%, students are angry, demanding relief from their own stupidity. Hard working taxpayers who have struggled to put themselves and their kids through college are angry they will foot the bill for defaults that anyone with a high school diploma could see would happen. Trust in the government’s decision making process and motives have been rightfully shattered.
It is clear the Obama administration purposely enslaved young people in debt to artificially lower the unemployment rate for political purposes. The issuance of colossal amounts of subprime auto loan debt (begun by Ally Financial when it was owned by the Federal government) has also been politically motivated to artificially increase GDP figures and pump up the financial results of the US automakers (GM, Chrysler) saved with taxpayer funds in 2009. There are no free markets left. Everything is manipulated for a political reason or to benefit a particular constituent. The average American pays the price, while the connected .1% are further enriched.

When young people protested against the true enemies of the people on Wall Street in 2011, they were maced, beaten, tear gassed, trampled by horses and imprisoned by the enforcers of the surveillance police state. The working middle class has seen their real wages stagnate for the last 50 years, as the dollar was unpegged from gold, politicians were free to run up the national debt with no short term consequences, and citizens were turned into consumers through media propaganda, the peddling of debt by Wall Street, and the complete and utter failure of our educational system.
While working class Americans have seen no advancement in their real wages in almost a half century, the cost of their food, energy, education, healthcare, housing, and taxes have risen astronomically. It is no coincidence the Wall Street bankers stepped in to offer prodigious levels of consumer debt in the form of credit card, mortgage and auto loans to allow Americans to pretend their standard of living hasn’t fallen. Excessive levels of debt leads to excessive profits for the moneyed interests. The last 35 years have been a grand national delusion.

Trust in the economic system, financial markets, political parties, mainstream media, and generational social contract has been destroyed. Rampant irresponsible fraud, abuse, deception, and deceit by the moneyed interests, lackey politicians, their government apparatchiks, media mouthpieces, and legal system have shattered the illusion the establishment is looking out for your best interests. The revelations by Edward Snowden of illegal mass surveillance, militarization of local police forces, military exercises in US cities, attempts to roll back the 2nd Amendment, and trying to control the internet has revealed the true nature of the corporate fascist state. The disintegration of trust began slowly after 9/11 but accelerated rapidly over the last three years. Our leaders have done the exact opposite of what needed to be done after 2008. Everything they have implemented has failed. The average American is worse off than they were in 2009 at the depths of the recession.
The highly educated, white collar, sociopath masters of the universe have captured the levers of power in this country. The world is enthralled and mesmerized by a gray haired academic troll-like figure who will ascend her monetary throne and pronounce whether her and her fellow central bank lackeys will raise an obscure inconsequential interest rate from 0% to .25%. This is nothing but a meaningless diversion as her owners (Wall Street banks), their corporate brethren, captured politicians, pliable judiciary, and media mouthpieces rig the financial markets to enrich themselves while impoverishing the masses and drowning current and future generations in un-payable debt. Harry Markopolos, who uncovered Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, while the SEC and criminal co-conspirator Wall Street bankers willfully ignored the blatant easily identifiable fraud, captures the essence of why trust in our economic, financial, regulatory, political, judicial and journalistic systems has collapsed:
“Government has coddled, accepted, and ignored white collar crime for too long. It is time the nation woke up and realized that it’s not the armed robbers or drug dealers who cause the most economic harm, it’s the white collar criminals living in the most expensive homes who have the most impressive resumes who harm us the most. They steal our pensions, bankrupt our companies, and destroy thousands of jobs, ruining countless lives.” – Harry Markopolos, Congressional Testimony
The men who retain the levers of power are the same men who were in command when the Crisis struck in 2008. They are even more powerful and rich today than prior to the financial collapse provoked by their unbridled greed and avarice. They believed they could engineer a recovery by promoting confidence in the Wall Street banks through the issuance of prodigious amounts of debt to solve a crisis caused by too much debt. Total debt outstanding in the U.S. rose from $52 trillion in 2009 to $59 trillion today, at the behest of the government and their Federal Reserve cohorts.
While rational thinking Americans have continued to pay down their mortgage debt and reduce credit card usage, the Federal government through their insolvent (if using mark to market accounting) entities Fannie and Freddie, along with their monopoly on student loan issuance, and their massive deficit spending, have accounted for more than 100% of the $7 trillion increase. Total global debt approaches $230 trillion, up approximately $70 trillion since the crisis began.

The mood change in the country is palpable as economic misery besets the middle class; race wars break out in urban ghettos across the land; push back against the police state intensifies; distrust of a rigged financial system keeps people out of the market; young people are priced out of the housing market by Wall Street price manipulation; productive good paying jobs dwindle; government bureaucrats prove themselves inept at everything they attempt; illegal immigrants pour over the southern border overwhelming the social safety net when it is already stretched thin; and faith in both political parties is close to zero. The regeneracy has been delayed, but this has allowed the anger, bitterness, and dismay with the government to grow to staggering proportions. The country is growing desperate for someone to lead. Ignoring the debt, civic decay and global disorder is no longer acceptable. It’s time for someone to step forward and tell the people the truth.
“Soon after the catalyst, a national election will produce a sweeping political realignment, as one faction or coalition capitalizes on a new public demand for decisive action. Republicans, Democrats, or perhaps a new party will decisively win the long partisan tug of war. This new regime will enthrone itself for the duration of the Crisis. Regardless of its ideology, that new leadership will assert public authority and demand private sacrifice. Where leaders had once been inclined to alleviate societal pressures, they will now aggravate them to command the nation’s attention. The regeneracy will be solidly under way.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
The Grey Champion is likely to be elevated through an election, but it isn’t a requirement. Ben Franklin and Samuel Adams were the intellectual and firebrand Grey Champions of the American Revolution. They inspired the revolutionaries through writings and oratory. Lincoln and FDR were elected Grey Champions, but Lincoln only won 40% of the popular vote in a four way race, while FDR won in a landslide with 57% of the vote over Hoover. It was clear Lincoln didn’t have a mandate, as Southern states began seceding after his election. No one can argue Franklin, Adams, Lincoln or FDR united everyone in a common cause. They actually aggravated the societal pressures that had been ignored or deferred by their predecessors. Compromise was not an option for these men. They were going to lead based upon their own criteria. You were either with them or against them. And many were against them.
It is widely believed only 20% of colonial Americans were strong supporters of the American Revolution, with 20% Loyalists, and the rest sitting on the fence. Franklin’s own son remained a Loyalist throughout the fight. Half the country departed the Union upon Lincoln’s election and his support in the North was lukewarm at best. Lincoln captured 55% of the vote in the 1864 election, with only northern states voting. Even though FDR won landslide popular vote victories in 1932 and 1936, his detractors and enemies were many. FDR’s confiscation of gold and antagonism toward big business convinced a number of wealthy businessmen to approach General Smedley Butler to lead a coup against FDR and install a fascist regime to run the country. So, it is clear Grey Champions are not universally loved or supported. They have the ability to ignore the complexity of life and focus on one simple imperative: society must prevail.
Until three months ago the 2016 presidential election was in control of the establishment. The Party was putting forth their chosen crony capitalist figureheads – Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. They are hand-picked known controllable entities who will not upset the existing corrupt system. They are equally acceptable to Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve, the military industrial complex, the sickcare industry, mega-corporate America, the moneyed interests, and the never changing government apparatchiks. The one party system is designed to give the appearance of choice, while in reality there is no difference between the policies of the two heads of one party and their candidate products. But now Donald Trump has stormed onto the scene from the reality TV world to tell the establishment – You’re Fired!!!
As Hillary’s crimes and lies catch up to her and Jeb Bush drowns in a sea of irrelevance, low energy, and passionless rhetoric, Trump and Bernie Sanders have surged ahead in the polls. The country is tired of the Clinton and Bush dynasties. They are tired of the existing ruling authority. My initial reaction to Trump’s entering the presidential race was scorn. He’s a bloviating, egocentric, self-promoting, reality TV parody of himself. After seeing him in action for the last three months it has become apparent the country deserves a president like Trump.
He represents everything we’ve become as a nation. Sound bites, no substance, self-involved, boastful, and in constant attack mode are the qualities necessary to lead America today. Facebook twitter nation merits a president like Trump. Bill Clinton playing sax on Arsenio and Obama’s weekly guest appearances on the Daily Show or Jimmy Fallon Show has already tainted and made a mockery of the office of the president.
Trump was born in 1946 putting him in the Boomer Prophet generation, so he fits the mold of Grey Champion from a generational perspective. Hillary and Jeb are also Boomers, with Sanders from the Silent generation. Trump has struck a nerve with a wide swath of middle class America with his anti-illegal immigration rhetoric, disdain for the elitist mainstream media, unflinching assessment of his second string GOP opponents, and exuberant confidence in his own abilities.
Building a wall on our southern border, going after billionaire hedge fund managers, cutting government spending, and negotiating trade deals that don’t ship American jobs overseas, are resonating with fed up households across America. Some polls show Trump with significant support among blacks and Hispanics. The linear thinking supporters of the status quo are flabbergasted and outraged by Trump’s popularity. The ruling classes never anticipate the mood shift of the peasants as they look down on the masses from their gated estates and penthouse suites. The country is looking for someone who can tear down the entire fetid, corrupt, rotting structure.
The moneyed interests are still betting on Hillary or Jeb, but they are getting nervous. There is still time for them to pull the old Ross Perot play by threatening Trump or his family with harm or making him an offer he can’t refuse in financial terms. But, with the Middle East awash in blood, refugees flooding into Europe, China experiencing an epic meltdown, oil producing countries suffering depressions, emerging market economic systems collapsing under the weight of unpayable promises, the Federal Reserve panicked as recession approaches with interest rates at zero bound, and stock, bond and real estate bubbles approaching the inescapable pin, the stars are aligning for a 2nd crisis more perilous and catastrophic than the 2008 catalyst event. The onset of phase two of this Crisis in 2016 will produce a populace more desperate, less trusting of the establishment and likely to turn towards someone like Trump, in despair.
No matter who is elected in November 2016, there is no turning back. Winter is here and Spring is many years away. Grim times will befall the world. The potential for tragic consequences is growing by the day. The storm clouds are gathering on the horizon. There will certainly be famine, chaos, death, destruction, and war. Let’s pray our Grey Champion can lead us through the valley of death to a new High.

“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning
In Part 3 I will try to assess which channels of distress are likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and lastly make some educated guesses about potential climaxes.
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Which 'turn' are the magical thinkers?
Technically, this writing is an example of magical thinking’ - everyone’s favorite, futurologists.
Another example of the high IQ's fleecing the Low IQs.
“I see the turn!” ‘No, I see the turn!’…. “This means it’s the turn…” ‘Wait! Another Podcast from the author, we must buy….’
Quinn:
Have you not read any other book, in the last two fucking decades, besides The Fourth Turding penned by those two shyster academics, Stress & How? You just keep puking up the same shit over and over again.
Neil Howe is as dense as you about 9/11.
"9/11 will go down as one of the more famous crisis precursors in American history."
Just what the hell is that supposed to mean to the over 3000 people murdered on 9/11?
"A crisis precursor is an event that foreshadows a crisis without being an integral part of it."
Like maybe JFK... RFK... MLK... Waco... Oklahoma City... The Liberty... etc... etc... ain't 'an integral part of it' ...?!
You say ...
"I’m beginning to believe the nation will not be unified behind a common cause when the coming financial eruption unleashes molten lava of chaos, punishing economic distress, civil strife, class warfare, race wars, and ultimately global war."
Wake the fuck up!
The ZioNazis declared war!
9/11 was the opening salvo of WWIII!
'I’m beginning to believe'...
You're 9/11MORON ... and a Traitor not only to truth and your nation but to yourself and your family.
StuckyQuinn another miserable FAIL .
(You'll just have to repeat 9/11 Special Class for another year.)
The 9/11 Litmus Test !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6O4LE0eTYc
ps: 'Grey Champion' ... YEAH RIGHT! You might want to keep an eye on him...Kemosabe!!!
pps: By the way your lousy, Sycophantic Blog is infested with malicious malware.
This is almost the same exact post you did the other night....don't you do anything new? The only time you show up here is when Tyler posts something by Jim Quinn you two-bit hack...try to post something constructive here once in awhile or go back under your rock.
The only malicious malware I can detect, is the pea-sized piece of shit thing in your head, that others call a brain...
He always shows up when Quinn posts an article and never posts a comment on any other article. Make of it what you will.
Quinn posted almost the same exact post he did the other night....does Quinn do anything new?
You have not read the book,
obviously. And proud of it, no doubt.
Another ignorant fool, enraged the world has passed on his obvious intellect.
The 4th Turding written by Stress&How is a horrid, ameri-centric mix, consisting of one part historical riffing, one part astrology, and one part interesting correlation of data patterns.
The combined effect is little more than a condescending attempt at palm reading.
Some of the predictions were on but ultimately the suggestions as to how to deal with the looming catastrophe has citizens all being good little docile unquestioning morons.
It's sad that people take this tripe seriously.
The writing is almost incoherent.
Good theories can be stated clearly and followed in a logical way.
Cycles in history have merit and, like the seasons, do have some consistency. But to assemble the writings in a potpourri and present it as credible history is beyond comprehension.
Few people mention the absolutely atrocious writing of the authors.
It has a lot of words... ( many of them made up )... so they call it a book.
Come On!! a little doom and gloom porn never hurt anyone...
LOL
The books and theory are crap; each year exposes more and more of their errors. Neil Strauss died long before he could see how wrong he was about the Millennial Generation, he would turn over in his grave to see this supposed new Greatest Generation turn out to be the antithesis: completely self- absorbed, narcissitic, intolerant, entitled, self- righteous.
Far from clean cut team players, they are 13ers on steroids with twice the attitude and ten times the tats and piercings. They do like their heavy handed government I'll give him that.
Howe offers excuses for them, doubling down on his Hero theory when all you have to do is take a look at these millennials. They walk around bent forward, with their faces buried in their phones almost as if Darwin's progression has begun its way downward to pull humanity back to all fours eventually. But, what do you expect from two Woodstock types who state their own boomer generation type is responsible for all the "awakenings" in history even as they state this produces the tailspins and crashes.
There are a number of little takeaways here and there in all their books, but they try to make too many specific predictions, and backwrite too much history to make fit their theory, to be taken seriously.
You have not read the book, obviously. And proud of it, no doubt.
Dear bikini skank - if you knew half as much as you supposed, you would know that the whole "4 turnings" premise is a blatant repackaged ripoff of Kondratiev's work.
The country is tired of the Clinton and Bush dynasties.
David Pierre is right. Jim Quinn doesn't recognize or have the courage to call it them what they are - crime syndicates.
Where Kondratieff (American spelling) got it right was that he said the driver was not political but technical/economic. We have exhausted the last wave's technological advances and so profits have declined.
We will not start the next wave until some of the new profit opportunities gain mass.
This is the part of the wave where the "exhaustion of capitalism" is touted. And so we will make laws that attempt to keep the current crop of cronies in business. It will just delay the next wave.
They do exist....
Funny, a colleague @ work just did that with netflix Thurs. before labor day. Thanks to IM I got his play-by-play....
He bought 3000 shares @ 100, then it went *down* to 97.5, so he sold off.
Then he bought @ 95 because an analyst & Cramer said it's a buy.... I asked if he offloaded @ 101 with the ramp up after labor day....crickets.
Interestingly, I I've learned the bulls are in trouble when:
1. He starts asking me about how the market does with holidays (turns out I was wrong, it's about 34% vs the 50% I told him)
2. My brother starts coming to me with investment ideas (I.e. long oil shortly before it started losing it's shirt, citibank calls before their 10:1 reverse split etc).
It's almost becoming like clockwork for me... oh you are thinking of buying? *presses sell button*
They do exist, but they lack discipline and can't see the bigger picture.
Hopefully they don't visit ZH :D
It wasn't mentioned here as another example because he is a Russian, but I think much of the appeal of Putin on this site is exactly what this article is trying to get across.
When Cyprus looked to Putin for bailouts, Putin said nyet.
That makes him Austrian.
Like Schwarzenegger only different.
Don't you try to mitigate things. We're fixin to fight.
its the Usury..........
''Since the medium of exchange in a debt backed by debt system is debt, the only way to service a debt is with debt and the only way that can be sustained is if debt inflates by the required amount''
hypertiger
http://hypertiger.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
Wait. So Obama WASN'T the dude? Fuck.
All this bullshit about 4th turnings and societal collapse when any 10th grader could finger the problem instantly: Debt driven by unrealistic promises on claims to the public coffers. Everyone knows it, nobody is going to do anything about it. In fact, more debt is just what the doctor ordered so that the Fed can continue monetizing via QE.
UNTIL PRINTING MONEY STOPS WORKING MONEY WILL BE PRINTED TO ADDRESS EVERY PROBLEM.
And if you think it's crazy now, you ain't seen nothin'. This thing will eventually crescendo and what comes next won't just be crazy shit you watch on the news and cluck at from a safe distance, it'll be crazy shit coming right to your back yard.
"So Obama WASN'T the dude?"
Obama was a dud.
Michael Obama is a Dude. Barack is potted kudzu.
Is it true Joan Rivers never had an autopsy?
Not while she was alive.
Why taxes then?
Hoo boy. Another fourth turning gaggle spitball of many words.
The Fourth turning of the Comb.....
WTF? Obama is an exceptional douche bag just like Franklin (total joke founding father, not worthy of wiping Jefferson's ass), Lincoln, and Roosevelt.
Same old, same old, DEATH TO THE BANKING CLASS. Yeah, OK, death comes to all of us.
FBI troll? Fuck off and go find a mental case you can build on....
Notice how FBI recruits the mentally ill? James Comey IS the enemy of a free republic.
Even if we can get a "grey champion" to lead us out of this mess, they wil still have to have the one thing that Adams, Lincoln and FDR had, a Congress that will pass bills and laws to change things.
I don't see this happening any time in the near future, unless 75% or more of the current sanctimonious, lying, bribed, corrupt, bums are thrown out, or they end the filibuster rule and the ability to kill bills in committee.
We truly do deserve a President like The Don, except it will be unlikely that there will not be, a crisis, meltdown, or WWWIII before the 2016 election.
I hope that I am wrong about the last, but, I have lost faith in this country's fellow citizens (present company not included) to make hard choices, and have any ability to discern the truth.
The reign of Barrack Obama?! I stopped reading at that point. The president is a figurehead. Directing your anger and hatred at the figurehead is stupid and counterproductive. He doesn't matter. When he's gone another will take his place, and take orders from the same people. If we don't direct all of our attention on the powers behind the throne then we are well and truly fucked... which I suspect we are anyway.
Agreed. However, Fuckbama is such an asshole it's fun to mock him. I use the fucker to vent.
I laugh at the stupid fucks that "adore" him. Clueless idiots.
1) He's no more an asshole than any of the others. Don't forget that everything you think you know about him is media spin.
2) Seriously... don't even waste a vent on the puppets. Start focusing ALL of the angry energy on those who pull his strings.
And tomorrow is the 15th. See you all the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and son and so forth.
I can't help but think that this is going to suck. All the excesses since 8/15/71 have to be accounted for somehow. Yikes.
"The world is becoming increasingly chaotic and the American people are seeking a leader who can bring order, make tough decisions, and capture the zeitgeist of this moment in history. They are in search of a prophet generation (Boomer) Grey Champion, whose arrival marks the moment of darkness, adversity and peril as the Fourth Turning careens towards its climax."
He'd get taken out pretty fast. You are so delusional.
USA as we knew it is not coming back. The "civil servant" who won't issue ass packing licenses in KY is making 80k a fucking year for pushing licenses and permits on me and you . All government employee monkeys at all levels should have their wages and salaries cut by 40% tomorrow. Reduce all property taxes by 40% tomorrow ! All government employees work until age 65 and retire like other Americans do except Us congress critters. Then they go on Medicare ! Obama care for them and we pay for it only for 2 terms as those are new term limits effective tomorrow.
Maximum payout for medical malpractice case is 1 million dollars , period.
And so on and so forth.
Not a citizen ? Not one fucking dime of food stamps or medical care. Emergency rooms can refuse anyone they fucking well feel like. No money or insurance , no service .. Or, we can continue bankrupting hospitals as we pay for the illegals on our own health care and then when you need one ? Well?
Hope and change people? Or we have states fine a barber for refusing to cut a carpet munchers hair!! Right. Too far gone? Up to us! Teeter totter time kiddos. Think I am kidding? Nov 2016 will be way too far away. Talk to me in 9 months .
Right on muthafukar, right on... Exceptionally well stated
Sure, lots of people want to lead.
But only morons and sheep shall follow.
Getting a leader isn't going to happen. Makes as much sense as Peanuts Great Pumpkin. Roll up your damn sleeves and help elect a non-sociopathic congressperson representing your district in Congress and make it clear it's for one term. They'll then understand they'll have to come back to the old neighborhood and live their actions. Repeat each election.
Cant Buy Me Gov
see
DemocracyForAll.com
The only way to reverse this is to pass a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate Super PACs and reinstate campaign limits.
One Vote One Thousand Dollars Max.
See MoneyOutVotersIn.org
Why should money in politics matter, what kind of dumbass lets their vote be swayed by a couple of dumb TV adverts? Time to put some responsibility back onto the people.
If u don't pay taxes and a valid photo ID, you don't get to vote. . . don't like that? Then go to fukn Mexico or China or Iran & Fuk yourself with the fudgepacker's syphlitic pud... Pardon my anger...
Anyone expecting anything from a President is clearly a moron - I mean, just look at the field of candidates...
I'm interested to hear what the author has to say about Corbyn winning Labour. Certainly stunning and a big upset in the apple cart. Regardless of your politics, this has set off a firestorm as predicted. (see below). The response of media and politicians has left me flabbergasted as the virtriol, propaganda and outright lies of the media and current gov is approaching new levels of manipulation.
If Jeremy Corbyn wins, prepare for a firestorm
And it is getting worse ... look at the headlines form Telegraph or as some have been saying Terrograph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Crazy!
Oh i'm sure that cunt HIllary would self-proclaim herself as the grey champion.
No leader will emerge to forestall or withstand the global economic collapse. Ponzi implosions cannot be stopped once they start. The unraveling has been occurring progressively since March 10th 2008.
Nothing will stop the eventual implosion that is certain to manifest at an ever increasing rate of speed, and force. When it hits there will be nothing that can withstand that eventual destruction. Civilization will die off when the nukes get launched by competing interests. There will be no grey champion this time out.
''A medium of exchange belongs to everyone...when you attach interest to it you are claiming ownership of it and renting it out...It is only a matter of time until it is sucked out of the hands of the many into the hands of the few...''
http://hypertiger.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
The TOP always sucks from the BOTTOM!
This simple statement will never be understood by the masses, even if Hypertiger would repeat it 1000 times, that's still beyond ability of most to comprend.
+1000 Usurious. Thanks. Best read I have had in a long time.
Thanks for posting that link to hypertiger, Usurious. Given that I did not major in Economics, the articles managed to instill a sense of the background and history that I would have learned if I had majored in Economics. Most assuredly, I learned a few salient points of history for sure. Much appreciated and keep up the good work. cheers!
Is a fourth turning like a shemitah or is it voodoo?
see Strauss and Howe
Stress! And How!
It's a franchise.
I read part I of the fourth turning and when I finished I was astounded that to some degree I had waded through a fair degree of hipster, psuedo entellectual, made up language drivel. I'm sure that 40+ years ago if I was smoking the same shit the author is my writing would be the same or worse. As it is, can anyone supply the Cliff note version of this? Like, cut to the chase dude, there is too much information to absorb and a lifespan is only so long.
People will look back at us and say wow... how could we possibly think that letting the greediest bastards work to maximize their short term profit while enjoying great protection from liability would somehow result in a decent society? We repealed Glass Steagall and they took our deposits to the roulette table. We gave them free trade and they shipped our jobs to China. We gave them cheap credit and they used it to buy back their stock and pay themselves huge bonuses. And now people are saying if we just give the corporations MORE FREEDOM then everything will be set straight. Well you can't have freedom without responsibility sorry, that's called anarchy, and here we go...
BAAAAAAAH...
OK, I promised myself I wasn't going to read this shit and now I have started. Being a new student in bullshit I need to get some basics. In the first paragraph and the first sentence we begin discussing regeneracy? And, in the second sentence of the first paragraph we will be discussing Grey Champion prophet generation. Shit o dear, my first class and my first hour here at the university and I'm already behind all the other students?? This is not looking good!
Second paragraph second sentence. Finally I recognize something that has some familiarity. "Notwithstanding his Nobel Peace Prize"??? Seriously, the next 3 hours of reading this is going to see a relationship of content based on the relativity of Obama receiving the NPP?
I've got to stop right here professor. You see, the Nobel has historically been given to some total shysters as of the last few decades. It is a meaningless sham that liberals, and I mean liberals in the sense that not only have their contributions to humanity been zero, nil, zilch, but as a community of intellectual elites such as you would find at the academy awards they are a circle jerk of self congratulating fools who are born into or travel in the right circles. Obama as an example of being given the award for "peace on earth" when in fact through the magic of electronic voting and mass hysteria because he represented a historical moment, the first black man to be yada yada in racist white America, had done nothing at all to merit or warrant receiving this sham award. Now as I head into the remaining 2hours and 58 minutes of the torture that I was expecting, given that I read part I of the fourth turning I am a little suspect of what is to come? If anyone can summarize this for me the information will be greatly appreciated.
-A D student in an F Class!
A boot stamping on a human face forever.
A D student in an F Class:
LMAO... great stuff !!!
You just stumbled into SmokeyQuinn's, SPECIAL CLASS 101, attended by 4th Turding Retards and 9/11Morons.
Stress&How's book is good for intellectual shits and giggles.
Not much else.
Lincoln - empire builder,creating a land of subjects. FDR - according to his son in law a CFR stooge.
Seems like grey champions is a propaganda piece to accept the next guy in a crisis that will continue to tighten the screws for the NWO.
We are in the middle of a fecal storm that will mimic the great depression and the civil war. That is the long and short of it.
Trump has been put in the POTUS race to tell the American people exaclt what they want to hear.
Suckers every 4 years.
Get whistles for everyone in your group. If one is in trouble it carries farther than hollering and can be done while running if necessary.
Careful what you wish for...USSA like chosen racer owned Germany before it will find its Uncle Adolf right about the time the rest of the human family finally decides it has had enough.
Onward to the end
and we wonder why Socailism never 'works' it is sabotaged from the get go, partly by its proponents, but mostly the 1% re: Jermey Corbins (UK) coming sabotaging by TPTB
When choosing a new leader to manage the transition of The Fourth Turning, one should remember what happened in Egypt (and elsewhere for that matter, eg Libya).
Mubarek was trashed as the West's puppet (which he was) but replaced by "democratically elected" Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood stooge who promised to lead the country out of the darkness and to the promised land. But in a short time as his real agenda emerged, he turned out to be just as evil and authoritarian as his predecessor, albeit in different ways. So he had to go.
There are many people pretending to be saviours and leaders, telling people what they want to hear. Most of them are not.
Vote based on your self-interest, as usual.
Hey Jim, how many of these multi-part forth-turning series blog posts have you done now? Must be about 17 by now, eh? You seem to be something of an enthusiast on the topic!
There are so many things wrong with this post. Sure, Obama sucks on about every level and he is the worst potus in history. But the whole "big bad bank..." and Millennials lured into student loan debts et. al.? Give me a fucking break. The U.S. is a place of self responsiblilty, no one put a gun to your head and made you take out a school loan..I didn't, I worked 2-3 jobs and never took out debt with zero help from parents, family or other. And no, Brian Moynihan from BofA isn't a powerful man that can have people eliminated...he's struggling to keep his company afloat. Remember, the government fleeced BofA, JPM and others for Billions upon Billions of dollars. So if the banks were so powerful, why are they continually have to settle with uncle sam and the state department? Rhetorical, the government hates the banks and it's the low hanging fruit when you can't balance your budget. The banks will be fleeced for decades to come. And lastly, to act as though the occupy movement was somehow representative of America is a joke. Occupy is a bunch of drunk and high kids that have virtually zoro idea why they're rebelling or who they're rebelling against. I've seen the interviews, read the articles and studied it closely, occupy was a total and complete disaster.
Sure, it may be time for a grey person to take office but my biggest problem with Trump is he's not a principled man, he's just a dick with a bigger ego than the rest of his bench. Nothing more, nothing less. Perhaps I should run for president?
And you walked up hill both ways to school in 12 feeet of snow...12 months a year...I'm sure. Whatever. And I love how you try to tried to make BofA and JPM seem like mom and pop shops "just trying to make ends meat"...and "doing God's work too, right Jaimie?" LMFAO
Right, because Jaime Diamond is doing hit jobs for some side coin, lol. 10-4. You may garner some perspective when you move out of your mom's basement.
Keep on trollin'!
Student loans and for-profit education have been around for a while. The authorities chained the doors shut overnight at a technical school I used to attend. Apparently, it was run by foreign mafia who funneled millions of dollars out of the country while running an unaccredited tech school.
That was 20 years ago. I wonder how bad scam education has become.
Meanwhile, regarding this Fourth Turnpike rubbish, the videos have dropped off in recent months, but not the fighting in Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4jIASQzwXw&list=PLw613M86o5o5zqF6WJR8zu...
The whole student loan/education costs situation is very symbolic of America and the economy today.
When I attended college back in the very early 70s, I had a student loan and also a "work-study" job to apply towards my tuition costs. Mostly, I worked in the dishroom clearing off student's trays with others on a conveyor built setup feeding the indutrial dishwashing machine. When I left at the end of my shift my shoes would be covered with slop as I walked across campus back to my dorm room (later frat room). Always had the feeling that the "entitled" looked down on an individual such as myself with food plastered all over his shoes. But after graduation working the four year work study job, I also paid off my other student debt and have kept the letter praising me for paying it off so others could later participate.
Two things: Was I a sucker for paying it off? Is the student loan crisis more a reflection of today's world as opposed to the mid 50s through the 60s or so when a family with one working spouse was able to rather comfortably afford a home? I mean has the FED so fucked things up that students never had a shot with education costs up 600% or whatever from when I attended? There truly is a lot to consider here - and it all points back to the FED (as usual).
Instead of focusing in on any president nowadays and in the future, we should realize the rise of the fourth branch of government, The private Federal Reserve. Established by financiers with the sole purpose to serve their ilk under the guise of doing what is necessary to achieve its dual mandate. How has a private banker-serving organization risen to become the fourth branch of government? That's ludicrous. Right now even someone with merely a moron-level of awareness can see that the interest rate decision by the FED is the most important thing in the world. A .025% decision! Everything is now so perilous and its really tough to decide who is most responsible between the FED and Congress. I'd say 51% - 49% FED, but it's that close. Of course if the Federal Reserve ponzi was never created, Congress would not be able to do what it does - so I guess the FED gets extra credit points there. Fuck it, I'll go with 60% FED and 40% Congress. Keeping in mind that the MIC, big-Corp status, big-pharm, end of Glass-Steagall, deregulation of derivatives,etc fall under the Congress category due to legislation and the appropriation of funds apparatus.
How about the Fifth Branch?
Bureaucrats.
A statement : 1. We talk about the rally benefitting Wall street, I truly think this was to save the municipality PBOs. Like it or not, without the rally in the stock market, the benefits promised millions where at stake.They are still at stake, a market collopase will show a true picture. Merdith Witney was correct, except the timing. 2.Grey champion, you dismiss the notion that the Grey champion was to ensure default. I have never seen someone so committed to ensure this.
The decay will continue to accelerate exponentially until equilibrium is reached, regardless of the propaganda saying otherwise.
Focus on taking care of yourself, your family, your community, your county, your state, your nation, and then our world.
Remember, it does not matter how many arms, money (gold) or fiat trash a government or corporation has - organizational structures do not solve problems - people do.
Consider picking a personal, family, or local problem today and fix it.
Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.
Disgusting.
Jim Quinn as usuall does an excellent job of describing the pain and suffering caused to hundreds of millions of regular people by the unfolding financial disaster being brought about by our greed-crazed billionaires and banksters.
He lays out the need for a major re-ordering of society and for a leader who will personify it, and plausibly presents examples of such figures from our history, Franklin, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
Quinn makes a good case that Obama was a fake, an imitation of such a transformative leader, and flashes images of today's two outstanding political contenders who he claims represent the kind of break from the establishment consensus that he believes we need, Sanders and Trump.
He proceeds to demolish Trump, shows him for the disaster he would be, but then explains why we need to turn to him anyway as our savior. He does this without ever even mentioning Bernie Sanders again!
In doing this Jim shows his true colors. All his lamenting for the fate of the hardworking and much abused American people goes out the window when the issue is which candidate will be best for preserving and increasing his stash. Sanders' program will cost him a lot of money, just as Roosevelt's would have. It is not to even be discussed.
Quinn may praise FDR now and explain why he was necessary, but transport him (and his money) back 80 years and he would be in the camp of the industrialists and banksters - alongside Averell Harriman, Prescott Bush, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford - who passionately hated FDR, supported Hitler's rise to power and conspired to overthrow the Federal Government, remove Roosevelt and establish a fascist dictatorship in the US.
So Jim, thank you for your analysis but spare us your crocodile tears, because when your bankroll is at stake you don't really care a fig for the regular people.
I see how you could read it that way, but I honestly didn't. I wonder if you might be bringing a little of your enthusiasm for Sanders in to this (I don't mean that in a snarky sense...we all do it when reading)?
Here was my take on that part. I didn't think he was saying we "needed" any of it as a promotion, but was saying they will seem to be "needed" by the population desperate for an authoritative figure who says they will "right the ship!" I also got the sense that he didn't continue to talk about Sanders simply because he doesn't seem to be that grandiose figure a "Trump" might represent. That was my take. And then, relying more on the S & H theory, Sanders kind of falls out of the box as the option simply because of his generational status. I'm not a fan of either of them...or any other candidate for that matter...but I just don't see Bernie carrying enough momentum and energy into the primary to take out the establishment candidates "selected" already.
The Democrats (although Quinn's reference to "the (monoplithic one) Party" is more honest) are less open to an outsider getting the nomination IMO. I think they had their opportunity in '08 and blew it...and the establishment has since been able to get the day to day Democrat to feel comfortable with "the party leadership". A lot of that has to do with the leanings of most of the MSM who is at mocking the Republicans than the Democrats and individually desire and encourage popular support from their fellow Democrats (I literally work along side these people...they are comfortable elitists who like to see themselves as "liberal" but who are not interested in much change at all). It's all a fake sideshow in the end...MSM wise...but most of the people working in that industry really don't have a clue of what they are doing or why. They genuinly believe they are "doing the right thing"...as misguided as that is. Just my thoughts.
"...they will seem to be "needed" by the population desperate for an authoritative figure who says they will "right the ship!" "
This confounds the prescription with the diagnosis. I suspect that it is Quinn who is desperate for "an authoritative figure who says they will "right the ship!"
Trump, for all his bragging, will not be able to do much without the support of his fellow billionaires and their many functionairies and stooges. His money is power only as long as the Waltons, Koch Brothers, Rockefellers, Mellons, Rothschilds etc don't put their money in play against him. At best his independence will consist of being able to choose between billionaire factions.
Sanders will be able to do nothing without the active participation of and pressure from millions of angry fed-up Americans, organized in mass the movements he is conjuring forth and demanding action on his program. In this he resembles FDR - and Lincoln.
Trump brings the authority of an out-of-control bully. Sanders' authority comes from his obvious integrity, honesty, directness and the firmness of his convictions.
They are opposites, not mirror images. Trump is the Anti-Sanders. I suspect the timing of his bursting onto the scene was noi accident.
My problem with Quinn is not that he doesn't like Bernie, but that he, like the MSM, is dealing with him by ignoring him, and creating an argument for the need for Trump out of the vacuum that leaves behind. With Sanders ahead in New Hampshier and Iowa now, you'd think he'd be ready to make a new plan.
hmmmm..."the Federal government through their insolvent (if using mark to market accounting) entities Fannie and Freddie, along with their monopoly on student loan issuance, and their massive deficit spending, have accounted for more than 100% of the $7 trillion increase."
"More than 100%"? I'm not sure how that works out, but I digress. Overall it was a likable rehash of much that's been said but the author captures the mood alright IMO. To use a Bill Hicks' line, but "who brought MR Doom to the party?"
The people here not seeing most of this for what it is are clearly in denaial. You don't have to buy all of S & H "Turning" theory to see there's something to the cycles of history and the way it "rhymes". It pairs up with economic and political history/theory quite well. Things go to crap...people rebuild...people become gluttons...things go to crap again. His telling of the details was pretty entertaining though.
Can't the author see that America got the likes of Lincoln and FDR because we failed to insist that our Grey Champion is a decent person? These guys certainly changed things, but they chose to ignore our founders and the Constitution and so both caused massive, irreversible damage to the American experiment with their arrogant ambition and flawed philosophy's. Today we have Trump who is that same guy.
I found the book fascinating and Quin's presentation of it in such short formats very well done. Human history without social context is useless (just read the dribble in a current Common Core history textbook). The concepts presented do require some mental rigor which can't be achieved by your average ZH poster for more than the 5 minutes it takes to spout something hateful and irrelevant here.