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Guest Post: Paychecks, Perception, Propaganda & Power

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Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform

Paychecks, Perception, Propaganda & Power

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair

  

I began to write this article in early December. I had just written a piece that attempted to scrutinize how the American public could stand idly by while heavily armed mercenary thugs viciously crushed the Occupy encampments across the country in a Department of Homeland Security coordinated attack at the behest of the ruling oligarchy.  Comfortably Numb made a case that the political and economic systems of the United States have been captured by a few evil men and they use their wealth and power to control the message hammered into the psyches of an apathetic, distracted, vincibly ignorant public. I started to tackle the question of why Americans could stand by as the new Greatest Generation was being abandoned, derided, scorned, beaten, tear gassed, and arrested for having the courage and audacity to stand up to a powerful corrupt unholy alliance between Wall Street psychopaths, corporate fascist barbarians, and Washington DC power hungry jackals. But I became overwhelmed with a feeling of disillusionment and hopelessness and was unable to write anything for about a month. I found myself questioning whether it was worth fighting such a powerful foe after seeing how easily they crushed the opposition put forth by OWS. After a month I decided I am not one to love my servitude.

Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.” Huxley’s Brave New World

I owe it to my three sons to keep fighting the good fight. They deserve a future. Day by day we draw ever closer to a showdown with the traitors who have sold this country into debt slavery. I don’t dream of revolution, but my eyes are wide open and I see it coming. I had been trying to wrap my head around what happened with the Occupy Movement since the Department of Homeland Security coordinated destruction of most of the encampments around the country in November. The corporate mainstream media immediately moved onto more pressing issues like the Kim Kardashian divorce and Jessica Simpson’s weight gain. The American public has been instructed by the media the Occupy story is history, just like the BP oil spill, the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, and the Egyptian revolution. In a society consumed by reality TV Occupy Wall Street was just another show. The credulous American populace dutifully turned their attention to Black Friday and whipping out one of their 15 credit cards to purchase remote control pillows, 3D 72 inch HDTVs, a see through tank top from the Snooki line of slutware, or thousands of other ludicrous Chinese crap churned out by slave labor in factories built to support the “efficiency” efforts of U.S. conglomerates.

Without a constant irritating presence in the heart of NYC and other large cities, the Occupy Movement appears to have lost steam. I’ve been trying to figure out how and why this happened. The issues that motivated the protests have not gone away. The despicable MF Global crime, committed by a hall of shame member of the .01% – Jon Corzine – has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the Wall Street/Washington DC criminal conspiracy is alive and well. Unless you have been sitting in line at a Wal-Mart for the last two months to get a $3 waffle-maker, you saw young people across the country tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, maced, bludgeoned, and brutalized by the paid thugs of the ruling oligarchy on a daily basis. The outrage at the continued looting by the psychopathic Wall Street aristocracy and the horrific police brutality against young people exercising their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly should have ignited widespread anger and mass protest. Instead the reaction has been silence, scorn and smug satisfaction with the government response.

Paychecks & Perceptions

There are a plethora of rationales for the apathy and lack of critical thinking overwhelming our society as we plunge into the depths of a looming economic calamity. They include economic self interest, the power of propaganda to condition the masses, fear of opposing authority, and the perception of a reality that allows you to sleep at night. The Upton Sinclair quote above hit home for me a few weeks ago and explains much of the disdain for the Occupy movement. I was in a high level meeting at my University and during the course of the meeting the Occupy Movement was brought up. A senior executive made a derogatory comment about Occupy and then laughed. I smiled and bit my tongue. In retrospect it shouldn’t have surprised me. I work at one of the top business schools in the world. The person who made the comment has spent his entire life educating students who end up with jobs at Wall Street financial institutions and with America’s largest corporations. It is a natural response for someone whose whole life is reliant upon the existing financial system to psychologically overlook the obvious criminality of the Wall Street fat cats and corporate executives who validate his entire existence and life’s work. He chooses to not understand the message of these protestors because to truthfully comprehend their message would nullify his thirty years of academic efforts. My non-response to the comment about the Occupy Movement was also based upon self-interest and reliance on a paycheck to make a living. I had learned my lesson the hard way during a previous career stop.

It appears older generations have a considerably more negative view of young people protesting the capture of our political and economic system than younger generations. This also makes sense because they have the most to lose and cannot visualize a society other than the one they have created. To acknowledge the validity of the Occupy Movement and the justice of their positions would be to admit their own guilt in the creation of a society that has allowed a chosen few to enrich themselves at the expense of the many. The Baby Boom Generation has been living a lie their entire adulthood. It is true that prior generations created the welfare/warfare state we have today, but the Boomers have had the reins of power for the last two decades in Congress and chose to not only ignore the fact the entitlement promises made by previous administrations could not be fulfilled. They even made further promises in the trillions to their fellow Boomers. Instead of making a budgetary choice between guns and butter, the Boomers chose guns, butter, education, universal healthcare, the right to own a home, the right to a 72 inch HDTV, and zero percent financing on their Cadillac Escalade from government motors. The consequences of these choices are a $15.2 trillion National Debt growing at a rate of $3.7 billion per day and unfunded entitlement liabilities totaling in excess of $100 trillion.

I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Howe, co-author of The Fourth Turning and fourteen other books, in early December. His ground breaking work with William Strauss on generational theory has proven to be uncannily accurate, as their 1997 assessment of what dynamics would drive the course of history over the coming decades have materialized exactly as they presumed. We had a fascinating two hour discussion about various topics impacting the world today and I found that we were in agreement on just about everything, except for the Occupy protests. Neil Howe is an expert on interpreting how generations react to events. I expected him to be impressed by the courage and fortitude of the Millenials leading this protest against Wall Street gluttony and audacious criminality. This is the new GI Generation and I anticipated him perceiving these protests as a prelude to greater feats ahead by this generation. Instead he described them as naive adolescents being led down a phony path by anarchist Boomers. As an example he referenced the fact that many of the protestors were wearing Guy Fawkes masks, the most famous anarchist in history. He found this distasteful and dangerous. My interpretation of the Guy Fawkes masks was more in line with the movie V For Vendetta and the theme of a corrupt evil government keeping the public living in perpetual fear.

“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.” V For Vendetta

Neil Howe’s impression of the movie centered on the terroristic aspects of blowing up Parliament, not on the symbolism of citizens rising up and casting off the yoke of a malevolent oligarchy that has used propaganda, fear and intimidation to manipulate and control the population. Howe is a Baby Boomer and I’m Generation X. We are each viewing the Occupy Movement through the prism of our life experiences and perceptions about the intentions of these protestors. The existing social, economic, and political structure is dominated by Boomers. Neil Howe views the Occupy Movement as a threat to the system he believes in and supports. As a cynical Xer with no allegiance to a corrupt government, a crony capitalist economic system or a greedy self centered society, I see these young revolutionaries as our last great hope. 

  

Neil Howe runs a very successful consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 500 corporations, including Wall Street financial firms. His annual income and net worth is dependent upon the existing corporate dynamic. When your living depends upon not understanding the real reason young people are protesting corporate malfeasance, fraud and corruption, your mind can ignore observable facts and visible truths. Anything can be rationalized when putting food on the table requires you to ignore obvious truths and understandable facts.     

Propaganda & Power

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928 

   File:Edward Bernays.jpg

I was shocked when I came across the above quote a few months ago. Bernays had it figured out 84 years ago before mass media, television, or spin doctors. His vision of a society manipulated by a small number of governing elite who believe they know better than the masses has come to fruition. True republican equality as defined by the founders in the Constitution is considered quaint and a belief of the trusting and naïve masses by the wealthy elite. Manipulation of the masses through a relentless never ending barrage of propaganda disguised as news and unremitting false advertising is designed to control and herd the cattle into the slaughterhouse. We are given the illusion of free choice, when in reality the choices are being made for us by a chosen few who think they know what is best. These puppeteers controlling the strings inhabit the financial, government and corporate halls of power. Their purpose is not to benefit society and its citizens but to protect their wealth and influence, using any means at their disposal. Propaganda to control the minds of a willfully uninformed public has been their most potent weapon.  

 

Source: Mike Kreiger

Most people have never heard the name Edward Bernays. That is the way public relations specialists (manipulators of the truth) like it. They operate in the shadows, subtly influencing public opinion through what Bernays arrogantly referred to as the sinister method of “engineering of consent”. The Governing Elite have no time for messy processes like true capitalism or non-manipulated free elections. The objective for Bernays and his ilk has always been to provide corrupt government power brokers, shadowy bankers and corporate media kingpins with potent psychological instruments of social persuasion and mind control. Edward Bernays is considered the “father of public relations”, and he was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He pioneered media manipulation techniques.

He understood the weaknesses of the human mind and developed methods and processes for taking advantage of that weakness.

“The average citizen is the world’s most efficient censor. His own mind is the greatest barrier between him and the facts. His own ‘logic proof compartments,’ his own absolutism are the obstacles which prevent him from seeing in terms of experience and thought rather than in terms of group reaction.”Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion

Bernays got his big break during the administration of Woodrow Wilson, the outset of the American interventionist empire bankrolled by an inflation creating Federal Reserve and a tax and spend Congress.  During WWI, Edward began work for the Committee on Public Information, the immense propaganda machine ordered by Woodrow Wilson to sway the American public towards a war he campaigned to keep us out of. He became so instrumental he was invited to accompany Wilson to the Paris peace conference. His claims to fame afterward included:

  • Creating a false storyline of communists in Guatemala on behalf of his client United Fruit Company, resulting in a CIA led military coup which ushered in a brutal dictatorship resulting in the dislocation, torture and death of thousands.
  • He was responsible for breaking the taboo of women smoking in public while working for American Tobacco Company.

His biggest claim to fame was inspiring the most reviled propagandist in history. Bernays’ techniques were so effective that Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, made copious use of Bernays’ book, “Propaganda” throughout the Holocaust, often crediting Bernays. That was quite a feather in Bernays’ cap. The German people were gradually indoctrinated by their government through propaganda into consenting and supporting the most horrific crimes in history as described by Milton Mayer in his book, They Thought They Were Free – The Germans, 1933-45:

“This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

“To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must someday lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.”

Bernays was a master of using psychological techniques to mask the motives of his clients, as part of a calculated strategy aimed at keeping the public unaware of the forces that were working to mold their psyches. Bernays died in 1995, but his techniques have been taken to a new level as our government, media and financial elite use any means at their disposal to keep the masses sedated and content while they are fleeced and herded towards the slaughterhouse. The Big Lie perpetrated upon the masses is the fallacy of America being a democratic society. The anti-democratic and treacherous corporate public relations Madison Avenue maggots manage and manipulate the opinions of the many in order to make sure a true democratic system doesn’t threaten the privileges and supremacy of the governing elite.

I wonder if it was coincidental the creation of the Federal Reserve, implementation of the personal income tax, and virtually non-stop war coincided with the rise of an industry designed to manipulate and control the thoughts and opinions of an easily influenced and willfully unaware populace. Most people want to be led and told what to believe. Critical thinking and taking personal responsibility for your life and your society requires hard work, sacrifice, honesty, and self restraint. Simply believing storylines supplied by authority figures and media pundits allow the masses to continue living lives of debt delusion and hope, occasionally stirred into a frenzy of fear and loathing towards the foreign bogeyman of the moment, chosen by the governing elite. Bernays and his disciples understood this dynamic and have been able to utilize corporate mass media and the human weakness of trusting in the judgments of authority figures to control and manage the vast swath of America without them knowing it.    

“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” – Edward Bernays

The propaganda techniques employed to manipulate the masses seemed less abhorrent when they centered upon just consumer products. Convincing women they would look like a gorgeous model if they used a company’s cosmetics or convincing a man he’d be admired by his neighbors if he drove a certain car was small potatoes. In the last few decades the misinformation and outright lies fed to the American public by oligarchy of governing elite has become more manifest and repugnant. The list of abuses is virtually endless.

  • The American public has been lured into debt by the incessant unrelenting lifestyle marketing messages spewed from our TVs 24/7. From the introduction of the show Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous in the early 1980s, wealth, materialism, and consumerism became the motivating force in America. Consumption accounted for only 63% of GDP in 1980, with capital investment accounting for 17%. Today, consumption accounts for 71% of GDP and capital investment only 12%. Keeping up with the Kardashians is the mantra of our times.
  • The utter failure of our government controlled educational system in teaching our children how to think critically or question the validity of government created data has allowed the elite to paper over the fact the average American worker has not had any real income gains in at least four decades. The insidious nature of Federal Reserve created inflation (up 600% since 1970) is incomprehensible to a public that finds math boring and not essential in their lives.

 

  • Once the manipulators convinced the masses they needed a 4,000 sq ft McMansion, two brand new stylish cars, four big screen HDTVs, three computers, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, a Rolex, Armani suits, an in-ground pool, an ATV, and house at the shore, there was only one thing left to do – loan them the money to live the faux American dream. GDP has grown 525% since 1980. Personal consumption expenditures have grown 600% since 1980. Consumer debt outstanding has grown 700% since 1980. And total household debt outstanding has grown 800% since 1980. It seems the purveyors of debt on Wall Street have been the only beneficiaries of the apparition of an American dream sold to a willingly duped American populace.   

 

  • The dream of home ownership was used by politicians of both parties to further their agendas, egged on by the Wall Street elite and the National Association of Realtors – two of the largest contributors to politicians. As politicians tried to outdo themselves creating programs to get poor people into homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan urged the masses to use creative new adjustable rate mortgage products. With a wink and nod from Greenspan and no fear of any regulation whatsoever, the Wall Street elite created liar loans, negative amortization loans, subprime loans, Alt-A loans and a myriad of other products to induce fraud in the housing market. Appraisers did their part by overstating the values of homes and Wall Street colluded with the rating agencies to package the toxic mortgages and sell them to clueless dupes around the globe with a AAA rating stamped on them. At the absolute peak in 2005, with prices two standard deviations above the long term average, Ben Bernanke declared the housing market strong and the NAR proclaimed it the best time to buy. As the coup de grace, Wall Street urged home owners to unlock that equity in their homes and borrow $3 trillion to spend on gadgets, home upgrades, automobiles, facelifts, new boobs, and exotic vacations. The greatest mass fraud in history was complete. And not one person has gone to jail.
  • Not only have the governing elite lured the masses into debt slavery, but they’ve convinced them to love their slavery. The governing elite have done a fantastic job of using their media mouthpieces to deflect criticism away from their pillaging and looting of the national wealth. They’ve successfully persuaded the slaves the extreme income inequality is beneficial to the country because the 1% are the job creators and have earned their way to the top through our free market capitalism system. Convincing the middle class to blame the poor for their three decade decline is a tribute to the effectiveness of their propaganda crusade. Jesse gives accolades to the father of propaganda as the moneyed interests have won:

“The moneyed interests have done quite a successful PR job in refocusing the national discussion on priorities involving social issues, and the reform of the support systems for the weak, the unfortunate, and the elderly. Turning one group against another, and objectifying your intended victims through slogans and stereotypes, has always been an effective method of bending the herd to your will. Score one for Edward Bernays.”

 

  • The Social Security System is an example of propaganda and misinformation on a grand scale. A modest (1% tax) insurance program designed to help widows and orphans during the Great Depression, which should have been treated much like term life insurance, morphed into a massive retirement plan at the behest of politicians over the last eight decades. The voters shockingly voted for more benefits. Millions are now totally dependent upon the monthly pittance they receive, as the promise of a Social Security pension deterred them from saving for their old age. Politicians perpetuated lies about the funds being protected in a lockbox. The truth is the politicians raided the lockbox and took every dime to spend on wars of choice, aid to dictators, paying off their corporate masters, and leaving only IOUs. They have promised $17.5 trillion more than they can payout. It could be made viable with a gradual rise in the retirement age and a simple means test that would eliminate payouts to those who do not need it. Instead politicians use it as a means to control their constituents and obscure the simple truths. Americans choose to remain ignorant of the facts based on their perceptions of a false reality.

 

  • Another storyline propagated by politicians of a liberal bent is that Medicare is a successful Federal government program. Only someone from the governing elite would declare a program that is $90 trillion underfunded, racked by fraud and abuse totaling almost $100 billion per year, despised by doctors across the land for its insane bureaucracy, and allows corporate insurance, drug and hospital conglomerates to dictate the costs, a success. The entire government run sickcare industry is a scam designed to enrich the corporations that contribute to the campaigns of the politicians writing the rules and regulations. The pricing mechanism between doctor and patient is broken, with neither having any say in the decisions.
  • With the unleashing of a torrent of inflation during the 1970s the governing elite needed to resort to obfuscation and manipulation of inflation figures to create the illusion of price stability and positive GDP, while screwing seniors citizens out of their Social Security benefits and convincing the middle class their annual 3% wage increases were getting them ahead in life. Inflation has been systematically understated by 5% to 7% annually since 1980.

 

  • The government drones at the BLS do the dirty work for their masters by reporting unemployment of 8.6% when the real level exceeds 20%, Great Depression levels. The corporate media just does the bidding of the corporate fascist state by unflinchingly reporting the bogus figures. Reporting the truth would be detrimental to the political and financial elites, so propaganda is rationalized as being beneficial to the country. The sheep just keep grazing as their shepherds herd them toward the slaughterhouse.

 

  • By conducting focus groups and testing words, master manipulators like Frank Lutz have been able to convince the masses to support repeal of the estate tax even though it does not affect 99.7% of American taxpayers. By renaming it a Death Tax, the public was convinced that this horrible abuse of the tax code should be repealed. The 0.3% with the ability and means to manipulate public opinion, won again.
  • The tax code and the propaganda campaign being waged by the richest .01% to obscure the truth and misinform the masses is the most barefaced attempt of the elite to retain their wealth and power. Their corporate media legions pound home the storyline of 50% of Americans not paying their fair share because they pay no Federal income tax. It sure sounds like these weasels must be doing something dishonest to avoid paying Federal taxes. What is not mentioned by the media mouthpieces is 50% of Americans make less than $25,000 per year. What is also conveniently forgotten is these people pay payroll taxes, local income taxes, state income taxes, real estate taxes, sales taxes, tolls and a multitude of other taxes, fees and charges to their utility, cable, and phone providers. In the real world, the total effective tax rate for someone making $50,000 per year exceeds the total effective tax rates of Mitt Romney, Lloyd Blankfein and Warren Buffett.

 

  •  The IRS tax code did not grow to 75,000 pages because the middle class and the poor used their undue influence to convince politicians in Washington DC to insert credits, loopholes and deductions for mega-corporations and the wealthy elite into the code. Only those with wealth, power and influence are allowed to “sway” legislation in Congress. This is called crony capitalist democracy. The current propaganda coming from the GOP candidates is our poor mega-corporations that outsourced millions of American jobs to Asia are overburdened by the 35% corporate tax rate, despite the fact they actually pay an effective rate of 18% and many multi-billion dollar conglomerates pay nothing. The truth is not important or relevant to those running the show in this country.

  • The most damaging and far reaching use of propaganda, misinformation and outright scare tactics by the financial and political elites was during the financial meltdown during September and October of 2008. The American public was whipped into a frenzy of fear by the protectors of Wall Street – Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke – in order to funnel trillions of taxpayer funds to the Wall Street cartel that created the crisis in the first place. The governing elite declared the economic system would fail unless Wall Street was bailed out. When some courageous Congress members balked at passing TARP, the masters of the universe crashed the stock market with their super computer trading machines. The hysterical pundits on CNBC and the other corporate media outlets shrieked that our way of life would surely die if the banks were not saved. TARP was passed and Wall Street bankers rejoiced by paying themselves billions in bonuses. The truth not revealed to the masses was that the failure of a few reckless ravenously greedy Wall Street banks would not have destroyed our economic system. It would have destroyed the wealth of psychotic bankers like Blankfiein, Dimon, Pandit and a slew of other criminals on Wall Street. Wealthy stockholders and bondholders would have been wiped out. Bank depositors would not have lost a dime. The irresponsible risk junky bankers would have seen their banks liquidated. Bad debts would have been written off. The remaining good assets would have been sold to prudent banks. But instead, the ethically and financially bankrupt were saved by their corporate fascist partners in crime at the expense of the confused and disoriented American citizens. Saving bankers had been successfully marketed to the sheep as being on par with saving the nation. Chalk another one up for Bernays and his brethren.
  • After Bush and his banker cronies successfully fleeced trillions from taxpayers and handed it to bankrupt bankers, Obama and his minions continued the con on the middle class. With the help of Pelosi and Reid he was able to dispense $800 billion of payoffs to various contributors, constituents and special interests while calling it a job creating stimulus plan. When it became clear to even the ignorant masses that no jobs were being created, the governing elite channeled their best Edward Bernays and invented the term “jobs saved”. The beauty of this concept was the impossibility of ever verifying the figures spouted by the paid shills disguised as expert economists. Billions more were funneled to the housing industry and auto industry as paybacks for their contributions in the form of homebuyer tax schemes and Cash for Clunker scams. The bill for these complete failures was passed onto future generations as the National Debt soared from $10.6 trillion to $15.2 trillion in just three years of Obama rule.
  • The latest fraud being perpetrated on the American public is the lie about energy independence touted by GOP candidates for president. Rather than leveling with the people and explaining the facts of peak cheap oil to them honestly, the governing elite prefer slogans, half-truths and fantasy projections. The left touts solar, ethanol and other green energy fantasies, while the right peddles drilling, fracking, and fake estimates of supplies. Both are lying. All the cheap easy to access oil in the world has been found. The oil being discovered and accessed today is harder to reach, more expensive to produce and requires producers to expend almost one barrel of oil to produce a new barrel of oil. The easy to access oil is being depleted at the same rate that new hard to access oil is being brought on line. Meanwhile, demand grows across the globe. Our far flung suburban sprawl society teeters on the edge of an abyss and the governing elite pretend all is well.

The above list of abuses committed by the ruling oligarchy pales in comparison to the totalitarian like measures that have been executed since September 11,2001. With the country cowering in fear, the governing elite passed an Orwellian like 350 page bill that changed this country forever. The USA PATRIOT Act, which changed the relationship between our government and its citizens forever, was supposedly written, introduced, debated and passed in the space of 30 days in October 2001. I wonder which public relations firm came up with the Orwellian acronym?  Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. The purpose of naming this bill was to imply that anyone who was against allowing our government to spy, monitor or place under surveillance anyone our government chooses would make you unpatriotic. The American people chose implied safety and security over true freedom and liberty by their deafening silence. The governing elite used fear and propaganda to achieve their goal of more domination over our lives.

Drunk with their new found power, the political elite decided to change the world by using their spin machine to create visions of mushroom clouds over U.S. cities in the minds of a gullible public to craft a believable storyline for the invasion of Iraq. A willingly pliant press corp. spread the misinformation about weapons of mass destruction and Al Qaeda connections to fashion a convincing plot for pre-emptive war on a sovereign country that did not threaten our country. Who benefitted from war with Iraq? The military industrial complex reaped billions in profits and the Wall Street banks bankrolled the invasion with more debt. It only destroyed the lives of thousands of low income American soldiers, killed 100,000 Iraqi peasants, drove the price of oil from $25 a barrel to $100 a barrel, and will ultimately cost American taxpayers $4 trillion. And the great thing about passage of the Patriot Act and invasion of Iraq was the bipartisan cooperation pushing us ever closer to an authoritarian state.    

The erroneous notion that Americans have a choice between two political parties that offer distinct and clear opposing policies addressing the major issues facing our country is still perpetuated by politicians and the corporate media. It is untrue, as we have seen the Obama administration employ the same repressive methods instituted by the Bush administration. Military spending rises. Wars of choice proliferate and grow. Obamacare is virtually identical to a plan created by the leading GOP presidential nominee. Further restrictions, regulations and laws are put forth to keep the masses controlled, sedated and fearful. The governing elite and their propagators of misinformation are again formulating a false storyline to convince the easily fooled ignorant public that a sovereign country 7,500 miles from our shores is actually a threat to their lives. While our government has already committed acts of war against Iran (sanctions, assassinations, cyber warfare, and using drones to spy), the public is being worked into a bloodthirsty frenzy of nationalism. Bipartisanship worked so well with Iraq. How could it possibly go wrong with Iran?                      

In the last six months cracks have begun appearing in the fascist façade masquerading as a democratic republic. The rise of the Occupy Movement, increasing pain and discontent among the middle class, a small but vocal irate minority utilizing the internet to organize, inform and spread knowledge, and the growing support among the liberty minded for Ron Paul’s candidacy are the opening salvos in a coming revolution. The volleys being traded between the forces of the American aristocratic elite and the leading forces of this revolution are only the opening shots on par with Bunker Hill. The oligarchs have won the initial skirmishes with the Occupy Movement through their control of superior mercenary fire power and ability to falsify the message and nature of the protestors. The corporate mass media propaganda machine convinced an apathetic, non critical thinking public the protestors were nothing but dirty, lazy, college students looking for government handouts organized and led by George Soros. Journalist Robert Fisk reveals the true nature of the protests and rage:

“And that is the true parallel in the West. The protest movements are indeed against Big Business – a perfectly justified cause – and against “governments”. What they have really divined, however, albeit a bit late in the day, is that they have for decades bought into a fraudulent democracy: they dutifully vote for political parties – which then hand their democratic mandate and people’s power to the banks and the derivative traders and the rating agencies, all three backed up by the slovenly and dishonest coterie of “experts” from America’s top universities and “think tanks”, who maintain the fiction that this is a crisis of globalization rather than a massive financial con trick foisted on the voters.

The banks and the rating agencies have become the dictators of the West. Like the Mubaraks and Ben Alis, the banks believed – and still believe – they are owners of their countries. The elections which give them power have – through the gutlessness and collusion of governments – become as false as the polls to which the Arabs were forced to troop decade after decade to anoint their own national property owners. Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland became the Mubaraks and Ben Alis of the US and the UK, each gobbling up the people’s wealth in bogus rewards and bonuses for their vicious bosses on a scale infinitely more rapacious than their greedy Arab dictator-brothers could imagine.” – Robert Fisk, Bankers are the Dictators of the West

The mounting desperation of the oligarchs is palpable. They have circled the wagons as one of their leaders – Jon Corzine – was caught stealing $1.2 billion directly from the accounts of his customers after making reckless bets that went wrong and bankrupted his firm. The Department of Homeland Security coordinated brutality unleashed upon peaceful protestors in cities across America opened the eyes of more people to the approach of an increasingly oppressive state. The media lapdogs have come out in force with an organized smear campaign designed to derail the presidential campaign of Ron Paul, the only candidate talking about real change and a real downsizing of the American empire. Ron Paul’s platform of liberty, freedom, non-interventionism, sound money, and a government not controlled by bankers and corporate interests is anathema to the ruling elite of both parties. A vote for one of the hand selected candidates offered by the moneyed interests is simply a vote for the special interest status quo. As our economic system becomes more saturated with debt by the day a tipping point approaches.     

Obama’s signing of the NDAA, overwhelmingly supported by politicians of both parties, now gives the ruling class the ability to track down and imprison indefinitely any American citizen they consider a threat to their power, without charges. The only remaining thorn in their side is the internet. The internet has allowed critical thinkers to share information, organize resistance to the oligarchs, create communities of like-minded citizens, and allow individuals the opportunity to turn the tables and perform surveillance on the state. The state does not like an unfettered internet because it allows citizens to find the non-manipulated truth and undermines their mainstream media propaganda machine. Young people are less able to be manipulated. The introduction of abominable legislation like SOPA and PIPA are a blatant attempt by the governing elite to crush dissent by locking down the internet and eliminating sites that question their version of reality.    

Humans are a flawed species. Our minds are easily manipulated. We don’t like pain. We prefer instant gratification. We are susceptible to mass delusion. We will often choose hope over critical thought. Those with higher IQs will regularly attempt to take advantage of those with lower IQs. Fear and greed are the two motivations used by the minority in power to control and manipulate the majority. The American people have been led astray by a small group of powerful men. We were herded through a door in the wall of perception that promised an American dream of material goods, entitlements and pleasure with no obligations or responsibility to future generations. There is only one choice that can save this country from ruin. Each individual must make a choice to either to continue supporting the manipulative, corrupt status quo or coming back through the Door in the Wall.

  

“The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend” – Aldous Huxley

 

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Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:26 | 2095905 Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn's picture

Not inappropriate at all.

The American people have been living on an LSD trip since 1980.

The last 30 years have been a fantasy.

Time to come back through the Door to reality.

 

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:23 | 2094732 max2205
max2205's picture

THE BEST read on ZH EVER. Put it in a time capsule because it will disappear soon.

See you at the bottom of a jacuzzi.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:25 | 2094737 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

 

 

Bernays marketing program has been revised to the next level. I can recall when Google changed the white homepage, within hours it was restored. After years of line, bait and sinker, Google has decided to change their TOS effective March 1, 2012. Good luck with that!

Users that go ape shit will destroy the Edward Bernays aka. Google ad revenue gravy train.

 http://www.google.com/policies/terms/

The funny part about this, when someone buys a Apple product and clicks on the TOS of itunes… Music is now considered WMD's

LICENSED APPLICATION END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula/

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

You have to love autocowreaks and terms of service contracts.

http://chzautocowrecks.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/mobile-phone-texting-autocorrect-too-late-we-have-to-bang-now.jpg

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:25 | 2094740 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

OWS didn't go away, we're just working on things in the background for now, since people were a bit preoccupied with family events over the past month and half.  We're working on some things to raise awareness again.  Stay tuned to the listserves / undercurrents, the discussions are taking place.

Here, you can even monitor activity overtly. 

http://occupywallst.org/

http://www.nycga.net/

http://wiki.occupy.net/wiki/Main_Page

 

I'm sure there are many many pages worldwide for the various chapters and organizations.  This Spring will no be quiet.  Things have gotten worse for the general populace not better.  So you can expect people to want to join us.

 

Plus, there are a lot of people who are upset that OWS was suppressed.  There is a movement building to ensure the community's support of OWS is not forgotten.  Expect more news and rallies showing support for OWS from people who may not want to join, but support the cause and right of the OWS occupiers to express dissent.  

 

I completely agree with you that if we do not take back the right to dissent soon, we could lose the opportunity to do so meaningfully.

 

 

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 22:25 | 2094910 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture
Not written by me, but emailed to me. _____________________________ A Call for Mass Action Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement  These past several months have witnessed something very different in the U.S. People from many different walks of life came together to occupy public space in nearly 1,000 cities in the U.S. They stood up to vicious police violence, they broke through the confines of “protest as usual,” and in the middle of all that, they built community. Even in the face of media attempts to ridicule, distort, and demonize these protests, their basic message began to get through. People throughout the U.S.—and even the world—took notice of and took heart from these brave and creative protesters.  The political terms of discourse began to shift; the iced-over thinking of people in the U.S. began to thaw. Standing up to the unjust brutality and arrests became a badge of honor. People began to listen to and read the stories of some of the victims of this economic crisis, and to share their own. And most of all, as the protests spread to city after city, the fact of people occupying public space forced open debate and raised big questions among millions as to what kind of society this is, and what it should be. Why does such poverty and need exist in the face of a relative handful of people amassing obscene amounts of wealth? Why do the political institutions of society seem only to serve that handful? Why do so many youth feel they face such a bleak future? Why does the insane destruction of the environment continue to accelerate? And what is needed to overcome all this?  Those who actually wield power in this country regarded these protests, and these questions, as dangerous, and reacted accordingly. Time and again those who wield power violated their own laws and ordered police to pepper spray, beat with clubs, and shoot tear gas canisters at the heads of people who were doing nothing more than non-violently expressing their dissent and seeking community. This reached a peak in the recent coordinated and systematic attacks of the past few weeks against all the major occupations. In fact, the mayor of Oakland admitted on BBC to being part of conference calls that coordinated national strategy against the occupiers. On top of all that, and in another blatant show of illegitimate force and power, they attempted to prevent journalists and photographers from covering these acts of repression—unless they were “embedded” with the police.  To put the matter bluntly, but truly: the state planned and unleashed naked and systematic violence and repression against people attempting to exercise rights that are supposed to be legally guaranteed. This response by those who wield power in this society is utterly shameful from a moral standpoint, and thoroughly illegitimate from a legal and political one.  Now this movement faces a true crossroads. Will it be dispersed, driven into the margins, or co-opted? Or will it come back stronger? This question now poses itself, extremely sharply.  One thing is clear already: if this illegitimate wave of repression is allowed to stand... if the powers-that-be succeed in suppressing or marginalizing this new movement... if people are once again “penned in”—both literally and symbolically—things will be much worse. THIS SUPPRESSION MUST BE MASSIVELY OPPOSED, AND DEFEATED.   On the other hand, this too is true: movements grow, and can only grow, by answering repression with even greater and more powerful mobilization.  The need to act is urgent.  As a first step in the necessary response, there must be a massive political mobilization on a day, or days, very soon to say NO! to this attempt to suppress thought and expression with brutality and violence. This mobilization should most of all be in New York, where this movement started... but it should at the same time be powerfully echoed all around the country and yes, around the world. This is a call for massive demonstrations—soon—carried out in public spaces where they can have maximum impact and exposure and where the authorities cannot pen in, suppress, and otherwise attempt to marginalize these demonstrations.  These demonstrations must be large enough to show clearly that people will not tolerate that which is intolerable... that people will not adjust to that which is so manifestly unjust. Such demonstrations, along with the efforts to reach out and build them, can draw many more people from passive sympathy into active support and can awaken and inspire even millions more who have not yet been reached. Such demonstrations can powerfully answer the attempt by “the 1%” to crush and/or derail this broad movement. Thousands and thousands in the streets, acting together, can seize new initiative and change the whole political equation. The urgent questions raised by Occupy—and other urgent questions that have yet to be raised in this movement—can once more reverberate, and more powerfully than before.   The repression of the Occupy movement must not stand. Act. 
Tue, 01/24/2012 - 22:29 | 2094938 Ranger4564
Ranger4564's picture

Signatories to the above in principle, so far.  Circulation of the document has only just started.  Actual document may have undergone minor revision. 

____________________________

Contact: dontsuppressows@yahoo.com Signers of this Call include: Gbenga Akinnagbe, actor on the HBO series “The Wire”  Carole Ashley  Fr. Luis Barrios   Renate Bridenthal, Professor of History, Brooklyn College, CUNY, retired Elaine Brower, World Can't Wait & Military Families Speak Out Cynthia Carlson, artist Nina Felshin, independent curator Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC Harmony Hammond Barry Holden Camille Hankins, Founder and Director: Win Animal Rights and No Kill New York Ray Hill, producer/host of Ray on the Raydio Internet radio show, Houston, TX Lee Siu Hin, National Coordinator, National Immigrant Solidarity Network Judith Henry Rev. Dr. James Karpen, Church of St Paul and St Andrew, New York City Chuck Kaufman, Executive Director, Alliance for Global Justice Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Harlem Jim Long, artist Waqas Malik, artist Lydia Matthews, Dean of Academic Programs, Associate Dean of Parsons/ Professor Ann Messner, artist Travis Morales Dorinda Moreno, Fuerza Mundial / FM Global / Hitec Aztec, U.S. Liaison Secretariat, International Tribunal of Conscience of Peoples in Movement/TICPM Nick Mottern, ConsumersforPeace.org & kNOwdrones.org National Immigrant Solidarity Network Bradley Olson, Psychologist, Activist Rosemary O'Neill Lindsay O'Neill-Caffrey The Rt. Rev. George E. Packard, Retired Bishop of the Episcopal Church for the Armed Services and Federal Ministries Craig Phipps, Ombudsman, Casa Esperanza Ana Ratner Suzanne Ross, PH.D., Clinical Psychologist David E. Rousline, Ph.D. Berkeley CA Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz, New Sanctuary Movement Jayce Salloum, artist, Vancouver Irving Sandler Donna Schaper, Senior Minister, Judson Memorial Church
Theodora Skipitares, Associate Professor, Pratt Institute

Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis,* Past President, Psychologists for Social Responsibility* Bob Stein Rev. Max Surjadinata, Area Coordinator of Friends of Sabeel North America David Swanson, warisacrime.org Matthew Swaye Debra Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait Athena Tacha Dennis Trainor, Jr, Writer, Producer & Host of Acronym TV Marina Urbach, independent curator, other projects, New York Nancy Vining Van Ness, Director, American Creative Dance Jim Vrettos, Adjunct Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice* Jen Waller Vince Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights* Dr. Cornel West, Andy Zee, Spokesperson, Revolution Books David Zeiger, Displaced Films

 

 

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:29 | 2094746 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

This is a very good article about where we find ourselves to be and why.

But what really needs to be addressed is this queston: "Where do we go from here?"

There are no maps, no easy solutions. But I feel the key lies in these two quotes from the post. Study them, and think about how fear is truly allowed to run your life.

"Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid."

and

"Anything can be rationalized when putting food on the table requires you to ignore obvious truths and understandable facts."

We each need to ask ourselves whether we will continue to live in fear merely to earn the few trinkets that the power elite toss to us, or can we find the courage to refuse to play their game?


Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:35 | 2094760 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

As the masses for the most part maintain their composure, hanging on and waiting for leadership, leadership is finally on display in a fully naked way, a way not seen in most people's lifetimes.

It is things that are End-of-Empire.

Government leaders, corporate leaders, and leaders everywhere, in all sectors at all levels, the truly clueless and Self-Absorbed who have risen to the top... as they naturally do...

without a care as to their impact on the economy, and certainly not their impact on society on the greater scale...

Self-Absorption in leadership leads to a bad place, eventually -- the Narcissistic mind, by its very definition, MUST lead the Greater Mission to a bad place.

But "growth!" and "growth!" and "growth!"... real or false or simply perceived:  That has been Their hiding place, concealing all that is wrong and shallow and dirty,

until the brick wall comes, and now

the World wakes up and mumbles in unison... "WTF do we do now?"

The answer is to defuse the Narcissist, post-haste.

Narcissism breeds Narcissism, and finally, we are infested.

Excellent article, Mr. Quinn.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:41 | 2094772 gravedestruction
gravedestruction's picture

In a nutshell: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

King Solomon - 977 B.C.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:41 | 2094773 three chord sloth
three chord sloth's picture

Here we go again. Yet another article riven by internal contradictions.

The entire middle of this piece is a righteous screed against the power and control wielded by an overgrown state, yet it is bookended by praise of OWS. WTF?

Occupy Wall Street, if it continues to exist, will end up exactly where the movements of the 60's ended up -- as little cogs in the vast machinery of the state they supposedly abhorred. It is inevitable -- too many of their goals require state intervention, and that means dancing with the beast... and the beast corrupts. Always.

If the demands of the movement were limited to de-rigging a rigged system, the movement might stand a chance. But far too many of the occupiers are demanding free stuff (they have no problem with a rigged system, they just want it rigged in their favor) for the movement to stay a force for good. You see, every rigged system ends up in the same place -- being run for the benefit of those pulling the strings... no matter where it started or who is put in charge.

I've seen this dog and pony show before. It doesn't have a happy ending.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:44 | 2094777 jm
jm's picture

About those last two pictures, which was supposed to be more pathetic... the laughing idiots or the guy that looks lonely and castrated?

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 03:58 | 2095654 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

None.

Both are staged and illustrate US citizenism propaganda.

The false fellowship displayed by political rivals whose only aim is to eliminate one another.

The loneliness of the misunderstood dogooder who wishes for the happiness of his kinsmen but fails to relate to them.

Cheap US propaganda. 

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 21:45 | 2094781 Stevious
Stevious's picture

Excellent and delightful article, but the average american, especially the young ones no longer have ears to hear, or eyes to see... or a brain to understand.  There are too many "in the cart," and they have become too used to being pulled along.  As horrible as it might sound, (to understand the horror read: The Penniless Billionaires if you can find a copy, but you probably can't--you are not supposed to know about how hyperinflation is planned and how the 1% is enriched by it, so the book, which would be an instant best seller is oddly "out of print.") sometimes I wish for hyperinflation.  Without great pain America will simply sink as slowly into the abyss as the Roman Empire did.

I fear though that my wish will be granted in the next half a dozen years...or less.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:42 | 2095202 deflator
deflator's picture

Yes, I am afraid you are mostly correct but will get your wish of very high inflation.

 I have a neighbor who is like 20 something(his immigrant mom owns the condo and he is living on student debt)and I tried to tell him that I figured out how to make my condo more energy efficient. I live in a 1200sq/ft condo that is a major project to make energy efficient. My neighbor lives in one exactly like mine,. It has a flat roof and a parapet wall all around the perimeter that vermin like squirrels and raccoons can easily access and then gain access to dropped ceilings for duct work damaging insulation etc. My neighbor gave me "the talk to the hand" "I know what to do" brush off. The fascia and soffits around his condo say something different.

 I got some free high end quarry tile from work because my boss wanted to clear out his warehouse so installed some on my patio. I told this kid that I would renovate his while I was at it if he just paid for the cement board and he said, "I don't care about that patio", "I never use it". Shits like $8 a foot just for the tile not counting labor and this guy doesn't care that his patio is rotting wood. He could have had a major upgrade to his patio for less than a dollar a foot.

 

 On the bright side our buildings are mostly constructed out of cedar. 2x4's, 2x10's, siding, plywood roof decking and everything is constructed out of cedar! Cedar used to be abundant, now just a little board costs $50! Cedar is amazingly resilient to rot, mildew, mold and bugs don't like it.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 22:30 | 2094812 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

" Are Humans a Flawed Species"?  Ask me after a " POTus" ,  PeP Talk. EARTH calling " LOUIS the XIII'th  in a warmed snifter.

 

    Where in the hell is Vincent Price when you need him for this macabre event?

 

  UPdate: Boehner looks like he's going to go " Ape -Shit" , on the Monkey!

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 22:29 | 2094943 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

"The outrage at the continued looting by the psychopathic Wall Street aristocracy and the horrific police brutality against young people exercising their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly should have ignited widespread anger and mass protest. Instead the reaction has been silence, scorn and smug satisfaction with the government response.

Your article is dead on. I'm afraid, however, that the battle is lost, and I'm starting the question the wisdom of expending energy against the Empire.

BTFD.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 22:49 | 2095063 diesheepledie
diesheepledie's picture

KILL THE SHEEPLE

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:02 | 2095129 gravedestruction
gravedestruction's picture

SHILL THE KEEPLE

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:45 | 2095421 diesheepledie
diesheepledie's picture

How anyone can't be for exterminating the masses after tonight is beyond me ... :-(

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:44 | 2095957 honestann
honestann's picture

What happened tonight?  Something on TV?  Sorry, I never bought a TV, so I wouldn't know.

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:07 | 2095137 earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

"man's paradoxical dilemma is a duopoly of finite state - a shallow existence of manor within - surviving the moral code of existence is but eating your brethren's aborted waif - defecating this fortunate's afterlife - fertilizing the path you've chosen with subconscious remorseful, yet comical  ambiguity - moving ever so slowly into a depressed vortex - a fathom of fractured dimensional false senses, and feigned insecurity - a darwinian state of maelstrom only comforts you -  existential-primordial senses tethered only to a selective breeding makes for a more fertile grounding - resting in the laurels, whilst mother earth consumes your whole - singularity gives birth once again - twins abound, only by spirit and flesh is their reincarnating - past made presence once again, and again - the mystics,... cycle of life, is no secret - if only we  stop looking for the answers  within "    

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:06 | 2095141 Pizza man
Pizza man's picture

When hundreds of thousands of OWS types march on DC, THEN I will know they get it. Until then, they cluelessly attack drug addicts, while partying with the krazy kool pushers. Dopes. Look who is funding these cretins!

..and let's look at history. FIRST comes BIG GOV, then the need for biz to get into bed. Chastize crony biz? Sure. But until we destroy the need to suck gov dick, we will have accomplished NOTHING. Some part of a free market will always take the path of least resistance. Especially when survival is at stake.

Corruption came from within..within Washington DC.

 

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:07 | 2095147 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Is Nancy Pelosi on a conference call with Barbara Boxer, over AAPL after hours "CFDS"?  Nice Red Wolf Rug, Nancy!

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:12 | 2095161 Pizza man
Pizza man's picture

The tea party obained permits, and complied with the laws for assembly. The OWs did none of the above and infringed upon the rights of others. Constitutional rights go both ways. Occupying private property and closing ports is Constitutionally protected free speech? Don't think so.

When the fools occupy DC, then I will join them.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:43 | 2095947 honestann
honestann's picture

Exactly how can the "fundamental right" to complain about the predator-that-be and predator-class be subject to arbitrary approval by predators-that-be?  Answer: it cannot.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 16:27 | 2097480 earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

as pure logic could only interpretate - your either, on or off

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 23:34 | 2095237 non_anon
non_anon's picture

i'd rather have the four F's than the four P's

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:15 | 2095291 deflator
deflator's picture

 The past 150 years of persistent economic growth which is an anomoly in contrast to the rest of human civilization is entirely predicated on...what? Our greator understanding of economics? I think not! The past 150 years of persistent economic growth is largely predicated on growth in production of crude oil, natural gas and coal. Is it a coincidence that our global economic model has begun failing not long after conventional crude oil began it's inexorable decline?

 

 Nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman,  has stated that the past 150 years of persistent economic growth, which is an anomoly in contrast to the rest of human civiliation is entirely predicated on our greater understanding of economics. Can anyone see how there can be another explaination of the past 150 year anomoly other than creating money out of thin air?

 I will die and burn in hell before I believe that creating "money" out of thin air is responsible for the past 150 years of parabolic growth of human civilization.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:41 | 2095941 honestann
honestann's picture

Yes, but creating fiat money out of thin air and enslaving most of mankind in egregious debt IS a major cause of the destruction of human civilization.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:03 | 2095321 malek
malek's picture

A good article, Jim, but a few times you went overboard.

First of all Neil Howe is correct. It doesn't matter how much you or anyone like the ideals of OWS, as long as a critical mass of seriously disgusted and actively looking for change has not been reached in the population, all such direct attempts fizzle out.
And if Guy Fawkes had succeeded in blowing up parliament (with or without the representatives being present in the building), what do think would have really changed? The answer is most likely nothing.
Which such event will trigger the avalanche, no never knows - but most simply don't.

Second, after just stating inflation to be massively under-reported, you bring up peak cheap oil as already passed. Maybe you want to overlay real inflation onto the oil price chart and rethink that statement with a bit more humbleness?

Third and last you cannot complain about rising inequality and decades of dropping real wages, and a few sentences later try to rationalize away the fact that 50% are paying no federal income tax.

But don't give up the struggle!

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:33 | 2095387 deflator
deflator's picture

Third and last you cannot complain about rising inequality and decades of dropping real wages, and a few sentences later try to rationalize away the fact that 50% are paying no federal income tax.

 What difference does paying income taxes make? Either it is a zero sum game or it isn't right? Proponents of the status quo would suggest that it isn't a zero sum game. (knowing that globalization subsidizes the dollar.) Peak oil is for all intents and purposes a zero sum game nullifying the idea that the world is powered by fiat money creation rather than energy.

 If the world is in fact powered by fiat money creation, then why should anyone need to pay taxes?

 If the world is indeed full of infinite energy and we have so many smart engineers then why doesn't central planning work better than it does/ Furthermore, why would anyone need to work 70 hours a week let alone 40?

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:43 | 2095416 my puppy for prez
my puppy for prez's picture

Bernays learned his "craft" and was a stateside agent of the British Tavistock Institute, formerly known as the Wellington House in its early days, circa 1900.  Their goal literally was the destruction of Western civilization (for the purposes of world government) through the methods of propaganda, operant conditioning, and modern psychological technique.  Lippman was also involved.

I read "Propaganda" last year and it was truly horrifying, but explains exactly what has been done to America in a calculated, subversive way.  

The Tavistock Institute created "polling", not to measure opinion, but to form and shape it.  They are the group responsible for turning the word "isolationist" into a dirty word.

I would highly suggest researching the Tavistock Institute.  Their techniques have spawned the vast majority of think tanks, and have infiltrated most public and private institutions and businesses, including the military JCOS.

The rabbit hole goes deep....

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:38 | 2095929 honestann
honestann's picture

Yes, the rabbit hole goes very deep indeed.  It goes all the way back to the time when all humans were predators, when a few humans just discovered their ability to become producers (by planting seeds and raising animals in confined spaces).  That was the moment when ALL these topics ZH complains about came to be.  That was the time when producers created goods that would not otherwise have existed, and those humans who decided to remain predators started refining their predatory ways to grab the goods the producers created.  The rest is the history of mankind... and in fact that is the ENTIRETY of the history of mankind.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 01:07 | 2095465 deflator
deflator's picture

"capacity for growth" means zero sum game. What I mean by "capacity for growth" is similar to how the U.S. reached an energy production peak in 1970 at about 10 million barrels per day of conventional oil production. Similar to inflation, 10 million barrels of conventional crude oil production meant something different than it does today.

 

 There was a guy that supposedly invented a carbeuretor that could get 100 mpg. in 1970's. As it turned out he was using a very high octane fuel that wasn't a particularly abundant byproduct of the refining process of the crude oil of the day, although by todays standards was fairly abundant. Today,  out of all the available crude oil for refining, there is practically zero of that high octane fuel available. Just trying to give you an idea of reality.

 

 The U.S. reached capacity for growth in 1970 and needed to extrapolate it's failed ecomomic model globally. In 2005 the world has reached capacity for growth and there is no place left to extrapolate...

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 01:11 | 2095478 steve from virginia
steve from virginia's picture

 

Excellent article, I am fascinated by Edward Bernays and always wondered why FDR didn't have J. Edgar squirrel him away somwehere on some sorts of trumped up charges.

What is coming is hard to say but the battle is old and pitiless: the center versus the distributed or decentralized: Jeffersonian America, the enlighted rest of the world.

The center is industrial, it generates and feeds off credit, it needs customers for phantom 'products' to service the credit. The 'winners' are the handful of 'innovators' and 'entrepreneurs' who are really thieves and liars. The losers are everyone else ... who are stuck with the tab.

There have been since the maturing of industrialization at the end of the 18th century four massive wars ... of machines and men versus the idea of man as a civilized being, against civilization itself. There have also been two worldwide economic depressions.

Remember, a depression is class warfare not simply a profound recession or balance sheet deflation. Since Napoleon -- who undertook the first real world war -- the machines and their masters have systematically pillaged the world and more or less reduced it to ruin. Now comes the final battle, and it is likely to be more ferocious, more absolute and more painful than most can imagine.

It will likely take the form of a worldwide economic collapse, with many of the plutocrats completely ruined. If the world is to survive along with humans and any reasonable life into the future all of them will need to be ruined.

The bankers, the manufacturers, the insurance executives, the lobbyists, the speculators, the 'business men' with 'solid business sense'. The strategy is simple, as it was during the Depression. Hold onto your money, and never let it go. The plutocrats need your money more than you do.

 

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 04:20 | 2095665 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Hard to believe.

What is going on is the total victory of US citizenism. US citizenism prevails in most places on the world. It is utterly dominant.

Indeed, US citizenism feeds off an exterior and as it spreads, destroys the exterior. As the exterior is destroyed and no longer distinguished from US citizenism core, issues of sustainability arise.

Plutocrats or US citizen elite whatever they are called work hand in hand with US citizen base.

They donot need money, they have all they wish for.

What they have been needed and that is the root of the US citizenism covenant is little compliant hands that would help them generate what they could not deliver by themselves: an aggregated demand that would allow the kind of consumption needed to end the age of abundance brought by the previous orders, before US citizenism rose.

It has always been the platform of the US citizenism covenant

-US base helping its elite in looting the wealth of the world, getting a share along.

It is how it has worked since day one.

US elite did not have to convince US base to patrol the plantations to prevent slaves (who were the unfree of the days, not the US settlers) from recovering their liberty.

US base knew what they had to gain it that.

The cause of resentment nowadays is that some US citizens feel the covenant is broken. They want to keep helpingthe US elite in their endeavour but the mass of resources available is no longer enough for US elite to enlist them.

No sheeple in the US. US citizens join freely the US military. They know they will be rewarded.

For some others, though, the reward is no longer there because no longer enough resources. They are slipping out of the US citizenism covenant andresent it, a lot.

It is mixed with fear as they know that falling onthe wrong side of US citizenism is painful. They thought this would never happen because of a kind of birthright, race, US citizenship (nationality)

Most of them are in the illusion that the two parties are the same instead of being rivals.

Most of them feel the nostalgy of their former political affiliations andwill now and then rise to defend their former group against political attacks.

It is how it is now. There is no opposition in US citizenism. Only a system that has reached his carrying limit because of the physical limits of the planet.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 01:33 | 2095512 SillySalesmanQu...
SillySalesmanQuestion's picture

Another great post and read Tyler, thank you very much sir...Only at Zerohedge do you find this kind of journalism.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 03:42 | 2095641 Heyoka Bianco
Heyoka Bianco's picture

Much, much too long to tell us shit everybody who reads ZH already knows (whether they actually believe it is a whole nother story).

ANd even then (to pick just one point), it continues to use the idiotic definition of "mortgage holders" as "homeowners." Newsflash: the onliest thing to your name while you are paying on a mortgage is the biggest load of debt you probably will evr have,except maybe student loans (another fine example of government 'subsidies" that only subsidize price inflation). If we could just people to realize what a scam that terminology is, we'd be well ahead of the game

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 03:57 | 2095653 ConfederateH
ConfederateH's picture

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair

...

"I was in a high level meeting at my University and during the course of the meeting the Occupy Movement was brought up. A senior executive made a derogatory comment about Occupy and then laughed. I smiled and bit my tongue. In retrospect it shouldn’t have surprised me. I work at one of the top business schools in the world. "

Well Jimboy, it looks like Sinclair was talking about YOU!   One of the biggest issues for those Occupy protesters was all the student debt that they had been forced to take on in order to support bloated university staff that were only possible if those students went into government subsidized debt.  And being a member of the over-educated elite, you must surely be aware that bankruptcy laws don't apply to student debt.  Bravo, Jimboy, only a gen-X could be such a flaming hypocrit.

If you are so worried about your sons futures, why don't you put you money where your mouth is, quit being an elitist parasite, and go start an occupy protest on your own front lawn.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:41 | 2095943 Jim Quinn
Jim Quinn's picture

Go fuck yourself

Cordially A Hypocrite

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 12:38 | 2096484 ConfederateH
ConfederateH's picture

Such language from a professor of an elite university, maybe its time for your sabatical.  I am sure those occupy protesters don't mind if you run up their tab a little more.  After all, its over $1 trillion now, and you should be proud of the role you played in creating it.  And all the other elitist professors certainly don't have any qualms about it either.  Just look at Elizabeth Warren.  Besides, you can always just blame the boomers. 

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 19:02 | 2098044 DavidPierre
DavidPierre's picture

SmokeyQuinn aint no professor at Wharton.

He is just a second rate Bean Counter and 9/11MORON

He spends most of his day at work blogging at www.TheBeastilityPlatform.com .

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 04:04 | 2095657 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

A bit is worrisome. Started to be written in December.

If true, that is pretty alarming.

This kind of low US cheap propaganda should only take the time to write them.

No thought in it, only common recitating that comes out of US citizenism driven minds.

A good point: it does not hide that US citizenism is the source of all, that Nazis copied out US citizenism. They got inspired by it.

Quite uncommon from a US citizen and a break in character since well, usually, US citizens prefer to sell the fallacy that they had been somehow contaminated by Nazism, fascism, communism and the rest, when those movements found their origins and methods in US citizenism.

US citizen nature is eternal and as such has not changed since 1776,July,4th.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 04:59 | 2095685 ConfederateH
ConfederateH's picture

What country are you from, AnAnonymous?  I would guess Poland.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 05:48 | 2095710 aleph0
aleph0's picture

 

 

 

The True State of the American Union

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqeUWuX6tBw

 

Warren Pollock nails it 100%

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:29 | 2095910 honestann
honestann's picture

To Jim Quinn:  To assume you should take actions for the sake of your kids (even if limited to complaining in blogs, which is pitiful in its near nothingness) is insane.  Soon or already they will value being sheep more than honest, ethical, awake, alert human beings.  They will notice your unwillingness to "do anything about it except complain" and take the next logical step, which is to not waste their time complaining when you and they are not about to do anything about it.

If you are correct when you say older generations have a more negative view of the protests and complaints about the capture of the system by predators, then what does that say about the previous generation?  Doesn't that mean the older generation or two never had any real attachment to honesty, ethics, liberty and individualism?

Yes, it reveals that america has been a gigantic collection of authority loving sheep for many generations.  People have long tried to pretend americans have been rugged individualists from day one.  While the original frontier pioneers from the 1500s to 1800s certainly deserve credit for being tough and largely self-sufficient, ask yourself this.  How many of them were authority-worshipers?  Let me rephrase that slightly.  How many were religious?  How many believed at the core of their being that the most important aspect of life is --- to obey their chosen "super-duper-ultimate authority"?  Answer:  most of them.

Now do you understand why americans were unable to uproot the virulence of authoritarianism from their being?  Now do you understand why they are sheep?  Before you go off on me for saying this inconvenient truth, remember that even their own religious writing characterized their christ as a shepard and the people as his flock.  That is not an accident.  That is exactly how the authors of their religious texts manipulate the readers of their texts, to present their orders in the form of analogies and other deceptions.

But the point is important.  To be religious is to make submission to authority an absolutely central premise in life.  That any central premise become a large part of anyone's general attitude towards life is completely unsurprising.  And you wonder why so many americans allow authoritarians dominate their lives, and generally support those authorities dominating the lives of everyone else around them?

Well, don't.

Yes, I do know individualists who claim to believe in god, however these people almost never wear religion on their sleeve, and I get the impression their claims of belief are simply protection against the abuse atheists experience.  And I've noticed the contrary forces those individuals held within them eventually cause them to recognized the absurdity and throw off one premise or the other eventually.

However, when you claim things like "previous generations created the welfare state", you really need to distinguish what "most people created" from what some "gang of predators-on-steroids who found themselves in power" created.  That kind of attribution error is disgusting.  You can say they "accepted it too easily" if you wish, but that's a different rap.

Let me be clear.  The population didn't create the vietnam war or the modern welfare state on steroids, president Johnson, his congresses and the courts created those unconstitutional horrors.  Yes, you can criticize "the people" for not declaring war on DC, but you can't blame them for creating those programs.  Neither can you blame the people for making Nixon detach the US dollar from gold, or for the confiscation of gold in the 1930s.  Those actions were taken by PREDATORs.

What's even more gross is - those predators had no right to take those actions.  They were inherently criminal actions, since they were blatantly and obviously unconstitutional and anti-constitutional.

But "the people" didn't "do anything about it", did they?  Beyond protesting in the streets and the old fashion versions of blogs, no they didn't.  But understand this.  They had just seen the predators-that-be take overtly criminal actions.  But they also saw the congress and courts --- who had taken an oath to defend the constitution, and whose jobs it was to deal with these sorts of crimes --- do nothing.

In other words, the people they authorized and paid-in-advance to defend them from predators... had become predators themselves.  Now I'm not defending anyone for "doing nothing" at this point.  However, I am saying that people in those situations had to ask themselves, "how the hell do we deal with this when everyone we hire to protect our interests turns against us?".  I think we can all understand why people in that situation had to pause and ask themselves this question.  The problem is, of course, that they found no answer.  We can debate whether they were thwarted by the authority-worship that they had allowed to become a fundamental premise in the core of their being --- or they were just too chicken to organize, pick up the arms the 2nd ammendment guaranteed them.  But either way, they failed to go clean house.

That failure was interpreted as sanction.  Was it not, all things considered?

As a consequence, the predators-that-be and predator-class had the opportunity to take actions that let them completely dominate the federal government of the USSA, as well as almost all governments at all levels in the USSA and most every country.

I had an automatic revulsion when I read your comment about "viewing events throught the prism of "baby boomer" or "generation X".  Reality is what it is.  Anyone who cannot see reality clearly for what it is (within the limits of human sense perception as extended by available instrumentation) is insane.

Sanity is seeing what's in front of your face, and not seeing what isn't.

That's one of my favorite sound-bites to quote, because it is so accurate (to the extent possible in one sentence).  I have found that I see reality as being exactly the same as anyone else of any age who is also sane.  Oh, sure, we always have different experiences, and we've managed to notice different connections in what we've seen of reality.  But that never gives us different perspectives on reality --- just the opposite.  When we communicate our different experiences and realizations, those of us who remain sane enrich each other.  We gain new insights that we might not have noticed for years otherwise.  At the least we gain material to watch out for ourselves.

Question: Are Ron Paul and Thomas Jefferson "generation X-ers"?

Apparently Edward Bernays understands.  And likely everyone else who understands refuses to have kids, or they home school them.

But notice something.  I went through public school.  Why did they not destroy my mind?  I know the answer, at least the most crucial elements.  First, when I was 4 years old I noticed that adults gave me different and often blatantly contradictory answers.  I also saw photos and videos of people in different countries who (at that time anyway) believed and behaved-in very different ways.  I explicitly and clearly drew the blatantly obvious conclusion --- if I want to understand this universe, my only hope is to observe and think for myself.  The corollary:  if I can't learn from other people, the only thing left is to learn by myself from my own observation and thought.  So the metaphorical answer is, I inoculated myself.  My core premise became complete distrust of all claims by all others, and trust in my own observations and thought.  In simpler terms, I learned nothing from school, and I certainly didn't believe anything they told me.  I learned to read before I went to school, and I learned on my own thereafter.

My bottom line point is this.  People who learn from first-hand observation and their own honest evaluations tend to see reality in much the same way.  Sometimes they disagree about what is likely the best way to achieve certain results, but at least they agree on what is the nature of the reality they live in.  In comparison, most humans have no freaking idea about reality, and that's a fact.  That cannot NOT be a fact, as I learned at age 4, simple based upon the FACT that every common viewpoint is a minority!  At least all but one must be wrong, and in fact ALL ARE WRONG.  Ever honest 4 year old should see this, and my guess is, they do.  The only difference between "us" and "the rest" is... we don't turn away from this very inconvenient and very unsettling observation.  We embrace it, because somehow we understood "reality is all there really is".  This is the ultimate instance of honesty or dishonesty - to accept reality (in full and total), or reject reality and retreat into the "comfort of acceptance" which comes with conformity.  That parents of EVERY generation teach kids to submit and conform rather than observe, think and act accordingly says it all.  The vast majority of humans flat-out suck.

Incidentally, I just described the difference between "real free choice" and the "illusion of free choice" that you described in your article.

By the way, everyone should understand this.  Virtually ALL the predators-that-be and predator-class understand everything that Bernays understood, and more.  These are the understandings that ALL serious self-conscious predators spend all their days learning, practicing and understanding.  The ability to deceive has always been a mainstay of predators.  That's why some hide in tall grass.  That's why others make sounds like their prey.  That's one key advantage that predators have against their prey --- they are always and forever scamming their prey into positions that make them easy to destroy.

Hence the key feature of the "modern civilized world" is exactly the same as the world shortly after mankind first learned to create AKA produce what he needs to survive, rather than simply grab what other [natural] processes create.  At that time the producers started growing crops (creating veggies that would not otherwise have existed) and raising herds of food animals (creating meat, transportation and strong workers that would not otherwise have existed).  And another part of mankind decided to remain predators.  It was not long before predators figured out how much easier it was to steal the veggies and food animals from producers than it was to hunt them down in the wild.

That is precisely the nature of modern uncivilization.  The producers create wealth (goods that humans need and want to survive, prosper and enjoy life), while the predators grab whatever they can from where-ever and whom-ever they can.

EVERY SINGLE TIME humans create large, powerful [fictional] "institutions" with the power to control large numbers of humans and great wealth... predators diligently find ways to take control of the levers of those so-called institutions.  How could any other result be possible?  By the nature of their modus-operandi, producers must focus their attention, their time, their effort, their resources on reality in order to produce the goods they create.  By the nature of their modus-operandi, predators spend full time figuring out how to game whatever "system" exists to take maximum advantage of that system.  Whether they do so "from the shadows" or in the light of day (in the administration and congress or some large corporation) is essentially irrelevant.

The world today is still predators versus producers.

Let's be clear, just in case you didn't notice this aspect of the dynamic and relationship yourselves.

#1:  producers do not need or benefit from predators.
#2:  predators completely depend on producers.

A producer creates what he needs to survive, prosper, enjoy.

A predator steals what he needs to survive, prosper, enjoy.

Eliminate all predators and... producers have far more goods and/or free time to survive, prosper and enjoy their lives.

Eliminate all producers and... at least 99.9% of predators must die, because the naturally occuring processes of earth are only sufficient to support a few hundred thousand (to a few million at most) humans, not the 7-billion humans that the actions of producers have made possible.

Most of the rest of the article is just a [pretty good] history of how the last four decades played out (since the huge dislocations caused by Johnson (vietnam and "great society") and Nixon (dollar disconnected from gold).

It is my belief that people need to understand this stuff (what your article outlines).  I only add my clarifications and elaborations about the early part of the article because it is always better to understand the most fundamental issues at the very ROOT of these problems than less fundamental issues.  As I have demonstrated, the fundamental issue goes back several thousand years at least, to the time when mankind-the-predator bifurcated into predators and producers.

Note that producers had to create ethics in order to identify and enunciate the nature of causality as applied to human actions.  In other words, these producers identified: "he who takes actions to create goods is cause and should therefore enjoy/bare/suffer the effects/consequences".  Of course predators had no ethics back then, and they have no ethics today (though they laugh in private at producers for letting them so completely twist their ethics into pretzels to justify the predators stealing most of the goods the producers create).  While the predators have no ethics, they do have a modus-operandi , which is "get away with as much as possible".  That's as close to an ethics as predators have.  Hopefully producers will wake up someday and realize how disgusting it is to allow predators to define and spin their ethics for them.

A final comment that hopefully motivates a few producers to wake up and change their submissive ways.  Understand how stupid humans are.  Humans are the only species who sanctions, supports, defends and finances the predators who prey upon them.  With their big fat heads and brains, humans are nonetheless dumber than rocks and every other species of life-form.  If producers don't wise up, humans are finished.  That day is coming soon, quite possibly by 2012 Dec 21, which the predators may adopt as "cover" for the mass destruction and enslavement they fully and self-consciously intend to cause.  They don't believe the Mayan BS, but they sure know how to misdirect attention from their own culpability for the destruction of everything good in mankind, and so they may very well intend to adopt the Mayan calendar scam to imply "it isn't our fault, it was pre-ordained".  Wake up you sleeping mass of sheep... you are about to be slaughtered.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 10:16 | 2096065 boogerbently
boogerbently's picture

You were doing so well unil that Mayan calender/end of days thing.

Your ENTIRE article conflicts with your conclusion. Which is to say, I agree with most of your post, which is why I DISAGREE with your conclusion. In a nutshell, the "predators" NEED us producers to both make and buy their stuff.

We (the creators of wealth) will never be eliminated because the predators would then need to become ....producers.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 10:44 | 2096109 honestann
honestann's picture

When I said "humans are finished" I didn't mean to imply that every individual will be "completely eliminated", though that could come to pass as an accident depending on how the predators try to achieve their goals.  The predators don't need anywhere near 0.1% of mankind to survive in order to serve them quite well.

As you have no doubt noticed, at great majority of the most brilliant and most productive scientists and engineers will happily work for the most revolting, evil, destructive predators on the face of the planet (see nazi germany for one example).  So do not be AT ALL surprised to learn they intend to wipe out 90%, 95%, or even more than 99% of the world population.  They have already stated quite clearly that this is their plan.  The only dispute is how large a majority they should wipe out.

I didn't mean to imply the 2012 Dec 21 happenings will be the final step when they completely kill off the vast majority of mankind.  I see that Mayan date as more-or-less being when events make clear to virtually everyone that the population of the USSA and many other countries now live in an overt predator-controlled prison with no obvious means of escape.

I suspect the mass extermination will take a few more years, though I sure as hell don't pretend to know.  It is unlikely but possible that they plan to start their extermination plans on or before that date.

PS:  I didn't think I'd create the impression you drew, as I clearly stated predators inherently depend on producers.  The ultimate top-level predators in control of what's going on is probably only a few hundred to a few thousand.  How many producers do you think they need to keep around to keep them in luxury?  Perhaps a few tens of thousands of the best and brightest will be plenty.

PS:  Looking back, I said "mass destruction and enslavement".  That clearly implies some humans remain.  No?  Sorry I wasn't even clearer.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 16:19 | 2097434 earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

nice :-))

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 16:21 | 2097445 earleflorida
earleflorida's picture

excellent!!!

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 09:59 | 2096001 boogerbently
boogerbently's picture

I agree with most of what he says. What alarms me, A LOT, is a pervasive theme in the "posts/articles" of younger writers, that Social Security is somehow an "entitlement" to retired workers that is being paid by younger workers.

SS was paid into by US (yes, those EVIL baby boomers) and our employers. It was a tax FORCED on us by the govt. with their assumption that we were not smart enough to save on our own. The plan was SO well designed that there was a SURPLUS in the fund which has, over the years, been raided by politicians to fund other programs, to buy votes. SS Disability is the most obvious and expensive beneficiary. The SS Administration is currently holding IOU's from the Treasury totaling $3.5 TRILLION. Let's pay THAT back, THEN see how "solvent" the program is!

BTW: With all the talk about how insolvent the SS program is, how smart was it to have THAT be the "payroll tax" that was "cut" ?

So, please, before you regurgitate the inaccurate nonsense of your peers, remember, WE have been being "robbed" by the Washington crooks for decades longer than yourselves.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 19:12 | 2098069 DrunkenMonkey
DrunkenMonkey's picture

You're being selective with the truth. Your generation was taxed, yes, but all the money that was taken from you and your employers, your fuel purchases, property taxes etc, was spent there and then. And not only that but debts have been run up on top, big ones. Plus there's all the cheap and accessible 'assets' (i.e. oil, gas, land, etc.) that have been apportioned out or used, (without being replaced) that are not available to future generations .. and so on for a few more hours.

I understand no one person is to blame for any of this, but it doesn't help us Gen. X'ers, raised on dreams sold to us by advertisers and society, who feel as if we've been conned.

So, you will feel our wrath whether your generation likes it or not.

Sorry about that.

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 18:52 | 2098023 DrunkenMonkey
DrunkenMonkey's picture

Jim Quinn is Tyler Durden (or at least one of them). I am convinced.

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