Submitted by Martin Armstrong via Armstrong Economics, [9]
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The entire problem we face going ahead stems from the very idea of Karl Marx [11] that government is capable of managing the economy either through communism or autocratic-socialism where the state dictates to the economy under the pretense of caring for the people, that has truly become a derivative of fascism where the state comes first. This is even reflected in the conviction rate that has risen from 72% in the 1970s to virtually 99% today eliminating fair trials. We also see it taking shape in the militarization of the police that actually do not protect society, but the state from the people. Police have been converted to IRS agents on wheels to raise money by abusing the people for every possible type of traffic violation. In Princeton, New Jersey, they even have signs in a parking lot “park head in”. If you back into a parking spot you get a ticket. The actor Alec Baldwin [12] was arrested for rising his bicycle against traffic. Who knew you could even be arrested for such a thing. This is autocratic-socialism where the state pretends its abuse of the people is for their benefit when in fact there is always a profit that falls to them like FATCA and the NSA really looking for money – not terrorists.
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Savers are being exploited by government under the pretense of managing the economy. You see many retired people back in the work force doing service jobs because they can no longer earn income on their savings for life. Savers receive no return presently on their life savings because Central banks punish savers and subsidize the debtors assuming that borrowing is required for economic growth. This core assumption that government even possesses the mental capabilities to manage the economy is extremely dangerous for it then creates a fascist state where society is supposed to worship the state as all-knowing and caring where its survival takes precedent over the individual. This is reflected in calling Snowden a traitor. How is it possible that someone who exposes illegal activity in government faces life in prison? Such legal positions are only possible in a fascist state where it is not We the People, it is the State Comes First.
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This is actually part of the political-economic cycle where the arrogance of the state officials leads them to assume it is their well-being and power that is important and must be defended against the people. The people become the great unwashed and the state rises confusing itself as the embodiment of the nation and country. Thomas Paine pointed this out in his Common Sense. Then too, like Snowden, he was an enemy of the state was to be hanged. Thomas Jefferson was also regarded as a traitor and the king sent an entire army to his house to capture Jefferson and hang him. He was warned and escaped watching the army surround his home from the woods on the hill.
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Even if we go back to the Roman Republic we find Cicero also addresses the “arrogance of officialdom”. This is simply a problem that has plagued human society since the dawn of time. It is the arrogance of government that forgets the PEOPLE are the nation, not politicians and bureaucrats. Consequently, in their blind arrogance, the political powers in Washington would kill Snowden for exposing their corruption. They would love to behead him, but restraint themselves only to pretend they are noble
Obama has seen his polls collapse to 39% favorable. Within that, are simply the ignorant who would vote for a democrat simply because they hate republicans. Of course, there are republicans who also do not understand and just hate democrats just because they exist. TV stations like FOX and MSNBC should be banned and we need the old law returned where the press MUST present a fair and balance view instead of this war of propaganda. For those who do not know the history of the FCC, it was once called the Fairness Doctrine which was a policy of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present controversial issues of public importance with both sides and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced. The FCC eliminated the Doctrine in 1987, and in August 2011 the FCC formally removed the language that implemented the Doctrine. We have been subjected and bombarded with nothing but propaganda ever since. MSNBC and programs like the Ed Show would NEVER have a Republican on or EVER say a kind word about any Republican. This is not press – it is no different from the notorious Pravda (Truth) of the old Soviet Union.
Obama actually had the arrogance to tell the American people as reported on January 17, 2014 [17], that they must give up their civil liberties to secure the existence of the state – that is precisely fascism. Obama said the American NSA and military power worldwide was more important than individual civil rights. Whenever people must surrender rights to support the state that falls in the category of fascism.
One common definition of fascism focuses on three basic concepts: anti-liberalism, anti-communism and anti-conservatism. Its basic tenet is a nationalist authoritarian state with goals of creating a regulated economic structure to transform social relations within a modern, self-determined culture. This is precisely what we have devolved into. We now have a form of political behavior that is marked by obsessive preoccupation with the state’s political power arguing the community is at risk because of terrorism so everyone must now prove who they are to travel right down to taking your shoes off and be exposed to accumulative dangerous radiation all because we are victims of unreasonable fanatic hatred groups and cults. But these hate-groups hate the political image of America created by the arrogance of officialdom.
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Our dominance by this new authoritarian-fascist state is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that some believe only came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. This concept of European fascism was influenced by national syndicalism that they only attribute to originating in Italy in the immediate aftermath of World War I. This combined more typically right-wing positions with elements of left-wing politics, in opposition to liberalism, Marxism, and traditional conservatism. Although fascism is usually placed on the far right on the traditional left–right spectrum, it is hard to really place it left or right because if your move to the extreme left or right you reach political agreement with minor differences.
The goals of the fascists were not much different from those infecting our society today. The primary goal was to manage the economy and to direct it according to the benefit of the state. This is why savers are being punished today for the benefit of debtors, which includes the state. Keep interest rates suppressed and the state reduces its costs. That is the primary goal intermixed with pumping up the economy so that tax revenues rise. The fascists of Italy sought to unify their nation through an authoritarian state that promoted the mass mobilization of the national community and were characterized by having leadership that initiated a revolutionary political movement aiming to reorganize the nation along principles according to fascist ideology. Fascist movements shared certain common features, including the veneration of the state, a devotion to a strong leader, and an emphasis on ultranationalism and militarism. We are seeing the dominance of the NSA and the militarization of the police that was supposed to be civil. These are all traits that are highly dangerous historically and reflect the arrogance of officialdom.
Fascism typically involves expansion of the state power on every level, which includes war and imperialism that serves as a means to achieve national rejuvenation and veneration. Right now in Ukraine, the people are told the state is at war and that comes first and they will have to wait for political reform. Fascism truly asserts that stronger nations have the right to expand their territory by displacing weaker nations. We are seeing this as a trait in both the USA and the EU not to forget Russia.
Consequently, fascist ideology consistently invokes the primacy of the state. We see this both with Obama’s defense of the NSA and economically with the central banks attempting to “manage” the economy according to the theories of Marx and Keynes that the state possesses the right and capacity to manipulate the economy. They have been unable to prove that ability even once for they are far too corrupt to even manage anything in an unbiased manner.
Unfortunately, governments routinely punish savers to support debtors all for the benefit of the state – not society and certainly not the savers. There are economists who disparage the spread between the rich and the poor without explanation. The “rich” are not getting “richer” from salaries – they make that money through investment. If you do not invest – you obviously cannot make more than a salary.
