Blog Room
POSTED MARCH 15 2009
DEBT SOUFFLE FALLEN
Here's how the soufflé (more than a bubble) rose until it blew:
First, there was permission to banks to lend 10 times the banks' hard asset base, thus "creating" 10 times the money - - out of thin air. This is called "fiat" money. It's Gov't script. As one analyst on TV said, it's "PFA" money, "plucked from air." This is recognized in the business, it's not something just now being revealed.
OK. That's been a (mostly) workable system for a long time. However, the temptation is allow 20, 30 or 50 times the asset base, and keep the "good times" rolling. And who's to say what the asset base is? Securitized mortgages not worth a damn were included as assets for banks.
"Over-leveraging of assets" caused today's problem (overdoing the so-called "fractional" lending, where the base is only a "fraction" of the amount of "money" issued.
The soufflé blew out by too much air for the small amount of cheese.
Even at a multiple of only 10, the "air money" requires faith and confidence. When a normal debt soufflé is started again, and permitted to rise in a workable manner, we can again have something good to eat.
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"PRICE" AND "VALUE"
Don't worry about your house price (if you have a sensible mortgage arrangement or if you are paid off). Prices can fluctuate, but your house as a hard asset (not "air money" that can just vanish into the air from which it came) doesn't change. Don't hollow it out with borrowing. Any hard asset will move upward in the inevitable inflation that's ahead as we "water" the dollar by over-issuance (like "watering" a common stock by over-issuance - - the price per share logically drops).
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JOBS - - JOBS - - JOBS!
We refuse to see it, but we are borrowing against the public weal some $600 to $800 billion a year to throw away in unbalanced trade without any requirement that it return for our goods and services.
This money subsidizes foreign manufacturing and jobs, (and service businesses and jobs) and erodes ours, yet we charge the borrowing to ourselves.
Why we pay for our own destruction, I don't know.
Why we simply can't see what we're doing, is beyond me.
We ought to protect ourselves. Protectionism perverts the word, protection. If a man is cutting out your gizzard, would you say, "Here, let me help you?" That's what we're doing.
Maybe the raising of tariffs, etc. - - protectionism - - isn't smart (although all other countries have these, and GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, is said to make a stack 8 feet high). I'm not talking about a Smoot-Hawley type law that chopped off most trade, only BALANCING trade - - the intrinsic meaning of "trade."
We borrow, give the foreign suppliers huge surpluses free of any reciprocal agreements, then borrow from their surplus money a second time, and even a third and fourth time. The "foreigners who support us" are doing so with OUR OWN MONEY THROWN AWAY.
Just stop the borrowing - - however, in a way that doesn't result in super-shock to the world's system which has been living off of our throw-away money for a couple of decades, and in a way that doesn't super-shock our exports. A five-year program of 20 percent reduction per year.
What ever happened to trade pacts - - you buy "X" amount from us, we buy roughly the the same from you, in varied goods and services.
NO OTHER COUNTRY TORRENTIALLY BLEEDS. No other country lets other nations live off of it. We complain of a few billion in foreign aid yet are blind to the bleeding of THREE TIMES the foreign aid expenditures EACH AND EVERY MONTH.
We call those who are bleeding us, "partners." A "partner" implies some kind of equality. "Trade" also implies some kind of equality.
"Free trade" means few barriers, but lack of reciprocity has made our present policy the most "Expensive trade" in world history - - bleeding us to financial, industrial, middle class and workingclass death.
Balanced trade (or roughly so) is where everybody profits.
(This is my 17th year of talking about this, beginning with my "Outraged Citizen" newsletter and radio appearances. It's in my 2001 Thinking Citizen book. Newspapers and magazines will not print my letters to the editors or op-eds or articles about it.)
We're hiding this expense. It is not shown even in the huge budget estimates. To those estimates should be added $600 to $800 billion a year in off-the-budget hidden borrowing to sustain the horrendous trade deficit.
Our number one export is money - - way over a dozen times our exports of goods and services. Check it out.
Want JOBS - - JOBS - - JOBS? Stop borrowing to sustain foreign suppliers. Make 'em stand on their own feet without our ridiculous subsidy. Make more of our own stuff again, AND STILL BUY PLENTY OF STUFF FROM FOREIGNERS. It's called balance.
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AGAIN, AMERICA THE PRODIGAL
We were given everything. We have squandered it.
And now, we might have to eat some husks as did the biblical Prodigal.
Then in agony and profound reawakening to our spiritual basis and reason for being, we will return to the divine. There we will find spiritual resupply and an infinite source and substance in all aspects of existence including identity.
Then again we will be able to be the beacon for the world.
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THE "OLD PLANTATION" SYSTEM
The idea that most of the Gov't stimulus should be in tax cuts for "business" because business creates the jobs we need, has SOME TRUTH IN MODERATION, but not as a fundamental. As a fundamental, it is the "old plantation" system of de Massa providing the "jobs."
Instead, we want to put the PRIMARY EMPHASIS ON INDIVIDUALS and their initiative, and on education and job training. Then the business-Massa has then got people who can pay for what he makes and sells. And individuals can form their own small businesses - - and maybe some big ones too.
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READ AGAIN MY "BIG BAD PYRAMID" - - HOME PAGE UNDER ARTICLES
The pyramidal form of government from the top down is NOT democracy, but the opposite. And yet, large factions in our government back that form of government and want it installed even more than it has already fastened itself on our nation.
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READ AGAIN MY "TYPES OF GOVERNMENT"
See on the home page under Articles, "Types of Government - - New, Old, and Multiple." False definitions are bashing around in the current upheaval. It would help to get definitions straight and concepts clear.
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GDP SHRINKAGE?
I've said (elsewhere below) that our $14 trillion GDP was hyper-inflated by hyper-debt at each level from consumer on up to the Gov't itself. As the air goes out of this structure, GDP should settle substantially lower to a more solid formation, and thus shrink. Well, we'll see what happens.
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"WATERING" THE BUCK
If a company has 100,000 shares outstanding selling for $100 a share, and they issue another 100,000 shares, that "waters" the stock, and it would sell for less, presumably for half, or $50.
That's what we're doing to the dollar. We've been doing it, but now it's Niagara.
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WHY DON'T STOCKHOLDERS SCREAM ABOUT CEO PAY?
The answer is simple. Huge mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds represent their interest. Once, personal shareholders attended "stockholder meetings" and raised hell about this and that, but they are less than a nano-fraction today, being "once-removed" from direct impact and any concept of control totally lost.
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"DISEASE COMMERCIALS"
Folks, they ain't selling you the pills but the disease.
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POSTED OCTOBER 08
HOW WILL THE "RESCUE" BUREAUCRACY WORK?
It will have to have expert staff of thousands to study, take over, handle, sort out, etc., etc., a million or more "bad loans."
It will need office space as big as half the Pentagon.
A super-bureaucracy will be created to tidy up the demolished system of supposed "less government."
Who will maintain the abandoned buildings - - already in the many tens of thousands, board them up, protect them from vandals and scavengers for appliances, even hot water heaters, even toilets, keep out vagrants. And mow the grass.
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NO PROFIT POSSIBLE DESPITE SOOTHING WORDS
Profit after counting administration, security, maintenance, insurance if obtainable, and the basic costs of buying bad debt (which is apparently in packages each with thousands of mortgages) and selling these or pieces of them, is dreamland, although PR people will isolate an occasional profit to ballyhoo.
And the general lowering of prices everywhere until the foreclosed/abandoned/taken over properties are sold off will not be counted on the loss side.
Options or warrants on the Chrysler bailout 'way back, made the Gov't a profit as the stock recovered. Let's hope we effectively do that now with rescued business firms.
Where responsible banks are at least making an effort to keep up properties and keep homeowners in the properties, the "Rescue" should reinforce that effort. However, apparently it will relieve them of responsibility, and with that, further destroy or set back neighborhoods.
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IN THE HOOVER ADMINISTRATION'S "HANDS OFF" POLICY, THE FED DIDN'T ACT IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF YEARS OF THE DEPRESSION
Today, the policy is the total opposite.
And without regulation or oversight, the system was allowed to run wild. When it started crashing, the Fed and the Gov't stepped in to stop the fall and bail out as much of the OLD SYSTEM as possible.
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HOW OUR "DEBT CULTURE" GOT HERE
Up through WWII, debt was always based on solid things - - on solid assets. On a solid foundation.
And money was thus money - - based in collateral and even silver and gold.
Borrowing was for building roads or sewer plants - - the bonds paid off while the assets continued viable.
Today, the major "collateral" is "faith" - - the "full faith and credit" of the American people.
And no "hard stuff" is behind our paper money (once you could turn it in for metal). And our coins are zinc not silver.
And the stuff for which we borrow quickly wears out, or even - - as with hundreds of billions in oil - - is burned up right away.
But the debt continues - - and is NEVER paid, just "rolled over" and into an ever-mounting pile. And we couldn't repay it if we wanted to.
DIDN'T KILL US
As Gov't debt mounted, we found it "didn't kill us," and made life easier. Then Baker said, "debt doesn't matter." We heard, "we only owe it to ourselves." Under Baker and Reagan, the Administration piled up an unheard-of $3 trillion in debt.
And it still didn't kill us.
In fact, we loved it. It was a new realm - - money flowing.
Life as it ought to be.
THE NEW CULTURE OF DEBT
But we had shifted off of a solid foundation of hard assets into the no-foundation era. More than a mere "bubble," this is a detached "balloon culture" never seen before.
The new "debt culture" never seen before, expanded and expanded.
Based on nothing, amassing nothing in return for its borrowing and borrowing, wildly popular, unregulated, and over-expanding like crazy, it had to eventually collapse.
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WILL THE BAILOUT JUST RESTORE AT LEAST PART OF THE DEBT CULTURE AND WILD LENDING PRACTICES THAT GOT US INTO THIS MESS?
Yep. ABC Sept. 30 Nightline decried the problems of million-dollar speculators who got caught in the downturn in values and the retreat of lenders. Not one word about ordinary people in regular working-class $250,000 family homes.
A TV piece on the first of October decried the poor auto dealers who could no longer line up financing - - at least, not at their level. That is, cars - - just like houses - - had been sold for years on no-money-down and we will give you as much as $5,000 to buy this auto.
That's the same pattern as the housing industry, where in Central Florida, ads featured homes for $450,000, no money down, and one would get $30,000 at closing - - free closing costs plus a $25,000 furniture certificate.
Loans were made for much more than the value of the house, and the customer was paid up to $30,000 for "buying."
C'mon now. And no one blew the whistle?
People couldn't pay. But house lenders didn't suffer, because they made a commission, then packed the impossible loans into packages which were sold as "securities."
It's these "securities" that have collapsed, in complex packages of thousands of loans in each package.
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OUR DEBT-ECONOMY CULTURE - - NO ONE ELSE HAS IT
This isn't primarily a credit crisis, it's first a debt collapse, which has caused credit to retreat from the abyss. That's all it is.
We need to change to a strange old thing, "living within our means," and abandon the hallucinatory "debt culture."
The "Rescue" package - - necessary as it was - - propped up the debt culture and put us farther into the debt hole, and into maintaining the hallucination that this is prosperity.
The Euro and Swiss franc are real money.
All US money is "debt money."
The floods of throwaway trade-deficit dollars outside our borders are being turned in for our corporations (see www. economyincrisis. org for a real shocker).
The worthless dollar's continued slide will accelerate when "a basket of currencies" instead of the dollar alone, is established as the standard for international settlements for oil, among other things.
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OUR DEBT-ECONOMY AND DEBT-CULTURE ARE ONA FALSE PREMISE.
It was a "great ride" - - at least it seemed to be - - while it lasted.
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HAIR OF THE DOG
We're tryin' to cure the hangover with more booze.
We have to "go back to the old drawing board." In the famous Peter Arno cartoon, the men headed "back to the old drawing board" - - but only after the plane, shown in the background, had crashed.
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SUDDEN, UNEXPECTED, PRECIPITOUS - - AIMED
FOR A SUPER-DEPRESSION
I've warned since my "Outraged Citizen" newsletters of 1992, that it couldn't last. But even I didn't see the suddenness or precipitousness.
How could the suddenness and precipitousness have crept up on us, and we not have known, not have been warned?
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ACCOUNTING CHANGE A GOOD OR BAD IDEA?
They want to enable banks to value bad assets higher than their actual value, in order to make the asset base more respectable to the eye, and thus keep the banks from failing in the traditional view of regulators.
One argument is that the depressed valuations are fictitious - - based on maybe just one bad asset dumped.
Let's hope so.
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ASKING THE WEALTHY TO COMMENT AS EXPERTS?
The man has $50 billion in the stock market. He is asked for expert opinion on bailouts. What in hell do we expect him to say? He will say, BAIL ME OUT, yes, please, and be quick about it! And he will say it is bailing YOU out. And we will think the wise guru has spoken for the benefit of all.
We're asking experts who are loaded with conflicts of interest to give us unbiased advice.
The original idea of gurus was that they sat cross-legged on mountaintops, had no vested interests, no conflicts of interest, only pure advice.
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WILL CONSTRUCTIVE REGULATION NOW APPEAR?
I doubt it.
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ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX REMOVAL
The AMT was installed to make sure that the rich didn't take enough deductions and loopholes to avoid taxation entirely (which many were doing).
So the AMT required at least SOME tax be paid. Fair enough.
But somehow, the middle class was getting some AMT charges under the way the law was written.
So instead of adjusting the law and retaining the tax on the rich, they have removed all the tax, greatly benefiting the rich.
So what else is new?
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A TAX-FREE SOCIETY?
It won't work, folks. But that's the direction we've been going in for years. The wealthy pay almost nothing. One stated goal is to have no taxes on "investment income." Too, many giant corporations pay absolutely nothing in Federal taxes (look it up). The shortfalls resulting from these "breaks" are covered by what else? - - borrowing against the public weal, of course.
Borrowing is charged to the mass, to benefit the class. That's unconscionable.
Tax relief should be for the person earning $7.50 an hour working at 7-11, which income won't rent even an apartment, much less provide even half the support for a family.
The nation not only doesn't live within its means, but lives extravagantly beyond its means and feels entitled to do so.
We're living on debt. No other nation has ever done this, and survived.
But we've finally wrecked the debt ship in a dry creek.
Now what?
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A TRILLION HERE AND A TRILLION THERE
Sen. Everett Dirksen made the famous remark, "A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon we're talkin' about some real money." Now it's "a trillion here and a trillion there…."
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INFLATION INEVITABLE
We love debt. We haven't had a nickel of real money in this country in 20 years - - it's all "debt-money."
Expect inflation. It alone will "pay" the debt.
Hang onto your hard assets.
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"THROWING MONEY" AT PROBLEMS
We once heard bitter criticism of Democrats for thinking that problems could be solved by "throwing money at them."
Wow. Now the whole world has to be bailed out by - - throwing money in unbelievable quantities at problems of unbelievable size resulting from Republican policies or lack thereof.
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I'M TIRED OF "SPIN"
We've gotta think straight and talk straight.
But what leader is going to tell us what we have to hear? He or she would be slaughtered by press, party and public.
So down the debt road we go, and having nothing to show for all our borrowing.
MESSING WITH THE AMERICAN MIND
The American mind theoretically controls the nation through the vote.
So part of the path to elections is control of the American mind.
Psychologists and psychology, lab tests and group testing are all being utilized in inventing slogans, presentations, clever arguments, specious arguments, "cause" dedications, a sense of belonging, righteousness, the wickedness of the opposition, and so on.
The aim is to embed these sorts of things into the psyches of listeners and viewers, as "mind implants" to exercise control, change thinking, and even partially robotize people - - at least through the next election and hopefully for permanent affiliation until that structure changes, which it always does in time, or the great leader goes to jail for corruption or loses credence due to a morals charge.
We're being worked on. We're being messed with.
We have to realize this if we're to keep control based on our own feelings, not the false stimulations and presentations, twistings and general conning.
Reasoned changes and affiliations are another thing. But we're talking here about imposed, skillfully contrived "thought sets" made to arouse your response and fit into your mind.
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"TAX AND SPEND" WAS THE OLD SYSTEM - - BUT "SPEND BUT DON'T TAX IS THE NEW
Dems were criticized for taxing and spending.
But Repubs have been spending worse than any in the past - - but not taxing.
By the way, what ever happened to fiscal conservatism? The tag still somehow applies to Republicans, while instead they have been the wildest spenders in all history. I'm a little puzzled.
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MISLEADING MANTRAS
"Debt doesn't matter."
"Government is the problem."
"Deregulation" - - in extremis.
"Get the Government off our backs."
"Small Government" - - (so we can fill the vacuum).
"Trickle-down" - - get it to us first.
"Greed is good."
"Let the free market govern" - - unregulated, so its
pyramidal or corporate form of Government can
amalgamate, monopolize, take over, control.
"Stop redistributing money to the bottom" - - and instead
use the Gov't and tax policy to redistribute it to the
TOP, where today it is more concentrated than ever
in history.
Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts - -
(But these are revenue cuts, not cuts from
surplus, and they make the borrowing and
debt amounts more stark than ever.
We have a whole system of not living within
our means - - floating above reality on
DEBT-MONEY.
We aren't a bubble on a solid system, but a
DETACHED BALLOON SYSTEM.)
"End reasonable inheritance taxation and thus lock in the
European class system and create an American
inheritance aristocracy."
(The US permits brilliant businesspeople,
inventors, artists and so on to prosper, but not
to control. It provides the blood-won nation,
the transportation, communications, power,
pipeline and other infrastructures, law
systems, copyright and patent systems, the
military, financial systems, and so on that
constitute a full partnership or more in any
success.
Fair rates of inheritance taxation share that
success with the people who "brung you to the dance."
A large body of rich and super-rich including
Bill Gates agree, saying this helps keep the
upper floors open for the next generations.
The first $5 million should be tax free, the
next $45 million 25%, the rest 33%.
Plenty of money will still pass to heirs.)
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THE FRANCHISE TO SUCCEED
The people give private interests the franchise to succeed.
Go to it - - invent, invest, build.
Make as much money as you can.
But you're not franchised to control commerce, or the people, or the US Government.
And in the end, you must share with the people the value of the entity they helped you build - - share beyond ordinary taxes paid in the process.
But you'll still have plenty left over - - and your children and grandchildren and their children will have all the nice bright franchise for themselves to "go at it."
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"SAVINGS" IN THE OVERALL AMERICAN POPULATION PRACTICALLY DON'T EXIST, WHILE EUROPE IS AROUND 10%.
"Savings" is considered to be whatever room there is to borrow on credit cards. Ten thousand in borrowing capacity? - - well then, who needs traditional type "savings."
Well, traditional money has a positive value, while debt-money is a negative value.
Our whole unique-in-history debt-culture is based on negative value.
Hard assets are gaining again, worldwide - - as the astute (who are not convinced by the illusions of the debt-culture) sniff the winds, and realize all can be blown away except hard assets.
Pay off that house, or pay it way down. And don't borrow on it. That's a very solid form of real savings - - real money.
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DON'T LOOK FOR THE PRESS TO INVESTIGATE AND KEEP YOU INFORMED. THE PRESS IS ALL (EXCEPT A FEW) OWNED BY GIANT MEDIA AND OTHER CONGLOMERATES AND THEIR "MINDSET."
The outside-corporation owners don't tell the editors what to investigate and what to print, but there's a corporate mindset. People thinking that way are hired. As Gary Trudeau points out, there are no stories about the bottom any more, whereas the old "city beat" type reporting covered the less fortunate. Of course, there are a few "token" stories.
As for TV, network anchors who are often also the editors are paid many millions annually. So whose side are they on? Local anchors get well into six figures.
World news bureaus are being closed. National investigative reporting is being curtailed. Journalists criticize themselves for not being like they were 30 years ago - - hungry to dig in below the surface, keep local, state and national figures on their toes.
Media amalgamation is dangerous. Independence is wonderful. I don't have to agree with what the independents say - - I just wish all newspapers and all TV stations and networks were independent again, all digging in, all spouting off.
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WELL, IT'S YOUR COUNTRY, FOLKS. OR IS IT?
THAT'S THE QUESTION.
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IT AIN'T "EITHER / OR" - - IT'S ONE COMMUNITY
The American Spectrum is some on the far right, some on the far left, many moderates on the right, many moderates on the left, and some centrists. It's a balance, sometimes tilted one way, sometimes the other way.
It's not "either / or."
It's not "one party eliminating the other party" in order to stand alone, it's the parties working with each other.
Ike had the party leaders in for breakfast once a week, and they all went over the programs each had. An Eisenhower Dem was about the same as an Eisenhower Repub.
The Repub ferocity to cut off the left as vile began with Carl Rove, it appears. But that ain't America. And it certainly ain't religion, which is "do unto others."
Bush said he was a "uniter not a divider," but once in office, that election facade was dropped, and he and the people with him became the most divisive between political parties in the history of the country. It won't work. We're one community, with a lot of oddballs and differences of opinion in all directions.
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IN TODAY'S "RESCUE," PROFITS ARE PRESERVED FOR MUCH OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR, LOSSES ARE LOADED ONTO THE PUBLIC.
Hmm.
One analyst said "Profits are privatized, losses are socialized."
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I HAVE TO SMILE - - THE LOOSEY-GOOSEY UNFETTERED TYPE OF FREE ENTERPRISE WHICH BRAGGED SO MUCH FOR THREE DECADES NOW BEGS TO BE BAILED OUT BY THE GOVERNMENT CONTROLS IT ONCE HATED
I'm all for free enterprise. Who isn't. But if it's American free enterprise, it has to fit into America.
Like the "pyramid," it has to be democratized. The pyramid can't just run totally free, because it amalgamates, monopolizes, and controls from the top. It foreshadows the biblical "666," the ultimate form.
Capitalism also has to be democratized, or it amalgamates and controls, amounting to its own government of the nation and all lives.
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THE MAJOR STRUGGLE IN THE NATION TODAY
The major struggle at the governing level is between the pyramidal rule-from-the-top (corporate type) of government, and democracy (or in our case, our democracy-based republic).
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DEMOCRACY IS SOMETIMES FALSELY CALLED SOCIALISM
Wait! Whoa! Taking care of all of society in an America which is ONE COMMUNITY, ONE FAMILY - - and not today's top tenth of one percent to the exclusion of the bottom - - has been falsely called "socialism."
Instead, it's democracy in action.
Socialism is Gov't ownership.
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THE PYRAMID OR RULE-FROM-THE-TOP CORPORATE TYPE OF GOVERNMENT IS ANTI-DEMOCRACY
And the press doesn't warn us because - - well, the press is almost all owned by giant media conglomerates.
The "corporate mindset" doesn't tell its editors what to feature and what not to report or investigate, but the "mindset" automatically points out what to include and what not to.
Just for one example, the major TV networks should be restored to independent ownership. All are owned by outside corporations, yet are our main source of news, and our main hope for investigations of the controlling factors and people anywhere.
Those wanting a pyramidal government and a pyramidal economic system (practically a definition of the class system), can go to another nation, where they will find already deeply-entrenched class systems blocking them out, or where they can face military juntas, or other dictatorships, and have no protections in law, and be subject to "ze revolution."
All rule-from-the-top is one or another form of dictatorship - - some quasi or "lite," some sneaky, some in medium forms, some in outright dictatorships and fascist regimes of which there are plenty in the world.
America wants people to succeed, but not to control the nation.
If we want to spread democracy, we've gotta beef up our own, and deny anti-democratic forces and influences (which, sadly, are built into many or most human psyches).
See the Home Page and Article on "Big, Bad Pyramid" for more on this insidious mechanism.
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ALL OPERATIONS OF ANY TYPE IN AMERICA
SHOULD FIT INTO OUR DEMOCRACY-BASED
REPUBLIC CONCEPT
And not represent alternative basic concepts.
The major alternative basic concept doing the most struggling for control of the nation today is the pyramidal rule-from-the-top (corporate type) of government.
We may not want to face it, but that concept is anti-democracy. It is anti our democracy-based republic.
The sooner we wake up to this, the sooner the people will take back control of the country, and put off and fend off the encroachments of the other basic system.
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THE "SOLUTION" THAT'S BEING OFFERED IN THE "RESCUE" SAYS WE DON'T HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, THE GOVERNMENT WILL DO IT - - AND NOW WE CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP
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WE HAVE TO "HELP" FOREIGN BANKS? FOREIGN BANKS ARE LOADED WITH SEVERAL TRILLION OF OUR THROWAWAY "TRADE" IMBALANCE DOLLARS
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HOW MUCH COST FOR EACH CITIZEN?
A trillion dollars divided by a hundred million equals $10,000 give-or-take - - and that's an idea of what's been added to each taxpayer's share of the national debt. (The total bailouts effected and committed up to early October '08 are about $1.3 trillion, and the total taxpayers in the US are around 130 million, so the ten grand figure still stands.)
But wait! We now have $11 trillion in national debt - - and that means $110,000 for each taxpayer.
Hidden trade defict borrowing is trillions more.
And interest on the $11 trillion adds five or six thousand a year.
But wait again! Fully half of the taxpayers couldn't even be looked at for any repayment. They can't even pay off their credit card debt.
So you, Bubba and Lucy Mae, two workers, two taxpayers, are really shouldering $220,000 each (or $440,000 for your household), with the annual interest alone added in the $20,000 to $24,000 range.
Meanwhile, the debt including the hidden borrowing for the trade deficit is growing more than one trillion a year.
The press often says, "THE TAXPAYER WILL HAVE TO PAY" this and that amount. No way. It's charged to the taxpayers of the United States, but the fact is, the taxpayer never pays on these debts - - never pays even the interest.
The debts are just "rolled over" into bigger and bigger sums.
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THE DEBT WILL NEVER BE PAID - - EXCEPT BY INFLATION
It will be reduced by the erosion of inflation. I've been saying that for 15 years - - but I'm still waiting. (Inflation is staved off by the ever-mounting "trade" deficits which borrow to buy cheap foreign goods and services, which have the additional negative side effect of killing our industries.)
And very possibly (considering the immense and unmanageable size of the debts), inflation will result in eventual replacement by a new currency, AS IN MANY COUNTRIES IN HISTORY when the old system "BUSTS."
(I was in Brazil when I had to turn in 100 of my "old" Brazilian money for ONE of the "new." And the nation got a "huge" bailout from the World Bank and others - - a sum, though, less than the AIG bailout alone.)
Who bails out the US?
Where was the press in all this? Friends, the press in general is owned by the TOP, and governed not specifically but generally by that mindset. (As one news organization said, it was not as concerned with what was reported as much as with what was NOT reported, not investigated.)
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RUINOUS TRADE IMBALANCES
No other nation in the world maintains a constant large trade imbalance - - because that bleeds ordinary nations to death over time.
ONLY THE US maintains a chronic (and immense) trade imbalance, AND IT IS NOW AT A RUINOUS RATE of some $700 billion a year.
Our foreign "friends" don't tell us because they are all lining their pockets. Dollars piled up outside our borders are colossal. Foreign central banks are loaded with dollars. "Sovereign Wealth Funds" have appeared.
"TRADE" IMPLIES A BALANCE
The very word, "trade," implies a balance, never a draining of the "trading partner."
Hey! I've been hollering about all this since my first "Outraged Citizen" newsletters in 1992 when the figures were but a fraction of what they are today but growing alarmingly even then.
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IT'S TIME TO "SEEK" SPIRITUAL ASSETS
Both the citizens and the nation are deeply "upside-down" regarding financial assets v. liabilities - - "under water," and "hollowed out by debt." They have no physical way to repay, and are able to stay barely afloat only by perpetuating the debt system.
Isn't it time to "seek ye first" the "Kingdom" - - and spiritual assets and their realization in the flesh.
We may be in the middle of the wake-up call that puts America back on its ordained track.
We've worked "all night" and come up with no fish, and in fact are in a reverse condition, working in a reverse system.
Isn't it time we cast our net on the spiritual side? We'll find "all…things" are there, and "added unto" us.
AMERICA THE PRODIGAL
We had it all. We wasted it all in "riotous living."
But don't wait for human governments to do what has to be done. Individuals can turn and make their proof of the ever-supply of God.
And enough individuals can then spiritualize our democracy-based republic, fend off rule-from-the-top pyramid 666 "lite" or heavy controls and systems, and bring the nation in line with its ordained role.
(In no way do I think there'll be a state religion - - just more citizens oriented on God. And I smile as I say that's sure to present plenty of diversity!)
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A MERE CITIZEN CANNOT POSSIBLY KNOW
ANYTHING, RIGHT?
We want instead to consult the experts who have created the mess, and whose spokespeople soothe us with, "Everything's OK." But it ain't OK.
And if it weren't for independent citizen opinion, this country would never have been founded.
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BACK IN THE 1970's, A MAN SAID THE
GOVERNMENT WOULD EVENTUALLY BE THE
PROPPER-UP OF EVERYTHING - - THE LENDER AND
SUPPORTER "OF LAST RESORT" - - UNTIL FINALLY
IT TOO COLLAPSED
The Gov't edged into the job by backing deposits, then the aged, then the infirm, then corporate pensions, now insurance companies, investment banks, retail banks, Wall Street, the stock market, Main Street, all bad mortgages, and - - now the entire US financial system….
But wait! That ain't all! In a mid-September week in 2008, it was announced that the US was joining with other world banks in PUMPING $250 BILLION into the WORLD FINANCIAL SYSTEM….
I hope you are getting the picture.
One of the early Communist leaders said the US would "spend itself to destruction." That prophecy was uttered long ago. Holy mackerel - - is it now coming to pass?
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WHO BAILS OUT THE US?
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IN THE MIDST OF THE COLLAPSE, THE US GOV'T HAD A TRIPLE-A CREDIT RATING, ACCORDING TO A REPUTABLE WALL STREET ANALYST ON NATIONAL TV
So we can borrow to cover the immense costs of propping up Wall Street, Main Street, and the whole doggone world economy.
But who's kidding whom with that credit rating?
We HAVE NO COLLATERAL. Except the "full faith and credit of the people of the United States of America." And they don't even know they're responsible for it, and when reminded, REFUSE TO PAY, and COULDN'T PAY IF THEY WANTED TO PAY.
If a collector came calling, they would "REPUDIATE" this debt!
What kind of a loan is that?
Try making a loan without collateral, without the willingness to repay, and without the ability to repay!
Yet our AAA-rated US Gov't has made some $11 trillion of these loans, and more that it hides in huge borrowings to fund the annual staggering trade deficits.
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THE US "CREDIT RATING" SHOULD BE ZERO
Think about it. Lenders may start thinking about it, and interest rates on our unbelievable borrowing may climb to 12% - - or 20% - - or the DOOR MAY CLOSE.
At present, foreigners are only LENDING BACK TO US the borrowed money we threw away, and continue to throw away, in "trade" imbalances. They've got so much of this "money" they don't know what to do with it except buy our corporations (see www. economyincrisis. com for a shock to add to the shock of the collapse).
(Please note, "trade" implies a balance. We don't "trade." We just lose our ass.)
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IS A COLLAPSE OF THE US GOVERNMENT'S HOUSE OF DEBT FAR BEHIND THE COLLAPSE OF THE WALL STREET HOUSE OF DEBT?
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WHO WAS MINDING THE STORE?
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THE FEDERAL RESERVE STOOD, WATCHED, AND
IGNORED THE DISASTER BUILDING UP
But we have to remember that the Fed is a private bank - - or group of private banks. They favor lending and borrowing - - this is the business of banks, and collecting INTEREST is the way banks make their money.
So the horrendous wild borrowing and lack of prudent credit practices looked "OK" to them!
Now the Fed bails out the system - - but not with private bank money, but with YOUR money! Think about it.
And you ain't got any money anyhow, Pal. You're down 11 trillion in acknowledged debt, trillions more in trade deficit borrowing kept hidden somewhere.
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GODLINESS OF THE MONEY CLASS?
How did religion get mixed up with the politics of money and the right? Perhaps it stemmed from some early settlers' concepts of business, thrift and etc. as closest to God. And there's some merit in all that, but not to the exclusion of others in the more developed concepts of what America is supposed to be all about.
The last I looked, God includes everybody - - and the US is "under God."
Wrongs will be corrected, but by advanced views of God, not by excluding and ignoring half the population, and not by having religion (or a package of religious concepts), or business, or a single party, or a single group, take over America. All elements are there, and all have a place, but in the overall America.
JESUS MINISTERED TO THE BOTTOM
Those weaving religion with governmental power are usually pyramidal. And in this, they often forget that Jesus ministered to the BOTTOM. He came to lift not depress, include not exclude. He wanted to bestow a spiritual equality, where those seeking first the Kingdom of God found "all …things" added unto each. And in that process, he rebuked or cared little for the top and the rich.
So both the pyramid and the more spiritualized governmental form called democracy have religious advocates - - but they are essentially opposites.
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WHAT WE'RE SEEING IS THE MOVEMENT OF THE
FAR RIGHT AND MONEY BACK FROM ITS MAJOR
RUN AT BEING IN THE CONTROLLING POSITION IN
THE US, TO ITS PROPER PLACE AS BUT ONE PART OF
THE OVERALL AMERICAN SPECTRUM
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WE HAVE TO THINK, OR LOSE OUR DEMOCRACY
I know that with both spouses working, there's no time to think. I know that with so many diversions, there's no will to think.
But we have to think, and think accurately, and not be misled by phony fronts so easy to put up in this TV age.
Or else we will CONTINUE TO LOSE our democracy-based Republic.
It's that simple.
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AMERICA IS ORDAINED
Myself, I believe America is ordained, and under special protection.
But I think we're way off the track.
Maybe the near-disastrous secular scene will be a wake-up call - - will reawaken the nation to its high "calling."
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LET'S TALK RUSSIA, OIL
AND GAS, GEORGIA
AND THE MIDDLE EAST
THEY'RE ALL TIED TOGETHER
Bible prophecy is more than clear that Russia will come down into the Mideast and "take a spoil."
That's a no-brainer. And here's why:
Russia - - financially broke a few years back, and no longer a world super-power - - is now loaded with money from the great rise in oil and gas prices, and Europe's dependence on Russian gas particularly.
Russia now realizes the road back to super-power status is an oil and gas road.
It is taking over its own oil companies.
It has vast oil and gas deposits, but the oil is getting harder to extract from the Siberian melting tundra country and from fields badly messed up over the past 100 years.
Recently, it has claimed what it believes are great oil deposits in the melting Arctic. But beyond establishing its claims, it knows that extraction will be difficult.
However, Middle Eastern oil deposits - - so close - - not only eclipse all others in size, but are easy to extract.
And Middle Eastern oil essentially controls the world. If Russia had it, the Bear could not merely influence Europe as it does at present, but essentially control the world.
Thus, within easy reach for Russia is not merely old-fashioned super-power, but double-super-power.
What more could Russia ask for.
SO WILL RUSSIA INVADE?
Will Russia invade? No.
Why? Because that would destroy the absolutely essential oil infrastructure of pipelines, terminals, storage facilities, docks….
And worse, any nuclear action could contaminate - - and set back reconstruction for years, possibly decades.
Russia's new expansion wants the majority of influence, not military occupation per se. Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state - - now a theoretically independent state - - is totally under Russia's influence. Russia gets its oil and gas. Russia's Cosmodrome is located there.
(Is the Ukraine next to return under Russia's spell? Many say so. For reasons of having its own designs, Russia can't have NATO or the EU taking the Ukraine - - anyone can see that.
(Byelorussia - - between Poland and Moscow - - is certainly another target for the new Russian sphere of majority influence as seen in Kazakhstan.
CHECHNYA AND GEORGIA ARE
IN A DIFFERENT CATEGORY
But - - but - - but - - Chechnya is under military control, and Georgia must allow the Russian military. Why is the Caucasus different?
Because the Caucasus is the route to the Middle East.
Although Russia won't use military power to invade the Middle East, its ability to do so is its backing for any degree of influence it presently exerts (as in Iran), and is prophesied to exert in the entire region in the future.
Looking at the Caucasus Mountains, Chechnya is on the north side, Georgia on the south.
THE BIBLE SCENARIO?
Russia comes right down from the north, ostensibly to help preserve peace (in an already troubled region, where Russia can easily provoke whopping trouble overnight to create excuses to come in).
Then it sees the biblically-prophesied "unwalled villages" (the vulnerable area), and takes a "spoil."
You bet.
DO NATO AND THE EU BELONG IN RUSSIA'S
ZONES OF HEAVY INFLUENCE?
NATO and the EU - - intruding into Georgia - - are an affront to Russia. The US and EU want to protect the big pipeline west from the Caspian (and future such pipelines) which aim to help relieve Europe's dependence on Russian oil and gas.
O baby, O baby. This will be an ongoing struggle, and may lead even to an outright conflict between surrogates.
The US, EU and NATO are provoking Russia not only in Georgia but in the Ukraine. And we're stupid to do this, folks.
Our supply lines are long, long, long - - and dependent on airlifts of men and equipment vulnerable to Russia's Stinger-type shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles. Russia's supply lines are short, short, short.
The US, NATO and the EU cannot be athwart Russia's path to the Middle East in Georgia.
It's that simple.
OIL AND GAS IS RUSSIA'S KEY
TO NEW GREATNESS
IT HASN'T GOT MUCH ELSE
LET'S TAKE A LOOK
Its weapons are counterproductive. Its big nukes can't be used. Its little nukes are as dangerous to Russia itself as to its enemies or those it would destabilize. If rogues get the easily-transported so-called backpack nukes - - dam-busters, bridge-busters - - then anarchy can rule, and even Russia be threatened. (It's like the Stinger-quality antiaircraft missiles which Russia has but fears they'll get into the hands of rogues.)
Most of Russia is primitive. Only Western Russian areas - - Moscow and St. Petersburg for example, and Russia's industrial regions - - are developed.
Its population has never recovered from WWII. After that war, Russia should have given bonuses to encourage families to have many children. Population today is small, and declining (George Will says by 700,000 a year).
Its geopolitical sheer size and presence ain't what it once was, the empire gone.
China's emergence has awakened the area to its immense land mass which reaches far westward above Afghanistan.
SO IT'S OIL AND GAS
If you want to know where Russia is "coming from" - - and where it's going to - - it's oil and gas.
Russia figures that if you "have them by the oil, their minds will follow" - - to paraphrase a popular saying.
And where's more of the oil? In the Mideast - - so temptingly near.
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POSTED JANUARY - JUNE 08
WE SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED
A tax cut for the rich from surplus is one thing, but today's ongoing tax cuts for the rich add to the budget deficit. They are borrowings loaded onto the national debt of people working at 7-11 for $7.50 an hour before payroll deductions. Is this unconscionable, or is this unconscionable?
THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO PAY THOSE CREDIT CARD LOANS! They're earning 18, 20, 22% - - which beats mortgages at 6%, car loans at 7%, home equity loans at 5 to 8% . . . you get the picture! They're begging you to borrow! They're sending you more and more cards! And the paltry "minimum payment" won't liquidate that loan for 20 years, if then - - a perpetual loan at a usurious rate that small print lets them change at any time. So DON'T PAY, PLEASE!! (Thomas Geoghegan in The American Prospect, May 2008. www.prospect. org.)
THE AGE OF UN-REASON - - "Postmodernism"
Nothing makes sense? It's not supposed to make sense. We've moved into The Age of Un-Reason - - the age of things not making sense - - popularly called "Postmodernism." Yeah?Whut? Hunh?
(Please see Article title on Home Page, and click for more.)
WORLD'S LARGEST "ECONOMY" AT $14 TRILLION? BUT MOST IS FROM HYPER-STIMULATION
We're hyper-stimulated by the super-abundance of money from unlimited borrowing at all levels - - consumer goods, mortgages (at least they have something behind most of them), federal budget (a tiny percentage of assets behind the expenditures), and the hidden "trade deficit" which is two or three times the budget deficit, and has no assets behind the extravagant purchases. We borrow to cover all levels.
Without the hyper-stimulus, our economy would be about half what it is.
When the Fed floods the nation with money to stave off crashes, this is electronic money from thin air - - and it waters whatever money is out there.
We borrow against the full faith and credit of the American people - - who have no idea what's being charged to them (to their national credit card, so to speak), have no intention to repay, have no ability to repay. Historically, our type of mess is just eroded to nothing by hyper-inflation, and often accompanies a change in government.
HIT BY A COMET OR ASTEROID?
Friends, we don't have to be hit by one of these (as great craters, of which we're discovering more every decade now that satellites can look down upon the huge diameters, and spot parts of their rims despite water and deep forests) - - we can be destroyed if one only COMES CLOSE. Read Velikovsky - - that controversial fellow who admittedly may be one-third speculation, but has plenty of solid positions and in any event is great entertainment. The comets or big asteroids can come near - - comets even hang there for a while, even "lock onto" earth with mutual gravitational pulls. Oh baby, oh baby, the waters rise into a heap (hellsfire, our little old moon causes great tides, what can a larger gravitational pull do?). Then the rotation although perhaps slowed, rolls that heap over mountains and deserts and forests…. But worse, the PLATES SHIFT, SEAMS OPEN, VOLCANIC MAGMA COMES OUT on land, under seas. Smoke and ash and steam fill the air. The sun is black (that last one is from the Bible).
ONE-DIMENSIONAL "OPINIONATORS"
Popular with a segment of the public are a few personal-opinion broadcasters who strangely have no one on stage to rebut or present other sides - - are hence one-dimensional. If ya want to get a genuine view of some political position or some person, all reasonable development of civilization after the Torquemada-type eras has been opinions, plural.
But actually, the one-dimension opinionators demonize other opinions and those holding them! Well, that tells us something.
Variety, balance and free expression are American.
I'm amused when the one-dimensional opinionators cry media bias. Most media go out of their way to present many sides - - besides, that translates to greater sales. Why cut out a chunk of one's market?
One great broadcaster (not a one-dimensional one, but a solid on-the-right one) was inflamed one day because the terrible media just wouldn't adopt his positions as the only ones - - and throw out all the sorry other ones.
National Geographic has tried to explain Stonehenge. Well, my answer is that it was built so people could walk around and get all sides of the worship of the Moon and the human sacrificing going on inside. Yes! That's the true answer! I smile - - but you get my point.
And then there's the money. One of our one-dimensional opinionators had (according to a bio that was broadcast), two failed shows. Then (apparently after hitting upon the scheme that there were a lot of people out there who one-dimensional we're right, all others are wrong and should be demonized into the dust - - and who responded in a visceral way to inflammatory statements designed to hit hot buttons), he and his producers designed a "winning" show.
THERE AIN'T NO INFLATION, FOLKS
Believe your Government!! Pay no attention to the news and the prices you pay. How does the Government calculate inflation? Well, by "core" inflation - - which is a joke to keep government payouts which are tied to inflation, low.
MONEY IS TRIVIALIZED TODAY
The Government props up everything with electronic "money" from thin air. we can borrow endlessly, from householders on up through the Government. Tiny apartments in NYC sell for more than a million. It's hard to find a game show that doesn't offer a million dollar payout. Talk about bubbles! - - but this one might just keep going up into the Land of Hyper-Inflation.
WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS
But who tells us? Not the news, which mixes catastrophic 100,000 deaths with Hannah Alabama exposing too much of a glute last night, and starting a national uproar. To what are we to pay attention? Where do we go to get the background? Well, some TV gives some - - but even Jim Lehrer's show (for one example) has "only" 4 million viewers, out of well over 100 million working people in the US.
DO WE ONLY BELIEVE WHAT WE'RE TOLD?
We've got to think for ourselves, folks. The publicity people are manipulating opinions like crazy, even routinely planting opinions. This is often openly called "shaping opinions." They insert stories in the press, have dramatic "pegs," have expert or celebrity spokespeople, get a lot of thought stirred up, or if not much was there before, get thought formed and started in the direction they want. And yet, if we are to govern ourselves, we the people must know what we think, and it must be solidly based and aware, lest - - in effect - - the opinion masters govern us.
But won't our "newspeople" tell us straight in the evening news? Nope - - they don't do the deep research and scholarly work, but have a show to produce, and hungrily grab what's fed to them from apparently good sources that have done that work for them. (The investigative arms of the media do some excellent deep digging on occasion.) Largely, the "news" features surface information, light stuff if possible. TV openly says it avoids "think" pieces that might cause "eyeballs" to switch to another station - - eyeballs they have to hold because those numbers equate to what can be charged for commercials. From this fact comes the expression, "lowest common denominator" newscasting. Also "dumbing down" of the news. Also the great shift from Edward Murrow's type newscasting from the London Blitz - - superb but money-losing - - to the idea expressed in the great movie "Network," that the "news" must be "entertaining."
DOWNSIZING FOOD PACKAGES IS NEWS? - - SINCE WHEN??
In May 2008 Brian Williams reported on national TV nightly news the following incredible news item - - milk containers at Kroger still looked like one-gallon, but were 7/8th or so of a gallon! C'mon, now, friend, have you been in a grocery store in the past five years?
Bleach has tricked around with smaller packages for YEARS. We pay about twice what we once did, when bleach gallon-jugs were footballed at 99 cents. Today, it's a buck sixty or so for the greatly diminished size, which prints only the number of "milliliters" on its label, to defeat one comparing in standard ounces, for example.
Breyers ice cream? Once in two-quart standard size, then it 1.75 quart size but exactly the same APPEARANCE, while the price climbed. Hell, I know milk is rising in cost. But the 1.75 size hit $5.99, which I'm sure was killing them. So recently they came out with an even SMALLER size... and some promotional pricing ... (I love the stuff, buy only on the sales.)
Coffee tried the trick of the decade - - SAME SIZE CONTAINER but the POUND figure in tiny print was altered LOWER. AND THAT WAS AT LEAST THREE, MAYBE FIVE YEARS AGO. Sure, the "per unit" price on the store's sticker is good, but who remembers what the "per unit" was two years ago, whereas one remembers that one was supposed to be getting an actual full pound of contents.
And I'm sure there are many more examples.
ELECTION FLUKES (oddly overlooked by "analysts")
Yes, Nader contributed to Gore's defeat by snagging some 4% of the vote, but Buchanan on the Republican side was supposed to take 4 or 5 % there, but at the last minute GOT SICK, COULDN'T CAMPAIGN, and took practically nothing. So stop blaming Ralph. It was a sickness fluke that toppled Gore in the electoral college after Florida went by a hair and a court decision to Bush, although Gore won the national popular vote by some 500,000.
This year, it was the not-counting of Florida and Michigan, both of which she won, DERAILED Hillary, broke her stride and her game (which was big state victories). Her opponent smaller states that might all go Republican anyhow. And her defeat and the ashcanning of millions of democratic votes was all engineered by . . . the idiotic Democratic Party head people. Idiotic. Maybe criminal.
THIS YEAR'S ELECTIONS
Obama is an ORATOR. He can stir up a crowd. McCain is laid back. Crowds equal votes. So you figure it out.
However, if suddenly the WORLD TERRORISM SITUATION takes a more serious and widespread dimension - - and particularly if there is an attack on the US - - McCain will win.
If there is the first use of a small 3KT or 5KT nuke (backpack or "suitcase" type, also called dam-busters or bridge busters, of which there are many in the US and other arsenals) - - compared in size to the 18KT at Hiroshima - - McCain will win.
But the Dems will take Congress, both houses, and probably with the important number to override vetoes if McCain is president - - but he is close to center, works with the other party, so I would not expect "gridlock."
RACIAL CONTRASTED TO RACISM
We've got the words mixed up, folks. Let's go back to the census some 20 or more years ago. Forbidden, for "racism" reasons, was any classification of people as white, African-American, Asian and etc. But soon, it was seen that such classifying was "racial," not "racist." And it was restored.
We're scared to say that blacks are predominately going to vote for black office-seekers. If I were black, after centuries of oppression and struggle and now in the last few decades surfacing, I would. And blacks are voting some 80% for blacks. That ain't "racist" or the "race card" or any such talk, but is plainly and simply "racial." Incidentally, Utah went big for Romney, Republicans stirred up evangelicals to vote for evangelicals in 2004, Catholics . . . For Pete's sake, this is just common sense, the mention of which has been turned into a minefield.
"POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" DRIVES MUCH FREE SPEECH UNDERGROUND
Will views hidden by "political correctness" surface at the polls this year? No one knows, but there's a lot of underground thought out there. I once worked for a company that periodically called its top people together at a restaurant side room, fed them, then said, "This is a spill-guts session. Nothing said here will leave here, and nothing will be held against anyone." Underground thinking surfaced - - hesitantly, but it surfaced. Joe said Pete might not be an SOB, but he certainly was acting like one. Etc. At the end of a couple of hours, everyone was laughing and having a last beer before going home. I remember Robert Strauss, Democratic Party Chairman, relaxed, never giving contrived answers, just admitting mistakes if the press were charging, and being so doggone centered, balanced and sensible that the press relaxed, and there were some wonderful conversations. McCain might be all over the lot with some of his answers, and I may not agree, but we're getting "McCain," not some answers worked up in a back room and parroted by the candidate.
AMERICA'S "COMMUNAL WISDOM"
I think it's still there. I hope it's still there. My Mom in the Thirties used to say, "I have great faith in the common sense of the American people." TV and slick talk have enabled deep attacks on that. Even involving faith in God as being on the side of Republicans and NOT with Democrats. Our common sense and communal wisdom (common, communal - - with and for all) is God-related.
THE PYRAMID VS. DEMOCRACY
We're a democracy-based republic. Democratically-elected representatives go to our legislative bodies and make our laws. But the corporate type of GOVERNMENT FROM THE TOP has been fastening itself upon our nation, taking over our process. It is anti-democratic. We need to wake up to this.
The two forms of government are opposites. The pyramid has a place if it is "democratized" - - if it is under our control, not we under its control.
The Bible's "666" is a single head of a world pyramid. Is the world even now headed that way? See the Home Page, and click on Article on Big Bad Pyramid. See also chapters printed out under my book Thinking Citizen on the Home Page, Reroyalizing, and Inheritance Aristocracy.
ON ADVERTISING
TV ads once were based on two principles - - selling as if the salesperson were in your living room (like Dinah Shore did), and selling as if trying to get the potential customers to decide. Both of those approaches have been abandoned! Cars drive right into our face, sling mud, say, "Buy me and you can do this to other people!" And the ads IMPLANT THE DECISION, override one's senses, strive to take control of the viewers' mind - - helped by the natural hypnosis always there in TV stagecraft, music, voices, celebrities, computer-generated images, disorienting effects followed by the orderly thing to do (ie: buy this product or service), and so on.
Regarding pill ads, go to Pbs.org, Bill Moyers, Archive, transcript on Melody Petersen and her book, Our Daily Meds, and download its eye-opening seven pages on ad tricks and cynicism of manipulators, not just in the drug field but in the thinking that backs a lot of ads.
MORE ON ADVERTISING - - ALWAYS LEAVE A GOOD TASTE IN MOUTH
Menacing automobile ads leave a bad taste for car, company, its advertising mentality and low regard for the viewer-potential-customer.
Part of advertising is to obtain a long-term good residual impression.
When I turn off abusive ads, I deny that advertiser, the ones following, the local station, and the network.
Some years back, Volkswagen ran ads showing its little gem being wrecked in tests, smashed, twisted. I was horrified, and thought, "This will kill them." It did. the car soon vanished until resurrected later with new models.
Best recent campaign? Geico's little gecko.
TERRIBLE SOUND TRACKS
Drumming and percussion competing with the voices so that at times one cannot listen to the voices (the purpose of the drumming supposedly being to maintain the attention of the dummies, that is, the viewers) is counterproductive. On NIGHTLINE it is SO LOUD AND SO ANNOYING that I go to another station at least half the time, and seldom return.
Just speak to me. Forget the "driving sound tracks" - - and shows with those canned laff-tracks. I studied them, and saw that nothing funny has happened, and nothing funny has been said - - which causes the tracks to be louder and more repetitive and unfitting than ever. Live audience laughter is usually OK, but that - - and clapping, and even screaming - - is manipulated by signs in the studio. "Warm-up" people who get the crowd into a laughing mood just before the show starts, are common.
AMERICA AND TORTURE
Our official position has always been, No torture. It's our Christian ethic. It's our Golden Rule ethic. It's also our very practical ethic - - Geneva Conventions whereby enemies won't then torture our prisoners or others. Those Conventions are the greatest bulwark of Western Civilization (at a secular level).
Yet we tortured in Vietnam - - bending prisoners' heads into 55-gallon drums of water, hanging them out of helicopters (even letting an occasional one drop just to make a point to the others). However, this was unofficial. Against our laws.
The torture school operated at Ft. Benning, supported by a distinct manual showing How To, and featured on 60 Minutes and other national shows, intended to teach South American dictators how to retain power (and stability for the US), is probably still in operation, and the manual still available. For shame, US. But did a great public outcry arise? No. And that bothers me.
The problem in today's arguments FOR torture, and the semantics of calling what's obviously torture, not torture, is insane.
The problem today is that we are making torture OFFICIAL. We are including it in our LAWS. That must not happen - - it must be rolled back.
The line is crossed. It must be reestablished firmly.
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN?
Scenario One: a US squad under fire from houses by an enemy in civilian clothing (no uniforms) loses a couple of men, and maybe a vehicle, finally enters the group of houses, and shoots on sight. And kills those in a room - - who may not have been combatants. Result? Courts martial.
Scenario Two: Similar situation. A corporal kicks in a door, another man throws in a live grenade, killing all in the room. Result? Routine.
Scenario Three: A platoon tackling a similar situation against houses, can't penetrate due to fire from many window openings. The leader calls in 81-mm mortar fire, or 75-mm fire from guns in howitzer position to also drop "vertical artillery" down through the roofs, killing any inside by the explosions. Then the advance is successful. Result? Maybe even medals.
Scenario Three: A company is unable to break into a complex of a dozen houses occupied by people without uniforms, firing from windows and roofs. After repeated attempts, the captain calls in an air strike. The houses are obliterated. The advance is successful. Result? Routine.
MAJOR US MILITARY BASES IN MIDEAST OIL COUNTRY
When Powell was to kick Iraq from Kuwait, it took some two months or more to bring enough materials from the US to do the job. After that war, the US outfitted a huge supply base in Saudi Arabia, bunkers, ammo, weapons, tanks - - the works. But after a while the Saudis wanted us out. We went to a neighboring country on the Gulf.
We have a "floating base" so to speak (as in the Pacific in WWII but much smaller). US aircraft carriers have enough nuclear weapons below decks to eliminate any enemies within the short range of our carrier planes and of any missiles on board. And of course, missiles can be called in from land bases far away. (I recently read that no nukes were aboard our Persian Gulf carriers, but I don't believe it). The Iranians can easily eliminate our carriers in this narrow Gulf, and have spoken of their water-level missiles and underwater torpedoes shot from land. But to sink a capital ship means war - - and war means the finish of them utterly.
But now we learn that THE US HAS BEEN INSTALLING FOUR MAJOR MILITARY BASES ON LAND IN IRAQ. I have to believe our secret intention is to control the flow of the vast oil that we (and Europe) need in order to survive. We aren't even thinking about getting out. That gets more and more obvious.
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF - - A ROLE MISUNDERSTOOD
Is it supposed to be one-person rule? Or part of a much larger structure (presently being largely bypassed as we misconstrue the term and ignore the way the US was carefully set up to prevent one-person rule especially over the military)?
Please click on the Article with this title on the Home Page.
OBESITY
Obesity is caused by the fact that we do not ever let our APPETITE get SATISFIED. In the ad business, it's known that gorgeous food ads arouse appetites. You see it, you want it.
Constant low-grade appetite even if full
After a nice supper with strawberry shortcake, I'm full. I couldn't eat more for a day. But on TV comes a gorgeous Subway sandwich, followed by a terrific bar-b-qued ribs ad, a fabulous pizza ad with cheese dripping off the edge - - pushed into my face, crying for my attention. Although full and unable to eat, my APPETITE is aroused. Somewhat. I call it low-grade. Gnawing. It leads in time to a late night nibbling of something.
Most of us (especially kids) go around all day and night with a partially-aroused APPETITE - - a stimulus BEYOND ANY NEED FOR FOOD.
I have sent this explanation in response to media analyses of the "obesity epidemic" but have yet to have one communication published, or to draw one response, or to hear even the idea presented by anyone in any of the "analyses."
SUPER-FOODS
"Miracle rice" saved the world with ten times as much grain on a stalk as before. That's not "frankenfood." Today, stocks of US grains for parts of Africa are in warehouses, undistributed because demonized. But they're only genetically or similarly improved foods. We've had improved foods since Mendel. Certainly 90% of US foods have been upgraded by various modifications.
In Dixie in the Thirties, one had to buy "DeKalb" corn seed. With ordinary seed, one got scraggy stalks, two or three ears - - and lousy ones at that - - with 10 or 15 bushels of grain per acre maybe. With the improved seed, the results were revolutionary. The stalks were strong and thick, the ears long, fat and packed with rows.
Monsanto's seeds today are astounding - - having even bug-resistance built in. BUT the world must force a better deal for farmers. Right now, in most places, the farmers have to buy seed for the next year's crop from Monsanto. Yet even the Bible says to save part of a crop for seed for the next year - - illegal in Monsanto's eyes. And all the while, the world is short on food. SO THIS MUST CHANGE. Governments must modify Monsanto's grip in a way fair to the company, and if the company refuses, then governments must just void the company's right to come in and control.
Cloning animals? Well, I'm not going to go there. Personally, I think it's harmless to eat cloned meat. Five years from now, cloning and the eating of cloned meat will be widespread in the hungry world, with the best stock easily reproduced. (Well, maybe ten years!)
THE BIBLE ILLEGAL IN CANADA?
The Bible is against sodomy from Old Testament through the New. Whatever one might think about this, whatever position one might take on the subject and activities under one's rights under free speech and actions, the same courtesy ought to extend to - - particularly - - the BIBLE! But if a preacher preaches against sodomy (an opposing position on any subject is allowed under civilization's rules, ain't it?) from the BIBLE, he can be prosecuted and put in jail in Canada. Yep. Check it out.
TV FINGER-JABBING
Don't jab your fingers at me, TV people, advertisers and preachers! I will shut you off immediately. It's bad manners and a known "lite" hypnosis act.
PROMOS…..
This will "change your life forever." No way, baby. And when the promo utterly overstates and lies, what is it saying about the content of the show it's promoting?
DOCUMENTARIES
TV documentaries are supposed to give us more information and accuracy than we had before - - and some do. But many fudge that line. We're alert to "docudramas" and have thrown these into the fiction pile as possible entertainment but not for education. "Columbus" was the defining moment, and it was pulled from schoolrooms.
War documentaries have tilted towards the US megalomania, because they have to be sold primarily and initially anyhow to the US audience, which insists that the US won the war in Europe (as it carried the bulk of the effort in the Pacific, with the underreported, in the US, British and Commonwealth forces including Anzac and even some Indian). (But Russia defeated Germany, inflicting two-thirds of the military deaths while taking a five-to-one uniformed (well, tunics and boots) death ratio totaling 12,500,000. British deaths in all theaters were about 750,000. French, I don't have a figure. US combat deaths in all theaters were about 250,000. We were, though, the "arsenal of democracy."
Even PBS carries documentaries overstates as "greatest" this and "greatest" that. The documentary producers use such terminologies in order to have to sell the works. If they said, well, this is pretty good stuff, and the people featured were OK I guess (instead of the "greatest") - - well, that would be more honest. Is there a way to be honest and still interesting?
Let's not overestimate ourselves and underestimate Russia
A D-Day documentary - - that the US went in to defeat Hitler, end the war. Yes, well, but don't they mean the Western Allies - - Britain and Commonwealth forces such as Canadians, and the French, and the US? And as for defeating, well, the Russians did most of that job, including the taking of Berlin (a foregone conclusion, since from the end of January 1945, they were on the Oder only 40 miles east of Berlin, while we were just getting out of the Bulge. Churchill later said we went into France to keep the Russians out of it. He was exaggerating to make a point. Don't get me wrong - - I wouldn't take one iota away from the American contribution - - and its gallantry in coming so far to defend freedom for others - - but at the same time I don't see why the contributions of allies shouldn't be put in proper perspective. But it wouldn't sell in the US.
Ken Burns' WWII was good, but it wasn't really a war documentary, but a sort of social history of US warriors reporting on typical families, veterans, and areas of the US. Lacking entirely in his "war" documentary was the spirit of battle. Most Hollywood movies are an exaggeration in the other direction.
The Lewis and Clark documentary (excellent) still wasn't a great voyage of discovery. Just north, and on part of the route, the French trappers had long crossed the continent. There were settlements on the West Coast when the adventurers got there. I really enjoyed the documentary but would have liked a more honest promo. However, I grant that - - like book covers - - the product had to be juiced up in order to sell.
GREAT BIBLE EXTRAPOLATIONS
Huge theological extrapolations have arisen in history and today from interpretations of Scripture - - often from only a handful of verses. One has to do one's own "digging" to see if Scripture might in fact be saying something else.
GREAT SECULAR EXTRAPOLATIONS
Great illustrated scenarios about past life in tribes arise sometimes from only one or two bones or half a skeleton. C'mon, folks, surely those should be marked, "Speculative hypotheses," and enjoyed for their possible factualities, but not taken as factual science.
DON'T OVERLY RELY ON ELECTRICITY
I've walked in India and Java at night, where no lights shone. It ain't bad, really. I've walked the island in the Thirties where I was partly raised - - same thing. Today, the Chinese can shoot satellites from the sky either with lasers or probably with laser-guided munitions. And so, we can also do this. And Russia can also do this. In any conflict ahead, you can bet the satellites will be go early. And there will go global, even regional controls and communications for military operations and computer systems and the internet for all purposes. Well - - it's something to think about.
THE TAX "REBATES" ARE A JOKE BECAUSE THE REDUCTION IN INTEREST RATES ON CD's AND MONEY MARKET AND OTHER SAVINGS ACCTS TOOK MORE OUT OF THE ECONOMY THAN THE REBATE PLAN PUMPED IN
ALL OF GM CAN BE BOUGHT FOR ONLY $12 BILLION???!!!
Yep, that relatively small amount in terms of deals today, is approx. the entire market value of GM, and can be bought on the stock market. (We give China more than that every month that they don't have to send back for our goods or services. Go figger. And check out the very reputable www. economyincrisis.org for a horrifying eye-opener.
POSTED 07
MIDEAST: WE'RE ON THEIR TURF
The whole region has to have mixed feelings, just as we would have if they were on our turf. We'd better pray for ideas, because no present human solutions are working - - have a bear by the tail, can't go forward much, and can't pull out.
AN "HONEST BROKER" FOR THE MIDEAST TAKES NO SIDES
We once had that role, but obviously don't have it now. Some who try to interpret prophecies believe Spain will come forward. Obviously the UN can't - - it's split among many positions.
TRIPARTITE SOLUTION - - "SOFT" TYPE - - I'M STILL FOR IT
Loose federal structure providing for Sunni, Shiite, Kurd states with division of oil revenues (Sunnis now have zero oil in their areas). Federal would settle disputes, and provide for interstate transportation including pipelines. Yes, the Kurdish overlap into Turkey is a problem, so the "Kurdistan" would have to be only in present Iraq.
OUR ABSURD UNBALANCED TRADE
and our insanity of borrowing to sustain it when the borrowing should be exposed and dried up, and the imbalance corrected, is bleeding us dry (my 16th year of hollering, beginning in 1992 with my "Outraged Citizen" newsletters. And the ruinous imbalance is paying for Chinese arms, the boom in China, the wrecking of our auto and other industries. Money returns not for our goods and services (the conventional meaning of "trade"), but for our corporations. We're selling America. Check it out on www. economyincrisis.org
THEY DON'T BUY OUR GOODS BUT OUR CORPORATIONS
If we gave our ruinous "trade partners" our corporations up front in payment for our goods, there'd be a revolution in this country and a quick balancing of trade. See how we are being sold off in exchange for cheap goods - - our heritage for a mess of pottage, our prodigal squandering - - by (again) looking at www. economyincrisis.org.
PROSPERITY? NO, OURS IS A DEBT PROSPERITY
We ride on over-borrowing at all levels from consumer to Government to insane imbalanced trade, to pay our costs of operation and even our costs of living. This is not a real prosperity, folks, and it will bite us.
WE "CONTROL INFLATION" ONLY BY UNCONTROLLED $600-$800 BILLION TRADE-DOLLAR DEFICIT BORROWING TO BUY CHEAP GOODS AND SERVICES
TYPES OF GOVERNMENT - - NEW, OLD, AND MULTIPLE - - TECHNOCRACY, CORPOCRACY, ETC.
(Please see Articles on Home Page, and click on title.)
NEW ORLEANS?
A leading TV newsman walking with Mayor Nagin through a demolished neighborhood twitted him for not having any rebuilding efforts on the properties. Nagin explained patiently to the uninformed leading newsman, that the streets etc. were restored, but the houses and grounds are private property, and efforts to even locate owners in the particularly devastated area had been only spotty at best, and with little or no cooperation from them in the various government programs. I have advocated what's called "enabling legislation" to enable the public sector to act in a staged way, with plenty of warnings, and protections, and financial remuneration - - but allowing the public sector to clean up, or even demolish where necessary. (New codes are already in the works, of course, regarding
potential water heights vis-à-vis new structures. Galveston was filled. The lowest NOLA areas can be half-filled, to keep potential water to ground floors - - even as on some beaches and swamp areas.)
POSTED 06
BOMB IRAN? IT WILL BE MUCH HARDER THAN ANY PREVIOUS ISRAELI RAIDS IN THE REGION
Iranian sites are today ringed with advanced Soviet-made missiles. Moreover, there are multiple partial sites. Furthermore, much is now underground, and we don't know exactly where.
SHAPED CHARGE WEAPONS NOW IN HANDS OF INSURGENTS. They ain't tellin' you, but manufactured "shaped charge" weapons for use in roadside bombs and rocket attacks are coming in. Iraqi insurgents once had only "homemade" explosive devices, old artillery shells and so on. The German Panzerfaust tank-killer, and our later bazookas, were "shaped charge" types that first mash against thick armor, then an acetylene-like intense finger of flame (or other hole-cutter) instantly burns through the armor, and the explosive does the rest. (The weapons come across Iraq's porous borders.)
CAN WE SEAL IRAQ'S 2,000-PLUS MILES OF LARGELY DESERTED MOUNTAIN AND DESERT POROUS BORDERS? NO.
For Pete's sake, we can't even seal off the Arizona border with Mexico! Iraq's border with Iran is some 600 miles by the crow, 1,000 by torturous mountains like Tora Bora (where borders also can't be closed!). Iraq's border with Syria is some 350 miles of desert and mountains. Add to that the southern border of some 500 miles with the Saudis - - acknowledged source of more insurgents than even Syria. Insurgents crossing from Jordan's mere 100 miles of border have been identified for a year (said generally to be Saudis). What, more? Yes, there's some 500 miles of border with Turkey, and 100 or so with Kuwait, these last two not an identifiable source of insurgents thus far. The 2,000-plus miles of deserted borders cannot be closed, any more than the border with Laos and Cambodia could be "closed" - - and I hope policing efforts don't in time mean we have to raid into "sanctuaries," or set up camps on the other side of borders.
THE SIZE OF THE IRAQ JOB
Iraq is more than 20 million people, with large cities - - about the size of Texas in population but smaller in area. Our 150,000 troops can't possibly patrol it, any more than that number could patrol Texas. And certainly can't control it. Indeed, the only patrolling and controlling idea that might work is to have THEM do that work. (Problem is, many of the Iraqi army and police have differing loyalties.) The idea that we can "clear a town" (Ramadi for example is a city of some 385,000), then leave, has been proven unworkable because the enemies just reinfest, or come out of hiding. We're trying police and army bases inside, and if enough Iraqis are the forces, and if enough citizens cooperate, that could work. (Meanwhile, we might remember that Chechnya has a population of only about a single million, yet it ties down 80,000 Russian soldiers....)
AN UNINFORMED DEMOCRACY IS A VULNERABLE DEMOCRACY, SOMEONE SAID
And we're eliminating important news and especially comprehensive analysis in the interest of holding the greatest number of "eyeballs" - - translation, what can be charged for commercials. Our population has largely quit thinking at the depths and heights necessary to run its nation.
DANGEROUS AMERICAN ENCLAVE(S)
We're "enclaved" in a dozen ways shutting out shutting out reality such as it is, and living within our own concepts. We're in an enclave of trivial news and only superficial analysis. We're certainly in an entertainment enclave, including an enclave of make-believe. We're in an enclave of vicariousness, living through and identifying with others and things. We're absolutely in a debt enclave. Our young are in video-game mind-enclaves. And web-fascinations are often enclaves. Our celebrity-consciousness enclave has more gods, goddesses and idols than all put together in history. Our megalomania-enclave has us believing the world (6.6 billion) should do as we (less than one-third of a single billion) say, do, and think. We're in an enclave of believing our national credit can keep us in borrowed-money "success" forever. We're in an enclave of ignoring that our resources are gone, our collateral shot or tottering, and that the day of being able to borrow money to buy from others, is in twilight.
SPYING ON OUR CITIZENS?
Remember the words of the minister in Germany in WWII, that first they come for those down the street, and we say nothing - - but soon they come for us. We need to spy, yes, but within our court-approved framework, where we have a filter and a record. The record can be classified, but is still there for authorized oversight, as by, for example, the Congressional Intelligence Committee. Lots of classified activity is handled this way.
YOU AIN'T "MISTER" ANYMORE
Have you noticed? Criminals are called "mister" and referred to as that "gentleman" (who committed six ax murders)? Whereas you are Mac, and "you guys" and called by your first name by company telephoners in a breach of even professional manners. Hmm.
WHY ARE WE SO IMPRESSED WITH CHINA? WE'RE FUNDING THEM with ruinously unbalanced trade year after year. And we say, Golly, Look at China go!!
PAPERZ PLEEZE!!
We see "Paperz!" demanded in dozens of WWII films - - and sadly, if one didn't have one's "paperz" one could be shot or sent to prison. Arghh. The new drivers' license law with information stored on it is a "national ID card" which will have far more information than in "paperz pleeze!" Hmm. We want better ID in this age of terrorists and illegal immigrants, but we don't want a "paperz pleeze!" era with routine checks on street corners. We have to wake up and become thinkers - - but instead are we just numb, working, then watching TV and accepting whatever happens? Thinkers can still make a difference, but the window is definitely narrowing, and some would like it to close and just let things be run by the top (and my friends, the "top" is cooperating).
"SPINNERS" KEEP US GUESSING UNDER WHICH OF MANY (NOT JUST THE OLD THREE) SHELLS THE FACTS ARE UNDER
The concept is that we "can't think our way through all that's goin' on out there." Yes, we can.
BIASED MEDIA?
Have we looked? - - organizations screaming "bias" at the media are usually dyed-in-the-wool, hard-hat, one-position biased - - annoyed that the rest of the world doesn't sing their tune, jump when they snap their fingers, "think right." Opinions of others - - and the others themselves - - are demonized. Normal media usually represents many viewpoints. Our population is made up of many viewpoints. And, we're a democracy, where a broad range of opinions rules, not one set of opinions.
NEEDED: A CODE OF ETHICS
Look, if we won't accept the Ten Commandments because they are religious, shouldn't we at least have a Code of Ethics?
MONEY IS OUR BIGGEST EXPORT - - IN TRADE DEFICITS
We send well over a half-trillion dollars outside our borders each year that don't return for our goods and services. "They can have the money," is our attitude. We borrow in order to "sustain" this ridiculous drain which subsidizes the movement of our jobs and industries outside our borders - -and yet, we don't seem to wake up to what's going on. And we issue government bonds for these extravagant losses, backed by the credit of the very workers whose jobs are lost. And we HIDE this. When are we going to wake up?
"TRADING PARTNERS"? - - OR COUNTRIES BLEEDING US TO DEATH?
We don't seem to realize that "trade deficits" are horrific drains on our capital - - currently 30 times more than "foreign aid" (and a "stealth" foreign aid causing booming economies elsewhere). Trade means a somewhat balanced equation. Partner means someone in a mutually advantageous relationship, not someone who is stripping you.
THE ECONOMY IS ON TRILLION-DOLLAR CRUTCHES
They say (this written before the slump) that the economy is "going good," but even in the slump, it's on the crutches of $1 trillion or more of money borrowed by the Government ($200-$400 billion budget deficit plus $600-$800 billion "trade" deficits) - - and that doesn't count consumer borrowing for ordinary depreciable things (in contrast to the vast borrowing for, for example, solid things permanent houses).
POSTED 05
THE $600-$800 BILLION ANNUAL TRADE DEFICIT IS BEING CHARGED TO YOU. ARE YOUR CHEAPER GOODS REALLY WORTH THAT?
WE'RE SUBSIDIZING THE LOSS OF OUR JOBS, AND CHARGING IT TO THE PEOPLE WHOSE JOBS ARE LOST.
NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: DOES THE CENTURY BELONG TO CHINA? YES, AS LONG AS WE KEEP SHIPPING THEM NEARLY $200 BILLION A YEAR THEY DON'T HAVE TO RETURN TO US FOR OUR GOODS AND SERVICES.
TO SAVE AMERICAN INDUSTRY (AND HENCE PENSIONS)? Balance trade. No tariffs needed - - just reciprocal trade agreements.
THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS EQUATION
We buy $700 billion more from you than you buy from us - - and you can keep that excess money! You don't have to buy from us! There's no balanced trade deal! And we've done this absurd thing to the tune of many trillions of dollars over 25 years! Of course other countries have "miracle" economies! Who wouldn't prosper?
Worse, we borrow large sums of our former money back from the people we handed it to, in order to help fund our continuing slide into financial oblivion! Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. And this creates long-term inerasable (due to the size of the sums) debt. Dumb….
We have to balance the "trade." Bring the money back for our goods and services, and thus keep our money and our jobs here. The incredibly huge containerships unloading on our West Coast return with those containers empty. This is "trade"? By borrowing insane amounts to maintain this "trade," we're financing our own destruction, and borrowing against the credit of the very people whose jobs and benefits are lost or diminished.
WE OFTEN HEAR, "THE TAXPAYER PAYS" FOR THIS OR THAT STUPID EXPENSE. NO, IT'S JUST CHARGED TO THE EVER-MOUNTING PILE OF IRREDUCIBLE DEBT, AND WHEN DUE, IT IS JUST "ROLLED OVER" INTO NEW DEBT INSTRUMENTS
Folks, the taxpayers can't even pay the Gov't budget deficit each year, much less the far larger "trade" deficit, or reduce by one penny the colossal mountain that's been accruing since about 1980. The historic result of such financial insanity has been hyper-inflation allowed to erode the mountain, also sometimes bankruptcy and even declaring repudiation of all debts public and private - - and in extreme cases, setting up a NEW GOVERNMENT. A famous Russian once said the US would "spend itself to destruction." We'd better wake up soon. We may not self-destruct, but we're ON THE PATH.
WHY CAN'T WE THINK? TOO MANY THINGS GOING ON!
We'd better start thinking, or others will permanently do our thinking for us or tell us what to think. But, so many things are going on in so many places, and so many schemes are presented by advertisers and politicians, it's hard to "think one's way through."
DON'T WE SEE THE FREE ADVANCE PUBLICITY?
Wow - - Star Wars broke all box office opening day records? Of course it did - - it was in the evening news on all networks several times during the four months preceding, with breathless planted features about special effects, the "history" of this or that character, and son on. And Harry Potter the same way for book sales, with the networks counting down the weeks and days until the midnight release date…. And this doesn't mention the morning shows (which I don't watch), or "60 Minutes" destroying its hard news reputation but trying to twist this blatant free publicity into importance, and the late night free publicity pegged to the celebrity actress or actor interview. Once upon a time, books and movies were reported on only after they came out, and there was something for NEWS people to REPORT on. Once upon a time, news people and organizations were mortified if tricked into giving free publicity. Today, they top off their free-publicity indulgence by having the audacity to report RECORD SALES as if those were achieved by the merits and advertising of the shows and books NOT BY THE FREE PUBLICITY reaching hundreds of millions over and over again in advance….
TO HELL WITH ALL REGULATION - - WHO NEEDS IT?
Why regulate medicinal drugs? Or food. Abolish the FDA! Let those cows that can't stand up get into the food chain! Why waste the meat from that diseased animal? Or waste that profit potential? Outta my way! Abolish speed limits. Let cops work on bank robbers and blood-on-the-floor murderers. Legalize coke, ecstasy, marijuana! Construction inspectors? They just slow down construction, raise costs. Who needs codes? If buildings collapse, tough. As for drivers' licenses, they're a real nuisance. And Wall Street regulations? - - One of the world's greatest names pushed customers into stocks it regarded as a "POS." And that's the way it should be. It's a jungle out there, so stop going against nature! And as for inside trading? Don't make me laugh! For every one caught or embarrassed, 500 are getting away with it even with "regulation," and of course, they should. Regulators are a drain on the taxpayers, just like cops, DA's and judges. The system is annoying. In the mines and factories, proceed at your own risk - - especially if you have a family of four kids on the surface to support (as long as you last). Who needs oversight of aircraft manufacture, operation, maintenance, airports and controllers? Porn? - - a zillion websites have it anyhow in any home. Yell fire in crowded theaters if you feel like it - - it's free speech, and entertaining as hell! Get some rockets flying on unsubstantiated information - - who needs anybody checking? And listen closely to the lobbyists for the Hand Grenades and Shoulder-launched Rocket Association - - and peer unabashedly into their moneybags. Libel your enemies - - they're s---s anyhow! Besides, in all this, haven't you heard? - - it's a constitutional right to do as you damn please! And it's an absolute right to have all liabilities (those still remaining that Congress hasn't already removed) eliminated.
U.S. CAR SALES DOWN?
Want to sell more cars? Try advertising cars that don't charge at viewers, sling mud and cause fright. We're selling "menace" these days, not the qualities that once sold cars, saying in effect, Buy this and you can crap on others. And as for POV - - point of view - - I'm not in a pothole in a dark, wet street with the front tire going past my head. What an insult to the viewers!
On the street the other day, a car was coming directly at me. I literally had to think whether this was "for real" or TV theater arts. Lawsuits are going to come from the constant dulling of the normal response to threats.
THE U.S. AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Rome existed on slave or oppressed labor outside and inside. It debased its money, but even a worthless piece of eroded bronze had "value" if still faintly imprinted with an emperor’s face and thus backed by Rome. Rome had the famous "bread and circuses" while the state collapsed from within. It spoke of the "republic" but was ruled by decadent emperors. Its military was small but highly advanced in tactics and weaponry compared to ragged bands it faced on its war-won frontiers. Its soldier-built hard-surfaced (of rock blocks) highways sped its forces to trouble spots. It was riddled with gods and goddesses.
Many have said the U.S. and its world semi-empire today looks more and more like "Rome." We use economically enslaved labor beyond our borders and worldwide, and remove more and more worker rights within our borders. We've debased our money - - hollowed it out - - watered it down by "printing" electronic money far in excess of any asset base, and to purchase things of only short-term value while incurring long-term debt. We speak of "democracy" while installing rule-from-the-top corporate-type government. Our "bread" is no longer the welfare state, but is debt-money everywhere - - few ever going "broke" because even bankrupts early receive a flood of new credit cards because their credit is "clean" again. Our economy is sputtering despite being supported by a trillion dollars in federal debt-money every year charged to the people's full faith and credit account. Our military is small but equipped with incredible weaponry not possessed by others, and we can speed forces to trouble spots or invasions of choice by airlift capability unimaginable only a couple of decades ago. Our circuses are the glamorous entertainment field from TV to gladiatorial one-left-standing sports events holding our instincts mesmerized. Our gods and goddesses are the celebrity culture.
ONCE, ENTERTAINMENT AMUSED THE KING, BUT TODAY, ENTERTAINMENT INCLUDING SPORTS IS KING.
No further comment.
IT AIN'T THE OIL STOOPID, IT'S THE INFRASTRUCTURE
All those terminals like Kharg Island, all those pipes, all those tanks, valves, meters. All those long, long pipelines. They would take forever to replace, while the oil is safe in the ground. WORSE, in case of nukes (even the small backpack 3KT or so size - - compared to Hiroshima's 18 KT size), the ground becomes contaminated for years. Chernobyl's area is STILL murderously contaminated only from leakage.
My book, New York Blast (small nuke - - big search into the 'stans for the origins) is all about these things. I self-publish, but this book should be picked up by a big publisher and given the distribution it deserves.
DEBT DOESN’T MATTER? - - YES IT DOES!
(Please see also, Debt Article on Home Page, click for more.)
The US is hemorrhaging from two financial drains - - the operating debt and the trade deficit combining for close to a trillion dollars year. And consumer debt for expendables (not permanent assets) is enormous, and growing. Our saturation in cheap money IS inflation, which hasn't shown up "big time" yet because we keep borrowing to buy cheap goods from outside our borders. This "holds down" inflation while building into the system eventual hyper-inflation now beginning.
OUR MONEY IS WORTHLESS
(Please see Article's title on Home Page, click there for more.)
AMERICA IS CENTRIST - - BUT WHERE’S THE CENTRIST PARTY?
Look, we’re all in a broad center. We’re liberal on social security and medicare, but might like fiscal sobriety which - - once upon a time, but not now - - was the flagship of the right. We’re one community - - all in the same boat - - so stop demonizing those who stand up for the bottom. I once thought McCain might break away and form a broad Centrist Party. Ike was the broadest Centrist in our nation's history. Kennedy was wealthy but genuinely for the bottom and clearly in the broad center.
NO TIME TO THINK - - WE DO AS WE’RE TOLD
Once, hubby alone could support a family, and the wife had time to think, join groups. Furthermore, he had time to chat things over with his wife at night and on weekends. We had a much stronger democracy. Today, wife and husband are both working just to keep an ever-more-expensive family afloat, and - - coupled with all the entertainment available - - there is no time to think. Unconsciously do as we’re told, but Jefferson said be vigilant or we’d lose our freedom.
THE TASER SOLUTION - - VARIABLE VOLTAGE SETTINGS
How many more must die? How much more abuse, said by many to be increasing. Five or six shots administered to a minor. Shots administered to people who are down. This weapon is the replacement for the billy club exposed in the famous Los Angeles incident some years back - - a club that lost part of its power due to the prevalence of video cameras. Today, cameras won’t see anything except the “disabled” person crumpling from the 50,000-volt weapon. It’s a short-range approximate 25-foot device because a wire has to touch the victim. The first answer is to have intermediate settings - - far less voltage to deliver the same “message,” and the highest setting would still be available for extreme emergency use only. A chip would keep a record. The next layer of answers begins with more stringent regulation and education.
SELLING OFF THE NATION TO COVER TRADE LOSSES
In “Around the World in Eighty Days,” David Niven fueled the boat by breaking it up for firewood to feed the engine's boiler and keep it going in his race. Today we're doing the same thing - - selling off the country as many of our trade-imbalance deficit dollars come back not for our goods and services, but for our corporations on the stock exchanges and in private sales. This has reached a crisis level, as shown on www.economyincrisis. org.
(Please see Article, Selling Off The Nation, on Home Page.)
© 2008 Karl Roebling. All rights reserved.
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