And we recently discovered, if it was not known before, that no amount of power can withstand the hatred of the many.
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
Americans are brought up to believe all sorts of myths about the country we call home. We’re told our economy is a free market meritocracy governed by the rule of law. We’re told our civil liberties, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are inviolable and protected by the most powerful military in the world. A fighting force entrusted with the admirable and monumental task of defending freedoms at home, and democracy and human rights abroad. We’re told we exist in a system of self-government, in which our votes matter and our voices heard. In practice, none of this is true.
The fact of the matter is American citizens in 2018 are just a nuisance for the real power players. Useful as consumers, but increasingly problematic as larger numbers start to ask questions about how things really work. For far too long, we’ve been ignorant and willing accomplices in our own bondage. This allowed the concentrated and unaccountable power that really calls the shots to go for broke in recent decades, with unsurprisingly tragic results.
Only recently have things started to shift. Increased levels of barbarism abroad and corruption at home during the 21st century — under both Republican and Democratic administrations — have shaken many Americans from a long stupor. Irrespective of where you sit on the political spectrum, most people know something’s not right. People don’t agree on the details of what’s wrong, and there’s certainly no consensus on solutions, but increasing numbers of us know something’s very broken.
I try to look at things from a big picture perspective, and from that angle I see too many people focused on the symptoms of cultural decay versus root causes. Not enough people seem to be taking a step back to see that at the core of today’s broken socioeconomic and political paradigm is an American citizenry fundamentally entangled in various abusive relationships with power. This post will highlight three of these relationships. The first with government itself, the second with central banking, and the third with the dominant political parties.
When it comes to the relationship of U.S. citizens to the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington D.C., there’s no indication that anything remotely resembling self-government is happening. Rather, the relationship is far more like that of a servant to a master. The powerful in this country have declared themselves above the law and beyond accountability on too many occasions for it to be an accident. Rather, it’s clearly unwritten public policy at this point. For starters, key players who pushed the Iraq war during the George W. Bush administration, such as John Bolton, are never held accountable. Instead, they’re promoted to even more influential roles many years later.
Equally troubling, leaders of intelligence agencies like John Brennan who supported torture during the Bush years, ran the CIA while it spied on a Senate investigation into torture and then lied about the spying, likewise face no consequences for their actions. Rather, Brennan ends up with a corporate media gig as an MSNBC/NBC “resistance” pundit. Same thing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. He lied under oath about domestic government surveillance, gets caught following the Snowden revelations, and then nothing at all happens to him. He leaves government many years later, joins a think tank, and becomes a CNN contributor.
Of course, this whole above the law thing extends well beyond government officials. We saw how bankers who tanked the global economy as a result of systemic and extremely lucrative fraud schemes received bailouts instead of jail sentences. We should never forget that not a single bank executive went to jail. When a class of powerful super predators are placed above the law, society dies.
Let’s now dig a little deeper into the economy. It’s still a relatively under appreciated fact that the most powerful players commandeering and influencing the U.S. economy, in a fashion similar to a communist politburo, are a collection of unelected central bankers. These people can bring an economy to its knees via interest rate hikes at a moments notice, or bail out powerful financiers should that need arise as we saw explicitly in 2008/09.
Moreover, what’s most instructive about central bank policy is that it always seems to help connected speculators and Wall Street hooligans versus the general public. One thing you’ll notice if you watch the Fed steer the economy over the course of its cycle, is it doesn’t really get going with rate hikes until wage pressures emerge. In other words, once your average worker starts to get some leverage in the labor market the Fed ends the party. The same thing’s happening again right now.
Then, after asset markets crash and the economy enters a recession, central banks will rapidly lower rates to start the cycle all over again. Naturally, the people who benefit most from all this are speculators and those investors with access to low rates who buy assets on the cheap. Meanwhile, you probably got kicked out of your home and continue to face double digit interest rates on your credit card balance. Then years down the road, as soon as the labor market tightens and you get a couple of raises, the Fed again will hike rates and end the expansion.
The Fed makes up all sorts of excuses for why it doesn’t care about asset inflation or commodity price inflation, but the moment wage pressures emerge it jacks up rates and ends the cycle. As I mentioned earlier, it’s happening right now all over again, and it’ll become increasingly clear over the next year or so. This economy isn’t a free market in any real sense, it’s largely a rigged oligarchy. Another abusive relationship designed to enrich a particular type of charlatan.
As I have said many times before, future generations will look back at Central Banking as we look back at slavery.
— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) June 19, 2014
Finally, I want to touch on America’s dominant political parties. Two corrupt organizations that fully support and defend the pernicious, abusive relationships described above. While they certainly disagree on many things, when it comes to supporting the existing paradigm that empowers politicians while in office, and enriches them when they leave to become lobbyists, they are united. Basically, the two parties bicker about how to deal with the symptoms of a rigged and systemically corrupt government, but never confront or oppose the structural root causes of it all.
What’s most incredible to me is how we continue to put up with this scam as a people. If you look over at Europe, the old political parties have been getting decimated at the polls. Political parties that barely had any support, or didn’t even exist a few years ago, are surging ahead and in some cases taking power. Meanwhile, we Americans are still playing footsie with the Democrats and Republicans. At least Trump was able to overcome establishment opposition and get the GOP nomination. Bernie Sanders was not so lucky, as his response to being the victim of a rigged primary has been to shepherd his supporters into the arms of the corrupt Democratic establishment that hates his guts. It’s a genuine national embarrassment.
When Obama was President, Democrats were confident about Afghanistan, while Republicans weren't. After Trump was elected, it flipped.
This is how dumb partisanship is. pic.twitter.com/hLRu6N9gcG— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) October 6, 2018
That being said, the fact we remain stuck in this pathetic two-party political dungeon tells me something important. It tells me we’re still very early in the populist wave here in the U.S. It tells me that while people are increasingly fed up, they aren’t nearly as fed up as they could be. When people have finally had enough, you’ll know it. We’re steadily building up to that moment, but not there yet. There’s no way to know exactly how this period of time will play out, but I do know what emerges on the other side won’t look like anything like what we have today.
Unfortunately, even if we intelligently deal with all the abusive relationships described above, I still think political power in the U.S. is far too centralized to be healthy. Outside of essential civil liberties, I don’t think it makes any sense to assume we need uniform ways of doing most things, and decision making should be far more localized. Nevertheless, even at the local level, the abusive relationships described above can become problematic, so it’s always important to be cognizant of them.
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All roads lead to the City Of London.
Do you think they are every going to give up?
It will take a hydrogen bomb to break their monopoly.
“..This economy isn’t a free market in any real sense, it’s largely a rigged oligarchy..” and the only politician I’ve ever (72 yo) say this repeatedly in public is Bernie Sanders. And he added (repeatedly in public) “.. Wall Street is a fraud, and DC is corrupt…”
Re: decentralization, I’m all for it… even overturn Roe and let states decide (we legalized abortion, WA state, in 1973, pre-Roe). Localization is one step closer to necessary secession.
Democray is a joke here, as comedian Bill Maher so very cleary explains (yet again) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXiINporpk&t=149s
PS… I’ll be sharing this column …. : )
The critical issue is the ease that the media can be manipulated. Pelosi explains it in this short video.
The critical need is a compliant media and a dumbed down unthinking populace.
BTW, how does the ‘Spiral’ indicate this will play out… eventually, some way or other?
Great post, Michael. I don’t usually comment directly at you but you’re right on point and, honestly, you even sound a little pissed. 🙂
Good for you, playa! Get some.
But I’m not sure we want to see what happens when they decide we’re getting a little too close to the “had enough” breaking point. It’s not going to be very comfortable and billions of people will die.
Sky is the limit. But I don’t think you have anything to worry about. It’s a matter of record that the sheeple will go along with whatever is presented to them. And just in case, the bankers have created a world class police state in the US.
Great article …right on all points. I do think that many people now aware of the wrongs but feel powerless because there is no sounded alternative.
I like to invite everyone to review Hanomy Manifesto at Hanomy.com Download it, share it, talk with friends about it … at least please review the 2-page introduction. I do believe I came up with solutions to most of the world problems today and the future. Collaboration is welcome.
In short, Hanomy is a worldwide paradigm shift in the social, financial, and political system to harmonize living for all.
Thank you for your time.
Highlights of Hanomy:
• Fundamental human needs met throughout life’s existence
• Basic human rights observed everywhere
• Sovereign debts worldwide are settled and eliminated
• Upheld liberty and freedom
• Financial contributions drawn from a portion of idle/unutilized money
• No taxes on income, profit or spending
• Interest charges and usury practices abolished
• Power of money creation where it belongs – the people
• An end to the fractional reserve system
• Upheld free market principles (true capitalism but with social responsibility)
• Decreased or dissolved inflation and hyperinflation
• Reduced income inequality
• An end to corporate welfare
• Advanced technology benefiting humanity
• Freedom of time for quality of life and caregiving
• Prohibited conditions for authoritarianism
• Preserved sovereignty and respected borders
• An end to “modern day slavery” (this includes you)
• Improved care of the environment and world resources
• A world we’re proud to claim and pass along
I read your Manifesto. Cute.
I couldn’t find where it explained what the GCC (which you explicitly state is not an authoritarian representative) would do if a country didn’t sign up or decided they didn’t want to play anymore… or didn’t adhere to the rules… or demanded that international trade be settled in their own currency, etc.
Would the benevolent GCC be allowed to pull a part of the Global Armed Forces away from alien-defense duty to force the compliance of wayward citizens/governments?
Maybe that info was contained in the Ancient Civilization and Religious parts that I skimmed over… ?
nice spreadsheets, tho.
Hint, if you want to be taken seriously:
1. Try using dollars and avoid Thai words… most Western eyes sort of glaze over when we see “Pranom Muangthong” being declared the primary world currency.
2. Leave out the mumbo-jumbo about aliens, Annunaki, and Atlantis… as interesting as that stuff is, it makes you sound like a dipshit.
Thanks for reading the manifesto. I will try to answer your questions.
“I couldn’t find where it explained what the GCC (which you explicitly state is not an authoritarian representative) would do if a country didn’t sign up or decided they didn’t want to play anymore… or didn’t adhere to the rules… or demanded that international trade be settled in their own currency, etc.”
It’s obvious that once Hanomy becomes the system, GKB will hold 20% of a country’s PM. This is to be used to make sure countries follow the rules. This 20% will use to calculate the exchange rate per normal. But if a country is not playing by the rule, the world community can freeze a portion of it. People in that country will feel the impact of the exchange rate and so on.
International trades to settled in their own currency is just for the transitioning period before AH1 only. After that, they can settle in whatever currency they want.
“Would the benevolent GCC be allowed to pull a part of the Global Armed Forces away from alien-defense duty to force the compliance of wayward citizens/governments?”
GCC will not use force unless there is a serious violation of rules (which basically based on basic human right). The world citizens will decide this.
“Hint, if you want to be taken seriously:
1. Try using dollars and avoid Thai words… most Western eyes sort of glaze over when we see “Pranom Muangthong” being declared the primary world currency.
2. Leave out the mumbo-jumbo about aliens, Annunaki, and Atlantis… as interesting as that stuff is, it makes you sound like a dipshit.”
Great suggestions, however why does it has to be English words? “Pranom Muanghong” or whatever will be used in the final is up to the committee who will push forward this. But for now, I like to have my mom and dad’s names as a “stand in”
As for your 2nd point, I thought of that but I feel that this is my manifesto. I like to put all kinds of things I think important to humanity in there. Life has so many spectrum not just social, politics, and finance. I want the audience of the manifesto to understand my thinking process and why I draw my experience, how I came up with Hanomy, my intentions … etc. I may capture more audience beside the mainstream groups as well.
I won’t put down a good book because of a bad cover. Your suggestions are appreciated. As I mentioned in the manifesto that it is not a complete or as refined but it’s a concept that I think the world should take a look. I am sure that once the world wants to adopt it, many things will be changed including terms. It’s just a starting step. 🙂 Thank you.
Re: ‘The City of London’.. if you don’t want to read a book, try this
A quite sickening and sinister history. The Brit elites didn’t and don’t play around, so I m not sure how those final 5 recommendations would gain
any traction?
That Afghan tweet is a damning indictment of American political thought. I too expect a lot of people to become more agitated and demand change, but who knows what they’ll ask for. The Flat Earth movement is one manifestation of this feeling where people believe they’re being lied to about everything, albeit an extraordinarily dopey way to be “woke”.
I don’t expect anger to boil over for at least a few more years, not until people realize the Trump movement is ironically a big nothingburger, which is what Trump himself would call it if not for his direct involvement. Once people discover they can’t vote their way out of this mess, all bets are off.
Quite right, they can’t vote themselves out of slavery.
They might be forced to try peace through anarchy.
Nikki Haley’s resignation signaled a pivotal moment in US history. My guess is that:
a) she was the one who wrote that mystery op-ed piece, Trump found out and fired her, or
b) it may be time to call off the fascist foreign policy dogs because the US empire has maxed out its carte blanche, destroy whatever-it-wants card.
“The bitter reality is that U.S. foreign policy has no definable objective other than blocking the initiatives of others because they stand in the way of the further expansion of U.S. global interests. This impoverished strategy reflects Washington’s refusal to accept the passing of its relatively brief post–Cold War moment of unipolar power.
There is an error all too common in American public opinion. Personalizing Washington’s regression into the role of spoiler by assigning all blame to one man, now Donald Trump deprives one of deeper understanding. This mistake was made during the steady attack on civil liberties after the Sept. 11 tragedies and then during the 2003 invasion of Iraq: namely that it was all George W. Bush’s fault. It was not so simple then and is not now. The crisis of U.S. foreign policy — a series of radical missteps — are systemic. Having little to do with personalities, they pass from one administration to the next with little variance other than at the margins.
The crucial question is why. Why do U.S. policy cliques find themselves bereft of imaginative thinking in the face of an evolving world order? Why has there been not a single original policy initiative since the years I single out, with the exception of the now-abandoned 2015 accord governing Iran’s nuclear programs? “Right now, our job is to create quagmires until we get what we want,” an administration official told The Washington Post’s David Ignatius in August.
Can you think of a blunter confession of intellectual bankruptcy? I can’t.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/09/13/why-the-u-s-seeks-to-hem-in-russia-china-and-iran/
Once we call off the dogs worldwide and the militarized Global Security State returns to an American Republic, we can focus on catching up with the rest of the modern, civilized world.
In his new book, A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism, Jeffrey Sachs addresses the fact that “We don’t look after each other at all” in America today. We don’t because the radical right group led by libertarian Koch money that’s taken over government these 50 years wants it that way.
Sachs discusses the quality of life and the environmentally-friendly infrastructure in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen. “They’re not falling apart, actually, they’re kinda gorgeous!” Every worker enjoys 5 or 6 weeks summer paid vacation as a matter of every workers’ right. They are living very, very comfortably and productively.
In other words, they are living in the 21st century. So what’s the point of holding America back in some Orwellian neofeudalism?
The End of American Exceptionalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZU0IXO7AQw&feature=share
The only real way we are going to kill the neoliberal zombie is by learning MMT, which provides the intellectual armor against all the tired myths that are propelled our way whenever we dare enter the political arena to mend the social fabric.
Honestly, the truth is so easy to understand, even a 13 yr. old girl grasped it. Glad to see NPR dedicate a whole podcast to explaining it with guest Prof. Stephanie Kelton:
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=652001941
I love your post here, Unfettered Fire. Thank you for the info drop. Unfortunately, Michael is a Market Fundamentalist (see Harvey Cox’s ‘The Market as God’ for one example of a breakdown of market fundamentalism). As such, he argues that we need Capitalism (either more of it or we aren’t really Capitalists). Such people will laugh at suggestions that the USSR wasn’t really Socialist/Communist, but will argue ad nausea that our local and global system isn’t “real capitalism”. Of course, their arguments are anti-historical. Not realizing that capitalism developed into what it is today, that a full reset, going back to the “early capitalism” of Dutch mercantilism circa 17th century and starting all over again would result in humanity wasting nearly 350 years to get exactly where it is today all over again. No matter how many times you reset capitalism, we would end up exactly in the same spot.
This is a mischaracterization of what I think. First and foremost, I am a decentralist who believes in localism and community as the foundation from which most decisions should be made on how to structure an economy and governance. I think certain ways of life and economy work for some types and other structures work for other types. Different strokes for different folks.
That being said, the whole world is about to change in so many fundamental ways due to automation and technology in general, I do think entirely new paradigms that did not exist before will be necessary and inevitable. I have no idea what paradigms will work best in this starkly different world, but I suspect all sorts of things will be tried out. In fact, I do not suspect we will be living under prior economic models of the last few centuries. Circumstances will force radically new approaches.
I am with you .. You have a voice and followers … I would very much to invite you to review Hanomy Manifesto at Hanomy.com I am the author. I do believe I have the solution that we need to go forward. Technologies make it possible. This new paradigm shift I suggest in Hanomy can work because super majority of the world population can live better. In fact, we all can benefit, currently rich or poor.
I agree that the time is not yet ripe.
Strange that it should get so rotten before it is ripe!
I like your quote about the “banker’s era” being looked back on with the same repugnance as we now look back at that other kind of slavery.
We can all agree on the following and therefore it is not worth additional debate:
1. Our current system does not work any longer.
2. Decentralization and dissolution of central banks would be preferable.
I would argue that nothing will change until we have honest money; consequently dissolution of central banking is the starting point of any serious discussion.
Let’s see, they have all the money and can print more if they need it. They own and control majority of worlds energy assets. They outright own the West’s politicians through whatever means necessary ——- mostly money.
Only Putin has been able to curb the Rothschild’s franchise in Russia. What does this tell us?
“Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.”
– Etienne de la Boétie, French judge and poet (1576)
Exactly!!!
When they crash the economy again to consolidate more power and control what do we do?
To quote Chris Hedges “world wide mass civil disobedience is our only hope “
What does that mean to me?
It means we stop playing the game.
It means no more tax payments.
It means no more credit card payments
No more mortgage payments
No more insurance payments
No more paying compound interest
No more payments on debt
No more gambling on Wall Street
Remove ourselves from the equation to the greatest degree possible.
Forget marching in the street, withhold all payments to the system, now that is a real nonviolent threat!!
The US does not have a central bank, the Federal Reserve seats are appointed and the actions of the Fed are subject to Congressional approval.
I think US lags because it has First Past the Post voting system;European countries don’t. The US system makes it very hard for third parties to win elections.
http://www.prsa.org.au/pluralit.htm
It’s worse than you think:
https://jamesfetzer.org/2018/10/jack-mullen-the-sandy-hook-hoax-the-germans-holocaust-and-the-real-final-solution/