BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Miami, Florida

Monday, 5 May 2014

Dow down 45 points on Friday. Gold up over $1,300 an ounce. Nothing much happening.

Meanwhile, we had no proof. Just an observation. But it looks to us as though government always begins and ends as a tool for those who control it.

It is not the product of a "social contract." It is not an expression of the "general will." It is not the "price we pay for civilization." It is not "captured by wealthy special interests."

On the contrary, it is as blunt and stupid as a crowbar. It is used by the elite to pry wealth, status and power away from everyone else.

Few victims of the public school system believed us, but now cometh a study from Princeton and Northwestern universities proving we were right. From a report by United Press International:


Oligarchy is a form of government in which power is vested in a dominant class and a small group exercises control over the general population.

A new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities concluded that the US government represents not the interests of the majority of citizens but those of the rich and powerful.

"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" analyzed extensive data, comparing nearly 1,800 US policies enacted between 1981 and 2002 with the expressed preferences of average and affluent Americans as well as special interest groups.

The resulting data empirically verifies that US policies are determined by the economic elite.

The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence," says the peer-reviewed study.

Win... Win... Win...

Yes, dear reader, the elite run things.

That's why we have QE (quantitative easing), for example. The banking cartel is perhaps the most powerful group in America. Its oligarchs want to make a profit. How better to do so than to lend themselves money for practically zero interest... then use that money to lend to Washington at a higher rate?

Everybody wins, right?

Washington gets the cheap funding it needs to continue handing out billion-dollar contracts for things we don't need... and banks earn a fat margin on the newly created money. Hey, and maybe the "wealth effect" will drip a few shekels onto the poor schmucks who still think their v**es decide things.

Win...win...win...

One of the most special of special interests in America is what President Eisenhower (previously a five-star general in the US Army) called the military-industrial complex.

When the feds ran low on money they decided to cut the Pentagon back a bit. (Why not? We have no enemies worth mentioning... at least none that we didn't create ourselves). That was the famous "sequester" worked out by the bunch of hacks and slacks who call themselves Congress. Rather than agree to cut spending, Congress decided to let the budget cut itself – automatically – in future.


The Old DC Trick

Well, the future is here. And here comes Representative Paul Ryan with a budget designed to put the military-industrial industry back in high cotton. Ron Paul describes it:


The Republicans are using the old DC trick of spending less than originally planned and calling that reduced spending increase a $5.1 trillion cut in spending. Only in DC could a budget that increases spending by 3.5% per year instead of by 5.2% per year be attacked as a "slash-and-burn" plan.

Last week's budget debate showed how little difference there lies between the parties when it comes to preserving the warfare-welfare state. One side may prefer more warfare while the other prefers more welfare, but neither side actually wants to significantly reduce the size and scope of government.

Adds Jon Utley of the American Conservative magazine:


The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said "the greatest threat to our national security is our debt." In the final analysis Ryan is not a leader, he's just another puppet of the military-industrial complex. If he really cared about American defense he would take up some of the many ways to stop wasting money and make America truly stronger and more competent.

Now we know: There is nothing "wrong" in Washington. There is nothing we can fix. No one is making a mistake. This is just the way government operates: It rewards the people who control it... and punishes everyone else.

Regards,



Bill

dennisimoto Loc: Washington State (West)

What he said.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Our "friends" in the Fed have cleverly designed a system that protects them no matter who is in power at the expense of the rest of us, and yet there are numbskulls who think the Fed and it's mistresses in politics help us! Some folks will never learn.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Well we have turned a corner. A few months ago it was the Liberal's cry that every white person was a r****t. Now it is the rich that are to blame for everything. This is too funny. You think that doing away with rich people will change the policies of the government or somehow make things all better. Well, here is news. The latest data show that a big portion of the federal income tax burden is shoul­dered by a small group of the very richest Americans. The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per­cent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes. These are proportions of the income tax alone and don’t include payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. Keeping this in mind....who will pay for the free stuff Liberals want???? Who will supply the funds for job growth? Who will pay for all the undocumented people Liberals find so indispensable? And who would pay for Obama's vacations or for that matter his families? I can tell you, force the rich into poverty and see what happens to free lunch programs for kids, free medical care for the bottom 50 percent, free cell phones for welfare recipients, and this list goes on. So, you can not have it both ways. Either acknowledge that rich people did not get rich by sitting home and smoking crack or drinking to a stupor; they got rich because of ambition. Do away with them and see how fast the US will become a third world country.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

I'm not talking about rich folks or taxes m'dear. I'm talking about a politically sanctioned banking cartel that is robbing us blind.

Ricktloml

You make some good points, but reducing spending, even if it is just reducing the amount of an increase is a good start, this is not an endorsement of the Ryan plan, I haven't researched it enough to reach an informed opinion, but the progressives would never hear of an outright reduction, it needs to start somewhere

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Not my comments. This is a newsletter from an economist named Bill Bonner. Ryan's budget is a red herring. He knows it hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of being enacted but the e******ns are coming up soon and it's time to fool the base into v****g for Establishment Republicans again. They are very worried that Tea Party and Libertarian candidates could replace some of them.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Thank you. I will go back and reread your post. My apologies for being off topic. Thank you again.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

De nada. :lol:

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

No, and until a vast number of us do learn, we will be unable to react, and until we react, we CAN NOT undo this monstrosity which is and has been ripping us off for decades.

BearK Loc: TN

The big banks behind the Federal Reserve are the lions of greed, not only for money, but more importantly they want POWER. POWER over everyone, they want to own you (period)

Patty

“Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.

As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

This is why governments love inflation so much and h**e gold.

Take a look at our dollar value over just the last 5 days.

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Progressive ideology was behind the creation of the Fed. Progressive ideology is striving for a world government in which all the power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and Progressive ideology is behind the deconstruction of the United States. Progressive ideology also sounds a lot like the perfect vehicle for Armageddon.

Ricktloml

Sorry, guess I didn't patyclose enough attention, and yes it's amazing that without the Tea Party Republicans wouldn't have the majority in the House, but stab them in the back as often as they can. I have noticed that a lot of these Tea Party people are getting s**k of this and are making an attempt to hold some feet to the fire, hope they are successful