This story could be written about nearly all of Americas industry. We are currently witnessing the final death throes of our domestic auto makers, and then there were none!
Bethlehem Steel
A look back in time
by Andy Sutton, My2CentsOnline.com | March 31, 2008
Print
“…And we’re living here in Allentown, and they’re closing all the factories down…”
Billy Joel’s famous song ‘Allentown’, released back in the 1980’s satirized the end of the road for industry in this part of the world. As someone who grew up accustomed to watching the large cranes, smokestacks and activity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, it was a way of life. Every morning my school bus, and eventually my first car would travel along and finally cross the Lehigh River and I’d watch the trains carrying materials in, and finished products out. I passed full parking lots and busy crosswalks with men hustling to and from work. There was activity abound, often seven days a week. During the summers there were occasional picnics and even a softball league. Bethlehem Steel wasn’t so much a part of our culture as it was our culture.
The original mill at the Bethlehem, PA plant.
My father and two uncles worked for the Company their entire working lives. Our prosperity as a family depended on the success of one company, and we were by far not alone in that regard. As a boy, I remember their solemn warnings that Bethlehem Steel would not be there for the next generation of Pennsylvania’s workers. These warnings came even before talk of modernization, tariffs, regulation and centrifugal casting permeated our dinner table discussions. It was a classic case of those on the front lines seeing the picture so much more clearly than those in the Boardroom.
“…out in Bethlehem they’re killing time, filling out forms, standing in line…”
US Steelworkers President Lynn Williams and President Donald Trautlein
Bethlehem Steel was originally conceived in 1857 when Augustus Wolfe founded the Saucona Iron Company. The company’s first years were turbulent as a financial crisis at the time brought the construction and the building of the plant to a virtual standstill. The plant was eventually finished at another site, and the company name changed to The Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company. The first rolling mill was completed in 1863, with a railroad being added in September of the same year. The company’s two principal products at that time were rails for the growing railroad infrastructure across the United States as well as armor plating for the Navy. During the 1880’s, amid growing competition from Carnegie Steel among others, the company began to lose its dominant position in the rail market, and saw its business shift more to shipbuilding.
The company assumed its more easily recognized name, Bethlehem Steel in 1899, and in 1904 Charles Schwab and Joseph Wharton (UPenn Business School founder) formed the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. With products like the wide flange and a revolutionary rolling mill, the Company asserted itself as a dominant force in US steelmaking and became a leading producer of steel to the construction industry. The company’s innovations in no small part helped to usher in the advent of the skyscraper. Bethlehem Steel products were used in prominent American landmarks such as the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden, the Hoover Dam and the Chrysler Building.
Bethlehem Steel innovation at work
“… And our fathers fought the Second World War; spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore…”
America’s position of dominance in the area of heavy manufacturing was only strengthened after World War II as much of industrialized Europe and Japan lay in ruins. As these foreign nations rebuilt, however, they did so with ultramodern technology and they were able to realize efficiencies that were unattainable by domestic steel producers. From the early 1950’s through the 1980’s a significant price differential existed between American and imported steel, and Bethlehem Steel began to see its first financial losses. For whatever reason, the leadership of the company was either not interested in or not convinced of the benefits of modernization, even though it was painfully obvious to even the most casual of observers. The slide continued, and in 1991, the company exited its coal mining business. On November 18th 1995, Bethlehem Steel halted all steelmaking activity at the Bethlehem location, and for the first time in over a century South Bethlehem was cloaked in silence. Termination of shipbuilding activities came two years later, and effectively, the company ceased to exist.
Bethlehem Steel had become but another casualty of broken monetary policies that sought to hide inflationary activities by bringing cheaper imported goods into our markets. These policies were the death knell of American heavy manufacturing by and large, and even though some behemoths still hang on, it is quite obvious that the writing is on the wall. The supremacy of American manufacturing was lost to the unsustainable service economy model where Americans shuffle paper while the rest of the world produces.
Bethlehem Steel – before the commencement of demolition
Like most icons, the full impact of the steel industry both in Bethlehem and the rest of America has not been fully appreciated until the very end. It is much like that moment in time when you look back and realize that something is gone, never to be brought back. There is emptiness along the banks of the Lehigh River, but for many, that emptiness extends well beyond the torn out buildings, rusting railroad tracks and the large cranes frozen in time. It is as if we have lost a good friend. The plan now is to replace that friend with casinos and a battery of insipid consumer attractions in an attempt to paper over the loss of 100 plus years of manufacturing excellence. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that, much like nature, there are predictable ebbs and flows in economies. While for now we seem to have gone off the deep end, there will come a time when we will have to rebuild our once mighty manufacturing base. Hopefully one day soon when our children and grandchildren travel along Daly Avenue in South Bethlehem, they will see full parking lots, busy workers, cranes, and the undeniable actualization of America returning to prominence.
"…Well I’m living here in Allentown, and it’s hard to keep a good man down…”
Copyright © 2008 Andy Sutton
Editorial Archive
Andy Sutton holds an MBA in Economics from Moravian College and is a member of Omicron Delta Epsilon International Honor Society in Economics.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Birth Of A Nation
BIRTH OF A NATION
By John Galt
March 31, 2008
The Founding Fathers had a vision where individuals were allowed to use their God given freedoms to use their own creativity, their own belief systems, and their own talents to work within a Capitalist system based on the principle of freedom. This freedom extended to all aspects to each and every citizen of American life as long as it did not impair or impede on other individuals or the greater good of this nation. These freedoms and the vision our Founding Fathers had for us are now coming to a close. The abdication of the ideal known as “personal responsibility” and the application of morality in everyone’s decision making process have been delivered a fatal blow first struck some ninety-five years ago. The creation of the Federal Reserve Banking system at the behest of political idealists who wished to manage the social fabric of society as opposed to their Constitutionally mandated responsibilities were just the beginning. The series of legislative initiatives undertaken from 1910 to 1940 to complete reshape our nation under the guise of “Progressivism” was slow to come about, but it was not until this decade and the final crisis of our foolish endeavors in societal management that we shall realize the implications of that generation’s actions. Their intent was to create a system of macro economic management by government which allowed the banking system to function outside of the legal parameters of the Constitution while profiting the few and penalizing the majority for any mistakes that were made. As decades of erroneous decisions have piled up and multiplied exponentially the proverbial bill is now past due. How appropriate that a nation founded in the idealism of personal responsibility and freedom shall now depart from that path and begin a final curtain call which entails the incorporation of a vile system of Marxist theory in combination with the perversion of religion to justify the revision of our society and the behavior of it’s citizens.
Taxation Without Representation
In the 1770’s part our nation’s foundation was laid with the purpose of eliminating tyrannical leaders who impose their will without the voice of the people. The taxation of citizens to serve a “crown” was considered a barbaric relic of medieval times as serfdom was no longer accepted by “modern” society. Alas, if only old Ben Franklin could see us now. The average schmuck has been quite content for decades to accept taxation without realizing they are being taxed as it has been given the false perception of the “cost of a free society” and other such rot. Although my personal principles are somewhat Libertarian in nature, this does not mean I am advocating naked women running up and down the streets as whores like Amsterdam promotes, nor the elimination of some of the Constitutionally mandated operations of government and it’s interaction with the private citizen. Obviously it costs money to maintain the national defense, a sound judicial system and to secure a safe, consistent and fair flow of commerce. Yet the responsibilities assumed have now spread to every aspect of our lives, including and up to the examination of the sexual behavior of flies as well as the willingness or ability of each citizen to educate their children in a manner (or religious principle) that they see fit. Alas, to become a “nanny state” costs considerably more than just the income tax structure we have in place now. So what is our poor government to do?
After the 1916 income tax solution opened the door, the U.S. government and it’s minions started looking for other taxation solutions to insure that the American people were married to their ideals through the concept of entitlements. That solution did not really take hold until the Great Depression created a nation of sheep willing to accept whatever solutions were provided to insure that the average citizen always had a roof over their head, a meal, a job, a car, a Playstation III, a vacation in Cancun, etc., etc. As the real levels of taxation on corporations (who just pass it on to the customer) and citizens skyrocketed via income taxes, fees, etc. the stress on government has become so great that running a debt on an annualized basis became commonplace and once the banksters and the government figured out that the U.S. was “too big to fail” and that the average citizen would rather be fat, dumb and happy rather than worry about the consequences of their actions, the game was on.
The spending on everything and anything was acceptable and by manipulating the accounting regulations the Congress and Senate could cut deals, make huge profits for themselves via the lobbying system, and create a dependency class that could be further expanded as long as the banksters played along by assuring the public that the integrity of our markets would never be unscathed and unending sources of profit and liquidity would be available as long as everyone played along and didn’t bother to look behind the curtain. Unfortunately for the elitists, people began to peek and worse, people began to worry as the liabilities of this nation were at a staggering $20,000,000,000,000 plus in 2000 and has more than doubled to a blow-one’s-brains-out-if-you-think-about-it-too-much $53,000,000,000,000 plus now. To maintain the ability to service this debt load, much less meet the underlying obligations, the impossible task of maintaining a seven to ten percent annual GDP (oh no, GNP wasn’t good enough, it didn’t track consumer spending enough) was thrust upon the markets and with the help of our friendly neighborhood central bankster, went to work to achieve it. Add in the smoke and mirror arrangement constructed by the Federal Reserve and you can see how this is not going to have a happy ending.
So who is taxing the American citizenry that does not have the authority to do so you may ask? That requires a quick and dirty analysis of our currency and the $53 trillion (it’s too much work to type all those zeroes more than once) in debt and liabilities we now are beholden to. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, our dollar has experienced a depreciation of about 97% from its original value. We have changed the constitutionally mandated method of issuing currency in this nation without an amendment as intended by our founding fathers. Doubt that? Well here are the exact words from our Constitution:
Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
We have witnessed the abdication of personal responsibility in favor or servitude to the state. In this writer’s opinion, it would be fair to the currency depreciation a somewhat inflationary tax levied upon our society as well as a moral hazard. But now look at the level of debt and obligations and start thinking about that from the big picture perspective. The only way to pay off or maintain the spending levels and debt we have incurred is to monetize the debt and at a rapid pace before the rest of the world does the job of peeking behind the curtain which the American citizens refuse to do for whatever reason. Bad news Sparky; the rest of the world has taken that peek and figured out a few things:
The Federal Reserve has never been audited
The Federal Reserve has no legal liability to the customers it serves, a.k.a. the American Public
The Federal Reserve is a private corporation using policy to generate or promote monetary growth via it’s Treasury proxy. These policies often impact the consumer by destroying savings and increasing the inflation tax.
The Federal Reserve serves only the investors who own that bank, not the nation
Where as many nations have a central banking system directly accountable to legislative branch or powers restricted to the protection of the integrity of their currencies, the Federal Reserve has assumed the role of an un-elected oligarchy, which will ultimately destroy our freedoms and our nation. They are imposing an inflation tax and increasing the rate of destruction of our currency without the authority of the Constitution behind them and worse, at the expense of our citizenry to pay for decades of ignorant bliss as the party went on unimpeded. Now the bill is due and the tax rate is about to be increased dramatically as the casino on Wall Street has made so many bad bets, it requires the house to bail the players out or risk the destruction of the entire world’s financial system. This is not minor threat, but worse, it enables a far more devious threat to emerge.
1914
So what do we have to look forward to? To get some idea, let’s take a look back into history. When Europe erupted into war in 1914, ironically enough due to an act of Islamic terrorism, the United States was caught in the middle as a neutral observer. The Federal Reserve was not a functioning entity, thanks to political delays, when the war started but the U.S. Treasury and its idealistic President were ready. Instead of allowing foreigners to sell off their holdings in the American markets, the solution was simple
Close them.
That was a dangerous game but thanks to the currency provisions of the Alrdich-Vreeland Act the domestic banking system was able to avoid a repeat of 1907 and the currency crunch and uncertainty that would ensue from having our financial markets closed. This same approach could easily be employed again today. If there is a notable or sudden liquidation of our Treasury paper or equities by foreign powers along with a sudden flight of capital from our banks the easiest solution is not to just have the Federal Reserve purchase the paper, as that would require an unrealistic sudden increase in the money supply. The gradualist approach to monetization would have to be tossed out the window causing a larger problem at a sooner point in time. That alternative is unacceptable but still on the table but could appropriately be called the “nuclear option” as it would be the hyperinflationary trigger. The short term option is obvious and it is the 1914 option. That would enable the U.S. government to save face and still maintain some faith in the stability of our economy while stopping a deflationary outflow of capital that would cause an immediate collapse of our economy. Closing the markets in the name of free market capitalism (ironic isn’t it?) is the only logical solution and whatever excuse is offered as “cover” for such an action may sound drastic, but for a short term cessation of bleeding, the only reasonable course of action. How does such an action lead to a change in our nation and just what are the consequences? Read on my friends, as this is where a new nation is born.
DEATH OF A NATION
To create a new ideal, the old one must die. The concept of America must die. There are and always have been tinkering old fools who have felt that they could “adjust” or redesign America better than the founding fathers. The aristocracy of old was greatly displeased with the balance struck in the United States Constitution but this balance served the purpose of allowing their class to excel in their goals while giving the average person to succeed without the yoke of government being worn about their necks. As the participants of and investors in the modern Fiatocracy see their empire begin to flounder, the plans to revise and redesign this nation are right there in front of us, but thanks to the conspiracy theory principle, it is dismissed as unrealistic and absurd. Despite the fact that grown men dressing up in robes and burning humans in effigy in the mouth of a burning owl has been well documented and confirmed, that does not seem to strike the sheeple as critical to our future. Yet as this writer types this, these same individuals have ownership in the Federal Reserve, ownership of some of our largest financial and corporate institutions, or meet now behind closed doors to discuss the “rumored but documented” NAFTA superhighway as they are able to work in the open without scrutiny and without the authority allegedly given to the citizens of this nation in the Constitution. This is not a good sign and indicates that our nation is well on its way to passing into history as a memory.
The ability to create any new ideals or “modifications” as they shall be called, to our current system requires a breaking point, or death of the nation. There are two methods to achieve this goal and either might be acceptable but one is obviously much more practical. The first method is simply to involve a nation in an idealistic but costly war which slaughters millions of it’s citizens thus reducing the economic needs and re-balancing the supply demand curve in favor of the profiteers and political class where the numbers are much more manageable. This method is of course costly and if carried to extreme in this modern society, the physical damage to actual attacks on the homeland could put the power elite into the same risk strata as the citizens they wish to enslave. The second and most obvious solution is to bankrupt the people, not just the nation. Eliminate the financial capacity of a citizenry to survive and you own them. In the days of yore, the monarchy would simply offer an opportunity to survive by allowing the serfs to live on the land in exchange for the offerings a large percentage of the crops leaving the serfs just enough to survive. This virtual enslavement allowed one class to survive while another prospers. And this lesson in population and economic management has never been lost on the elites in society.
BIRTH OF A NATION
With the plan currently being enacted, the question becomes “What kind of nation will we look like in 20 years?” I fear we could become as drastic a head case as the 1970’s Soviet Union or worse a perpetual model of France combined with the ethnic problems of the Balkans. The withdrawal of the needle from the arm of America via the long-term extraction of capital infusion from foreign powers will leave our standard of living flailing at best and careening into levels unseen in this nation in over one hundred and fifty years if we are lucky. The inability of our society to pay its debt off at all levels and work towards self-sufficiency will create the grand political opportunity that only arrives in history maybe once every two or three centuries. This political opportunity or “third way” as it so often promoted will unfortunately allow the elitists to explode on to the scene denigrating the primitive nature and thought processes of our founding fathers and in the desperation of the moment, the citizenry will bleat right into an automatic acceptance of the changes as a “savior” of their society and the classes of people unable to cope with cyclical economic change. The new Socialism will neither call itself that nor ever openly use the terminology of the works of Marx or Lenin. The test case for this ideology is well under way in the form of Communist China attempting a mix of corporatism, communism and fascism while maintaining the illusion of free market capitalism. The theory that has been promoted over and over again by multinationals and our socialist infested State Department is that “free market capitalism promotes democracy” but in Communist China, it promotes enslavement. There are no free elections there nor truly free markets. There is no desire to allow open competition for the development of and expansion of goods and services without some degree of state control. The profits are guaranteed to insure a large percentage of funds to be allocated to increasing the ability of the military class to expand and dominate the region and the society as a whole. In the case of the United States, the military dominance is unquestioned, but the thumb of the political class does not have the reach of the Central Committee in Beijing yet. By allowing the crisis to worsen or better yet, accelerating the impacts of such a crash, much like what was accomplished in the 1930’s under FDR, the birth of a new nation can be completed under the demands of the very people who are to be enslaved. With so much of our population now dependent on government largesse, this process will be frighteningly easy to achieve.
OH AUGUSTUS, WHERE ART THO
There is but one hope and believe it or not it is in the mirror. Go look at it. And pray hard for a miracle. In Roman times after the period of the Civil Wars, there was a desire that such a great empire, militarily over-extended and rooted in democratic principles would end their infighting and bring stability back to their people at home. The citizens hoped a return to a virtuous democratic society would win out over the old ways. When Emperor Augustus took power in 31 BC, it enabled a period of relative stability and economic growth to ensue. The Empire of Rome became unified, formidable and expansive once again without the drag of the Republic’s pesky democratic principles. Unfortunately it created a new fascistic monarchy, which demonstrated its brutality and ability to dominate its citizenry and neighbors on a regular basis. It is this writer’s fear that while history may not repeat; the duplication of human foolishness will allow this to occur again. We must, as a society, pray that as the Third Way takes hold over our society that someone will take a stand against the elimination of the U.S. Constitution and the ideals of Jefferson and Hamilton. That someone will have to be a person of considerable power on the inside and willing to wear the Judas label and betray the new elite when and if they make their move. Let us hope this is a man or woman of principle and does not have a sale price like much of our society. Let us pray this happens before the title “Imperator” becomes part of our lexicon, much like the phrase novus ordo has already been accepted, denied and ignored by the masses. The consequences of failing to stop this “new order” from taking hold, as seen in history, will be fatal.
By John Galt
March 31, 2008
The Founding Fathers had a vision where individuals were allowed to use their God given freedoms to use their own creativity, their own belief systems, and their own talents to work within a Capitalist system based on the principle of freedom. This freedom extended to all aspects to each and every citizen of American life as long as it did not impair or impede on other individuals or the greater good of this nation. These freedoms and the vision our Founding Fathers had for us are now coming to a close. The abdication of the ideal known as “personal responsibility” and the application of morality in everyone’s decision making process have been delivered a fatal blow first struck some ninety-five years ago. The creation of the Federal Reserve Banking system at the behest of political idealists who wished to manage the social fabric of society as opposed to their Constitutionally mandated responsibilities were just the beginning. The series of legislative initiatives undertaken from 1910 to 1940 to complete reshape our nation under the guise of “Progressivism” was slow to come about, but it was not until this decade and the final crisis of our foolish endeavors in societal management that we shall realize the implications of that generation’s actions. Their intent was to create a system of macro economic management by government which allowed the banking system to function outside of the legal parameters of the Constitution while profiting the few and penalizing the majority for any mistakes that were made. As decades of erroneous decisions have piled up and multiplied exponentially the proverbial bill is now past due. How appropriate that a nation founded in the idealism of personal responsibility and freedom shall now depart from that path and begin a final curtain call which entails the incorporation of a vile system of Marxist theory in combination with the perversion of religion to justify the revision of our society and the behavior of it’s citizens.
Taxation Without Representation
In the 1770’s part our nation’s foundation was laid with the purpose of eliminating tyrannical leaders who impose their will without the voice of the people. The taxation of citizens to serve a “crown” was considered a barbaric relic of medieval times as serfdom was no longer accepted by “modern” society. Alas, if only old Ben Franklin could see us now. The average schmuck has been quite content for decades to accept taxation without realizing they are being taxed as it has been given the false perception of the “cost of a free society” and other such rot. Although my personal principles are somewhat Libertarian in nature, this does not mean I am advocating naked women running up and down the streets as whores like Amsterdam promotes, nor the elimination of some of the Constitutionally mandated operations of government and it’s interaction with the private citizen. Obviously it costs money to maintain the national defense, a sound judicial system and to secure a safe, consistent and fair flow of commerce. Yet the responsibilities assumed have now spread to every aspect of our lives, including and up to the examination of the sexual behavior of flies as well as the willingness or ability of each citizen to educate their children in a manner (or religious principle) that they see fit. Alas, to become a “nanny state” costs considerably more than just the income tax structure we have in place now. So what is our poor government to do?
After the 1916 income tax solution opened the door, the U.S. government and it’s minions started looking for other taxation solutions to insure that the American people were married to their ideals through the concept of entitlements. That solution did not really take hold until the Great Depression created a nation of sheep willing to accept whatever solutions were provided to insure that the average citizen always had a roof over their head, a meal, a job, a car, a Playstation III, a vacation in Cancun, etc., etc. As the real levels of taxation on corporations (who just pass it on to the customer) and citizens skyrocketed via income taxes, fees, etc. the stress on government has become so great that running a debt on an annualized basis became commonplace and once the banksters and the government figured out that the U.S. was “too big to fail” and that the average citizen would rather be fat, dumb and happy rather than worry about the consequences of their actions, the game was on.
The spending on everything and anything was acceptable and by manipulating the accounting regulations the Congress and Senate could cut deals, make huge profits for themselves via the lobbying system, and create a dependency class that could be further expanded as long as the banksters played along by assuring the public that the integrity of our markets would never be unscathed and unending sources of profit and liquidity would be available as long as everyone played along and didn’t bother to look behind the curtain. Unfortunately for the elitists, people began to peek and worse, people began to worry as the liabilities of this nation were at a staggering $20,000,000,000,000 plus in 2000 and has more than doubled to a blow-one’s-brains-out-if-you-think-about-it-too-much $53,000,000,000,000 plus now. To maintain the ability to service this debt load, much less meet the underlying obligations, the impossible task of maintaining a seven to ten percent annual GDP (oh no, GNP wasn’t good enough, it didn’t track consumer spending enough) was thrust upon the markets and with the help of our friendly neighborhood central bankster, went to work to achieve it. Add in the smoke and mirror arrangement constructed by the Federal Reserve and you can see how this is not going to have a happy ending.
So who is taxing the American citizenry that does not have the authority to do so you may ask? That requires a quick and dirty analysis of our currency and the $53 trillion (it’s too much work to type all those zeroes more than once) in debt and liabilities we now are beholden to. Since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, our dollar has experienced a depreciation of about 97% from its original value. We have changed the constitutionally mandated method of issuing currency in this nation without an amendment as intended by our founding fathers. Doubt that? Well here are the exact words from our Constitution:
Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
We have witnessed the abdication of personal responsibility in favor or servitude to the state. In this writer’s opinion, it would be fair to the currency depreciation a somewhat inflationary tax levied upon our society as well as a moral hazard. But now look at the level of debt and obligations and start thinking about that from the big picture perspective. The only way to pay off or maintain the spending levels and debt we have incurred is to monetize the debt and at a rapid pace before the rest of the world does the job of peeking behind the curtain which the American citizens refuse to do for whatever reason. Bad news Sparky; the rest of the world has taken that peek and figured out a few things:
The Federal Reserve has never been audited
The Federal Reserve has no legal liability to the customers it serves, a.k.a. the American Public
The Federal Reserve is a private corporation using policy to generate or promote monetary growth via it’s Treasury proxy. These policies often impact the consumer by destroying savings and increasing the inflation tax.
The Federal Reserve serves only the investors who own that bank, not the nation
Where as many nations have a central banking system directly accountable to legislative branch or powers restricted to the protection of the integrity of their currencies, the Federal Reserve has assumed the role of an un-elected oligarchy, which will ultimately destroy our freedoms and our nation. They are imposing an inflation tax and increasing the rate of destruction of our currency without the authority of the Constitution behind them and worse, at the expense of our citizenry to pay for decades of ignorant bliss as the party went on unimpeded. Now the bill is due and the tax rate is about to be increased dramatically as the casino on Wall Street has made so many bad bets, it requires the house to bail the players out or risk the destruction of the entire world’s financial system. This is not minor threat, but worse, it enables a far more devious threat to emerge.
1914
So what do we have to look forward to? To get some idea, let’s take a look back into history. When Europe erupted into war in 1914, ironically enough due to an act of Islamic terrorism, the United States was caught in the middle as a neutral observer. The Federal Reserve was not a functioning entity, thanks to political delays, when the war started but the U.S. Treasury and its idealistic President were ready. Instead of allowing foreigners to sell off their holdings in the American markets, the solution was simple
Close them.
That was a dangerous game but thanks to the currency provisions of the Alrdich-Vreeland Act the domestic banking system was able to avoid a repeat of 1907 and the currency crunch and uncertainty that would ensue from having our financial markets closed. This same approach could easily be employed again today. If there is a notable or sudden liquidation of our Treasury paper or equities by foreign powers along with a sudden flight of capital from our banks the easiest solution is not to just have the Federal Reserve purchase the paper, as that would require an unrealistic sudden increase in the money supply. The gradualist approach to monetization would have to be tossed out the window causing a larger problem at a sooner point in time. That alternative is unacceptable but still on the table but could appropriately be called the “nuclear option” as it would be the hyperinflationary trigger. The short term option is obvious and it is the 1914 option. That would enable the U.S. government to save face and still maintain some faith in the stability of our economy while stopping a deflationary outflow of capital that would cause an immediate collapse of our economy. Closing the markets in the name of free market capitalism (ironic isn’t it?) is the only logical solution and whatever excuse is offered as “cover” for such an action may sound drastic, but for a short term cessation of bleeding, the only reasonable course of action. How does such an action lead to a change in our nation and just what are the consequences? Read on my friends, as this is where a new nation is born.
DEATH OF A NATION
To create a new ideal, the old one must die. The concept of America must die. There are and always have been tinkering old fools who have felt that they could “adjust” or redesign America better than the founding fathers. The aristocracy of old was greatly displeased with the balance struck in the United States Constitution but this balance served the purpose of allowing their class to excel in their goals while giving the average person to succeed without the yoke of government being worn about their necks. As the participants of and investors in the modern Fiatocracy see their empire begin to flounder, the plans to revise and redesign this nation are right there in front of us, but thanks to the conspiracy theory principle, it is dismissed as unrealistic and absurd. Despite the fact that grown men dressing up in robes and burning humans in effigy in the mouth of a burning owl has been well documented and confirmed, that does not seem to strike the sheeple as critical to our future. Yet as this writer types this, these same individuals have ownership in the Federal Reserve, ownership of some of our largest financial and corporate institutions, or meet now behind closed doors to discuss the “rumored but documented” NAFTA superhighway as they are able to work in the open without scrutiny and without the authority allegedly given to the citizens of this nation in the Constitution. This is not a good sign and indicates that our nation is well on its way to passing into history as a memory.
The ability to create any new ideals or “modifications” as they shall be called, to our current system requires a breaking point, or death of the nation. There are two methods to achieve this goal and either might be acceptable but one is obviously much more practical. The first method is simply to involve a nation in an idealistic but costly war which slaughters millions of it’s citizens thus reducing the economic needs and re-balancing the supply demand curve in favor of the profiteers and political class where the numbers are much more manageable. This method is of course costly and if carried to extreme in this modern society, the physical damage to actual attacks on the homeland could put the power elite into the same risk strata as the citizens they wish to enslave. The second and most obvious solution is to bankrupt the people, not just the nation. Eliminate the financial capacity of a citizenry to survive and you own them. In the days of yore, the monarchy would simply offer an opportunity to survive by allowing the serfs to live on the land in exchange for the offerings a large percentage of the crops leaving the serfs just enough to survive. This virtual enslavement allowed one class to survive while another prospers. And this lesson in population and economic management has never been lost on the elites in society.
BIRTH OF A NATION
With the plan currently being enacted, the question becomes “What kind of nation will we look like in 20 years?” I fear we could become as drastic a head case as the 1970’s Soviet Union or worse a perpetual model of France combined with the ethnic problems of the Balkans. The withdrawal of the needle from the arm of America via the long-term extraction of capital infusion from foreign powers will leave our standard of living flailing at best and careening into levels unseen in this nation in over one hundred and fifty years if we are lucky. The inability of our society to pay its debt off at all levels and work towards self-sufficiency will create the grand political opportunity that only arrives in history maybe once every two or three centuries. This political opportunity or “third way” as it so often promoted will unfortunately allow the elitists to explode on to the scene denigrating the primitive nature and thought processes of our founding fathers and in the desperation of the moment, the citizenry will bleat right into an automatic acceptance of the changes as a “savior” of their society and the classes of people unable to cope with cyclical economic change. The new Socialism will neither call itself that nor ever openly use the terminology of the works of Marx or Lenin. The test case for this ideology is well under way in the form of Communist China attempting a mix of corporatism, communism and fascism while maintaining the illusion of free market capitalism. The theory that has been promoted over and over again by multinationals and our socialist infested State Department is that “free market capitalism promotes democracy” but in Communist China, it promotes enslavement. There are no free elections there nor truly free markets. There is no desire to allow open competition for the development of and expansion of goods and services without some degree of state control. The profits are guaranteed to insure a large percentage of funds to be allocated to increasing the ability of the military class to expand and dominate the region and the society as a whole. In the case of the United States, the military dominance is unquestioned, but the thumb of the political class does not have the reach of the Central Committee in Beijing yet. By allowing the crisis to worsen or better yet, accelerating the impacts of such a crash, much like what was accomplished in the 1930’s under FDR, the birth of a new nation can be completed under the demands of the very people who are to be enslaved. With so much of our population now dependent on government largesse, this process will be frighteningly easy to achieve.
OH AUGUSTUS, WHERE ART THO
There is but one hope and believe it or not it is in the mirror. Go look at it. And pray hard for a miracle. In Roman times after the period of the Civil Wars, there was a desire that such a great empire, militarily over-extended and rooted in democratic principles would end their infighting and bring stability back to their people at home. The citizens hoped a return to a virtuous democratic society would win out over the old ways. When Emperor Augustus took power in 31 BC, it enabled a period of relative stability and economic growth to ensue. The Empire of Rome became unified, formidable and expansive once again without the drag of the Republic’s pesky democratic principles. Unfortunately it created a new fascistic monarchy, which demonstrated its brutality and ability to dominate its citizenry and neighbors on a regular basis. It is this writer’s fear that while history may not repeat; the duplication of human foolishness will allow this to occur again. We must, as a society, pray that as the Third Way takes hold over our society that someone will take a stand against the elimination of the U.S. Constitution and the ideals of Jefferson and Hamilton. That someone will have to be a person of considerable power on the inside and willing to wear the Judas label and betray the new elite when and if they make their move. Let us hope this is a man or woman of principle and does not have a sale price like much of our society. Let us pray this happens before the title “Imperator” becomes part of our lexicon, much like the phrase novus ordo has already been accepted, denied and ignored by the masses. The consequences of failing to stop this “new order” from taking hold, as seen in history, will be fatal.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Implosion is Accelerating, Prepare While you can
March 15, 2008
By Greg Evensen
News With Views
For thirty years, I have been writing, speaking, imploring, and begging others to make rational, concrete plans for a time in life that would offer no quarter, give no mercy, and that would in a word be--catastrophic. We are coming face to face with that moment. You have so little time left to do anything that will give you a fighting chance. What are you doing?
National Guard units are training and preparing for urban combat. The United States has just reached an agreement with Canada’s armed forces to come in to this country and assume combat roles should they be needed in American cities and towns. The Federal Reserve’s last ditch effort to stem the “blood loss” in the sub-prime and other currency markets has failed. The dollar has been abandoned for Euros. The stock market can’t find its ass with both hands and a Chinese made, Wal-Mart sold ass finder. Israel has demanded that all of the financial aid it receives from Washington (that’s us) be paid for in Euros. The ultimate irony and slap in the face. Oil, dairy, wheat, wheat products, gold, silver, copper prices, the list goes on and on, are racing for the stratosphere with no end in sight. An implosion has begun and it has no known method of stopping or reversing until critical mass is reached. It will be followed by an explosion in the economy and the political realm unseen since the founding of this nation.
The ultimate tragedy is, this was preventable. It could have been slowed or reversed at any time if a courageous and morally upright Congress had revealed the root causes for the disaster. If the socialist “generals” in Congress had been defeated or at least their programs thrown out at the time of their introduction, billions would have been saved. If the truth and our first president, General George Washington’s advice had been followed, every conflict since WWII would have been avoided. During the past 60 years, 120,000 American soldiers would have survived, 500,000 would have been physically uninjured, and two trillion in direct costs and the rehabilitation money grants to former enemies would have been saved.
The size of the federal government would be less than half of what it is today, the budget of the US government would be about 500 billion as opposed to two and one half trillion on a yearly basis and we would most likely be at relative peace. Lack of foolish and unnecessary regulations, taxes, and frivolous lawsuits, would have allowed an explosion of small businesses to thrive. The lack of a Federal Reserve System would have allowed the United States to remain a creditor nation based on assets rather than suffering under a crushing debt imposed by the feds dictatorial control over the people’s treasury. There are so many reasons why we could have avoided all of this. Thousands of perfectly good reasons IF employed by thousands of honest, moral, representatives who simply could have done the citizen’s business the way God and sound governmental practices demanded ---would have, should have, and could have made the critical difference.
Instead, we saw year after year, decade after decade, and now century after century of greed, bring ultimate ruin to this marvelous nation called America. Although we did not want it, we have allowed it to happen. It resolves nothing and does not buy us a way out, but we must accept our responsibility for this debacle and now prepare for what is coming.
Friends, you must begin NOW if you have not done so, to protect yourselves and your family from this pending---as the disaster movies call it---“extinction level event” for our former way of life. If you hesitate, you will be caught in the maelstrom that is the next six months to five years of life in the US. Pick your poison. If you like global warming and believe that is going to do you in, well then, build a refrigerated secure basement. If you like the Planet X scenario, then prepare for 800 mph winds and basically a “pole shift” that will leave nothing at all. If you live in a nuclear target city, or worse yet (worse??) yes, in a sanctuary city, then get out and get out quickly. Here is what you must do.
Consider geography carefully. I don’t care where you live now, choose your “Ride & Hide” (ride it out and hide from the enemy—you pick ‘em) location with great wisdom. Coasts are bad, arid regions are bad, rural northern and mountainous regions are the best. Why? Fewer people mean fewer morons to deal with. Weather considerations, wild game availability, timber resources, fresh water, tillable soil, survival off the utility grid is doable, herding small numbers of livestock is possible, also grazing horses can be kept. Being at least 50 miles from the nearest interstate or major highway is preferable, the same with commercial airports and nuke plants. Holing up with really close friends or family is the ultimate best so that expenses, work loads and practical skills are shared to your best advantage. Be ready to leave your city home with only one or two hours alert time. You may not even have that. Practice getting home, loading, and leaving at least once. Notify only those in your group that would be affected. Tell no one else what you are doing. Keep your gas tank full and an extra 5-10 gallons.
Securing the land with a rugged structure(s) and reinforced underground shelter can be expensive, however; it is an absolute. Stocking that domicile with stores of enduring foods, food components (flour, raw sugar, yeast, salt, etc.) medicines or natural remedies (apple vinegar, honey, olive leaf extract, etc.) an electric generator and at least 500 gallons of diesel, 100 gallons of kerosene for lamps, tools-------you know the drill. There are many sites available to assist you in stockpiling long term necessities right at NWV.
You will be happy to know that your government in Washington has assisted these efforts to protect your family from ANY kind of disaster by making it a felony to harbor many items (as listed in the Patriot Act II). You know, be wise, be prepared, but if you go more than a week’s worth, we’ll put you in one of 800 non-existent Halliburton model “stay for a while, we’ll leave the lights on ” Washington style long term family “vacation” detention campsites built with illegal or prison labor, right here in the good old US of A.
Moving your money freely will become even more difficult as banks begin to restrict the amounts that can be transferred from savings accounts and other short-term investment vehicles under their immediate control. Using personal checks outside of your own community will become increasingly difficult, soon. Bank drafts or money orders will do for a while, but many real estate, large business or supply companies will require that you jump over difficult hurdles so that they are not left to chase you down for payment.
Securing advance amounts of medical supplies, especially prescriptions and antibiotics (Tami flu, Amoxicillin, Keflexin, etc.) will be very difficult as most insurance companies will only reimburse for 30 days or less. If you have any serious dental issues, (abscessed teeth), surgeries, glasses or other necessary medical needs, get them done, now.
Consider transferring available 401K, IRA accounts, or other liquid plans into gold or silver before their availability or price are literally beyond reach. A penalty for withdrawal is not desirable, but highly preferable to empty or inaccessible accounts next month or whenever.
Have GPS chips removed from your newer vehicles, laptops if possible, and prepare to leave your cell phones in the lake 100 miles from your retreat. Leave your ID chipped pets at the humane society and any animals you raise for food consumption must be newly born and chip free (many good patriots are telling the state and federal USDA to, well, you know, but that won’t last much longer as most states are going into compliance regardless of what the law says, the constitution says, common sense says or what God himself says. The same is true with the REAL ID. That card is also becoming, state by state, the final nail in the coffin of personal liberty. Consider it the mark of the beast (I don’t know if it is, but it could be). The personal ID chip is without a doubt that mark, I personally believe. I will not UNDER ANY CICUMSTANCES take that chip, no matter what it ultimately costs me. That is why, among many reasons listed here, common sense and the urgency that is coming at you like the freight train from Hell, you must complete your personal retreat plans, NOW.
Are you getting the picture dear friends? Laugh at me if you will. Marginalize me and others who are begging you to make this effort while you can, but hear this: IF YOU ARE CAUGHT IN A CITY OR WITHOUT THE MOST BASIC OF NEEDS, YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE A CRISES.
That is the absolute truth and the absolute facts of life. You will be among the first victims of the event or its immediate aftermath. Roving gangs of real pirates and sadistic tormentors will only seal your fate in a most cruel fashion.
Ask yourself this single question. What do you have now that is so worth keeping (suburb mortgaged home, SUV, boat, hockey equipment, a JOB that is killing you, etc.) over your life and that of your family? Is your morning cup of Starbucks worth this effort? For God’s sake, WAKE UP!! If you haven’t really cared who or what the Federal Reserve is, well, don’t worry about it now. Just get your money out and do something with it while you can. If you haven’t followed the presidential debates, then don’t watch them now, either. Decide for yourself what you are going to do for your family and this nation by becoming independent and “free” in spite of this and the world government’s absolute determination to rule you completely and forever. Can you let go of football and beer long enough to answer that single question? I’m ready, some of you are ready, many of you are not. If you refuse to get ready, then I bid you farewell. You were never my fellow countryman to begin with. God help you.
Your last consideration must be in terms of self-defense. This will draw the ire of many morons who were just waiting for this. To you, I say, don’t ever buy a gun. You would only eventually supply a criminal with one more weapon. To everyone else, think shotgun, first. A 12 gauge, 20 inch rifled barrel chambered for 3” shells. Buy at least 1000 rounds of OO Buckshot for defense, 1000 rounds of slugs for large game, and 1000 rounds of #6 shot for small game and birds. These are all round good loads for most situations. Professional hunters may argue a bit, but I tell you from experience hunting and in law enforcement, this will do it. The make of the weapon is your choice, but I would stick with Remington or Mossberg as my first pick. There are others, check with a reputable sporting store to assist you. A Ruger .22 rifle and a 1000 rounds will do for quieter small game. A .308 and 500 rounds will do for long range whatever you need to do shooting—if you get my drift.
A Ruger Mini-14 rancher model chambering .223 with several 20 or 30 round clips and 1000 rounds will be good for when you are outnumbered, and a .45 Government model Kimber or Springfield Armory pistol with 10, 10 round clips and 1000 rounds will do you well. That’s roughly $4500 worth of weaponry. Cheap in defense of all that you have. A good four wheeled vehicle of any kind for off road use rounds you out. I’m pretty good at spending your money, hmm? Forget the vacation that would have cost you that anyway. Forget the new $50,000 truck that you just couldn’t live without. You will LIVE if you use that money wisely. You have just weeks or a few months—MAYBE—to be positioned for any possibility. Natural or manmade. If I am wrong, sell it in a couple of years to someone who still sees the need and you’ll be free to be at risk again.
This is the article that many of you have been pleading with me to write for over six months. I did not want to present it prematurely and yet it’s anybody’s guess as to when it will be too late. There is a risk for the writer of such messages. The risk is that many will still ignore it, stick their heads in a little deeper or laugh nervously as they dismiss the content with, “he’s a typical right-wing worrier, this just can’t happen.” Well, I pray to God Almighty you are right and I am wrong. But then again, no matter what happens, I’m ready, my family and I have a good chance………………..are you ready, do you have any chance at all?
© 2008 Greg Evensen - All Rights Reserved
http://www.newswithviews.com/Evensen/greg26.htm
By Greg Evensen
News With Views
For thirty years, I have been writing, speaking, imploring, and begging others to make rational, concrete plans for a time in life that would offer no quarter, give no mercy, and that would in a word be--catastrophic. We are coming face to face with that moment. You have so little time left to do anything that will give you a fighting chance. What are you doing?
National Guard units are training and preparing for urban combat. The United States has just reached an agreement with Canada’s armed forces to come in to this country and assume combat roles should they be needed in American cities and towns. The Federal Reserve’s last ditch effort to stem the “blood loss” in the sub-prime and other currency markets has failed. The dollar has been abandoned for Euros. The stock market can’t find its ass with both hands and a Chinese made, Wal-Mart sold ass finder. Israel has demanded that all of the financial aid it receives from Washington (that’s us) be paid for in Euros. The ultimate irony and slap in the face. Oil, dairy, wheat, wheat products, gold, silver, copper prices, the list goes on and on, are racing for the stratosphere with no end in sight. An implosion has begun and it has no known method of stopping or reversing until critical mass is reached. It will be followed by an explosion in the economy and the political realm unseen since the founding of this nation.
The ultimate tragedy is, this was preventable. It could have been slowed or reversed at any time if a courageous and morally upright Congress had revealed the root causes for the disaster. If the socialist “generals” in Congress had been defeated or at least their programs thrown out at the time of their introduction, billions would have been saved. If the truth and our first president, General George Washington’s advice had been followed, every conflict since WWII would have been avoided. During the past 60 years, 120,000 American soldiers would have survived, 500,000 would have been physically uninjured, and two trillion in direct costs and the rehabilitation money grants to former enemies would have been saved.
The size of the federal government would be less than half of what it is today, the budget of the US government would be about 500 billion as opposed to two and one half trillion on a yearly basis and we would most likely be at relative peace. Lack of foolish and unnecessary regulations, taxes, and frivolous lawsuits, would have allowed an explosion of small businesses to thrive. The lack of a Federal Reserve System would have allowed the United States to remain a creditor nation based on assets rather than suffering under a crushing debt imposed by the feds dictatorial control over the people’s treasury. There are so many reasons why we could have avoided all of this. Thousands of perfectly good reasons IF employed by thousands of honest, moral, representatives who simply could have done the citizen’s business the way God and sound governmental practices demanded ---would have, should have, and could have made the critical difference.
Instead, we saw year after year, decade after decade, and now century after century of greed, bring ultimate ruin to this marvelous nation called America. Although we did not want it, we have allowed it to happen. It resolves nothing and does not buy us a way out, but we must accept our responsibility for this debacle and now prepare for what is coming.
Friends, you must begin NOW if you have not done so, to protect yourselves and your family from this pending---as the disaster movies call it---“extinction level event” for our former way of life. If you hesitate, you will be caught in the maelstrom that is the next six months to five years of life in the US. Pick your poison. If you like global warming and believe that is going to do you in, well then, build a refrigerated secure basement. If you like the Planet X scenario, then prepare for 800 mph winds and basically a “pole shift” that will leave nothing at all. If you live in a nuclear target city, or worse yet (worse??) yes, in a sanctuary city, then get out and get out quickly. Here is what you must do.
Consider geography carefully. I don’t care where you live now, choose your “Ride & Hide” (ride it out and hide from the enemy—you pick ‘em) location with great wisdom. Coasts are bad, arid regions are bad, rural northern and mountainous regions are the best. Why? Fewer people mean fewer morons to deal with. Weather considerations, wild game availability, timber resources, fresh water, tillable soil, survival off the utility grid is doable, herding small numbers of livestock is possible, also grazing horses can be kept. Being at least 50 miles from the nearest interstate or major highway is preferable, the same with commercial airports and nuke plants. Holing up with really close friends or family is the ultimate best so that expenses, work loads and practical skills are shared to your best advantage. Be ready to leave your city home with only one or two hours alert time. You may not even have that. Practice getting home, loading, and leaving at least once. Notify only those in your group that would be affected. Tell no one else what you are doing. Keep your gas tank full and an extra 5-10 gallons.
Securing the land with a rugged structure(s) and reinforced underground shelter can be expensive, however; it is an absolute. Stocking that domicile with stores of enduring foods, food components (flour, raw sugar, yeast, salt, etc.) medicines or natural remedies (apple vinegar, honey, olive leaf extract, etc.) an electric generator and at least 500 gallons of diesel, 100 gallons of kerosene for lamps, tools-------you know the drill. There are many sites available to assist you in stockpiling long term necessities right at NWV.
You will be happy to know that your government in Washington has assisted these efforts to protect your family from ANY kind of disaster by making it a felony to harbor many items (as listed in the Patriot Act II). You know, be wise, be prepared, but if you go more than a week’s worth, we’ll put you in one of 800 non-existent Halliburton model “stay for a while, we’ll leave the lights on ” Washington style long term family “vacation” detention campsites built with illegal or prison labor, right here in the good old US of A.
Moving your money freely will become even more difficult as banks begin to restrict the amounts that can be transferred from savings accounts and other short-term investment vehicles under their immediate control. Using personal checks outside of your own community will become increasingly difficult, soon. Bank drafts or money orders will do for a while, but many real estate, large business or supply companies will require that you jump over difficult hurdles so that they are not left to chase you down for payment.
Securing advance amounts of medical supplies, especially prescriptions and antibiotics (Tami flu, Amoxicillin, Keflexin, etc.) will be very difficult as most insurance companies will only reimburse for 30 days or less. If you have any serious dental issues, (abscessed teeth), surgeries, glasses or other necessary medical needs, get them done, now.
Consider transferring available 401K, IRA accounts, or other liquid plans into gold or silver before their availability or price are literally beyond reach. A penalty for withdrawal is not desirable, but highly preferable to empty or inaccessible accounts next month or whenever.
Have GPS chips removed from your newer vehicles, laptops if possible, and prepare to leave your cell phones in the lake 100 miles from your retreat. Leave your ID chipped pets at the humane society and any animals you raise for food consumption must be newly born and chip free (many good patriots are telling the state and federal USDA to, well, you know, but that won’t last much longer as most states are going into compliance regardless of what the law says, the constitution says, common sense says or what God himself says. The same is true with the REAL ID. That card is also becoming, state by state, the final nail in the coffin of personal liberty. Consider it the mark of the beast (I don’t know if it is, but it could be). The personal ID chip is without a doubt that mark, I personally believe. I will not UNDER ANY CICUMSTANCES take that chip, no matter what it ultimately costs me. That is why, among many reasons listed here, common sense and the urgency that is coming at you like the freight train from Hell, you must complete your personal retreat plans, NOW.
Are you getting the picture dear friends? Laugh at me if you will. Marginalize me and others who are begging you to make this effort while you can, but hear this: IF YOU ARE CAUGHT IN A CITY OR WITHOUT THE MOST BASIC OF NEEDS, YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE A CRISES.
That is the absolute truth and the absolute facts of life. You will be among the first victims of the event or its immediate aftermath. Roving gangs of real pirates and sadistic tormentors will only seal your fate in a most cruel fashion.
Ask yourself this single question. What do you have now that is so worth keeping (suburb mortgaged home, SUV, boat, hockey equipment, a JOB that is killing you, etc.) over your life and that of your family? Is your morning cup of Starbucks worth this effort? For God’s sake, WAKE UP!! If you haven’t really cared who or what the Federal Reserve is, well, don’t worry about it now. Just get your money out and do something with it while you can. If you haven’t followed the presidential debates, then don’t watch them now, either. Decide for yourself what you are going to do for your family and this nation by becoming independent and “free” in spite of this and the world government’s absolute determination to rule you completely and forever. Can you let go of football and beer long enough to answer that single question? I’m ready, some of you are ready, many of you are not. If you refuse to get ready, then I bid you farewell. You were never my fellow countryman to begin with. God help you.
Your last consideration must be in terms of self-defense. This will draw the ire of many morons who were just waiting for this. To you, I say, don’t ever buy a gun. You would only eventually supply a criminal with one more weapon. To everyone else, think shotgun, first. A 12 gauge, 20 inch rifled barrel chambered for 3” shells. Buy at least 1000 rounds of OO Buckshot for defense, 1000 rounds of slugs for large game, and 1000 rounds of #6 shot for small game and birds. These are all round good loads for most situations. Professional hunters may argue a bit, but I tell you from experience hunting and in law enforcement, this will do it. The make of the weapon is your choice, but I would stick with Remington or Mossberg as my first pick. There are others, check with a reputable sporting store to assist you. A Ruger .22 rifle and a 1000 rounds will do for quieter small game. A .308 and 500 rounds will do for long range whatever you need to do shooting—if you get my drift.
A Ruger Mini-14 rancher model chambering .223 with several 20 or 30 round clips and 1000 rounds will be good for when you are outnumbered, and a .45 Government model Kimber or Springfield Armory pistol with 10, 10 round clips and 1000 rounds will do you well. That’s roughly $4500 worth of weaponry. Cheap in defense of all that you have. A good four wheeled vehicle of any kind for off road use rounds you out. I’m pretty good at spending your money, hmm? Forget the vacation that would have cost you that anyway. Forget the new $50,000 truck that you just couldn’t live without. You will LIVE if you use that money wisely. You have just weeks or a few months—MAYBE—to be positioned for any possibility. Natural or manmade. If I am wrong, sell it in a couple of years to someone who still sees the need and you’ll be free to be at risk again.
This is the article that many of you have been pleading with me to write for over six months. I did not want to present it prematurely and yet it’s anybody’s guess as to when it will be too late. There is a risk for the writer of such messages. The risk is that many will still ignore it, stick their heads in a little deeper or laugh nervously as they dismiss the content with, “he’s a typical right-wing worrier, this just can’t happen.” Well, I pray to God Almighty you are right and I am wrong. But then again, no matter what happens, I’m ready, my family and I have a good chance………………..are you ready, do you have any chance at all?
© 2008 Greg Evensen - All Rights Reserved
http://www.newswithviews.com/Evensen/greg26.htm
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
US can attack Russia in 2012-2015 : Russian military analyst claims
world-news
US can attack Russia in 2012-2015 : Russian military analyst
Moscow, Feb 23: After 2012-2015, the US will be able to annihilate Russian strategic nuclear forces by a non-nuclear pre-emptive strike.
''I declare that the likelihood of a military threat is great as never before now,'' Mr Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice-president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told Interfax AVN military news agency today.
Mr Sivkov said Western military experts had recently started to talk about the possibility of attacking Russia and annexing its territory.
''Russia is supposed to be dismembered into three parts, with the Western part going to the European Union, the central part and Siberia to the US, and the eastern to China,'' he said, adding that ''This is a rough scenario''.
Russian armed forces would be unable to successfully counter an aggression, he noted.
''At present, the conventional armed forces cannot properly perform their duties in a regional war, like the Great Patriotic War, even in theory,'' he pointed out.
''Even if fully deployed, their potential is limited even in local wars. The only factor that deters the US now is the nuclear arsenal, '' Mr Sivkov said.
--- UNI
US can attack Russia in 2012-2015 : Russian military analyst
Moscow, Feb 23: After 2012-2015, the US will be able to annihilate Russian strategic nuclear forces by a non-nuclear pre-emptive strike.
''I declare that the likelihood of a military threat is great as never before now,'' Mr Konstantin Sivkov, the first vice-president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told Interfax AVN military news agency today.
Mr Sivkov said Western military experts had recently started to talk about the possibility of attacking Russia and annexing its territory.
''Russia is supposed to be dismembered into three parts, with the Western part going to the European Union, the central part and Siberia to the US, and the eastern to China,'' he said, adding that ''This is a rough scenario''.
Russian armed forces would be unable to successfully counter an aggression, he noted.
''At present, the conventional armed forces cannot properly perform their duties in a regional war, like the Great Patriotic War, even in theory,'' he pointed out.
''Even if fully deployed, their potential is limited even in local wars. The only factor that deters the US now is the nuclear arsenal, '' Mr Sivkov said.
--- UNI
Friday, February 22, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The weakened American soul By: Olavo de Carvalho
A (rare) translated article from Olavo. Thanks to Donald Hank and Don Laigles
"Olavo de Carvalho is a respected journalist with a wide following in his native Brazil and an increasingly popular public speaker in this country. Mr. Carvalho provided Laigle's Forum readers with an eye-opening article on the CFR and the Forum of Sao Paolo back on May 27, 2006.
The weakened American soul
By Olavo de Carvalho
From Diario de Comercio, Jan 14, 2008
The dominant discourse in the mainstream media, show business and universities in the USA today is so frankly anti-American that it is only in details of style - if that - that it can be distinguished from the defamation campaigns undertaken by the USSR in the 50s and 60s. The American elite boasts of having won the Cold War, but it seems as if it was dominated psychologically by the vanquished enemy and wound up believing everything the enemy said against it. The posthumous vengeance of the Soviets gleams in the pages of the New York Times, at prime time on CBS, and in the films by Michael Moore and George Clooney with a splendor that not even Willi Muenzenberg, the genius of communist disinformation, would have dared dream of.
Whatever is said against the American government, against the American military, and against American culture, seems to enjoy automatic credibility today, so much so that it can be shouted from the rooftops without the least fear of an exasperated response, to the extent that any pro-American word must be prefaced with politically correct precautions for fear of the inevitable and vociferous retaliation, if not of a lawsuit. To follow the American debate is to confirm daily the prophetic sense of the verse by William Butler Yeats: "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Something has changed radically in the heart of America in the second half of the 20th century, and has changed precisely in the direction in which the country's bitterest enemies would have wanted it to change.
How was this possible? The agents of change want us to believe that it was all a spontaneous, natural and inevitable process, lending the course of the transformation the authority of an impersonal historic law that only the small minded reactionary would dare to question. But many years ago I realized that impersonal laws of history are almost always mere camouflage for human actions that want to pass unperceived so that their effects take on an aura of divine mystery.
The change that weakened the American soul was precipitated by three major disinformation operations that, because they were launched from Washington and not from Moscow, managed to deceive the entire nation and forge a new "common sense" (in the Gramscian sense of the word), whose influence not even the most conservative and patriotic completely escape. On these three occasions, the lies carefully elaborated by the government itself to cast onto the United States the blame for the malicious actions of its enemies not only became official truth, uniformly repeated today by the media and the education system, but spread around the world, creating the monstrously deformed image that today feeds and legitimizes anti-American hatred everywhere. It may seem absurd that government officials would choose to participate in the defamation of their own country to avoid problems with the USSR or to save their own electoral image, but that is exactly what three American presidents did, two of which, ironically, are portrayed by leftist rhetoric as exemplary embodiments of anti-communism and "Yankee imperialism."
The three operations were conceived in the high spheres of the Democratic Party, but at least one of them had intense Republican collaboration. Three recently published books, one of which I already commented on here and the other I mentioned in passing, finally reveal what happened behind the scenes on these occasions, the incredible machinations of politicians and journalists, who for the sake of short-term gains, unhesitatingly favored the enemy and bequeathed to future generations an increasingly morally weakened country.
The first of these episodes was the operation carried out by the Truman administration — and faithfully pursued by Eisenhower — to deny or cover up the massive presence of Soviet agents in high posts of the American government, particularly in the State Department, and also in technical and administrative functions, where they had access to secret information of a military nature.
This story is told in detail with extensive documentation by M. Stanton Evans in "Black Listed by History. The Untold Story of Senator Joseph MacCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies," New York, Crown forum 2007. If you can't read the book, you can listen to a good resume presented by the author at the Heritage Foundation, with a commentary by Herbert Rommerstein, the one personally responsible for major investigations into Soviet infiltration in the USA (see Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy).
To get an idea of the strategic risks involved in this situation, suffice to say that practically the entire tone of North American policy in China during the communist revolution was set on the basis of reports fabricated by Soviet agents who infiltrated the American diplomatic service in Beijing. By means of prodigious falsifications, these agents managed to persuade the Washington government to withhold needed aid from their ally Chiang Kai-shek and support the communist troops of Mao Zedong, who without this would never have managed to overthrow the Chinese government and install the bloodiest of genocidal dictatorships the world had ever known. American Ambassador Patrick Hurley saw through the ruse and warned Washington in time, but his messages were ignored. Feeling sullied, Hurley asked to be relieved of his post and was replaced by General George Marshall, who believed in these stories as if they had been revealed gospel. Marshall was not procommunist, obviously, but if his behavior in this case was not a clear-cut example of what Eric Voegelin called "criminal stupidity," I don't know what could fit that category. Following the record genocide of 70 million people, the Chinese government, having accumulated atomic bombs with the money generously supplied by American investors, is today the number one security risk for the USA.
Alerted to these and other innumerable cases of Soviet infiltration, the Truman administration opted to kill the messenger, and did everything it could to give the impression that the only serious danger for America was anti-communism, particularly that of Senator Joe McCarthy, whose demonized image still remains vivid in world memory. To obtain this result, Harry Truman's shock troops unhesitatingly covered up the essential documents, which, revealed only now, show that, in essence, all the accusations made by McCarthy were true and even modest in comparison to the real dimensions of the problem. Besides suppressing evidence and protecting itself behind false testimonies, the Truman administration, instead of dismissing the suspects, preferred to support their careers, enabling them to rise in the hierarchy and continue offering services to the Soviet dictatorship with American taxpayer money.
An entire culture of anti-McCarthyism, supported by textbooks, cinema and journalism, grew out of this enterprise of intentional falsification. The consequences of this extend to the present day, making Americans, repenting of sins they never committed against communists, sense greater fear of a possible "return to the McCarthy era" than of a joint assault of Chinese generals and Islamic radicals.
I see the second episode of the series when Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Not only the White House but also the CIA and the FBI knew that Oswald was a fanatical communist and that his intention in shooting Kennedy was to frustrate any American initiative against Fidel Castro's dictatorship. Chilled at the prospects of a national outbreak of anti-Communist revolt targeting the Democratic Party and reviving suspicions of the Harry Truman era, President Lyndon Johnson did what he could to turn the attention of the Warren Commission away from this sensitive point, explaining Oswald's crime not as the result of his ideological convictions but of generic motivations such as emotional instability, family problems, etc. As unbelievable as it seems, the commission agreed to analyze the most famous political homicide of the 20th century without mentioning politics. Coming to the president's aid, the chic media and enlightened intellectuals then produced a copious literature of pseudo-sociological claims that placed the blame for the crime on the "American culture of violence" and other vapid generalities which, in their final conclusion, were laid to the charge of conservatives. The anti-American discourse of the new left, which was then starting to gain prominence, thus received powerful backing from the very government of Washington at which it directed its hysterical eloquence. This discourse wound up incorporating itself in "common sense," to the point that today it is routinely repeated by the mainstream media without anyone noticing anything out of place. The book that described this enormous psychological mutation that was born in the highest spheres in Washington and spread throughout the American culture is Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American liberalism, by James Pierson (New York, Encounter Books, 2007).
The biggest irony in all of this is that Lee Oswald, a convert to communism since adolescence, could in no way be considered representative of the reactionary trends supposedly responsible for the "American violence" that would have prompted him to homicide, much less the fanatical Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, who in 1968, assassinated the ex-president's brother, Robert Kennedy. It is not by coincidence that we now know Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority was from head to toe a brainchild of the KGB (http://www.weizmann.ac.il/home/comartin/israel/pacepa-wsj.html), but at the time, this tireless myth factory of the leftist elite was able to make two crimes committed by procommunist agents against two notoriously anti-Communist politicians appear to be the handiwork of the "reactionary right," and to have this rigorously inverted version of reality embed itself in the American psyche so deeply that it would take many decades to uproot it, if indeed it were at all possible.
The third big lie, also definitively incorporated in the rituals of America's pseudo-moralistic masochism was also the work of Lyndon Johnson. After having hampered the action of American troops in Vietnam by all possible means, Johnson drew the logical conclusion from his own strategy, transfiguring the victory into a defeat. On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese army of Ho Chi Minh launched a major offensive against the Americans and South Vietnamese. The idea was to occupy all at once the cities of South Vietnam, starting with the capital, Saigon, instigating a general uprising with the help of Vietcong fighters. Militarily, the offensive was a monumental failure. The Communists lost, in a few days, 50,000 soldiers and all the objectives that they had conquered. Even the famous attack on the American embassy in Saigon was a failure. Not a single Vietcong was able to enter the building — they all died at the gate. Meanwhile, since the American army followed the standard procedure for such occasions, quickly evacuating the civil servants by means of helicopters on the embassy rooftop, the images of the evacuation were shown on American TV as evidence of general panic and a sure sign of the imminent defeat of South Vietnam. When President Johnson saw these scenes being interpreted this way by veteran TV news commentator Walter Cronkite, he reasoned "if I've lost Cronkite I've lost the nation." The North Vietnamese commander, General Giap, showed how right that was when he admitted that his main weapon against South Vietnam was the American media. By endorsing the legend of the American defeat, Johnson brought down on his country a humiliation that the elegant media and prattling intellectuals have been celebrating incessantly since then as a just punishment meted out to the reactionary, fanatical and violent people who persecuted innocents in the MacCarthy era and assassinated two Kennedys…
Only now, with the first volume of the book consecrated to the Vietnam War by historian Mark Moyar is the reality of the victory artificially disguised as a defeat beginning to appear. Read 'Triumph Forsaken. The Vietnam War 1954-1964? (Cambridge University press, 2006).
No other country in the world has had as many traitors per square mile as the USA. All of the anti-American mythology circulating in the world originated in Washington and New York — with nothing more than initial light shoves him from the KGB. The fact that the USA managed to survive such devastating lies hurled against the country by its own government officials and its most renowned intellectual leaders is something that can be explained only by the residual persistence of the people's fondness for American traditions. It is true that we Brazilians need not come to North America to learn about a good people governed by swindlers. But the nagging question in my mind is whether these swindlers in Brazil would have risen as high as they did without the aid of the swindlers in Washington.
Translated by Donald Hank (zoilandon@msn.com)
The author, Olavo de Carvalho is a correspondent for various Brazilian newspapers and hosts a Portuguese-language talk show (www.blogtalkradio.com/olavo) on Mondays at 5 p.m. EST. He has spoken before the Hudson Institute, the Atlas Foundation and the America's Future Foundation.
Labels: Olavo de carvalho
"Olavo de Carvalho is a respected journalist with a wide following in his native Brazil and an increasingly popular public speaker in this country. Mr. Carvalho provided Laigle's Forum readers with an eye-opening article on the CFR and the Forum of Sao Paolo back on May 27, 2006.
The weakened American soul
By Olavo de Carvalho
From Diario de Comercio, Jan 14, 2008
The dominant discourse in the mainstream media, show business and universities in the USA today is so frankly anti-American that it is only in details of style - if that - that it can be distinguished from the defamation campaigns undertaken by the USSR in the 50s and 60s. The American elite boasts of having won the Cold War, but it seems as if it was dominated psychologically by the vanquished enemy and wound up believing everything the enemy said against it. The posthumous vengeance of the Soviets gleams in the pages of the New York Times, at prime time on CBS, and in the films by Michael Moore and George Clooney with a splendor that not even Willi Muenzenberg, the genius of communist disinformation, would have dared dream of.
Whatever is said against the American government, against the American military, and against American culture, seems to enjoy automatic credibility today, so much so that it can be shouted from the rooftops without the least fear of an exasperated response, to the extent that any pro-American word must be prefaced with politically correct precautions for fear of the inevitable and vociferous retaliation, if not of a lawsuit. To follow the American debate is to confirm daily the prophetic sense of the verse by William Butler Yeats: "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Something has changed radically in the heart of America in the second half of the 20th century, and has changed precisely in the direction in which the country's bitterest enemies would have wanted it to change.
How was this possible? The agents of change want us to believe that it was all a spontaneous, natural and inevitable process, lending the course of the transformation the authority of an impersonal historic law that only the small minded reactionary would dare to question. But many years ago I realized that impersonal laws of history are almost always mere camouflage for human actions that want to pass unperceived so that their effects take on an aura of divine mystery.
The change that weakened the American soul was precipitated by three major disinformation operations that, because they were launched from Washington and not from Moscow, managed to deceive the entire nation and forge a new "common sense" (in the Gramscian sense of the word), whose influence not even the most conservative and patriotic completely escape. On these three occasions, the lies carefully elaborated by the government itself to cast onto the United States the blame for the malicious actions of its enemies not only became official truth, uniformly repeated today by the media and the education system, but spread around the world, creating the monstrously deformed image that today feeds and legitimizes anti-American hatred everywhere. It may seem absurd that government officials would choose to participate in the defamation of their own country to avoid problems with the USSR or to save their own electoral image, but that is exactly what three American presidents did, two of which, ironically, are portrayed by leftist rhetoric as exemplary embodiments of anti-communism and "Yankee imperialism."
The three operations were conceived in the high spheres of the Democratic Party, but at least one of them had intense Republican collaboration. Three recently published books, one of which I already commented on here and the other I mentioned in passing, finally reveal what happened behind the scenes on these occasions, the incredible machinations of politicians and journalists, who for the sake of short-term gains, unhesitatingly favored the enemy and bequeathed to future generations an increasingly morally weakened country.
The first of these episodes was the operation carried out by the Truman administration — and faithfully pursued by Eisenhower — to deny or cover up the massive presence of Soviet agents in high posts of the American government, particularly in the State Department, and also in technical and administrative functions, where they had access to secret information of a military nature.
This story is told in detail with extensive documentation by M. Stanton Evans in "Black Listed by History. The Untold Story of Senator Joseph MacCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies," New York, Crown forum 2007. If you can't read the book, you can listen to a good resume presented by the author at the Heritage Foundation, with a commentary by Herbert Rommerstein, the one personally responsible for major investigations into Soviet infiltration in the USA (see Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy).
To get an idea of the strategic risks involved in this situation, suffice to say that practically the entire tone of North American policy in China during the communist revolution was set on the basis of reports fabricated by Soviet agents who infiltrated the American diplomatic service in Beijing. By means of prodigious falsifications, these agents managed to persuade the Washington government to withhold needed aid from their ally Chiang Kai-shek and support the communist troops of Mao Zedong, who without this would never have managed to overthrow the Chinese government and install the bloodiest of genocidal dictatorships the world had ever known. American Ambassador Patrick Hurley saw through the ruse and warned Washington in time, but his messages were ignored. Feeling sullied, Hurley asked to be relieved of his post and was replaced by General George Marshall, who believed in these stories as if they had been revealed gospel. Marshall was not procommunist, obviously, but if his behavior in this case was not a clear-cut example of what Eric Voegelin called "criminal stupidity," I don't know what could fit that category. Following the record genocide of 70 million people, the Chinese government, having accumulated atomic bombs with the money generously supplied by American investors, is today the number one security risk for the USA.
Alerted to these and other innumerable cases of Soviet infiltration, the Truman administration opted to kill the messenger, and did everything it could to give the impression that the only serious danger for America was anti-communism, particularly that of Senator Joe McCarthy, whose demonized image still remains vivid in world memory. To obtain this result, Harry Truman's shock troops unhesitatingly covered up the essential documents, which, revealed only now, show that, in essence, all the accusations made by McCarthy were true and even modest in comparison to the real dimensions of the problem. Besides suppressing evidence and protecting itself behind false testimonies, the Truman administration, instead of dismissing the suspects, preferred to support their careers, enabling them to rise in the hierarchy and continue offering services to the Soviet dictatorship with American taxpayer money.
An entire culture of anti-McCarthyism, supported by textbooks, cinema and journalism, grew out of this enterprise of intentional falsification. The consequences of this extend to the present day, making Americans, repenting of sins they never committed against communists, sense greater fear of a possible "return to the McCarthy era" than of a joint assault of Chinese generals and Islamic radicals.
I see the second episode of the series when Lee Harvey Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Not only the White House but also the CIA and the FBI knew that Oswald was a fanatical communist and that his intention in shooting Kennedy was to frustrate any American initiative against Fidel Castro's dictatorship. Chilled at the prospects of a national outbreak of anti-Communist revolt targeting the Democratic Party and reviving suspicions of the Harry Truman era, President Lyndon Johnson did what he could to turn the attention of the Warren Commission away from this sensitive point, explaining Oswald's crime not as the result of his ideological convictions but of generic motivations such as emotional instability, family problems, etc. As unbelievable as it seems, the commission agreed to analyze the most famous political homicide of the 20th century without mentioning politics. Coming to the president's aid, the chic media and enlightened intellectuals then produced a copious literature of pseudo-sociological claims that placed the blame for the crime on the "American culture of violence" and other vapid generalities which, in their final conclusion, were laid to the charge of conservatives. The anti-American discourse of the new left, which was then starting to gain prominence, thus received powerful backing from the very government of Washington at which it directed its hysterical eloquence. This discourse wound up incorporating itself in "common sense," to the point that today it is routinely repeated by the mainstream media without anyone noticing anything out of place. The book that described this enormous psychological mutation that was born in the highest spheres in Washington and spread throughout the American culture is Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American liberalism, by James Pierson (New York, Encounter Books, 2007).
The biggest irony in all of this is that Lee Oswald, a convert to communism since adolescence, could in no way be considered representative of the reactionary trends supposedly responsible for the "American violence" that would have prompted him to homicide, much less the fanatical Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, who in 1968, assassinated the ex-president's brother, Robert Kennedy. It is not by coincidence that we now know Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority was from head to toe a brainchild of the KGB (http://www.weizmann.ac.il/home/comartin/israel/pacepa-wsj.html), but at the time, this tireless myth factory of the leftist elite was able to make two crimes committed by procommunist agents against two notoriously anti-Communist politicians appear to be the handiwork of the "reactionary right," and to have this rigorously inverted version of reality embed itself in the American psyche so deeply that it would take many decades to uproot it, if indeed it were at all possible.
The third big lie, also definitively incorporated in the rituals of America's pseudo-moralistic masochism was also the work of Lyndon Johnson. After having hampered the action of American troops in Vietnam by all possible means, Johnson drew the logical conclusion from his own strategy, transfiguring the victory into a defeat. On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese army of Ho Chi Minh launched a major offensive against the Americans and South Vietnamese. The idea was to occupy all at once the cities of South Vietnam, starting with the capital, Saigon, instigating a general uprising with the help of Vietcong fighters. Militarily, the offensive was a monumental failure. The Communists lost, in a few days, 50,000 soldiers and all the objectives that they had conquered. Even the famous attack on the American embassy in Saigon was a failure. Not a single Vietcong was able to enter the building — they all died at the gate. Meanwhile, since the American army followed the standard procedure for such occasions, quickly evacuating the civil servants by means of helicopters on the embassy rooftop, the images of the evacuation were shown on American TV as evidence of general panic and a sure sign of the imminent defeat of South Vietnam. When President Johnson saw these scenes being interpreted this way by veteran TV news commentator Walter Cronkite, he reasoned "if I've lost Cronkite I've lost the nation." The North Vietnamese commander, General Giap, showed how right that was when he admitted that his main weapon against South Vietnam was the American media. By endorsing the legend of the American defeat, Johnson brought down on his country a humiliation that the elegant media and prattling intellectuals have been celebrating incessantly since then as a just punishment meted out to the reactionary, fanatical and violent people who persecuted innocents in the MacCarthy era and assassinated two Kennedys…
Only now, with the first volume of the book consecrated to the Vietnam War by historian Mark Moyar is the reality of the victory artificially disguised as a defeat beginning to appear. Read 'Triumph Forsaken. The Vietnam War 1954-1964? (Cambridge University press, 2006).
No other country in the world has had as many traitors per square mile as the USA. All of the anti-American mythology circulating in the world originated in Washington and New York — with nothing more than initial light shoves him from the KGB. The fact that the USA managed to survive such devastating lies hurled against the country by its own government officials and its most renowned intellectual leaders is something that can be explained only by the residual persistence of the people's fondness for American traditions. It is true that we Brazilians need not come to North America to learn about a good people governed by swindlers. But the nagging question in my mind is whether these swindlers in Brazil would have risen as high as they did without the aid of the swindlers in Washington.
Translated by Donald Hank (zoilandon@msn.com)
The author, Olavo de Carvalho is a correspondent for various Brazilian newspapers and hosts a Portuguese-language talk show (www.blogtalkradio.com/olavo) on Mondays at 5 p.m. EST. He has spoken before the Hudson Institute, the Atlas Foundation and the America's Future Foundation.
Labels: Olavo de carvalho
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Generally Speaking (Again)
And I thought the last election seemed to last forever...this one seems to have lasted longer and it's just starting. And look at our choices; a one term Senator with no practical experience , a non record in the Senate and a stated socialist agenda that promises to drive even more US companies overseas (whether east or west). An X first lady who has been elected in a extremely liberal State more for her sufferage as the most cheated on wife in modern times than anything she has actually accomplished...her stated agenda is more socialist than his. And the Republican is an Ex prisoner of war with a long and strong record (in the earlier years) that in the recent past has veered left to a point that has joined his name with many of the most socialist liberals in the Senate. This will leave us with a poor choice at best for our leader this next four years.
Where are the great Americans? Where is a Washington or a Lincoln or a JFK or a Regan? I see nothing now but professional politicans with their own personal power and advancment at heart. How many 20+ year Senators do we have? Who is the last Senator you can remember that left office other than due to to retirement or disgrace? And either way they receive more money than almost any other American. The House record is a little better...very little.
Another interesting aspect of our modern policital scene is the sheer amount in dollars that are spent on elections...billions (much of it tax money) invested in positions that earn only hundreds of thousands. Try to think of a business (outside our Government) that spends far more on its existance than it can ever hope to earn from it ...and how long that business could survive. Go figure. JT
Where are the great Americans? Where is a Washington or a Lincoln or a JFK or a Regan? I see nothing now but professional politicans with their own personal power and advancment at heart. How many 20+ year Senators do we have? Who is the last Senator you can remember that left office other than due to to retirement or disgrace? And either way they receive more money than almost any other American. The House record is a little better...very little.
Another interesting aspect of our modern policital scene is the sheer amount in dollars that are spent on elections...billions (much of it tax money) invested in positions that earn only hundreds of thousands. Try to think of a business (outside our Government) that spends far more on its existance than it can ever hope to earn from it ...and how long that business could survive. Go figure. JT
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