John:
My assessment is that 90% of the value of the U.S. dollar comes from the U.S. military. After we had our satellite systems in place, Cheney said “deficits don’t matter.” The US debt and deficit financing is no longer a debt system. It is a global taxation system.
Catherine
John wrote:
Could you expand on this thought just a little? This is one very sober line of reasoning.
John:
Global treasuries and sovereign wealth funds, central banks and a variety of large institutions buy Treasury securities or hold dollars not because there is economic value behind them or because these financial assets are sound fiscally or in terms of credit. They buy them because if they don’t buy them, their current holdings will drop in value faster (that is given their current holdings, they are better off with a managed fall that a precipitous one) and because they are forced to — both in terms of trade agreements — and because they have a gun at their head. If they don’t buy, they and their population will be subject to a wide variety of demonstrations of physical and financial force that will result in loss of life.
Hence, demand for U.S. dollars and government and agency bonds continues even as value falls. The losses on these holdings represents a tax paid to the “Empire.” The fundamental system is as old as the hills. It is based on force. However, this tax is not paid through the income statements, it is paid through the balance sheet. Hence, national legislators do not have to pass bills to authorize their people paying the tax. There is no disclosure.
This global taxation system can be implemented and enforced through the back door without the average global citizen understanding what is happening. Rather, it is invisible to all but the most financially sophisticated people.
What the implementation of this system means is that the household drain I describe here and the community drain I describe here are happening globally. That is, the Slow Burn (described here ) is draining everyone globally, not just in the U.S.
A recent Gallup poll published in the Wall Street Journal on June 26, shows that the American institution most respected is the military — 45% of Americans surveyed had a great deal of confidence in the American military and 26% had quite a lot of confidence in them. This compares to 6% and 6% for Congress and 7% and 13% for big business. Also in line with understanding who and what puts bread on the table, the next most respected institution after the military is small business with scores of 28% and 32%.
Abraham Lincoln was right, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
But good things start small.
I could not agree more….
Turtling on,
Catherine
Ms Fitts’ quote, (right below), is a pertinent summery:
(quote) “…It is important to recognize that this formula has to date worked. It is working. For things to change, the formula needs to not work. The formula needs to fail or a new formula needs to work.” (unquote)
As it is a greed-controlled collective mind at top it would be difficult for enough of that entire group to see that the formula is not working even when all the signs are there. This tends to create a massive failure to allow any new formula to emerge. One way or others the failure will be military. The general script is dictated by a collective, inner psychology of mass events. Many note that there is a split in military thinking at the top. That would tend to suggest that they see the current road as not working. On the other hand, both personal and collective, when we are about to undergo a change, and need a giant ‘mistake’ to create the change, we often have doubts prior to going ahead with the error. Overall this hastens ‘new formula’.
It is difficult to stand back far enough for the big picture. We have created gods, gods we don’t even recognize as gods, to interfere. The biggest gods are TV and patriotism. Even those suspicious of mass media and against the course of the country they reside in are still controlled by these gods. To ‘be against’ is still a form of worship.
There is a succinct summery of the larger world trends in geographic image: ‘Aqaba is in Dallas. Hadrian’s Wall is in New Bedford. And: the only road to Jerusalem is through Gulu.’ Before explaining each of the three trend images we should note that the major thread through present armed conflict is that it is now more overtly economical. Though always the major underlying factor it is now more obvious to the masses and supplants any form of ideology or political alignment. Areas of Brazil are now in civil war, bridges blown, roads cut and it is money and rice. Georgia is more complex. I knew even last week that the ‘shelling’ had to be more than mortar. We stepped in too close in buying out the infrastructure. In one sense it can be shown statistically that armed conflict is decreasing. We are throwing that game away. This can also be seen in the mutation of war psychosis. In WW I it was called ‘Shell Shock’. Names kept changing: ‘Battle Fatigue’ for WW II and Korea and PTSD since Vietnam. But it is not just the terms changing. Symptoms common in WW I were unheard of in Vietnam. In general the soldier is angrier and less in denial. Still it can be seen that when masses do arise they are collectively stronger than expected. This was shown unexpectedly in Lebanon. All factions came together, Christians, Druze, you name it. The organizing factor was women. The militia was a spin off of a mass woman controlled social agency for such as widows and orphans. Harvard studies have shown that revolution comes more from social expectancy. Masses will undergo horrid conditions if they do not expect otherwise. World mass awareness of a better way has increased dramatically.
Aqaba is in Dallas:
Militarily the world has been for centuries divided between the ‘island nations’ and the ‘land masses’ with the ‘axis’ caught in the middle: the Great Game. The colonizing aspect of Western Europe and America are the major ‘island nations’. Naval power was crucial and in general the island nations have prevailed. Sea power has ended. The first glimmer was the sinking of the H.M.S. Sheffield in the Falkland War. It was overlooked as ‘we have secret deals’ and too easily dismissed. Surprise Soviet naval maneuvers of March 84 started to bring this home. But it was still thought that you needed other naval power to defeat navies. But John Lehman even noted that technology for hiding subs was outstripping technology to find them. China closed off Malacca in the mid eighties. General Paul Van Riper demonstrated that in any littoral third world nations could defeat modern navies without naval power. They tried to hide this but the Army Times broke the story. You can Google “General Van Riper” or “littoral” and “navy” if you can wade through the mil babble. As Kissinger said, “We control people with food and nations with oil.” Refining was always kept separate from drilling. Navies protected the sea-lanes. ‘Dallas’ represents this naval oil control. The best military comparison would be the invention of the long bow: suddenly a peasant could take out a knight. As then low tech suddenly trumped high tech. The power of the world has suddenly switched back from the power of navies to the power of armies. As in T.E. Lawrence’s attack on Aqaba the guns of Dallas are trained on the sea and cannot be turned.
‘Hadrian’s Wall is in New Bedford’:
Typically revolutions start interior. The cities on the sea would economically bond more with naval controlled trade. For example New York was Tory until the end. New Bedford was the center for the first massive, go-everywhere sea trade, whaling. Generally in the past, as in Latin America, the sea cities prevailed. Not so in land masses such as with Mao. Island nation control will reverse.
‘The only road to Jerusalem is through Gulu’:
Here ‘Jerusalem’ images world collective and central to any ‘new formula’ working. As noted in post above Africa is collecting from the inside out. General Kona and General Museveni are not as much enemies as supposed. Bush stayed clear of Museveni on his second Africa tour as he knew the complaint was economical, just that. Following that Africa rejected AFRICOM outright. I wrote General Ward prior to both that rejection and prior to the unexpected Kenya uprising. I even mentioned his ‘unprintable’ relation with Kenya. (Email me at michal1@midcoast.com and I will send you a copy). This moves outward as in the coup in Mauritania last week. Gulu is the separation between Kona, (as LRA in my post above), and Museveni. About a year ago the Christian Science Monitor hinted at major CIA listening posts in Gulu. We didn’t listen. Recent studies have shown that of all areas Africans have the best expectancy of improved future, most positive. In another sense Jerusalem represents the biggest ‘deal’ on the planet. In the fifties a secret deal was made concerning nukes brokered first with Joe Stalin by my dad’s boss. (For more on this Google “A Spy In Time”, comes up first. True story in form of a play.) To keep the deal honest we needed an overall collective monitor. We combined the CIA and the KGB (and other nuke powers) in the newly formed Israeli Mossad. It then leaned and became more ‘island’ dominated. This is the reason we allow Israel to spy here openly. It is part of that deal. As this is misunderstood alternate media in the US, (‘Rense’ as example), is becoming so anti Jewish it is frightening. The Israeli masses do not know of this. To keep them paying for ‘strong military’ we must keep a certain amount of violence. They can provide their side of it but cannot get caught providing the other side so we do it. (Google “Kay Griggs”)
Resolving this problem openly is also central to any sort of ‘new formula’ taking hold.
The larger problem of nanotechnology looms right behind it. Mr. Kinnard, (above), noted, “…Threatening Iran without being able to actually engage Iran on the ground in a full scale war is foolish….” That is well known but still does not defuse the possibility of a major attack. Iran breaks up the secret-non-use-of-nuke game. Those at top will be more concerned with protecting themselves. As in WW II, money is borderless. I am not stating that it will happen. But at this time it cannot be discounted. New York Times just allowed an op-ed suggesting that a major nuke attack on Iran occur. They will be monitoring the public reaction in many ways. ‘Money’ does not give one blank about ‘America’, never has. It was only a convenience.
That is the problem. Now for the solution:
Ms. Fitts has the ability to focus clearly on the inner concerns of the masses such as “Popsicle Index” and “Who is your banker and who is your farmer.” There is something called the Third Way that has been wiped from the Internet. (Replaced with another ‘Third Way’.) It was an anathema to the bankers. This was a loose formula for helping Third World areas. Any ‘aid’ would concentrate first on making small areas self-sufficient. Tools such as ‘peek-a-boo’ banking would be used. This is where any development loan would be accounted for openly on the Internet, every penny. It would need to adjust to a myriad of other local concerns, be very flexible. We can apply this to ourselves also. Once, (and if), we get through this sudden world crescendo it is the inner trend anyway. Smaller areas will become both more self-sufficient AND MORE DIVERSE. Though it might not seem so at first glance, this will not only enhance efforts toward solving world common problems, such as environment and population, but may well be the only ‘survivable’ way they can be solved. This is touched on in the work of Ambjorn, Jurkiewicz and Loll: Causal Dynamical Triangulations. They showed, (in causal space-time clusters), how areas tend to bond collectively regardless of the individual differences using a flock of geese as an example. If each goose is too concerned with personal survival the flock concern decreases. Though the example is individual in regard to specific groups it also applies to group cluster.
The degree that we can focus on solution is the degree that we can get through this fork-in-road for the survival of our specie. It will also decrease the amount of, and extent of, military errors needed by our world mass mind to bring us to our senses. The way to rid us of the gods of patriotism and TV is to create replacement gods.
A series of Dutch naval defeats led them to a new way of colonizing. ‘You want the East India? Take it, just allow us to keep the bank.’ Same with Manhattan. They expanded upon it. ‘The enemy of your enemy is your friend? Our connection with Germany is the Hanover Gate. How about Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust?’ This is why the present Mossad Benelux desk is the most giant, present result of a 1700s creative decision. A few have envisioned a world with four giant interlinking non-profit corporations. Energy and communications were two, not sure of the others. Work there would be service; a president might work four hours a day with one of them devoted to emptying trash. Once even conceived think how it would affect something like Alcoa. Though initially Alcoa would be alarmed at the idea they would eventually see it as the only way of survival. That mutation would continue.
We cannot protect our assets if we know not what they are. Lawn and gold are not assets. There are a few medical uses for gold. Otherwise it is useless. Real assets are such as tomatoes and Popsicle protection.
I had a math professor from the Middle East ask me advice on the dollar. I sent him to this site. In general alternative media is becoming worse than mass media. But good things start small. Thought about this and realized that 2 readers here would be better than 14,000 that I once had on Rense.
Michael Donovan
Tim:
Great point.
I have found that people learn how to operate in a way that brings them success. That is their formula. So then they use force to keep that formula working. They literally do not know another way. Government becomes a mechanism to ensure success at what the powerful like and know how to do.
I once remarked to a intelligence operative who was schooled at financial fraud that he was so good at finance that I could teach him how to make money honestly. He was stunned and said in disgust. “I would NEVER make money honestly.” It appeared he thought that this was a insult to his power and masculinity.
It is important to recognize that this formula has to date worked. It is working. For things to change, the formula needs to not work. The formula needs to fail or a new formula needs to work.
Catherine
Hi,
Great site. I think though that the most powerful weapons in the US arsenal are the World Bank the IMF and the US Dollar. Hyperinflation, will destroy that power.
The problem with the entire US leadership is that the generation in power, the baby boomers, see no limits on power. Bush 41 understood the limits on power and accentuated the positive. Bush 43 and Pelosi want to “Free the World” and “Save the Planet”. Neither the democrats or the republicans want to save the United States.
Currently, the truly scary thing I see happenning is the pressure being placed on Iran. I believe in finishing one job at a time. Currently Bush is doing three jobs, hunting Bin Laden, fighting in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Recently Bush was forced to appease North Korea.
A simple lesson from the school yard is that you should never make empty threats you cannot back up. Threatening Iran without being able to actually engage Iran on the ground in a full scale war is foolish. It will be like poking a stick into a hornets nest and then standing there waiting to get stung.
Tim Kinnaird
One of the most astounding NYTimes op eds ever was ‘Entities of Democracy’ by John Lehman. He detailed how control of military procurement, (that he compared to personnel that would number divisions), controls all of America. The future of world economy is not here in the US or even north of the equator. Jawaharlal Nehru is speaking from the dead. His ‘non-aligned nations’, (fairly much dead since the Cold War ended), met yet again. Over 100 nations now support Iran against the United States and the U.N. Security Council in the nuclear inspection question. President Carter just came out and stated that he knows that Israel has over 150 atomic bombs. Who inspects Israel? Yes, that was known, but very different for a former U.S. President to say so openly.
Most of military spending is wasted. It is not even decent military. The Kalashnikov trumps the cruise missile. (In fact most all U.S. infantry in Iraq have quietly been issued AK 47s as our near 22 cal. M-16 is but a toy. Story of one Iraqi who kept coming even after taking seven body shots with the M-16 and had to be finished off with a side arm.)
The main problem with discussing the world military situation with anyone in the United States is that they don’t know where they are. There have been no decent maps or atlases published in the United States for over 40 years. Yes, you can ‘Google Earth’ or go to the library, but you still get no real information. Many of the lines you see on maps are a complete joke. For over 30 years a country, (LRA), in Africa bigger than all of Europe including the British Isles, Spain, Germany, France and even Italy and the Scandinavian countries has existed. It takes up large portions of what you are told are Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and the northern part of Uganda. In the past two weeks they even annexed another giant part of the Congo, (eastern but more southern along Rwanda). The same has been going on in South America. When Chavez states he wishes to broker between the Columbian rebels and Columbia he is serious. We just don’t see the implications. ‘Free Trade’ will collapse and sooner than most realize. Other areas of the world can simply create money from nothing too. And they will.
Seeing money based on dumb military as strength is false. The problem is the solution. In about 1972 I worked on a small newspaper in Manhattan. I made up a story called ‘Y-Pay’ and at the end SAID it was a joke. It was about a guy who took a computer, (hard to come by then), and created a currency. You could join and give what you had, (say wine if you owned a liquor store), for credits to exchange for other goods or services. The IRS got very upset. This was in the era where they were even concerned about Green Stamps as it was a form of currency. The ‘strength’ is a weakness. What is not understood here is already being realized outside the US. It has already begun. South Korea says take both your trade and your military and get out. Ecuador says take both your military and trade and get out. More ‘Dawn March’ than ‘Long March’. Just a taste.
The four new Littorals are not only bi-hulled instead of tri-hulled but aluminum! What will not hold itself up cannot hold a currency up. Hubris is not an asset. It will show itself soon for what it really is: ‘A Bridge-loan Too Far’.
Michael Donovan
Kenneth:
In theory, I think it can go on indefinately thanks to extensive covert operations and weaponry. You are correct that food and water are the most sensitive control points. This is why such dramatic efforts are being made to control the seed and food supply — GM food, terminator seed, patenting of life, devastating small farmers, bogus food safety rules, and on and on.
The one thing that could reverse it is if sufficient numbers of people can understand and see the system and begin to network for real change. We remain, alas, remarkably easy to manipulate. Denial
is a protection mechanism — it helps us get through the day. At the same time, it empowers and emboldens those who continue to centralize the economy.
catherine i have always enjoyed your writings, i came aboard years ago when you wrote of the drug trade’s impact on the us economy. i have a question though concerning the above topic. if countries throughout the world are basically buying treasuries at the business end of cruise missiles, it seems that this is very inflationary in terms of their local economies, with devastating effects on standards of living. i know many of these countries have repressive governments. how long do you think they can keep a lid on the upheavals this should be causing? we have already seen food riots, well some of have, with no thanks to the mainstream media. logically there should be rioting in the streets. it doesn’t seem that it would take much to set off the multitudes in some of the petro-dollar rich countries in the middle east. i don’t see how much longer the dollar can retain reserve currency status, if it has to depend on the barrel of a gun in these geo-political hotspots. how do you see it. thanks.
kenny