TRYING TO STAY SANE IN AN INSANE WORLD – AT WORLD’S END

In the first three parts (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) of this disheartening look back at a century of central banking, income taxing, military warring, energy depleting and political corrupting, I made a case for why we are in the midst of a financial, commercial, political, social and cultural collapse. In this final installment I’ll give my best estimate as to what happens next and it has a 100% probability of being wrong. There are so many variables involved that it is impossible to predict the exact path to our world’s end. Many people don’t want to hear about the intractable issues or the true reasons for our predicament. They want easy button solutions. They want someone or something to fix their problems. They pray for a technological miracle to save them from decades of irrational myopic decisions. As the domino-like collapse worsens, the feeble minded populace becomes more susceptible to the false promises of tyrants and psychopaths. There are a myriad of thugs, criminals, and autocrats in positions of power who are willing to exploit any means necessary to retain their wealth, power and control. The revelations of governmental malfeasance, un-Constitutional mass espionage of all citizens, and expansion of the Orwellian welfare/warfare surveillance state, from patriots like Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden has proven beyond a doubt the corrupt establishment are zealously anxious to discard and stomp on the U.S. Constitution in their desire for authoritarian control over our society.

Anyone who denies we are in the midst of an ongoing Crisis that will lead to a collapse of the system as we know it is either a card carrying member of the corrupt establishment, dependent upon the oligarchs for their living, or just one of the willfully ignorant ostriches who choose to put their heads in the sand and hum the Star Spangled Banner as they choose obliviousness to awareness. Thinking is hard. Feeling and believing a storyline is easy.

 

A moral society must be inhabited by an informed, educated, aware populace and   governed by honorable leaders who oversee based upon the nation’s founding principles of liberty, freedom and limited government of, by and for the people. A moral society requires trust, honor, property rights, simple just laws, and the freedom to succeed or fail on your own merits. There is one major problem in creating a true moral society where liberty, freedom, trust, honor and free markets are cherished – human beings. We are a deeply flawed species who are prone to falling prey to the depravities of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Men have always been captivated by the false idols of dominion, power and wealth. The foibles of human nature haven’t changed over the course of history. This is why we have 80 to 100 year cycles driven by the same human strengths and shortcomings revealed throughout recorded history.

Empires rise and fall due to the humanness of their leaders and citizens. The great American Empire is no different. It was created a mere 224 years ago by courageous patriots who risked their wealth and their lives to create a Republic founded upon the principles of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; took a dreadful wrong turn in 1913 with the creation of a privately held central bank to control its currency and introduction of an income tax; devolved into an empire after World War II, setting it on a course towards bankruptcy; sealed its fate in 1971 by unleashing power hungry psychopathic elitists to manipulate the monetary and fiscal policies of the nation to enrich themselves; and has now entered the final frenzied phase of pillaging, currency debasement, war mongering, and ransacking of civil liberties. Despite the frantic efforts of the financial elite, their politician puppets, and their media propaganda outlets, collapse of this aristocracy of the moneyed is a mathematical certainty. Faith in the system is rapidly diminishing, as the issuance of debt to create the appearance of growth has reached the point of diminishing returns.

 

Increase in Real GDP per Dollar of Incremental Debt

“At the root of America’s economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America’s political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world.”Jeffrey Sachs

Five Stages of Collapse

The day of reckoning for a century of putting our faith in the wrong people with wrong ideas and evil intentions is upon us. Dmitry Orlov provides a blueprint for the collapse in his book The Five Stages of Collapse – Survivors’ Toolkit:

Stage 1: Financial Collapse. Faith in “business as usual” is lost. The future is no longer assumed to resemble the past in any way that allows risk to be assessed and financial assets to be guaranteed. Financial institutions become insolvent; savings wiped out and access to capital is lost.

Stage 2: Commercial Collapse. Faith that “the market shall provide” is lost. Money is devalued and/or becomes scarce, commodities are hoarded, import and retail chains break down and widespread shortages of survival necessities become the norm.

Stage 3: Political Collapse. Faith that “the government will take care of you” is lost. As official attempts to mitigate widespread loss of access to commercial sources of survival necessities fail to make a difference, the political establishment loses legitimacy and relevance.

Stage 4: Social Collapse. Faith that “your people will take care of you” is lost, as social institutions, be they charities or other groups that rush to fill the power vacuum, run out of resources or fail through internal conflict.

Stage 5: Cultural Collapse. Faith in the goodness of humanity is lost. People lose their capacity for “kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity.” Families disband and compete as individuals for scarce resources. The new motto becomes “May you die today so that I can die tomorrow.”

The collapse is occurring in fits and starts. The stages of collapse do not necessarily have to occur in order.  You can recognize various elements of the first three stages in the United States today. Stage 1 commenced in September 2008 when this Crisis period was catalyzed by the disintegration of the worldwide financial system caused by Wall Street intentionally creating the largest control fraud in world history, with easy money provided by Greenspan/Bernanke, fraudulent mortgage products, fake appraisals, bribing rating agencies to provide AAA ratings to derivatives filled with feces, and having their puppets in the media and political arena provide the propaganda to herd the sheep into the slaughterhouse.

The American people neglected their civic duty to elect leaders who would tell them the truth and represent current and future generations equally. They have neglected the increasing lawlessness of Wall Street, K Street and the corporate suite. The American people have lived in denial about their responsibility for their own financial well-being, willingly delegating it to a government of math challenged politicians who promised trillions more than they could ever deliver. The American people have delayed tackling the dire issues confronting our nation, including: $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities, the military industrial complex creating wars across the globe, militarization of our local police forces, domestic spying on every citizen, allowing mega-corporations and the financial elite to turn our nation from savings based production to debt based consumption, and allowing corporations, the military industrial complex, Wall Street, and shadowy billionaires to pick and control our elected officials. The civic fabric of the country is being torn at the points of extreme vulnerability.

“At home and abroad, these events will reflect the tearing of the civic fabric at points of extreme vulnerability – problem areas where, during the Unraveling, America will have neglected, denied, or delayed needed action. Anger at “mistakes we made” will translate into calls for action, regardless of the heightened public risk. It is unlikely that the catalyst will worsen into a full-fledged catastrophe, since the nation will probably find a way to avert the initial danger and stabilize the situation for a while. Yet even if dire consequences are temporarily averted, America will have entered the Fourth Turning.”  – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997

Our Brave New World controllers (bankers, politicians, corporate titans, media moguls, shadowy billionaires) were able to avert a full-fledged catastrophe in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 which would have put an end to their reign of destruction. To accept the rightful consequences of their foul actions was intolerable to these obscenely wealthy, despicable men. Their loathsome and vile solutions to a crisis they created have done nothing to relieve the pain and suffering of the average person, while further enriching them, as they continue to gorge on the dying carcass of a once thriving nation. Despite overwhelming public outrage, Congress did as they were instructed by their Wall Street masters and handed over $700 billion of taxpayer funds into Wall Street vaults, under the false threat of systematic collapse. The $800 billion of pork stimulus was injected directly into the veins of corporate campaign contributors. The $3 billion Cash for Clunkers scheme resulted in pumping taxpayer dollars into the government owned union car companies, while driving up the prices of used cars and hurting lower income folks.

Ben Bernanke has peddled the false paradigm of quantitative easing (code for printing money and airlifting it to Wall Street) as benefitting Main Street. Nothing could be further from the truth. He bought $1.3 trillion of toxic mortgage backed securities from his Wall Street owners. He has pumped a total of $2.8 trillion into the hands of Wall Street since September 2008, and is singlehandedly generating $5 billion of risk free profits for these deadbeats by paying them .25% on their reserves. Drug dealer Ben continues to pump $2.8 billion per day into the veins of Wall Street addicts and any hint of tapering the heroin causes the addicts to flail about. Ben should be so proud. He should hang a Mission Accomplished banner whenever he gives a speech. Bank profits reached an all-time record in the 2nd quarter, at $42.2 billion, with 80% of those profits going to the 2% Too Big To Trust Wall Street Mega-Goliath Banks. It’s enough to make a soon to retire, and take a Wall Street job, central banker smile.

“The money rate can, indeed, be kept artificially low only by continuous new injections of currency or bank credit in place of real savings. This can create the illusion of more capital just as the addition of water can create the illusion of more milk. But it is a policy of continuous inflation. It is obviously a process involving cumulative danger. The money rate will rise and a crisis will develop if the inflation is reversed, or merely brought to a halt, or even continued at a diminished rate. Cheap money policies, in short, eventually bring about far more violent oscillations in business  than those they are designed to remedy or prevent.” Henry Hazlitt – 1946

Any serious minded person knew Wall Street had too much power, too much control, and too much influence in 2008 when they crashed our economic system. When something is too big to fail because it will create systematic collapse, you make it smaller. Instead we have allowed our sociopathic rulers to allow these parasitic institutions to get even larger. Just 12 mega-banks control 70% of all the banking assets in the country, with 90% controlled by the top 86 banks. There are approximately 8,000 financial institutions in this country. Wall Street will be congratulating themselves with record compensation of $127 billion and record bonuses of $23 billion for a job well done. It is dangerous work making journal entries relieving loan loss reserves, committing foreclosure fraud, marking your assets to unicorn, making deposits at the Fed, and counting on the Bernanke Put to keep stocks rising. During a supposed recovery from 2009 to 2011, average real income per household grew pitifully by 1.7%, but all the gains accrued to Bernanke’s minions. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.2% while bottom 99% incomes shrunk by 0.4%. Therefore, the top 1% captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery. This warped trend has only accelerated since 2011.

The median household income has fallen by $2,400 to $52,100 since the government proclaimed the end of the recession in 2009. Real wages for real people continue to fall. A record 23.1 million households (20% of all households) are receiving food stamps. After four years of “recovery” propaganda, we are left with 2.2 million less people employed (5 million less full time jobs) and 22 million more people on SNAP and SSDI. A record 90.5 million working age Americans are not working, with labor participation at a 35 year low. Ben’s money has not trickled down, but his inflation has fallen like a load of bricks on the heads of the middle class. Bernanke’s QE to infinity constitutes a transfer of purchasing power away from the middle class to the bankers, mega-corporations and .1%. This Cantillon effect means that newly created money is neither distributed evenly nor simultaneously among the population. Some users of money profit from rising prices, and others suffer from them. This results in a transfer of wealth (a hidden tax) from later receivers to earlier receivers of new money. This is why the largest banks and largest corporations are generating the highest profits in history, while the average person sinks further into debt as their real income declines and real living expenses (energy, food, clothing, healthcare, tuition) rise.

Screen Shot 2013-03-04 at 12.35.48 PM.png

Ben works for your owners. Real GDP (using the fake government inflation adjustment) since July 2009 is up by a wretched 5.6%. Revenue growth of the biggest corporations in the world is up by a pathetic 12%. One might wonder how corporate profits could be at record levels with such doleful economic performance. One needs to look no further than Ben’s balance sheet, which has increased by 174%. There appears to be a slight correlation between Ben’s money printing and the 162% increase in the S&P 500 index. With the top 1% owning 42.1% of all financial assets (top .1% own most of this) and the bottom 80% owning only 4.7% of all financial assets, one can clearly see who benefits from QE to infinity.

The key take away from what the ruling class has done since 2008 is they have only temporarily delayed the endgame. Their self-serving exploits have guaranteed that round two of the financial collapse will be epic in proportion and intensity. This Fourth Turning Crisis is ongoing. The linear thinkers who control the levers of power keep promising a return to normalcy and resumption of growth. This is an impossibility – mathematically & socially. Fourth Turnings do not end without the existing social order being swept away in a tsunami of turmoil, violence, suffering and war. Orlov’s stages of collapse will likely occur during the remaining fifteen years of this Crisis. We are deep into Stage 1 as our national Detroitification progresses towards bankruptcy, with an added impetus from our trillion dollar wars of choice in the Middle East. Commercial collapse has begun, as faith in the fantasy of free market capitalism is waning. The race to the bottom with currency debasement around the globe is reaching a tipping point, and the true eternal currencies of gold and silver are being hoarded and shipped from the West to the Far East.

Monetary Base (billions of USD)

When the financial collapse reaches its crescendo, the just in time supply chain, that keeps cheese doodles and cheese whiz on your grocery store shelves, Chinese produced iGadgets in your local Wal-Mart Supercenter, and gasoline flowing out of gas station hoses into your leased Cadillac Escalade, will break down rapidly. The strain of $110 oil is already evident. The fireworks will really get going when ATM machines run dry and the EBT cards stop functioning. Within a week riots and panic will engulf the country.

“At some point we are bound to hear, from across two oceans, the shocking words “Your money is no good here.” Fast forward to a week later: banks are closed, ATMs are out of cash, supermarket shelves are bare and gas stations are starting to run out of fuel. And then something happens: the government announces they have formed a crisis task force, and will nationalize, recapitalize and reopen banks, restoring confidence. The banks reopen, under heavy guard, and thousands of people get arrested for attempting to withdraw their savings. Banks close, riots begin. Next, the government decides that, to jump-start commerce, it will honor deposit guarantees and simply hand out cash. They print and arrange for the cash to be handed out. Now everyone has plenty of cash, but there is still no food in the supermarkets or gasoline at the gas stations because by now the international supply chains have broken down and the delivery pipelines are empty.”  Dmitry Orlov – The Five Stages of Collapse

We are witnessing the beginning stages of political collapse. The government and its leaders are being discredited on a daily basis. The mismanagement of fiscal policy, foreign policy and domestic policy, along with the revelations of the NSA conducting mass surveillance against all Americans has led critical thinking Americans to question the legitimacy of the politicians running the show on behalf of the bankers, corporations and arms dealers. The Gestapo like tactics used by the government in Boston was an early warning sign of what is to come. Government entitlement promises will vaporize, as they did in Detroit, with pension promises worth only ten cents on the dollar. Total social and cultural collapse could resemble the chaotic civil war scenarios playing out in Libya and Syria. The best case scenario would be for a collapse similar to the Soviet Union’s relatively peaceful disintegration into impotent republics. I don’t believe we’ll be this fortunate. The most powerful military empire in world history will not fade away. It will go out in a blaze of glory with a currency collapse, hyper-inflation, and war on a grand scale.

“History offers even more sobering warnings: Armed confrontation usually occurs around the climax of Crisis. If there is confrontation, it is likely to lead to war. This could be any kind of war – class war, sectional war, war against global anarchists or terrorists, or superpower war. If there is war, it is likely to culminate in total war, fought until the losing side has been rendered nil – its will broken, territory taken, and leaders captured.”The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997

In Whom Do You Trust?

“Use of money concentrates trust in a single central authority – the central bank – and, over extended periods of time, central banks always tend to misbehave. Eventually the “print” button on the central banker’s emergency console becomes stuck in the depressed position, flooding the world with worthless notes. People trust that money will remain a store of value, and once the trust is violated a gigantic black hole appears at the very center of society, sucking in peoples’ savings and aspirations along with their sense of self-worth. When those who have become psychologically dependent on money as a yardstick, to be applied to everything and everyone, suddenly find themselves in a world where money means nothing, it is as if they have gone blind; they see shapes but can no longer resolve them into objects. The result is anomie – a sense of unreality – accompanied by deep depression. Money is an addiction – substance-less and unreal, and sets itself up for a severe and lengthy withdrawal.” Dmitry Orlov – The Five Stages of Collapse

Our modern world revolves around wealth, the appearance of wealth, the false creation of wealth through the issuance of debt, and trust in the bankers and politicians pulling the levers behind the curtain. The entire world economic system is dependent on trusting central bankers whose only response to any crisis is to create more debt. The death knell is ringing loud and clear, but people around the globe are desperately clinging to their normalcy biases and praying to the gods of cognitive dissonance. It seems the only things that matter to our controllers are stock market levels, the continued flow of debt to the plebs, continued doling out of hush money to those on the dole, and of course an endless supply of brown skinned enemies to attack. With every country in the world attempting to the same solution of debasing their currencies, we are rapidly approaching the tipping point. India is the canary in the coal mine.

Government, Household, Financial & Non-Financial Debt (% of GDP)

An exponential growth model built upon cheap plentiful energy and debt creation has its limits, and we’ve reached them. With the depletion of inexpensive, easily accessible energy resources, higher prices will continue to slow world economies. Demographics in the developed world are slowing the global economy as millions approach their old age with little savings due to over consuming during their peak earnings years. Bernanke has already quadrupled his balance sheet with no meaningful benefit to the economy or the financial well-being of the average middle class American. Financial manipulation that creates nothing has masked the rot consuming our economic system. The game has been rigged in favor of the owners, but even a rigged game eventually comes to an end. Americans and Europeans can no longer maintain a façade of wealth by buying knickknacks from China with money they don’t have. The US and Europe are finding that their credit is no longer good in the exporting Far East countries. This is a perilous development, as the West has depended upon foreigners to accommodate its never ending expansion of credit. Without that continual expansion of debt, the Ponzi scheme comes crashing down. As China, Japan and the rest of Asia have balked at buying U.S. Treasuries with negative real yields, the only recourse for Ben has been to monetize the debt through QE and inflation. The doubling of ten year Treasury rates in a matter of three months due to just talk of possibly slowing QE should send shivers down your spine.

We are supposedly five years past the great crisis. Magazine covers proclaimed Bernanke a hero. If we are well past the crisis, why are the extreme emergency measures still in effect? If the economy is growing and jobs are being created, why do we need $85 billion of government debt to be monetized each and every month? Why are the EU, Japan, and China printing even faster than the Fed? The answer is simple. If the debt was not being monetized, it would have to be purchased out in the free market. Purchasers would require an interest rate far above the 2.9% being paid today. The debt levels in the U.S., Europe and Japan are so large that a rise in interest rates of just a few points would explode budget deficits and lead to a worldwide financial collapse. This is why Bernanke and the rest of his central banker brethren are trapped by their own ideology of bubble production. Just the slowing of debt creation will lead to collapse. Bernanke needs a Syrian crisis to postpone the taper talk. Those in control need an endless number of real or false flag crises to provide cover for their printing presses to keep rolling.

There are a couple analogies that apply to our impending doom. The country is like a 224 year old oak tree that has been slowly rotting on the inside due to the insidious diseases of hubris, apathy, selfishness, dependence, delusion, and debasement. The old oak gives an outward appearance of health and stability. Winter has arrived and gale force winds are in the forecast. One gust of wind and the mighty aged oak will topple and come crashing to earth. I think an even more fitting analogy is the sandpile with grains of sand being added day after day. Seven out of ten Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in taxes. Goliath corporations and the uber-wealthy use the tax code and legislation to syphon hundreds of billions from the national treasury every year. We spend $1 trillion per year on past, current and future wars of choice. Annual interest on the debt we’ve racked up in the last few decades already approaches $400 billion per year. The entire Federal budget totaled $400 billion in 1977. The sandpile grows ever higher, while its instability expands exponentially. One seemingly innocuous grain of sand will ultimately cause the pile to collapse catastrophically. Will it be an unintended consequence of a missile launch into Syria? Will it be a spike in oil prices? Will it be the collapse of one of the EU PIIGS? Will it be an assassination of a political figure or banker? No one knows. But that innocuous grain of sand will trigger the collapse of the entire pile.

Worried people are looking for solutions. They often get angry at me because they don’t think I provide answers to the issues I raise about our corrupt failing system. They want easy answers to intractable problems. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion that our system and majority of citizens are too corrupted to change our course through the ballot box or instituting policies along the lines of those proposed by Ron Paul and many other thoughtful liberty minded people. We are experiencing the downside of a representative democracy.  Once a person is democratically elected a gulf is created between the electors and the person they elected, as the representative becomes corrupted and bought by moneyed interests. Elected officials become a class unto themselves. The political class grows to be puppets that resemble human beings but are nothing but cogs in a vast corporate run machine, pawns in an enormous game of chess played by powerful vindictive immoral men.

There are no cures for our disease. It’s terminal. Anyone telling you they have the answers is either lying or trying to sell you something. More people and organizations are on the take than are playing by the rules. The producers are being overrun by the parasites. The barbarians are at the gate. An implosion of societal trust is underway. The next stage of this crisis, which I believe will materialize within the next twelve months will try the souls of the weary.

“As the Crisis catalyzes, these fears will rush to the surface, jagged and exposed. Distrustful of some things, individuals will feel that their survival requires them to distrust more things. This behavior could cascade into a sudden downward spiral, an implosion of societal trust. This might result in a Great Devaluation, a severe drop in the market price of most financial and real assets. This devaluation could be a short but horrific panic, a free-falling price in a market with no buyers. Or it could be a series of downward ratchets linked to political events that sequentially knock the supports out from under the residual popular trust in the system. As assets devalue, trust will further disintegrate, which will cause assets to devalue further, and so on.”The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997

As a nation we have squandered our inheritance, born of the blood of patriots. A freedom loving, liberty minded, self-responsible, courageous people have allowed ourselves to fall prey to selfishness, apathy, complacency and dependency. Once we allowed our human appetites of greed, power seeking, and control to override the moral responsibility for our own lives and the lives of future unborn generations, collapse was inevitable. The danger now is what happens after the unavoidable collapse. Will the millions of dependency zombies beg for a strong dictator to protect them, provide for them and lead them into further bondage? Or will the spark of liberty and freedom reignite, allowing citizens to throw off the shackles of banker and corporate control? I believe most of the people in this country are good hearted. We are merely pawns in this game of Risk being played by those seeking power, wealth and world domination. We are all trapped in our own forms of normalcy bias. Have I cashed out my retirement funds, sold my suburban house and built a doomstead in the mountains? No I haven’t. Do I second guess myself sometimes? Yes I do. But even the aware have families to support, jobs to go to, bills to pay, laundry to do, lawns to mow, and lives to live. I can’t live in constant fear of what might happen. We only get 80 or so years on this earth, if we’re lucky. The best we can do is leave a positive legacy for our children and their children. A drastic change to our way of life is coming, but most of us are trapped in a cage of our own making.

Each living generation will need to do their part during this Crisis if we are to survive the coming storm. Since no one knows the nature of how the next fifteen years will unfold, it would be wise to at least make basic preparations for food, water, heat and protection. This is easier for some than others, but you don’t have to star on Doomsday Preppers in order to stock up on items that can be purchased at Wal-Mart today, but won’t be available when the global supply chain breaks down. Make sure you have neighbors and family you can rely upon. A small community of like-minded people with varied skills is more likely to succeed in our brave old world than rugged individualists. With no financial means to maintain our globalized world, living locally will take on a new meaning. After much turmoil, chaos, violence, and likely mass casualties the best outcome would be for the Great American Empire to break into regional republics, incapable of waging global war, led by law abiding moral liberty minded individuals, and willing to trade freely and honestly with their fellow republics. Daily life would revert back to a simpler Amish like time. Would that be so bad?

This Fourth Turning could end with a whimper or a bang. There are enough nuclear arms to obliterate the world ten times over. There are enough hubristic egomaniacal psychopathic men in power, that the use of those weapons has a high likelihood of happening. It will be up to the people to not allow this horrific result. I love my country and despise my government. The Declaration of Independence clearly states that when a long train of abuses and usurpations lead toward despotism, it is our right and duty to throw off that government and provide new guards of liberty. My family comes first with my country a close second. I will fight with whatever means necessary to protect my family and do what I can to influence the future course of our country. Time is running out. Will we have the courage, fortitude and wisdom to make the right decisions over the next fifteen years? Will we choose glory or destruction? The fate of our nation hangs in the balance. Are you prepared? Are you ready to fight for your family and your rights?

The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997

  

 IT’S OUR CHOICE.

86
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
AWD

Poll: New low for government trust

By JAMES ARKIN | 9/13/13

Less than half of Americans trust the government to handle problems, a all-time low, according to a new poll.

Just 49 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the federal government to handle international problems, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. The previous low was 51 percent in 2007.

The public’s trust is even lower when it comes to domestic issues. Just 42 percent of Americans answered with a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the government to handle issues at home, one point below the previous low from 2011.

Democrats have far more confidence in the government than Republicans: 78 percent of Dems trust the government on international issues compared to just 35 percent of Republicans. Democrats don’t have nearly as much faith when it comes to domestic issues, though, with 58 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence compared to 25 percent of Republicans

comment image

DC Sunsets

AWD, the poll probably splits nicely between “low information” people who get their data (and their scripted talking points) from TVTH (Tee Vee Talking Heads) who TRUST Authority and the rest of us who dig a little deeper and distrust it ALL.

The poster should read “Intererence abroad,” not appeasement.

I note again, for the umpteenth time, that any other country that does what the USA does to foreigners would be FOREVER labeled the Evil Empire.

DC Sunsets

As times get tougher we’ll no doubt see polls where people SAY they don’t trust government, but by their actions you will know them.

Support for a Savior on a White Horse will skyrocket, and we’ll get our Stalin. I think Hillary fully intends to serve in that role, but White Horsemen can appear from humble beginnings (e.g., Hitler).

AWD

That poll shows how brainwashed democrats are, low information retards (they voted for Obama).

Republicans hate the government more than anyone, including Republican “leaders”.

We need to start over. Hang all politicians and lawyers (they’re the same thing). Liberal progressives are dangerous, especially with their fascist leanings of late.

“White Horsemen can appear from humble beginnings (e.g., Hitler).”

comment image

s. petersen

Hey, Jim.

The jobs went to japan, china, and mexico.

People go out and try to find work and it’s not there.

Now the government try to help people who lost their job because it went to japan, china or mexico.

How is that wrong? People want to find work. They try and try. It is not available.

So you say, they can take course’s to become highly skilled workers that are desirable.

Cost for highly skilled job education – 1 million dollars.

MethodMan
MethodMan

That trendline is great but all that matters and the TPTB know it — expectations. For better or worse, people expect their dollar to be worth less over their lifetime. But there is a psychological limit to the rate and duration of inflation that can occur before it causes people shift their thinking into shorter timeframes and cause the crack up boom. Like a phase change, it won’t be gradual when it occurs, people tend to “panic” all at once. But like a system jumping from one state to another it can be unpredictable, all you know that it will occur.

SSS

“My family comes first with my country a close second. I will fight with whatever means necessary to protect my family and do what I can to influence the future course of our country.”
—-Admin, buried in a paragraph WAY toward the end of the article

Bingo. That’s why you and I are Internet brethren.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

If I wanted to start a small factory manufacturing air conditioners, refrigerators, or washing machines the first thing I would have to do is comply with massive government regulations. Wonder why there are no manufacturing jobs?

We have to change our mindset about how jobs are created. Talented people can come together and create products when government gets out of the way.

The small corporation is an entity controlled by the State. This is what communism does to small business. Our local and State governments are controlled under federal statues designed to manage people and small business. The statutes are designed for centralized control. The executive branch of the federal government now controls all the functions of government at all levels. Is this not communism?

Our government has become a great machine that controls our life. We can no longer “do” but rather “react” to the influences of government over our life. We have no direct recourse though government but only though the commercial courts that uphold the statutes codified in administrative law. The judges construe the law in their terms; not ours. So we have no recourse to change anything; even through the courts.

What this is going to lead to is a breakdown of the rule of law. As we go though the great reset the rule of law will begin to be ignored just like the old “Blue Laws” were ignored.

Commercial Law, AKA Administrative Law has gone too far in managing our society. We need to bring back common law in the areas that administrative law has failed us; like criminal justice and the educational systems of our States. The agents of administrative law have to much power over the people and the economy.

I don’t expect any of this to happen until the dead minds running the current system are gone. And I don’t expect this to happen until the great reset happens.

I have a sense that the great reset will happen soon. I look at this being a positive event for our country.

flash
flash

One again,admin, you’ve managed to paint another epic adventure in gut wrench reality.Many see this type of peering into the abyss of truism as to dangerous to the psyche to suffer reading , so they just ignore the demons in the pit , putting all hope and trust in credit default swaps and the benevolence of the deciders.
But nevertheless, ignorance is no defense against real danger. Since the creation of man,truth has always been and will be the only defense against evil.
Bet on it.

For some pretty fair fiction on what a collapsed world may look and feel like check out this dystopian tale by Michael Bunker…well worht the price of admission.

Wick – The Omnibus Edition [Kindle Edition]
Michael Bunker (Author), Chris Awalt (Author)

BTW. what’s up with the Norton web attack warning- Malicious toolkit Website 14 attack ?…a very annoying pop up , to say the least.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

flash

Truth is not in the cards for people. We all live in an internal world of buffers so we don’t have to see the contradictions within us. If it were not for these buffers we would go insane and not be able to manage our daily affairs.

Example: People think they live in a free country. But when they get a letter from the IRS telling them they owe taxes & penalties for a mistake the tax preparer made a few years back on their tax return they go into panic mode.

Remember when taxes were voluntary? Remember when there was a constitution and the fourth amendment kept the police out without a warrant? Remember when advertising had a sense of truth? Today we live in a society of lies.

TBP is not infected. Could it be their detractors who are sending out viruses via their website when you connect? The best way to keep virusis off your computer is don’t use Norton 360 and use older versions of windows. The new versions are attracting visuses like a magnet thanks to NSA and their employment program that is causing so many people to take computer science in college to get those lucrative NSA jobs. People are full of contradictions because we no longer teach the young our acquired conscience principles nor do they even seek conscience. So everything goes in this world of lies.

Jamie
Jamie

When the Preist/leaders go rogue history tells us there is no hope untill they come back to God.

Fairguy
Fairguy

Re: impending collapse, I’ve taken some sort of a preventive measure by rebalancing my IRA to Swiss Franc and Gold. At least in the initial phase of collapse I see the USD and stocks taking a major hit, and so I’m hopeful that at that point I can pull the cash out of my IRA for sustenance. The other part of this is that 5 months ago I was laid off by the greedy boodsucking highly profitable software company I worked for after 7 years of devoted and highly skilled work, with a 2 months severance plan which included a gag clause. So I may end up cashing that IRA regardless.

Eyes On Elysium
Eyes On Elysium

Admin – Really nice piece to finish up your series. Thank you. ♥ the analogies you chose ring true.

“The country is like a 224 year old oak tree that has been slowly rotting on the inside due to the insidious diseases of hubris, apathy, selfishness, dependence, delusion, and debasement. The old oak gives an outward appearance of health and stability. Winter has arrived and gale force winds are in the forecast. One gust of wind and the mighty aged oak will topple and come crashing to earth.”

“I think an even more fitting analogy is the sandpile with grains of sand being added day after day. One seemingly innocuous grain of sand will ultimately cause the pile to collapse catastrophically. Will it be …? No one knows. But that innocuous grain of sand will trigger the collapse of the entire pile. “

I think you’re right. I’ll keep my copy of The Fourth Turning: AN AMERICAN PROPHECY visible and separate on purpose on my dresser. (Strange, but It always seems to get buried or blocked from sight in my desk clutter.) When I see it there everyday, it will remind me to ask the question. Will it be today? We all need to be vigilant and prepare for this unfortunate but inevitable impending doom.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

Admin – I am in agreement with your analogy of an oak tree that has been America. I also believe that there is an acorn out there ready to crack open & sprout and replace this rotten oak tree. In fact this acorn may have already sprouted in the dark. There are a good number of people out here capable of starting over. They are silently working for a rebirth. Not is all negative.

flash
flash

Don’t overlook the power of positive thought…just keep pretending denial is a river and everything will work out fine.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/they-denied-that-we-were-in-a-depression-in-1933-and-they-are-doing-it-again-in-2013

They Denied That We Were In A Depression In 1933 And They Are Doing It Again In 2013
As I have already noted, the mainstream media was doing the exact same thing back during the days of the Great Depression. The following are actual Associated Press headlines from 1933…

“Decisive Break from Panic Shown in Business Figures”

“Markets Spurt To New Highs”

“New Farm Bill to End Depression”

And the following is a headline discovery from 1933 that was made by Linda Goin…

I was browsing through old newspapers the other day and discovered a page filled with news about the stock market and banks in the Daily Capital News from Jefferson City, Missouri. The date was March 15, 1933, well into the Great Depression, and the news was cautiously celebratory as a headline read, “Era of Fear is Declared at End Now.”

Billy
Billy

Just came across your site. Just from this one article, it’s outstanding.

I’ve been preparing for the worst since back when it was still called being a “survivalist”.

We’re past the Event Horizon and there is no way we can save the Republic. Me and mine are in triage mode- we’re saving who and what we can, stockpiling tools, resources and knowledge (you’d be surprised how many books we have), and forming alliances with neighbors.

We chose to live in the middle of nowhere in a small farming community- little farm, drought proof water supply and sustenance farming with heirloom crops. Raise our own stock for food and trade. What we don’t have or can’t make, we trade for with our neighbors. Mutual protection is the key- the larger your group, the greater your chances of surviving.

When it happens, it will happen fast. You will wake up one morning and discover that your money is either worthless or is melting away under the blowtorch of hyperinflation. Which means if you don’t already have it, then you ain’t gonna get it…

Also, there is no way that people will be able to sustain their current level of technology. How will you heat your home when the electric is cut off? Internet, satellite TV, cell phone service… all will likely vaporize. Highly refined fuels like gasoline have a very short shelf life, even with stabilizers. What will you run your car on, if it even works?

Plan on using the tech our grandparents or great grandparents were familiar with.. kerosene lamps, candles, wood stoves, non-electric hand tools, etc…

And remember the 4 B’s: Beans, bullets, band aids and bullion.

Billy
Billy

No, fraid not.

I live down in the Bluegrass. South Central Kentucky. The rolling piedmont farmland that butts up against the Appalachian Mountains. Got a nice, secluded spot on a little used road that dead ends at a river about a mile away. We’re an hour from anything resembling a city, and there’s plenty of things flying, walking and swimming to eat on, if it comes to it (my boy took his first deer 2 years ago when he was 10).

Friend of mine, used to be an investment banker, schooled me on the fuckery that is the Fed. Which led to discoveries about Nixon breaking the Bretton Woods Agreement, which begat fiat currency, which begat crony capitalism, etc. Short version is, is that we’re pretty much doomed at this point. No point in writing letters or demonstrating… the crash is inevitable and I can either burn myself out demonstrating and agitating (which won’t change the endgame one bit), or I can save who and what I can, while I can.

When I retired out of the military, I was still pretty young (late 30’s), so I pursued skills in some trades, got good, and then bought a farm. The work I do, I don’t even accept paper script as payment anymore… unless they have no other alternative. Usually payment in silver at the days spot conversion to US toilet paper, erm… dollars.

Shoot me an email when you can find the time…

B

Billy
Billy

@Fairguy

Dude, all respect to you, and I ain’t trying to tell you your business, but if what I think is gonna happen, happens, then your IRA will mean squat, even if you rebalance it into gold…

I watched “End of the Road- How Money Became Worthless”.

http://100thmonkeyfilms.com/endoftheroad/

There is more than one claim on every ounce of gold in the world. They’ve oversold it in the worst way possible. If you don’t physically have it in your hands, then you don’t own it- no matter what your IRA says.

If you want to invest in gold, good. But buy physical bullion, not paper gold.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

Billy:

You seem to be in a good position even if a crash were not coming. It is all about how you are living not what you have. America has lost that perspective. A collective thinking has taken over the population that pretends that the government is their master & provider and that they were made for the government. Cities now are nothing more than giant ant hills sucking up goods from overseas indentured labor.

Billy
Billy

T-Bird,

Thank you… it’s a long row to hoe. We’re not super-preppers or anything. Still making loads of mistakes, since I didn’t know beans about being a farmer when we started.

Thing is, you get to thinking about stuff and that leads to other stuff, which leads to still more stuff… how will you wash clothes without electricity? Go down to the river and beat them on a rock? Nope. Use a hand-rotary washer, but since those haven’t been built in a hundred years, you go off and research how to build one. But, what about soap? Know how to make soap? Gotta reseach that.

Fact is, I spend about half my time doing research on retro-tech, blueprinting designs using modern materials… sometimes I buy ratty old beater antiques and disassemble them, see how they work, how I can improve them or recreate them… some chemicals I need for stuff, well, it would raise an eyebrow if I just bought the stuff outright. So, I’ve had to teach myself chemistry all over again… find out how to make what I need safely.

Most folks just think life is about accumulating stuff. But it isn’t. Life is like planting a tree. You don’t plant a tree for you. You plant one for future generations… the little orchard we planted our first year here will be around and feeding my grandkids and their grandkids. I sleep better knowing that.

flash
flash

“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”

– Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
qtd. in General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.

flash
flash

…speaking of the issue of sanity…. if in fact this report is legit , this is not a good sign for the nation.

Meltdown in Washington: President Obama Reported Sedated Following Emotional Breakdown – See more at: http://nationalreport.net/meltdown-washington-president-obama-reported-sedated-following-emotional-breakdown/#sthash.8vJWSVq9.dpuf
Nigel J. Covington III
Editor-in-Chief

Late this afternoon White House insiders leaked information stating the president has suffered a mental breakdown and is presently resting and under a doctors care. This afternoon the National Report received three calls on our nationwide hot tip line (206) 222-1975. Two of the three callers are insiders known to the National Report to be reliable confidential informants.

The caller unknown to this publication is a low level employee who could only state that there was some kind of a medical emergency involving President Obama. The other two callers known to us are both support personnel within the Obama administration. Both confirmed this week has been a political disaster for the president and this has taken a tremendous toll on him.
– See more at: http://nationalreport.net/meltdown-washington-president-obama-reported-sedated-following-emotional-breakdown/#sthash.8vJWSVq9.dpuf

Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane

Holy S**t!!! Admin, this last article is harsh! HARSH, I say. Of course Reality is harsh and unforgiving. I feel like a prize fighter that has gone 3 rounds and hadn’t had a glove laid on me in part 1, 2 & 3 and in round 4, I got sucker punched. After reading this my knees are still wobbly . I’m going to read it again, but I’m going to have to hold on to something–maybe a bottle of cheap tequila.

I might make some comments, however: The Revolutionary War was not war about taxes, but about the use of Continental Script and the forbidding of its use by King George at the behest of the English bankers. The Civil War or the War of Southern Independence was not about slavery, but about taxes, primarily tariffs and duties. Historian Thomas DiLorenzo has commented on this. It is the winners that rewrite history. What most people think is, isn’t and what most people think isn’t, is!

I agree, thinking is hard, which is why it is so readily shunned by so many folks. Whereas, feelings are easy, primal, and most folks confuse the two as one and the same. They come from different parts of the brain. I believe that 80% of the population are feelers (emoters) and 20% are thinkers. I believe that the 80% think that they are thinkers but it’s merely habits born out of feelings that they express. Feelings don’t change much as they are primal, whereas, thinking is modified with the advent of new facts. The liberal progressives (Demos) appeal to feelers, not thinkers and that is why they win elections. Beware of people who appeal to your emotions.

Nonanonymous—A moral society—people talk about society as if they know what they’re talking about. Society is a mental construct, it only exists in your mind it is not real. Walk me down the street and point one out to me. People on the other hand are real, you can see, touch and interact with them. People are moral or not. Society is nether real nor moral.

Admin says—“Worried people are looking for solutions. They often get angry at me because they don’t think I provide answers to the issues I raise about our corrupt failing system. They want easy answers to intractable problems. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion that our system and majority of citizens are too corrupted to change our course through the ballot box …”

Your job, Admin, is to provide the truth, as you see it. (what ever that is) Worried people’s problems are as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach. Only God would be capable of a solution. Admin gives the tools (truth) so that with the help of God within the individual, they can find their own solutions. It is the abandonment of the Spiritual within you that led to your deception. As of old, recant your sins and cry unto the Lord and He will comfort you. Man is brought low through his hubris and lack of humility.
It is when all is lost and man sees his ways fail that he turns to God. That may be our path, to suffer the consequences of our actions and recant. Salvation is between you and God. I ask, what do you stand for? It’s shearing time! Remember, no decision is a decision. Have hope for this too will pass.

Admin. are you a cynic? You hold no hope for the folks or the ballot box? Remember all thing are possible with God. I know what you’re thinking, “They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.”—Emily Dickinson. God’s like a gentleman and doesn’t stick his nose in your business unless invited. It’s called “free will” or you experience what you create.
Corruption is a decision, the consequence of a series of bad choices. Like all decisions they can be changed. Sometime pain is the catalyst.

Eyes On Elysium says—“…sandpile with grains of sand being added day after day. One seemingly innocuous grain of sand will ultimately cause the pile to collapse catastrophically…” The Complexity Theory, aka The Chaos Theory is related to The Black Swan idea. The ultimate collapse and severity of that collapse is unpredictable. I was expecting it 30 years ago. Read the books on these ideas. Knowledge will be a life preserver in these troubling times.

dc.sunsets—you are so wise, do take time to smell the roses. God’s beauty is everywhere, but you can’t see it with “eyes wide shut”. P.S. Eyes are a symbol of Consciousness, the Mind, for those of you in Rio Linda.

Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane

De val vam een Rijk in 5 stappen—–Each government or society is inevitable for the purpose of assisting. The fall of a government or society is always done in five steps. 5, the steps do not necessarily follow each other, and may also simultaneously occur. But this is what happens when a government or society nearing its end, according to The Burning Platform. —–For those of you not familiar with Dutch.

Willy2
Willy2

Nope. Benny Bernanke is NOT printing money. The majority of the expanding monetary base is credit. And when it’s clear all that credit won’t be repaid then’the purchasing power of the USD will increase dramatically.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

Expect the unexpected to happen in the days ahead. It is going to be a cold winter with no rabbits to eat. The coyotes are going to starve.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading