FOURTH TURNING – THE SHADOW OF CRISIS HAS NOT PASSED – PART FOUR

In Part One of this article I explained the model of generational theory as conveyed by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning. In Part Two I provided an overwhelming avalanche of evidence this Crisis has only yet begun, with debt, civic decay and global disorder propelling the world towards the next more violent phase of this Crisis. In Part Three I addressed how the most likely clash on the horizon is between the government and the people. War on multiple fronts will thrust the world through the great gate of history towards an uncertain future.

War on Multiple Fronts

“The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in mankind’s willingness to use it.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

The drumbeats of war are pounding. Sanctions are implemented against any country that dares question American imperialism (Russia, Iran). Overthrow and ignominious imprisonment or death awaits any foreign leader questioning the petrodollar or standing in the way of America spreading democracy (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt). The mega-media complex of six corporations peddle the government issued pabulum about ISIS being an existential threat to our freedoms; Russia being led by the new Hitler and poised to take over Europe; Syria gassing innocent women and children; and Iran only six months away from a nuclear bomb (they’ve been six months away for the last fourteen years). Hollywood does their part with patriotic drivel like American Sniper, designed to compel low IQ unemployed American youths to swell with pride and march down to enlistment centers, located in our plentiful urban ghettos.

The most disconcerting aspect of Fourth Turnings is they have always climaxed with total destructive all-out war. Not wars to enrich arms dealers like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, but incomprehensibly violent, brutal, wars of annihilation. There are clear winners and losers at the conclusion of Fourth Turning wars. Leaders mobilize all forces, refuse to compromise, define their enemies in moral terms, demand sacrifice on the battlefield and home front, build the most destructive weapons imaginable, and employ those weapons to obtain victory at any cost.

It may seem inconceivable that war on such a scale will happen within the next ten years, but it was equally inconceivable in 1936 that 65 million people would die in the next ten years during World War II. We valued all the wrong things and made all the wrong choices leading up to this Crisis and during the early stages of this Crisis. The accumulation of unmet obligations, unpaid bills, un-kept promises and unresolved issues will provide the fuel for an upheaval that will shake our society to its core and transforms the country’s direction for the next sixty years. The outcome of the conflict could be tragedy or triumph. Our choices will make a difference.

There will be war on many fronts, and they have already begun. The culmination will likely be World War III, with the outcome highly uncertain and potentially disastrous.

Currency war

With the world awash in sovereign debt, as governments have over-promised welfare benefits, every country is attempting to debase their currency in order to make their debt load bearable. There is one problem with this approach. If every country is implementing the same strategy, it becomes a race to the bottom. Japan is leading the race and is the most likely candidate to cause a catastrophic collapse in the global financial system. The EU and their negative interest rate strategy is crushing the Euro, but not addressing the solvency issue at the heart of the bank-centric European mad experiment.

The depression engulfing Japan, the recession overwhelming Europe, and the rapidly deflating Chinese mal-investment bubbles have dramatically reduced demand for oil, copper, and iron ore. The collapse in demand for oil has caused the currencies of Russia, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil to plunge. Argentina, Turkey and the Ukraine risk hyperinflation, as their economies are basket cases. The result of rapidly declining currencies is more pain and suffering for the middle and lower classes. As prices rise for food, energy and essentials, the peasants get restless. This leads to anger, extremist parties gaining traction, and ultimately revolution.

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. dollar has been the currency in which all world trade has been conducted. The global oil trade has been settled in dollars. American economic warfare aggression against Russia, China, Iran, and other developing countries has pushed them into closer economic cooperation. The dollar’s domination days are numbered. The current strength of the dollar is only a reflection of the U.S. being the best looking horse in the glue factory. The U.S. economy is the least worst, but will not be de-coupling from the global downturn. The movement of physical gold from West to East is a reflection of a shift in power. U.S. mega-corporations, who get half their profits overseas, face the double whammy of slowing demand and a stronger dollar. The combination will crush their profits and contribute to the coming stock market crash. When Greece exits the EU, the currency wars may lead to real war in Europe.

Class war

As Warren Buffett admitted in an oligarch momentary lapse into truthiness:

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” – Warren Buffett

The meme driving the OWS protests was the 1% versus the 99%. The comparison is misleading. The 1% includes many small business owners, productive professionals, successful physicians, and hard-working entrepreneurs. The true class war is between the .1% and the 99.9%. There is a small clique of bankers, billionaires, corporate CEOs, media moguls, politicians, and their acolytes who represent the Deep State, or invisible government, and control the mechanisms of financial markets through their capture of the system. There is absolutely no question they are winning. It’s hard not to win when the game is rigged in your favor by your fellow .1% cronies. The markets are no longer free. They are manipulated and rigged to benefit the .1% at everyone else’s expense. The wealth of the richest has skyrocketed while the wealth of the rest has fallen since 2009. Real median household income languishing at 1989 levels proves they have been the losers. The next financial collapse initiated by the policies designed to benefit the .1% will push class warfare into the streets. Gated communities and doormen will not save the .1% from the wrath of their victims.

Generational war

A particular dicey war is the war between the older generations and younger generations. In past Fourth Turnings the prophet generation (Boomers) has provided leadership for the hero generation (Millennials). The tension between older and younger generations is palpable. Older generations have accumulated wealth during the good times. The Boomers who didn’t save for their retirement refuse to yield the field and allow Millennials into the workforce. Millions of delusional Boomers utilized the easy debt provided by the bankers to live for today and never save for tomorrow. Well tomorrow is here. The older generations are still going to receive all the social benefits they were promised, while younger generations will get stiffed. They know they are going to get screwed and are unlikely to take the screwing lying down.

It’s the older generations who control the levers of society. The aged ruling class has doled out the hundreds of billions in student loan debt and convinced Millennials College was a sure path to success and good jobs. Working as a french fry jockey at McDonalds doesn’t make the grade as a good job. Young people without jobs and without hope are a particularly combustible concoction. If there is revolution in the streets it won’t be led by obese Boomers on their motorized scooters. The barricades will be manned by the young. Confrontation with the police state may be initiated by Gen Xers and Boomers, but the fighting and dying will be done by the Millennials.

Terrorism/Religious war

The war on terrorism, like the wars on drugs and poverty, is unwinnable. They aren’t meant to be won. They are meant to enrich the vested interests, expand their control over our lives, erode our liberties and freedoms, and provoke fear and dependency among the masses. The terrorist plots concocted by the government, using clueless dupes, and then foiled by the DHS agencies that created them are nothing but a ruse to rile up the easily manipulated hoi polloi. The neo-cons want to leave the Middle East a smoking crater in their thirst for blood. The war on terrorism is a cover for hijacking the oil under the ground in the Middle East. ISIS is now Satan, Hitler, and Attila the Hun rolled into one, even though they didn’t exist a year ago. They are the existential threat of the day – the excuse for U.S. troops and armaments to flow back into Iraq. The military industrial complex profits will surge. Despite the fact these terrorists are no threat to our American way of life, the level of fear mongering amongst the chattering classes in Versailles on the Potomac and on the entertainment news networks is at hyperbolic volumes.

Chris Hedges explains the current propaganda storyline as espoused by the Deep State:

“This sentimentality, as Baldwin wrote, masks a terrifying numbness. [The War Culture] fosters an unchecked narcissism. Facts and historical truths, when they do not fit into the mythic vision of the nation and the tribe, are discarded. Dissent becomes treason. All opponents are godless and subhuman… It holds up the dangerous belief that we can recover our equilibrium and our lost glory by embracing an American fascism.” – Chris Hedges

Somebody needs to inform the neo-cons they don’t hate us for our freedoms. They hate us for occupying their lands, reigning terror on their people from unmanned killer drones, invading their countries, interfering in their political processes, and stealing their oil. Islam is most certainly a religion of hate and there will be no reconciliation between Christians, Muslims and Jews. The Middle East will remain a quagmire of hatred, centuries old animosities, religious extremism, despotic leaders, and oil. Terrorism does not pose an existential threat to the United States. It’s laughable to conclude that a country of 320 million, protected by vast oceans, with a trillion dollar military and 300 million guns distributed amongst its population, is actually threatened by a few thousand illiterate religious zealots in the Middle East.

Terrorism is a tactic used by militant groups unable to wage an insurgency or fight a conventional war. The purpose is to lure a larger enemy into an outsized response, resulting in bleeding and bankrupting the larger foe. Osama bin Laden succeeded beyond his wildest expectations, as the U.S. has wasted $6 trillion thus far, along with the lives of 7,000 Americans and 50,000 wounded. The terrorists have already won. They have put our country on the path to bankruptcy, while convincing our leaders to strip the citizens of their liberties, freedoms, and rights. And there are now more militants and terrorists than existed in 2001, in countries that didn’t have terrorists in 2001. The Middle East is a powder-keg which could be the catalyst for the start of World War III.

Cyber war

A cyber war has been being waged against the American people and foreign allies by the NSA for the last decade. The technology addicted masses are completely oblivious to their loss of privacy and freedom. They don’t know or don’t care their rights under the Fourth Amendment are being abridged. You are being tracked and monitored through your electronic devices. Your TV is recording your conversations. The U.S. has been waging cyber war against enemies and allies alike. The U.S. unleashed the Stuxnet computer virus into the Iranian nuclear program computers to set back their efforts by years. That was an act of war. It is now comical to see the governmental outrage when foreign nations and hacker organizations break into government computers and wreak havoc. In cyber war, the playing field is fairly even. Even North Korea can create problems for a superpower. Obama and his acolytes should duly note that Wall Street hired hundreds of Russian computer programmers because they seem to have a penchant for writing code. I’m sure Putin realizes that too.

Hackers have already caused billions in damage to retailers like Target, Home Depot, Staples, Sears, and Neiman Marcus. Over 1,000 merchants have had their computer networks breached. Hackers could potentially bring the financial system to its knees with a few keystrokes. Foreign governments have their smartest tech geeks probing U.S. computer networks for weaknesses and will act on these weaknesses when they feel it is beneficial to their interests. Technology will not save the world, but it might play a part in ending it. All the military firepower at the American Empire’s disposal may be nothing more than our Maginot Line during the next worldwide conflict. If satellites and computer systems can be disabled through computer code, leaders will be blind, deaf and dumb to threats. This would ratchet up the odds of someone panicking and pushing the wrong button at the wrong time. The future of the world may hang in the balance.

Civil war

It appears this Fourth Turning’s primary driving force will be the internal conflict between government and the people. To linear thinkers, self-proclaimed progressives, corrupt politicians, obedient government workers, and those dependent upon the government for their sustenance, the thought of civil war in the United States is inconceivable. Civil uprisings generally occur after currency collapse when mass hunger and poverty overtake the land. A breakdown in the electronic based economic system in which store shelves go empty, fuel becomes scarce, and the electronic transfer of welfare benefits ceases would create mass chaos in the streets. With our just in time supply chain, a grid failure or breakdown of electronic ordering, payment and communication would bring the nation to its knees within one week. Millions would perish within a few weeks. The government would attempt to utilize the military and national guard to maintain order. With their families also starving and no means of getting paid, will they be obeying the orders of a government that caused the collapse?

The other possibility is secession. It’s been tried before and the conflict was bloody and earth shattering. There really are two Americas. The east and west coasts are dominated by the liberal elite who look down upon the rest of the country. The .1% mostly resides in their gated enclaves, penthouse suites, and luxury beachfront mansions. They have nothing but contempt and disdain for the average American, living in Middle America or the South. The feeling is mutual amongst the working class towards the liberal elites. Most of the 300 million guns are concentrated in the Midwest and South. As trust in government and institutions wanes, the issue of states’ rights is likely to gain traction amongst a large swath of the critical thinking citizenry. The animosity between factions in this country is at historic levels. Again, civil war, secession, and the nation breaking into sectional regions of common interests are unlikely to occur until the existing social order collapses under the weight of un-payable obligations. That time is coming.

Total war

Every previous Fourth Turning climax coincided with total war on a grand scale. Each Fourth Turning war has seen a leap in the technological means of killing human beings. We put a lot of effort and resources into finding better ways to annihilate humanity. The Civil War saw 5% of the male population killed. World War II saw 65 million people killed. How many will die during this Fourth Turning total war of survival? Fourth Turning wars are decisive, final and fought with all necessary means until final victory or defeat, not like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan. World War I was savage and brutal, but it was not decisive. It left issues unresolved and its Treaty of Versailles created the basis for World War II. The technological means to put an end to mankind is at the disposal of leaders in a number of nation-states. It would only take one psychopathic despot or elected president of immense ego and self-importance to initiate the doomsday clock. It appears these qualities are now essential to governing a modern day nation. Someone will do something stupid, and then all hell will break loose.

Anyone who doesn’t comprehend the implications of alliances being formed and broken by countries around the globe is either choosing the ostrich strategy or is ignorant of history and the events leading to wars. A thorough reading of The Guns of August may be helpful. The world is like a room full of gunpowder and the sociopaths running the show keep lighting matches. Someone is going to miscalculate and the place is going to blow sky high. The insolvent EU is splintering. The northern countries despise the southern countries. Greece, Spain and Italy are all economic basket cases and their exits will mark the end of this grand experiment in debt delusion. Once the bad debts crash down upon the European banks and governments, the anger, bitterness, accusations and violence will reach epic proportions. This could trigger war, as extremist political parties gain traction. The economic suffering in the 1920’s led to the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. Hunger leads the peasants to rally behind any strong leader.

The Ukrainian civil war, crafted by the U.S. and its weak kneed NATO allies, has been the facilitator of a shift in world alliances. The U.S. has made a blundering attempt to teach Putin a lesson for interfering in their Syrian pipeline uprising against Assad and encouraging the Crimea to rejoin Russia. By attempting to position NATO armaments on Russia’s border they have triggered centuries old fears of being invaded by European powers. Russia will stop the U.S. plan at all costs, and the Russian supported rebels have soundly defeated the Kiev Nazi forces in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. backed forces have slaughtered women and children randomly as they blunder about in eastern Ukraine. The latest cease fire will not hold. Germany and France are coming to their senses and starting to look out for their best interests, rather than the interests of the American Empire. A shattering of the NATO alliance would be an earth moving event and would set the stage for further conflict in Europe. Enemies are interchangeable when you are an imperial power.

The world has begun to devolve into two distinct factions. The imperialist actions of the American Empire in the Middle East and Ukraine have pushed Russia, China, India, Brazil, and Iran closer together regarding trade deals; transacting commerce without using the USD; oil and gas pipelines; and military cooperation. If there is going to be total war in the next dozen or so years, it most surely would be the United States versus an alliance of Russia and China. Japan is experiencing Chinese saber rattling over disputed islands. Russia continuously probes NATO defenses with aggressive actions. It is clear the U.S. has decided Vladimir Putin and Russia is world enemy #1 and are using all their economic and propaganda tools to de-claw the bear. Failure to make Putin bow to American pressure will raise his stature at home and abroad.

China’s domestic, economic and social issues continue to worsen. They are in the midst of experiencing an epic bust after a debt fueled explosion of government manufactured growth. Their fraudulent economic boom is coming to a messy end. Totalitarian regimes are known for using foreign threats to distract the populace from domestic suffering. As a matter of fact, all regimes use this tactic. When the global economy rips apart at the seams due to the debt saturation, world leaders will attempt to blame other countries for their dire circumstances. Foreign enemies are good for business. Ask our Nobel Peace Prize winning President. War is inevitable.

Strauss & Howe pose four potential culminations to our current Crisis, only one of which offers hope. There may be other possibilities, but probably not. The outcome which will not happen is just a continuation of the status quo, with the same corrupt leadership using the same debt based solutions, as they enrich themselves and their cronies. The existing social order will be replaced by something new, but not necessarily better, if there is anything left after a war that could end in Armageddon:

  1. This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.
  2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.
  3. 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.
  4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.

I would love to just be an impartial observer during this Fourth Turning, like a sports announcer in a booth far above the field, broadcasting the events as they unfold. But, it is not to be. I’m living in the midst of this Crisis with all the other participants. I’m not happy about the prospect of financial collapse, societal collapse, and war. I have three young sons and refuse to allow them to be used as cannon fodder by the State, in their quest to retain dominion over the American people. I understand the younger generations must do the heavy lifting during this Crisis, but I do not relish the prospect of putting them in harm’s way. It’s not fair they are left with the burdens created by decades of bad choices and cowardly acts of their elders. But no one said life is fair. This generation was born at a particular time in history when much will be required. They have a rendezvous with destiny. None of us has a choice. We can’t sit this one out. The bad times ahead will require courage, fortitude, sacrifice and intelligence, if we are to be triumphant. This Fourth Turning could end in apocalypse or glory. Our decisions and choices will matter. Prepare now.

“Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse – or glory. The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition. The rhythms of history do not reveal the outcome of the coming Crisis; all they suggest is the timing and dimension.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe

82
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
flash
flash

Rule of man then?…what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/curtis-kalin/cnn-anchor-our-rights-do-not-come-god

During a heated discussion over gay marriage, CNN morning Anchor Chris Cuomo opined that the unalienable rights endowed to all Americans do not come from God. Cuomo was debating Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Near the end of the back-and-forth and after Moore argued that rights cannot be handed down by men, Cuomo blurted out:

“Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man… That’s your faith, that’s my faith, but that’s not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.”

phtttt….natural right granted by the creator…what twaddle..

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

optimist

poor admin .. is it really necessary to live in fear and spread it everyday ? is it really necessary to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders ?

do you carry your anger towards the state around with you in your daily life ?

if you let go of all your resentment towards the US and the world, i bet you would live in far more peace and serenity.

when the war comes to our doorstep, then the time will arrive when we must deal with it. but, for now, no one can rationally predict when that will be. no one knows. all we can do is wait until we hit bottom, then we can rebuild into a far better country.

flash
flash

The Republican Party ( i.e fascists) killed the Republic , then raped the corpse while the the Party of Hyenas ( shit for brains, Democrats) stood in a circle and jerked off to the pictology guide of Republican lies.

Twp parties of stupid = one nation of fail.

comment image?oh=2ae18f69c25615e85e1bb3dab617317c&oe=5555B2F8&__gda__=1431802033_c1c9150f94bea5e7f39b3e59841dde41

Overthecliff
Overthecliff

Admin is full of resentment all right, for thieves and murderers. He is pissed and don’t want to take it anymore.

hardscrabble farmer

On hope-

Hesiod’s version of Pandora’s Jar

“So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.

So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All Endowed), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.

But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood.

For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.”

For modern day Western mankind, hope is a desired condition, an consolation. As anyone with two eyes and an IQ on the right hand side of the bell curve can read, in the original Greek version, hope is the greatest of all mankind’s woes and sufferings. Hope denies action, forestalls free will, restrains accomplishment, empties man of all attempts to better his own life through the trickery of wishful thinking and desire for external factors to improve his life while he himself does nothing. Hope deflates, vacates, empties, leaving nothing but a shell.

Hope is the kryptonite of mankind, not it’s salvation.

Anonymous
Anonymous

SS every time I see a nsa camera at a street light,I think the same thing

Mesagoatman
Mesagoatman

Dear Starfcker: Bean counter I think not. Pragmatic is the word. Why you spent all the energy to argue the facts of TARP. No one cares. Over. Done. Ancient History. Maybe we should dredge up Glass-Steagull. Bretton Woods or the conception of the Fed. Stick to the Point. TARP wasn’t it. We are discussing the Fourth Turning. We are in the Crisis part. Not the High, Awakening(though apparently you aren’t) or the Unraveling. Crisis get it. This is the part when the shit hits the fan. Now we can all hold hands and hope the good ole guberment will pull a rabbit out of the hat but guess what; it ain’t going to happen. We are fried. You can’t run from radiation. Little less time on Politico and more on ENENews and maybe you will get a clue. Here’s the link. http://enenews.com/

starfcker
starfcker

MGM, you mistaking me me for optimist? Bean counter is an accountant, nothing more. Jim’s got a thick skin. Go save some puppies from a burning house. We all ended up here because of jim’s perspective. So he chewed on my ears a little. It happens. TARP has a lot to do with where we find ourselves now. He wasn’t telling me to shut up. He was telling me I was wrong. Big difference

Homer
Homer

Hardscrabblefarmer–Hesiod’s version of Pandora’s Jar–Your commentary gave me pause for thought.

Hope is perhaps man’s penchant to see the best that can be. Is hope a vision to be achieved or a dead end trapping man in futile acceptance while waiting for a future that will never come (kyptonite)? One must have a vision of where he is going in order to arrive at the destination. Hope forsaken, I think, is more dangerous than hope embraced, for mankind. Hope demands action, compels it. What your talking about is despair, the sense of hopelessness, the paralysis of inaction.

That’s the way I see it.

Homer
Homer

Admin—Based upon the number of comments, your opus magnum struck a raw nerve, Congrats!

A few points, please.

World war III is happening now. It is an economic war, fought in cyberspace, with physical skirmishes, now and again–posturing. It is the cold war redux US hegemony over the world. It is ww4 that is the demon in the bottle.

The 1%, to maintain control used the strategy of the Catholic church, Lenin and Hitler. When threatened, the Church would assimilate the threat and subtly change the direction of the movement. Why try to stamp out pagan holidays, just change them to Catholic holidays.

The OWS and Tea Party was marginalized from within and from without. They died a non momentous death. Threat deactivated.

If revolution occurs, you can be sure that the 1% will co-opt it. This is why to succeed in changing the existing paradigm, the people not rely on leaders, especially current leaders, but do it from a community level.

Paranoid Factoid
Paranoid Factoid

I’ve read all four parts of this series in sequence. Found them via a posting a Washington’s Blog. It’s my first visit here.

Some commentary:

– I like the use of economic analysis by graphs and other public evidence to make the author’s points. It’s clear he’s swayed by Von Mises and the Austrian School, as he takes many swipes at Keynes. But in Keynes’ defense, the QE and bailout measures are nothing like the stimulus he proposed and became known as Keynesianism. He would have stimulated the economy directly with government funds spent on infrastructure development. Considering US infrastructure is old and failing, this is monies that should have been spent regardless of economic woes. Instead, monies were borrowed to keep kleptocrats happy and the people impoverished. Keynes would have been appalled.

– Given that Von Mises is typically considered ‘conservative’ (or ‘economic liberalism’ in the European sense), I really like that the author quotes from a range of other ideological sources. In particular Chris Hedges, a popular leftist writer. In this, he differentiates between sycophants supporting this unsustainable status quo across the ideological spectrum versus those who criticize it. Both left and right. This is crucial.

The only way forward is for a rational populist movement that rejects the old two-party dichotomy, with its resulting ideological polarizations, and somehow unites left wingers and right wingers in toward re-imposing constitutional rule of law on our political institutions. We don’t have to agree on the specifics of health care reform or old age pensions while the house is burning. Time for the left and right to agree on simple measures. Like hooking a hose to a hydrant and smothering the fire. You know, first order shit.

One point you miss though is the underlying why. When we look at the divergence between what a politician promises and what is delivered – say the radical difference between the hopeful values Obama claimed during the ’08 election compared with the continuing Bush’s disastrous descent into totalitarianism he’s overseen, we need to ask ourselves: Why?

The cynical among us would assume he was a liar all along. But I don’t think so.

As the Sir Jimmy Savile pedophile and sex trafficking scandals of recent show; as the French prostitution and pimping trial of former head of IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn show; as the recent pedophile and sex slave conviction of former Bear Sterns executive Jeffrey Epstein who had ties to UK Royals and the highest reaches of US politicians and business leaders… all of this links sex trafficking by intelligence agencies for the purpose of blackmail. Just like J. Edgar Hoover and his blackmail files.

You want to know why our system of government can’t seem to right itself given all the careful thought put in by our Founding Fathers to separate powers and constitutionally limit government? It’s this. The government isn’t just bought and paid for. It’s been blackmailed here. We must face this truth squarely. For only sunlight can clean the stench of blackmail.

flash
flash

goverment + logic = oxymoron

comment image?oh=23610b76b36694c9e3e0de17e690a188&oe=5592A86B

flash
flash

nope!

comment image?oh=57a02d044148cdb080c05b1b1d8207f2&oe=554A84F0&__gda__=1431484367_daf160aabc8fbe0fdc01ce9ace2962fc

Homer
Homer

Paranoid Factoid—I’ve not cared much for Keynes. Perhaps his theories were misapplied. However, the misapplication is the logical extension of those theories. Keynes was a patsy for those who wished to expand the powers of government. He provided the rational, the justification for what followed.

There is a difference in funneling money into infrastructure and funneling money into consumerism. One would think that it is money spent into the economy either way and that is all that matters. Not so, money spent on infrastructure, which contributes to an expanding capital base improves the lot of all. Whereas, money spent on consumerism end up in the dump in a year or two. We have chosen consumerism. It buys votes and it provides government the financial sector with real growth at the expense of the 90%. We have chosen poorly.

No, Obama is a liar and he has not shown any inclination to remedy the situation. As has been said, “When things really count you have to lie.”, really? Blackmail has always been a potent tool to force conforming behavior in politics. Hell, how do you think that the Dutch got their 122 tons of gold. Maybe they had proof concerning the culpability of the downing of the Malaysian Flt 17. Hmmm. Engaging in bad behavior (submitting to blackmail) to keep hidden previous bad behavior is still inexcusable.

These people are not the principled statesmen as was our founding fathers, but venial imposters, forsaking the people, who put them in office, for their own selfish aims.

How low as a nation, we’ve fallen. But…There will be standard bearers, who will come forth from the Millennial generation who will right the sins of the past, but not without extreme pain and suffering, I fear.

“A new world is coming, be thankful.”–D R Schoon

ottomatik
ottomatik

Admin- Thank you

Paranoid Factoid
Paranoid Factoid

@Homer:

I’ll not convince you to reconsider Keynes. I do hope that you read his work, if only to understand his position for purposes of challenging it.

As for Obama, I’m not interested in defending him. Only pointing out that blackmail by intelligence agencies such as the NSA, CIA and FBI adequately explains the radical shifts in purported values and ideals candidates espouse in contrast to congressional floor votes and executive or judicial policies they enact upon gaining office.

George W. Bush claimed while campaigning that he didn’t want to become the World Police. Yet his administration did just that. Bill Clinton signed the repeal of Glass Steagal and supported NAFTA entirely in opposition to his purported values during the ’92 campaign. George H.W. Bush famously claimed “No New Taxes,” and yet signed into law additional taxes anyway. Ronald Reagan? “We did not trade arms for hostages.”

Shall I continue on back?

And that’s just presidential. Throughout government, at the federal and state level, we see overt signs of corrupt practices. By people we thought – because we voted for them – were incorruptible. Something is corrupting them – not just a system of corrupt campaign contributions. I’d argue that something is blackmail.

flash
flash

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and will go forth and deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and will gather them together for the battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.

comment image

Homer
Homer

Paranoid Factoid—Do I appear to be a masochist, finish reading Keynes? I have more to do with my time, which is limited, than engage in crackpot theories. There are plenty of well credentialed people who have discounted Keynes and his ideas. He was a socialist, just stating fact, and saw economics through socialist glasses. Adam Smith and Von Mises understood economic reality much better than Keynes ever did. When postulating a new theory, one must attack the prevailing knowledge and show where the prevailing knowledge is off base. Von Mises builds on previous ideas where as Keynes was a radical departure without justification.

Economics was and is not a science or even soft science. In this era and later, there was the attempt to follow hard science, physics, mathematics, etc, which was so successful in understanding the world.
You had Keynes and BF Skinner, et al, with their equations and such. See, we are like Physics, we have equations. Only their equations not based on observable data and lacked predictability. That was because Economics is as much a study of effects of market action and not their causes which are imbedded in human psychology. It’s not definable, quantifiable nor predictable. You would have a better chance of understanding a woman than making a science out of economics. This doesn’t mean that economics is entirely irrational, just not scientific.

Look, you got it wrong! George H W Bush didn’t say “No new taxes”. What he said was, “No Gnu Taxis”. It just got reported wrong. Ever ride in a Gnu Taxi, the stench is terrible!

Corrupt people are corruptible, some are not. If the Bubbus Americanus wish to vote for people who lie to them during election campaigns because they are uneducated enough not to recognize a lie or are promised special advantages if the liar is elected, then they get the government they deserve.

I am waiting for the time that people can read each others minds, that would certainly change things for the better. However, considering the state of man’s spirituality, today, I may have a long wait. Spiritual gifts can only be exercised wisely by a spiritual person.

Homer
Homer

Speaking of BF Skinner and his operant behavior, Ivan Pavlov was talking to a friend when the telephone rang. “Oh,” says Pavlov, “I forgot to feed the dog.”

Bohdan Klid
Bohdan Klid

The author knows little about Russia and Ukraine, and basically repeats Russian propaganda in his labeling Ukraine’s army as a Nazi force. If he read Russian, especially the Russian opposition press, he would soon understand that the current war in eastern Ukraine was instigated by Russia and is taking place because Putin is trying to resurrect the Russian empire. One can compare this project to Hitler trying to resurrect the German empire after its defeat in WWI. The foundation for this new empire is the so-called Eurasian Union, a project Putin launched to bind together the former Soviet republics. Without Ukraine, this project fails. That is what the fight is all about in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the repetition of propaganda does not make for good analysis.

flash
flash

It’s on….World leaders always lead to nations to war….solution ? no more world leaders,

Ukraine crisis: House of Lords criticises EU and Britain for ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as Moscow and Nato remain on diplomatic collision course

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-crisis-house-of-lords-criticises-eu-and-britain-for-sleepwalking-into-crisis-as-moscow-and-nato-remain-on-diplomatic-collision-course-10058141.html

A taste of things to come..

http://www.buzzfeed.com/avdeev/horrific-images-capture-the-sheer-brutality-of-ukraine-war#.giG9W49q6

Discover more from The Burning Platform

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

Continue reading