How do people who want peace gain any credibility and legitimacy? The people who want to go to war have the military industrial complex and the United States Department of Defense in their corner giving them instant credibility and legitimacy. In our current political system the pro go to war side has the main frame of the American system supporting them. While the pro peace side is labeled and portrayed as anti American. The facts to national and international issues are translated into sound bites and headlines that are the only information most American receive.
Even people in power within the system have a hard time confronting the establishment on issues of war, a balance budget, guns, national security or the State of Israel. The more entrenched a system is the harder it is to change the ways of that system. Going against the grain of understanding of a society you become the enemy to many in that society. You will be discredited and mock by the establishment before your message is heard by the masses.
Most of the military pundits said either we didn’t have enough troops in Iraq or the right-mix of military personnel in the early days of the war. The United States military had no problems with the bombing campaigns against Iraq. The United States Air Force had twelve years of practice in the airspace over Iraq. The United State had plenty of military force to win the war but not enough to win the peace. More American lives have been lost (almost two thousand lives) in Iraq trying to rebuild what we destroyed.
Gunboat diplomacy can win wars but not peace. Only by having the proper amount of trained forces for each mission can the peace be won. Today the United States Government’s Foreign Policies have alienated America from most of the rest of the world. How many different ways can the truth be told that Americans will never understand? When the American leaders tell lies that only the American people believe. The people of the world cannot understand how such a great nation is misled by so few. Only by establishing a Department of Peace within the United States government can a balance between peace and war be established.
What America needs is a Department of peace.
http://www.thepeacealliance.org/main.htm
Common sense says you cannot send more money that you have coming in for very long. Many people say you do not have to worry about the national debt as it is growing at an alarming rate.
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
The same people who say you do not have to worry about the growing national debt are pro military spending for more wars.
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Ar...ilitarySpending
The facts don’t lie, people in power do.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20031013/corn
My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/
Full Version: Peace and War
Bush's Tyranny for a Bankrupt Nation
By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, February 6, 2006
President Bush has consistently defended his massive $500 billion tax cuts. He has insisted that deficit spending be a “permanent” part of the national budget. His economic plan has eroded the confidence of central banks around the world and increased the federal debt by a whopping $3 trillion. Still, he persists in his claim that deficits should be an enduring function of government.
Doesn’t this confirm that bankrupting the country is an integral part of the Bush grand strategy?
What more proof do we need?
Imagine someone stealing your credit card and running up a $450,000 bill year after year and then defending the theft as necessary to “create more jobs” as the “trickle-down” theorists do?
Would you take such a person at his word?
Deficits are theft; and the determination to make these lavish tax cuts for the wealthy permanent proves beyond a doubt that it is part of a larger strategy to bring about an economic meltdown that will change the political complexion of the country.
What else could it mean?
Dick Cheney recently opined, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t mean anything.”
Liar.
In fact, Cheney was part of the Reagan administration when Reagan’s tax cuts created monstrous $200 billion deficits, up 75% from 1980. The effects were devastating. Unemployment jumped to 10%, the 30 year mortgage skyrocketed to 15%, the economy ground to a standstill, and the nation plunged into the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Cheney fully understands the suffering that deficits produce. Now, he wants to continue that misery as a permanent function of government.
Why?
Is it really so important to reward the “fortunate 1%” that the administration would risk the economic well-being and solvency of the nation?
And, what is the relationship between the ocean of debt produced by the Bush team and their strengthening of police-state apparatus like unlimited spying on Americans, the NSS (Bush’s new Secret Police), the uniform Federal ID program, the Patriot Act, and Halliburton’s $385 million contract from Homeland Security to construct new detention and processing facilities within the United States?
Is the ascendancy of the police-state intended to balance the catastrophic effects of economic destruction? Or, do the new instruments of repression anticipate the “political turmoil” (Warren Buffet’s words) that naturally results from financial collapse?
The Bush master-plan is no different than the economic shock-therapy the United States has directed at the third world for decades. The strategy is simple and straightforward, but virtually foolproof in achieving its objectives; the crushing of the middle class and the subsequent shifting of the nation’s wealth to the “oligarchy of racketeers” who run the system.
The levers of power have all been faithfully assembled by Bush operatives, while America’s $3 trillion trade deficit looms overhead like the sword of Damocles. As the underpinnings of economic wellbeing continue to deteriorate; causing further job-flight, credit spending, and soaring energy prices; the power-brokers at the head-of-state calmly arrange the instruments of repression they’ll need to maintain order.
Did we really imagine the chickens would never come home to roost?
Regardless of what the public-relation gurus on the business channel say, the state of the union is disastrous. Bush has intentionally looted the treasury and torpedoed America’s economic future. Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan cooperatively kept interest rates low so the greatest swindle in history could take place while the drowsy American public snoozed away.
Thanks, Alan.
Americans refuse to believe that bubbles (housing or stock market) are brought about by the deliberate and politically-motivated actions at the Federal Reserve.
Huh?
Everyone agrees about the effects of high interest rates; why would there be so much uncertainty about low interest rates?
Just as high interest rates slow the economy by making loans on investment more expensive; so too, low interest rates naturally produce increased speculation by making cheap money available to a greater number of people. Greenspan knew as early as 1996 that the stock market was over-inflated when he warned that “there was a stock market bubble at this point” that is “a problem we should keep our eye on”. (Remember “irrational exuberance”?) Still, he accommodated his friends in Washington and Wall Street by waiting until tens of thousands of Americans had lost their savings (and retirement) before ratcheting up interest rates and cooling down the spec-market. The final loss to investors was an estimated $7 trillion dollars, an amount that pales in comparison to the current housing bubble which “The Economist” calls “the greatest bubble in history”. Again, it was Greenspan who instigated the housing bubble by dropping rates to a paltry 1.5% following the decline in the stock market. Regrettably, the results will be even more ruinous this time.
Never the less, low interest rates are an effective way of creating bubbles and thereby transferring wealth from one class to another. The other two “tried-and-true” methods are tax cuts and hyperinflation; both parts of the Greenspan legacy. (Expect a weakening dollar as the effects of the massive trade deficit set in)
To argue that the Federal Reserve does not support a political agenda that favors elite interests, is to say that it is not a privately-owned institution (which it is) which operates in conjunction with major investors; particularly the energy giants, the mainstream media, arms-manufacturers, and the political establishment. The Federal Reserve is joined at the hip with the Bush White House. In fact, the administration is merely a reflection of the values and goals of the financial powerbrokers at the central banks.
Don’t expect any complaints from Alan Greenspan about the rough-treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The cadres of elites are of “one mind” on the current global crusade for a new world order. If that means torturing a few thousand innocent people; so be it.
Doomsday
There are numerous signs that the nation’s free ride will soon be over. Gold is skyrocketing as perceptive investors see the cracks and fissures appearing in the economic foundation that binds the debtor-kingdom together. Twitchy investors are watching for news about Iran, rebel attacks in Nigeria, or a potential sell-off of greenbacks in China. Market analysts may feign equanimity but they are walking on the knifes-edge expecting the worse.
But, the worse is unavoidable; the country is dead broke. Last year alone Americans not only spent more than they earned for the first time since the great Depression; they also borrowed an additional $600 billion from their home equity to pay off credit card debt and consumer loans! This tells us that the all signs of growth in the economy are the result of credit spending. Home equity has become the new ATM card, demonstrating once again that the country is running on fumes.
This quarter’s slow growth of 1.1%, shows that the well has run dry and consumer spending (which accounts for 70% of GDP) is down for the count. Interest rates are going up, the dollar will soon be sinking, energy costs are soaring, and the unemployment line is getting longer.
Time to find a nice comfy spot beneath the freeway on-ramp…and bring your own cardboard.
The Clinton strategy would have made the transition more agreeable, but the result of globalization is roughly the same. Businesses and jobs pack up and leave driving wages through the floor, while the social safety net continues to worsen by congressional edict. The main difference with Clinton is that he strengthened the dollar by balancing the budget and showed little appetite for creating the police-state apparatus that the Bush claque relishes.
The Bush administration is preparing for a quick but agonizing transition. They have painstakingly removed whatever laws stood in the way of autocratic government. The courts will brandish the rubber stamp for the supreme executive, the congress will languish as a ceremonial institution, and the compliant media will shower praise on the Dear Leader’s iron-fisted methods of keeping the peace.
Economic disintegration is the catalyst for changing the fundamental institutions of government. The globalists in the White House have played a major role in numerous coups across the planet, all producing the same basic result; a military dictatorship with a strongman at the head of state. America is being readied for a similar transformation.
By Mike Whitney
Al-Jazeerah, February 6, 2006
President Bush has consistently defended his massive $500 billion tax cuts. He has insisted that deficit spending be a “permanent” part of the national budget. His economic plan has eroded the confidence of central banks around the world and increased the federal debt by a whopping $3 trillion. Still, he persists in his claim that deficits should be an enduring function of government.
Doesn’t this confirm that bankrupting the country is an integral part of the Bush grand strategy?
What more proof do we need?
Imagine someone stealing your credit card and running up a $450,000 bill year after year and then defending the theft as necessary to “create more jobs” as the “trickle-down” theorists do?
Would you take such a person at his word?
Deficits are theft; and the determination to make these lavish tax cuts for the wealthy permanent proves beyond a doubt that it is part of a larger strategy to bring about an economic meltdown that will change the political complexion of the country.
What else could it mean?
Dick Cheney recently opined, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t mean anything.”
Liar.
In fact, Cheney was part of the Reagan administration when Reagan’s tax cuts created monstrous $200 billion deficits, up 75% from 1980. The effects were devastating. Unemployment jumped to 10%, the 30 year mortgage skyrocketed to 15%, the economy ground to a standstill, and the nation plunged into the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Cheney fully understands the suffering that deficits produce. Now, he wants to continue that misery as a permanent function of government.
Why?
Is it really so important to reward the “fortunate 1%” that the administration would risk the economic well-being and solvency of the nation?
And, what is the relationship between the ocean of debt produced by the Bush team and their strengthening of police-state apparatus like unlimited spying on Americans, the NSS (Bush’s new Secret Police), the uniform Federal ID program, the Patriot Act, and Halliburton’s $385 million contract from Homeland Security to construct new detention and processing facilities within the United States?
Is the ascendancy of the police-state intended to balance the catastrophic effects of economic destruction? Or, do the new instruments of repression anticipate the “political turmoil” (Warren Buffet’s words) that naturally results from financial collapse?
The Bush master-plan is no different than the economic shock-therapy the United States has directed at the third world for decades. The strategy is simple and straightforward, but virtually foolproof in achieving its objectives; the crushing of the middle class and the subsequent shifting of the nation’s wealth to the “oligarchy of racketeers” who run the system.
The levers of power have all been faithfully assembled by Bush operatives, while America’s $3 trillion trade deficit looms overhead like the sword of Damocles. As the underpinnings of economic wellbeing continue to deteriorate; causing further job-flight, credit spending, and soaring energy prices; the power-brokers at the head-of-state calmly arrange the instruments of repression they’ll need to maintain order.
Did we really imagine the chickens would never come home to roost?
Regardless of what the public-relation gurus on the business channel say, the state of the union is disastrous. Bush has intentionally looted the treasury and torpedoed America’s economic future. Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan cooperatively kept interest rates low so the greatest swindle in history could take place while the drowsy American public snoozed away.
Thanks, Alan.
Americans refuse to believe that bubbles (housing or stock market) are brought about by the deliberate and politically-motivated actions at the Federal Reserve.
Huh?
Everyone agrees about the effects of high interest rates; why would there be so much uncertainty about low interest rates?
Just as high interest rates slow the economy by making loans on investment more expensive; so too, low interest rates naturally produce increased speculation by making cheap money available to a greater number of people. Greenspan knew as early as 1996 that the stock market was over-inflated when he warned that “there was a stock market bubble at this point” that is “a problem we should keep our eye on”. (Remember “irrational exuberance”?) Still, he accommodated his friends in Washington and Wall Street by waiting until tens of thousands of Americans had lost their savings (and retirement) before ratcheting up interest rates and cooling down the spec-market. The final loss to investors was an estimated $7 trillion dollars, an amount that pales in comparison to the current housing bubble which “The Economist” calls “the greatest bubble in history”. Again, it was Greenspan who instigated the housing bubble by dropping rates to a paltry 1.5% following the decline in the stock market. Regrettably, the results will be even more ruinous this time.
Never the less, low interest rates are an effective way of creating bubbles and thereby transferring wealth from one class to another. The other two “tried-and-true” methods are tax cuts and hyperinflation; both parts of the Greenspan legacy. (Expect a weakening dollar as the effects of the massive trade deficit set in)
To argue that the Federal Reserve does not support a political agenda that favors elite interests, is to say that it is not a privately-owned institution (which it is) which operates in conjunction with major investors; particularly the energy giants, the mainstream media, arms-manufacturers, and the political establishment. The Federal Reserve is joined at the hip with the Bush White House. In fact, the administration is merely a reflection of the values and goals of the financial powerbrokers at the central banks.
Don’t expect any complaints from Alan Greenspan about the rough-treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The cadres of elites are of “one mind” on the current global crusade for a new world order. If that means torturing a few thousand innocent people; so be it.
Doomsday
There are numerous signs that the nation’s free ride will soon be over. Gold is skyrocketing as perceptive investors see the cracks and fissures appearing in the economic foundation that binds the debtor-kingdom together. Twitchy investors are watching for news about Iran, rebel attacks in Nigeria, or a potential sell-off of greenbacks in China. Market analysts may feign equanimity but they are walking on the knifes-edge expecting the worse.
But, the worse is unavoidable; the country is dead broke. Last year alone Americans not only spent more than they earned for the first time since the great Depression; they also borrowed an additional $600 billion from their home equity to pay off credit card debt and consumer loans! This tells us that the all signs of growth in the economy are the result of credit spending. Home equity has become the new ATM card, demonstrating once again that the country is running on fumes.
This quarter’s slow growth of 1.1%, shows that the well has run dry and consumer spending (which accounts for 70% of GDP) is down for the count. Interest rates are going up, the dollar will soon be sinking, energy costs are soaring, and the unemployment line is getting longer.
Time to find a nice comfy spot beneath the freeway on-ramp…and bring your own cardboard.
The Clinton strategy would have made the transition more agreeable, but the result of globalization is roughly the same. Businesses and jobs pack up and leave driving wages through the floor, while the social safety net continues to worsen by congressional edict. The main difference with Clinton is that he strengthened the dollar by balancing the budget and showed little appetite for creating the police-state apparatus that the Bush claque relishes.
The Bush administration is preparing for a quick but agonizing transition. They have painstakingly removed whatever laws stood in the way of autocratic government. The courts will brandish the rubber stamp for the supreme executive, the congress will languish as a ceremonial institution, and the compliant media will shower praise on the Dear Leader’s iron-fisted methods of keeping the peace.
Economic disintegration is the catalyst for changing the fundamental institutions of government. The globalists in the White House have played a major role in numerous coups across the planet, all producing the same basic result; a military dictatorship with a strongman at the head of state. America is being readied for a similar transformation.
Except for the fact that President Bush sits in the Oval Office for photo ops, and gives speeches prepared by his handlers and written by ghost writers, where is the evidence that the man has ever had a cogent personal thought?
Except for the fact that Bush sits in the place where Harry S Truman put a sign, "The buck stops here," why should we credit Bush with the policies of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove-Ashcroft administration?
These policies are not Bush's ideas, thoughts, or personal wankings. He's a puppet, possibly drugged, with no evidence of being in control.
The initial post on this thread rambles, covering a lot of territory. The militarists and the draft-dodging civilian warmongers have succeeded in glorifying warfare as godly and righteous, while making devils and demons out of the pacifists and the peace workers. The Republican Party has cleverly stolen the little bit of 'morality platform' that the Democrats still had. The Republicans are often less moral than your average sleazy prostitute, but they've got great control of the mass media.
The advantage of being an expatriate is that it's easier to be a patriot outside my country.
Except for the fact that Bush sits in the place where Harry S Truman put a sign, "The buck stops here," why should we credit Bush with the policies of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove-Ashcroft administration?
These policies are not Bush's ideas, thoughts, or personal wankings. He's a puppet, possibly drugged, with no evidence of being in control.
The initial post on this thread rambles, covering a lot of territory. The militarists and the draft-dodging civilian warmongers have succeeded in glorifying warfare as godly and righteous, while making devils and demons out of the pacifists and the peace workers. The Republican Party has cleverly stolen the little bit of 'morality platform' that the Democrats still had. The Republicans are often less moral than your average sleazy prostitute, but they've got great control of the mass media.
The advantage of being an expatriate is that it's easier to be a patriot outside my country.
QUOTE (Fit2BThaied @ Feb 7 2006, 10:28 PM)
Except for the fact that President Bush sits in the Oval Office for photo ops, and gives speeches prepared by his handlers and written by ghost writers, where is the evidence that the man has ever had a cogent personal thought?
Except for the fact that Bush sits in the place where Harry S Truman put a sign, "The buck stops here," why should we credit Bush with the policies of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove-Ashcroft administration?
These policies are not Bush's ideas, thoughts, or personal wankings. He's a puppet, possibly drugged, with no evidence of being in control.
The initial post on this thread rambles, covering a lot of territory. The militarists and the draft-dodging civilian warmongers have succeeded in glorifying warfare as godly and righteous, while making devils and demons out of the pacifists and the peace workers. The Republican Party has cleverly stolen the little bit of 'morality platform' that the Democrats still had. The Republicans are often less moral than your average sleazy prostitute, but they've got great control of the mass media.
The advantage of being an expatriate is that it's easier to be a patriot outside my country.
Except for the fact that Bush sits in the place where Harry S Truman put a sign, "The buck stops here," why should we credit Bush with the policies of the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove-Ashcroft administration?
These policies are not Bush's ideas, thoughts, or personal wankings. He's a puppet, possibly drugged, with no evidence of being in control.
The initial post on this thread rambles, covering a lot of territory. The militarists and the draft-dodging civilian warmongers have succeeded in glorifying warfare as godly and righteous, while making devils and demons out of the pacifists and the peace workers. The Republican Party has cleverly stolen the little bit of 'morality platform' that the Democrats still had. The Republicans are often less moral than your average sleazy prostitute, but they've got great control of the mass media.
The advantage of being an expatriate is that it's easier to be a patriot outside my country.
This is true..... but one has to look even beyond the corrupt nature of the Bush disaster and see who the handlers are. The ones who want to make the mid-east explode for the benefit for a very small group of powerful people is a clue to understand the mess we are all in.
Utopia
The United States with many other nations made revolutionary changes bringing the people of the world closer to Utopia. Many of the revolutionary changes that nations made were universal. These changes made new things possible opening new doors of opportunities. The nations at the top and the nations at the bottom came to the middle creating balance and cooperation between most nations of people. With fewer major man made problems in the world the people of nations could focus on the natural disasters. This brought together nations of people creating a new stronger bond between them with more understanding.
It was the instillation of many new changes that brought about the new realities on the ground around the world. One being no greater than another but combined it made new ways and things possible. The model that the nations of the world moved towards was similar to the socialist Scandinavian nation. The nations with large central government downsized giving more power to the local government and the international organizational platforms. The nations with weak central governments strengthen the federal government creating a stronger Rule of Law within the nation.
The initial major changes disrupted business as usually for a short period of time but afterwards things were so much better. With the people and universities of the world focusing on some of the old problems that had been plaguing the world for so many years new answers are found. The biggest changes came about from the international down sizing of the military industrial complex. Freeing up new resources for humanitarian projects for the developing nations of the world.
My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/
The United States with many other nations made revolutionary changes bringing the people of the world closer to Utopia. Many of the revolutionary changes that nations made were universal. These changes made new things possible opening new doors of opportunities. The nations at the top and the nations at the bottom came to the middle creating balance and cooperation between most nations of people. With fewer major man made problems in the world the people of nations could focus on the natural disasters. This brought together nations of people creating a new stronger bond between them with more understanding.
It was the instillation of many new changes that brought about the new realities on the ground around the world. One being no greater than another but combined it made new ways and things possible. The model that the nations of the world moved towards was similar to the socialist Scandinavian nation. The nations with large central government downsized giving more power to the local government and the international organizational platforms. The nations with weak central governments strengthen the federal government creating a stronger Rule of Law within the nation.
The initial major changes disrupted business as usually for a short period of time but afterwards things were so much better. With the people and universities of the world focusing on some of the old problems that had been plaguing the world for so many years new answers are found. The biggest changes came about from the international down sizing of the military industrial complex. Freeing up new resources for humanitarian projects for the developing nations of the world.
My Blog http://www.globalcrier.blogspot.com/
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