tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90541870626645625982024-02-07T08:18:24.033-08:00Visualizing Intrinsic Value AlignmentThe opportunity to shape the artifacts of our lives into forms that align our goals with our values and complete our humanity has never been greater.Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-5556122155790946752021-01-30T09:57:00.003-08:002021-01-30T10:15:16.361-08:00The Social Contract - is it broken?<p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The Social Contract is being assaulted and is tattered and torn.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">We can rise to repair it or sink inexorably into a Police State.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The Social Contract, when pervasive, mandates that we willingly submit to the rule of law.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">At a mundane level this might mean we sit at a red light at 2 am with no traffic in sight.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Going up the scale we pay our taxes, refrain from punching our obnoxious neighbor in the nose, stay in our highway lane, stow our trash, pay for items we want at the store, etc.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">At the top of the hierarchy we accept the results of certified elections even if we suspect Russia put their thumb on the scale as happened in 2016 (this was validated by a Republican led Senate committee, 17 intel agencies, and common sense).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The Social Contract is only partially enforced. There are simply not enough police in our society to force compliance up and down the scale.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">It is rather embedded into our way of thinking. When freedom is threatened by oppressive rule, the contract begins to break down and the numbers of police, paid informers, spies, military personnel and regulators skyrockets.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Public trust in government and each other plummets.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Wealth, property and privilege, become an ever greater barrier to equality. </span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Even in a Police State it is hard to have enough police. Two common methods used to leverage the efficacy of police are brutality and fear.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Beating a protestor to death goes a long way toward discouraging dissent.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Fear driven by threats and follow up brutality is transactional but it is not a contract.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">A contract is a two way deal, a win/win.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Fear becomes the currency of compliance and a society ruled by fear loses its soul.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">But why does a society dissolve its Social Contract?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">How does a Police State arise?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Ironically it often relies upon a popular uprising characterized by fear, hatred and lies and fueled by inequality.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The forces in support of the Social Contract do not simply disappear overnight.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Hitler, for example, failed repeatedly during the 1920’s in a Germany worn down by war reparations.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">He persisted until he finally wore down the system using thugs dressed up in brown shirts to bully the system.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">He still lost the election in 1933 but was close enough that the leaders decided to let him be Chancellor where they could keep an eye on him.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">(Does a minority vote putting in a despotic leader, sound familiar?)</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The rest is history.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">There is nothing like a gun to turn a person who feels powerless into a thug. The majority then can be overwhelmed by thugs, armed thugs with torches. Add in a uniform, and give them a leader spewing hate and lies and you have a movement.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The Social Contract becomes lopsided with some desperately trying to keep it in place while foundations beneath their feet turn to sand.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">So we turn then to the question of whether or not the Social Contract in the United States of America is broken?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Has Trump flouted so many social and political norms and spouted so many lies and touted his own prowess so senselessly that we are in serious danger?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Maybe so.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">But before we lay all of this at Trump’s feet, we should look more deeply at the conditions that allow for such things to happen.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Why was Germany so vulnerable in the 1920’s?</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Is the issue primarily fear and hate or is it the underlying condition of inequality?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Let us boldly state that the Social Contract is not dead.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The pool of good will may be narrow but it runs deep.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">However, let us also boldly state that the system will break within ten years if the underlying conditions of racism and inequality are not addressed.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Broadly speaking we prospered and began addressing injustices for 25 years following WWII.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">But for the last 50 years reactionary forces have driven down low end wages, rolled back civil rights gains and set the stage for Trumpism.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Jim Crow was cowed but not erased in the post WWII era.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The .1%, MiLords* we call them, were checked but started clawing their way back with Nixon setting the stage and Reagan acting on it (pun intended). Trump did not create racism and inequality, he merely rode them into power (with a little help from his Russian managers).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Biden enters the fray sporting a Centrist hat, riding a Left tilting lame horse into a dark alley.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">An arena where the Social Contract is in deep trouble.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Proud Boy thugs, Qanon Republicans, Christian hypocrites, aspiring 2024 candidate traitors, dark money (foreign and domestic), and gullible Trumpers lurk in the shadows ready to feed watery lies into mud pits that would bog down a Clydesdale.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">The Social Contract is not broken but it will only survive if patriots rise to the occasion and defend truth by brandishing their own torches, torches of light penetrating the dark corners of our national soul.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;">Let the light shine.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>* MiLords are defined in earlier posts being one in a thousand (mil) who control.</p>Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-36921341769557205372021-01-17T08:38:00.001-08:002021-01-19T15:43:37.020-08:00The Big Lie Exposed<p> When what you really want to do is overthrow the Government, any excuse will do. Trump is not the leader of a movement that stormed the Capitol. The energy behind the mini-uprising has been brewing for decades and Trump has come along and provided space for it to bloom. He stoked the anger embers of sullen malcontents with bellows and bellowing and he did it with unprecedented ease using a new tool called social media. And in the end he backed down. He didn't march with his followers to the Capitol, he rather jumped into his Presidential motorcade and hustled back to his bunker to watch, to see if chaos and violence could impact the real game, the vote count.</p><p>We need to set aside, at least for the moment, the deluded belief that the Vice President could simply refuse to recognize state certified vote counts from Electors chosen on November 3rd. This strays into the mental state of Trump, his total lack of understanding of how governments work, his near total ignorance of history, and his mistaken belief that the mob was really his to command. Peeling away the onion of motivations of those who gathered to use Trump for their own ends is fodder for a dozen entries and though it is far more important than the question before us, we must first clear the debris left by the mob, and expose once and for all "The Big Lie." Suffice it to say that Trump, out of desperation and not by design, thought that Pence could pull a rabbit out of his hat and make Biden go away.</p><p>We also need to set aside the fact that Trump is the leader of a cult. Yes, there were many cult followers gathered at the Capitol on that Wednesday. And yes they are a big reason why The Big Lie has been given so much oxygen to live and grow. I can only assume that there are people who actually believe that Trump won fair and square and it is being taken away from him by hateful Liberals and traitorous Republicans. But the question before us is not why cult followers will hand over cups of poisoned Kool Aid to their own children, it is another question altogether. Was election fraud the true motivation for those bent on mayhem and murder? Was the mob simply cult members who went amok? </p><p>We posit that the answer is no. Trump tried to use the mob for his own convoluted totally misguided plan, but in fact Trump and his cult is being used as cover for what we will call here The Boil. The Boil is not a coherent movement but rather an infection that grows unseen under the surface only to erupt when the opportunity presents itself. In this case it is not caused by a single pathogen but rather arises from a river of disease, some named and some unnamed. Nazis, White Supremacists, KKK, etc. are currents that run in this river but they tend to disguise the true source of the malady. A source so insidious and so pervasive that we need to set it aside for future analysis.</p><p>Finally we need to set aside power hungry Craven Politicians as the problem behind the The Big Lie, they are but another group trying to leverage it for their own means. Yes they deserve our scorn and warrant further study but anger towards them diverts us just as truly as does our anger against Trump. Like The Boil, they do not actually believe The Big Lie, but they are less dangerous to us because their motives are so transparent that sooner or later they will whither and die.</p><p>So how did The Big Lie come to be used by The Cult, The Boil and Craven Politicians culminating in a pitiful and tragic circus? That is a question so complicated and rich we set it aside for now. Our focus here is why did the confluence of these three streams expose The Big Lie for what it is? We put forward three explanations.</p><p>1. The Big Lie is simply too ridiculous for Craven Politicians to defend. And the system held. The courts laughed, the military stood firm and common sense prevailed.</p><p>2. Trump is a bully and despite his persistence and total lack of moral fiber, in the end he backed down. He would have lost in any case but his cowardice did not go unnoticed and he never was really in charge of the mob. Or if he was he gave it over to chaos. A big lie is simply not enough reason to overthrow this government. The Cult is hollow.</p><p>3. The Boil did not choose its moment wisely. A cowardly bully is not a good front for a sustainable revolution. Especially if that revolution has no focus and no purpose. Anger and discontent and frustration and paranoia alone cannot feed a revolution. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that The Boil did not choose at all. It erupted prematurely and will be lanced and bathed in antiseptic. It will not be killed. It will live to erupt another day in another way.</p><p>So what can we take from this? What lesson can we learn?</p><p>Perhaps the most important lesson is that Trump is not the problem. The Cult will fade, Craven Politicians will be voted out eventually. But The Boil will not simply go away. The propaganda which serves to preserve wealth and power and privilege also feeds distrust. The resulting inequalities have not been managed well. Whiteness, education, and property have been exposed and will not last as markers to differentiate the elite from the masses. The last bastion, the abstraction of wealth, will not stand forever. The question is could The Boil, which is now totally disorganized, be harnessed in the future by someone far smarter and more sinister than Trump. Can The Boil be cauterized, and cured?</p><p>Or will the abstraction of wealth not be the last bastion? Will propaganda become old hat and new dynamics emerge that are driven by an ever more twisted Cable of connected cells fueled by pervasive technology? Or will elites figure it out and curb their excesses to avoid a real revolution? Will they neutralize The Boil but keep it alive?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-26485363448253311632021-01-14T19:47:00.000-08:002021-01-14T19:47:57.585-08:00Returning<p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">It has been almost four years since I have last posted.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">To put it bluntly I grew weary of documenting the similarities between Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 (boosted by Nazi persistence and propaganda) and Trump’s rise (boosted by Russia using more modern propaganda tools).</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I wasted a lot of the energy I had left on Facebook trying, often in vain, to show anyone who would listen how bad Trumpism is.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I am abandoning that effort.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I can no longer stand idly by while people deny our election system based solely on the lies told by a President who is at best mentally ill and at worst intrinsically evil. <br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">So I will try again to be thoughtful.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I do not know who my audience will be.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">It will likely be small.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I have never once tried to monetize this blog (indeed I don’t even know how it is done).</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">This is me, documenting my thought journey.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">My guiding principle will be critical thought, not ideology.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">My focus will be on history not prognostication.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">I am no friend to any party, including Democrats.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">The closest I have come to support for an individual is Bernie Sanders and he disappointed me greatly by running as a Democratic Socialist instead of simply as a friend of the people.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">So the slate is clean.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Biden will take office in 6 days.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Let the discussion begin.</p>Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-16994028467654261452017-02-27T09:58:00.000-08:002017-02-27T09:59:09.046-08:00February 1933 - Setting The Stage for War<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(37, 37, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">In January 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor despite a minority vote, under the assumption that he could be controlled and would cause less trouble being in the government. By February he was well on his way to becoming a dictator.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">With the approval of Germany's President Hindenburg, Adolf Hitler decreed the "Ordinance for the Protection of the German People", which allowed the police to ban any publications which were a threat to public order. Violators could be arrested and detained without a warrant for as long as three months.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">In a secret speech with Germany's senior Army and Navy commanders, Adolf Hitler outlined his plans to begin conscription, to rearm Germany in defiance of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Treaty of Versailles</span></a> of 1919, and, eventually, to invade Eastern Europe to increase Germany's territory.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">The United States Senate voted 53-17 to fire its long-time <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_at_Arms_of_the_United_States_Senate"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">sergeant at arms</span></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_S._Barry"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">David S. Barry</span></a>, after he had written a magazine article that suggested that some of the Senators had taken bribes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">Feb 21st</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring">Hermann Göring</a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">, the new Nazi leader of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Germany</span></a>'s largest state, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Prussia</span></a>, published a decree in the Party newspaper, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lkischer_Beobachter"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);"><i>Völkischer Beobachter</i></span></a>, ordering the Prussian police to shoot any "enemies of the state", and providing for disciplinary action against any policeman who was "inappropriately considerate.”</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">Adolf Hitler authorized the formation of the first Nazi <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camp"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">concentration camps</span></a> (<i>Konzentrationslager</i>), where opponents of the regime would be kept in "protective custody" (<i>Schutzhaft</i>) until they could reform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">Feb 27th</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire">Reichstag fire</a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">: Six days before the March 5 national parliamentary elections, the Reichstag building in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Berlin</span></a>, was set afire and was heavily damaged. The fire was discovered at 9:15 pm, and the first responders found more than 60 small fires set throughout the building, with the largest in the chamber where the legislators met. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinus_Van_der_Lubbe"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Marinus Van der Lubbe</span></a>, a 25-year-old Dutchman with a Communist background, was arrested at the scene and made a confession after being questioned by his Nazi captors. A former bodyguard for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Sturmabteilung</span></a> (SA) founder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Ernst Röhm</span></a>, alleged later that the Berlin SA leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Ernst"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Karl Ernst</span></a>, had led a group of his troopers into the building through a connecting passage, brought in incendiaries, and then waited for Van der Lubbe to arrive.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173); font-size: 7.5px; line-height: normal;"><sup>[76]</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> "The whole truth about the Reichstag fire will probably never be known. Nearly all those who knew it are now dead, most of them slain by Hitler in the months that followed," historian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shirer"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">William Shirer</span></a> would write in 1960. Van der Lubbe was executed on January 10, 1934, while Ernst, Röhm, and many of the SA men were executed after Adolf Hitler ordered a purge of the Nazi party six months afterward. The fire would be the pretext for the emergency orders the next day granting Hitler the power to rule by decree.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;">Feb 28th</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #660000;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree">Reichstag Fire Decree</a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">: Hours after the Reichstag building had been set afire, Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his Cabinet of Ministers drew up an emergency decree for President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Hindenburg"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Paul von Hindenburg</span></a> to sign under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_48_(Weimar_Constitution)"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Article 48</span></a> of the German constitution. "Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State" took effect immediately upon the President's signature "as a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the state". Besides suspending guarantees of "personal liberty", "free expression of opinion", "freedom of the press", "the right of assembly" and "the right of association", the decree invoked the death penalty for a wider variety of crimes, including "serious disturbance of the peace" by an armed individual. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Hitler's Stormtroopers</span></a> across Germany conducted mass arrests, including taking members of Parliament into custody.</span></span></span></div>
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Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-6055653930964194892017-01-30T12:02:00.000-08:002017-01-30T12:10:18.244-08:00January 30, 1933 ........................ Hitler Appointed ChancellorToday is January 30th, 2017, 84 years after Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. This is the first entry in a series that month by month documents the rise of the Third Reich that would end in the deaths of 50 million people in a world conflagration. I will keep personal commentary to a minimum. If there are factual parallels to today, such as losing the popular vote in November and being appointed leader in January anyway, I will mention them. I will avoid drawing conclusions about the parallels that imply we in the US are on a similar glide path to Nazi Germany. You can draw your own conclusions.<br />
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January 1933<br />
Hitler did not win the popular vote in November of 1932. He lost by about 2%. But the government was stalemated and the only solution that seemed tenable was to go ahead and appoint Hitler as Chancellor and then keep a close eye on him. The Wikipedia account follows.<br />
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“Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler’s growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler’s thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground—but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher’s efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power. In a series of complicated negotiations, ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, backed by prominent German businessmen and the conservative German National People’s Party (DNVP), convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor, with the understanding that von Papen as vice-chancellor and other non-Nazis in key government positions would contain and temper Hitler’s more brutal tendencies.<br />
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“Hitler’s emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. He began immediately, ordering a rapid expansion of the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, composed entirely of Nazis and dedicated to stamping out whatever opposition to his party might arise. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg or von Papen—or anyone—could do to stop it.”<br />
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The checks and balances in place were not enough. There was resistance early on but it was beaten back.Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-5844155019003631632016-12-12T11:46:00.000-08:002016-12-12T11:46:58.427-08:00Folk-LORELocalize-Organize-Reflect-Expose <span style="font-size: x-small;">Keeping The Spark Alive </span><br />
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Here in the USA, we are faced with a question. How do we respond to the ongoing attacks on our humanity? After we go through the stages of grief for what appears to be a great election season setback (not day, season), what next?<br />
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There are dozens of progressive organizations doing good things, circulating petitions, reporting violations to our freedoms, marching and, most dependably, asking for donations. These top down efforts are not without merit. But my inbox is clogged and my spirits are not lifted by this relentless flow of progressive babble. So I turn my attention to Folk-LORE.<br />
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LOCALIZE<br />
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A response, for me, must be first and foremost a local response, for the crisis which is looming will encompass not just societal values but will also impact the very fabric of our economic system. So it is imperative to re-establish neighborly ties and reach out to forge new relationships communicating to all that we are inclusive, that we embrace all races and all religions and all parties. We will be good neighbors to the ‘other’ in the tough times to come. We will share from our garden and our hearts.<br />
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We can leverage our position from our local perch by making commercial choices. Tough choices that may go against our short term interests (cheap goods), but support our long term interests for affirming our humanity. We can also choose to speak out and proclaim our bias for humane production.<br />
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ORGANIZE<br />
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Next we can organize. We can band together locally, forming a single Cohort of likeminded critical thinkers who want to take a stand with us, their neighbors. By doing so we leverage our hope, reinforce our impact and lift our spirits. Our goal here is not to commiserate but rather to activate and give outlet to our higher purpose. Our Cohort provides a framework for networking with a broader community. From this base we can network by reaching out to similar Cohorts, across the street, across the county and across the country. To be clear our Cohort can stand alone as a bastion of hope, but it affords an opportunity to link into a larger network.<br />
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Such a Network of Cohorts does not need centralized top down structure. It does not ask for a budget. The energy driving the effort is organic and self funding. If a website would facilitate networking, then the talent to build it will volunteer. Cohorts can be neighborhoods, extended family, church (or mosque or synagogue), interest driven, work based, etc. They can even be virtual, spanning many miles pulling together likeminded folks miles apart. <br />
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How big is a Cohort you might ask? Yes.<br />
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REFLECT<br />
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A Cohort, that is by definition made up of critical thinkers, cannot help but think. Think about ways to effect change, show love to our neighbors, fix problems, share resources, and register voters. Such reflections opens up fields for research and that in turn makes possible story telling. No fake news here. Just good old fashion investigative reporting.<br />
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A fundamental component of critical thinking is multiple points of view. We need the challenge of stimulation to broaden our thinking, refine our conclusions and temper our excesses. If a Cohort provides such support, then a network of Cohorts affords unlimited strength for the journey.<br />
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Research topics? Who deserves our commercial patronage? What currency should we use to replace our instruments of debt? How do we show support for those who are being oppressed? How can we grow food in winter? (or in summer for that matter) How is the next contemplated war being justified? What can we do to forestall child trafficking? The list is endless. Hence the need for many Cohorts networking and sharing.<br />
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EXPOSE<br />
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More than ever the situation calls for vigilance. Vigilance accompanied by diligence and followed by making a lot of noise to lay bare fake news, to challenge bigotry in all its myriad forms, to expose unjust provisions buried deep in must pass legislation, to counter propaganda designed to confuse issues, and to provide a trustworthy voice as a beacon to all seekers.<br />
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The process of exposure should also provide a venue for celebration. We can rejoice that our humanity is not only being preserved but also extolled.<br />
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Folk-LORE<br />
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Folklore: the unwritten literature of a people as expressed in folk tales, proverbs, riddles, songs, dance, etc. Folk-LORE is essentially We The People banding together in Cohorts to tell our stories across a network that is rooted in critical thinking. It is LORE, Local Organizations Reflecting on and then Exposing real news.<br />
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The beauty is that you can form a Cohort and if the idea never takes off, you (and the world) will still benefit.<br />
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Who is ready to build a website?<br />
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Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-67853439831587245562016-11-12T06:34:00.000-08:002016-11-12T06:34:10.447-08:00Democracy: Breakdown or Affirmation?<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Until January 20th I will state freely that Donald Trump is a Jackass of the first order. After January 20th I will refer to him as President Trump. The question to be addressed here is how did we manage to elect a Jackass to be our President? Did our democracy finally break down releasing a flood of ignorance on the land? Or did the people rise up behind the only option they had to tell the establishment to go to hell?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The blame for our predicament is shared between the leadership of both major parties. The Republicans set the stage with obstructionism fueled by nonsense, destruction of the middle class (started by Reagan), racism very thinly veiled behind dog whistles, birtherites who knew better but chose a treasonous path over democracy (led by the Jackass), feigned scientific ignorance (surly they know better), and a long list of bad policy on energy, healthcare, etc. The Democrats helped set the stage by moving right in the 90’s (feeding the prisons boom), signing away banking regulation, and by appointing W’s treasury team to deal with the 2008 crisis that the Republicans had spawned. Instead of bailing out Americans, they bailed out AIG and banks. Yes, W’s administration should be held responsible for the crash of 2008 but Obama stood by and let the Fed fuel an unprecedented rise in debt and a corresponding escalation in wealth inequality serving Wall Street and screwing Main Street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">MiLords, (the Oligarchy, the Military Industrial Complex, the Plutocracy) have successfully gutted the middle class for 40 years. Income inequality has reached obscene levels and trickle down economics is a joke. And the middle class is in revolt. They are not just ready for change, they are demanding it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">20 candidates emerged in 2015 to run for the office of President. Two of them ran against the establishment. The Republican establishment did their best to fight for anyone but Trump and failed. The Democratic establishment mobilized the media (Washington Post you should be ashamed), instituted illegal fund raising schemes, announced the count of super delegates before the campaign had begun and used dirty tricks in the primaries to barely avoid the Berne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">And we wonder why Trump won?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">To the extent that We The People opted for change, democracy was affirmed by Trump’s ascendance. But many people were dismayed that they didn’t have a choice for positive change. One side presented same old same old and other presented a clown who, while he can be credited with understanding (and exploiting) the deep frustration nevertheless represents a moral dilemma. Democracy was not served by rigged primaries that took away choice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">So the blame for the breakdown in democracy does not lie with Trump. As nasty as he is, he tapped into genuine concerns. The blame lies squarely with the manipulation by the DNC to foist a flawed candidate upon the people, taking away their choice. Not just the choice for Democrats but for those Republicans who in the end held their nose and voted for Trump. They voted for change. It’s About Change, Stupid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The question before us is whether the Democratic Party can be salvaged? The first indication will come with the election of a new Chair for the DNC. A position of substance for sure but also a position that is symbolic of the travesty of justice that occurred under Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Will Bernie’s candidate prevail or will we be subjected to same old same old Howard Dean who ended up at the lobbyist trough? </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/howard-dean----now-a-shil_b_241465.html"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/howard-dean----now-a-shil_b_241465.html</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The Republican establishment is also at a critical juncture. Will they succumb to the temptation to ride Trump's message or will they take a stab at preserving their conservative roots?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In conclusion I would say that democracy breaks down in a two party winner takes all system if even one party rigs the outcome on their side. But for all that, the people have spoken loudly and clearly. “We will not stand still while the middle class is gutted.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">We will next turn our attention to an interesting question of this whole mess.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">How did African Americans salvage Hillary’s primary run and why did they not come to her rescue in the general election?</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> A story that will take us to South Africa, Arkansas and points south on Super Tuesday.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11px;"></span></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-41895598863721094972015-02-04T09:49:00.000-08:002015-02-04T09:49:29.243-08:00Picking Up The Pieces<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">
As I ponder the year ahead, I am inspired to catalogue the myriad problems we face. To what purpose I am not sure, for how do you prioritize catastrophes? Hopefully listing them will keep my mind from spinning out of control. </div>
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In no particular order we have:</div>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Climate Change</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Wealth Inequality</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">The Deep State (Oligarchy, Plutocracy, MiLords, etc.)</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">The 911 Coverup and Media Complicity</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Environmental Degradation</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Imprisonment for Profit</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">War for Profit</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Food Degradation for Profit</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Drugs for Profit</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">Debt for Profit</li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;">The Federal Reserve Ponzi Scheme</li>
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Admittedly this list is not complete, but it is a start. The question that I want to ask is not what else should be on this list, but rather what is holding the list together? It is tempting to say that the common denominator is greed. But I think it goes deeper to the issue of control. Control of resources for sure but even more insidious is the control of people.</div>
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As I peruse the list I am drawn time and time again to number 4. What would account for the fact that a nation of people could be induced to believe that 911 was simply a terrorist attack? How could a well educated populace believe that two airplanes brought down three buildings in what was so clearly a controlled demolition? How could a huge airliner disappear into a 12 foot hole in the Pentagon without breaking the windows two feet away and leave no wreckage behind?</div>
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What allows for people to be controlled? Ignorance? Prejudice? Superstition? Stupidity? Self Interest? Are the people pulling the strings really that clever that they can perpetuate scam after scam without detection? Did all of the Congress fall asleep and pass the Patriot Act without pausing to consider the evidence in front of them?</div>
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Unfortunately I am far better at posing question than coming up with good answers. But let me take a stab at coming up with a way to break out of the deep sleep we seem to be in. First let me say that we are not stupid, not in the sense that we cannot reason. Second let me posit that prejudice and superstition are by-products of ignorance. Thirdly that self interest will always be with us. So if we want to tackle the list above, if we want to break the bonds that control us, if we want to take back our lives, we need to fight ignorance. </div>
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My last post was a rather lengthy paper outlining a proposal to create educational curriculum to help break the chain of ignorance that is binding us. Courses to be offered in 3,000 counties in America by community activists who already exist. I am backing away from this approach due to the very real problem of how to get a broad spectrum of people to attend such courses. Instead I am working on a video game to tackle a portion of the agenda, namely those points looking at money, central banking, fiat currency, alternative accounting systems, money in politics, etc.</div>
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What is the point of this? To forestall catastrophe? Hardly. The die is cast. The system is headed for collapse. The point is to educate people to stand up against the lies that will be told to cover up the real reasons for the fall. It will be blamed on IS, Putin, China, North Korea… the list of fall guys is endless. And war will serve as the perfect coverup and has the added attraction of huge profits for the Cheney types. And the Bush types with ties to Saudi Arabia. And the Al Gore (senior and junior) types with ties to Armand Hammer and all the other nameless members of this great Oligarchy we toil under.</div>
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We may not know which black swan event was the trigger for the fall until we look back a few years later. Was it the Cyprus Bail-In banking theft? Was it China and Russia forging a huge multi-year energy deal using their own currencies? Was it BRICS setting up their own international banking system? Was it Putin developing mechanisms to bypass SWIFT? Was it the establishment of new gold exchanges in Asia that trade gold instead of paper contracts? Was it the elections in Greece? Or will straw that breaks the back of the Ponzi scheme be the fall of the Euro? Or the fall of the Petro-dollar? Or the last bar of gold being stripped out of Fort Knox and sent to China? (even I think there is a bar or two left there even though it may be rehypothecated 1000 times or more) Or a new oil/gas/pipeline war?</div>
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Surviving the catastrophe will be our first task of course. I wish I had some better advice than plant a garden. But then we will be challenged to pick up the pieces and resist the Koch brothers and all those that will attempt to execute a plan that I am sure is already in place.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">To do that we need to dispel the cloud of ignorance that is engulfing us.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> Hopefully the apathy will have been purged by the fires of crisis.</span></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-26270895697792848142014-10-24T08:17:00.000-07:002014-10-25T06:52:21.877-07:00The Gadfly Buzz Institute <div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
(a draft proposal. Please comment)</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>PREAMBLE</b></span></div>
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We The People, seek to form a more perfect union, by exposing to the light the gross illegal manipulations of markets including the money supply, the complete breakdown of the democratic process, the pervasive violation of civil rights, the ongoing campaign of misinformation leading us into war to benefit profit mongers, the shielding of those guilty of treason for crimes against humanity and the propagation of policies that have destroyed the free market resulting in the most egregious inequalities in the industrialized world. We believe that the American spirit is alive and will come to bear when truth replaces lies and misinformation. To that end we will establish a network of education centers that will systematically expose those lies and put forth a coherent framework for overturning our now corrupt system and restoring our democracy.</div>
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This will be a determined revolution, relying on knowledge of American history, accurate information about the here and now, the prompt discrediting of lies against our assertions and an energetic grass roots decentralized approach of reaching out to a large target population. Non-violent? Yes. Peaceful? Not so much. We will be disturbing the peace; upsetting the status quo, identifying criminals, digging into the public record, exposing fraud by and for the Federal Reserve Bank, seeking relief in the courts for unconstitutional surveillance, boycotting those corporations that are guilty of unbridled greed and voting out politicians who willfully obstruct the will of the people.</div>
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We will not allow the Oligarchy that is presently in charge to divide us into left and right. We are the center. We are the 99%. We will not be sidetracked by divisive social issues that mean nothing to MiLords, the powers that be. They only seek to divide us into factions. Our goal is simple. We want to restore the American Dream; free speech, free markets, freedom to benefit appropriately from our productivity, freedom to enjoy privacy, freedom from paying for wars designed to impoverish us and freedom to vote for decent people to represent us.</div>
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Our first strategic initiative will be the formation of an education network designed to cover every county in this once great nation. We will start with the 5% who already know and grow it into 10%. We will grow from there into the 12% and slowly but surely we will reach a critical mass of educated people capable of critical thinking and able to withstand the folly of false propaganda. From this base we will bring about the downfall of MiLords, a.ka. the Corporatists, a.k.a. the Military Industrial Complex, a.k.a. the Oligarchy, a.k.a. the Koch Brothers.</div>
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We will be provisioned internally, expanding Crowdfunding into Crowd Resourcing. We will not be beholden to any party, any corporation, any church or any organization. We The People will prevail. We will raise up a swarm of Gadflies to question power and thwart hierarchies.</div>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>HISTORICAL CONTEXT</b></span></div>
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It is easy to get caught up in the controversy of day to day politics, to defend our positions against “the other side.” What often gets lost in this emotionally charged battle is the story of how we got to be where we are. Sometimes we need to go back 8 years to look at Fed policy instead of parsing the words of this month’s briefing. Sometimes we need to go back 13 years to look again at the planned demolition of the Trade Towers and dismantle the lies used to describe the events of that infamous day. Or we need to go back to uncover the 1970’s roots of the greatest looting of the middle class in our history. We need to dig deep into the formation of a private bank in 1913 that has been given complete sway over our vital money supply. We could benefit greatly by studying again the debates over the chartering of the also private First Bank of the United States and how war played a necessary role in the chartering of the Second Bank of the United States a hundred years ago.</div>
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To understand the dynamics of multi-national corporations we could go back to the chartering of the Dutch East India Company with its power to imprison, execute its enemies, wage war against nations, tax populations in other lands and practice piracy in the defense of its fiefdoms. Or go back even further to the role of the Holy Roman Empire in the formation of debt backed currency leading to our fiat fractional reserve currencies of today. We need to understand the difference between sovereign law and contract law, the latter being so much easier to establish across national boundaries. We can then take a look at the erosion of the Commons and how patent law has been abused to destroy the Commons to the benefit of large corporations.</div>
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Without historical context we are lost in a sea of lies and propaganda. We must understand that we are not operating in a free market system and that democracy is a hollow slogan. Well meaning people who want to do the right thing are frustrated by the lack of options. Voting is not enough when both major parties are under the sway of MiLords. Bill Clinton signed away the last vestige of control of the Wall Street. George W. started two wars at the behest of the Military Industrial Complex, so well represented by the then Vice President of the United States. Barack Obama hired on the banksters from his predecessor and his Attorney General takes $13 billion bribes to keep criminal bankers out of jail. Bribes that are tax deductible. </div>
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We must educate ourselves to be able to sort through the mess we are in. History, economics, politics, social policy, labor law, money and banking, patent rights, tax policy, anti-trust legislation… the list is long and arduous. But without a better understanding of these and other topics, we are tilting at windmills and playing into the hands of Milords, who must smile when they hear us rant against them in futility.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>THE IRON LAW OF OLIGARCHY</b></span></div>
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Our hope lies in Anarchy. We cannot succumb to the temptation to start a movement, organize a third party, organize a protest or some other embodiment of enthusiasm. Robert Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy basically predicts that all forms of organization tend toward hierarchy and oppression. "It is organization which gives birth to the dominion of the elected over the electors, of the mandataries over the mandators, of the delegates over the delegators. Who says organization, says oligarchy."</div>
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By Anarchy, I do not mean chaos and violence. I am not talking about smashing shop windows or marching in the streets. I am using Noah Comsky’s vision of an Anarchist: </div>
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“Well, anarchism is, in my view, basically a kind of tendency in human thought which shows up in different forms in different circumstances, and has some leading characteristics. Primarily it is a tendency that is suspicious and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy. It seeks structures of hierarchy and domination in human life over the whole range, extending from, say, patriarchal families to, say, imperial systems, and it asks whether those systems are justified. It assumes that the burden of proof for anyone in a position of power and authority lies on them. Their authority is not self-justifying. They have to give a reason for it, a justification. And if they can’t justify that authority and power and control, which is the usual case, then the authority ought to be dismantled and replaced by something more free and just. And, as I understand it, anarchy is just that tendency. It takes different forms at different times.”</div>
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Let us not get hung up on terms. Use the above paragraph to describe a state of mind, an approach, a way of looking at power and how it is exercised in the world throughout history. Call it Critical Thinking, Activism, Anarchy, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism… I don’t care what you call it. Just practice it in earnest. Be willing to challenge long held assumptions. Be willing to confront the powers that be.</div>
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Our challenge then is to recognize and support points of light in every county in this great land, without founding a cumbersome organization. Our focus is education not structure, information not ideology, attitude not opinion. Yes we have a goal. It is quite simply to take back what has been lost in various ways starting with the debate over the formation of the First United States Bank; the loss of freedom to determine our own destiny. It is not enough to regain the horrific losses to the middle class since the 1970’s although that is a worthy goal. Raising the minimum wage might be a rallying cry but it does not fully address the profound inequalities that have emerged in our system.</div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">For a longer discussion of Critical Thinking please go to: <a href="http://visualizingintrinsicvaluealignment.blogspot.com/2014/01/are-you-critical-thinker.html"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255);">http://visualizingintrinsicvaluealignment.blogspot.com/2014/01/are-you-critical-thinker.html</span></a></span></div>
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Suffice it to say that the strategy implied here is far away from synoptic planning and perhaps dangerously close to disjointed incrementalism. We take this risk to avoid the folly of creating a hierarchy to defeat hierarchies.</div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT APPROACH</b></span></div>
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Our Curriculum Development Approach needs to be established in context. Our context is characterized by any number of factors but we choose to address five here. The first is the persistent presence of propaganda that permeates all aspects of our society. Our school curricula, places of worship, the media, the arts… the list is endless. You can argue all day whether or not there is a sinister plot to propagate a message, but the outcome is clear. There is a story being told that is not supported by the facts.</div>
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The second contextual condition is an ingrained habit of thinking that mitigates against Critical Thinking. It is this habit which will thwart our efforts more than any other factor. Good, honest well meaning people find it hard to first identify and then shake this habit. The recognition of the problem is of course 75% of the cure. Getting people to the place of being willing to take a history class will represent a huge step toward fostering Critical Thinking.</div>
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The third state is the paralysis of resignation which is rooted in a profound understanding of the truth but is not allowed to flourish into honest inquiry, lest it promote a feeling of hopelessness that is in the end debilitating. The real danger here is that the threshold of inaction will be raised higher and higher as more and more people sink into a survival mode that precludes the ability to pause to reflect. Meeting basic needs will always trump the motivation to seek justice in a non-violent way. This dynamic contributes to the ironic fact that the vast majority doesn’t overwhelm the Oligarchy at the polls but allows itself to be manipulated into not voting or supporting single issue initiatives that don’t threaten the economic status quo.</div>
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The fourth reality is that many lies are told and believed. A case can be made to say that this is part and parcel of the propaganda machine. I would posit however that there is a difference between flagrant lies and the persistent propagation of myths. An example of a flagrant lie is the statement that the Twin Towers were brought down by an airplane flying into them causing a fire so hot that is weakened the structure a hundred stories down and precipitated a sudden collapse. This lie is so preposterous that it will go down in history as a testimony to the gullibility of our general population. You could not more clearly demonstrate a planned demolition with planted charges than to look at available footage of the collapse of the towers and Building 7 hours later.</div>
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The last contextual reality is the undeniable presence of the Deep State, characterized by a war machine in the form of the military industrial complex, the financial establishment as evidenced by private banks led by the Federal Reserve itself, corporatism that controls our food chain, our pharmaceuticals, and our environment, the media which is complicit and finally the government itself which appears to be competitive but only fights about issues about which the Oligarchy cares little. Obama is accused of being Socialist, but he has not jailed a single known banking criminal responsible for so much suffering. His economic team came from the Bush Administration. </div>
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Woven through all five of these realities is the propensity to fund the Deep State by propagating war. Gaming the system to create personal wealth is reprehensible. Manipulating a society to go into false wars that kill and maim and feed profiteers is treason, pure and simple.</div>
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Avoiding The Paralysis of Analysis</div>
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One of the most effective tools employed by the Oligarchy for preventing its overthrow is to sow seeds of dissension into every conversation. This is accomplished by blurring the lines so that liberals, populists, conservationists, libertarians, anarchists, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, etc. are never quite clear what they stand for. Clearly any effort to pull together even 10% of the people to foment change, must avoid labels. The minute we succumb to being labelled, we set ourselves up for failure. </div>
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Our task then is to establish clearly defined goals that transcend a particular political agenda. This is limiting on the one hand and freeing on the other. Limiting in that a very significant coming together can’t be used to bring about a much needed change such as preserving the environment. Freeing in that we can put together a sizable coalition of informed citizens that can withstand the torrential downpour of propaganda and engage the system from a more knowledgable platform. </div>
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Put another way, clear guidelines should never be divisive within the community that is committed to gaining knowledge to promote Critical Thinking. There is room for conversation about the accuracy of certain facts, but there should be no room for arguing about political agenda in this forum. While it may be true that the platform of the Democratic Party is more closely aligned with the goals empowering more voters or disempowering the Koch Brothers, we cannot allow party politics to infect this effort to educate. For in fact the Democratic Party is quite obviously participating in the Deep State. To align with it is not only folly, but also counter to the goal of creating a broad coalition of informed citizens.</div>
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We will return then over and over again to the simple statement, “the system is not working as an extension of We The People, and these are the facts.”</div>
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Selecting Content</div>
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Or most critical and formidable task is to select content for development. Our approach to this will be integrated. That is, each topic will be addressed from a variety of perspectives: social, legal, financial, political, ideological, organizational, economic, technological, constitutional, and environmental. Obviously the topic of money and banking will be heavy on the financial aspect, but the other nine perspectives will play into the story. For example the formation of the Federal Reserve arose out of a social phenomenon of people buying life insurance in droves. Reformers immediately began challenging the monopolistic implications of a private central bank by passing anti-trust laws. Opinions from all across the political spectrum, especially the right wing, came out against it. It evokes historical conversations that date back to Hamilton and Jefferson. And so it goes.</div>
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This still begs the question of how topics will be selected. I will borrow a dated term from economic development parlance from the 70’s, “felt needs.” We will start with the pain of the present and dig backwards. Constructing a complete US history or worse trying to build a comprehensive world history is not the goal. Rather the question is, what do we need to know from the past to better equip us for making choices in our present and future? It is a moving target that cannot by definition be rigid and fixed. Finally it should be noted that an effort will be made to blend cogent analysis with the study of primary documents.</div>
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Some Ideas for “Felt Needs”</div>
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Our purpose here is not to outline the entire Gadfly Buzz Curriculum. But we can point in a direction by suggesting some appropriate “Felt Needs.” The good news is that there is a plethora of good stuff out there. The bad news is that there is a plethora of good stuff out there. It needs to be selected, layered, massaged and ultimately placed into an overall structure that makes some sort of sense. A daunting task but there is nothing to do but begin. Here is a preliminary (subject to change for sure) list of topics from which courses can hang and syllabi be prepared:</div>
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The Creation and Control of Money</div>
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The War Machine</div>
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Systemic Inequality</div>
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The Deep State</div>
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Control of the Food Chain by Corporations</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Control of Healthcare by Pharma Industry</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Control of Education Method and Content</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Understanding Energy Alternatives </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Climate Change and the Environment</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Deterioration of the Commons and Innovation</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Taxation</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The Labor Movement</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The History of Populism</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The Organization of Markets</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The target audience for the course materials includes: community action groups, the Transition Network movement, environmental groups, alternative energy initiatives, Occupy movements, history projects, high schools, universities, foundations and civic organizations. Content, including videos, course materials, reading lists and study guides will be made available over the internet for a small fee per course for individuals and a license fee per course for local entities.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The local entities administering the courses will be responsible for setting up their own credits leading to a certification if they so choose. Similarly educational institutions can offer credits or incorporate the content into relevant courses taken for credit.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The goal will be to maximize exposure to the content with revenue generation serving as a means for cost covering. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Symposiums will be offered to allow instructors to come together to share ideas on presentation, recruitment of students, follow up activities, content accuracy, etc. These will be cost covering and will not appear in the budget. An annual Buzz Conference will be scheduled, if demand allows, to bring together instructors, students, stakeholders and the press.<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>ORGANIZATION OF GADFLY BUZZ</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Founders</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
High profile individuals who can provide credibility, contacts, informational resources, and direction to the project. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Target: 12</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Governing Board</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The legal entity responsible for establishing goals, policy and implementation. To be selected by founders initially from nominations received from Stakeholders. Meeting quarterly. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Target: 9</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Editorial Board</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Group responsible for overseeing Curriculum Development process. To be recruited from pool of historians, activists, educators and scholars from nominations from Founders, Governors, and Stakeholders.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Administration</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Administration will be carried out by a combination of volunteers and paid staff responsible for financial accountability, contract negotiations for curriculum development, video production, etc.,Board of Governors meeting coordination, Editorial Board meeting coordination, etc.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
A virtual office will be established with no resources going into rent, furnishings or bricks and mortar. Computer hardware will be purchased if needed.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Stakeholders</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Investors in Gadfly Buzz will be accorded licensing credits toward the purchase of videos and course materials for use by physical or virtual communities they designate. Investor categories are: individuals, foundations, community action groups and corporations. While there will be no limit imposed on the size of investments, there will be no control ceded to larger investors over direction, curriculum content, board membership or administration. In other words it will not be possible for any entity to buy out the organization to distract it from its mission. A large contribution is equivalent to a large purchase of finished product.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Investors will be credited for all contributed resources including time, content, editing services, equipment, cash, etc.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>BUDGET</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Capital <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Phase I<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Phase II</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Organization<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ 5,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Travel<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 45,000</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Website Development<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 50,000</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Curriculum Development @10k<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 40,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 60,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Video Production 4@15k<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 60,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 90,000</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Promotion<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 50,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> 50,000</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Admin <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Startup<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">25,000</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;">25,000</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Total<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$ 275,000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> $ </span>225,000</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Phase III</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Phase III activities will commence as budget allows based on the successful implementation of the history training program. Activities will be drawn from the following list:</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Corporate Awareness<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Which corporations are driving the Oligarchy?</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Legal Recourse<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Challenging in the courts our rights to privacy</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Exposing Criminals<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Listing by name the bankers too rich to jail</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Counter Propaganda<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Exposing lies </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
School Curriculum Development<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Promotion of truth in education</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Accountability<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Holding feet to the fire</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>EXECUTIVE SUMMARY</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
One dictionary gadfly definition reads: “a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.” Yes, we intend to be annoying as we take on the most powerful Oligarchy in the history of our world. Provocative might be a more appealing word but the truth is we strive to be annoying on steroids from the point of view of MiLords. The Gadfly tradition supports the notions outlined by Noah Chomsky in his description of Anarchists. That is to say we should be “suspicious and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy.”</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
We start with a simple premise. Our shared history is subject to a barrage of propaganda in our schools, our churches, the media, our memes, and our political discourse. We cannot begin to shed the shackles of Oligarchy without first making a more meaningful history accessible to a larger portion our population. To do this we need to move beyond having the 5% read books, articles and blogs that speak truth but fail to attract the attention of the 10%.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
It is important that we do not let a laundry list of issues get us sidetracked. MiLords love it when we squabble over social issues that to them are meaningless in their obsession with cornering wealth and power. Our job is to shed light on the origins of our oligarchical system and then expose the lies that prevent us from overturning it. People from all political persuasions have a stake in this goal.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
We need then to distill content from the myriad sources out there and make it available to the thousands of organizations that are arising to promote our well being, clean up our food supply, counter lies, and take back our country. Curriculum development alone will do little. But if reliable history can be presented in a systematic way in a format that is appealing, we can provide a tool to the army of citizens that are already awake.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
We will do this with a minimum of physical structure and overhead. We cannot fight the ravages of hierarchy by creating our own. We will leverage existing resources to the hilt and trust that ten thousand points of light will burn a little brighter for having understood more clearly the intricacies of our subversion into debt slavery.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Our support, in time, volunteer effort, letter writing, ideas, community action on the ground, dollars and footwork will come from the many. The concept of Crowd Resourcing will be extended beyond the raising of money to the utilization of resources from all quarters.</div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Phase I will seek to raise $275,000 in cash or in kind on an all or nothing basis. All resources beyond this level will be utilized to develop as much curriculum as is feasible.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-68415030000645526712014-09-01T07:51:00.003-07:002014-09-01T07:51:59.044-07:00On Becoming An Anarchist: Part II<div class="MsoNormal">
I repeat a portion of my quote from Noam Chomsky to
reinforce the notion that Anarchy does not support the absence of order. Anarchy…. "is a tendency that is suspicious
and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy. It seeks
structures of hierarchy and domination in human life over the whole range,
extending from, say, patriarchal families to, say, imperial systems, and it
asks whether those systems are justified. It assumes that the burden of
proof for anyone in a position of power and authority lies on them. Their
authority is not self-justifying. They have to give a reason for it, a
justification. And if they can’t justify that authority and power and
control, which is the usual case, then the authority ought to be dismantled and
replaced by something more free and just."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To be clear, the Libertarian movement in the USA has been
hijacked by those who wield Private Power for the sake of maintaining the
status quo, by shoving legitimate governmental checks aside. So my quest for finding a vehicle to oppose
MiLords (the .1% or a mil) has led me to become an Anarchist. In Part I, I promised to define the
historical backdrop that has led to the subjugation of our democratic system
and the perversion of capitalism. We begin
with the establishment of the First Bank of the United States in February of 1791.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Establishing a private central bank was so controversial
that it gave rise to the two party system, pitting the agrarian States Rights interests
(Thomas Jefferson) against the Federalists interests of bankers (Hamilton). Unfortunately over time States Rights became synonymous
with the defense of slavery and the Civil War sealed the victory of the bankers
over the farmers. But the battle lines
were clear even in 1791 and remained clear for more than a century. Not until the rise of the insurance industry
in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century did banking succeed once and for all to
define money as debt and put it under the control of Private Power.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The charter of the first central bank expired in 20 years
and was allowed to lapse. The only
compelling reason powerful enough to overcome the natural resistance to
financial domination by bankers is war.
Wars have to be paid for. And so
the bankers of England and the US managed to drag us into the war of 1812 and
the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States followed with the
issuance of debt instruments to pay for that war. Sure enough the Second Bank fueled land
speculation in the West and when it collapsed the bankers owned a lot of
foreclosed property. (sound
familiar?) Andrew Jackson dissolved that
second bank and paid off the war debt in the 1830’s. That marked the last time a war was fought
and paid for. We have been enslaved by
debt ever since.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The battle between States Rights agrarians and Federalist
Bankers raged on until the river of life insurance cash gave rise to the
Federal Reserve, the ultimate debt based Ponzi Scheme that cemented Private
Power in the form of private banking in place, once and for all. The secret meetings of insurance tycoons set
the course almost a decade before the now famous secret meetings of bankers on Jekyll
Island. The resulting system rolled up
real estate speculation, debt enslavement in the form of mortgages and life
insurance in the form of mortgage insurance to protect bankers on the downside
into one big tidy package. The 30 year
work span was nested into the 30 mortgage in a seamless tapestry of debt enslavement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the resistance did not end.
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 was an attempt to curb the power of
MiLords and the punch and counterpunch carried on until the last fig leaf of
regulation was stripped away when President Clinton signed away the separation
of banking, insurance and financial institutions. Reforms were always watered down at the
eleventh hour and key provisions eroded away over time. Glass-Steagall was all but dead when Clinton
allowed for its formal demise in 1999. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clinton campaigned in 1992 on limiting corporations from
deducting excessive CEO compensation from taxable profits. But instead there followed an interpretation
that compensation could be deducted as long as it was supported by
productivity. So instead of halting the practice, it unleashed a furious
stampede to the top. MiLords set the bit
in their mouth and ran with it until we have multiples of CEO pay to average
employee pay in excess of 400. In my
youth the multiples were 12. The forces
of reform and regulation are in complete disarray.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have then a system which is neither democratic, nor
free. Markets are ruthlessly manipulated
in an effort to support a failing dollar.
Free market capitalism has been replaced by Socialism for the rich, a
winner take all strategy. The once thriving middle
class (50's 60's and 70"s) has been floundering with real wages stagnant, since the late 70’s. In an attempt to keep up we resorted to first sending out women into the work force to make
up the difference, then working two jobs and finally resorting to debt (using
inflated property values) to support a lifestyle that is becoming only a memory. Propaganda (see Part I) is used to perpetuate
the myth that we are the greatest democracy in the world. Massive wealth is used to fund elections.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so we have what some are calling the Deep State; a
combination of the Military Industrial Complex, the National Security
Apparatus, a private central bank, a compliant legislature and a puppet President. I am more than a little skeptical of this
domination by MiLords.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I AM THEN AN ANARCHIST.
I CANNOT BE SILENT.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-81993452855951585442014-07-25T08:36:00.001-07:002014-07-25T08:36:48.184-07:00On Becoming An Anarchist: Part I<div class="MsoNormal">
I am taking a deep breath as I say this. I think I am an Anarchist. There I said it. Let’s back up and survey the landscape, at
least from my perspective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Much of what passes for political/economic commentary these
days is tainted by propaganda, the intentional promotion of ideas which are
designed to perpetuate a belief, often a widely held belief. Ideas which are essentially bogus. An example of this is putting forth the view
that Capitalism represents freedom, freedom to innovate, freedom to invent, and
freedom to work hard for personal gain.
In a nutshell freedom to prosper.
Capitalism then is deemed a superior economic system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such propaganda relies heavily on vilifying opposing
systems, in this case Socialism. It says
Socialism is bad. It is the antithesis
of hard work and innovation. It is the
culmination of big government trying to control our lives in a misguided
attempt to create a more just society. It
rewards freeloaders at the expense of hard working millionaires.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are now ready to connect the dots in our propaganda
campaign. Since big government is bad
and big government is trying to control our lives, then it goes without saying
that regulation is bad. Food stamps are
bad. Welfare is bad, etc. Let the open market reign supreme. Give us Freedom. The fallacy in this line of reasoning goes
unnoticed by many.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fallacy is the failure to recognize Private Power as the
dominant underlying force in our political/economic system. Private Power trumps government power and
operates at an unseen level, far away from the tempering influence of the
ballot box. You can identify this
Private Power in a number of ways. Some
call it an Oligarchy. Others call it
Corporatism. I have given those who hold
power the name MiLords, to correspond to the .1% who wield a disproportionate
share of the wealth. MiLords control
us. We are not Free.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then there those that
purport that Private Power and Government Power are all mixed up. They call this the Deep State. More than a half century ago, President
Eisenhower warned us of the coming military industrial complex. It is
this complex that makes a mockery of the notion that we are a free, democratic,
capitalist society. Private Power takes
us into war after war for the mundane purpose of making a buck.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what does all this have to do with being an
Anarchist? I turn to the ideas of Noam
Chomsky for inspiration. “Well, anarchism is, in my view,
basically a kind of tendency in human thought which shows up in different forms
in different circumstances, and has some leading characteristics.
Primarily it is a tendency that is suspicious and skeptical of domination,
authority, and hierarchy. It seeks structures of hierarchy and domination
in human life over the whole range, extending from, say, patriarchal families
to, say, imperial systems, and it asks whether those systems are
justified. It assumes that the burden of proof for anyone in a position
of power and authority lies on them. Their authority is not self-justifying.
They have to give a reason for it, a justification. And if they can’t
justify that authority and power and control, which is the usual case, then the
authority ought to be dismantled and replaced by something more free and
just. And, as I understand it, anarchy is just that tendency. It
takes different forms at different times.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In essence the debate pitting Capitalism against Socialism
is a clever distraction. It is without
meaning. For one thing we are not living
under free market conditions and we are not therefore practicing
Capitalism. For another thing it is
simply not true that if government establishes a means to make health care more
available, or raises the minimum wage or tries to regulate the bundling of bad
mortgages, that means it is a Socialist Government. It is a hollow debate because the reality is
MiLords are in control.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Confusing matters further is the wildly disparate group of
people who identify themselves as Libertarians.
Too often the Libertarian framework is twisted to defend Private Power
in the name of giving private individuals more freedom. This according to Chomsky. In some realms Libertarians and Anarchists
have a lot in common. Not in America
where the Private Power just uses the sentiment to preserve wealth and
privilege.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And so it goes.
Freedom is the Holy Grail that is used time and time again to undergird
devious propaganda. Practicing
Capitalism makes us a free society until we besmirch it with Socialism. If only we as individuals could be left alone
to do our business, all would be well.
Meanwhile MiLords chuckle to themselves about the nameless masses who do
not even know they are being led like sheep.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am an Anarchist because I choose to engage in Critical
Thinking* by being suspicious of domination, authority, and hierarchy. I refuse to be distracted by the meaningless
chatter we call party politics. I
challenge Libertarians to withdraw their protection for Private Power. I reject out of hand the notion that market
capitalism is being practiced anywhere.
I choose to look more deeply into the systemic issues that are
propelling us toward the abyss.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Part II of this post we will delve into the mechanisms
employed by MiLords, drivers of the Deep State, to deprive us of our
freedom. This pursuit will take us back
all the way back to the creation of The United States of America and the
attempts to form a permanent Central Bank rooted in debt instead of
wealth. This will help us understand the
issue of debt being used as a means to enslave us. An effort opposed by none other than Thomas
Jefferson. We will set the stage for a
series of posts that will trace the 200 year development of the subjugation of
money (gold and silver) in favor of debt backed notes declared valuable by
fiat. (what you have in your wallet is
not money, it is rather a debt instrument)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the mean time I will try to get used to being an
Anarchist. Anarchy is not Nihilism. It is not on the side of chaotic
violence. It is not fooled by propaganda
put out by Private Power. I have thought
for some time that the line from left to right should really be shown as a
circle. Go far enough left and you end
up sharing a lot of values with those on the true right. Strip away all the propaganda and you are
left with a search for freedom within the bounds of humanity.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are you an Anarchist too?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*See earlier post: Are You A Critical Thinker?</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-80540528518533493272014-06-23T07:25:00.000-07:002014-06-23T07:25:14.733-07:00MiLords Might Have A Plan<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have flirted with the idea that MiLords are stupid, that
they have lost control of the game and are fighting a rear guard action while
they consolidate enormous amounts of wealth and plan their getaway. Today I would like to explore the notion of
what it might mean to assume that they do hear the waterfall ahead and do have
plans for them, and for us, and for the world.
What then might those plans look like?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Keep China and Russia in check for a little
while longer. Make it extremely painful
for them to collapse the dollar. Keep
feeding them cheap silver and cheap gold by continuing to manipulate the
futures markets. Threaten, cajole, lie…
do whatever it takes to keep them from pulling the plug. The die is cast. The end of dollar supremacy is at hand. But delay is important to MiLords.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Structure the collapse to be as orderly as
possible (lean toward Jubilee and away from Armageddon). Restructure retirement funds to be entirely
supported by “New Treasuries” (let’s call them Patriot Bonds) defined as
domestic debt, not for resale in the international market (it is better to
forbid their sale than it is to demonstrate that they are unsalable). Convert all domestic investor held treasuries
to Patriot Bonds, effectively devaluing them.
Allow the market to re-price existing international Treasuries to a
value that can be serviced (let’s call it 25 cents on the dollar). Legislate that municipalities and other government
bodies can convert their debt into Patriot Bonds. It is mathematically impossible for the
accumulated debt to be serviced without such a reset. It will happen. It must happen.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Continue to protect banks at all cost even at
the expense of the American people.
Package “bail-ins” to be patriotic necessities (a bail-in is a form of legislated
thievery that shifts the cost of a bail-out to depositors).</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Keep a lid on the American political process. Continue to buy votes and tout patriotic themes
that lull the population into thinking they are being loyal Americans to docilely
accept the rape of the middle class.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Maintain law and order. Strike that.
Maintain order. The laws to do so
are already in place. Bullets have been
bought up, prison camps built, military contingency plans filed for suppressing
dissent, etc.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Vilify hoarders. Brand people who buy gold and silver as traitors. Not allowing all gold and silver to flow to
China has hastened the day when the dollar falls. Bankers who sold, hypothecated,
re-hypothecated or leased all the gold in Fort Knox a hundred times over are
heroes. It is to their credit that we have
enjoyed 50 years of unparalleled prosperity.
What they did was technically illegal but they acted at the behest of all
our wonderful Presidents who know best.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Ration food as necessary. Brand people who garden and sell produce as
greedy selfish profiteers who do not know the meaning of sharing.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Raise the minimum wage in order to allow for
necessary cuts in social programs like food Stamps.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Promote “Made in America” campaigns and make a
big fuss about revitalizing the manufacturing sector that was sacrificed for
short term profits.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--> 10.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Impose travel restrictions to keep spending
abroad down. Strike that. The dollar will be worth almost nothing
abroad. Only the uber rich will consider
international travel.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is still possible that MiLords will lose control of the
process. They may have to retreat to
their well appointed bunkers. China
might not cooperate. Russia may get
restless. India may get hungry. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More importantly America could wake up and
stop believing the lies. Truth about the
difference between real money and debt based fiat paper could emerge. The realization that we are not a country of
law, but an Oligarchy under the control of MiLords could dawn. Complacency could be replaced by alarm and
indignation. The radical right and the
radical left could merge under the banner of true freedom (not the kind we
fight and die for so that Haliburton can make big profits).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To that end I invite you to consider thinking of yourself as
a human participant in AGREE. Above
Ground Resistance, Enlightenment and Empowerment. No membership. No dues.
No website. No movement. No secrecy.
No manifesto. Think of it as
oxygen that fuels a burning desire for freedom.
Think of it as a way of moving forward.
Identify with other individual molecules
of oxygen by simply saying:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I AGREE.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-57201104899665085422014-05-30T07:25:00.000-07:002014-05-30T07:25:25.721-07:00Why I Pray That I Am Dead Wrong<div class="MsoNormal">
I firmly believe that the Ponzi Scheme known as the Federal
Reserve system is close to being exposed for what it is. If true, this will bring down a system that
has served MiLords* very well for just over a century, and the resulting chaos
will impact the world economy in profoundly negative ways. I want to go on record again that I hope I am
wrong and more explicitly state why I hope I am wrong.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
1. I am
drawing Social Security payments. During
a time of hyper-inflation these payments cannot possibly keep pace. Printing more and more money will not solve a
problem that money printing caused. Even
if the government had the will and means to adjust payments on the fly,
economies that experience hyper-inflation do so daily and my check is
monthly.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->My network (family and extended family) is made
up of what could be called the shrinking middle class. That is to say that there is wealth in real
estate, business investments, stock port folios and the like. In a collapsed economy these props will
diminish in value, perhaps by as much as 90%.
In a collapsed economy my long distance family network will be replaced
by local farmers, friends who can make things, neighbors who can fix things,
etc. My garden is producing more each
year but I am not self sufficient. My
safety net will pretty much evaporate.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
3. I enjoy the peace. The stupid wars we wage, executed by the Deep
State on behalf of MiLords, (Haliburton, Cargill, Goldman Sachs and the like)
are far away now. Violence fueled by
food shortages, currency debasement, fear of the future, medicine shortages,
etc. will be dangerously close and will upset my life. I don’t want it to be that way. I don’t want to be right.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
4. My opportunity to travel to places I love like
Kenya, Botswana and Bangladesh will be curtailed. Even if flights are available tickets will
need to be paid for in some way.
Gold? Silver coin? And then money for buying food and lodging
will be needed on the other end.
Carrying silver coin will not be safe.
And using up silver coin for pleasure travel will likely seem frivolous
in light of the need to buy food for my family and friends.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
5. And last but not least I am afraid that the next
system will not be transformative. As I
look around at the apathy that prevails, I am not optimistic about people
rising up and saying, “Never Again!” It
is likely that a very large portion of the population will simply accept the
new lies. “It is because of gold
hoarders that the currency failed.” “We
need to crack down on socialists who are trying to steal your wealth and give
it to lazy tax dodgers.” “Privacy is not a priority when there are economic
terrorists in our midst.” “Fort Knox is
empty because of patriots who used the gold to preserve our currency (banks?)and
our standard of living.” Are you ready
for the really big lie? “Those bankers who
used our gold to preserve our way of life are heroes, not criminals guilty of
treason. They did not sell us down the
river to China. They fought a valiant
rear guard action against insurmountable odds.”</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a list of 5 reason why I hope I am wrong. Change number 5 from expediency to
revolution, from chaos to Jubilee, from a pathetic and apathetic response to
one of affirmation of our humanity... then I would gladly suffer the costs of 1
through 4. If I thought that we would rise up and demand justice that
repudiates the obscene wealth of MiLords and holds accountable the minions of
the Deep State for their treachery, I would tighten my belt, share my garden
and smile with deepest gratitude to be a part of something honorable. Allow the Deep State to redefine their control on their terms? Never.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have written before that I do not espouse a violent
revolution. But without a peaceful
transformation from the Deep State orchestrated by MiLords to a reinstatement
of a more humanizing Social Contract , I see no way to avoid bloodshed short of
abject subjugation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We can submit or we can resist. But we cannot resist effectively without
knowing. Our ignorance of the “what is,”
our present sorry condition, will be our undoing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* MiLords are defined and mentioned in several Blog entries
including MiLords Are Not United and Are MiLords Stupid? among others.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-41267676715808188442014-05-15T10:16:00.002-07:002014-05-15T10:16:26.237-07:00The LENR Revolution<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s be clear.
Physicists are scrambling about in the dark trying to make sense of ever
more data that is available to them. What
is dark matter and how do we know that it really exists? What is a black hole other than a theory
needed to explain things we don’t understand?
What is gravity really? Is light
a wave or a particle? The list of things
they don’t understand or cannot explain fully is long and complex. For example in 1899, Max Planck came up with what
came to be known as the Planck constant which for all practical purposes he
considered a fudge factor. It worked to
describe energy levels at the atomic level but was not a very elegant
theory. Planck described the formulation
as, "an act of despair ... I was ready to sacrifice any of my previous
convictions about physics.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nevertheless, Planck's despair notwithstanding, The Planck Constant became the basis for Quantum Mechanics
which together with Einstein’s advances on time and space constitutes the heart
and soul of modern physics. (Planck got
the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.)
New particles and new elements and new data about star formation and
developments in nuclear energy have all transpired over the last 100
years. And yet there is so much more to
be learned. Unless, of course, you are a theoretical
physicist who thinks like Max Planck’s first physics teacher. The
Munich physics professor Phillip von Jolly advised Planck against
going into physics, saying, "in this field, almost everything is already
discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes.” This was uttered in 1874. You don’t have to be a physicists or
mathematician to think this statement is hilarious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes folks, we have physicists today teaching in our universities
who like professor Jolly, are totally oblivious to their ignorance. And so when my colleague walked down the
corridor of a local university looking for someone to discuss the results of
our humble Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR)* experiments and encountered a professor who dismissed the
entire field of “cold fusion” as bogus, I began to wonder about the whole field
of scientific inquiry and more importantly the tendency of “learned” people to
dismiss anything that does not conform to the body of knowledge that supports
their own dissertation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We smile when we read about the leading astronomers of the
day dismissing the notion that the sun is at the center of our planetary
system. How quaint. And yet that same attitude permeates the halls
of our institutions of higher learning.
It has been 25 years since Fleischman and Pons demonstrated what was
then called cold fusion. Thousands of
experiments have pointed to the fact that something we don’t understand fully
is going on. NASA, MIT, the Stanford
Research Institute, the US Navy and many others are all plugging away at trying
to understand the phenomenon. Private
companies are jumping ahead to harness this green source of almost free energy
before physicists can even explain it.
So why does a physicist with a PhD scoff?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well for one thing it flies in the face of Quantum Mechanics
and that has been the foundation of atomic level physics for a hundred
years. So does that excuse our ignorant
physics professor? Not really. For you see our system of scientific inquiry
is supposed to be open to new data, new ideas, new postulations. And when the system calcifies it subjects
itself to the kind of hilarious laughter that we accord to 1874 professor
Jolly. But there is something else at
work here. Is it hubris? Perhaps. But I am wondering if science is being
subjected to the same forces that permeate everything else around us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like to suggest that we are being dumbed down, even
to the point that the brain of a physics professor can be anesthetized to
accept only the mainstream point of view.
The main stream says raw milk is dangerous. The main stream says schools are the way to
educate our youth. The main stream says
that the Federal Reserve has done a heckuva job at rescuing us from a great
depression. The main stream says that
capitalism is working and it is the best economic system in the world. The main stream says that buying cheap goods from
Wal-Mart made in China makes us happier.
The main stream says that even though we pay the most for mediocre
health care results, it is still better than “socialized medicine.” The mainstream says that we are living in a democracy
and we are free. The main stream says
that LENR is a hoax.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So before we hold my real life ignorant physics professor up
for scorn for wallowing in his century old quantum mechanics theory, maybe we
should take a look at our own systems of belief. The challenge here is to think critically**
and be willing to slaughter a few sacred cows.
Until we are willing to challenge our firmly held beliefs in the
validity of our education system, our government, our health care system, our
food production system, our religiosity, our free enterprise system, etc., we
are not really in a position to laugh at scientists who have stopped thinking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, we as a people have by and large stopped thinking. But LENR will come to fruition. The Oligarchy cannot protect their investment in petro fuels forever. University professors will give way to upstart students. Free thinkers who dare to challenge Quantum Mechanics will find a way. Companies will bring a million new products to market. And here is my hope. The LENR revolution will spawn a new age of critical thinking that will blow right past the crusty old Oligarchy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let a thousand flowers bloom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* See blog entries Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and Nickel
Energy</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
** See blog entry Are You a Critical Thinker?</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-61235945945000488972014-04-29T10:01:00.001-07:002014-04-29T10:01:30.820-07:00The Nuclear Option<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember sitting at a railroad crossing in a school bus in
1962 wondering if the world was coming to an end over missiles in Cuba, as
close to US borders as it gets. And now
we watch in horror as another crisis unfolds in Ukraine, as close to Russia’s
border as it gets. Somehow I do not
think we are staring a nuclear holocaust in the face. But I do think that a full scale economic war
could erupt and the equivalent of economic nuclear war could waged against the
dollar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The dollar as we know it is on a 70 year run. Bretton Woods established the US dollar as
the Reserve Currency, backed by gold and by the most productive economy in the
world untouched by the ravages of war.
For 70 years our friends and our enemies have needed to hold dollars for
the purposes of trade. This means that
we could and did create new dollars out of thin air and have them soaked up by
central banks everywhere and not have them come back to haunt us, effectively subsidizing
our rapidly rising standard of living.
This system was reinforced by the creation of Petro-dollars. The only way to buy oil was with dollars. Another shot in the arm to our economy. The party was on now, in full swing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1971 the French and the Swiss said wait a minute, this is
going too far and started redeeming dollars for gold. We faced a choice. Tighten our belts or renege. We did not tighten our belts. Nixon took us off the gold standard. Now all we had backing the dollar was a
nuclear shield. The Soviets could not
keep pace with our world subsidized economy and the end was in sight when they resorted
to shipping gold to pay their bills (unlike dollars central banks were not
required to take Rubles). The Soviet
Union fell apart within six months of their shipping gold with Czarist
stampings on it. They had reached the
bottom of the barrel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Speaking of the bottom of the barrel. Last year Germany asked for 300 tons to be
returned (20% of the total 1500 tons) of their gold being stored here (to be
more secure in the cold war?). We agreed
to comply but said we needed 7 years to do it.
7 years? We started with 5 tons
that had to be recast in Switzerland. That’s
all we could muster in a year. But in one
month alone, January of 2014, we exported 80 tons of gold. To where?
57 tons of it went to Hong Kong.
China must be saying, "you keep sending us gold and we will not pull
the plug on the dollar." And they
also must be saying, “you keep driving the price of gold down so that we can
keep stocking up and we will play this game a little longer.” We are producing 20 tons of gold domestically
per month.* We last audited our
stockpile in the 1950’s. Do the math.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is commonly accepted that gold, real gold that is, is flowing
from the West to the East. The dollar
cannot withstand a large gold price rise.
And so we have 100 times as much paper gold in the form of contracts and
derivatives as there is real gold in the world.
JP Morgan is the agent responsible for manipulating this paper gold
market to keep the price suppressed, illegally dumping 400 tons of fake gold on
the market in 15 minutes on April 15<sup>th</sup>, 2013, for example. India
and China are soaking up most of the real physical gold flow but there are many
countries actively buying in the physical gold market. How long can this be sustained? There are reports of US gold fabricated in the
1950's turning up in the market. A sure
sign that we are running out of gold to keep the game going. Six months after Czarist gold started
appearing… oops, I already said that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what does the
economic version of the nuclear option look like? Russia says, “You want to buy natural gas to
heat Europe? Pay in Rubles please.” China says, “We have US Treasuries for sale,
for 50 cents on the dollar. If you have
gold to sell, 25 cents on the dollar.”
Saudia Arabia says, “We will take Yuan or Rubles for oil. The Petro-dollar system is over.” Every country in the world rushes to
liquidate the T-notes they hold in reserve.
Quantitative Easing (QE) becomes a joke.
The US is exposed. We are
printing money out of thin air and not even Belgium steps up to buy the
paper. Trade alliances abound. Barter becomes the norm: iron ore for
bananas, oil for computers, corn for garments…
Bretton Woods is dead. The dollar
falls like every fiat currency has in the history of the world. The scam called the Fed, but really a private
bank, designed in 1913 to replace pesky gold with fiat paper is revealed to be
a Ponzi scheme. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So does that mean Russia and China win? Not really.
Like with any “nuclear war” there are no true winners. Everybody suffers from the fallout. China has a debt bubble of its own to contend
with. Russia does not have the standing
to have the Ruble be the new Reserve Currency.
But they will have more chips than the US does when the next version of
Bretton Woods is negotiated. And I
predict it will not be held at the Mount Washington Hotel in New
Hampshire. Hong Kong maybe?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It will be a long hard cold nuclear winter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*see 2 posts: Fort Knox Is Empty and Rehypothecation And The
Shadow Banking System</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-58895087808778626682014-04-08T10:30:00.000-07:002014-04-08T10:30:21.792-07:00Class Warfare It Ain't<div class="MsoNormal">
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class,
the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." – Warren Buffet</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Plutarch wrote of Rome, “The abuse of buying and selling
votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining
elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread in the law courts
and to the army and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the
power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of emperors.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thomas Jefferson was very concerned about what he observed
as “consolidation” of power in the Federal system at the expense of States
Rights. His concern accelerated in the
1820’s. He openly discussed the need for
revolution at some point to counter this trend toward despotism.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And as a recent headline in the Columbia Journalism Review put it: “The line between democracy and a darker social order is thinner than you think.”</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what do MiLords* scream when you confront them with
rising inequality, unbalanced press coverage of obvious financial manipulations
of commodities and currency, and the indisputable rape of the middle class in
America? CLASS WARFARE! They trot out that phrase as though it condemns
anyone with a brain to be cast into a pit with other rabid socialists. Like name calling, it totally misses the point and distracts us from the real issues.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before we go any further, let’s distinguish between the merely
rich and the MiLords running the Deep State** made up of 'Banksters,' 'Corporatists,' and political lackeys running Defense, Security and Regulatory Agencies. (I am intentionally excluding Congress as
they are no more than hired guns in this power scheme. It is conceivable that most of them don’t even fully understand the game) The merely rich are simply scrambling to reap the spoils of the war on the middle class, and like Congress
often don’t really understand that they too are pawns in the game.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it is the job of MiLords to break down the regulatory
system, promote discord in the halls of government as a useful distraction,
manipulate commodities markets, exploit the banking system by controlling the
Federal Reserve, control the message by co-opting the media and buy enough
politicians to keep messy laws from getting in the way. And I almost forgot, to scream "Class Warfare" when anyone tries to expose what is really going on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is almost funny that MiLords accuse the current puppet in
office (full disclosure, I voted for him twice), of being a Socialist when he
has presided over the largest expansion ever of a 100 year old Ponzi Scheme and
has allowed the Fed to ship gold to China at an artificially low price to keep
the game going a few more years. Except it
is not funny. It is tragic. And there are too many ignorant people in this country who are duped by such distractions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is also interesting that the puppet in power in 2000, who
signed away the last legal barrier to unbridled Fascism (yes, I voted for him twice
as well) is still well regarded by many who decry the Republican conspiracy to
dumb us down into abject slavery. But
you see Hillary, the heir apparent, is also a good friend of Goldman Sachs, and that my friend pretty
much says it all. (Would she have divorced Bill and Goldman Sachs... well she didn't)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now don’t misunderstand my point here. I am not forgiving President Cheney (oops did
I forget the vice?) for setting the demolition charges in Building 7 and the Twin Towers to set
up some very tasty contracts for Halliburton and friends. I am not suggesting that the Plutocrat Romney
would have reined in the Fed had he been more successful at buying the office
he sought. I am saying that MiLords don’t
really care all that much about who holds the nominal office of President. They like turmoil and I really don’t think
they will tolerate a Republican sweep in 2016. A divided government will suit their purposes just fine thank you very much.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, I suspect they will smile as they allow the first woman
President in history to take office and struggle with the chaotic aftermath of the
collapse of the US Dollar. (How motherly it will be to have a comforting voice in the White House to help the very bitter medicine to go down) After all, how can there
be Class Warfare when there was a black Muslim President born in Kenya,
followed by a woman wearing the mantle of that great Democrat who was
the last President to balance the budget? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But what would happen if the burgeoning lower class and the declining
middle class joined forces and declared war on the Deep State? Not with the intent to send all rich people
to the guillotine, but rather as a force behind a revolution shaped by Gandhi,
Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela? Not in the name of Communism or Socialism or even Populism, but simply
as a way of saying we have had enough and we are not as stupid as you think?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elizabeth Warren are you up for the task? Or is it important that you get in line
behind the Goldman Sachs puppet?</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
More importantly are We The People in any way shape or form
ready to say enough is enough?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* MiLords are defined in previous posts: MiLords Are Not United and Are MiLords Stupid?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
** Deep State is featured in the post The Big Reset, Jubilee or Armageddon?</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-13446374625229947192014-03-26T10:09:00.001-07:002014-03-26T10:09:31.363-07:00The Big Reset: Jubilee or Armageddon?<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, there is too much debt and not enough collateral, clean
collateral that is. The common practice
of rehypothecation * (some would call it stealing but let’s not get bogged down
in semantics) has corrupted a very large portion of the debt that is sloshing
around out there and in the final analysis the debt simply has no backing. And it cannot be serviced at any reasonable
interest rate above the current rate of zero.
This then implies that there will be a Reset, a catastrophic Reset that
will shake the foundations of the global economy.<br /> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is not a new phenomenon. Throughout history wealth has piled up for
the few while the many were saddled with debt.
Babylonian kings recognized this issue more than three thousand years
ago and would on occasion decree all debts cancelled. Talk about risk management. How would a hedge fund manager behave if they
knew the king could wipe them out on a whim?
The kings knew that if people get hopelessly in debt, no one really wins. (The kings then were smarter than the MiLords
of today)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hebrews codified this practice and established a
timetable of once every seven sabbaticals.
A sabbatical is seven years. A
slave was deemed to be free after serving seven years, and today we “free” our
professors for a year in every seven and we give them a sabbatical. So after 49 years, Jubilee. Property would be returned to its original
family owners. In an agrarian society,
property was the equivalent of wealth.
Without it you were either a slave or a serf.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the centuries we lost track of this principle and
relied upon a much rougher form of justice.
If things got too out of balance the peasants would rise up and chop off
a head or two to get things in some sort of alignment. For the most part wealth remained a thing
measured best in land and precious metals.
At the macro level this translated into hundreds of wars being fought
over land using gold to pay the workers, I mean soldiers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then things became quite a bit more complicated. About a thousand years ago we developed paper
wealth in the form of demand notes that stood for gold being held
somewhere. One person was holding a real
piece of gold in a vault (in Jerusalem for example), another had a piece of
paper representing that gold which was then given to a baker for a loaf of
bread, who used the paper to buy flour and so on. This eventually allowed for a conceptual
framework to develop that evolved into what we call money. This allows a little
bit of gold to support a lot of transactions.
(along the way more than one king decided they could game the system and
create paper money by decree, by fiat if you will. However,these fiat currencies with nothing
behind them never stood the test of time.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then along came tall ships and bigger guns and a taste for
spices and silver. Explorers came back
with tall tales and international trade blossomed, fostering more use of
letters of credit. This led to ever more complex contracts to facilitate land
and mineral exploitation, I mean trade.
The banking industry became the power center and international banking
transcended business even to the point of eclipsing the emerging nation states.
Banks learned to deal in gold and take
advantage of the need to pay soldiers over longer distances. Gold speculation was profitable but the
printing press was beguiling and thus began a centuries long battle to supplant
gold backed currency with fiat money that they and only they could control.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fiat currency took a real leap forward with the innovation
of using debt to back the money sometimes used in tandem with gold
backing. Central Banks were born to
manage debt based currency using a fractional reserve system. The money supply could be expanded at
will. Now wealth could be accumulated
and controlled on paper and laws could be drawn up to protect the system. Reformers worked diligently to fight this
insidious bastion of power but once the wealth concentration reached a certain
point legislators were put firmly in pocket and the battle was essentially
over. The Federal Reserve Bank of the
United States was firmly ensconced by the time Bretton Woods came along in
1944, establishing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Gold, that nuisance, was still in the picture
however.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then in 1971 Nixon took the USA off the gold standard and
the party began. The binge lasted more
than 40 years with most of the world’s nations subsidizing US consumption by
buying US Treasuries to hold as reserves and to accomplish trade. Petro-dollars came along and iced the
deal. To buy oil you needed
dollars. The party was a bit over the
top but as time went by and greed became infectious it started to get obscene. Before Nixon top CEO’s earned 12 times the
average worker’s pay. Today it is 450
times or more. Billionaires abound who
have done nothing more productive than shuffle some credit default swaps or
manipulated the price of commodities or packaged toxic mortgage paper.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What do we have then to bring about a correction? No Jubilee for these two thousand years or so. We are too civilized to roll some heads,
aren’t we? The answer being discussed
these days is a Reset. A Reset is like
Jubilee but without any rules for guidance.
It is a repudiation of debt and let the devil take the hindmost. It is confiscation of bank deposits, sort of
a bail in instead of a bail out (can anyone spell Cyprus?). A Reset might require hyperinflation to bring
things in line or the issuance of a new currency to replace the old. A Reset tells all those nations holding
Treasuries in reserve to go fly a kite.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What will happen after the Reset is put in place? Nobody knows, least of all me. I have no idea how it will be structured or
how it will go down or who will be blamed (gold “hoarders” are in the running
for sure for being scapegoats). The more
pressing question for some is when will this go down and what will be the
trigger? Think China. Think Russia.
Think India. Gold buyers
all. When? Think Crimean Peninsula. Think Ukrainian debts being called in. Think of any of the dozens of black swans
that are swimming in plain view.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have been pondering the question as to whether the MiLords**(Deep State operators) that are running things have this crisis under control
and will see it as no more than a bump in the road? Will they (think Pilgrims Society) incorporate
the Chinese*** elite into their program and keep on rolling the middle class
soaking up all the wealth? I am starting
to think not. I think they really did
screw up this time and they really will hit a wall. The Yuan will be the new World Reserve
Currency and Russia and India will seal the deal. Saudi Arabia will accept Petro-Yuan. And it will come to light that Fort Knox**** is empty. Gold nada. The party will be over. And to my question of an earlier post, Are
MiLords Stupid? The answer is yes. They
really are.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
China will sit at the head of the table for the next Bretton
Woods type conference. And when the dust
settles we must be vigilant. Just
because MiLords have failed to keep the game going, doesn’t preclude them from
passing the pain down the line. That is
why it is imperative to pass this message along. People need to understand what the Reset is
all about and how greed fueled it. We
cannot let chaos hide the facts about what went down. We need to make sure that we celebrate
Jubilee not suffer under Armageddon.<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
* see Rehypothecation</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
**see MiLords Are Not United <br />
*** Book in progress is entitled <u>Will The Chinese Buy The Mayflower? Or Sink It?, </u>the Mayflower being a
reference to the Pilgrims Society.<u><br />
</u>**** Fort Knox Is Empty</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-58866360475678557012014-03-08T09:11:00.000-08:002014-03-08T09:11:33.436-08:00Who Is In Your Network?<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s true. I have
been telling my friends (those few who will still stand still and listen) to
buy a monster box, sealed from the mint, of 500 Silver Eagles to preserve
wealth. But today I would like to focus
on taking stock of our intangible assets, our friends, our neighbors, our knowhow,
the sunshine that falls on our little patch, etc. My friend David Martin calls this an audit, a
taking stock of all resources that we can utilize in some way. By doing so we can better appreciate our
strengths and perhaps catalog our vulnerabilities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my fantasy world I would live close to the source of a
pristine spring on fertile tillable land, backed by a woodshed and surrounded
by sympathetic self sufficient neighbors.
Oh, with a south facing passive solar house and a cavernous root
cellar. Having dispensed of that fantasy
let’s move on to the real world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The internet is replete with lists of things to stockpile
for the coming apocalypse: water, food, toilet paper, batteries… you know the
drill I am sure. Some rightly put the
focus on food production as opposed to hundreds of cans in the basement. But I would like to explore the less obvious
resources we have at hand, the things around us that will matter greatly in a
time of crisis. Let’s start with family.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Family is a many splendored thing where Thanksgiving
debacles and discussion minefields abound.
But for some this can be a rich resource. A family cabin, tillable land, mechanical
skills, hunting skills, canned food, a guest room far away from the big city…
the list of potential resources is very long and exploring it can be
illuminating. I concede that just
bringing up the subject of how to prepare for the coming challenges can open up
rancorous debates, but the time will come when everyone will be more receptive
and it doesn’t hurt to know what you will have available to you when the time arrives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another very important resource is neighbors. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you
find there if you dig a little. On my
country road I can find farmers and machinists and mechanics, all with tools
and gardens. My neighbor usually plows
my driveway with a smallish tractor, while I help do the shoveling on the edges
of his driveway. But recently we had a 16” snowfall and a nearby farmer went up the road opening up driveways with his big green
machine (nothing runs like a Deere) and it is a comfort to know that neighbors not right next door can still be neighborly. What skills do
you have to share with neighbors? What
skills can you be taught? What can you
do to foster a sense of community with those around you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sunshine, air, rain and space are all resources to be
reckoned with. Notice that I said space,
not land. Walls, rooftops, balconies,
patios, yards, windowsills… we have more space than we think we do. Get creative with the spaces you have
available to you and look for ways to leverage the spaces of family, friends
and neighbors. (counting lawns and other
spaces Joel Salatin claims we have 70 million acres of land that could be
devoted to growing food in this country alone)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What skills do you have that matter in a local economy? Gardening, sewing, fixing, electrical,
canning, building, mechanical… are just some of the things to put on this
list. Maybe you have little to
contribute but a strong back and you will need to offer that to supplement the
projects of those with more tangible skills.
Maybe you need to look for courses that will better prepare you for the
future.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What else do you find in your area? What about gravity? Falling water can grind grain and generate
electricity. What about wild berries, firewood
and mushrooms? Rocks and trees for
building? Abandoned buildings for
providing workspaces for making things?
Scrap metal and junked cars? Ponds
for growing fish? Look around and see
what you see.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, it can be a smart thing to stock up on dry food and Silver
Eagles. But that alone will not do the
trick. Understanding your network and
taking steps to improve your network could go a long way to securing your
future.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-37735612917718656252014-03-03T10:33:00.001-08:002014-03-03T10:33:50.249-08:00Fort Knox Is Empty<div class="MsoNormal">
There, I have said it clearly and without equivocation. The same can be said about the vaults in New
York City, you know the ones across the street from the vaults now owned by
China. The ones connected by tunnel to
the vaults now owned by China, in the building bought for a song for $750
million, about half price. The vaults
meant to be storing gold for countries like Germany who didn’t trust the
Russians to invade during the Cold War.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, now the gold is gone.
Leased, hypothecated, rehypothecated, sold into the market to drive down
prices, … you name it. Let me state some
of the reasons why this is obvious:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Gold has been pouring into China
and India at a rate far higher than the mining rate, which is to say that there
is not enough gold being mined to satisfy demand in those two countries let
alone the rest of the world. It had to
come and is coming from somewhere.</li>
<li>Bear Stearns failed when they
couldn’t meet margin calls for gold and silver in 2008. They were rescued. Why?
Lehman Brothers were allowed to swing high just months later. </li>
<li>Now the rescuer of Bear Stearns,
JP Morgan, is charged with the responsibility to drive down gold prices almost
every night. </li>
<li>The manipulation of gold prices is
being handled more and more with naked shorts and less and less with the selling
of real physical gold. April 15,<sup> </sup>2013
may go down in history as the day the Ponzi Scheme began to unravel when 400
tons of naked shorts drove the price of gold over a cliff in a matter of
minutes. This is illegal and everybody
knows it happened. The rebound will be
breath taking (as well as wealth taking).</li>
<li>Buying and selling computer driven
algorithms are being used to manipulate prices illegally.</li>
<li>The threat of criminal prosecution
was removed decades ago and stated publicly by the United States Attorney
General in 2013.</li>
<li>If you don’t have it you can’t
deliver it. COMEX is getting near the
breaking point of not being able to persuade buyers to take a cash premium and
forego their contract for metals deliveries.</li>
<li>There has been no audit for more
than 50 years.</li>
<li>The Main Stream Media is ignoring
a very obvious situation, including public information.</li>
<li>The big banks are calling for gold
and silver prices to remain flat for the next couple of years. This is an intentional lie. This is a joke to anybody with any sense of
markets. It is a ruse to lull people
into a deep sleep to keep the Ponzi Scheme going for a few more quarters.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why does this matter?
According to the leading economists fiat currency is perfectly capable
of handling our trade and commerce. It
is backed by our productivity, not? Never
mind that more and more can be printed and will inevitably collapse into
hyperinflation. Never mind that fiat
currency is rooted in debt that is designed to enslave us. Never mind that the Fed was set up to allow
for the funding of wars which always enrich MiLords, and for allowing MiLords
to manipulate asset values (not just gold and silver) and ultimately to enable
an Oligarchy to rule us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not possible for me to say why MiLords are allowing,
indeed aiding and abetting, China to set up their currency for being the next World
Reserve Currency. MiLords are actively
making it possible for China to amass gold at bargain prices. I have asked in earlier posts whether they
have been outflanked or whether they have a plan that will unfold to our utter
dismay? Are they caught in a game they don’t know how
to end and are willing to pay any price, including committing treason to keep
the game going a bit longer? Or will they somehow recruit China’s elite to play
their game?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I do know this.
Fort Knox is empty. And when the
US Dollar is no longer recognized as the World Reserve Currency, we will be the
poorer for it. A lot poorer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<br /></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-85962932644157952132014-02-18T08:02:00.000-08:002014-02-18T08:02:16.415-08:00If A Bear Falls And No One Hears, Did It Make A Sound?<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh how quickly we forget, especially when we never
knew. You would think by now that one of
the greatest setbacks to our economy in the last 100 years would be studied
more, given that we are still trying to climb out of it going on six years
later.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I read an article this morning (see link below) that
basically said that Bear Stearns (remember them? They are the ones that were bailed out first in
2008 and then were sold to JP Morgan for pennies on the dollar) didn’t fail because
of the mortgage crisis but rather because they were very short on gold and
silver and they couldn’t meet margin calls.
My point isn’t whether or not this report is true (although I suspect
that it is), my point is that the financial media are ignoring the story. Not just this story but the whole long
history of price manipulation that makes a mockery of what we like to call a
market based system. If Bear Stearns was
very short on silver and gold as part of a 100 years long effort to suppress precious
metals prices, and that position led to their downfall, doesn’t it behoove the
press to delve into the matter? Or
Congress for that matter?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
JP Morgan bought Bear Stearns and they have assumed the
mantle of price smasher extraordinaire.
Does this activity serve the public or serve China and India who are
wise enough to stock up on assets with lasting value at the expense of fiat
currencies which have been debased beyond the tolerance of the prudent
investor? Does anyone doubt that the
prices of silver and gold are like a coiled spring that has been suppressed to
the point where there is no more give?
Has anyone noticed that despite all the talk about gold being a relic,
JP Morgan is very long now? (they understand springs perhaps) They can no
longer dump gold on the market (it’s long gone)and outright shorting is a
recipe for going the way of Bear Stearns, so their last gasp is to use trading
algorithms to drive prices down. Is
there no reporter out there outside the gold and silver camps that can
understand this well enough to blow the whistle?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have any doubt that MiLords are in control, that we
suffer at the hands of an Oligarchy, that wealth is being bled from us at an
accelerating pace, look no further than the silence of the mainstream media. The regulators have been silenced and this
has not been reported. The market has
been tampered with beyond recognition.
Inflation is not being reported accurately. Unemployment is understated. Real wages are plunging. And all we hear is the sound of silence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if you go to the trouble to read this one story, ask
yourself the question: is this not worth headlines? Would this not portend a coming crisis of
even greater magnitude? Is this whole
sordid mess more about treason than it is about shorting gold?</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/5497/guest-post-what-really-happened-bear-stearns-ted-butler">http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/5497/guest-post-what-really-happened-bear-stearns-ted-butler</a></div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-75335494366066960102014-02-05T10:59:00.000-08:002014-02-05T10:59:30.333-08:00The Truth Is - I Just Don't Know<div class="MsoNormal">
I tend to read people with whom I agree. I confess.
This flies directly in the face of my posting about Critical
Thinking. But that is not to say that I
am oblivious to the main stream media and their message about recovery, and the
falling unemployment rate and their take on the relevancy of the price of
gold. I take note of the views on
printing money out of thin air – oops, I’m sorry – Quantitative Easing and how
it doesn’t really spell doom for the dollar.
I listen to commentators applaud Bernanke for saving our hide by coming
up with innovative ways to prop up the dollar and the banking system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also can read a graph, and when I look at graphs published
by the Fed itself, I can only come to one conclusion. This cannot end well. Now in the universe of people that I agree
with on this point, there is a lot of chatter about how that end will play
out. Some call it a great Reset where the
value of the dollar will plummet and it will either be replaced by a new face,
or it will be devalued significantly to allow for the $17 Trillion debt to be
serviced. Some refer to a Great
Unwinding, where $200 Trillion dollars worth of obligations unravel into a pile
of paper with no intrinsic value. Some
see us Falling Off a Cliff and collapsing into chaos, martial law, toilet paper
shortages, travel restrictions and a repudiation of retirement fund
obligations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then there are those who can also read a graph but
maintain that we are not in a 100 year long Ponzi Scheme and that things will get worse, but we
will not Reset or Unwind or Fall off a Cliff.
The dollar will lose its Reserve Currency status and this will affect
our standard of living, but the dollar will still be a dollar and it will
survive as our sovereign currency. I
call this the “muddle our way through” view and it assumes that no one will
question 400 to 1 pay ratios that used to be 10 to 1, that the falling middle
class will keep clawing and defending our democratic form of government and a
capitalist system that rewards those who make us more productive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is where it is prudent to step back and take a longer
view. How does a fiat paper system fare
when a government resorts to unbridled printing of new money? How is it possible to dump thousands of tons
of gold into the market in order to artificially keep the price down for fifty
years, and then persuade people to believe that gold is not money? That the citizens of India and China are
deluded and they will see their gold and silver wealth crushed by a piece of
paper with the face of a dead President on it?
That Fort Knox being empty is of no consequence? That the paper profits making many bankers
and financial traders billionaires were justified because they helped fuel our
prosperity for 50 years?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The long historical view says to me, that this will not end
well. The dollar will lose its Reserve
Status. There will be a Bretton Woods
like conference, and those with the gold will sit at the head of the table and
those with empty vaults and piles of derivatives and notes and credit default
swaps will sit at the foot of the table.
Bretton Woods is 70 years old this year.
Look it up and study why the dollar was given Reserve Currency
status. And while you’re at it, look up
Petro-dollars and the WTO and the suppression of gold prices and how insurance
is used to hedge gambling by banks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, Critical Thinkers study history. And the main stream media is selling us short
and feeding us the company line. The
people charged with regulating our markets are turning a blind eye to overt
manipulation that a fifth grader could recognize if shown 365 daily graphs. Unemployment figures are presented with a
straight face, with no attention being given to the falling levels of total
employment and the falling income levels.
Inflation numbers are fudged and then fudged some more. Yes, I conclude that it will not end well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I don’t pretend to know what that means and anyone who
says they do is just guessing. I don’t
know if there will be a cliff or just a steady march to the bottom. I don’t know if people will rise to the
occasion and start a million local businesses that restore our productivity or
if instead we are locked down by martial law to keep starving people from
roaming the countryside. I don’t know if
banks will be propped up indefinitely or whether they will at last be allowed
to fall into ruin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I do know is this.
There are things we can do that are prudent under any scenario. Get out of debt, grow food, look for ways to
be productive and form communities. I
will close with a paragraph from my very first blog entry in February 2012:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
“My conclusion is that by Visualizing Intrinsic Value
Alignment (VIVA) we can embark upon a journey that is appropriate for all
prophetic outcomes. For me this means I
want to grow more of my own food. Will
that serve me and my family if the world economy falls apart? Yes.
Will it still serve me if we muddle on much like we have for the last
five years? Yes. Will it serve if energy
becomes scarce? Yes. I cannot imagine many scenarios where growing
more of my own food will not be of great benefit to my well being. I can then cast aside Future Fear and live
according to my intrinsic values which assumes of course my values align with a
system of productivity in community and not with derivatives and fiat
currency.”</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-42214132199274040532014-01-26T08:43:00.002-08:002014-01-26T08:43:51.604-08:00Are MiLords Stupid?<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes it is true. Greed
by the 1% has gone over the top and the Ponzi scheme known as fiat currency in
a debt based fractional reserve asset chain is about to fall. Not content with 10 to 1 income disparities
prevalent in the 1960’s, the 1% have used the unlimited power of the printing
press to create layers upon layers of rehypothecation, derivatives and credit
default swaps to effect 400 to 1 ratios, thereby dooming the economy. I suspect that MiLords, the .1%, (see blog
entry MiLords Are Not United for a fuller definition) are not happy that the
game is ending prematurely due to unbridled greed by the foot soldiers of the
Oligarchy, the merely rich 1%. But does
that mean that MiLords are stupid? Have
they lost control of their own game? Is
the Oligarchy about to fall along with the dollar?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At first glance it would appear that a strategy that sacrifices
a currency that has reigned supreme as the world Reserve Currency since 1944 is
not very smart. That shipping all the
gold in Fort Knox to China is not very good preparation for the reset defined
by the next financial conference that will supplant Bretton Woods. That killing the golden goose by allowing the
manufacturing base to deteriorate and be replaced by The Great Wall-Mart of
China, is short sighted. This is a
strategy that bespeaks of goals for a single lifetime, not the visionary
foresight of an Oligarchy entrenched for centuries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So are the MiLords who control such things really being that
stupid? Are they being replaced by a
patient China forging a dynasty that will last a century? Will the next Bretton Woods be held in Hong
Kong with a gold backed Yuan emerging as the new standard? Are we on the brink of the creation of a new
world order? Or are MiLords way ahead of
us all, dumbing us down with bad diets and trinkets from Wal-Mart? Do they have a plan that relegates China to
the status of the merely rich?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t know the answer.
I don’t even know if I am asking the right question. I do not begin to know how to factor in the
nuclear chess game, or the impact of China’s own banking problems or the effects
of tribalism when the pillars of the world come down. I also wonder if Rothschild would have been
able to control the markets if the Battle of Waterloo could have been reported
on the internet. All of this is above my
pay grade.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I would like to
shift the question away from the IQ of MiLords and take a serious look at
us. Are we the 5% (that is all that it
would take I think) smart? Are we
awake? Are we diligent enough to uncover
the game? MiLords are wearing no
clothes. Can we strip away their cloak
of invisibility? Do we care enough about
shaping the coming new world order to arise out of our stupor and engage the
enemy of ignorance? Are we too lazy, too
apathetic, too blind to challenge what is?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe the task is not to name MiLords. Maybe the task is to name the 5%. Not to form a movement that is subject to the
“Iron Law of Oligarchy,” but to create a consciousness that permeates the
air. Oxygenated air that is rich in
knowledge that burns with Critical Thinking. Do we need a symbol that we can
draw with our toe in the dust to self identify?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
China has a plan. MiLords
may have a plan. But it may not matter
if there is a great awakening. I repeat
the tag line for this blog:</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The Opportunity to shape the artifacts of our lives into
forms that align our goals with our values and complete our humanity has never
been greater.”</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-79628652470527802682014-01-18T18:39:00.001-08:002014-01-18T18:39:51.276-08:00Rehypothecation and The Shadow Banking System<div class="MsoNormal">
To hypothecate an asset is to pledge it against a loan or
liability without turning it over to the lender. If we borrow against a property in the game
of Monopoly, we don’t deliver the property to the bank, we simply turn over the
deed as a symbol of our hypothecation.
Pawn shops don’t accept hypothecation, they want the watch or the ring
or the gun. They want real collateral in
their possession. Quality collateral is
that which more than covers the extent of the liability. When a loan is “under water,” or “upside
down,” it is no longer backed by quality collateral.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the bank holding such a pledge uses it to secure another
transaction by pledging (rehypothecating) it to another bank and that bank uses
that pledge to pledge it to another, we call this a collateral chain and at
some point it becomes difficult to determine who really owns what. Quality collateral ceases to exist. The word chain can be likened to a pyramid or
Ponzi scheme as the links between the owner and the property become ever
fainter. This daisy chain of rehypothecation has the effect of creating new assets out of thin air. The wealth effect of money
creation by The Federal Reserve has for all practical purposes been extended beyond money to other asset classes
such as land, houses, precious metals, etc. Let freedom to create bubbles ring.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Federal Reserve was established to create money backed
by debt. Loaning money at interest and
then reloaning it as it is repaid and reloaning it again, has the effect of
creating new money. The more times it
turns over in a year the more the money supply expands. We call this the velocity of money. For about 60 years the money supply was
allowed to grow at a moderate rate, allowing the 1% to get rich but not too
rich. Then in 1971 Nixon took the dollar
off the gold standard and in the following years the link between the dollar
and quality collateral grew ever fainter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To compound the matter, while the money supply started to
grow at a much faster pace (1971 – 2008), The Shadow Banking System was given
more and more freedom to set up elaborate collateral chains which in turn
generated obscene bonuses for the bankers who racked up enormous paper profits
out of thin air. This out of control
banking system crashed in 2008 and in an effort to prop up the corpse The
Federal Reserve began to pump enormous amounts of money/debt into the market. They didn’t call it printing money out of
thin air, they instead called it Quantitative Easing. So we went from dollars backed by gold, to
dollars backed only by Treasury Notes purchased by banks all over the world, to
dollars backed by … nothing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The money supply grew from near zero to $100 billion from
1913 to 1971. It increased eight fold to
$800 billion by 2008, a dangerous pattern.
The system crashed as junk collateral was pawned off as quality
collateral. The criminals who perpetrated this hoax have been deemed too big to
jail by the Attorney General of the United States of America. In the next five years the money supply
passed $3,700 billion, a curve so steep it looks like a wall. Meanwhile the income differential between
CEO’s of large corporations and the average worker under them went from 10
times to 400 times. Billionaires on Wall
Street proliferated at an alarming rate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdSGv6GVcqn-uYkSYRa2KPj8tROG9720wo3MqtO-Ch2qCdszU0Ixa5lxEL_BxVQSY1549D1iuyjr8xY7fFwas0UMNJbneYiyqan3bjrIsn89w1E351INgokMRDUrsZSUATiYVu5hoWY81/s1600/AMBNS_Max_630_378.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdSGv6GVcqn-uYkSYRa2KPj8tROG9720wo3MqtO-Ch2qCdszU0Ixa5lxEL_BxVQSY1549D1iuyjr8xY7fFwas0UMNJbneYiyqan3bjrIsn89w1E351INgokMRDUrsZSUATiYVu5hoWY81/s1600/AMBNS_Max_630_378.png" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why did the world financial system continue to buy into this
thing called Reserve Currency, defined by Bretton Woods and denominated in US
dollars? Why was it possible to
establish Petro-dollars as the only way to buy oil even after the gold standard
was dismantled? The answer is complex
and involves complicity of the Banksters who manage The Shadow Banking System
all over the western world. In the final
analysis it hinges on the web of rehypothecation underlying the paper empires
created by banks. The disintegration of
collateral. And one big lie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lie was that we still have the gold. In fact the whole system depended on keeping
the price of gold from going through the roof.
The dollar cannot have value if it is too weak to buy gold. So for decades the Banksters manipulated gold
in the market - leasing it, hypothecating it, rehypothecating it, shorting it,
leveraging it, burying it in paper contracts and yes even selling it outright
to flood the market. Until there is no
gold left in the vaults. The stash of
thousands of tons belonging to the citizens of America and to other countries
who gave it to us for safe keeping, is gone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today for every ounce of real gold, there are 100 ounces of
paper gold. And the real gold now lives
in India and China. China will call the
shots at the next Bretton Woods conference and it will not be held in New
Hampshire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let us be clear about two things. Quantitative Easing is nothing more than
printing money out of thin air. And
rehypothecation is nothing more than confiscating an asset and throwing it into
a bottomless abyss, a mire known as the shadow banking system. It is an elaborate scheme to transfer wealth to a few, the few
that I am calling MiLords (the .1% or mil or one in a thousand). Quality
collateral is nowhere to be found and this elaborate paper scheme to defraud
the masses is about to unravel. Beware.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do not let fancy words invented to disguise crime fool
you. Do not let the rule of law be
subverted by companies too big to fail led by executives too big to jail. Do not let the Banksters point the finger at
gold hoarders, or whistle blowers, or food stamp recipients. Do not let the false battle between
Republicans and Democrats pull attention away from the real issue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Federal Reserve and its minions are perpetrating a giant
fraud, selling the American people down the Yellow River for 30 pieces of gold.
Bad analogy. They have sold all the gold in Fort Knox for
30 years of unbridled wealth accretion and if the truth be told they are guilty
of treason. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rehypothecation indeed!</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-43328977996506071352014-01-07T11:34:00.000-08:002014-01-07T11:34:41.561-08:00Are You A Critical Thinker?<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, you respond, almost as a reflex. I will posit here that there are several
factors that might run counter to this response. You might be open minded, fair, intelligent,
questioning, well read and quite rigorous in your decision making process and
yet come up short. Critical Thinking
does require all of these traits but let’s take a look at some more factors
that can put you behind a very dark glass, or worse, inside of a very black
box.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Are You Examining and Reexamining Your Assumptions?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example you may be starting with the assumption that we
in America live in a participatory democracy.
Yes, it has its faults but it is the greatest democracy in the history
of the world and it is the best that we can hope for. We need to strive to tweak the system by
working for change, voting for our brand of politician, and speaking out
against corruption. Someone else might
laugh and say, you are naïve. We live
under an Oligarchy and we are participating in a superficial form of sham democracy
and the general population is seriously deluded with almost no understanding of
what an Oligarchy is let alone that we are living under one. How would you even begin to reconcile these
two views?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Getting into a heated argument will not qualify as Critical
Thinking. Rather we need to uncover some
strategies to take us to a new level of challenging our assumptions. We will return to this below.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Are You Asking The Right Questions?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is possible that asking to what degree we are operating
in a democracy, a political consideration, is not the best question to get us
where we want to go. We could start with
an ethical question: how can we deal the problem of greed and self interest? Or we could ask an economic question: what is
causing the growing disparity in incomes and wealth? Or we could ask a
financial question: how does the 100 year old debt based monetary system skew
free enterprise? Or a legal question:
how does contract law trump national sovereignty?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wait a minute you say, this is getting way too complex. I would respond with this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of
complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of
complexity.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The journey to the other side requires a lot of effort.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do You Know Your History?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would suggest that we know far too much trivia and not
enough about the history of political organization, the history of money, the
history of the commons, the history of innovation, patent law, contract law,
mining rights, systematic exploitation, religion, imperialism, anti-trust
legislation, banking, etc. The list is
long and arduous. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are not enough people who have a sufficient grasp of
history to support healthy discourse that would rise to the level of Critical
Thinking. We have a lot of really smart
specialized people who are not fully educated.
Without a firm foundation in history, Critical Thinking is impossible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do You Understand the Present?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We suffer from an explosion of information that is
impossible to fully encompass into our framework. And so we come to rely upon various sources
that we trust. And we separate ourselves
further and further from the source. The
so called Main Stream Media (MSM) becomes the arbiter of knowledge and custom for
most and the population at large flounders in an ignorance that serves the
interests of the few. It is ironic that
the free flow of vast quantities of information is masking the manipulation of
the memes that dictate outcomes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So ask yourself the question: am I digging it out or am I
surfing the web?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Shaping Our Strategies<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I maintain that there are more than enough honest self
proclaimed Critical Thinkers out there to transform our world in short order,
if we would take our game to a higher level.
As it is we are stuck in boxes with labels and spend a lot of time
flailing in frustration against the myriad systems that entrap us. We cluster around our particular causes that
promote something near and dear to our hearts: less government, more
government, an end to human trafficking, global warming, poverty and hunger,
lower taxes, universal healthcare or cleaner air. We are not bad to do so. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, we could seek to formulate a strategy that changes
the way things are done. We could doubt
the very foundations of the systems that we have come to accept as
inevitable. And in our doubting we could
imagine a world that honors our humanity.
I return to the tag line for this blog:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The opportunity to shape the artifacts of our lives into
forms that align our goals with our values and complete our humanity has never
been greater.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it is a steep mountain of complexity to climb to get to
the simplicity on the other side.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9054187062664562598.post-12391792743739068752014-01-03T13:57:00.000-08:002014-01-03T13:57:20.721-08:00Nickel Energy<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s what the Chinese are calling it, “Nickel Energy.” Not a bad move actually considering the bad reputation
that cold fusion has been saddled with.
And Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR), well it leaves a lot to be
desired considering how popular nuclear energy is in some circles. So potentially the most disruptive technology
to come along since fire was mastered, is being virtually ignored in the most
powerful country on earth, while it is being embraced in China? Wait, let’s parse that sentence. Maybe we aren’t the most powerful country on
earth. Maybe the country smart enough to
buy our gold at a price kept artificially low by J P Morgan on behalf of the
Fed, is already ahead of us and we just haven’t faced up to it yet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In July I ended my post on LENR with this sentence: “So the
lesson here is this. Pay attention. LENR is not only real, it will have
impact. And how it is controlled through
the use or misuse of patents could shape our future.” With
China now firmly in the picture and the US media pretty much ignoring the science,
it would appear that patents might not be the issue. The game will be played out on a much bigger
stage than the pliable US Patent Office.
Andrea Rossi is the name most associated with nickel and hydrogen to
make clean safe energy. Andrea Rossi
lives in the USA. We could have used
LENR to save the dollar. Instead we are
treating LENR like a poor cousin….. a poor cousin now being adopted by the
Chinese. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A colleague and I have formed NuClean Energy to work on low
heat, energy efficient applications. (The
similarity of NuClean to nuclear is intentional) We have known for some time now that LENR is
real and that it is coming. We also
believe that it is a candidate for generating distributed power. It could actually make the grid superfluous
50 years from now. So maybe having the
Chinese team up with a US company to develop the technology will be a good
thing for the world. Maybe MiLords will
not get it under their control and it will rain cheap clean energy on the just
and the unjust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sorry I can’t send you to a link to this story, unless you
can read Chinese. It is not being
reported here yet. I have to run
now. I need to modify some refrigerator
plans to accept an LENR heat module in place of wood or solar. Maybe that new refrigerator company should be
called Sunwood Nuclear instead of Sunwood Ice.
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And guess what?
Nickel is just one of the candidate metallic elements for LENR. Nickel Energy might just be the first one out
of the bag. We live in exciting
times. Yes, MiLords, the times they are
a changing.</div>
Larry Alderfer Fisherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973747751154072495noreply@blogger.com0