Mar 19, 2023·edited Mar 19, 2023Liked by Bill Astore
."..who is president doesn’t really matter in America when the candidates and their staff are pre-selected by the real power centers like Wall Street and the National Security State." That sums up the illegitimate U.S. government not governed by the consent of the governed. Both parties are bought and paid for by the same group. Stop the division and defend the constitution and Bill of Rights, the God given natural rights, individually for yourself and also in the locality you live
Well said, Mr. Astore. Unfortunately, no good will come of anything unless and until Americans start to refuse to vote for (ANY!) party candidates and professional politics are eliminated absolutely. Then you might get some actual democracy in America, and you might also be able to start to bring together a malignantly divided population, whose antipathies are largely created by what Matt Taibbi has called "Hate, Inc.": a coalition of the corporate media, the so-called politicians, and the Masters of the Universe who run the show. Sadly, I don't think that any breakout is possible. The mafiosi—soldiers and capos—who masquerade as the representatives of the people, and their dons behind the curtains, have, with the help of the Goebbelesque media, got a lock on the minds and souls of Americans. (And by the way, it's not much better elsewhere, even in Norway, as it turns out.) You can run but you can't hide. No exit. God save us all.
I think we must first stop playing the game of the owners, i.e., becoming partisan actors in the "social issues" theater. The issue must be class struggle - the blue-collar middle class that provided stability in the decades after WWII has been basically wiped out; now they're coming for what's left. Neither Biden or Trump or the spawn that comes after them will address any of that. Recall Biden's words to his actual base: "nothing will fundamentally change".
Since the Democratic Party is also the WAR party, this latest from Chris Hedges is an appropriate read.
'The Lords of Chaos'
The politicians and shills in the media who orchestrated 20 years of military debacles in the Middle East, and who seek a world dominated by U.S. power, must be held accountable for their crimes.
Two decades ago, I sabotaged my career at The New York Times. It was a conscious choice. I had spent seven years in the Middle East, four of them as the Middle East Bureau Chief. I was an Arabic speaker. I believed, like nearly all Arabists, including most of those in the State Department and the CIA, that a “preemptive” war against Iraq would be the most costly strategic blunder in American history. It would also constitute what the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg called the “supreme international crime.” While Arabists in official circles were muzzled, I was not. I was invited by them to speak at The State Department, The United States Military Academy at West Point and to senior Marine Corps officers scheduled to be deployed to Kuwait to prepare for the invasion.
Mine was not a popular view nor one a reporter, rather than an opinion columnist, was permitted to express publicly according to the rules laid down by the newspaper. But I had experience that gave me credibility and a platform. I had reported extensively from Iraq. I had covered numerous armed conflicts, including the first Gulf War and the Shi’ite uprising in southern Iraq where I was taken prisoner by The Iraqi Republican Guard. I easily dismantled the lunacy and lies used to promote the war, especially as I had reported on the destruction of Iraq’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspection teams. I had detailed knowledge of how degraded the Iraqi military had become under U.S. sanctions. Besides, even if Iraq did possess “weapons of mass destruction” that would not have been a legal justification for war.
The death threats towards me exploded when my stance became public in numerous interviews and talks I gave across the country. They were either mailed in by anonymous writers or expressed by irate callers who would daily fill up the message bank on my phone with rage-filled tirades. Right-wing talk shows, including Fox News, pilloried me, especially after I was heckled and booed off a commencement stage at Rockford College for denouncing the war. The Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial attacking me. Bomb threats were called into venues where I was scheduled to speak. I became a pariah in the newsroom. Reporters and editors I had known for years would lower their heads as I passed, fearful of any career-killing contagion. I was issued a written reprimand by The New York Times to cease speaking publicly against the war. I refused. My tenure was over.
What is disturbing is not the cost to me personally. I was aware of the potential consequences. What is disturbing is that the architects of these debacles have never been held accountable and remain ensconced in power. They continue to promote permanent war, including the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, as well as a future war against China.
The politicians who lied to us — George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to name but a few — extinguished millions of lives, including thousands of American lives, and left Iraq along with Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Yemen in chaos. They exaggerated or fabricated conclusions from intelligence reports to mislead the public. The big lie is taken from the playbook of totalitarian regimes.
The cheerleaders in the media for war — Thomas Friedman, David Remnick, Richard Cohen, George Packer, William Kristol, Peter Beinart, Bill Keller, Robert Kaplan, Anne Applebaum, Nicholas Kristof, Jonathan Chait, Fareed Zakaria, David Frum, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Brooks and Michael Ignatieff — were used to amplify the lies and discredit the handful of us, including Michael Moore, Robert Scheer and Phil Donahue, who opposed the war. These courtiers were often motivated more by careerism than idealism. They did not lose their megaphones or lucrative speaking fees and book contracts once the lies were exposed, as if their crazed diatribes did not matter. They served the centers of power and were rewarded for it...........................................................................................................
Meanwhile in other News: Now that the International Criminal Court has charged Russia’s President with war crimes in Ukraine, one can only wonder when it will charge American Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama, and Bush II with war crimes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and so forth.
Does it really matter which party is in control of either end of Pennsylvania Avenue when we have the Federal Reserve System? Ron Paul’s March 20 piece asks “Are Bank Failures A Sign Of More Trouble Ahead?”…:
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 was the second largest bank failure in us history. Just two days following SVB’s collapse, Signature Bank joined the record books as the third largest bank failure in US history. First Republic Bank also seemed on the edge of collapse until Bank of America, Citigroup, and other big banks agreed to jointly fund a bailout for it.
Major Swiss bank Credit Suisse was also teetering on the brink when it received a 54 billion dollars line of credit from the Swiss UBS Group last week. Now, UBS is in the process of buying Credit Suisse. Politicians, regulators, and financial “experts” all rushed to assure us these problems were all caused by factors unique to the individual banks and were not a sign of a systemic weakness in the banking system.
The bank failures and near failures caused nervous banks to borrow a combined 164.8 billion dollars in one week from the Federal Reserve’s discount window and the Bank Term Funding Program, a new program created by the Fed to make loans to troubled banks. The Fed created this program even though supposedly there is no systemic problem in the banking industry.
While SVB didn’t receive a bailout, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed the full amount of all deposits even though Congress set a standard FDIC guarantee on deposits of up to 250,000 dollars. By covering all SVB deposits, the FDIC has created an expectation among depositors at major financial institutions (as well as the institutions themselves) that the government will cover 100 percent of deposits. This will cause both depositors and banks to make investment decisions they typically would not make, thus guaranteeing larger bank failures followed by more bailouts for wealthy depositors.
Some have blamed the current bank failures, along with other signs that the economy is on the verge of a major downturn, on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases. It is true the Fed bears responsibility. However, the rate increases are not the problem. The problem is the “easy money” and low or zero interest rate policies the Fed pushed since the 2008 market meltdown, which was caused by the bursting of the Fed-created housing bubble. Federal Reserve manipulation of the money supply distorts interest rates, which are the price of money. This distorts the signals sent to market actors regarding the true value of investing in particular industries. The result is malinvestments in those industries creating a bubble. The bubble will inevitably burst.
The economic downturn that follows the bursting of a bubble is necessary to cleanse the economy of the malinvestments. The correction will not last long and the economy will emerge stronger if Congress, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve refrain from “stimulating” the economy with federal spending and artificially low interest rates. Government interference, however, can create yet another bubble, setting the stage for another crash.
THE NEW WAVE OF BANK FAILURES IS AN INDICATION THAT THE US ECONOMY IS EITHER IN OR ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER SERIOUS FED-CAUSED RECESSION. WITH NATIONS SEEKING TO END THE DOLLAR’S STATUS AS THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY, THE END OF AMERICA’S DISASTROUS EXPERIMENT WITH FIAT MONEY, AND WITH IT THE WELFARE-WARFARE STATE, COULD BE ON THE HORIZON.
THE COLLAPSE CAN BE ACCOMPANIED BY CIVIL UNREST AND GREATER RESTRICTIONS ON LIBERTY. HOWEVER, THE SPREADING AUTHORITARIANISM CAN ALSO SPUR A GROWTH IN THE MOVEMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, A FREE MARKET, AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT THAT COULD MAKE THE DARK NIGHT OF AUTHORITARIANISM A PRELUDE TO A NEW DAWN OF LIBERTY.
I've taken courses with and have followed Williamson for many years. I have to say she shocked me with her complete lock-step @ all things pandemic, and veiled references to the terrible republicans who had questions. I'd vote for her over Biden or Trump, but I think she is still completely susceptible to being influenced by the "national security state" and will not push back on any manufactured crisis, which is very disappointing to me.
It provides a very real Alternative to and Antidote for America’s $ 1 = 1 Vote system of putting and keeping the Ruling Political Class’ Errand Boyz n Girls on the beat in SwampLand.
Another accurate reading of the state of affairs as is thus far apparent. Your last sentence is all-too accurate (and should be by now obvious and alarming to anyone not programmed to act like those trained-seal audiences that produced the laugh-tracks in old comedy TV serials).
democrats won’t address the burgeon effect of 15 years of hardcore modern monetary policy, producing $16 trillion or more in U.S. notes whose low interest rate has tanked the market price of the notes which underlie too many bank asset.
declining market price of hold to maturity assets is a reason to worry about the western world banks and eroding fiat currency.
."..who is president doesn’t really matter in America when the candidates and their staff are pre-selected by the real power centers like Wall Street and the National Security State." That sums up the illegitimate U.S. government not governed by the consent of the governed. Both parties are bought and paid for by the same group. Stop the division and defend the constitution and Bill of Rights, the God given natural rights, individually for yourself and also in the locality you live
Well said, Mr. Astore. Unfortunately, no good will come of anything unless and until Americans start to refuse to vote for (ANY!) party candidates and professional politics are eliminated absolutely. Then you might get some actual democracy in America, and you might also be able to start to bring together a malignantly divided population, whose antipathies are largely created by what Matt Taibbi has called "Hate, Inc.": a coalition of the corporate media, the so-called politicians, and the Masters of the Universe who run the show. Sadly, I don't think that any breakout is possible. The mafiosi—soldiers and capos—who masquerade as the representatives of the people, and their dons behind the curtains, have, with the help of the Goebbelesque media, got a lock on the minds and souls of Americans. (And by the way, it's not much better elsewhere, even in Norway, as it turns out.) You can run but you can't hide. No exit. God save us all.
I think we must first stop playing the game of the owners, i.e., becoming partisan actors in the "social issues" theater. The issue must be class struggle - the blue-collar middle class that provided stability in the decades after WWII has been basically wiped out; now they're coming for what's left. Neither Biden or Trump or the spawn that comes after them will address any of that. Recall Biden's words to his actual base: "nothing will fundamentally change".
Well stated points. Thanks for not succumbing to the effects of the Kool Aid.
Since the Democratic Party is also the WAR party, this latest from Chris Hedges is an appropriate read.
'The Lords of Chaos'
The politicians and shills in the media who orchestrated 20 years of military debacles in the Middle East, and who seek a world dominated by U.S. power, must be held accountable for their crimes.
Two decades ago, I sabotaged my career at The New York Times. It was a conscious choice. I had spent seven years in the Middle East, four of them as the Middle East Bureau Chief. I was an Arabic speaker. I believed, like nearly all Arabists, including most of those in the State Department and the CIA, that a “preemptive” war against Iraq would be the most costly strategic blunder in American history. It would also constitute what the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg called the “supreme international crime.” While Arabists in official circles were muzzled, I was not. I was invited by them to speak at The State Department, The United States Military Academy at West Point and to senior Marine Corps officers scheduled to be deployed to Kuwait to prepare for the invasion.
Mine was not a popular view nor one a reporter, rather than an opinion columnist, was permitted to express publicly according to the rules laid down by the newspaper. But I had experience that gave me credibility and a platform. I had reported extensively from Iraq. I had covered numerous armed conflicts, including the first Gulf War and the Shi’ite uprising in southern Iraq where I was taken prisoner by The Iraqi Republican Guard. I easily dismantled the lunacy and lies used to promote the war, especially as I had reported on the destruction of Iraq’s chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspection teams. I had detailed knowledge of how degraded the Iraqi military had become under U.S. sanctions. Besides, even if Iraq did possess “weapons of mass destruction” that would not have been a legal justification for war.
The death threats towards me exploded when my stance became public in numerous interviews and talks I gave across the country. They were either mailed in by anonymous writers or expressed by irate callers who would daily fill up the message bank on my phone with rage-filled tirades. Right-wing talk shows, including Fox News, pilloried me, especially after I was heckled and booed off a commencement stage at Rockford College for denouncing the war. The Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial attacking me. Bomb threats were called into venues where I was scheduled to speak. I became a pariah in the newsroom. Reporters and editors I had known for years would lower their heads as I passed, fearful of any career-killing contagion. I was issued a written reprimand by The New York Times to cease speaking publicly against the war. I refused. My tenure was over.
What is disturbing is not the cost to me personally. I was aware of the potential consequences. What is disturbing is that the architects of these debacles have never been held accountable and remain ensconced in power. They continue to promote permanent war, including the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, as well as a future war against China.
The politicians who lied to us — George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to name but a few — extinguished millions of lives, including thousands of American lives, and left Iraq along with Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Yemen in chaos. They exaggerated or fabricated conclusions from intelligence reports to mislead the public. The big lie is taken from the playbook of totalitarian regimes.
The cheerleaders in the media for war — Thomas Friedman, David Remnick, Richard Cohen, George Packer, William Kristol, Peter Beinart, Bill Keller, Robert Kaplan, Anne Applebaum, Nicholas Kristof, Jonathan Chait, Fareed Zakaria, David Frum, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Brooks and Michael Ignatieff — were used to amplify the lies and discredit the handful of us, including Michael Moore, Robert Scheer and Phil Donahue, who opposed the war. These courtiers were often motivated more by careerism than idealism. They did not lose their megaphones or lucrative speaking fees and book contracts once the lies were exposed, as if their crazed diatribes did not matter. They served the centers of power and were rewarded for it...........................................................................................................
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-lords-of-chaos
Meanwhile in other News: Now that the International Criminal Court has charged Russia’s President with war crimes in Ukraine, one can only wonder when it will charge American Presidents Biden, Trump, Obama, and Bush II with war crimes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and so forth.
Hear, hear! Excellent Bill.
Does it really matter which party is in control of either end of Pennsylvania Avenue when we have the Federal Reserve System? Ron Paul’s March 20 piece asks “Are Bank Failures A Sign Of More Trouble Ahead?”…:
The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 was the second largest bank failure in us history. Just two days following SVB’s collapse, Signature Bank joined the record books as the third largest bank failure in US history. First Republic Bank also seemed on the edge of collapse until Bank of America, Citigroup, and other big banks agreed to jointly fund a bailout for it.
Major Swiss bank Credit Suisse was also teetering on the brink when it received a 54 billion dollars line of credit from the Swiss UBS Group last week. Now, UBS is in the process of buying Credit Suisse. Politicians, regulators, and financial “experts” all rushed to assure us these problems were all caused by factors unique to the individual banks and were not a sign of a systemic weakness in the banking system.
The bank failures and near failures caused nervous banks to borrow a combined 164.8 billion dollars in one week from the Federal Reserve’s discount window and the Bank Term Funding Program, a new program created by the Fed to make loans to troubled banks. The Fed created this program even though supposedly there is no systemic problem in the banking industry.
While SVB didn’t receive a bailout, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guaranteed the full amount of all deposits even though Congress set a standard FDIC guarantee on deposits of up to 250,000 dollars. By covering all SVB deposits, the FDIC has created an expectation among depositors at major financial institutions (as well as the institutions themselves) that the government will cover 100 percent of deposits. This will cause both depositors and banks to make investment decisions they typically would not make, thus guaranteeing larger bank failures followed by more bailouts for wealthy depositors.
Some have blamed the current bank failures, along with other signs that the economy is on the verge of a major downturn, on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases. It is true the Fed bears responsibility. However, the rate increases are not the problem. The problem is the “easy money” and low or zero interest rate policies the Fed pushed since the 2008 market meltdown, which was caused by the bursting of the Fed-created housing bubble. Federal Reserve manipulation of the money supply distorts interest rates, which are the price of money. This distorts the signals sent to market actors regarding the true value of investing in particular industries. The result is malinvestments in those industries creating a bubble. The bubble will inevitably burst.
The economic downturn that follows the bursting of a bubble is necessary to cleanse the economy of the malinvestments. The correction will not last long and the economy will emerge stronger if Congress, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve refrain from “stimulating” the economy with federal spending and artificially low interest rates. Government interference, however, can create yet another bubble, setting the stage for another crash.
THE NEW WAVE OF BANK FAILURES IS AN INDICATION THAT THE US ECONOMY IS EITHER IN OR ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER SERIOUS FED-CAUSED RECESSION. WITH NATIONS SEEKING TO END THE DOLLAR’S STATUS AS THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY, THE END OF AMERICA’S DISASTROUS EXPERIMENT WITH FIAT MONEY, AND WITH IT THE WELFARE-WARFARE STATE, COULD BE ON THE HORIZON.
THE COLLAPSE CAN BE ACCOMPANIED BY CIVIL UNREST AND GREATER RESTRICTIONS ON LIBERTY. HOWEVER, THE SPREADING AUTHORITARIANISM CAN ALSO SPUR A GROWTH IN THE MOVEMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY, A FREE MARKET, AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT THAT COULD MAKE THE DARK NIGHT OF AUTHORITARIANISM A PRELUDE TO A NEW DAWN OF LIBERTY.
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/march/20/are-bank-failures-a-sign-of-more-trouble-ahead/ EMPHASIS added.
I've taken courses with and have followed Williamson for many years. I have to say she shocked me with her complete lock-step @ all things pandemic, and veiled references to the terrible republicans who had questions. I'd vote for her over Biden or Trump, but I think she is still completely susceptible to being influenced by the "national security state" and will not push back on any manufactured crisis, which is very disappointing to me.
Permit me to reference Y’All to the 10 April 2022 Bracing Views post “Reforming America’s Elections the NOTC Way” at https://bracingviews.substack.com/p/reforming-americas-elections-the-notc-way .
It provides a very real Alternative to and Antidote for America’s $ 1 = 1 Vote system of putting and keeping the Ruling Political Class’ Errand Boyz n Girls on the beat in SwampLand.
Another accurate reading of the state of affairs as is thus far apparent. Your last sentence is all-too accurate (and should be by now obvious and alarming to anyone not programmed to act like those trained-seal audiences that produced the laugh-tracks in old comedy TV serials).
democrats won’t address the burgeon effect of 15 years of hardcore modern monetary policy, producing $16 trillion or more in U.S. notes whose low interest rate has tanked the market price of the notes which underlie too many bank asset.
declining market price of hold to maturity assets is a reason to worry about the western world banks and eroding fiat currency.
while yellen says banks are fine.
the near uselesstranches of.