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United States News Title: Americans are Stuck in Abusive Relationships with Power And we recently discovered, if it was not known before, that no amount of power can withstand the hatred of the many. Marcus Tullius Cicero Americans are brought up to believe all sorts of myths about the country we call home. Were told our economy is a free market meritocracy governed by the rule of law. Were told our civil liberties, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are inviolable and protected by the most powerful military in the world. A fighting force entrusted with the admirable and monumental task of defending freedoms at home, and democracy and human rights abroad. Were told we exist in a system of self-government, in which our votes matter and our voices heard. In practice, none of this is true. The fact of the matter is American citizens in 2018 are just a nuisance for the real power players. Useful as consumers, but increasingly problematic as larger numbers start to ask questions about how things really work. For far too long, weve been ignorant and willing accomplices in our own bondage. This allowed the concentrated and unaccountable power that really calls the shots to go for broke in recent decades, with unsurprisingly tragic results. Only recently have things started to shift. Increased levels of barbarism abroad and corruption at home during the 21st century under both Republican and Democratic administrations have shaken many Americans from a long stupor. Irrespective of where you sit on the political spectrum, most people know somethings not right. People dont agree on the details of whats wrong, and theres certainly no consensus on solutions, but increasing numbers of us know somethings very broken. I try to look at things from a big picture perspective, and from that angle I see too many people focused on the symptoms of cultural decay versus root causes. Not enough people seem to be taking a step back to see that at the core of todays broken socioeconomic and political paradigm is an American citizenry fundamentally entangled in various abusive relationships with power. This post will highlight three of these relationships. The first with government itself, the second with central banking, and the third with the dominant political parties. When it comes to the relationship of U.S. citizens to the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington D.C., theres no indication that anything remotely resembling self-government is happening. Rather, the relationship is far more like that of a servant to a master. The powerful in this country have declared themselves above the law and beyond accountability on too many occasions for it to be an accident. Rather, its clearly unwritten public policy at this point. For starters, key players who pushed the Iraq war during the George W. Bush administration, such as John Bolton, are never held accountable. Instead, theyre promoted to even more influential roles many years later. Equally troubling, leaders of intelligence agencies like John Brennan who supported torture during the Bush years, ran the CIA while it spied on a Senate investigation into torture and then lied about the spying, likewise face no consequences for their actions. Rather, Brennan ends up with a corporate media gig as an MSNBC/NBC resistance pundit. Same thing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. He lied under oath about domestic government surveillance, gets caught following the Snowden revelations, and then nothing at all happens to him. He leaves government many years later, joins a think tank, and becomes a CNN contributor. Of course, this whole above the law thing extends well beyond government officials. We saw how bankers who tanked the global economy as a result of systemic and extremely lucrative fraud schemes received bailouts instead of jail sentences. We should never forget that not a single bank executive went to jail. When a class of powerful super predators are placed above the law, society dies. Lets now dig a little deeper into the economy. Its still a relatively under appreciated fact that the most powerful players commandeering and influencing the U.S. economy, in a fashion similar to a communist politburo, are a collection of unelected central bankers. These people can bring an economy to its knees via interest rate hikes at a moments notice, or bail out powerful financiers should that need arise as we saw explicitly in 2008/09. Moreover, whats most instructive about central bank policy is that it always seems to help connected speculators and Wall Street hooligans versus the general public. One thing youll notice if you watch the Fed steer the economy over the course of its cycle, is it doesnt really get going with rate hikes until wage pressures emerge. In other words, once your average worker starts to get some leverage in the labor market the Fed ends the party. The same things happening again right now. Then, after asset markets crash and the economy enters a recession, central banks will rapidly lower rates to start the cycle all over again. Naturally, the people who benefit most from all this are speculators and those investors with access to low rates who buy assets on the cheap. Meanwhile, you probably got kicked out of your home and continue to face double digit interest rates on your credit card balance. Then years down the road, as soon as the labor market tightens and you get a couple of raises, the Fed again will hike rates and end the expansion. The Fed makes up all sorts of excuses for why it doesnt care about asset inflation or commodity price inflation, but the moment wage pressures emerge it jacks up rates and ends the cycle. As I mentioned earlier, its happening right now all over again, and itll become increasingly clear over the next year or so. This economy isnt a free market in any real sense, its largely a rigged oligarchy. Another abusive relationship designed to enrich a particular type of charlatan.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
So much of what Americas critics lament about the countrys inherent flawsits hostility toward collectivism, the ruthlessness of its entrepreneurial spirit, its manic bouts of isolationism and extroversion on the world stage, and the tensions between old and new immigrantsare outgrowths of the traits that make it extraordinary. The nations commitment to pluralism, egalitarianism, and unity around shared principles rather than cultural, tribal, or subnational bonds is what makes America unique among nations. It will never stop striving to achieve the ideals of its founding; ideals are, after all, often unattainable. But its shared creed is the North Star toward which the United States has looked for a quarter millennium. All these things that make America great are hardly immutable traits, and some careless future generation may one day abandon them. But despite Americas weakness for fad and experimentation, those fundamental tenets have proven resistant to change. As Jonah Goldberg observed in Suicide of the West, Thomas Jeffersons assertion that all men are created equal cannot be improved upon. Any effort to amend that claim would be a regression to a more primitive state. That and the many other gifts that the founding generation left behind ensured that the United States was a uniquely magnificent nation on day one. Dont let any politician tell you otherwise. Excerpted from an article in Commentary Magazine.
Our central socialist government has grown into a MONSTER! It must get out of everything it doesn't belong in, like education, the workplace the environment, etc. etc. etc. A giant-sized meat ax needs to be taken to this monster and it's many tentacles severed from its evil body. Eliminate most of its intrusive tentacles and wholesale fire every extraneous person. No retirement plans as the ones that are left must finance their own retirement. A large cut in the costs of administrating the Congress will be achieved if the senators could only serve two four year terms and their selection made by their respective state's legislatures and their total expenses paid for out of state treasury. Congressrats would serve only four two year terms and their expenses would be paid out of their state's treasury as well. The staffs for these yahoos would be limited to perhaps two. Otherwise they will have to answer their own damned phones. The president, on the other hand, would serve no more than two six year terms which would cause him to refrain from constant political activity to get re- elected.
#4. To: IbJensen (#2)
I agree with the proposals in your post !! Wish they could be brought to fruition !
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