Neithercorp Press

The Fuzzy Logic Of Useful Idiots

2010-11-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

By Giordano Bruno

Neithercorp Press – 11/03/2010

**SPECIAL NOTE TO NEITHERCORP.US READERS: Our primary website has come under attack (yet again). You have been rerouted to our blogspot page until we can fix the problem. Do not be alarmed. We realize that blogspot sucks, and we will not force you to be here any longer than we have to. -------------From Giordano Bruno.....with love.....**

It hurts to be wrong. Not just emotionally, but physically, especially when it’s public, like swimming headfirst into a school of very ill-tempered jellyfish…..or maybe piranha. The horror of it is almost cinematic. The more artificially pumped your ego, or the more brainwashed with academic pretension, the more terrifying that moment of realization is, that moment when all your assumptions are dashed aside like a three-year-old’s alphabet blocks. To a certain point, it is understandable why so many people live in such violent denial, however, this does not detract from the perils of that denial…

Americans are masters of avoiding responsibility for bad assumptions. I have seen middle-aged women cry, actual tears, because they have been proven incorrect on something as simple as the price of dishwashing detergent at the grocery store. I have seen full-grown men throw wild-eyed tantrums and even threaten people with death because they couldn’t handle being wrong about the correct score of a football game. I once saw a man froth at the mouth and shout vicious obscenities for 20 minutes straight because he refused to believe there where more than three ‘Jaws’ movies (I wish ‘Jaws: The Revenge’ didn’t exist either, but I’m not going to have a spasm over it). I have seen little old ladies physically attack people because they were embarrassed to be wrong, not realizing that their response was far more humiliating and self deprecating than just being “mistaken”. I have, indeed, seen the glory of overgrown babies in action.

America is not the only culture prone to this, Americans just happen to be the worst losers. We lash out when we are wrong, while most Europeans tend to intellectualize ideas that challenge their false perceptions, as if they are “above” even considering them. They are masters of rationalizing the facts away, while we are masters of brutalizing those people who are messengers of the facts.

Some of these unfortunate members of our society are merely lemmings; sheep following each other mindlessly without questioning the purpose or the destination. They are spectators in world events, and nothing more. While others are far more dangerous because they take an active role in the shaping of events, not knowing that their idiocy is contributing to the suppression of the truth and even the downfall of our nation. They help elitists to dismantle dissent and in the process damage their own future. It sounds insane, and in a way, they ARE psychologically ill, but in a manner that has been deemed tolerable (or even practical) by society. We call these people “Useful Idiots”.

How does one know when he has encountered such a person? How does he cope? Let’s examine some of the telltale signs of the useful idiot…

Just Smart Enough To Be Stupid…

Learning is a full time job, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, until the very moment your ticker tocks and you find yourself sporting a cloud and a harp. Some people, though, seem to think that retirement on learning starts at around age twenty. Useful idiots are commonly men and women who are intelligent enough to retain information but not driven enough to research its validity, or to follow a thought through to its logical conclusion. They very often work in professional fields such as law, business, medicine, politics, engineering, media, entertainment, etc. (though there are many others in these fields who are not caught up in their own delusional worlds). These are people in a position to influence others just by the virtue of their work, regardless of how clueless they actually are.

Lacking knowledge is not such a terrible crime as long as you are willing to admit that you do. There is always someone out there who is going to know more than you about some things, if not many things. That’s life. Useful idiots, on the other hand, are rarely willing to admit that they are lacking in any department. They usually have just enough knowledge to make themselves “convincing” to those who don’t recognize them for what they are. In this way they are a sort of mini-Chernobyl, waiting to spew radioactive waste (disinformation) at any given moment, mutating public opinion.

Their ability to think is limited to memorization. The problem with this way of viewing the world is that it excludes critical thought, intuition, empathy, and wisdom. It traps us in a box composed of all the things we have been TAUGHT, but keeps us from the things we could discover on our own. Useful idiots are walking talking toasters; all they take is bread, and all they make is toast (and the occasional pop tart). Frankly, I’m bored with toast.

One need only take into account the vast number of so called financial analysts in the mainstream media who denied there was any threat of economic collapse back in 2006/2007. How many of them stopped to consider the consequences of ignoring the facts because of their egomania and inability to think beyond their conditioning? How many lives and nest-eggs have been destroyed, or are waiting to be destroyed, because of them? How many of these useful idiots ever apologized for their blundering? I can’t think of any…

Reacting To The Truth, Instead Of Absorbing It…

Useful idiots talk, they don’t listen. They ask lots of questions, but never wait to hear your answers. For them, questions are not a search for information, but rather a method of antagonism. It is a way to keep everyone else on guard while making themselves feel superior. In this game, the useful idiot never has to expose his ignorance because he never has to enter into a meaningful dialogue with anyone who has an opposing view. All he has to do is attack, attack, attack.

I have seen all kinds of reactionary tactics from useful idiots, but I find that the most common one for the American brand is the application of overt bravado. They turn everything into a joke whether it is funny or not. Laughing at that which we don’t understand sometimes makes things less frightening, but it also makes us more passive. Dedicated clowns, for all their theatrics and daring, are generally impotent historical figures. How many clowns or comedians have ever really dared to break the establishment mold and aim a magnifying glass at the true absurdity of our system or our culture? How many have inspired legitimate and original thought? I can think of only a handful, and almost all of them remained tied back by the entertainment industry for their beliefs.

The clowns that are the most “successful” are those that follow the establishment guidelines and play on them as if they might dare break the barrier of lies, but they never do. In Medieval times, even the most blood thirsty king would allow the court jester to make jokes at his expense. Why? Because the jester was an inconsequential figure, a powerless and non-threatening being. A jester can verbally thrash a tyrant, but nothing ever really changes, because deep down, though they make us laugh, nobody really cares what clowns have to say. Now imagine a whole subsection of our country emulating this dynamic. Imagine all these people deluding themselves into thinking that being a slave isn’t all that bad, as long as you’re the funny slave.

When confronted with a truth that threatens their established world view, useful idiots will do anything to distract or derail the exchange. Making bad jokes, resorting to childish ridicule, ignoring cold hard logic, making threats, denying you are qualified to present the facts, even though the facts speak for themselves no matter who is relaying them, etc. Rarely will they confront the truth you present on its own terms. Instead, they will try to make YOU the issue of discussion, and not your information.

Skewed World View…

Is it really that hard to double check a piece of data to confirm whether or not it is true? Apparently, it must be, because so many Americans have decided to believe whatever they are told without a second thought as long as the guy telling them is in a suit or a white lab coat. If a guy in a lab coat told you that cyanide makes you more desirable to the opposite sex, would you slam down a glass before hitting the singles bar, or would you verify the info and actually research the damned subject before hand?

You might say “well cyanide is poison, everybody knows that!” Yes, people know that because they research it. But how many other poisons do Americans ingest daily because some official gave the thumbs up? Mercury (thimerosal), aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, fluoride, rBGH, Bisphenol-A, and numerous others. One stop at the computer would produce thousands of pages of research which shows the volatile nature of these chemicals and the consequences of exposure. Why do we contaminate our guts with this garbage on pure faith? Welcome to the realm of the useful idiot…

The useful idiot is not just the guy chugging down GMO milk filled with udder puss, anyone can do that and not be useful. No, the useful idiot is the FDA official or the corporately paid scientist who SELLS us on the purity of the milk. He’s the local dentist who laughs at you when you question the safety of all that fluoride accumulation in your bloodstream. She’s the nurse who threatens to call CPS because you don’t want your newborn baby injected with half a dozen mercury laced vaccines two months after they exit the womb. The useful idiot is the guy who received his standardized academic neuron rinse but never learned that the first rule of academia used to be ‘question everything’.

World view is really a battle between inherent conscience, common sense, and the conditioning of our era. Even a single root misconception, like the belief in the legitimacy of the false left/right political paradigm, could easily skew the whole of a person’s vision to a sea of truths. The useful idiot is not only conditioned himself, but he also becomes an agent of that conditioning in others. When confronted with a truth outside of his established world view, he almost short circuits. He has lived most of his life with the ideas and propaganda of others slogging around in his skull. To be faced with the possibility that all of that time, energy, and devotion, was worthless, is almost too much to bear.

Making A Difference, One Lost Freedom At A Time…

Sometimes the best qualities of good people are ironically the worst qualities in the useful idiot. Useful idiots love to participate…in anything…as long as it’s sanctioned by a recognizable organization. Bless their hearts, they just want to get out there and make a difference! Go team!

This is a serious issue with those on both sides of our fake political spectrum, left and right. How many people clamored to be a neo-con after 9/11, only to find that in their quest for public safety, they wrongly supported the weakening of Constitutional freedoms, the destabilization of our economy, not to mention the invasion of Iraq, a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 (even if you believe the official story) or any other terrorist attack in this country? How many liberals ran screaming like schoolgirls at a Justin Bieber concert towards the global warming and carbon tax scam, only to find out that the climate labs responsible for all the research they had been eating up without question was actually using contrived and in some cases completely fabricated data? I won’t even get into the Obama-fever thing, mainly because my stomach isn’t strong enough at the moment.

The problem with useful idiots is that they want to participate TOO much. So much that they’ll jump on any bandwagon that is well funded and flamboyant enough to peak their interest. They are joiners with highly superficial standards, like brownshirts, or lice. This is where they do their worst damage…

Participation, for the useful idiot, is not about making a difference; it is about feeling like they are making a difference. In some cases, it’s about “hope”, but not real or effective action. In other cases, it’s about vengeance and malice, but not justice or integrity. In either scenario, the key missing factor is the truth, which is neglected or traded for a quick boost in self esteem. This makes the useful idiot the prime target of elitist disinformation. Nearly all criminal actions by governments receive their primary support from this portion of the citizenry exactly because they are so ridiculously eager. They are the zombie ditch diggers of the globalist infrastructure, chopping away at our liberties in search of brains.

Confronting The Useful Idiot…

Why bother trying to communicate with these dimwits at all? Are they not the very definition of a lost cause? Perhaps. I can say with a certain authority, though, that some of them can be introduced to awareness, especially since I used to be one of them…

I was the Democrat putting up Kerry stickers and handing out buttons back in 2004. I was the guy who shut down any conservative viewpoint no matter how accurate or valid because Bush was the devil incarnate (and also because I was uninformed enough to believe that neo-cons were actually conservative). I was the guy at those protest rallies where no one including myself really understood the topics we were speaking out on. I knew corporations were the enemy, but I didn’t understand why. I knew the wars were dishonest, but I thought they were all about oil. I knew the economy was in trouble, but I barely knew what the Federal Reserve was, let alone fractional reserve banking or fiat currency. It took many years to fully remove my head from my ass, but I did. I see no reason why others could not do the same, given the right prompting.

The useful idiot has to be faced with queries he can’t weasel out of or deflect. That means continually asking him questions and demanding he support his responses with concrete proof. He has to be shown beyond a doubt that at least one of his precious ideals is unfounded and unsupported by the facts. Just one. After that, he can no longer assume that any of his other views are rock solid either. He will be forced to finally check his sources, which usually leads to a terrifying epiphany; he knows nothing! It’s like falling down a bottomless South American sinkhole with nothing to grab onto. I know, because I felt it once.

Eventually, he accepts the loss of his old identity, the foolish man that was so confident and certain, and moves on towards a frightening world where he must teach himself, instead of waiting around for others to teach him. The empowerment and the awe of this process is nearly indescribable, it has to be experienced to be understood. It’s like being able to see and to speak clearly for the first time. You never knew what you were missing because you had nothing to compare it to; only that unsettling knot at the pit of your stomach, telling you that something was very wrong. Now, to go back would be unthinkable, even hellish.

Nobody sees themselves as a useful idiot serving the interests of tyrants in the oppression of their fellow man. But, the fact remains that many Americans are in just such a position. You can hate them, you can even wish them ill, but don’t give up on them all. Contesting ignorance is not just the civic duty of the informed, it is also an act of compassion towards those who are not.

You can contact Giordano Bruno at: giordano@neithercorp.us

Neithercorp.us is Back!!!

2010-08-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Neithercorp Press readers! I bring good tidings! Our original website neithercorp.us is back up and running after a month of hacking and malware attacks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our latest article, U.S. Dollar Now Ripe For Catastrophic Devaluation, can be read here:

http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=663

This article, however, is filled with bad news, as you might imagine....

This blogspot page will be used as our backup in the event that our site is attacked again or shut down completely. I will be transferring new articles from neithercorp.us to this page a couple days after they are originally posted.

Thanks for sticking with us through this rough time, and don't forget to come back soon. There is more in-depth analysis on all facets of our world on the way....

Sincerely,
Giordano Bruno

Eight Reasons Why We Cannot Afford Another War

2010-08-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

By Giordano Bruno

Neithercorp Press - 08/03/2010

The average American has been carefully shielded from the horrors and heartbreaks of war. We watch it on CNN and FOX, we talk about it around the water cooler, we even send family members out to fight and to die, but in the end, few of us have personally dealt with the realities of hot conflict on our doorstep. Through the mainstream media, we have learned to “vacation” in the face of war. The grim uncertainty of the new day, the heightened threat of random and mindless destruction, the desperation of those in need and the distrust it breeds in society, these elements dominate the core life of a person beleaguered in a hostile environment. Most people, especially Americans, avoid considering such experiences at all cost. The MSM allows us to do this while at the same time making us feel as though we are still participants in the drama. We have forgotten what it is like to stare directly into the face of unadulterated brutality.

The recent and widely publicized exposure of over 90,000 Pentagon documents by web source ‘Wikileaks’ illustrates quite well how oblivious some portions of the public are to the fundamental costs of protracted war. The documents themselves revealed little that was not already well known by those of us in the Liberty Movement. Afghanistan was always a quagmire. Battlefront intel has been consistently negative month after month, and anyone who knows anything about guerilla warfare understands that the longer an occupying army takes to secure a piece of real estate the weaker they become, and the stronger the guerillas get. The U.S. has been struggling in Afghanistan for almost ten years to little effect, except to somehow increase the amount of heroin trafficking in the region by around 2000%. The last time I checked, that was not one of the stated goals of “Operation Enduring Freedom”.

Though the document leak did not produce any new data, it did force the general public to acknowledge all the information they had chosen to ignore over the past decade. When 90,000 secret government documents tell you the war effort is crumbling, it’s difficult to just shrug and go back to your vanilla latte. The fact that some people were shocked by the “revelations” of the leak shows how dangerously unaware many of our neighbors are, so dangerous in fact that they could be led to support yet another war without a second thought.

There are many possible conflicts brewing in the world today, but to escalate into full-blown siege, nearly all of them require average Americans to remain as dazed, uneducated, and emotionally unstable as they were back in 2001.

So far, we have been able to continue our relatively apathetic and uninformed stance towards conflicts overseas unimpeded. However, this is about to change. In the event that another war is opened on a third front, it is not a possibility but a certainty that America herself will be greatly affected. Our economy, our culture, our freedoms, our very infrastructure will come under serious threat. Listed below are eight reasons why…

The United States Is Penniless, Get Used To It…

I remember when I was growing up during the 1980’s, the great wave of corporatism in our culture and its effect on our general outlook. We all really did believe that the U.S. was the “richest” country in the world. We were invincible, and nothing would ever change. What we didn’t understand was that our nation was operating on borrowed money, and borrowed time.

Everyone and their uncle were suddenly thrown into a world of easy credit and ever growing government. Deficit spending in the past three decades has skyrocketed to levels never before imagined. The housing bubble was inflated during the 90’s to add even more fuel to the debt fire which was already underway, while our currency has plummeted in value relative to its purchasing power during the last depression. The bottom line: we created capital out of nothing so that we could keep our economy going for just a few more years. Now, we are paying the price.

The stock market tanked in 2008, of course, but what some people still don’t grasp is that that was just the beginning. Bailout liquidity injections from the private Federal Reserve along with artificially low interest rates have stalled the collapse, but it is now obvious to anyone following the markets objectively for the past few years that these bailouts have accomplished almost nothing for the long term. Stocks, GDP, and the dollar are now trending downwards at an exponential rate despite endless fiat infusions. The final string holding everything together, the decisive straw; the Treasury bond bubble, is on the verge of implosion. All this is boiling over as our country runs a $13 Trillion (official) national debt, over $1 Trillion of which we accrued through our wars in the Middle East. When I say that we as Americans cannot afford another war, I mean that we LITERALLY cannot afford another war! We are broke! We’re just too drunk on credit to see it!

Look at it this way; our very large government needs very large amounts of capital to function. Without this capital, entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare shut down, federal employees lose their jobs, and our military no longer has the funds to sustain itself in foreign conflicts. If we are trillions of dollars in debt already, and most if not all of our federal tax revenues go towards paying the interest on that debt (as discovered by the Grace Commission under Ronald Reagan), where is our government getting the money to continue operating? They are getting the money from two places; first, they are borrowing it, mainly from China, Russia, and Japan. Over the past two years, these countries have begun dumping their long term U.S. Treasuries and have switched to short term Treasuries. This occurs when other countries become doubtful that we will be able to pay back our debts in the longer term.

As countries begin to cut investment in our debt, the Federal Government loses substantial revenue. Their only other option is to PRINT the money they need out of thin air to continue supporting themselves. The reason they have been able to get away with this so far is because our dollar is the “world reserve currency”, and large percentages of what we print are being held in reserves in every nation on Earth. However, as we have talked about many times in the past, if the dollar loses its world reserve status all the greenbacks held overseas, all that money we printed out of thin air, will come rushing back into our economy, causing a devaluation of the dollar, and eventually, hyperinflation. Even if other countries do not immediately get rid of their dollar holdings, the process of losing world reserve status alone would destroy the value of our currency.

What does this have to do with war? The primary point is, our economy is on the edge of an abyss. Any new war would not only incur massive bills we cannot pay, it would also substantiate international investment concerns that the U.S. is a failing market with debts it will never balance. A costly new war would give other nations a perfectly good reason to cast off their Treasury holdings and move on to greener pastures. A new war would financially end us.

Can’t Get No Respect…

Because as a nation we have become so dependent on foreign money, this means by attrition we are also dependent on foreign “respect”. Americans don’t want to hear this kind of talk at all, but unfortunately, it’s another cold reality we will one day be forced to address. Anyone who thinks countries such as Russia or China can’t hurt us at least monetarily is blinded by a foolish sense of pride. Yes, we can indeed be severely damaged by the fiscal actions of foreign states. In fact, China has threatened that they have the ability to demolish our currency since at least 2007:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2813630/China-threatens-nuclear-option-of-dollar-sales.html

The consequences of this will become more and more evident as 2010 comes to a close. U.S. actions in foreign theatres are already attracting the ire of countries like China, and our own foreign policy must now take into account whether or not BRIC nations (to which we owe much money) will be “insulted”, and retaliate with financial measures that could destroy us. Arms shipments from the U.S. to Taiwan, or U.S. naval drills in the South China Sea, for instance, are drawing more and more political fire from China, along with more subtle threats. Imagine the response if we chose to initiate a shooting war in North Korea, which still has heavy ties to the CCP! Imagine if China chose to invade Taiwan, as it has been desperate to do for over 50 years! Would we respond to help them while China holds the future of our currency in their hands?

An action in North Korea would be especially destabilizing to the Pacific region, not to mention, accelerates the distinct possibility of a nuclear event. All of this places what semblance of economic foundation we have left directly under the international chopping block. By handing our fiscal fate over to countries that violently oppose our founding principles, we put ourselves at risk, but we also lost all respect. We made ourselves look weak. A new war at this juncture, while incredibly dim-witted for a number of reasons, would in addition leave us vulnerable to subversive financial actions by foreign powers that we could have avoided if we had kept a reasonable distance, remained solvent and independent, and preserved our ability to act in a sovereign fashion.

Hypocrisy Ends In Self Destruction

If you cannot sustain a clear moral high ground in a war, in the eyes of history you become the aggressor, and thus, the enemy of truth. In the past decade, our government has operated on the assumption that if they apply the “war on terror” label to any action, they will immediately be given the benefit of the doubt. Its possible that they will….

Perhaps you do not accept that Al-Qaeda is a CIA construct, or that 9/11 was obviously not engineered by men living in caves with the magical ability to collapse three buildings at near freefall speed with only two airplanes leaving a physically “unexplained” heat signature of 2800 F as reported by ground zero clean up crews and extensive scientific evidence of military-grade nanothermite. If that is the case, I really don’t have the space or the time in this article to convince you otherwise. However, I think it should be clear to anyone with any sense at all that the 9/11 attacks were certainly at least used in an opportunistic way to invade the Middle East on false pretenses.

The reason we went to war in Iraq was supposedly to prevent a WMD attack, specifically, a “mushroom cloud” event. Of course, after years of occupation and some estimates of over 1 million Iraqi deaths (as opposed to the very conservative government figures), the only WMD’s we have found are chemical weapons the Bush / Reagan Administration SOLD to Saddam Hussein during the 1980’s, back when he was willing to be used in a proxy war with Iran (*Note: we were also selling weapons to Iran. Go figure…). When it became evident to the public that there never was a threat from Iraq, establishment puppet George W. Bush then changed gears, claiming the goal of the war was now to “spread democracy”. Under new establishment puppet, Barack Obama, the rhetoric has changed slightly again, claiming that “we will leave soon, don’t worry…”

I sometimes feel sorry for those Americans who are so easily swindled by such talking points. I imagine they have been victims of numerous scams big and small since childhood. What terribly ineffective lives they must lead. The problem is that when people become this willfully ignorant, they overcompensate by developing massive egos. It often takes years if not decades for them to finally admit a mistake, even one that helped contribute to the deaths of over a million people. This emotionally stunted tendency in a considerable portion of citizens contributes to the making of progressively more tragic errors, until finally the society in question hits the proverbial ‘bottom’.

The building initiative for a preemptive strike against Iran is a perfect example of this repetitive blundering. Its root imbalance is one of hypocrisy.

An Iranian invasion would bring up many inconsistent views. The primary justification for such an attack is the unfounded assertion that Iran has nuclear arms, or is attempting to get them. This worked in duping the American public towards the invasion of Iraq, but would it work again? The point of debate has numerous holes:

First: we in the U.S. speak often of defending our national sovereignty, even most average neo-conservatives (who are not new, or conservative) become enraged at the idea of America losing its borders, its independence, its right to fully determine the course of its economy and its politics. Yet, some here in the States also believe we have the right to step on the sovereignty of other nations and dictate their foreign and domestic policies. When it comes down to it, what right do we really have to tell Iran or any other country that they cannot develop nuclear power, or even nuclear arms? How can we expect them to take our claims of sovereignty seriously when we refuse to respect anyone else’s? If another country suddenly demanded that we as Americans give up our nuclear power or nuclear arms, would we capitulate? Or, would we laugh in their face? Why should we expect anything less from another culture?

Second: the response to this very reasonable argument is usually the same; we can’t let Iran have nuclear power because they are a country of dangerous extremist fanatics. We are the “good guys” and thus deserve nuclear weapons. They are the “bad guys” and thus should be denied everything. According to this contention, we have the “right” to threaten the sovereignty of other nations based on idiotically broad generalizations. Even more hypocritical is the fact that we support and even supply the nuclear programs of governments such as Israel, which has its own sordid history of fanaticism, extremism, and terrorism (just look up the background of the ‘Irgun’ movement). Is a nuclear Iran really any more dangerous than a nuclear Israel? Or a nuclear United States? When was the last time Iran initiated a unilateral war based on faulty intelligence?

Third: another fear tactic is the implication that Iran could sell nuclear materials to terrorists or other dangerous nations. Ironically, it is our “infallible” ally Israel which is guilty of this crime. Recently, documents have been uncovered showing that Israel attempted to sell apartheid South Africa nuclear weapons in 1975:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israel-south-africa-nuclear-weapons

Remember, under apartheid, South Africa was dominated by the ‘National Party’, whose ideology was not dissimilar to the Nazi Party! And yet, the Israeli Government still wanted to sell them nukes!? Can you get more reckless and fanatical than that? Once again, we hypocritically support a country with the same dangerous policies we openly admonish.

Fourth: Michael Hayden, former CIA director under the Bush administration, recently stated that an attack on Iran is “inexorable”, and that even if Iran builds Nuclear Power facilities utilizing sub-grade radioactive material unusable in weaponry as they have promised, they must still be dealt with severely. That is to say, we WILL invade Iran if they build a nuclear power plant. Whether or not they get anywhere near developing a nuclear weapon is apparently meaningless.

I’m very curious as to why we are so violently opposed to Iran having nuclear power now, even though we supported the idea of them having Nuclear power back in the 1970’s:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb268/index.htm

Under the Shah, a brutal dictator who imprisoned and murdered thousands of innocent people, the U.S. fully supported the development of nuclear power in Iran, on the condition that it would not be used to build nuclear weapons. What changed our minds? Well, the Shah was a puppet leader the West used to overthrow the once democratic government of Iran, an insane tyrant which common Iranians eventually (and rightly) revolted against. This is not to say that the current government of Iran is not guilty of its own terrible deeds. However, with these facts in mind, it is obvious that the elites in our government are perfectly willing to allow despotic extremist leaders to have access to nuclear technology, as long as they are under our thumb. Again, this is nightmarish hypocrisy.

If the U.S. continues on this duplicitous path, the false logic and irrational inhumanity it breeds will grow like a cancer. Nations that refuse to clearly define their principles and actually follow them honorably invariably turn in on themselves. If a culture does not act according to its stated morals when dealing with others, how can it uphold those morals within its own borders?

War Has A Purpose, And Its Called “Globalism”

I often hear that war is “mass insanity”, that it serves no purpose and should be attributed to the sometimes uncontrollable hysteria of mankind. This is essentially a rationalization used to explain away these gruesome chapters of previous times as some kind of “freak occurrence” or a random symptom of our “violent nature”. Being a student of history and especially war, I couldn’t disagree more with this interpretation. Most war is NOT random, or mindless. In fact, most wars serve a very specific purpose and begin with a carefully crafted goal in mind. The question few people in the past have had the brains to ask is; whose purpose do these wars serve? Who truly gained from the conflict?

Ideologues, especially today, love to view modern war as some extension of territoriality. An endless struggle over borders, egos, and resources. They have disregarded the fact that in every war of at least the past century there has always been a beneficiary group, an elite few whose philosophy of centralization and globalism profits while the rest of the world suffers. After every great war, what solution is always presented as a means to ensure such catastrophe “never happens again”? Less sovereignty and more centralization of world power. During every conflict, what is always offered as a solution for civilian safety? Bigger government and less personal liberty.

Constant war (with the exception of individualist inspired revolution) has the ability to push even the most conservative societies towards fear based collectivism. This is the true purpose of most wars of the past 100 years. The more we as a people tolerate the imposition of war by elites, the closer we get to blindly sacrificing our country as we know it. Whenever a war is suggested, engineered, or implemented, always ask yourself; who really benefits?

Carpet Bombing Civilians Prevents Terrorism…?

I’m not a Muslim, and I am sure there are plenty of social intricacies I do not yet understand, but I suspect that having your family maimed or killed by cluster bombs and drone rockets probably creates a feeling of rage we can all relate to, regardless of where on this planet we are born. The idea that conventional invasion and occupation of nations prevents radicalization is perplexing to me, especially now that I understand the stark reality that most terrorism is committed by governments, not extremists, often against their own people.

A logical man would come to the conclusion that to stop terrorist acts, we must first stop governments from funding, training, and supporting the groups that commit these acts. We must remove the incentive that entices governments to use these acts to their advantage. We must remove globalists from the picture entirely. But let’s forget logic for a moment…

In the world of the propagandized American, tanks rolling over foreigners, this is what wins the day. The result of this methodology is truly ingenious, at least, in the manner in which it benefits globalists. False flag attacks are created to trigger war. War is then used to perpetuate desperation and radicalization, which then leads eventually to further attacks. The process could go on for eternity!

The Wikileaks event we just witnessed subtly implies such a process. Those who have looked into the leak know that some of the documents it contained accuse the government of Pakistan and the ISI of not only being complicit in Taliban activities, but also supporting them financially and logistically. It is possible that this is in part true, and the motive for this kind of activity exists. The U.S. has invaded Pakistani airspace in numerous instances, launched attacks, and killed civilians while doing so. It is believable that our actions have inspired Pakistanis to support those we call “terrorists”.

It is also possible that these leaked documents are part of a disinformation campaign meant to lead the American people towards the above conclusion. Our incursions in Pakistani territory could illicit real terrorist acts here at home, or, the Pakistani people could be used as another scapegoat for anther false flag. Either way, our presence attracts more disaster, and even more war. The fact that Pakistan is a nuclear armed country should concern every American. They are the perfect patsy for a radiological attack on U.S. soil.

Draft Cards Will Be Fireproofed…

The U.S. military is spread thin. It has been for years. While the economic downturn has boosted recruitment numbers for the past couple years, this has not been enough to solidify any kind of advantage in the Middle East. A war on a third front is nearly impossible to execute with our current forces, especially in mountainous regions such as Iran or Pakistan. The promise of further carnage would definitely bring down our economy, and through that, it could provide more recruits franticly searching for a decent wage, but I suspect even this would not be enough to fill the ranks. The greater the chance of horrible death, the less inclined people will be to voluntarily join. In the event of a new war, expect the proposition of an enhanced draft, one that is difficult to run away from.

Charles Rangel, the posterboy for political debauchery, reintroduced his compulsory military draft bill H.R. 5741 last month:

http://rangel.house.gov/2010/07/rangeldraft0716.html

Though Rangel’s bill predates Obama, it is now being introduced as part of the Obama “Mandatory Service” initiative. This initiative requires every American to enter into the uniformed services or some other civilian outfit in support of Homeland Security. They do not use the word “draft”, but that’s exactly what it is. I doubt that it is coincidence that Rangel reintroduced this bill despite the investigations into his extensive dirty dealings. Does the establishment already have a conflict on the back-burner which will require the quick passage of Rangel’s bill? Probably.

Make A Run ‘From’ The Border

I don’t have the space in this article to cover the entire U.S. / Mexico border issue. Needless to say, the border is not secure. Do some Mexican nationals come over the border in the hopes of a better life? Sure. Is this irrelevant? Yes. The issue is not one of compassion, and certainly not one of race. The issue is one of common sense. The U.S., like any other country, has legal standards for immigration for many reasons. Partly economic, partly academic, partly social, partly for security. No other country in the world that I can think of is attacked for wanting to secure its borders like the U.S. is attacked. It’s become an international hot topic! Everybody who doesn’t live here seems to have an opinion, especially Mexico!

Why does the Federal Government want to keep the borders liquid? Why does the Mexican government want to sue Arizona for attempting to secure theirs? Again, think “globalism”. The more vaporous our borders become, the more psychologically detached we become from their existence, as well as the cultural ideals they are supposed to enclose and protect. Open borders are good for globalists.

Now, imagine that a war is triggered south of that border, while it remains open. Could a mass migration of refugees fleeing for their lives flood into this country? Easily.

Venezuela has been a thorn in the side of the globalists for a long time. Though Chavez is another one of those leaders that is impossible to like, he doesn’t seem to play the elitist’s game. This makes his country a possible target for subversion, destabilization, and even war.

The U.S. has been a major supporter of the Columbian government, even though Columbia’s military is closely tied to extremist paramilitary groups that terrorize the citizenry, also known as “death squads”. Columbia and the U.S. have attempted to justify these unsavory groups by claiming that Venezuela harbors a rebel organization called FARC hostile to the Columbian government. For years the tension has been relatively contained, but lately tempers have begun to flare. Chavez has threatened to cut off his supply of oil to the U.S. in the event the Columbia accelerates aggressions:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100725/wl_nm/us_colombia_venezuela

Accusations have been made that Venezuela along with FARC are working with Al-Qaeda in an “unholy alliance” to supplant Western interests, though little if any concrete evidence has been provided to support this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6034L920100104

The point is, the elements exist for our government to initiate a proxy war against Venezuela through Columbia causing the complete deterioration of South and Central America. This could result in an even greater influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. Any American who believes in border security should be wary of saber rattling against Venezuela.

War Turns Harmless Idiots Into Monsters

Finally, we get to the most frightening consequence that a new war could unleash. When a society goes to war, a real war that actually threatens the survival of that society, the unintelligent become terrified, and the terrified become bizarre. People who you once deemed rather stupid but harmless suddenly start watching you, listening to your comments, and blowing things out of all proportion. They begin to see terrorists and enemy agents everywhere. Al-Qaeda could be white! Hell, Al-Qaeda could be technicolored and hiding bombs in your dishwasher. Anything could go wrong, they think, and so they must be suspicious of everything and everyone.

We all know where this leads. People like myself, who question the status quo and place blame where it is deserved, usually on government or corporate elitists, will be labeled subversive, dangerous, even traitorous. During a major war, you are supposed to tow the establishment line, not rock the boat. National Security becomes the excuse for everything, including silencing dissenters. I have no doubt whatsoever that if another war is sparked, federal actions will be taken to curtail Constitutional freedoms in an acute manner. I also fear that if we are not successful in waking up enough of our family and friends to this scenario, they will develop into a serious part of the problem. The most successful tyrannies rely less on Gestapo, and more on the citizens themselves. The most insidious censorship of all is self-censorship; the silence of men who fear the prying ears of their neighbors.

A major war can also breed a perpetual sense of tunnel vision, a feeling of urgency that drives us to act wildly despite our consciences. This is when the darker impulses of human beings take hold. The worst crimes of all time have been facilitated and perpetrated by common people in the midst of the zealotry of empty elitist conflict. Governments can force the issue of war. They can launch military forces without warning. They can create false flag attacks as a pretense for invasion. They can cajole other nations into their own assaults. It is difficult to prevent these things. But one measure we can take is to deny them the ability to frighten us into submission. We can band together and show that we do not condone war based on the whims of globalist minorities. We can solidify our defiance, make citizen censorship ineffective, and refuse to participate in the lie. We cannot allow yet another unlawful and dishonorable war to be waged in our name. Otherwise, we have learned nothing.

You can contact Giordano Bruno at: giordano@neithercorp.us

The New American: A Rebirth Of The Old Guard

2010-07-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

By Giordano Bruno

Neithercorp Press - 07/26/2010

People no longer believe in the existence of heroes. By heroes, I do not mean synthetic pop culture icons and sports stars, or mass media generated two faced chimera politicians. I do not mean those fraudulent public figures and false idols which are thrust into the establishment limelight and into our collective faces everyday. By heroes, I mean those ordinary men and women throughout the ages who stood firm against extraordinary corruption and overwhelming social evil. I mean those who had the will to risk everything for truth and an honorable tomorrow, often receiving no recognition for their sacrifice. Today, such heroes are considered a distant memory, a mythology from days long since drowned in the tides of history. How we yearn for those tides to turn…

In our modern era, the shadow of elitism appears to have cast across the whole of the world and permeated every facet of this culture. Many Americans have become so overwhelmed in the face of such unrelenting and widespread government and corporate criminality that they have collapsed in on themselves, hiding behind cynicism, narcissism, and nihilism. They see the horrors of modern life as some disturbed comedy designed for their entertainment. They escape into fantasy worlds and chemical dependency in order to numb the shame they feel, the crushing inadequacy of being unable or unwilling to determine their own destiny. They feel like ghosts, hovering through life as insignificant wisps of vapor. Deep down, they know they have failed themselves, but still, they blame everyone else.

However, for every negative force that exists in nature, in physics, and in the psychology of the human mind, there always arises a positive and opposing strength. It is an undeniable law of the universe. I believe it has taken so long for men to rally against the evils of elitism because the elites have taken special care in making sure they could not be easily defined. They have hidden behind organizations, political parties, and money, for decades if not centuries. Good people cannot fight back against an enemy they cannot clearly see, and heroes cannot rise to occasion against an opponent that has no face and no name. Thanks to the efforts of the Liberty Movement, though, the obscurity of elitists and globalists has come to an end, and we now know who the true enemy is.

The next step requires the reformation of the defenders of old. The reinstitution of legitimate American stewardship, founded by the Constitutionalists and free thinkers at the birth of this country. Though there is much to fear in the path our society has recently taken, even now I see a return to clarity and principle. Even now, I can see the rebirth of the Old American Guard.

In this article, we will examine just some of the qualities that distinguish these men and women…

Fighting For Truth In An Age Of Lies

When men first hear the truth of a thing, the unfiltered unfettered truth, their most common and predictable reaction is invariably one of disbelief. A wise man, or even a moderately intelligent one, would expect that new truths will arise from the ashes of dead notions. They would expect that there are vast reaches of knowledge in this world we have yet to tap, and that every once in a while, our previous assumptions on life will be dashed against the rocky shores of reality. However, most people in today’s culture of mental and philosophical “leisure” are not intuitively wise, and in some cases their ability to rationally observe any situation is highly questionable. The truth, for them, is less like an inspirational moment of empowerment, and more like a blood curdling shark attack. For those with a narrow and manipulated world view, the truth is a terrifying threat.

Often, human beings tend to classify truth through “repetition”, instead of through objective observation and evidence. What this means is, we tend to assume that the viewpoint we hear the most everyday must be the correct view, regardless of whether or not it is supported by tangible fact. When new information, correct information based on solid data, breaks into the light of day, those who base their entire world view on repetition will be left in the dust, wondering how everything could change right under their noses. Sometimes, these people cling to their once widely accepted presumptions for the rest of their lives. For them, the Earth is flat forever.

What we have seen in the past decade or so, though, is a great movement towards embracing the truth despite the wailing of the now dying mainstream. Millions of Americans are turning off their televisions and actively seeking out information for themselves through alternative sources outside the influence of corporate globalists. In the “New America” (which is really just the return of the old America), the proliferation of disinformation is UNACCEPTABLE, and will no longer be tolerated. Guardians today are those people who have chosen to stand against our cultural misconceptions and propaganda, facing ridicule, censorship, and even physical harm. They tear into the great lie like attack dogs locking their jaws and never letting go, they are shaken about and beaten and yet they still hold on, until finally, the lie exhausts itself, and fades away. The New American has rediscovered the perseverance of his forebears, and the will to endure.

If this is to continue, the ideal of transparency in government must be instituted as strict social policy, and the pursuit of the truth must be ingrained into our national consciousness. A respect for self awareness, individuality, and personal honesty, must become the foundation of our civilization. The current system, which makes paths for the dishonest, cradles the vicious, coddles the weak spirited, and rewards those who lack conscience, must be cut away. It is up to the New American to do this.

True Patriots vs Fake Nationalists

Patriotism is a highly abused and misappropriated term. The exploitation of the methodology is evident in the propaganda of the Neo-Conservative movement (an elitist construct), especially during George W. Bush’s two terms in office. Interestingly, it has been real conservatives, as opposed to neo-cons, which have now sought to rebalance and reintroduce the concept of patriotism once again. The internal conflict of the Republican Party at this time, between the rising Liberty Movement and the falling Neo-Cons, illustrates the true nature of patriotism well.

In the past, we have been wrongly instructed to treat patriotism as a political weapon, a tool for shaming those who question the status quo. We have been taught that to be patriotic, one must become blindly nationalistic. This is not what the founders intended. A country is nothing without principles. A government that does not represent the root standards and principles of the country they are meant to lead is not a government that we the people are meant to follow. A nationalist ignorantly places government on a pedestal as the symbol of a people; a patriot places the solid founding principles of his nation above all else and dismantles any government that does not. A patriot demands that government adhere to the will of the people. A nationalist demands that people adhere to the will of government.

The New Americans, taking the torch from the old guard, are putting the manipulation of patriotism to an end. We are no longer allowing the establishment to define our beliefs for us, and are forcing them to either adopt the Constitutionalist methods which originated this country, or to relinquish their power. No longer will we be fooled into associating the twisted philosophies of a corrupt government with our own national identity.

No Fear, No Regrets

The New American answers to no one but his own conscience. All other directives are secondary. Because of this way of life, he rarely has any reason to regret any decision he has ever made.

He does not pander at his workplace. He is never a yes-man or a leech. Nowhere is he a servant. He is a person that demands to be treated with the same respect he gives, and openly gives respect where it is deserved. In his daily life, he absolutely refuses to follow the herd. The cesspool of groupthink is abhorrent to him, and fake people hiding behind two dimensional personas make him physically ill. Bullies and people with an outrageous sense of entitlement need a good punch in the mouth, not a turn of the cheek, and the New American looks forward to the day when it is once again socially acceptable to hand thugs and weasels their own derriere in a paper sack.

The New American has abandoned the false left / right paradigm in U.S. politics. He understands that the leadership of both major parties, Democrat and Republican, have the exact same goals and support nearly identical legislation. Their purpose is to give us the illusion of choice, and to consolidate and centralize power and dissolve the sovereignty of the U.S. Their openly stated objective is to force Americans to accept a global economy and global governance, virtually erasing our Constitutional freedoms and any ability we may have left to participate in the political process. The New American has set out to overtake and reclaim the Republican Party from globalists, and to use it as a tool in support of limited government and individual liberty once again.

For the New American, authority is derived from experience and earned respect. Petty authority derived from corruption is to be either laughed at or scorned. For instance, a policeman or politician that does not follow or understand Constitutional Law is a liability to society, not an authority, and as such, does not deserve respect. The New American is not impressed by uniforms, titles, expensive Ivy League degrees, old money, celebrities, or pop culture fluff. To him, the people who ARE impressed with these things are rather repulsive. To get his attention, you need to have an honorable reputation, legitimate intelligence, and, for heaven’s sake, a backbone.

Gullibility in others is only endured to a point. Knowledge, self knowledge and an understanding of ones surroundings, is paramount. The New American has seen too many catastrophes transpire because of the complicity of morons. The ignorant have a tendency to threaten not just themselves but also those around them. Their stupidity makes them malleable and easily influenced by those who seek power. They become unwitting accomplices in tyranny. The willfully uneducated are the second most dangerous people on Earth.

The primary threat, not just to the New American but to every living person, is Elitism. There is nothing more vile than an elitist: they demand fealty from the masses even though they hate and despise the common man. They are fully aware of their conscience, but see it as a hindrance to their pursuit of dominance and so ignore it. They fancy themselves as “godlike” and imagine themselves to be intellectually superior to the rest of us, even though they have proven on numerous occasions to be rather foolish. Their ego-mania is so immense that they are virtually incapable of recognizing the fallibility of their philosophies. And, they are willing to sacrifice anything and anyone accept themselves to get what they want, meaning they are the worst kind of cowards exacting the worst kind of oppression.

As horrifying as elites are, the New American is unphased. He knows that an uncompromising sense of despotism can only be met with an uncompromising sense of liberty. He knows that because he is confident in his values and refuses to negotiate them away, elitists fear him. They recognize that men who are defending their home, who are wise, who hold the moral high ground, and who are unafraid, are difficult if nearly impossible to defeat. More than anything else, the elites quake at the thought of the New American Guard.

The Return Of Freedom’s Protectors

It is in the worst of times that the best of men make their presence known. Some of them have felt for most of their lives that they were meant to make a difference, to sway the flow of events towards a greater purpose, a better future. Some have yet to realize their latent potential. Many of these men play unassuming roles in their normal lives. Carpenters and clerks, factory workers and investors, farmers and soldiers, it is always the seemingly inconspicuous that surprise us when the nightmare falls. The counterfeit champions, those the public once invested all of their faith in, quickly turn and run, while the true defenders stand unyielding against the coming tempest. They are the old men of the mountain, weathered by the storm, but unshakable in their resolve. Not simply warriors, but also scholars and social healers. They are modern-day Paladins in the most brutal of epochs.

There are two kinds of people in this world; history makers, and spectators. Spectators allow the throes of events to propel them wherever they may. They wait for the crosswinds of fate to determine their final home, their final occupation, their final resting place. During great upheaval, these are the people who fall by the wayside of time, whose children despair in the wake of their parent’s failure. These are the people upon which the elite feed.

History makers are defined by a beautifully simple decision; the decision to participate in the making of their own providence. The decision to actually live, instead of playing at life. True history makers are often not chronicled in books. Their tales are often not told for posterity. But none of this matters. What matters, is the contribution they make to the good in all of us, the tremors they send through the underlying foundations of humanity. Their presence is felt, even if their names are not known. By this measure, the New Americans will definitely make history.

The responsibility that lay ahead of us is daunting. While a global awakening is certainly taking place, the epicenter is right here in our own backyard. All eyes will be watching us and waiting. The world is relying on us to make a stand, to prove that the fight is far from over. If we do not, then everything is lost, not just for ourselves, but for every generation after we are gone. No matter what obstacles the elites unleash, be it nuclear disaster, economic collapse, or yet another war, we must not falter. The world is waiting. They are waiting for heroes. They are waiting for the old guard to return.

Special Note To Neithercorp.us Readers: For the past four weeks or more, our website neithercorp.us has come under heavy attack by hackers or agencies employing hackers. Due to the sophistication of these attacks, we are unable to properly secure the site at this time. In order to protect you, our readers, I will be posting my articles to this page until the problem can be resolved. I hope you will continue to follow our efforts here at blogspot while neithercorp.us is on hiatus. Thank you for your continued patronage. It will take more than web attacks to shut me up...

Economic Meltdown: The Final Phase

2010-07-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

By Giordano Bruno

Neithercorp Press - 07/18/2010

In the financial life of every culture built upon faulty monetary policy, there are points at which the thin thread of economic faith; the thread that ties the entire failing system together, the thread made tangible by the hopes (and sometimes ignorance) of the general populace, finally snaps. From Ancient Rome, to Weimar Germany, to Argentina, to modern day America, no society fueled by unsustainable debt and fiat inflation can duck the ‘Fiscal Reaper’ for very long. The U.S. alone has survived since the early 1970’s (after Nixon removed the last vestiges of the gold standard) on nothing but questionable credit practices and baseless optimism, but there is a limit to the power of fantasy. This is a fact that most mainstream financial analysts and some in the American public refuse to grasp. Mere belief in the enduring nature of the marketplace is not enough; the fundamentals must also support that belief.

Today, we face an atmosphere in which the fundamentals are fiercely opposed to the publicly promoted perception of the economy, and it is moments in history like this that present a clear primer for total collapse. Financial disaster is bad enough when it is at least partially anticipated. When the masses are caught completely unaware and unprepared in the midst of misguided conviction, this leads to the worst kind of tragedy: the ironic and Shakespearian kind. To avoid this brand of tragedy is one of the primary reasons why we in the Liberty Movement do what we do. We may not be able to stop the current crisis from developing, but we can create awareness, and through this we can lessen the cultural shock, and thereby lessen the impact.

Mainstream economists crowed about the “invincible” rise of globalism and the unstoppable U.S. financial juggernaut for years while more level headed and intelligent men tried to warn the public of danger. The initial derivatives collapse in 2007 / 2008 should have put all of these pathetic establishment cheerleaders to shame, not to mention out of work. Yet three years later, amazingly, we are asked, even expected, to continue to look to such sad and useless people for predictions on market stability that always turn out absolutely inaccurate, and advice on savings and investment that they are not equipped to give.

I suppose we should not be surprised by the continued lifespan of MSM parrots and puppets. They may not be helpful to the average American, but they are very helpful to international banks and the globalist companies that pay their salaries. They distract and confuse us. They comfort when they should caution, and contradict when they should pay heed. Our financial house is burning from the bottom floor up, and they assure us that the warm orange glow is just the dawning of a new and beautiful day. We are told to “look to the future”, a return to normalcy is “just around the corner”. Never would they dare to weigh the cold hard factors of the present, or the ruse would be up. Whether they are aware of it or not the lies media pundits perpetuate set the stage for even greater upheaval, to the detriment of most, and the benefit of only a handful.

In this article, as we have in so many others, we will examine those lies, as well as the truths they are meant to hide. The most important truth of all being, that not only are we not in the middle of a recovery, but that the final phase of the economic meltdown is about to commence…

Distractions, Half-Truths, And Outright Lies

“We will not have any more crashes in our time.”
- John Maynard Keynes in 1927

“I see nothing in the present situation that is either menacing or warrants pessimism… I have every confidence that there will be a revival of activity in the spring, and that during this coming year the country will make steady progress.”
- Andrew W. Mellon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury December 31, 1929

“[1930 will be] a splendid employment year.”
- U.S. Dept. of Labor, New Year’s Forecast, December 1929

“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed through the worst — and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There has been no significant bank or industrial failure. That danger, too, is safely behind us.”
- Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, May 1, 1930

Most of us were not alive to witness the throws of the Great Depression, but for many, the quotes above sound strangely familiar. Pundits and government officials of our fateful era have taken to spewing the same kind of nonsense on a daily basis, and one begins to wonder if they are TRYING to top the ridiculous statements of their forebears in an attempt of ultimate mockery. Today, not only are we told that “green shoots” abound, but that if those green shoots fail, it will only be because we did not “believe” hard enough in their existence!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/7864373/Will-the-world-suffer-a-double-dip-recession-Only-if-we-talk-ourselves-into-it.html

It is this kind of idiocy that led us to the state of affairs we are in now, and it is the same idiocy that will leave millions of Americans in extended financial ruin in the near future. The absurd idea that prosperity is driven merely by blind optimism must be put to rest if we are ever to rebuild. Transparency, the pure and unadulterated truth, must be present in every aspect of government and finance without question for a culture to succeed. No longer can we operate in a system built upon the premise that the American people must be kept in the dark “for their own good”.

The essence of the recovery argument lay in unsubstantiated rhetoric, skewed statistics, and the over-promotion of news items that in reality are very minor economic indicators. Wall street reform has been heralded as a fix-all, yet the language of the legislation does little to nothing in reigning in the toxic derivatives trading practices that fomented the housing bubble, nor does it take any measures against the root cause of the mortgage crisis; the private Federal Reserve Bank, which artificially lowered interest rates and lending standards during the 1990’s knowing full well that this would amass pockets of poisonous debt securities throughout the economy. International banks have not been truly punished for their practices of market rigging and faulty accounting, nor will they be. The recent and laughable lawsuit settlements of AIG and Goldman Sachs prove that no bankers will be held accountable, only penalized with fines that amount to little more than pocket change to these monstrous global corporations:

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-123.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/16/ap/business/main6685538.shtml

This means that the conditions which triggered the initial collapse have not been mended in any way. Absolutely nothing has changed since 2007. Americans have only been temporarily shielded from the effects and the particulars of continuing financial corruption. For instance, it has been revealed that the SEC itself has known since at least April that Citigroup has been hiding assets and debts on its books by counting Repurchase Agreements as actual sales. For those of you not familiar with such slight-of-hand, this is the same kind of accounting trick that led to the fall of Lehman Brothers:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66F0NV20100716

Citigroup claims, of course, that these Repurchase Agreements are only a small part of their operation and will not affect their ability to function. The problem is that like Lehman Brothers and Citigroup, it is probable that most global banks have used false accounting procedures to hide the true measure of their leveraged capital. It certainly is not in their best interest to reveal the whole truth, so why would they? Due to the continuing dilemma of hidden and unreported bank debts, it is only a matter of time before we witness yet another credit implosion, followed by even more taxpayer funded bailouts, and even greater stress on the stability of the U.S. Dollar.

While empty promises of reform and the hidden accounting practices of banks have kept markets malleable for the moment, it is really the exaggeration of consumer spending and retail gains, along with rigged unemployment reports from the Labor Department, that have kept the false recovery wheel spinning for over a year. Any profit or production increase by almost any company has been held up as a rallying cry for a bull market, even though in most cases these companies increased profits by cutting their labor force, and increased production by forcing their remaining employees to work harder for the same amount of money. They did not expand profits because the U.S. consumer is spending once again with wild abandon as has been suggested every time new quarterly profit reports are released. After a year of this misrepresentation of the facts, finally, the truth is starting to come out.

Retail stocks are beginning to shed value as they take hits from decreasing sales and profits, meaning, the cost cutting strategy has run its course and retailers are still losing money:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-14/sales-at-u-s-retailers-fell-for-a-second-month-in-june.html

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Dim-retail-sales-hurt-economy-apf-3335262562.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

Service sector employment has remained stagnant. The excitable talk that started at the beginning of this year of a hiring resurgence has now faded:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M2WK20100706

The bottom line; the TRUE unemployment rate of around 20% has become perpetual, and some economists are even suggesting that we accept it as a standard. The American public is now coming to realize that healthy job creation is a very distant goal, one that the government alone has no ability to achieve, bailout or no bailout:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-13/americans-in-70-majority-see-frozen-unemployment-as-budget-deficit-widens.html

On the international scene, news from Europe has gone abruptly quiet. After months of blaring reports on the Greek sovereign debt crisis, and the imploding Euro, suddenly, we are told that the situation is stabilized? But how? What measures were taken and how did they affect a balancing of the EU economy? The fact is, no measures have been taken. No effective adjustments have been made. The MSM has only muted the reports, and for many Americans, out-of-sight truly is out-of-mind.

Greece is still right where it was six months ago, and the debt to GDP ratios of EU member countries continue to rise.

The mere mention that Spain’s Aaa credit rating was coming under review for a possible downgrade jolted stocks at the beginning of July. The review is not set to conclude for three months, but the market reaction shows that some of the larger investment firms are keenly aware of the weakness in Spain, and the chance that it will become the next in a long line of Greek style implosions:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-30/spain-s-aaa-on-downgrade-review-at-moody-s-as-note-sale-nears.html

Portugal’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch in March, and now it has been downgraded by Moody’s as well:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/portugals-credit-rating-d_n_644093.html

And, the IMF and the EU have suspended a review of Hungary’s funding program while the country is in the midst of meltdown. This means Hungary will no longer have access to the $25.1 billion loan package made available by the IMF to see them through the crisis. Frankly, I think all countries are much better off not taking money from the demon spawn over at the IMF, but many of the citizens of Hungary may not see it that way. The suspension of the loan package almost ensures a national default:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66G0RT20100717

Most European countries are in the same predicament as Greece to varying degrees, Greece just happened to be the first to fall. The combined weight of sovereign debts in all EU countries is now threatening the very framework of the European Central Bank itself. The ECB is now facing higher interest rates, which means increased funding costs that they cannot afford without inflating the Euro:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-07/trichet-faces-threat-of-higher-market-rates-as-debt-crisis-hurts-economy.html

What is this leading to? A situation we have been warning about for years; either the default of numerous EU member nations, or the inflationary collapse of the Euro. In each case, the EU will eventually be forced to turn towards the only avenue left available to them; the IMF and full austerity measures. This, of course, was the plan all along….

We have just covered the broader problems in the world economy that have been obscured by the establishment media in order to perpetuate a false sense of security in the masses. However, these are simply ongoing problems that some may dismiss as “par for the course”, troubles that could go on for years without causing immediate damage to America itself. Other recent events, though, now show that the likelihood of a final phase meltdown of the U.S. economy may begin before the end of this year.

The Signs Of Final Phase Collapse

It is difficult to write about economic indicators of collapse for many reasons, but the primary issue is one of relativity. Most Americans alive today have never suffered through an extended depression and few if any have ever witnessed a full fledged meltdown of a country’s finance and infrastructure. Therefore, many people in this country have no point of reference with which to compare and contrast the events of the new millennium. The unfortunate reality is, when a society enjoys an extended period of affluence, they often become conditioned to take prosperity for granted. They become unable or unwilling to interpret warning signs of a collapse until the event is already near its end, and they have lost everything.

The signals listed below I believe are truly the last straw, the final alarm before the global financial system spirals completely out of control. It is impossible to say exactly when this larger secondary breakdown will occur, however, when one studies the economic disasters of the past, these same primers tend to appear preceding very fast moving financial decay.

Secondary Real Estate Bubble: If you think you’ve seen a catastrophe in the real estate market so far, just wait another six months. Now that the government home buyer tax credit has ended, we are starting to see how much the real estate market really was being propped up by taxpayer dollars. Mortgage bond yields have plummeted to their lowest level on record while bond sales have slumped, all in anticipation of another massive round of mortgage defaults:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-13/mortgage-bond-yield-spreads-that-guide-home-loan-rates-approach-record-low.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-05/property-bonds-slump-most-since-march-09-on-default-risk-credit-markets.html

Sales of new U.S. homes have plunged to the lowest level on record:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-23/sales-of-u-s-new-houses-plunge-to-lowest-level-on-record.html

And, nearly 1 in 3 homes sales in the first quarter of 2010 were foreclosures at rock bottom prices:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100630/us_nm/us_usa_housing_foreclosures

Home foreclosures are on track to reach 1 Million or more by the end of 2010, and home seizures have risen 38% as banks process a backlog of mortgage defaults. This is despite efforts by banks to reduce foreclosure numbers by modifying loans and attempting short sales of properties:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_foreclosure_rates

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-15/u-s-home-seizures-rise-38-to-record-as-banks-process-forclosure-backlog.html

This is nothing compared to the nightmare that is brewing in the commercial real estate market. Commercial real estate transactions have collapsed by 90% as many people are aware:

http://www.mybudget360.com/commerical-real-estate-collapse-90-percent-from-peak-next-taxpayer-bailout-4-times-size-of-credit-card-market/

However, most analysts tend to overlook retail land occupancy rates. Commercial property vacancies have hit a ten year high:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0610302020100707

In the past, owners of commercial real estate have enjoyed extra credit and loan extensions from banks because financiers hope that by supporting the commercial market through the downturn they might retrieve profits once the economic uncertainty has ended and businesses start making money again. But what happens when the downturn does not end? Banks are only going to extend loans for so long before they pull the plug, even on commercial borrowers. It would seem that the time has come for the commercial real estate bubble to finally burst.

Why are these recent problems in the real estate market an indicator of a final phase collapse in the near term? The issue is one of prolonged instability. The recession / depression that we face today should have transpired sometime in the early 1990’s, but the engineered low interest rates supplied by the private Federal Reserve during that decade created the property value boom. Any American could buy a home regardless of whether or not they could actually afford it, and anyone with a home could then use it as collateral for enormous credit lines. This new artificial debt bubble prolonged the collapse for around fifteen years. As of the second quarter of 2010, though, this credit source has been exhausted completely. There is officially nothing left to support the general economy (except, of course, fiat inflation). The effects of this lack of national capital should become very visible by the end of this year.

Unemployment Visibility: It did not come as a surprise to this researcher that the jobs market began to crumble once again in June and July, but it did come as a surprise to some. We’ve talked on numerous occasions about how the Labor Department hides the true level of unemployment from the public, and I won’t beat that poor dead horse any further. Suffice to say, real unemployment counting the U6 measurement is around 20%. The length of the average American’s unemployment has reached incredible levels. Many millions have remained jobless for 6 to 12 months. In response, the Federal Government has extended unemployment benefits several times over the past year. While this has been painted as a necessary action to save the livelihood of jobless citizens, it is less about “compassion” from the government and more about obscuring the effects of unemployment until they are ready to let the cradle fall. That time has come.

Congress has not renewed extensions of benefits as of this month, and it looks as though they do not plan to do so again. Barack Obama (or his handlers) have tried to turn this issue into another false left / right paradigm argument, claiming that it is the Republicans that are to blame for the loss of unemployment benefits. This is a distraction from the real matter at hand. The truth is, the ENTIRE government is responsible for the disruption of benefits due to the unchecked and insane deficit spending BOTH parties have enacted over the years. Extending benefits again would add billions if not trillions to the already unsustainable U.S. debt and cannot be continued indefinitely.

Unemployment benefits hide the visible scars of national job loss. Now that millions of Americans have run out, expect to see those scars in all their terrible glory. Expect homeless numbers to skyrocket. Expect crime to skyrocket. Expect suicides to skyrocket. Expect all the problems that were once muted and hidden to now parade across the street where you live. Expect things to deteriorate from the comparably nice, polite, and civil situation we have currently. Expect things to get ugly.

Municipal Debt Implosion: As we have been warning about for the past couple years, municipal bonds are in dire straights. Cities and some states are ready to implode and they are ready to implode now. Look for city defaults to rise to record levels in the next year.

California and Illinois are broke, make no mistake. When Arnold calls for state employee pay to be reduced to minimum wage and Illinois lets $5 Billion in bills go unpaid, there is no turning back:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-14/california-may-cut-pay-illinois-holds-bills-to-bar-downgrades.html

Municipal Bond Defaults now continue at triple the typical rate:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-16/municipal-bond-defaults-continue-at-triple-the-typical-rate-lehmann-says.html

This not only sets the stage for statewide bankruptcies, it also threatens to bring down large holders of municipal securities, such as Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-06/u-s-banks-risk-untold-problem-as-muni-holdings-climb-to-25-year-high.html

Usually, muni-bonds are used by investors as a tax haven and hedge to weather credit storms like that which we are seeing now, yet, investors in the past few months have begun dumping their municipals like a bad date. I believe we will begin hearing about state defaults before the end of the year.

The Dollar? Stick A Fork In It, It’s Done: As we recently predicted, the dollar has broken its traditional relationship with the stock market. Usually, when investors pull their money out of stocks, they then place it in dollar based securities as a safe haven. This causes the dollar to increase in value. In the past few weeks, though, the dollar has plummeted at the same time as stocks! This means investors no longer trust the dollar as a safe haven investment during a market crisis. As we have said for years, when this signal happens, the dollar is ripe for meltdown.

Central banks across the world are beginning to abandon the U.S. dollar:

http://wallstreet.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/09/central-banks-start-to-abandon-the-u-s-dollar/

Despite the uncertainty in Europe, the dollar has still sunk against the Euro faster than it has in the past year:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-17/dollar-weakens-most-in-14-months-versus-euro-on-signs-of-economic-slowdown.html

In 2008, I predicted that China would radically re-engineer its economy, changing it from an export based hub to a self sustaining consumer hub. I predicted that they would depeg the Yuan from the Dollar after this move was done, and following that, they would dump their vast holdings of U.S. treasuries, causing the dollar to lose its world reserve status, destroying its value, and creating hyperinflation in prices here in the U.S. So far, the first two events have already occurred. China has depegged its currency from the dollar and is allowing it to begin appreciating. They have also almost finished converting their economy into a consumer system while continuing exports through the ASEAN trading bloc:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/world/asia/25china.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

The Yuan is now being globalized by the Chinese in an effort to strengthen its base and make it viable as a reserve currency:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66427920100705

Some analysts have suggested that the globalization of the Yuan could take years, however, this is not necessarily so. If the U.S. dollar were to collapse, or the Euro, or both, the Yuan suddenly would look extremely viable as a reserve currency. I believe this is exactly what will happen, and, I believe China will begin depleting its U.S. Treasury holdings in the next 6 months.

Interestingly, some in China have gone out of their way to deny that such plans are in the wings, and the MSM has helped to facilitate this fallacy:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6660VC20100707

Set aside the fact that others in China are calling for the government to dump U.S. Treasuries:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66I05U20100719

Now would be the perfect time considering the dollar’s recent rise due to the problems in the EU. A bond dump at this time would mean China could reap maximum profits before a final monetary breakdown. China is reverting to a consumer hub and is no longer relying on exports to the U.S., so the idea that they have any reason whatsoever to continue holding onto U.S. Treasuries is absurd.

The final key to the coming Chinese treasury dump, I feel, is in the relationship between China and Germany. Germany is really the primary pillar of the EU, without it, the EU could not exist. A barely publicized visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 15^thmay be the final piece of a long escalating financial relationship between China and the stronger countries of the EU:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-07/14/c_111953600.htm

A Chinese / German financial alliance could create a core economic “shell” which might withstand an anticipated disintegration in the U.S. and some of the more indebted European nations. I do not expect the dollar as we know it to survive past 2011.

The Line Has Been Crossed

I have never seen so many indicators of total meltdown, when compared to past economic collapses throughout history, as I see today. Not to sound melodramatic, but I’m really not certain if I will be writing these financial analysis articles for much longer. I suspect that before the year is out there will be no more need, being that every facet I have laid out over the years will become glaringly obvious to everyone.

As I have stated so many times, we may not be able to stop these events from unfolding, but we can determine their final outcome. Prepare for the worst, because I have no doubt you are liable to see it before the next few years are done. Stand by your principles. Never compromise your conscience. And above all else, survive. No ending culminates without the graces of a new life, one full of possibility. It is up to you, the staunch and independent American individual, to see that that possibility is realized regardless of any obstacle or enemy. A fiscal catastrophe will not stop us, it will not break our spirits, it will not enslave us. It will only strengthen our resolve to remain forever defiant, and forever free.