The controlled demolition of the First World Nation states.

The thermite of globalization has been cutting the structural steel of First World democracies since the 1970s (see the quote at end). The economic crash of 2008 was a blow an airliner impact that rattled all nations, but did not quite knock them down - except for the PIIGS victims of bankster fraud. However, 2008 began the trash fires of racism and anti-immigrant agitation. Then the flood of refugees from the victims of US aggression in Libya and Syria, poured gasoline onto those fires.

Now, suddenly in the last year, the Deep State tactic of Color Revolutions, formerly reserved for Second World targets like Egypt or Ukraine, has blown up in the heart of the First World. We had Brexit trying to fragment the EU. We had Clinton run her abortive attempt at delegitimizing Trump. Now we have Catalonia trying to fragment Spain, and Kurdistan continuing the Israeli-planned fragmentation of the MENA. Basically, the global corporate elite increasingly find large nation states to be in the way of their full spectrum dominance of both the economy and government (such government as they will allow).

Like the aviation fuel fires in the WTC, Trump is the excuse that will be given when they push the button for the controlled demolition of the nation state structures that stand in their way. Trump is a distraction. All his issues are distractions from the economic coup d'etat that is all but completed, and the political coup which is about to arrive.

After 40 years, most intelligent observers recognize that democracy in the US is corporate-dictated Kabuki.

We noticed the outsourcing of key military functions during the Iraq War. We noticed Blackwater mercenaries and Haliburton/DynCorp truckers raking in obscene profits and operating outside the law of any country and outside of our own military justice system. We noticed the lawlessness.

Today the outsourcing is so widespread that its getting to be the new normal. Three cases in point:

1. Trump's non-response to the Puerto Rico hurricane. The recovery effort is being led by PRIVATE corporations.

Google parent Alphabet looks to restore cell service in Puerto Rico with Project Loon balloons

The FCC has given approval for Google parent company, Alphabet, to help Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands regain wireless service. The company will attempt to enable LTE connectivity using its high-flying Project Loon balloons...Loon was developed by X, part of Alphabet’s innovation group.  It was able to help Peru earlier this year, amidst significant flooding and hopes to replicate this success.

Tesla is also working on efforts to help Puerto Rico. Hundreds of Tesla Powerwall battery systems are already in Puerto Rico and Tesla employees are in the territory helping with installation and training for maintenance.

Tesla and Google are joining an effort to rebuild the island’s infrastructure that also includes Facebook, which committed to send its connectivity staff to the island to help in recovery and reconstruction.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/07/google-parent-alphabet-looks-to-restor...

Yes, corporations are now our first responders. Think about what that means.

----

2. NASA's ceding the space program to the likes of SpaceX and Amazon, with the unbelievably important issues of political governance at stake being completely ignored.

Against Mars-a-Lago: Why SpaceX’s Mars colonization plan should terrify you

There has be no instance in which a private corporation became a colonizing power that did not end badly for everyone besides the shareholders. The East India Company is perhaps the finest portent of Musk’s Martian ambitions...“It was not the British government that seized India at the end of the 18th century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide, in London, and managed in India by an unstable sociopath,” writes William Dalrymple in the Guardian.

As with all such corporations, then as now, the [East India Company] was answerable only to its shareholders. With no stake in the just governance of the region, or its long-term wellbeing, the company’s rule quickly turned into the straightforward pillage of Bengal, and the rapid transfer westwards of its wealth.

Musk...wants to build Mars-a-Lago. (But,) an economy based on tourism, particularly high-end tourism, needs employees — even if a high degree of automation is assumed. And as I’ve written about before, that means a lot of labor at the lowest cost possible. Imagine signing away years of your life to be a housekeeper in the Mars-a-Lago hotel, with your communications, water, food, energy usage, even oxygen tightly managed by your employer, and no government to file a grievance to if your employer cuts your wages, harasses you, cuts off your oxygen. Where would Mars-a-Lago's employees turn if their rights were impinged upon? Oh wait, this planet is run privately? You have no rights. Musk's vision for Mars colonization is inherently authoritarian. The potential for the existence of the employees of the Martian tourism industry to slip into something resembling indentured servitude, even slavery, cannot be underestimated. We have government regulations for a reason on Earth — to protect us from the fresh horror Musk hopes to export to Mars.

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/08/against-mars-a-lago-why-spacexs-mars-co...

Privatization re-enables all the hideous features of oligarchic rule that democracy spent literally centuries getting rid of. That is what people miss under all the fanboy nonsense for Mr. Musk.

3. The cheerleading for Bitcoin, Etherium, and all the other Tulipmania e-currencies.

The idea that currency, the most powerful tool a nation has for controlling its population, would be allowed to float on the internet is laughable on its face. Yes, electronic currency is coming; but when it arrives it will be sponsored by Wall St; and it will cement the enthronement of corporate (not nation-state) financial power as the only legitimate political power.

Of course, we all know that the minute your money vanishes into the electronic ether, it will be stolen - by negative interest rates, by "haircuts", by unavoidable garnishments and penalties. We saw them do it in India. The result? The poor people had their cash made worthless before they could get it redeemed, while the rich speculators had already moved out of the Indian currency. You can expect the same anytime a corporate-dominated government runs the same racket of "preventing a black market and tax avoidance".

But the Libertarain mouthpieces for corporate rule instead of democratic government are not merely cheering on the removal of the government's power to create and regulate currency; they are pushing the same old Libertarian poison - get rid of government altogether:

I believe humanity is reaching a point in its evolution, both from a consciousness perspective as well as a technological one, where we’ll begin to increasingly question many of our silly contemporary assumptions about how governance should work.  The primary one is this absurd notion that a nation-state should be seen as a permanent structure of political governance which only becomes dissolvable in the event of violent revolution or war.

It's time to question the modern nation-state model of governance.
- Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog

Liberty Blitzkrieg - doesn't that just say it all? Free-dumb with lots of guns and tanks.

Notice that this clown's headline is exactly the point I'm making. TPTB is going for the jugular. This time around, they mean to get rid of those pesky democratic governments once and for all. They want to balkanize every major power, and they want to grab the right to coin money privately. They know the stock market is completely overvalued and the Fed is leveraged out the yingyang. They know the financial system is in worse shape than it was before the 2008 crash. But its all part of the plan.

They are executing the plan right in front of our noses, but we are too f-ing distracted to do anything about it. Trump this, Vegas that, North Korea this, Syria that, and Russians, Russians, Russians. And the worse-than-useless Democratic Party is part of this giant charade.

Have I mentioned how screwed we are?

----

APPENDIX: The state of play in the drive to destroy the nation state (as of 1994)

(Eurodollars) became the foundation of an entirely uncontrolled global market...The USA was the first country to find itself at the mercy of these vast, multiplying floods of unattached capital that washed round tht globe from currency to currency, looking for quick profits. Eventually all governments were to be its victims, since they lost control over exchange rates and the world money supply. By the early 1990s even joint action by leading central banks proved impotent.

the main function of (multinational) coproations was "to internalize markets across national frontiers", i.e. to make themselves independent of the state and its territories. Much of what the statistics show as imports or experts is in fact internal trade within a transnational entity such as General Motors...The ability to operate in this manner naturally reinforced the tendency of capital to concentrate...(However) it was no longer clear as it had once seemed that..."What's good for General Motors is good for the USA."

The tendency for business transactions and business enterprises to emancipate themselves from the traditional nation state became even more marked as industrial production began... to move out of the (First World) countries that had pioneered industrialization and capitalist development...A new international division of labor therefore began to undermine the old one...It could not have happened but for the revolution in transport and communication..."free production zones" or offshore plants now began to spread, overwhelmingly in poor countries with cheap labor, another and new device for escaping the control of a single state.

All this produced a paradoxical change in the political structure of the world economy. As the globe became its real unit, the national economies of the large states found themselves giving way to such offshore centers. (by 1989) the world contained 71 economies with populations of less than 100,000, i.e. two fifths of all political units officially treated as economies...This situation was to provide the multiplying ethnic movements of late 20th century nationalism with unconvincing arguments for...viability. Unconving because, economically, separation would almost certainly make them more dependent on the transnational entities which increasingly determined such matters. The most convenient world for multinational giants is one populated by dwarf states or no states at all.

- Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes - A History of the World, 1914-1991 (1994)

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Arrow's picture

I find the argument of 'fanboys for Musk' a broader problem of Nietzscheian Uberman worship that is so popular with Dem. elites. Frank writes about the shift towards the 'professional classes' by Dems. One can argue that promotion of meritocracy by the Neo-libs not only gives them an excuse to feel good about their own position of power and as a tool of social control.
So gee, there has to be people at the top (they earned it) and you should try andclaw your way to the top. It's the most divisive and isolating world view there is. Dem. perscriptions for those crushed by the system is to 'help them compete' with retraing or some such crap.
Bottom line is...there will always be those at the bottom so screw them they are the losers.

Sorry...big rant.

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I want a Pony!

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Arrow

So gee, there has to be people at the top (they earned it) and you should try andclaw your way to the top. It's the most divisive and isolating world view there is. Dem. perscriptions for those crushed by the system is to 'help them compete' with retraing or some such crap.
Bottom line is...there will always be those at the bottom so screw them they are the losers.

Anyone who actually beLIEves that crap needs to be strapped into a chair, Robot Chicken style, and made to view the entire Godfather trilogy over and over again!

Especially The Godfather Part III. (Wanna end up like Don Michael Corleone? Keep clawing! And have this crate of oranges while you're at it!)

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

arendt's picture

@Arrow

What people don't get is how the "winners" are selected by Wall St. Zuckerberg didn't get those billions up front from ad revenue. He got them from a PRIVATE offering to Wall St. bigwigs - because Facebook was getting people to surveil themselves, a CIA wet dream.

Besides, all this self-made stuff is often so trivial. Its like making a billion with a pet rock. Is there a real benefit to humanity? Or is the benefit to TPTB - more trivial distractions to keep the proles from wising up.

The only competition is in how to suck up to Wall St.

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k9disc's picture

You lay it out -- "a mugshot book of all your accomplices and acquaintances. And then you call the product a "Pet Rock"?

Seriously? A face and a web of interaction complete with faces, and it's an useless pet rock?

We, AND I (ashamedly), give up critical, private value by participating on the internet. And you call it a "Pet Rock"?

C'mon arendt. I know you and your thinking. Regroup and revisit. It ain't a pet rock. It's the holy grail for the Establishment. It's all they need to own us.

@arendt

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

arendt's picture

@k9disc

My intention was to say that a lot of billion dollar "unicorns" are based on concepts that are "cute" but really useless to society, i.e., that they are the tech equivalent of "pet rocks". I do agree with your addition that they ARE useful to TPTB, and that is why they are funded.

My comment was only about their usefulness to society. When you add your bit, that they are very useful to TPTB, yes the "pet rock" analogy is not true.

But, from a healthy society's POV, these useless, frivolous, time-wasting tech toys are about as deep as a "pet rock". I myself avoid all this useless shit like the plague. I get by just fine with email and voice mail. I refuse to respond to texts. I do not Tweet. I do not have a Facebook account. I do not use Snapchat or all the other useless time-wasting and addictive apps. I use DuckDuckGo unless I can't find what I want there.

I am told that my lack of an internet profile makes me look like either a subversive or a technophobe. That kind of profiling is the dangerous side of these gadgets that you point out. My response to those charges is that I am a techie who understands the security risks of these apps, and I refuse to use them lest they compromise the security of my job site.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@arendt

But, from a healthy society's POV, these useless, frivolous, time-wasting tech toys are about as deep as a "pet rock". I myself avoid all this useless shit like the plague. I get by just fine with email and voice mail. I refuse to respond to texts. I do not Tweet. I do not have a Facebook account. I do not use Snapchat or all the other useless time-wasting and addictive apps. I use DuckDuckGo unless I can't find what I want there.

Sounds just like me!

I also like the fact that you recognize that Zuckerman could not have amassed the fortune he has by selling the delivery of ads to homes over DSL connections. A significant part of that cash had to come from somewhere, like Wall Street and/or various governments buying data on their internet users.

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@Arrow

GOOD rant! Thank you!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

The Aspie Corner's picture

...has been working for exactly this. They couldn't be bothered to put in the work to become a real political party so they bought out and co-opted the duopoly. Rank-and-file Libertarians are too stupid and too brainwashed by the lies of meritocracy, rugged individualism and rapacious capitalism to figure it out.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

arendt's picture

@The Aspie Corner

They are such true-believing tools.

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Big Al's picture

the less democratic they become which makes it easier for oligarchy and corporate rule.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@Big Al

On the other hand, the larger the nation state, the less democratic they become which makes it easier for oligarchy and corporate rule.

Multo grazie! I feel that the corporatists tend to oppose the biddings of breakaway Peoples for that exact reason.

Note Spain's first major move after the invocation of raw brutal physical oppression on Catalan democracy: the Spanish made it easier for banks to move their headquarters out of Catalonia and into the less democratic and more compliant Spanish provinces.

The question is an honest one: why would the corporations want the nation-state governments they own and control to be replaced by a much larger number of more democratic and less compliant ones?

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

WoodsDweller's picture

@thanatokephaloides
...think about free trade agreements. A large state (if uncorrupted, if there is such a thing) is capable of resisting international capital. Small states are at their mercy. Free trade agreements allow free movement of capital and hobble attempts of nation states to regulate. Immortal legal entities can freely seek out the most favorable (weakest) regulatory and taxation regime while walls are built to hold corporeal persons in place.
As far as capital is concerned, the only reason for a large nation state is military power. Eventually even that can be offloaded to mercenary companies.
All is proceeding according to plan.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

arendt's picture

@WoodsDweller

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@WoodsDweller

Now...think about free trade agreements. A large state (if uncorrupted, if there is such a thing)

I don't think there is, hence my objection (and Big Al's),

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

gulfgal98's picture

@thanatokephaloides does not necessarily indicate lack of corruption. However, the larger the size, the greater likelihood of corruption.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98

Anyone close enough to power won't talk.
Anyone who talks wasn't close to power.

Its the same with corruption:

Any country willing to fight corruption is too small to beat the globalizers.
Any country big enough to beat the globalizers is big enough to be corrupted by them.

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Bollox Ref's picture

Ansicht_Großherzog von Oldenburg_1882-1918.jpg

As a distant cousin of the last Grand Duke, I'm all for it.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

marx was right

Capitalist oligarchs, meanwhile, hoard huge sums of wealth—$18 trillion stashed in overseas tax havens—exacted as tribute from those they dominate, indebt and impoverish. Capitalism would, in the end, Marx said, turn on the so-called free market, along with the values and traditions it claims to defend. It would in its final stages pillage the systems and structures that made capitalism possible. It would resort, as it caused widespread suffering, to harsher forms of repression. It would attempt in a frantic last stand to maintain its profits by looting and pillaging state institutions, contradicting its stated nature.

Marx warned that in the later stages of capitalism huge corporations would exercise a monopoly on global markets. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe,” he wrote. “It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.”

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arendt's picture

@gjohnsit

If they are real quotes, its like he had a time machine and visited the 2010s.

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Cassiodorus's picture

@arendt @arendt that were readily observable in his time, and that were there by the latter half of the 16th century. If Marx's observation (as quoted or paraphrased above) seems novel today, this is because the capitalists themselves have promoted a number of attempts to humanize their profession, perhaps through charity or by virtue of the compensating virtues of "development," wherein capitalist technology filters its way down to the masses.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus @Cassiodorus

.

.. this is because the capitalists themselves have promoted a number of attempts to humanize their profession, perhaps through charity or by virtue of the compensating virtues of "development," wherein capitalist technology filters its way down to the masses. ...

Isn't the only real-life reason for any business actually to enable people to make a living providing goods/services to those who need/want these?

Even if the psychopaths running large (and often 'cost-cutting' polluting) corporations for ever-increasing profits drained from underpaid worker's wages, consumers and the public coffers seem to think that people/societies exist to serve them while being drained dry... and while they thin out and kill off their markets and the support structure on which they depend?

We need to get back to reality...

Edited to add a missed letter.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Azazello's picture

Thanks for writing this.
I think you've brought up an important point. Neoliberalism is fundamentally anti-government. Neoliberals think everything should be privatized. They're always disparaging government, or the state. They don't like nation-states because concentrated capital would rather not have its behavior regulated or its profits taxed. Some governments still have vestiges of democracy and that can lead to regulation and taxation. When you think about it, destruction of the nation-state can only result in a kind of global feudalism.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

arendt's picture

@Azazello

Neoliberalism is fundamentally anti-government. Neoliberals think everything should be privatized.

Most people think neoliberals are just garden variety Republicans, which is why they say Hillary is a RINO.

Wrong. Neoliberals are hard core ideologues. They want to end Enlightenment values of the social contract, the rights of man, consent of the governed. They want to replace it by nothing more than coerced contracts between global megacorporations and individuals. If your rights aren't in the contract (which they never will be), you have no rights. They are Margaret (There is no such thing as society.) Thatcher on steroids.

When they say they want to eliminate government, most people think they want anarchy. No. They want corporate dictatorship.

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gulfgal98's picture

@arendt

Neoliberals are hard core ideologues. They want to end Enlightenment values of the social contract, the rights of man, consent of the governed.

One of the five main characteristics of neoliberalism is the elimination of the concept of public good.

ELIMINATING THE CONCEPT OF "THE PUBLIC GOOD" or "COMMUNITY" and replacing it with "individual responsibility." Pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education and social security all by themselves -- then blaming them, if they fail, as "lazy."

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@Azazello
Shall we unite under the multi-colored flag of the gracious Lord Soros? Would the gallant knights Sir Zuckerberg and Sir Bezos swear fealty to his global Cause? But what of the dark Count Mercer and his Deplorable Hoards? Could they possibly be in league with the evil Kingdom of Putin? Only the mighty rulers seated round the sacred Table of Bilderberg can be certain...

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native

arendt's picture

I cannot believe how many highly educated adults lap up this violence-ridden paean to aristocratic gang wars.

@native

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@Azazello @Azazello

Whatever will they do without a steady supply of public money from government and a population unable to purchase their products?

Unless, of course, they stop making any necessities because no longer making a 'large enough' profit as opposed to other things and just sell virtual stuff to each other for exchange of data-dots between military hostile take-overs of each other (trillionaires/corporations then being the only remaining source of immense profits) for their data-dots and any food supplies they may have.

Seriously, it wouldn't overly surprise me; I've already seen - some time back, actually - recommendations for businesspeople at all levels to switch over to luxury products and services catering only to the very wealthy in order to stay profitable, since the rest of us relative Poors would soon be unable to buy enough to keep them open, never mind growing... the pathologically greedy/psychopaths are not reality-based and Big Pharma companies have previously threatened to stop making essential drugs, (in at least one case, despite the involved company having a monopoly on a commonly used diabetes drug) because there wasn't a 'large enough' profit margin and they only wanted to make the most lucrative drugs and drop the others. Might have been just an extortion attempt, but I dunno...

Drat, edited because I used the wrong word...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Lily O Lady's picture

@Ellen North

Tokyo. Certain kinds of tea that were easy to find several years ago are scarce as well, or very, very expensive. Marketers seem to have divided us into the worthy and the unworthy. 99.9% of us are unworthy.

I agree with you. TPTB have thrown us on the scrap heap. They are busy doing to our country what they have done in other third world nations, polluting and destroying to get the last bits of what they value out of our country.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

I’m so glad to see you here. I haven’t posted anything here yet. However, took notice of your last two essays. Great work. There is still a lot to take in with your last essay.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

The Scholars (novel)

It would be easy to dismiss this as anti-intellectual given the fact that it's a satire of Ch'ing Dynasty era literati, but that's not the case. Among other things, the author is heavily critical of the civil service examination system, particularly the limited subjects allowed for study and the ridiculous requirements for passing.

Hell, over here in 'Murica, getting anywhere near a decent job you can actually live on is a near impossibility for the same reason.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

I believe this story is now revealing one tattered edge of the deep state, and there is a significant grass roots effort to keep pulling on the threads that could be the beginning of a major unraveling. The story and the citizen journalist investigation are far from complete and include numerous working assumptions that need further corroboration. The larger shape of this threat to our government is difficult to comprehend, particularly to those who have not been following closely or those who still accept the MSM as a reliable source, but it is there and it is very real.

There is an excellent overview on Medium posted recently that connects many dots and presents a stunningly evil picture of a rot within our own intelligence community that has been plying its trade of deception, mayhem and violence around the world for decades, and more recently within our own borders. If we expect to preserve what's left of and reclaim what's been stripped from our representative democracy, this threat from within needs to stop.

At the moment it seems likely that Awan's prosecution will not go beyond considering bank fraud charges, in spite of significant evidence of far more serious crimes. More eyes are needed in the court of public opinion, which may be the only court in the Nation willing to hear all the evidence.

Link:
https://medium.com/@panegron/the-accidental-journalist-part-vii-awancont...

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

arendt's picture

@ovals49

And I really want to buy the Medium story 100%, I was put off by the inclusion of the Pizzagate story. IIRC, just about everyone but hard core CTers think that Pizzagate was simply not true. (That's not to say there isn't high-level sex traffiking. Hi, Bill, how was Mr. Epstein's Love Island?)

This one inclusion mars a story that connects a lot of dots - Sybil Edmonds, Turkey, the Bulgarian reporter who found the ISIS arms caches, etc - with Mr. Awan. All it takes is one point of entry, like Pizzagate, for a good report to wind up smeared as CT.

Nevertheless, thanks for the story; and for a solid link to follow George Webb.

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@arendt
is enough for you to disregard the whole, then perhaps you should wait until everything is rock solid certain before proceeding.

This inquiry is highly speculative in nature, much in the way that the scientific method adopts an hypothesis and then tests that assumption against new evidence as it comes in. There are sometimes assumptions made that do not even make it into my "possible" folder. Others are later disproved and discarded. There are also some people following the investigation who are drawn to the most outrageous of notions. For me, this in no way impugns the likelihood of other aspects which have a significant basis in a large body of meta data and circumstantial evidence which has been collected and collated.

This is a working puzzle of exceptional complexity, it is not a neatly wrapped package of certainties. I can live with that, in fact I much prefer it to the predigest product available on the nightly news.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

arendt's picture

@ovals49

I guarantee you that anyone trying to point out corruption and having some success will be instantly labeled as CT by TPTB if they dare talk about Pizzagate. I have learned to stick to stuff that has enough documentation to withstand a smear job.

My comment is tactical. You took it as strategic.

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gulfgal98's picture

@arendt I have been following the Awan spy story too, mostly via George Webb and Luke Rosiak of the Daily Caller. George is not for everyone and at one point, I quit following him for a couple of days because I thought he was too far out there. What I will say is that ovals49 has characterized how George operates quite correctly. While following George can be frustrating for those who may want neat answers right away, I believe that the way George operates is a big reason why George has managed to stay alive during his investigations.

George develops hypotheses based upon tips he receives from a network of researchers and insiders that he has developed, and then he tests them in the field. Sometimes it appears that he is way off, but for the most part, George has been very close to the truth when it comes out later. While they do not work together, Luke Rosiak tends to piggyback his articles on George has found and along with using some of his own contacts

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98

He reports what he knows as he finds it out. He does "fact checking" as more news comes in. (And, hey, that's way better than the propaganda filter that the NYT has for "fact checking".)

My caution is that this method, almost inevitably, puts out claims that can later prove to be false. Those false claims provide leverage to propagandists to poison the whole story and the writer.

I was the victim of this stuff at GOS. I would post a good article from Anti-War, or somesuch website, and get put on probation for sourcing CT stuff or anti-Semitic stuff.

What with Google and Facebook now running algorithms for "fake" (embarrassing to TPTB) news, my feeling is that some aspects of stories should be de-emphasized in order to reach a wider audience.

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gulfgal98's picture

@ovals49 is an excellent distillation of the complexity of the Imran Awan spy case.

Sadly, for those who have not been following the Awan spy case,it probably does not make sense in regard to neoliberalism. But all of this stuff is definitely related IMHO. Neoliberalism is the over arching ideology which leads to abuses within our government such was the Awan spy case.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98

Neoliberalism is the over arching ideology which leads to abuses within our government such was the Awan spy case.

I think its the other way around. The CIA was started as a government-sanctioned version of the Dulles Brothers' corporate-fixer law firm, Cromwell and Sullivan. When the CIA was founded, there was no such thing as neoliberalism. But the corporate/CIA alliance certainly wanted to change the world in that direction. The violent hatred of FDR, which continues to the present day (Amity Shales), demonstrates the propaganda power of the elite corporations and their agents. Any good deeds which that chump from St. Louis, HST, might have done are completely overshadowed by his signing off on the founding charter of the CIA.

IMHO, it took the CIA about twenty years to crank up their self-funding mechanism of drug running and crooked banking to the point where it could start to destabilize First World countries (as opposed to the banana republics it was first tried on in the 50s).

IMHO, the neoliberal ideology was nurtured, if not invented, by the CIA in support of its attempts to destroy democracy and replace it with corporatocracy. The CIA has worked to make the world safe for corporatism since its founding, setting up fronts like the "Congress for Cultural Freedom", which turned famous authors into propagandists for capitalism in the 1950s-60s. They certainly have used philosophy (e.g., neoliberalism) as a weapon since day one.

Other than who was in charge, I completely agree with you that intelligence scandals and their coverups are intimately connected to neoliberalism.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@arendt

a piece of it that outlived its usefulness and, rather than fading away, invented new roles for itself.

In a sense, World War II has never really ended.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

gulfgal98's picture

@arendt to write more on this subject. I learn a lot from your essays/.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98

It means a lot to me to find people whom I don't have to educate up from zero.

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@ovals49

Thanks for the link! (Depressing as the content is.)

Wandered through some adjoining links as well, and am now more certain that ever that Hillary is still planning to run again after hearing, according to the following, (somewhere in one of the videos which I'll post the URL of below; didn't make a note of the spot for that, though, think middle-ish) that the official movement on the 'vetting' of Hillary's further emails are again slowed and apparently won't be ready for public release until 2020. And I suspect that by the time the 2020 Presidential selection is done, those emails will have been mislaid...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lc5Jr_yX7M

Judicial Watch Finally Obtains Hillary's emails, Massive Pay for Play Exposed!
McSimonus

Published on 5 Oct 2017

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Cassiodorus's picture

It anticipates a future in which there are no governments and in which the world is ruled by the HelthWyzer Corporation, through their shadowy police force, the CorpSeCorps.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

arendt's picture

@Cassiodorus

Her future is so dark that, for me, it snuffs out the light in the real world.

About as dark as I can go is something like "Fallen Dragon", by the pulp scifi soap opera writer, Peter F. Hamilton.

Fallen Dragon takes place during the 25th century. In the preceding centuries, a means of Faster-than-light (FTL) space travel was discovered...The only major ongoing starflight efforts are carried out by the Zantiu-Braun megacorporation, who use their fleet of starships to periodically plunder their colonies in technically legal "asset realization" raids, typically involving military occupation of the planet in question. As it is cheaper to copy technology than ship it, these efforts normally collect single samples of interesting goods, or raw materials that are expensive on Earth. Zantiu-Braun is controlled by clones of Simon Roderick, who is motivated by the idea of uplifting the entire human race to his ideal.

At least in Hamilton's fiction, people aren't brainwashed and surveiled by a corporate pollice state.

OTOH, I can read non-fiction about the depressing state of our corrupt government and global corporations. At least in the real world, we don't have overt Orwellian thought police - yet.

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Lookout's picture

the corporate coup is complete.

Mass protests and general strikes are his answer. Interesting discussion...

George Lakey, author of "Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got it Right and How We Can Too", joins Chris Hedges to discuss non-violent resistance against the corporate state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGURjOjUIZM (28 min)

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

Thanks! He certainly managed to sound upbeat, too; dunno how but something's got to get people inspired to register a pacific protest before it gets any worse.

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0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

ggersh's picture

Bush 41 tried his best to follow that, but failed
miserably.
clinton then sold the products and fixtures on the
cheap to the lowest bidder for future foundation
donations.
dubya only wanted to kill and fail better than his
ol man and succeeded.
Zero did everything clinton/43 but on steroids, he killed
better than dubya and gave more to corporations than
clinton.

The oligarchs are in control, lock stock and barrel.

When You Say You Miss President Obama . . .
IAN BERMAN·SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017
Do you mean his bombing 7 Muslim countries?
Do you mean the terror he caused from his drones buzzing over so many foreign lands?
Do you mean the failed state he created in Libya?
Do you mean his support for Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen?

Do you mean not condemning the coup in Egypt and providing aid thereafter in violation of U.S. Law?
Do you mean how his approval of the Honduran coup led to rampant crime and murder?
Do you mean supporting the coup in Ukraine and the Neo-Nazi Svoboda who provided the muscle for it?

Do you mean initiating the plans to spend $1 trillion on modernizing the nuclear triad?
Do you mean not prosecuting the war crime of invading Iraq without defensive justification?
Do you mean dismissing the prosecution of torture?
Do you mean the erosion of civil liberties while letting the NSA, FBI and CIA run wild?

Do you mean signing the NDAA which allows the military to hold an American citizen without charge or legal representation under the Executive’s determination as a terrorist?
Do you mean the reauthorization of the Patriot Act?
Do you mean changing decades-old law allowing for the government to propagate propaganda in the USA and towards American citizens?
Do you mean prosecuting whistle blowers instead of following up on their exposes? Like when whistle blowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Asange, Bill Binney, John Kirakou were deemed criminals and not patriots?
Do you mean the continued militarization of the police?

Do you mean nominating a cabinet almost entirely chosen by Citigroup?

Do you mean the way he provided $16 TRILLION of low or no cost capital to essentially bankrupt companies during the financial crisis?
Do you mean NOT prosecuting Wall Street executives who defrauded mortgage backed investors of billions, laundered drug money and rigged the $400 - $800 Trillion LIBOR index?
Do you mean having a "Green President" who was actually globally neutral with all the fossil fuel projects supported around the world, including the Sec. State's export of fracking to 30 countries?
Do you mean giving BP a permit to drill in Alaska after destroying the Gulf of Mexico?
Do you mean standing idly by while protestors were doused with water cannons in freezing temperatures at Standing Rock?
Do you mean giving $400 billion a year to the healthcost © and pharmaceutical industries while dismissing single payer and public option on the first day of raising the issue?
Do you mean the continuation of essentially all income gains going to the top 10% of income earners and an unprecedented 95% of income gains going to the top 1% of earners?
Do you mean making permanent the taxation of investment income (which is especially applicable to the 0.1%) at lower rates than middle class wages?
Do you mean deporting over 2-1/2 million undocumented immigrants?
Do you mean changing U.S. policy to detain women and children seeking asylum and giving Corrections Corp. of America a $1 billion no-bid contract to do so?
Do you mean his not removing cannabis from Schedule 1 Controlled Substances?
I would say he earned the $65 million for his book deal. The 0.1% and their industries made fortunes with him in office.
- - - - - -
Ian Berman is an entrepreneur and former corporate banker at leading global banks in New York City. He now focuses on renewable energy, financial advisory services and writing about representative government, equitable public policies and ending American militarism and Israel’s continuing colonization of Palestine. He is the Co-Founder of Palestine 365, the Ongoing Oppression and its predecessor, Palestine 365, on Facebook.
© 2017. All rights reserved.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

arendt's picture

@ggersh

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gulfgal98's picture

I really like your characterization of what we are witnessing as a "controlled demolition." One of the easiest examples that most of us can see is the dismantling of our public education system. By diverting funding to privately run "charter schools" which tend to siphon off the better students, there is less funding for public schools. This creates the impression that our public schools are failing thus leading to the push for more privatization of our education system.

By sucking out the life blood of publicly funded institutions, neoliberalism creates the scenario in which they become failing institutions that only the private sector can save. It is a self fulfilling prophesy that the general public does not readily see. Instead the public sees that government is failing them.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98

There was something else I forgot, but I can't remember. :-(. I have more and more Alzheimer's moments.

What you said is very succinct. Self-fulfilling prophecy indeed.

By sucking out the life blood of publicly funded institutions, neoliberalism creates the scenario in which they become failing institutions that only the private sector can save. It is a self fulfilling prophesy that the general public does not readily see. Instead the public sees that government is failing them.

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arendt's picture

@arendt @arendt @arendt

In regard to the "Musk fanboys" and the Wall St. backing of Zuckerman.

Have you seen all the "entrepreneurship" programs being run at elite universities? I have experienced them first hand. The one at Princeton used to be run by former Congressman Ed Zschau

Zschau is currently a visiting lecturer with rank of professor at Princeton University in the Departments of Electrical Engineering, Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and in the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Zschau

But these days, these programs have become a conveyor belt that takes the children of the elite straight to the CEO's office, without having to get their hands dirty.

Harvard and MIT both have contests for undergrad and grad entreprenuers. The winner gets a symbolic prize. I think its $5,000 or $10,000 at Harvard. At MIT, it might go up to $50,000. But the prize really is just a symbol.

It symbolizes to Venture Capitalists that you should put your money here. And they do.

The end result is that some literally 21 year old, with a high likelihood of coming from a Chatsworth J. Osborne background, is handed millions of dollars of venture money. He gets the title CEO and the chance to fly his little boutique company.

ON EDIT: I know Ph.D. scientists with 20 years experience who can't get VC money for solid ideas, while these privileged children can. Its all part of the "Logan's Run" attitude of the digerati - No one over 30 knows anything. Experience is worthless in today's revolutionary environment. - Yeah, right, startups that go bankrupt in six months because their business plan was a greed-driven joke are "revolutionary".
END EDIT

Getting a CEO title opens the door to other CEO jobs, even if your first one tanks. Because that's how Silicon Valley rolls. The hotshots can always claim their idea was a gamble, but you have to gamble to win.

What is being put in place is a pipeline (Golden Path) from Philips Andover to Harvard to the CEOs office. Peasants need not apply.

This is the world that neoliberalism is making for us. I want to puke.

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gulfgal98's picture

@arendt In an essay published here some time ago, I wrote about the myth of meritocracy. Thomas Frank has been pointing this factor out and it is a central theme in his book Listen Liberal!

These people actually believe that they are better than the rest of us and that they deserve everything the system has to offer. Hillary Clinton is prime example.

This belief in "meritocracy" forms the core basis for neo-liberalism. Meritocracy theoretically rewards individuals with power and wealth based upon their merit only while ignoring the structural reasons why some individuals can more easily succeed due to family wealth and or connections. Such connections can result in legacy appointments to the right schools and family connections to facilitate success. The belief in meritocracy is widely accepted in the United States despite much evidence to the contrary.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

arendt's picture

@gulfgal98

once said about Harvard:

Imagine the most obnoxious, pushy, arrogant, out-for-number-one kid in your high school class. Now collect 2,000 of them from all over the world and you have one undergraduate class at Harvard.

They select for eloquent but arrogant, capable but self-centered people.

Then there are the filthy rich, entitled, legacy brats. Whole 'nother story with them. Legacies are a big reason why "meritocracy" is a joke at Harvard.

Another reason meritocracy is a joke can be found in a recent book by William Deresiewicz, a former Yale professor, called "Excellent Sheep"

Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18775383-excellent-sheep

That's part of the dumbing down I referred to in my response to k9disc about "Hypernormalization".

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@arendt

Probably more that there are far too many horrors being enacted for any one person to remember them all at once... we've been flooded with them for years but with Trump, we hear even more of some of the evils, apparently in the attempt to distract us from others and worse, and I fail to see how anyone could possibly keep track of them all.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

k9disc's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InbLmw_x6jQ]

Scary documentary which dovetails quite nicely with neoliberalism and the discussion of the Dulles' and CIA.

I don't think you can have neoliberalism without game theory.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

arendt's picture

@k9disc

I'm amazed the BBC backed this.

In the film, Curtis argues that since the 1970s, governments, financiers, and technological utopians have given up on the complex "real world" and built a simple "fake world" that is run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation

The point the quote makes is something that has been on my mind for a couple of decades.

I have followed the lucrative BS known as AI since the 1970s. It was successfully sold to the MIC right up to the end of the Cold War. But, then the gravy train was cut off, and "old fashioned" AI died a quick death. Between 1990 and today, the neural nets people did some real science. Today's AI - Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Nets - is all too real, all too good at doing things well.

I recited all that history to get to what has been on my mind:

AI died the first time around because humans don't think like old-fashioned "if-else statement with an attitude" AI. However, as computers intruded more and more into everyday life, humans were faced with machine-like interfaces - voice mail trees, pulldown menus, computerized forms that dictated every step. IOW, the world changed and made human behavior more machinelike.

This change gives AI more credibility in today's world. Can't navigate the internet to find good music? Let our "Recommender System" find it for you. I see you bought X, you might like to buy Y. Today's world is simultaneously impoverished of real world interaction (everyone staring at their cellphones) and filled with unnecessary menu-picking complexity.

So, I'm worried about dumbed down humans and smartened up AI; and their interactions in the artificial/virtual (i.e., fake) world of the inernet.

END OF "ON MY MIND"

Now, your documentary adds to my existing concerns by suggesting that the slide into a simple fake world wasn't just the result of unforseen technology creep. Rather, Curtis suggests it was a plan in reaction to the growing complexity of the world.

I will have to view the documentary before I decide if the whole thing was planned. I am skeptical because I think the original AI people and the original internet people had no idea how it was all going to play out 30 years down the road.

I am looking forward to watching the documentary.

Thanks again.

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k9disc's picture

on the AI front.

The plan to turn human beings into calculating consumption machines is a fact, IMO.

Largely because of Curtis' documentaries. My gig is learning theory and communication -- both angled towards manipulating behavior -- I'm pretty good at it.

The Century of the Self, another Curtis doc, completely freaked me out and crystalized many of my uncomfortable, unproven, beliefs. We've been treated like I treat dogs for 100 years now -- scientifically and ubiquitously. Neoliberalism is kind of the frosting that best fits the cake they built.

The Trap - http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-trap/ - that is the game theory doc that I meant to post above. Hypernormalization is the latest of his that I watched.

As far as I'm concerned, these 3 documentaries are required viewing for rational action and a sense of place in our manufactured reality.

Hope you enjoy them, @arendt , I'll be looking forward to how you process them and what comes out of the new info.

Peace~

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

arendt's picture

came in.

Boy, have you given me a lot of material to watch: Pandora's Box (4 hrs), The Mayfair Set (4 hrs), The Trap (3 hrs), and HyperNormalization (4? hrs).

I added Pandora's Box. It sounds like Ivan Illich meets James Burke (Connections).

I'll be looking forward to how you process them and what comes out of the new info.

It's going to take a while to watch all that, much less process it.

Once again, how does the BBC stick by this guy? Is he their version of Bill Moyers? Or what?

@k9disc

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k9disc's picture

He's really on point.

I'll have to check out Pandora's Box.

Good luck, and sorry for the brain pain. Wink

@arendt

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Now, suddenly in the last year, the Deep State tactic of Color Revolutions, formerly reserved for Second World targets like Egypt or Ukraine, has blown up in the heart of the First World. We had Brexit trying to fragment the EU. We had Clinton run her abortive attempt at delegitimizing Trump. Now we have Catalonia trying to fragment Spain, and Kurdistan continuing the Israeli-planned fragmentation of the MENA.

Not every revolution is a deep state op. For instance, there are few if any scenarios in which the benefits of Catalan independence outweigh the costs to the deep state/banksters/PTB. If you recall the European financial contagion crisis a few years ago, the Iberian peninsula (Portugal and Spain) was basically ground zero for state bankruptcies that would have sent the whole European consolidation project (not to mention the Euro) into a death dive. The underlying danger still remains, which is why Brussels has turned such a blind eye to Spain's vote suppression tactics in Catalonia.

Likewise, Brexit was definitely NOT on the menus of the governing elites, as anyone who watched the freakouts of Tony Blair and other Third Way charlatans before and especially after the vote can attest. Also, Egypt is a much more complicated story than your rather simplistic analysis suggests. Same goes for the Kurds.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

arendt's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger @Not Henry Kissinger

...but the sum total of rebuttals completely ignores the timing and coincidence of all these events. It also ignores the context of the war between the neoliberal globalizers and the neo-fascist nationalists. It also ignores the coincidental publicity for Bitcoin and the drumbeat for the elimination of the nation state (which is sorta, you know, "revolutionary") emanating from the Libertarian useful idiots.

Let's go point by point through what you did discuss:

You did not respond about Kurdistan, which is clearly a Deep State op.

As for the Third Way, it seems that (at least the nationalist wing of) the Deep State decided to throw its support to Trump at the last minute. Yeah, the third way freaked; but they are just the latest used and abused victims of the Deep State. As for TB, he has been gone like forever.

Before I get to Spain, I want to address your broad generalization.

Not every revolution is a deep state op. For instance, there are few if any scenarios in which the benefits of Catalan independence outweigh the costs to the deep state/banksters/PTB.

You implicitly acknowledge that there are some scenarios that do benefit the DS. And my claim is that the DS (neoliberal wing) benefits from Balkanization of First World countries. My further claim is that such Balkanization is now on the front burner for the Deep State (albeit with the DS nationalist wing fuming and launching its own sorties). Maybe because the neolib DS think its checkmate for the nation states, maybe because the nationalist DS need cover/distraction for whatever plan they are about to unleash (NK, Kurdistan, US martial law, insane attack on Russia).

IOW, I agree that things aren't that simple. I have added the neolib/nationalist fight to the mix. But, whatever the reason is, there is no way all this regime-changing shit is "just happening". It is somebody's op.

With that said...

I have not followed the whole Catalan mess. I only know that the Spanish government has had its nuts in a fiscal vice since 2008, that they have massive youth unemployment, and that they have treated Catalonia badly. This is exactly the kind of social conditions that give rise to right wing violence. But Spain, like Greece, has had a left wing response. In Greece that left wing response was suppressed and coopted, and the looting continues.

In Spain, I admit I don't really follow the details. All I can guess is that, having failed to coopt the left, TPTB (which is not the same as the Spanish government) have decided to let the left run wild, so that the government can crush them. (I have no idea of the overlap between the Spanish left and the Catalonian movement.) Another scenario is that the banksters have economically punished Spain so hard that non-violent means of containing the trouble are beyond the central government's ability.

Nevertheless, from what I can see, the EU supports the government. There is no way Catalonia gets to be an independent country. So, the end result will be further destabilization of Spain and the EU.

Again, I point out, only the US Deep State benefits from the situation in Catalonia. Another clue is that the corporate media supports the protestors and gins up general outrage, calling a clearly democratic government fascist while ignoring the considerable autonomy that has already been granted to Catalonia. I have had enough of corporate media supporting protestors. It didn't turn out well in Ukraine or Egypt.

I have answered all your points, except Spain. Feel free to attack my admitted lack of knowledge about Spain. It does not, by itself, dismiss the claim of increased destabilization of the First World.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

No facts. Lots of random conclusions.

You implicitly acknowledge that there are some scenarios that do benefit the DS.

Case in point: You say you don't know anything about Spain or Catalonia, but can state with all confidence this is a 'US Deep State' operation and that there are scenarios that benefit that op. Yet I am the one who has to give you these scenarios? And if I don't somehow that means your argument is valid and mine's not? Huh?

You also claim it the Catalan rebellion is analogous to Ukraine. How? Is there some violent coup of Rajoy's government being planned that I don't know about? Are the Israelis sending snipers in Madrid to foment a clash between pro and anti-Rajoy demonstrators that don't exist? And what does any of that have to do with attempting a peaceful referendum taking place in a separatist region far from the capital?

Another clue is that the corporate media supports the protestors and gins up general outrage, calling a clearly democratic government fascist while ignoring the considerable autonomy that has already been granted to Catalonia.

Sorry, but most of the corporate media I've read has been less than enthusiastic at best, or in the case of WaPo, NYT, and WSJ fairly hostile to the Catalans. You need a better clue.

Also, that 'considerable autonomy' you so casually claim to know nothing about has been consistently whittled down over the past twenty years (and especially since 2006) under a strident central authority that has fought every effort at peaceful negotiation, to the point where many Catalans now see no alternative to preserving that autonomy than declaring independence.

Following the dictates of the Constitution of 1978, Maragall forged a new Statute of Autonomy in the Catalan Parliament during 2004-05. Then, and again in keeping with the procedures of the 1978 Constitution for such things, it was sent to Madrid for approval by the Spanish Parliament where, after a good deal of scaling back, it was passed by a majority in May of 2006.

It was then brought back to Catalonia and approved by popular referendum, with a 74% level of approval.

Aware that the new statute would deal an important blow to their plan to reinstitute unquestioned Castilian supremacism within Spain, Aznar’s Party turned to the country’s Constitutional Tribunal, confident that the deeply conservative jurists they had planted there during Aznar’s eight years in power would gut the new law in a way the elected representatives of the Spanish people had refused to do.

During the prolonged judicial deliberations on the new Statute of Autonomy (2006-10), the PP’s spokespeople did not even try to hide their glee at having been able to pack the court with people who they knew would "do the right thing" for them on the new statute.

When, in the summer of 2010, the Constitutional Tribunal did indeed nullify important parts of them 2006 law, including the right of Catalans to legally refer to their collective as a nation, Catalans took to the streets massively in protest.

They believed that the Spanish state could no longer be considered a good faith negotiator. They had played by the rules of the state and its constitution and won new rights, albeit much less than they originally wanted.

However, using its effective control of a deeply and transparently corrupt judiciary, the PP had managed to overturn this impeccably executed constitutional reform.

Since this time, the entire tenor of Catalan politics has changed. Independentism, which until 2010 was still a decidedly minority option in Catalonia, has grown immensely.

Basically you're whole argument boils down to, "Hey, there's a lot of revolutions going on right now. They all must be some master Deep State plan."

Some of them aren't, but it takes actually knowing something about the individual movements to discern what is and what isn't.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

arendt's picture

and agree that I am clueless. I already granted you that in my previous response.

But that's what you spent your entire post on, trying to dismiss all the events that you have yet to respond to.

You still have not responded about Kurdistan. You still have not responded about the push for e-currency and the escalated Libertarian rhetoric for ending government.

You ignore the entire globalist vs neo-nationalist war, which is quite real. That war can get quite complicated, and events within it can look random from the outside. For example, at the time it happened, who knew that it was the Operation Gladio folks who blew up the Bologna train station and blamed it on leftists? That only came out ten years later. So, pardon me if I wonder where our $100 B/year black budget gets spent.

Oh, and one other thing, just like our last interaction, you enter the discussion days late with guns blazing. Could I suggest that you join the discussion earlier? It would have morel impact, as I doubt anyone but you and i are reading this.

@Not Henry Kissinger

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@arendt

But that's what you spent your entire post on, trying to dismiss all the events that you have yet to respond to.

You're all over the place. I make one simple and consistent point that not all rebellions are black op events and post specific facts to support my contention and you respond by chucking in all sorts of random historical events demanding I comment on each one. (Operation Gladio? Really?)

I'm not into deflection and distraction. I made my point, even if you still choose not to acknowledge it.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?