“The banks—hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created—are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”

      ~ Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois

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15 Comments

  1. The bottom line is, what are we going to do? Basically, we’re faced with a number of “manufactured” choices (One World dialectics) that have been ramming into our brains for approximately 100 years…

    One World or Terror[ism]
    One World or Chaos
    One World or War
    One World or Famine
    One World or Nature Dies
    One World or Humanity Ends
    One World or None (Einstein et. al. actually published this after Hiroshima)

    But all of us have pretty much figured out that One World means total servitude to a gang of psychopaths (too horrific to even think about).

    Bert, thanks for articulating the concept of the toxic “One World Solution.”

  2. This issue with bankers controlling the US has been evolving, at least, since 1892. This is old, but not surprisingly current:

    The Bankers Manifesto of 1892

    Revealed by US Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, SR from Minnesota
    before the US Congress sometime during his term of office
    between the years of 1907 and 1917 to warn the citizens.

    “We (the bankers) must proceed with caution and guard every move made, for the lower order of people are already showing signs of restless commotion. Prudence will therefore show a policy of apparently yielding to the popular will until our plans are so far consummated that we can declare our designs without fear of any organized resistance.
    The Farmers Alliance and Knights of Labor organizations in the United States should be carefully watched by our trusted men, and we must take immediate steps to control these organizations in our interest or disrupt them.

    At the coming Omaha Convention to be held July 4th (1892), our men must attend and direct its movement, or else there will be set on foot such antagonism to our designs as may require force to overcome. This at the present time would be premature. We are not yet ready for such a crisis. Capital must protect itself in every possible manner through combination (conspiracy) and legislation.

    The courts must be called to our aid, debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible.

    When through the process of the law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of the government applied to a central power of imperial wealth under the control of the leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders.

    History repeats itself in regular cycles. This truth is well known among our principal men who are engaged in forming an imperialism of the world. While they are doing this, the people must be kept in a state of political antagonism.

    The question of tariff reform must be urged through the organization known as the Democratic Party, and the question of protection with the reciprocity must be forced to view through the Republican Party.

    By thus dividing voters, we can get them to expand their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us, except as teachers to the common herd. Thus, by discrete action, we can secure all that has been so generously planned and successfully accomplished.”

    THE BANKERS’ MANIFESTO OF 1934

    From New American, February, 1934.

    “Capital must protect itself in every way, through combination and through legislation. Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of wealth, under control of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an IMPERIALISM of capital to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd. Thus by discrete action we can secure for ourselves what has been generally planned and successfully accomplished.”

  3. Not on our own…

    Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
    Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
    For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
    Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

    Ephesians 6: 10-13

  4. Catherine,

    Interesting little article. Quite a bit not mentioned, and some of what is mentioned is for propagandistic effect. But I am not dismissing the techniques (many of which are very old), as individuals who effectively step outside the dialectics will likely discover.

    The bottom line is, what are we going to do? Basically, we’re faced with a number of “manufactured” choices (One World dialectics) that have been ramming into our brains for approximately 100 years…

    One World or Terror[ism]
    One World or Chaos
    One World or War
    One World or Famine
    One World or Nature Dies
    One World or Humanity Ends
    One World or None (Einstein et. al. actually published this after Hiroshima)

    But all of us have pretty much figured out that One World means total servitude to a gang of psychopaths (too horrific to even think about).

    So, we walk in fear and let “Men” guide us or we walk in the Armor of God and Live of the Kingdom without fear of these “Men”? Ultimately, these are choices that each individual must make, as these “Men” have long since figured out how to exploit community (humanity acting at the group level), so we must face and overcome our fears on our own. When enough of humanity chooses this path, as individuals, then the manipulation and bullying will be rendered ineffective, and thus will cease.

  5. Very good discussion going on here. I would only add that Ivan Illich is someone who has helped me understand not only Jacques Ellul but also synthesized much of the analysis concerning the diminishing and now harmful returns on the investment in our health, transportation and educational systems. I rank Illich up there with Orwell as a prophetic voice. “Corruption of the best is the worst.” The appropriation of power by mankind that is meant only for God is a nightmare that many of us are forced to live.

  6. Bert:

    The current level of violence is quite extraordinary. Murder, numerous types of poisoning (including fast acting cancer), various dirty tricks….This is one of the reasons that the need to torture and make it so public is important. They need the subliminal message strong within and without Empire.

    See:

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0504/S00241.htm

    So, they do need violence and that need is growing…

    Catherine

  7. Catherine,

    I agree that the techniques of social engineering (e.g. science & technology as applied in many disciplines) are ultimately backed up by force. However, I would say that over the last 100 years the techniques of social engineering have become so well developed (see post WWII Frankfurt School of Social Research – Ted Adorno) that the public does not even know it exists, and if you try to tell them that these forces exist, the person who you confront will attack you, as was explained by Plato in his Cave analogy. So, force has not really been needed to date, for the public has displayed total compliance. Albeit, this will change once the public can see through their social engineering techniques, rendering them ineffective, and that is a battle they know they cannot win.

    For me, “the who” is almost irrelevant, other than its important to understand that the perpetrators suffer from deep seeded forms of sociopathy, thereby lacking almost any of humanity’s traits of empathy. Further, I think “the why” is probably self-evident, as sociopaths crave power for power’s sake. I think this is the ultimate conclusion of sociopathic (or psychopathic) behavior, meaningless power that is ruthlessly logical in that it brutally enforces a hierarchy at all costs. To better illustrate, let me quote from an exchange between O’Brien and Winston in the book, 1984, where O’Brien says:

    ‘Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. 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? You are thinking,” O’Brien said, “that my face is old and tired. You are thinking that I talk of power, and yet I am not even able to prevent the decay of my own body. Can you not understand, Winston, that the individual is only a cell? The weariness of the cell is the vigour of the organism. Do you die when you cut your fingernails? We are the priests of power,” he said. “God is power. But at present power is only a word so far as you are concerned. It is time for you to gather some idea of what power means. The first thing you must realize is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual.’

    Given the horror of the power described to Winston, I’d suggest that “the what” of their power if far more important to humanity’s survival than “the who” or “the why.” In the book The Technological Society I learned about the concept of “technique,” which in simplistic terms is the sum total of techniques used in society. I would argue that the public must learn the techniques that are used against them, as I believe simply understanding their techniques is significant enough to thwart their effectiveness and their drive for this “absolute power” that they seek. So, in summary, I am focused on understanding “the what” in real time.

  8. Cable TV has gone up so much that I can not afford to watch the National Cable news,e.g. Lou Dobbs show, or Fox, Hannity, or Anderson 360. When I did watch it, it seems that it was not real reporting of the facts. Especially, Lou Dobbs…….all he seems to say in response to any caller, on radio or TV is: “ah hah”, “yes, isn’t it terrible,what’s happening”, “what do you think”? He never really says anything anymore, about the issues or the problems. He’s like a Yes man for the government now.
    Facts are not sought out or reported on anymore…..its like they are trying to appease the people who have lost income,jobs,401K’s. Nothing is done about it. I think they are there just to handle the emotions that are occurring within the people in their reaction to the devastation that the American people are going through right now. I am glad I don’t have to hear them,try to rewrite history and reality, according to how the President and Congress want us to believe.
    They are trying desperately, to change our perception and I refuse to comply with that lying devil!

  9. Bert:

    In my experience, science and technology are backed up with force — good old, fashioned murder. Among other things, science and technology allow a few to control many. So who is doing that and why are they doing it. That seems the primary control question.

    Catherine

  10. Oh, and if one really wants an education in the area described in my last post, I refer you to “The Technological Society,” which is probably the best book written on the subject.

    http://www.amazon.com/Technological-Society-Jacques-Ellul/dp/0394703901/

    This from a review by Robert Theobald, The Nation

    “The Technological Society is one of the most important books of the second half of the twentieth century. In it, Jacques Ellul convincingly demonstrates that technology, which we continue to conceptualize as the servant of man, will overthrow everything that prevents the internal logic of its development, including humanity itself — unless we take the necessary steps to move human society out of the environment that ‘technique’ is creating to meet its own needs.”

  11. Steve, I would suggest that what we are witnessing is the ascendancy of a scientific oligarchy, where the who is far less relevant than the mechanisms of the system itself.

    While it contains some tinfoil, there is a book of similar name that may help to familiarize the reader with some aspects of the socially engineered society we are in.
    http://www.amazon.com/Ascendancy-Scientific-Dictatorship-Examination-Epistemic/dp/1419639323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241489169&sr=8-1

    We’ve received numerous warnings throughout history, but we have consistently failed to heed them in sufficient numbers.

  12. What I see happening is that acknowledgement of an oligarchy is becoming “mainstream news.” However, defining exactly “who” comprises this oligarchy is where the spin hits, trying to make us believe it is hedge fund managers, or the CEOs of banks, or even people like Madoff who are at the center of the problem.

    We never see the long-time family names that have been at the center of the problem for decades — Rockefellers, Morgans, Rothschilds, Mellons, Warburgs, etc. We are seeing the finger pointed everywhere else but at these families.

    When you have controlling stakes in the mainstream media, the media is going to say whatever you want it to say. So it will never mention your name. It will mention someone else’s, in your place. So the masses will be educated only up to a point, and then their anger will be directed for them, in the wrong direction.

    God, I love this country.

  13. The Great Bank Swindle by James Quinn,

    http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/22494?ref=patrick.net

    McKinsey has concluded that there are still $2 trillion of toxic assets sitting on the books of US banks. The International Monetary Fund has estimated total credit write-downs of $4.1 trillion, with $2.7 trillion in US institutions alone. And Nouriel Roubini estimates the total losses on loans made by US financial firms will reach $1.6 trillion, with an additional $2 trillion in losses on securities. …

    The US banks and broker dealers are exposed to half of this figure, or $1.8 trillion; the rest is borne by other financial institutions in the US and abroad. What’s even worse: That $1.8 billion figure doesn’t include commercial real-estate losses, credit-card losses, and losses from the next wave of mortgage resets in 2010.

    With $2 trillion of write-offs to go, how could Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner make the following statement to a Congressional panel last week: “Currently, the vast majority of banks have more capital than they need to be considered well capitalized by their regulators.”?

    The entire US banking system has only $1.4 trillion of capital. Therefore, the US banking system is effectively insolvent. …

    And while the Treasury claims to want improved accuracy and disclosure, it forced the FASB to relax mark-to-market rules, which allows banks to obscure the real value of the “assets” on their books. They allow Goldman Sachs (GS) to bury the fact — deep in the footnotes to their report — that their financial results did not include the month of December, during which Goldman lost $1.5 billion. They continue to allow banks to report one-time gains as part of ongoing operations – but billions in losses that are recorded quarter after quarter are omitted. …

    “It’s vastly more difficult to examine a bank that is engaged in accounting control fraud. You can’t rely on the bank’s books and records. It doesn’t simply take more, far more, FTEs – it takes examiners with experience, care, courage, and investigative instincts and abilities. Very few folks earning $60,000 are willing to tell CEOs and CFOs making $25 million annually that they’re running a fraudulent bank and are liars.

    This is one of the reasons why having “resident examiners” never works. Effective examination may be good for you, but it’s very unpleasant (just think of a proctologist’s finger). It requires total independence. So the examination force doesn’t have remotely the numbers or the relevant experience and mindset to examine the largest banks with the greatest problems…

    If the Federal Reserve was so keen on disclosure and transparency, why haven’t they released the names of the banks that have borrowed from them, and the collateral provided for the loans?

    The stock market has been soaring as banks report earnings that purposely underestimate future losses. Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke essentially required Ken Lewis to commit fraud by not revealing material information about Merrill Lynch to the public.

    Dr. John Hussman describes this state of affairs:

    “That’s what these bureaucrats want during their stint in government service, that’s how they advise our elected officials, and then their revolving door takes them right back to Wall Street. This thing is run by investment bankers and corporate bondholders for the benefit of investment bankers and corporate bondholders

  14. Catherine, I really hope you’ll publish the following.

    This statement by Durbin is intended to maintain the illusion of a fully functioning government, albeit, under strong influence from international bankers. The statement made is carefully crafted propaganda, for it is now widely known, or at least partially perceived, that the masks and gloves have come off and the iron fist is revealing itself…. at least some are seeing it.

    So, if this statement was designed to mask the truth, then what possibly might this truth be, as Durbin’s truth is already an extremely tough pill for the public to swallow.

    I would argue, and I understand that this is far from many people’s realities, that the government that we see is a side show, an illusion. It is nothing but a facade of a fully functioning government, at least at the Federal level and at the top of some state levels. The government that we grew up knowing is gone, all of our major institutions have been infiltrated and compromises, and we are now under the control of actors who have no allegiance to the United States of America, its Constitution, its heritage, its values, or its people.

  15. …An image-based culture, one dominated by junk politics, communicates through narratives, pictures and carefully orchestrated spectacle and manufactured pseudo-drama. Scandalous affairs, hurricanes, earthquakes, untimely deaths, lethal new viruses, train wrecks—these events play well on computer screens and television. International diplomacy, labor union negotiations and convoluted bailout packages do not yield exciting personal narratives or stimulating images…

    Pseudo-events—dramatic productions orchestrated by publicists, political machines, television, Hollywood or advertisers—however, are very different. They have, as Daniel Boorstin wrote in “The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America,” the capacity to appear real even though we know they are staged. They are capable, because they can evoke a powerful emotional response, of overwhelming reality and replacing reality with a fictional narrative that often becomes accepted truth. The unmasking of a stereotype damages and often destroys its credibility. But pseudo-events, whether they show the president in an auto plant or a soup kitchen or addressing troops in Iraq, are immune to this deflation….

    Reporters, especially those on television, no longer ask if the message is true but if the pseudo-event worked or did not work as political theater. Pseudo-events are judged on how effectively we have been manipulated by illusion. Those events that appear real are relished and lauded. Those that fail to create a believable illusion are deemed failures. Truth is irrelevant. …

    A public that can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction is left to interpret reality through illusion. Random facts or obscure bits of data and trivia are used to bolster illusion and give it credibility or are discarded if they interfere with the message. The worse reality becomes—the more, for example, foreclosures and unemployment skyrocket—the more people seek refuge and comfort in illusions….

    But the longer we live in illusion, the worse reality will be when it finally shatters our fantasies. Those who do not understand what is happening around them and who are overwhelmed by a brutal reality they did not expect or foresee search desperately for saviors. They beg demagogues to come to their rescue. This is the ultimate danger of the Obama Brand. It effectively masks the wanton internal destruction and theft being carried out by our corporate state. These corporations, once they have stolen trillions in taxpayer wealth, will leave tens of millions of Americans bereft, bewildered and yearning for even more potent and deadly illusions, ones that could swiftly snuff out what is left of our diminished open society.

    http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/20090503_buying_brand_obama/

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