real sheople vs. pseudo/spivs (NWO; rip-offs)

[subject to possible revision]

 .. there's no such thing ...

   .. as a truly 'free' lunch ...

     .. or is there? (not according to 2nd thermo-law there ain't!)

-=*=-

Explication: This is a continuance of and extension to my more NWO ... - which has less to do with any NWO per se but rather more on one of the oldest (& filthiest!) 'tricks' in the book, namely currency debasement.

-=*=-

Preamble (2nd thermo-law[1]): Basically, life as we know it should not exist. Living organisms are more complex than their 'inputs;' this is only possible because energy is 'captured' and employed to build that complexity. But, like a clock that can only run down, some of the energy used to wind the clock gets irredeemably 'lost' (i.e. dissipated, as friction/heat - not lost at all but gone non-usable); a clock can only 'borrow' energy - and can never pay it all back (due to those unavoidable losses). Similarly also, with life - and $s.

Warning (from a friend): "It is not simple." 

Then, a 'pome:'

 « .. never once gave it away
everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York city is the place where they
said Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side ...» 

-=*=-

"Veni, Vedi, Veci[2]" - 'They came, they saw, they conquered,' where 'they' are the US & Israel - each more ugly - and filthily criminal - than the other. A veritable plague on our once jewel-like planet; what sad days indeed, when each first saw the cruel, hard light of day.

Q: What differentiates either from the 3rd Reich[3]?

A: Nothing; nothing at all: *ZERO*!!? 

[End of scene-setting]

-=*=-

I 'grew up' during the so-called 'cold war.' We were advised that there were 'reds under the bed.' Communists (Russia, China then later N.Vienam, many others) were to be feared. Worst was that 'they' (always the amorphous 'they,' in those days 'Commos;' now it's terrorists and more specifically 'Islamo-fascist' terrorists) always were (& still are) 'coming to get us,' to blow us up, with A- and H-nukes (ve-e-ery scary) - or person/car/airplane bombs; whatever.

A remnant of the cold war occasionally echoes through my mind:

  «Better red than dead!» (Or was that vice versa?)

A few things 'they' - now quite a different amorphous 'they;' now I'm talking about the corrupt and venal MSM - including the (traitorous!) AusBC - what the 4th estate 'they' didn't tell us, is that the US (with side-kick Israel) were (a) ripping the world off and (b) murdering to do it. Bad MSM! Worse AusBC!!

-=*=-

Ideally, we (supposedly!) have a democratic society; of/by/for the people; representatives do the so-called 'leading' and we (the sheople) do the voting. In addition, we have workers, 'managers' and entrepreneurs, each doing their bit in the cooperative effort which (again supposedly!) is 'modern civilisation.' Well, sadly, almost all wrong. The sheople are dumbed-down and misinformed (thanks, but "No, thanks!" to the AusBC and other such 4th estate traitors), our representatives are 'fakes' (they may represent alright, but mostly *not* the voters' interests; they are misleading us), and in business, 'they' - the final and worst amorphous 'they' - rip us, we the sheople - and most of the world - off.

The 'shorthand' title of this business 'they' is the M/I/C-plex, as warned of sooo long ago. We can 'see' the US & Israeli military as they go about their utterly filthy murdering for spoil, even though the 4th estate is/are giving these military crooks such a 'soft ride.'

The business 'they' also includes the banksters (very 'special') as well as the corporations, all essentially 'people like us' - but by and large, with a (psychotic!) twist. Whereas the real people like us (aka we the sheople) have to work for a living, the 'others,' the pseudo/spivs who are ripping us and the world off - think they're getting - ta ra! - some sort of 'free' lunch. I write 'pseudo' because one assumes that these psychopaths think that they are somehow human - and they are in a way, but they are both immoral and amoral, and seemingly lack any/all empathy. In comparison to normal people, on the human scale, the pseudos are very definitely 'sub.'

The big, perhaps ultimate question here is Q: Why are there insufficient honest people to mount an effective countervailing resistance to this disgusting, psychotic/criminal domination - of what now amounts to the whole wide world? Countries not actually taking part in the rip-offs themselves are forced into defensive positions; absolutely no one escapes the dastardly effects of these wicked criminals. Then, there's the coming excess-CO2 caused climate 'collapse.'

-=*=-

Now, to the 'main game;' From 'Bringing up Baby:' "Do what you want! (I know you will anyway.)" Doing 'what one wants' must be compared against 'what one should;' the two may be vastly different. Also, I expect everyone at least *tries* to 'do their best,' but that again will have differing results depending on ability, education and application - and assuming sufficient intelligence is available to transcend 'instinctive' reaction. One thing I've learned is that we, the sheople are (deliberately!) *not* well educated (specifically in partner-seeking & child-rearing, not to mention sufficient 'survival/succeed skills'), and our 'wants' are cynically manipulated if too inconvenient to pander to - this situation being described by such terms such as 'manufactured demand' and (worse, *much* worse!) 'manufactured consent.'

To summarise 'the sheople's situation;' one need not don a tin-foil hat to assert that what is happening is *not* coincidence, it's not 'mere' happenstance that the corrupt and venal MSM *relays* lies - and actively, on their own behalf tell us lies, and that the 4th estate is/are permitted, when not ordered - to so lie to us. Naturally enough, it then follows that the 'permission/ordering' comes from/through our so-called 'leaders;' we the sheople are deliberately misinformed, misdirected - and mislead.

The manufacturing of demand/consent is not (immediately) apparent, especially to the sheople themselves; almost to a wo/man they 'volunteer' for propaganda, expending a 'good' proportion of their (low and being ever more lowered) disposable income (going so far as to borrow: so-called '0% for 3 years!' - say) - to buy their own personal propaganda dispensers - i.e. their (flat/wide-screen?) TVs; and if challenged most will say "Oh, it's only a movie!" - when it's equally obviously not. A 'best' (of course, worst) example of entertainment as propaganda being the 'ticking bomb' scenario; fully exploited by lots of the (filthy!) Cheney-types of this world - who go on to lie, thieve, torture & kill, and otherwise heinously violate any/all reasonable (i.e. just) law - that they want to; thus perfectly illustrating the 'main game(want)' principle.

To end this 'main game(want)' loop: misinforming, misdirecting - and misleading the sheople is (with malice aforethought!) a breach of the so-called 'democracy' covenant.

-=*=-

Intermezzo 1: Q1: What do we want? A: A proper democracy; truth and justice - and peace. Q2: What have we got? A: None of these. Q3: Why not?

-=*=-

Now, to the 'main game(rip off);' there are at least three ways we are being ripped off:

(But first, a joke: Q: Why to crims rob banks? A: Because that's where the money is. Haw!)

1. In our 'labour relations;' by this I mean (what should be!!?) a *fair* return - on both capital *and* labour. Q: What have we got? A: On the one hand, depressed wages and conditions (to the point now of possibly terminal 'demand collapse'), on the other the rich having *sooo* well ripped us off, having made themselves *sooo* much richer, that they've effectively now got *all* the money. (Any talk of 'envy' will lead immediately to "Wash your mouth out - with Lakoffian®[6] soap!")

2. In our 'patrimony;' by this I mean (what should be!!?) a fair price - for our 'natural' resources (coal, iron ore, forestry; any 'primary' product.) Q: What have we got? A: In general, a low, lower going lowest return to we, the (sovereign!) sheople, and conversely (rip off!) returns - to the so-called 'share holders' (how many o/s?) - plus the bizarre 'manager' packages. (Note again, the already-rich getting ever more obscenely richer.) Keyword: Resource rent. Keyword: Rent seeker. Challenge: Find these in my citations.

3. In our 'money system' itself. Keyword: Asset inflation. Keyword: Printing money. This last is a true disaster, and, if nothing else up to now, indicates just how sick (not to mention criminal) our system really is.

-=*=-

Intermezzo 2: The nasty economic system that we the sheople (currently!) have no choice but to operate under has various names/attributes; primarily 'globalisation,' so-called (erroneously!) 'free markets;' neo-liberalism, the "Washington Consensus" including the (sick!) IMF & World Bank, then even more nasty ones like 'privatisation' and 'user pays' - also 'down sizing,' 'out sourcing,' 'off shoring,' 'sub contracting' - et al.. (Q: Have I missed something? A: If so, please let me know.) As if all that wasn't enough bullshit, there's the (erring!) 'eternal growth' paradigm; on the one hand abso-bloody-lutely impossible (finite world, recall), and on the other hand (well; same hand even:) *really* stupid.

The 'promise' was, that 'a rising tide would lift all boats,' and that although 'yes,' jobs and production were being shipped off-shore, since 'the pie was getting bigger,' none of us would actually be forced to suffer any *loss*. Well, as we can all now see, that was *all* utter & complete bullshit - which I & a few select others saw long ago. But our 'foreseeing' didn't help, and Q: Where are those (erring!) critics now? A: With shit on their faces, that's where. Shit all over their faces; dripping - running down in torrents - off their slimy chins!

To end this intermezzo, Q: Exactly how did the economics profession get so utterly and horribly corrupt? (Q2: Are economists even adults, let alone human?)

-=*=-

Next, the 'main' main-game, aka the bankster swindle. This one's a real bewdy; a favourite word of mine at the moment is quite apropos, namely: gobsmacking! I have written before about fractional reserve banking, fiat currencies and essentially worthless 'money.' Some say the 'best' (even 'only') money is (would be) that based on specie of some sort (i.e. gold, silver) - the reasoning being, that since the physical base is limited (just like all of our once jewel-like planet's resources!) - so too is (would be) the attached money. But not so, fiat money - Oh, no! - and as to the 'magical' US$, not being 'attached' to anything (except perhaps rank greed), even though (Oh, so eff'n clever); oil is traded almost exclusively in US$s. The latter is 'merely' a (self-given) bonus. Need oil? Well; earn US$s, buy oil. Oil gone; all burnt? Boo hoo; earn ever more US$s, loop.

But we're not here to burn oil - or coal, or any other fossil carbon.

Q: What is 'money[4]?' A: (Usual/typical answer:) Both a store of value, and a medium of exchange. These days, money hardly exists - as a physical 'thing' (banknotes), but a fiat currency is - ta ra! - nothing at all - except virtual figures (aka ciphers[5]), in some computer, say. (Cash, aka 'folding money,' is now a tiny, tiny component. Even then, it's only as 'good' as the trust placed in it.) As a 'store of value,' ciphers in some computer require *lots* of trust. Which, not so coincidentally, is the reason ('trust') given by some 'economists' as to why we should use fiat currencies in general, and the US$ in particular. (Ahem??!) Q: What if that trust goes away, eh? A: Well, (get this:) IT (trust) HAS (gone away)! Not so much 'gone' as been 'violated;' the US is now 'printing' its way into monetary oblivion. (Proof? Oh, about 12trio(!!?) 'injected' into otherwise failing banks, say.)

There is a serious point here, in fact three, and all 'odd:'

1. The bankster swindle was always there (at least for the past 300 years - that ought to be far enough back to say "forever"); and the swindle is that banks, whether by multiplying up a small amount of 'real' money (i.e. gold, say, in the 'good old times'), or in these days of fiat currencies, by multiplying up a small amount of *nothing* (aka SFA) - to make loans to us (or to anyone - except other banksters), then charging us interest for the 'service,' are creaming off - money for nothing(!!?) (see my more NWO ...)

Q: What's so odd about this? A: That this perhaps ultimate rip-off racket has remained essentially 'hidden' for so long.

2. Something odder, pointed out to me recently by another friend, is that although the banks are madly creating money, they are *not*, repeat definitely *NOT* creating the money needed - to pay the interest!!? (Hmmm.) This is quite 'easy' to see; if one pays a loan off, that money, 'created' in order to make the loan - simply disappears! The loan, and the act of creation behind it, are both cancelled - poof! Gone! Sooo, dear reader, if that happened everywhere at once, Q: Where would the money come from, to pay the (still outstanding) interest??! A: Nowhere, man: it just doesn't exist! Effectively, this means that loans must always increase (think: Ponzi); new borrowers must continually be found. (Hmmm, again.) But hallo-Oh! US real-estate crash; almost no one is borrowing, the (last, final, end-of-the-road?) - source of new loans is - kaput! This may well be why, dear reader, that 12trio (plus how much more?) - is being thrown Oh, so anxiously - at those otherwise insolvent US banks...

3. Finally (by now we all hope! But only for this bankster swindle section) - the nub: 'real' vs. 'virtual' economies. Here there are at least two things that should be read; I'll set them as 'homework' while I have a little rest (my rest now nearly over; not so for those yet to read the citations):

Credit Default Swaps:
Evolving Financial Meltdown and Derivative Disaster Du Jour
by Dr. Ellen Brown
April 11, 2008
  «The sacrosanct free market would supposedly regulate itself. The problem with that approach is that regulations are just rules. If there are no rules, the players can cheat; and cheat they have, with a gambler's addiction. In December 2007, the Bank for International Settlements reported derivative trades tallying in at $681 trillion - ten times the gross domestic product of all the countries in the world combined. Somebody is obviously bluffing about the money being brought to the game, and that realization has made for some very jittery markets.» 
[globalresearch/Brown]

A FIRE Economy is any economy based primarily on the paper intensive sectors of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE).
  «Particularly after 1973...pundits of the status quo hailed the proliferation of the “FIRE” (finance, insurance, real estate) economy as the coming of a new “service” “post-industrial” economy that would replace the old “smokestack” economy and the jobs lost through plant closings, restructuring, and down-sizing... Loren Goldner» 
[wiki/FIRE_economy]

As usual, one should read the lot - in the above two cases (as others), any 'snip' must perforce be only indicative. While I'm about it, one more (for now):

May 22, 2009
Recession 'shape' points down
By W Joseph Stroupe
  «The shape of this crisis, then, is a series of steps proceeding downward into the gloom for the US and Britain. The two powers are guilty of massive over-reach, and now they are suffering the terrible consequences. Sooner or later, these ongoing events that were inevitable, and that should have been foreseen before the new asset-based model was so enthusiastically and wholly adopted, will force the two powers to make the gut-wrenching, long reversion back to a more traditional economic model.» 
[atimes/Stroupe]

Now, before I draw all this to an elegantly packaged, deeply meaningful conclusion, two more bits of 'homework:'

Jan 27, 2009
Death agony of Thatcher era
By F William Engdahl
  «As the neo-liberal revolution began in the economies of the US and the UK, it should not be not surprising that the epi-center of catastrophe in the global crisis now unfolding also lies with the economies of the US and the UK, as well as a handful of economies, including Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland, all of which embraced the free market Thatcherite agenda most strongly in recent years.» 
[atimes/Engdahl]

May 14, 2009
The Collapse of the Neoliberal Model
Where Russia Went Wrong
By MICHAEL HUDSON
  «The neoliberal failure to distinguish between productive and merely extractive or speculative forms of gain seeking has created a travesty of the kind of wealth creation that Adam Smith described in The Wealth of Nations. The financialization of economies has been decoupled from tangible capital investment to expand employment and productive powers.» 
[counterpunch/hudson]

[And a penultimate (sort of) citation:]

May 20, 2009
The Latest in Junk Economics
The Toll Booth Economy
By MICHAEL HUDSON
  «After blaming Alan Greenspan for playing the role of "useful idiot" by promoting deregulation and blocking prosecution of financial fraud, most writers trot out the approved panaceas: federal regulation of derivatives (or even banning them altogether), a Tobin tax on securities transactions, closure of offshore banking centers and ending their tax-avoidance stratagems. No one presumes to go to the root of the financial problem by removing the general tax deductibility of interest that has subsidized debt leveraging, by taxing "capital" gains at the same rate as wages and profits, or by closing the notorious tax loopholes for the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sectors.» 
[counterpunch/hudson]

Here, a compulsory comment: One of the absolute worst distorters of the market, any market, be it foot-loose and fancy-free or utterly f**ked-up, is tax. Somehow people just hate tax. (I usually try to avoid the H-word - like the (swine-flu!) plague.) But. No slouches in 'neo-liberal' f**king-up, Hawke/Keating brought in 'negative gearing.' One may be able to excuse that, on the grounds that (a) by allowing investment-property owners to run at a (for them tax-reducing) loss, renters might pay less than the market might otherwise bear; and (b) in fact, negative gearing did *not* markedly accelerate the 'normal' house-price inflation. But, again. Costello halved the CGT, thus setting off an almost immediate 100+% house-price inflation. This is 101% *provable*. I can allow, that it was not *only* the CGT halving, at the time interest-rates were low - but (again; now the 3rd - and how insulting!) the low interest-rates and the CGT halving idea were both *imported*! Nevertheless, to this very day, Howard/Costello are 'celebrated' (by the corrupt & venal MSM, including the AusBC) - as 'good financial managers.' (As the constipated mathematician said: "Work that out!" - With a pencil, presumably.)

-=*=-

Fazit: Nothing 'gets up my nose' further or faster than unfairness. It seems to me, that (some? Most? All?) rotten, right-wing (and erring!) US ideologues, to deploy the H-word again, just hate - their, by accident of birth or whatever, but anyhow in their bigoted sights disgustingly lesser fellow wo/men. What else can explain the constant, relentless attempts - to reduce any and all 'support' - for the so-called 'lower classes?' What else can explain the constant, relentless (class) warfare - against labour unions?' What else can explain the constant, relentless pressure - reducing the sheople's wages?' What else can explain the constant, relentless destruction - of the sheople's democracies?' (Obviously, if one is (born? Got lucky? Stole heaps) - but however rich, then one needs neither 'assistance' nor democracy. Money rules, OK?) Anyway. It should be obvious, that the US system is *not* one of so-called 'equality/egalitarian.' The exact reverse. There is a so-called (rich) 'élite' - although my thesis is that since this so-called 'élite' is actually, hardened criminal, they do not deserve any 'élite' tag - except possibly and always 'criminal élite' (hereafter 'kleptocracy.') Worse, this kleptocracy has usurped the power that by definition belongs to the sheople, and absolute worst (apart, of course, from the murdering-to-steal wars), is the banking swindle deeply imbedded within this kleptocracy.

Then, not only 'no support' but actively doing all they can possibly think of to reduce the 'wo/men in the street' to (no 'health' care = sick) penury. The wide effect of all the neo-liberal bullshit has been to seriously degrade living conditions, even the life, of 'the sheople.'

We need to stop, or cause to be stopped, the vicious, murdering-to-steal wars. We need to stop, or cause to be stopped, the rotten rip-offs. We need truth and justice; a life free of fear for all - and for universal health care to be firmly placed into the 'no worries' basket. In this essay, I have concentrated on the wicked bankster swindle. See the PS for some hope.

-=*end*=-

PS As usual, it's not much good complaining - without offering some possible solution. Here is one:

  «The most brilliant banking model in our national history was established in the first half of the eighteenth century, in Benjamin Franklin's home province of Pennsylvania. The local government created its own bank, which issued money and lent it to farmers at a modest interest. The provincial government created enough extra money to cover the interest not created in the original loans, spending it into the economy on public services. The bank was publicly owned, and the bankers it employed were public servants. The interest generated on its loans was sufficient to fund the government without taxes; and because the newly issued money came back to the government, the result was not inflationary.7 The Pennsylvania banking scheme was a sensible and highly workable system that was a product of American ingenuity but that never got a chance to prove itself after the colonies became a nation. It was an ironic twist, since according to Benjamin Franklin and others, restoring the power to create their own currency was a chief reason the colonists fought for independence. The bankers' money-creating machine has had two centuries of empirical testing and has proven to be a failure. It is time the sovereign right to create money is taken from a private banking elite and restored to the American people to whom it properly belongs.» 
[globalresearch/Brown, ibid.]

Another possibility can be found here: Revive Lincoln's Monetary Policy, also from Ellen Brown.

PPS As for the inexcusable (if slightly misquoted) Fraser's "Life wasn't meant to be easy;" whose snivelling similar "curled upper-lip" would-be sound-alike successor steps out (34 years later), "Life wasn't meant to be dominated by the ugly, murderingly criminal rogue regimes of the US and horrid, psychotic side-kick Israel either." Certainly not! Sooo, riddle me this, lords and masters - why is it, that the 'best in the world' is producing such really shitty results? Eh? 

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] The second law of thermodynamics ...

  « .. is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium.» 
[wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

Our primary source of energy (we the sheople's, our once jewel-like planet's ecosphere etc.) - is our 'local' thermo-nuclear reactor, aka the Sun. Fossil carbon (oil, coal) is 'borrowed' solar energy, but burning it - in the awfully unsustainable way that we currently are - is in no way 'free;' it is thought (by, amongst others, the best scientific brains on the planet) that the excess-CO2 thus set free can - and most likely will - cripple our 'life-friendly' biosphere. In clear text, it is our 'life-friendly' biosphere which provides us, we the sheople, with our life sustaining energy-inputs. What if that system becomes so damaged, that it fails to keep up with our needs?

Yair; what then? (Tip: Can't eat oil, gold - or $s.)

[2] Veni, Vedi, Veci ...

  « .. alternatively, the remark can be viewed as an expression of [the sheople]'s contempt for the wealthy [US & Israel] kloptocracy, who gave little concern to the lower-class citizens who formed the major part of [the world]'s constituency.» 
[wiki/Veni,_vidi,_vici]

[3] Nazism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  «However, the Nazis often used the church to justify their stance and included many Christian symbols in the Third Reich while in other cases, they replaced ...» 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism - 306k

Comment: Better not be (further) deceived: "The Church" is not, on the whole and any/all where, positive (massive understatement!)

[4] money n. 1 coins and banknotes as a medium of exchange. 2 (pl. -eys or -ies) (in pl.) sums of money. 3 a wealth. b wealth as power (money talks). [POD]

[5] cipher (also cypher) —n. 1 a secret or disguised writing. b thing so written. c key to it. 2 arithmetical symbol (0) used to occupy a vacant place in decimal etc. numeration. 3 person or thing of no importance. —v. write in cipher. [Arabic sifr] [ibid.]

[6] Lakoff: taught us about 'framing.' Take as some 'random' example, say: The Holocaust. Any mention at all; good, bad or indifferent, immediately plunges the discussion into the frame that 'they' (here unspecified, but hint: the I/J/Z-plex) - have spent the last 61+ years (a) viciously exploiting and (b) pathetically refining; namely the frame of "Poor little Jewish David, facing the 'ugly Arab monster' (these days more often 'ugly Arab Islamo-fascist monster') - Goliath." Seriously. That's *really* what they still do, in this day and (internet-enlightened) age. One practical way of avoiding such a filthy propaganda-trap is to say "Yes. Sad. The Nazis really were bad; but that can never excuse Israel mass-murdering Palestinians to steal Palestinian land and water!" - and then move (briskly!) on.

-=*=-

Epilogue: I started with a '2nd,' then came a '3rd' and a '4th.' What about a '1st?'

OK, this: Do unto others ... do no harm. Suitably sanction any/all laws/rights violators.