The Common Good - 8

The Common Bad

Today we will once again, as we have for several years, talk about the coming bankruptcies of cities and states.

Specifically, let's talk about the bankruptcy of Detroit, which unlike bankster banks, was not too big to fail.

But first, let's review the purpose for this series.

Regular readers know that in this series we have been reminding ourselves about the purpose for government.

That purpose is the common good a.k.a. the public good.

In the first post we looked at that concept as it was expressed in the preamble to the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution (The Common Good).

The Preamble to the supreme law of the land begins "We the people of the United States ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Constitution of the people is the law that was designed to guide all government and national policies, both foreign and domestic.

As the graphic at the top of today's post shows, when our nation began to violate the supreme law and its purposes, we began to replace the common good with the common bad, i.e., some of us began to cannibalize the rest of us.

This happened often during the darker ages and feudal times which the founders of our republic revolted against, after living through and seeing what social cannibalism by the powerful few did to the many:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?, quoting "The Father of The Constitution"). What was fresh on President James Madison's mind was the dark ages of feudalism as well as what caused that dark age of feudalism:

Warfare was endemic in the feudal period, but feudalism did not cause warfare; warfare caused feudalism.
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Feudalism was the medieval model of government predating the birth of the modern nation-state. Feudal society is a military hierarchy in which a ruler or lord offers mounted fighters a fief (medieval beneficium), a unit of land to control in exchange for a military service. The individual who accepted this land became a vassal, and the man who granted the land become known as his liege or his lord. The deal was often sealed by swearing oaths on the Bible or on the relics of saints.
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Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony, which was composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces.
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Feudalism was a political system which was dominant in Europe during the Middle Ages. First used in the 1600s, the term refers to a hierarchy of reciprocal military and legal obligations among the nobility. In simplified terms, a lesser noble (the vassal) would pledge his loyalty (fealty) to a higher noble (the lord) in exchange for land (a fief). In return, the vassal gave military service to the lord. As armies were expensive to raise and maintain, a lord was able to distribute the cost (in men and money) among his vassals.
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Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military service. King William the Conqueror used the concept of feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help in the conquest of England. Life lived under the Medieval Feudal System, or Feudalism, demanded that everyone owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior.
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The feudal society was constructed for one reason: security. The nobles wanted the security of maintaining control over their far-reaching kingdoms, so they were forced to delegate power to local control. The peasants wanted security from marauders and barbarians from neighboring lands. They also wanted security from invading armies. And thus the development of the feudal system and the fief structure was almost inevitable. However, all this came at the great expense of the common man. He gave up many freedoms for his security. The question we ask you is: Was it worth it?

(American Feudalism - 6, emphasis in original). This is as true today as it was during those feudal, and later revolutionary times centuries ago:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

(The States of War Budgets, 2/16/2010, quoting President Eisenhower). Yes, General Eisenhower, like the founders of America before him, knew what war budgets have to do with the impoverishment of the people, that is, the cannibalization of the many by the few via warmongering:

Then-defense secretary Robert M. Gates stopped bagging his leaves when he moved into a small Washington military enclave in 2007. His next-door neighbor was Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, who had a chef, a personal valet and — not lost on Gates — troops to tend his property.

Gates may have been the civilian leader of the world’s largest military, but his position did not come with household staff. So, he often joked, he disposed of his leaves by blowing them onto the chairman’s lawn.

“I was often jealous because he had four enlisted people helping him all the time,” Gates said in response to a question after a speech Thursday. He wryly complained to his wife that “Mullen’s got guys over there who are fixing meals for him, and I’m shoving something into the microwave. And I’m his boss.”

Of the many facts that have come to light in the scandal involving former CIA director David H. Petraeus, among the most curious was that during his days as a four-star general, he was once escorted by 28 police motorcycles as he traveled from his Central Command headquarters in Tampa to socialite Jill Kelley’s mansion ...

The commanders who lead the nation’s military services and those who oversee troops around the world enjoy an array of perquisites befitting a billionaire, including executive jets, palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.

The elite regional commanders who preside over large swaths of the planet don’t have to settle for Gulfstream V jets. They each have a C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737 ...

(American Feudalism - 3). We can pinpoint in greater detail exactly when the very latest episode of cannibalism surged in our nation:

So while some banks are getting trillions in bailout money, other banks are going down in near record numbers? Lets dig deeper.

The graph [] shows the military economy going straight up through the roof at the same time that banks are going down and while the domestic economy tanks into the basement.

You walk the low road, we'll march the high road

There are several obvious things wrong with this picture, however, I want to focus on a hidden economic "mystery" that the MSM will not yet talk about.

The red vertical line shows when "the most expensive public works legislation in US history" was passed.

The green line shows a reasonable time frame, following the passage of that bill into law, until "shovel ready" projects could have begun to receive funding pursuant to that public works spending revolution.

The mystery is that the domestic non-military trend line stays flat while the military trend line keeps climbing.

Following the domestic trend line, it is clear that "the most expensive public works legislation in US history" had no effect on the domestic economy, in fact, the domestic economy soon got worse.

In fact it was just after John McCain said "the economy is fundamentally sound" that the graph shows the domestic economy did a steep dive.

Perhaps he was talking about the military oil complex budget which he considers to be "the economy"? The military oil complex economy was the only one raking in the taxpayer's money hand over fist.

The yellow vertical line on the graph represents the U.S. infrastructure suffering a major bridge collapse after the greatest public works spending in U.S. history should have been fully operational.

This collapse indicates how much that public works money was needed here at home.

Did that money make its way to Baghdad where the largest, most fancy, and most mismanaged embassy in the world was being built? Or Dubai where the largest building and largest airport in the world were being built?

(Six More Banks Bite The Dust, 12/5/2009). That Dredd Blog post was written four years ago, so we saw it coming: "... [expect] to see more U.S. municipalities declare bankruptcy", and even worse:

Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

(The States of War Budgets - 3, 1/21/2011, emphasis added). The Detroit bankruptcy is part of the plunder of Americans by feudal warlords who will stop at nothing.

Nothing.

Better wake up doods and doodettes, the military has overthrown the common good for the benefit of The Epigovernment.

Let's close with a quote from the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, USA:

Article 10. Right of Revolution

“Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind."

(Wikipedia, "Constitution of New Hampshire, 6/2/1784"). Does that make sense for the entire U.S.A. (since all U.S. states do not have such a law; but Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Texas also have this notion in their constitutions, see Wikipedia - Right of Revolution)?

The "Father of the U.S. Constitution" thought so.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.