Economic War Of The Pacific - 5

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has been watching events on the economic front from time to time.

Events that show the damage our lusty military spending is doing to our economy.

Various aspects of this phenomenon concern world currency, various import-export aspects of international trade, and the incessant waste caused my military madmen who want to murder and plunder across the globe.

Whether or not one wants to argue that these economic results are the affect of decline of one nation, the rise of another, or the rise of many, the essence of what we have been talking about is:

"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else."

(A Decline Of The American Republic, 2, 3, quoting Fareed Zakaria). I think that the predictions of the founders indicates a decline caused by imperialism, warmongering, and draining the economy of the middle class (The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?).

In other words, the plundering of the 99% in America by the 1%.

One statistic of the data, which Dredd Blog has pointed out, is that the U.S. is no longer number one, rather, China is an economic power now:

Hang on to your hats, America.

And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just

Review Due - On Sale Now

overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.

It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.

The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.

As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.

To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.

This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.

(Economic War Of The Pacific - 4, quoting Market Watch). The economists from Cygnus who "helped" to get us into this mess are morphing into apologists (e.g. Forbes).

But, outside their clueless bubble there are volumes of reality available (‘Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis’, Capital, a book by Thomas Piketty).

Meanwhile, as usual, China is not sitting or holding back, they are still on the move:

"Protests over democracy in Hong Kong may be preoccupying the Chinese leadership, but a subject of still greater international importance is being played out this week behind closed doors in Washington. China is bidding to enter the heart of global finance by establishing its currency, the renminbi, as part of an ubiquitous monetary unit used in official transactions around the world." - USA Today

---

"China is calling for a global currency to replace the dominant dollar, showing a growing assertiveness on revamping the world economy ahead of next week's London summit on the financial crisis.

The surprise proposal by Beijing's central bank governor reflects unease about its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and adds to Chinese pressure to overhaul a global financial system dominated by the dollar and Western governments. Both the United States and the European Union brushed off the idea.

The world economic crisis shows the "inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system," Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an essay released Monday by the bank. He recommended creating a currency made up of a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund and said it would help "to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability."

Zhou did not mention the dollar by name. But in an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for a foreign audience." - ABC News

---

"China-rmb-world-currency

March 4, 2015
Bangkok, Thailand

When I arrived to Bangkok the other day, coming down the motorway from the airport I saw a huge billboard—and it floored me.

The billboard was from the Bank of China. It said: “RMB: New Choice; The World Currency”

Given that the Bank of China is more than 70% owned by the government of the People’s Republic of China, I find this very significant.

It means that China is literally advertising its currency overseas, and it’s making sure that everyone landing at one of the world’s busiest airports sees it. They know that the future belongs to them and they’re flaunting it." - Simon Black

That notion of becoming independent of the world currency, the U.S. dollar, has caused recent wars (MOMCOM and The Sins of Libya, 2, 3, cf. a discussion of "the foreigner trance": Comparing a Group-Mind Trance to a Cultural Amygdala).

That is especially so when mixed with the psychotic lust and greed for crude oil, the poison that is destroying the ecosystem and global climate system (The Peak Of The Oil Wars, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

The forefathers clearly warned us against exactly what is taking place today:

"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." - James Madison

---

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

---

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

We have become a warmongering neoFeudalistic empire (American Feudalism, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11).

An empire that is committing suicide by waging wars to acquire the poison crude oil that is destroying the only habitat we must preserve in order to survive.

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

---

"Stepping In A Slide Zone", by The Moody Blues

---

The Rehabilitation of High Priest Bush II - 3

Oil-Qaeda Warlords Aplenty

This Oil-Qaeda bunch gives the word "progressive" new meaning.

They are progressing all right, or better said, they are all progressing to the right.

As usual, they are doing so with dire consequences for everyone except their Oil-Qaeda cohorts and minions.

They are among all of those in The Private Empire (MOMCOM: The Private Parts, 2, 3, 4, 5) who co-own the fleets and who send those fleets to Oilandia (The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil - 5).

The Decider, also known as The High Priest In Chief, dimmed the lights of The Bushie Klan, by writing a letter to the French President explaining why he invaded Iraq:

The revelation this month in GQ magazine that Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary embellished top-secret wartime memos with quotations from the Bible prompts a question. Why did he believe he could influence President

With God On Our Side

Bush by that means?

The answer may lie in an alarming story about George Bush’s Christian millenarian beliefs that has yet to come to light.

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:

“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.

The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elysée Palace, baffled by Bush’s words, sought advice from Thomas Römer, a professor of

"Like, if you want my bro for preznit ..."

theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Römer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university’s review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.

The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have

Jeb's God is on Oil-Qaeda's Side

been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs”.

In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on “a mission from God” in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord.

There can be little doubt now that President Bush’s reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam’s Iraq was the fulfilment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord.

(Bush, God, Iraq and Gog, cf. The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief). Thus, as Dredd Blog surmised some years ago, there would need to be a rehabilitation movement in our future:

Some of you will remember that Dredd Blog saw this coming a while back:

Can you say "what Iraq war"?

The whole war episode may be played out after the fact as something that heroically saved the nation from a catastrophe caused by peak oil.

Especially "since all that pie in the sky lefty Al Gore green energy is a thousand years in the future".

The billboard sign of Bush II in Texas asking "Do you miss me yet" will take on a new meaning, and he may be seen as a hero who had the vision to save the nation.

(Iraq: World's Number One Oil Producer?). Jeb Bush can't run for president unless and until his Big Brother Bush II is seen in a better light.

MOMCOM is going to try to wash the brains of the people, yes, scrub them so hard that her favorite bushie will be loved by all once again.

(The Rehabilitation of High Priest Bush II, 2010, emphasis added). That expected future which not many would believe back about five years ago, in 2010, is here now isn't it?

How it turns out will be determined by the propaganda techniques developed by Oil-Qaeda experts in propaganda:

THE conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.

They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses to take toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons — a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty [now 320] million — who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.
...
It is the purpose of this book to explain the structure of the mechanism which controls the public mind, and to tell how it is manipulated by the special pleader who seeks to create public acceptance for a particular idea or commodity. It will attempt at the same time to find the due place in the modern democratic scheme for this new propaganda and to suggest its gradually evolving code of ethics and practice.

(The Ways of Bernays, quoting American propagandist Bernays). At the moment the T-bagger arm of insanity is mounting the attack against Jebber The Whut because he is "too librul."

Go figure.

The previous post in this series is here.

---

"Pour some sugar on me ..." - Bill Maher

---

Sarah Barbie Bush: "I've chained my mind ..."

---

Economic War Of The Pacific - 4

China is Now Number One

I began this series in October of 2009, wondering how seriously "it" would be taken.

Economists are considered by many to be aliens from way out there somewhere (Economists - Aliens From Cygnus?).

So, not many people in the U.S. considered China (as we once did Japan) seriously, even as the nation of China was taking "it" seriously, but now that "it" has happened years earlier than had been expected, "it" may now be considered serious business:

Hang on to your hats, America.

And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it.

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet.

It just happened — and almost nobody noticed.

The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers for the world economy. And when you measure national economic output in “real” terms of goods and services, China will this year produce $17.6 trillion — compared with $17.4 trillion for the U.S.A.

As recently as 2000, we produced nearly three times as much as the Chinese.

To put the numbers slightly differently, China now accounts for 16.5% of the global economy when measured in real purchasing-power terms, compared with 16.3% for the U.S.

This latest economic earthquake follows the development last year when China surpassed the U.S. for the first time in terms of global trade.

(It’s Official: America is Now No. 2, emphasis added). In 2009, five years ago, when the U.S. was well ahead, I wrote:

[Lee Yew] predicted that the U.S. is on its way to losing dominance in the Pacific, where according to Yew, the economic game of the future will take place:

“The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that’s where the growth will be,” Lee said. U.S. President Barack Obama, he said, must understand this.

“If you do not hold your ground in the Pacific you cannot be a world leader,” Lee said, “That’s number one.”

“Number two, to hold ground in the Pacific, you must not let your fiscal deficits and dollar come to grief,” he said.

(Bloomberg). He indicated a great concern, which we have mentioned time and again on this blog, which is the war against the use of the U.S. currency as the world's business currency.

He fully expects India and China to become economically dominant through cold, calculating, economic pragmatism as the United States diminishes to third-rate, then less.

(Economic War Of The Pacific). One thing that Lee Yew surely did not expect to happen was how suddenly it took place, because he also said:

“In 30 years they’ll have an economy, not per capita but in total terms, bigger than the U.S.A.,” and China is now building political and strategic influence to protect its economic growth, Lee said.

(ibid, at quote). He expected this "China is number one" to take place circa 2039, but it happened 25 years sooner than that in 2014.

Incredibly, it happened in only a mere 5 years, not in the expected 30 years.

In the previous post of this series I followed up on this issue, reading economists who saw "it" happening sooner than Lee Yew had:

Almost exactly five years later, I followed up with The Government Catastrophe Has Already Happened, pointing out that while officials in the U.S. government squabble and waste our wealth and time, our reputation in the world plummets (Decline of U.S. Reputation - Why?, She's Come Undone).

During that time other Dredd Blog Series added details (First Shots Fired In The Currency Wars, Phase Five Of The Currency Wars? - 3, Clash of the Titans of Export, Clash of the Titans of Export - 2, and the like.

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog had the direction things were going clearly in sight:

The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.

The US has been the global leader since overtaking the UK in 1872. Most economists previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019.

(Financial Times; or Voice of America). This new estimation written about in a report by the International Comparison Program, which is part of the United Nations, puts the date about five years earlier than previously expected.

(Economic War Of The Pacific - 3). No one would have said it would happen in five years, in 2014, but it has.

Wars are bringing the 1% to their thrones of wealth (American Feudalism - 10) even as those wars are bringing the 99% to more poverty and inequality (The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?, War is the Highway 61 of the 1%).

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

---

"Telegraph Road", by Dire Straits (lyrics)

---

The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief - 3

"You are doin' a heckuva job Bremmie"

The asshole pathogen (On The Origin of Assholes) is acting up again in the cup of neoCons which is Bremmer full of crap and running over.

It is giving sane people a rash.

In the photo the the left Bremmer I of a Crock is anointed Bishop of Baghdad by Bush II of Duh Ranch.

The Bush II is very, very happy that he listened to The God of Peace the War God Mithra then invaded Iraq as The Book of the Apocalypse Revelation sang to him "Prepare The World For Peace and Democracy" to the tune of Oil-Qaeda Uber Alles:

The President of France, Chirac, received a mixed missive from the President of the United States, Bush II.

It was so mixed that it confused Chirac.

Bush II told Chirac, in an official government communiqué, that the war against Iraq was god-ordained and prophesied in the Bible.

To support his dogmatic statement, Bush II pointed out these verses:

7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be

loosed out of his prison,

8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

(ICH, Revelation 20). A hand me down quotation by the Leader of the Free World, from a book controversially said to have been written circa A.D. 90 by the Apostle John, even though the first verse of the book says "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him".

(The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief, 5/26/09). The Bush II went on to point out “This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins” (ibid, ICH).

The counsellors who injected the policy of the Crusades into the vacuous brain of Bush II were out on the dogma trail preaching to the choir:

The Lord is a warrior and in Revelation 19 it says when he comes back, he's coming back as what? A warrior. A mighty warrior leading a mighty army, riding a white horse with a blood-stained white robe ... I believe that blood on that robe is the blood of his enemies 'cause he's coming back as a warrior carrying a sword.

And I believe now - I've checked this out - I believe that sword he'll be

"Jesus is coming with an AR-15" - U.S. General

carrying when he comes back is an AR-15.

Now I want you to think about this: where did the Second Amendment come from? ... From the Founding Fathers, it's in the Constitution. Well, yeah, I know that. But where did the whole concept come from? It came from Jesus when he said to his disciples 'now, if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.'

I know, everybody says that was a metaphor. IT WAS NOT A METAPHOR! He was saying in building my kingdom, you're going to have to fight at times. You won't build my kingdom with a sword, but you're going to have to defend yourself. And that was the beginning of the Second Amendment, that's where the whole thing came from. I can't prove that historically and David [Barton] will counsel me when this is over, but I know that's where it came from.

And the sword today is an AR-15, so if you don't have one, go get one. You're supposed to have one. It's biblical.

(On The Origin of the Crusader Pathogen). One has to wonder if McTell News is feeling a bit guilty and naked about singing "Onward Christian Poachers" to the nation as High Priest in Chief Bush II was preparing his Papal Bull?

After all, it is torture awareness month:

I’ll bet you didn’t know that June is “torture awareness month” thanks to the fact that, on June 26, 1987, the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment went into effect internationally. In this country, however, as a recent Amnesty International survey indicated, Americans are essentially living in Torture Unawareness Month, or perhaps even Torture Approval Month, and not just in June 2014 but every month of the year.

(A Tale of Torture). The sign of that is when the McTell News doubles down, down, down ... and puts on the Saran Rap.

The McTell News and government rap about "4,000 killed in the Iraq War" is one pathetic cover up  directed by self-righteous crusader exceptionalism.

The truth is that millions of Iraqi's were wounded, made refugees, and/or killed.

The karmic aftermath is also telling:

The full number is unknown, but at least 22 per day, i.e. at least 8,000 "warriors" commit suicide each year.

Add to that the VA criminal scandal, and a host of "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" events leave a sour taste in the mouth of people who still have their wits about them.

(Newsmax). American imperialistic "foreign policy" is all foreign and no policy, so, let's just call it what it is: psychotic alien cognition.

The previous post in this series is here.

---

A McTell News rep explains what happened that caused Bremmie to get a heckuva necklace ...

---

Economic War Of The Pacific - 3

This series began about four and a half years ago in October of 2009.

In that first post I quoted knowledgeable people concerning issues of the economic impact that Asian Nations, and specifically China, might have on the United States.

The economy of the future from the standpoint of Pacific Asian countries (Economic War Of The Pacific) and a follow up a few years later (Economic War Of The Pacific - 2) were concerns that our politicians never seemed to mention.

They were too busy trying to steal our Social Security, Health Care, and our safety net from us, by blaming the middle class and poor for what they were doing as puppets for the Epigovernment.

Almost exactly five years later, I followed up with The Government Catastrophe Has Already Happened, pointing out that while officials in the U.S. government squabble and waste our wealth and time, our reputation in the world plummets (Decline of U.S. Reputation - Why?, She's Come Undone).

During that time other Dredd Blog Series added details (First Shots Fired In The Currency Wars, Phase Five Of The Currency Wars? - 3, Clash of the Titans of Export, Clash of the Titans of Export - 2, and the like.

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog had the direction things were going clearly in sight:

The US is on the brink of losing its status as the world’s largest economy, and is likely to slip behind China this year, sooner than widely anticipated, according to the world’s leading statistical agencies.

The US has been the global leader since overtaking the UK in 1872. Most economists previously thought China would pull ahead in 2019.

(Financial Times; or Voice of America). This new estimation written about in a report by the International Comparison Program, which is part of the United Nations, puts the date about five years earlier than previously expected.

Meanwhile, the propagandists of McTell News want us to get militant in Syria, Iran, and the Ukraine.

It is as if they have been planning the American decline all along (A Decline Of The American Republic - 3).

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

The Rehabilitation of High Priest Bush II - 2

"Like, if you want my bro to be next preznit"

The alchemists, witchy brewers, and warmongering filth peddlers in McTell News, who work feverishly for the Epigovernment, are all aTwitter and very exuberant over something they can't get over.

They miss the genetic descendants of Oilah Akbar, that is, they miss those who engineered global pollution caused global warming, and who still haphazardly lead Oil-Qaeda, yes, they miss the oil barons who are still prominent in the evolution of the death of our current civilization.

"It ain't no dynasty from Dallas"

The Supreme Five, who, in Foreign Citizens United v FEC and McCutcheon v FEC let loose one of the few restraints remaining on the 1% Plutocracy's ability to outright buy elections, by putting elections on sale at a discount.

It is just another coup in a long line of incremental coups that have been changing America into Amurka (A Tale of Coup Cities, A Tale of Coup Cities - 9).

Not many would have thought that they would ever try to rehabilitate the bushies in the eyes of the public, but Dredd Blog did:

Jeb Bush can't run for president unless and until his Big Brother Bush II is seen in a better light.

MOMCOM is going to try to wash the brains of the people, yes, scrub them so hard that her favorite bushie will be loved by all once again.

Don't misunderestimate High Priest Bush II, or misunderinvestigate this seemingly impossible propaganda task, because they are deceit on steroids.

(Dredd Blog, November 9, 2010; cf. Leadership: The Lost Art). Now that the traffic cop on steroids, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, has soiled his pants, Jebber The Whut is going to try to step into his large shoes.

Meanwhile, Karl "We Make Reality" Rove has promised the Jebber that he can win, for a cool billion buckos ("thanks supreme five"), and all the sycophants have nodded their wobble-heads toward heaven, praising Saint Adelson of Las Vegas.

So, the horse-shit race is on.

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

---

"Pour some sugar on me ..." - Bill Maher (click the YouTube button lower right)

---

Deja Voodoo: The September 11 Psychosis

One was Texas Medicine

In the recent Dredd Blog post Deja Voodoo we remembered some of the "voodoo" spectacles of previous times.

Today as we near September 11 we also approach another invasion of another Middle Eastern country.

This time some of our allies have had to cut the U.S. Wartocracy trance loose, and go with the sensibilities of their citizens.

A majority of American citizens have cut it loose too, but nevertheless it hangs around like a voodoo medicine man making deja voodoo war over and over again.

Our warmongering Wartocracy, which the feudal lords like to call "government of the people, by the people, and for the people", is a constant lie storm like a haboob that migrated to their homeland from the deserts in the east.

The deserts they have bloodied with their spells and fits of blood-oil-lust for a century (Universal Smedley - 2, Viva Egypt - 2).

Congress is being sold on the Railroad Gin again, as if it was Texas Medicine.

Sold on it by the rainman, the Pentagon ... those who rain down fire and brimstone but call it "peace."

Sometimes a musical riff describes a government caught in a trance, and sometimes lyrics will help to do the job competently:

---

"Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again."

--Bob Dylan

---

Sometimes the stark truth will do the job nicely too, so you fill in the blanks in this speech given prior to another war in a previous time:

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution.

I am deeply troubled that lives may be lost without a meaningful attempt to bring [nation x] into compliance with UN resolutions through careful and cautious diplomacy.

The bottom line is I don’t trust this President and his advisors.

Make no mistake, we are voting on a resolution that grants total authority to the President who wants to invade a sovereign nation without any [conclusively proven] act of provocation. This would authorize the United States to act as the aggressor for the [nth] time in our history.

It sets a precedent for our nation - or any nation - to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.

Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a President who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence.
...
What is most unconscionable is that there is [inconclusive] evidence to justify the certain loss of life. Do the generalized threats and half-truths of this Administration give any one of us in Congress the confidence to tell a mother or father or family that the loss of their child or loved one was in the name of a just cause?
...
Aside from the wisdom of going to war as [president ???] wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination.

The Administration admits to a cost of around [$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$.$$]!

Now, wealthy individuals won’t pay. They’ve got big tax cuts already.

Corporations won’t pay. They’ll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the [politicians].

Rich kids won’t pay. Their daddies will get them deferments ...

Well then, who will pay?

School kids will pay. There’ll be no money to keep them from being left behind - way behind.

Seniors will pay. They’ll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war.

Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won’t be any money for a drug benefit because [president ???] will spend it all on the war.

Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights.

Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality.

And the entire nation will pay as [president ???] continues to destroy civil rights, women’s rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.

The questions before the members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from [nation x]. The call for war is wrong.

And what greatly saddens me at this point in our history is my fear that this entire spectacle has not been planned for the well being of the world, but for the short-term political interest of our President.

Now, I am also greatly disturbed that many [political party] leaders have also put political calculation ahead of the President’s accountability to truth and reason by supporting this resolution.

But, I conclude that the only answer is to vote no on the resolution before us.

(The Stark Truth, 2009). Hear hear!

Deja voodoo all over again -- CONGRESS -- snap out of the trance of Glory Daze.

---

"Once upon a time in the West"  (lyrics here):

Yes it's no use saying that you don't know nothing
It's still gonna get you if you don't do something
Sitting on a fence that's a dangerous course
Ah, you could even catch a bullet from the peace-keeping force
Even the hero gets a bullet in the chest
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west

Mother Mary your children are slaughtered
Some of you mothers ought to lock up your daughter
Who's protecting the innocenti
Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we're gonna do what's best
You guess once upon a time in the west

-Mark Knopfler

---

When The World Outlawed War

The book concerns, among other things, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928.

Interestingly, the pact would have (as an intended or unintended consequence) also outlawed feudalism (American Feudalism).

Not long after that agreement became official the largest and most deadly wars were fought.

Not only that, those wars included the use of nuclear weapons on civilian populations, and were fought between or among the first nations to have signed and ratified the treaty to outlaw wars.

And wars continue now, some 85 years later, as the memories of the treaty fade along with the rusting war tanks, mines, and other weapons slowly returning to the dust they came from.

That being the case, the probability formula P(H∣E.b) = P(H∣b)P(E∣H.b) / P(H∣b)P(E∣H.b)+P(¬H∣b)P(E∣¬H.b) says it is probable that war will get rid of us before we get rid of war.

I suppose that the mental state of those who engaged in the more recent wars is a consideration when attempting to solve the what-happened-to-the-treaty mystery:

In 2002, it was reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had told a friend an amusing tale about our man George W. Bush. It seems that the two of them and French President Jacques Chirac had gotten into an economics discussion, after which George supposedly confided to Tony that he was decidedly unimpressed with Jacques' views: "The problem with the French," Bush scoffed, "is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur.'"

(Jim Hightower, see also The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief and He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken).

Which reminds me of the Dredd Blog series The Germ Theory of Government.

War "breaks out" like some disease, causes more disease, and brings the worst out in nations and peoples (see The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins? and Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).

Surely it must be caused by germs related in some way to the corruption of power?

The next post in this series is here.

Economic War Of The Pacific - 2

The ill fated W Direction, Dredd Blog's term for describing U.S. foreign policy, is pushing other nations into corners.

This mindless policy which began in earnest with the neoCon infested Bush II Administration, we have complained, has been perpetuated by the Obama Administration.

When nations are pushed so that their backs are up against a wall, and our policy affords them no leeway, they tend to take steps that are not in the interests of all concerned.

For example, one of the Bush II "diplomacy" ideas involved putting missiles into Poland, near the Russian border, while claiming they were to protect Europe from an Iranian missile attack.

Likewise, the Obama Administration, as a form of "diplomacy", is pushing Russia on its Syrian policy, which also impacts China since it also supports Syria and Iran.

This is leading to some potential challenges for future naval strategy:

China will join Russia later this week for its largest-ever naval drills with a foreign partner, underlining deepening ties between the former cold war rivals along with Beijing's desire for closer links with regional militaries.

China has long been a key customer for Russian military hardware, but only in the last decade have their militaries begun taking part in joint exercises.

China's defence ministry said on Tuesday that its navy would send four destroyers, two guided missile frigates and a support ship for the exercises, which start on Friday in the Sea of Japan and run until 12 July.

The ships departed on Monday from the port of Qingdao, where China's Northern Fleet is based, and headed for the rallying point in Peter the Great Bay near Vladivostok.

"This marks our navy's single biggest deployment of military force in a China-foreign joint exercise," the ministry said.

(China to Join Russia for Largest Naval Drills). Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has pointed out the inherent dangers involved with escalations in warmongering, jingoistic rhetoric (The Most Dangerous Moment in Recorded History).

But there is also a danger that economic impacts, which are not in American interests, could be an unintended consequence of senseless hubris in foreign policy:

“The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that’s where the growth will be,” Lee said. U.S. President Barack Obama, he said, must understand this.

“If you do not hold your ground in the Pacific you cannot be a world leader,” Lee said, “That’s number one.”

“Number two, to hold ground in the Pacific, you must not let your fiscal deficits and dollar come to grief,” he said.

(Economic War Of The Pacific). It does not appear that alienating two important powers then having them react negatively to American interests is a workable policy.

Not in the long run anyway (Phase Four Of The Currency Wars?).

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

NeoCon Planet: The Presidents of Kolob

Bush II Transferred to Kolob

Regular readers know that recently Dredd blog discussed the 2012 GOP Platform (The Dogma of The High Priest in Chief).

That was the platform for the convention that did not mention their most recent president, Bush II.

Is "selective memory" just another word for "The Names That Shall Not Be Mentioned" at their convention designed to extol GOP virtues, and is the GOP straw-man chair on stage to always and forever be empty when they feature celebrity speakers who will talk to invisible, imaginary folks they have made up in their own imagination?

The empty RNC chair of all presidents who come out of their dogma closet to wreak havoc upon the Earth, then return to Bullshitistan, their favorite province on their favorite retirement planet Kolob? (more about Kolob below)...

In that recent post we wondered what planet that 2012 GOP Platform was talking about when it said:

The environment is getting cleaner and healthier. The nation’s air and waterways, as a whole, are much healthier than they were just a few decades ago. Efforts to reduce pollution, encourage recycling, educate the public, and avoid ecological degradation have been a success.

(The Right Is Wrong - 3). Well, upon further research we have found out that the GOP Platform for 2012 was in reference to a certain planet where old republican presidents go when they leave office:

Kolob is a star or planet described in Mormon scripture. Reference to Kolob is found in the Book of Abraham, a work published by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. According to this work, Kolob is the heavenly body nearest to the throne of God ... Kolob has never been identified with any modern astronomical object and is not recognized by scholars as a concept associated with any ancient civilization.

(Wikipedia, "Kolob"; see also Book of Abraham and Kolob). The theme song of the 2012 Republican Convention might as well have been done by Donnie & Marie: "Make The World Go Away" (Recorded at Kolob Recording Studios).

I have to concur with Bill Maher that there should be some new rules concerning presidential campaigning by presidential candidates who may want to later make rules for planet Earth:

---

---

The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief - 2

The Persistence of Memory

The Obama guys referred all questions about the Clint Eastwood speech at the Republican Convention last night to artist Salvador Dali (see painting to the left).

Those who had hoped that "He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken" (a.k.a. The High Priest In Chief) would show up and speak magic Bushisms were disappointed, but they were a tad mystified when The Outlaw Josie Wales showed up instead, with an empty chair, and then went on to talk with the empty chair about "serious republican subjects."

Bush II watched with Cheney I from an undisclosed disposition as Josie gave new meaning to The Chair of the RNC (Reince "E Pluribus" Priebus).

Shortly into "Josie's Speech" Bush II said to Cheney I, "this reminds me of my speech introducing my update to the Bible":

"I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened." —Calgary, Canada, March 17, 2009

(The Complete Bushisms). Cheney I quickly mumbled "torture is good" then they both refocused their attention to Josie.

When Josie got to the part about getting all rogue and mavericky then robbing banks Bush II excitedly quipped to Cheney I:

"One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis." —Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

(ibid, see also Banker Jekyll Will Hyde Your Money). In the final excruciating minutes of watching "the Josie Speech", Bush II waxed philosophical then got teary eyed.

He then put his arm around Cheney I who was feasting on roasted pig brains and still mumbling "torture is good", when Dubya said "Josie should wrap this up with one of my good lines", like:

"I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 12, 2009

(ibid). Cheney I wiped his hands off on Bush II's shirt, as he mumbled "torture is good", before falling asleep during the applause.

Bush II turned out the lights as he spoke under his breath, "Jeb said he loves me."

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

---

The Song About The Josie Wales Speech
(apologies to The Travelling Wilburys ...
the video of this song is below)
-//-
Tweeter and the monkey man hard up for campaign cash
Stayed up all night selling Koch pain and "stash"
To an undercover cop who had a sister "Gov. Jan"
For reasons unexplained she loved the monkey man

Tweeter was a boy scout before missin' a bus to vietnam
And found out the hard way nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found freedom just across the jersey line
So they hopped Gov. Christie's car took highway 99

(chorus)
And the walls came down all the way to hell
Never saw them when they're standing
Never saw them when they fell

The undercover cop never liked the monkey man
Even back in childhood he wanted to see him in the can
Jan got married at fourteen to a rackateer named bill
She made secret calls to the monkey man from a mansion on the hill

It was out on thunder road - Josie Wales at the wheel
They crashed into paradise - they could hear them tires squeal
The undercover cop pulled up and said everyone of you's a liar
If you don't surrender now it's gonna poll down to the wire

(chorus)

An ambulance rolled up - a state trooper close behind
Tweeter took his gun away and messed up his mind
The undercover cop was left tied up to a tree
Near the souvenir stand by a Bain-abandoned factory

Next day the undercover cop was hot in pursuit
He was taking the whole thing personal
He didn't care about the loot
Jan had told him many times Gov. Christie always taught
In jersey anythings legal as long as you don't get caught

(chorus)

Someplace by rahway prison they ran out of gas
The undercover cop had cornered them said boy, you didn't
Think that this could last
Jan jumped out of bed said there's someplace I gotta go
She took a gun out of the drawer and said it's best if you don't know

The undercover cop was found face down in a field
The monkey man was on the river bridge using Cheney as a shield
Jan said to the monkey man I'm not fooled by Cheney's curl
I knew him long before he ever became a jersey girl

(chorus)

Now the town of jersey city is quieting down again
I'm sitting in a gambling club "Wall Street Den"
The tv set been blown up, every bit of it is gone
Ever since the nightly news show that Josie's Speech was on

I guess I'll Jeb to florida and get myself some sun
There aint no more opportunity here, everything's been done
Sometime I think of tweeter, sometime I think of jan
Sometime I don't think about nothing but the monkey man

---

A Tale of Coup Cities - 3

"The vandals took the handles" - Dylan

In this series we have been talking about what appears to be a sudden change in national characteristics, using the word "coup" to describe those changes in the national fabric.

As with many words, this one poses some interesting prospects for discussion in the sense that the word "coup" is used for two purposes in the common vernacular.

Especially since it is, in one form of common usage, a nickname for "coup d'état".

This common loose usage, including Dredd Blog usage in posts of this series, happens in "U.S. English" even though there is potentially a night and day difference between the definition of "coup d'état", when compared with the main definition of "coup", which in some cases will become clear only after perusing the context it appears in.

The graphic above shows one of those "coup" times when the Vandals sacked Rome in 455 A.D., carrying away vast sums of wealth in various forms:

In the 440s, the Vandal king Genseric and the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, had betrothed their children, Huneric and Eudocia, to strengthen their alliance, reached in 442 with a peace treaty (the marriage was delayed as Eudocia was too young). In 455 Valentinian was killed, and Petronius Maximus rose to the throne. Petronius married Valentinian's widow, Licinia Eudoxia, and had his son Palladius marry Eudocia; in this way Petronius was to strengthen his bond with the Theodosian dynasty. This move, however, damaged Genseric's ambitions. The king of the Vandals claimed that the broken betrothal between Huneric and Eudocia was an invalidation of his peace treaty with Valentinian, and set sail to attack Rome.
...
It is accepted that Genseric looted great amounts of treasure from the city, destroying objects of cultural significance (hence the modern term vandalism), and also took Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters hostage. Eudocia later married Huneric. There is, however, some debate over the severity of the Vandal sack. The sack of 455 is generally seen by historians as being more thorough than the Visigothic sack of 410, because the Vandals plundered Rome for fourteen days whereas the Visigoths spent only three days in the city.

(Wikipedia). The killing of Valentinian was a coup d'état, which shows that the results of a coup d'état (Vandals sack Rome) are not always what those who pull off a coup d'état expect ("unintended consequences").

I have noticed that two prominent public figures in the United States have used the words coup and coup d'état to describe certain recent events that have taken place in the U.S., so I will share those with you, in the sequence that they were given:

"What happened in 9/11 is we didn't have a strategy. We didn't have bipartisan agreement. We didn't have American understanding of it. And we had instead a policy coup in this country, a coup, a policy coup.

Some hard nosed people took over American policy and they never bothered to inform the rest of us."

(A Tale of Coup Cities - 2, video at bottom, emphasis added). In the video quoted from, General Wesley Clark explains that he was in reference to the time frame of the "ten days" immediately following 9/11/01, when he visited the Pentagon.

It is important that we discern the meaning of the word coup, as well as the context in which General Clark used that word.

The definition of coup is "a highly successful, unexpected stroke, act, or move; a clever action or accomplishment".

But General Clark, from the tone and context of his speech, likely had in mind coup d'état, because it means "a sudden and decisive action in politics, especially one resulting in a change of government illegally or by force".

In that same context during his speech General Clark quoted Donald Rumsfeld, who told General Clark during his visit to the Pentagon: "Nobody is going to tell us where and when we can bomb, nobody."

The other prominent public figure whom I mentioned above, used this language:

I fear that at least since 2010 we’ve been witnessing a quiet, slow-motion coup d’etat whose purpose is to repeal every bit of progressive legislation since the New Deal and entrench the privileged positions of the wealthy and powerful — who haven’t been as wealthy or as powerful since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

(Robert Reich, emphasis added). This fits in with the series of Dredd Blog posts you may have already read, beginning with The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy.

---

Dylan Ratigan, once a Wall Street player who left to expose "Greedy Bastards", had an interesting show a while back: BookTV: Dylan Ratigan.

The subject of Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11 is discussed on two other media shows in videos: Fighting Terrorism For 200 Years - 3. Viewing all three MSNBC main stream media programs brings the evidence of a coup d'état more clearly into focus.

The Private Empire of oil barons is discussed in the post: MOMCOM: The Private Parts.

---

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

The W Direction = The Perilous Path

Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has talked about the direction in which the USA has been going.

We noted that it is a heading which Dredd Blog has called "The W Direction".

We have blogged over and over, continually warning Obama not to continue down that Bush II war trodden path, urging instead a change to a proper direction, but to no avail.

We began by asking the president to remember that his election had been due to a rejection, by the people, of Bush II policies (What Was Rejected In The Election, 3/31/09).

That issue of direction was revisited, pointing out the results of the traditional Newsweek poll which asked the populace about how they felt about our national direction, to which only 26% said we were heading in the proper direction, 74% indicating we were headed in the Wrong direction (The Circle W Cowboys, 6/25/10).

Those policies actually define what we call The W Direction (Titanic Mistakes Using The W Compass, 9/23/10).

Eventually, Obama went so far to the "right" (wrong) that Dredd Blog was forced to hope that he would run as the Republican candidate, so a Democrat could run against him (Obama: The Republican Candidate in 2012? - 2, 4/27/11).

Likewise, the base of the democrats, as well as independents finally realized the W direction was a deep rut, so Obama polled downward sharply (Obama Polls Downward - 2, 8/24/11).

The situation was so "exciting" that Dick Cheney stopped bragging about how many people he ordered to be tortured, and instead began to call for Hillary Clinton to run against Obama in 2012.

That engendered the notion of peril in the White House, so Obama got a brand new bag.

All of a sudden Obama seemed to realize that our "united" direction, one he has whole heartedly adhered to, was in need of change:

President Barack Obama warned Monday that the United States is headed down a "perilous path" if its leaders cannot move quickly and responsibly to help people get back to work.

(Obama says Perilous Path). Actually we have been on that perilous path for several generations in some national policies, for over a decade in other national policies, and back and forth on yet others.

But who controls the direction, who actually steers the ship of state is the big question, because if Obama does not, if congress does not, then the public back and forth debate between the president and the congress never means anything real.

Who are the masters of The W Direction?

In several previous, recent posts on Dredd Blog we have addressed the issue squarely (There Our Flag Was Still, Wee The People, The Homeland: Big Brother Plutonomy, Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland?, In Loco Parentis & Parens Patriae).

The recent post that sums it up quite well is Myth Addiction Is Establishment's LSD, which concludes with a video of an exasperated Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski commenting, as it were, on The Perilous W Direction.

---

The gentleman in the following interview has this to say about the perilous path:

A global jobs war is coming, and there's no time to waste. Cities are crumbling for lack of good jobs. Nations are in revolt because their people can't get good jobs. The cities and countries that act first -- that focus everything they have on creating good jobs -- are the ones that will win.

(The Jobs War). And be sure to note what has changed from all those previous times they talk about when "we" came back.



The difference is that then there was no 1% - 99% plutonomy, but now there is.

That is a catastrophic difference.

---