Thoughts On Some Stuff Including Wall Street, The United States And The World Are Insolvent

We still don’t generally seem to have an appreciation of what is happening in the world.  Globalization is collapsing. The virus was just the trigger.  The Great Depression had a trigger far less dire than today.  A small bank in Austria, Creditanstalt failed. We have a global pandemic at a time when the global economic dislocations dwarf the lead into the Great Depression.
 
Immediately after the 2008 collapse, I wrote that globalization was dead.  Appearances can be deceiving.  The economy never recovered post 2008.  What did recover was the temporary illusion of wealth created by money printing around the world.  That then reignited the consumption splurge and the debt needed to sustain it.  The stock market rise since 2008 is exactly because there was no economic recovery.   With essentially no underlying demand for investment and capital in the economy, money poured into hot assets.  Or, paper assets.  So, even though GDP only grew by 50% from 2009, the S&P was up 500% during that same period of time.  (It’s easily explainable that the U.S. economy did not sustainably grow by 50% even though GDP showed growth.  Negative productivity driving mass immigration to add to consumption, profligate money printing driving a bubble of growth, massive fraud in corporate governance and ten trillion dollars in buybacks, massive fraud in ten trillion dollars in M&A, massive inflation in paper transactions such as commercial/residential real estate, etc.  It gives the appearance of prosperity.  But, it is all an illusion.)

The most profound aspect of this pandemic is the decades and decades of massive corporate and political corruption and rot are being exposed. One thing that has become very apparent is that the federal government is a feeble, rotten bureaucracy that can’t get out of its own way. Both parties.  All branches of the federal government. It’s that way for a reason.  Because our government is captured by corporations.  Government does not exist to serve the common good.  Pliant, unethical toadies are chosen to serve political roles because they will do the work of our corporate masters.  The only aspect of federal government that continues to work are the administrative aspects such as Medicare payments, Social Security payments and the like.  Most people already knew this.  But it’s an affirmation of my March 11th post where I stated politicians are pliant, vile, unethical assholes who are elected for that every reason. And, for that reason, this pandemic was likely to be bad news for the U.S.

Interestingly, many of the state governors, although often just as corrupt, have flexed their constitutional muscle and flipped the federal government the bird during this crisis.  If the federal government didn’t have a monopoly on money, I have no doubt most state governments wouldn’t even listen to anything Washington says.  We might want to remember that.  It may be a portent of things to come.  I’ve noted for a decade the U.S. could shatter into pieces.  We may see those pieces in the alignments that states created to re-open their economies.  These are more than just neighboring agreements that were made. They are loosely defined cultural boundaries that could form the future of new nations or geographic trading blocks if nation states disappear.  The net is the parasitic economy of hierarchical institutions is under mass duress and possible collapse whether that is privately-created debt money, monopolies, corporations, political parties, parasitic aspects of academia, professional sports, prosperity preachers, corporate media, the celebrity culture or whatnot.  But, it’s mostly corporations and corporate media.  These hierarchies subvert democracy, subvert wealth-creation and subvert the natural rights of an egalitarian, free society.

If there is one conclusion we can draw, these parasitic hierarchies rely on surplus value for their rent extraction from frontline workers and/or consumers. This crisis will spread right up the food chain and lead to mass layoffs and income cuts in these groups of entitled thieves and Godless fukctards who never cared about anything but themselves.  ANd, I know that because they never spoke out against the injustices most Americans suffer.  They never spoke out because they sold themselves out for wealth and power.  Just as I have said it would for the last decade.

One of the biggest cultural problems the U.S. has are loitering men.  Bad news for any political or economic control system.  U.S. labor participation rate after 2008 collapsed to new all-time lows for men.  And it hasn’t recovered.  This is a cultural nightmare for the state.  Men are naturally aggressive in their primitive ego state.  And, a state of fear this system and corporate capitalism requires to control the masses keeps people in that primitive ego state.  Men without jobs or a future are not to be trifled with.  Again, as noted on here for a long time, World War III could be humanity’s war against the state.  The biggest threat to the U.S. empire is not China or anyone else.  It is so dominant over the entire world that these are generally minor or controllable risks.  The biggest threat to U.S. empire is tens of millions of men with no economic opportunities or futures. And, politicians can’t keep throwing men in this category into our prison population bubble.  Because that is why we have a prison population bubble.  It should not be a surprise that bubble started around 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan and his free-market corporate capitalist neoliberal economic ideology.  Because that was the peak of wealth creation in the U.S.  And, our prison population doesn’t simply correlate to that fact.  It is because of that fact.  Law-and-order conservative politicians created the prison state to further their criminal economic doctrine. Just as they enforced the U.S. slave state in the 18th century.

Expect ever-rising internal violence in the U.S. (Other nations such as China, the Middle East, Europe, Brazil, India, etc.) Talks of a race war in the U.S. or whatnot, are ludicrous from my perspective. All men are brothers and that bond will be reaffirmed when they cumulatively experience the same systemic violence. (Obviously, there are bad apples everywhere including the brutal murder in Georgia. But those are the exceptions.) And, expect women to play a supporting role (even a leading role) in this violence against men.  I don’t make that statement because women aren’t equals of men.  That’s preposterous. I make that statement because women have husbands, sons, fathers and brothers.  And, women will defend men’s honor as we’ve seen in past repressive struggles against the corporate state.

Let me get back to the main thrust of this post.  Some months ago, I provided quite a few data points that the economy was already in deep trouble before this pandemic.  That extends globally as well.  Other parts of the world were experiencing large economic distresses before the pandemic.  It’s not necessary to understand every single event, every type of financial fraud, every financial instrument that is blowing up or every economic dislocation.  There are trillions of moving parts to the global economy and it’s impossible for one person to have the capacity to understand everything that is going to blow up in advance of that happening.  Just one example is there are hundreds of trillions of dollars of synthetic toxicity on Wall Street.

The macro factors are all that matter.  The macro factors drive the creation of that noise.  It’s the macro system and its inputs and outputs that matter.  Everything else is a distraction. Which is why none of my anticipated outcomes have ever changed over fifteen years on here.  The macro is what matters.  I could never predict a pandemic. But, I could predict specific system failures when viewing this as a complex system.

I’ve written repeatedly that we will learn the difference between money and wealth at some point.  Money in our world is not democratic. It is a control system.  And, the gold standard was anti-democratic and just as repressive.  Democratic money is fiat money.  It is abundantly available for all in society.  It is not controlled by private institutions or created through debt enslavement.  I have gone into substantial detail on how democratic money would work over the years.  That includes the fact that it should not be controlled by politicians or private corporations. The asinine comments that people will vote to give themselves free money if turned over to democracy is even more hypocritically-ignorant when the current system is already used to grant entitlement and riches to our masters while democracy is left to rot in the hell they have created.  The need for savings is not necessary with democratic money either.  There’s no need to save for a rainy day because no one would ever be denied access to the wealth of society.  Unless we have a natural cataclysm that destroys our ability to create and produce, that’s never going to happen.  (And, resiliency could be provided to ensure those external risks are reasonably mitigated.) Relieving ourselves of grubbing for money and the endless overwork that requires would have a profoundly positive social and cultural impact.  Now, that doesn’t mean everyone gets 10 TVs and shopping sprees to the mall.  Those are unsustainable dynamics that are not p art of human history except for short periods of economic slavery or social pillaging.  One has to relieve themselves of the ignorance of over-produced “consumption” that brainwashed capitalist consumerism has created.   It means human needs are met but vacuous consumption and the endless financial chases it creates could disappear.  It also doesn’t mean everyone gets the same slice of the pie.  That is a decision for society to make. But it does mean that parasites are forced to clean their own toilets.

But, let’s be clear.  All fiat currency is worthless. That includes democratic currency.  Gold is only a “store of value” for feudal, corrupt lords who store up wealth for social domination.  In other words, where there is no economic democracy.  Yes, that defines the world today.  Currency is not a store of value either. It is a medium of exchange for true wealth; the goods and services produced by a democratic, just and free society. The store of value is THAT society.  And, private finance, shareholder-owned corporations (as defined by capitalism where elites are the shareholders.) and privately-created money are parasitic costs on that wealth.  If society is rich in science, production, art, philosophy, virtue, compassion and the like, whatever happens to money or inflation or currency collapse or whatnot is essentially irrelevant.   Society’s wealth still remains.  And, access to it is never denied.  Which is why the ancient Egyptians didn’t have and didn’t need money.  Because they operated off of these concepts.  The issue is the U.S. is not THAT society.  Of course, most are not.  There are few exceptions.  Possibly small nations in Europe where compassion, sharing and stronger social bonds exist.  Instead, our currency is used to subjugate and enslave the world.  That includes American citizens.  And, as a result, we don’t have a vibrant, science-based, creative, ethical society.  We have a crumbling empire of pure rot.

With those reminders regarding money, it’s important to understand the role of the Federal Reserve.  Even if it is a corrupt system.  And, very arguably unconstitutional.  Congress is given the responsibility to coin money.  The Constitution does NOT say the Congress can outsource that responsibility of the creation of money to an anti-democratic, unelected bunch of bureaucratic half-wits doing the bidding of private corporations that then create all of our money.  Then said corporations turn around and bribe politicians with democracy’s money.

The Federal Reserve does not create wealth.  Nor does Wall Street.  They simply oversees the availability of the medium of exchange.  That’s it.  I’ve noted time and again that it is a portent of coming doom when society holds finance and bankers as masters of the universe.  So, when the Federal Reserve responds to crises over the last 50 years with greater and greater force, it’s not the fault of the Federal Reserve that more and more effort is required.  It’s that the underlying economy is becoming more and more unstable.  And, thus, it requires more and more arcane and incredibly large measures to stabilize.  Our economy is on life support.  The efforts to keep it alive require massive effort.  I noted recently that the U.S. has spent upwards of $100 trillion or more to bail out capitalism over the last handful of decades.  Again, we’ll be talking about that number and the details behind it.  But, corporate capitalism is not a sustainable source of wealth. The endless socialism it requires is staggering.  So, if we are going to embrace this system, that socialism should be for the common good.  Not for economic half-wits, corporate bureaucrats, money masters and the like.

My point to all of this is that the Federal Reserve does not create wealth.  It uses the same tools and does the same thing whether its 1950 or 2020.  That it has relied on ever-increasing measures in the last forty years is what we should be focusing on.   Because it’s a portent of underlying economic unsustainability.

With what I’m going to show you below, one should appreciate that the U.S. banking system is insolvent.  And, it is insolvent because corporate capitalism is in systemic failure.  So, when everyone notes that the Federal Reserve shouldn’t be bailing out these corporations, the alternative is 50-70% unemployment.  There’s a self-destructive ignorance in this nation that rejects science and knowledge.  I understand why it exists but once the system starts systemic failure, no one has any scientific ability to predict where the metastasis ends.  Letting the system fail could result in tens of millions of deaths. Or more.  No one knows.  That is not the answer.  It doesn’t absolve our government or the Federal Reserve for its involvement in this corruption.  But, we need to have better answers than just let them fail because I’m not getting a bailout.

So, below is a U.S. chart that shows really all anyone needs to know as to where we are economically, to be honest. What’s happening in China or India or Europe is irrelevant.  The U.S. empire leads the global economy.  All others follow or serve it.  All.  Bar none.  Literally, from a complex systems standpoint, the U.S. is the basis for macro global outcomes as it pertains to the global economy.  This is a chart of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet (red) leading into 2020.  In other words, before this pandemic.  And, the interest rate on ten year Treasuries. (in blue)  This is publicly available data I pulled from the Federal Reserve.  We can see that the Fed had about $4.4 trillion dollars of assets on its balance sheet.  (Assets it has taken from Wall Street banks in return for equal allotments of dollars to maintain banking solvency and liquidity.)   The size of this balance sheet is a result of the financial fraud (Which without the U.S. economy would collapse. That’s right. The U.S. economy is reliant on fraud to maintain its growth. I’d be more than happy to explain this in detail if anyone doesn’t understand that statement.)  and the bailouts of 2008.  The Federal Reserve has never been able to return these assets to Wall Street banks.  We found out why in 2019.  Because twelve years later, Wall Street is still insolvent.  U.S. banks are insolvent because the U.S. economy is insolvent. And, if the U.S. is insolvent, the world is insolvent.

I’m laying this out in simple terms because I know not everyone is a central banking expert.  So, in this graph, starting in 2018 the Federal Reserve attempted to get these assets off of its balance sheet. In other words, return them to Wall Street.  (Because the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet should be essentially zero or close to it in a normal functioning economy.)   These assets were originally exchanged for a temporary loan to Wall Street that has not been repaid for what is now twelve years.  In other words, return them to banks and collect the cash the Federal Reserve is owed in return.  But, what did we see that happened to ten year Treasury rates when the Federal Reserve attempted to do this last year?  Ten year rates imploded, thus signaling future economic crises.  Rates imploded because the Federal Reserve was trying to call in some of its loan to Wall Street and they don’t have the money to pay the Federal Reserve back.  The Federal Reserve attempted to return 600 billion (from the chart) which was enough to cause the Repo crisis of 2019.  In other words, the Wall Street liquidity crisis of last autumn.  We see that Repo crisis on the chart below when the Federal Reserve had to then start rebuying said assets and thus injecting cash into Wall Street to avoid collapse.  (The upward arrows on the chart.)

“Experts” tell us the Federal Reserve’s activity with Wall Street or dealer banks are nothing more than temporary loans and its a misnomer to call them bailouts.  Because the Federal Reserve always gets its money back.  Bullshit.  I’ve been saying on here for the last decade that the Federal Reserve would eventually take balance sheet losses because the U.S. economy is broken.  And, then the Federal Reserve will need a bailout.  Well, it’s been twelve years since 2008 and the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet is now nearly $7 trillion.  It’s going a lot higher.  Do you think banks are ever going to pay that money back.  Zero chance.  In other words, the Federal Reserve has pumped $7 trillion into Wall Street since 2008 and that injection is going to be permanent.  Those repurchase agreements might as well be ripped up.  Because Wall Street is insolvent and can’t repay its loans.  But the plutocrats on Wall Street and in corporations have minted billions personally while destroying their companies and the U.S. economy.  This isn’t directly the fault of the Federal Reserve.  But it certainly is the enabler.  But more importantly, the federal government is the corruption through which the plutocracy operates.  It’s the fault of the politicians from both parties that have failed to make the necessary reforms.  Who have sold out our nation for our corporate masters.  Who are obsequious, servile parasites doing the bidding of our corporate masters.

This chart is the reason why the Federal Reserve dropped its pants and responded with so many thermonuclear options last month.  Because it knows what it won’t tell you.  It won’t tell you because the economy is a confidence game.  It knows that our financial system and economy are insolvent.  And, that is why the Federal Reserve is lining up to buy every asset imaginable to mankind.  Including actions not in its original charter.  Including state pensions, junk bonds and the like.  Because if one domino falls, the entire system could easily collapse.  The. Entire. System.
As noted numerous times, the pandemic is just the trigger.  The real issue is that corporate capitalism is and has been in systemic failure.

2008 was the start of a massive global economic crisis that almost certainly will result in an unprecedented global depression.  And, as noted on here for a long, long time, could very well lead to the end of U.S. empire by 2022.  And, will lead to massive suffering and unrest outside of the U.S.  The U.S. gives financial handouts to 75% of the world’s dictators.  And, runs trade deficits with the entire world.  All roads lead to Rome.  And, all shipping lanes lead to the U.S.  If those U.S. economic or financial handouts (trade deficits are handouts) end for the rest of the world, global chaos will ensue.

On a final note, some large percentage of our economy serves no purpose at creating wealth. Zero.  Tens of millions of people, (give or take) show up at a job simply to collect money to survive.  Money, not wealth creation.  Money.  Because their masters rely on rent extraction to maintain their tyrannical entitlement.  Or to serve the corporate careers of entitlement.  I’ve noted many times that at some point work will be unhinged from society’s wealth creation.  And, that most people do not need to work for our society to function.  Are we witnessing the end of capitalism’s required overwork?  The dumbing down of our society that forced everyone into corporate work regardless of what that work is? Or, whether it creates wealth or leisure that benefits society and not just those with money.  In other words, because it enriches the economic aristocracy.  The only way out of this mess for the establishment is to expose the fraud of our monetary and economic control system.  And, to print money and place in the hands of every American who isn’t working.  But, it also exposes the entire basis of corporate capitalism, poverty wages, overwork, endless taxes, private debt money and the like are all frauds.

Interestingly, during this pandemic, and even with tens and tens of millions of layoffs, we are still able to produce all of the electricity, food, shelter and basic human necessities with a small number of people.  The rest of employment is nothing more than economic slavery.  If society wants extravagances beyond basic needs, let each person decide what those discretionary items are, and let them work for them in employment that enriches society. Or, following personal passions of human expression.  But don’t force society into corporate economic slavery so that those who overconsume to ameliorate their own inner demons can do so off of the entitlement of other’s labor.

The days of the servant economy or service economy where people work in subhuman conditions for subhuman wages to benefit those who endlessly steal their labor could very well be ending.  The end of overwork.  The beginning of building a culture and society that benefits everyone?  And our natural world?  Not an immediate outcome but definitely possible as humanity continues its awakening.

The cycle of volatility (the overarching theme on here) continues.

(Click on the chart for a larger view.)

A Spiritual Experience

Truly amazing.  Link here.

The WTO Should Be Abolished

This is one of the most truthful articles from a politician I’ve read in ages. (link) It was written in a New York Times editorial so it’s getting a lot of exposure. Josh Hawley is making a lot of noise in Washington recently.  Most of it good.  He’s been ratting the saber at corporate malfeasance. A lot of it enabled by his own party.  His message won’t win in Washington unless we have radical, independent minds swept into public offices. But, it’s a first step in raising this into the conscious mind of everyone.

While I am at it, the rhetoric out of the White House regarding China isn’t abating.  Pompeo has to be one of the biggest pathological liars in Washington. His comments on the Sunday political show was ridiculous.  He double-talked himself right into exposing his own lies.  But, the point is Reuters reported on Monday that the White House appears to be engaging the entire government to try to rip all critical business away from China. (link) Don’t think it’s coming back here.  It almost certainly won’t.  American corporations are addicted to slavery to maintain their profits and entitlement.  Corporate capitalism has a dark and insidious side that relies on dehumanized exploitation for its success.  Corporations have hidden behind the veil of this with work that remains in the U.S. through the exploitation of immigrants, undocumented workers and minorities but bringing all businesses back would create a massive labor war in the U.S.  That train is already leaving the station as a new labor movement is building in the U.S.

The U.S. has finally realized that using China as a slave labor camp has allowed the Chinese to move up the food chain to higher value goods and services.  That threatens the very existence of the U.S.  Not just empire. But of the U.S. 

This is only the start of the seminal moment I’ve been writing would eventually come to pass for the last fifteen years.  It’s implications are staggering.  And, to be honest, disconcerting.  The world won’t crumble overnight but there’s no going back. 

U.S. Empire Saber Rattling - Will The U.S. Default On China’s Treasuries?

The jaw-dropping lunacy of this world is staggering. I really want to talk about Trump’s forced death march decree for unsafe meat processing corporations.  This latest government decree is just the latest in a progression of greater and greater corporate violence within that industry.  And, the fact that OSHA has stated it will essentially absolve these corporations of liability for forcing people back to work shows the dystopian horror of what is happening.  The insidious elements of this have staggering implications.  By the way, I propose politicians, celebrities and American CEOs “do their own laundry”.  They can take their place on these meat processing lines.  Can you imagine that?  Trump or Pelosi processing meat?  Or, Kim Kardashian or Bob Eiger?  On second thought, we'd all die relying on them. Front line workers, white or blue collar, provide privilege to people of class and institutionalized entitlement. People who are generally useless. We need to de-institutionalize power and privilege to have an egalitarian society where talent rises to the top.  And, that talent isn’t for purposes of control.  It’s for an enriching society for all of its participants.  Not those most willing to stomp on the face of their fellow man.  It’s the talent of art, literature, science, philosophy, love, compassion, justice, ethics, community, dignity and the like.  Maybe I’ll post more on the meat mess next week.  But what we need in this world is a little bit of anarchy principles to nonviolently remove concentrated power and resultant entitlement from our existence.  We need to remove the rule of man of institutionalization and return to the rule of law based on natural rights and human dignity.

A couple of links before I continue with the post.

U.S. Officials Crafting Retaliatory Actions Against China Over Coronavirus

Exclusive: White House Told Federal Officials To Classify Coronavirus Deliberations (And completely disregarded within the media.)

America’s National Security Machine Stares Down A Viral Threat

There’s a reason I have been fixated on U.S. government jingoism regarding China over the last few months. Because the U.S. is seemingly laying the propaganda groundwork for a political response to this pandemic.  China is in the crosshairs of the United States and let’s be honest, this crisis is convenient for that.  It’s not the root cause of it.  Or, as has become popular to say, politicians never miss an opportunity created by crisis.  Free speech is already under attack on the Internet, the last bastion of freedom in this nation.

Make no mistake, as I noted on here many times over the years, the U.S. holds all of the cards with China. China is a vassal state of U.S. empire and it’s growth in economic and political strength has become a threat to modern-day Rome.  Don’t kid yourself regarding China dumping Treasuries or China not selling the U.S. this or that as you see written regularly over the years.  These show a lack of understanding of how the world works.  The Federal Reserve bought more Treasuries in the last month than China has probably bought in the last twenty years.  If China dumped all of their Treasuries, which first of all would be suicidal, the Federal Reserve could sweep them up in an afternoon and not miss a beat.  The U.S. may endure temporary hardship in any divorce but China will collapse.  Will. Not Maybe. 

For some reason people don’t seem to understand the China economic miracle isn’t a miracle at all.  The miracle is the power of U.S. empire to create China’s miracle. China’s belligerence is growing and citizens of the U.S. are becoming restless due to globalization.  U.S. politicians are beginning to understand that they’ve created a mess.  I’m not sure they have any desire to clean up that mess on behalf of democracy but they almost certainly are willing to give China a lesson for getting too big for its britches and causing the empire undue distress.

I wrote on here ages ago that the Federal Reserve could mop up Treasuries dumped by China with the flick of the wrist.  I wrote that the U.S. could default on China’s Treasury holdings as an act of belligerence.  Strikingly, that is exactly what the Trump administration has posed as a possibility in the Washington Post article link above.  Economic warfare is a weapon regularly used by empire. Currency war is an integral part of corporate capitalism and exists every day by every major economic nation state on earth.  It’s no coincidence that Britain defaulted on US debt at the start of the Great Depression.  That was almost certainly a belligerent act to destroy US economic threat to British Empire. History rhymes.

The United States has more options against China beyond defaulting on China’s Treasury holdings but they all have the same impact.  That is, reassert control over its empire and any threats to it.  By the way, this would almost certainly not impact U.S. reserve currency status.  The U.S. has a lot of friends in this world.  Relationships may be strained but the world would line up behind us.  That includes the majority of the world’s dictatorial countries who get massive dollar handouts from Washington.  And, who would collapse without that payoff.

What makes this even more interesting is that the United States classified its coronavirus response early on in this crisis.  See the above link.  That means the National Security Council recommended it per the Reuters’ exclusive above that was announced nearly two months ago.  And, that likely means the U.S. government, and specifically the military-security wing of the empire, was almost certainly considering weaponizing their response to this pandemic from the very beginning.  Don’t kid yourself that this rhetoric is Trump unhinged.  He may be unhinged but the security and military apparatus are providing guidance given this crisis has been classified.  This is shaping up to be just like 9/11 and the empire’s response.  Not that we are going to literal war with China. But, some major actions are almost certain.

Because the U.S. is still a democracy in name and in institutions, our government and corporations must rely on brainwashing and propaganda to create citizen support for endless war, dehumanization of U.S. and immigrant workers, massive poverty in the U.S., slave labor camps in China and the like. If that ability to achieve citizen support through propaganda ends, then we have a whole new dynamic.  Which has been starting to happen over the last few decades as the world, including Americans, wakes up to the plutocratic, institutionalized rot in their respective economies and governments. The question is will the propaganda machine be able to gin up support for any potential actions against China.

Or, would the U.S. publicly destroy its democratic institutions to maintain its empire and control over its citizens?  I would argue they have been destroying them continually for nearly 200 years.  Although it’s insidiously accomplished through the corruption of our court systems with legal decisions and through corrupt legislation that is often more of a back door destruction by empowering corporations.  In past times, the U.S. frontier allowed people to continually push west to escape the tentacles of our repressive corporate and economic elite-owned government.  Then in the twentieth century, there was no more frontier.  No place to run.  So, now we are all forced into the cauldron of what has always been a rotten, economic elite-driven plutocracy that coalesced soon after our founding. Jefferson noted this in his writings. The true leader of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, was abandoned by his country soon after the Revolution because his principles of human dignity, anti-slavery, women’s rights and social programs to empower all Americans was a threat to our new establishment aristocracy.  People who believe the U.S. has just recently become corrupt are romanticizing a past that never existed.  Our ideals are noble but the reality is brutal, violent and cruel with the hope of a minority of always being more than that. Americans have experienced at least seven periods in our history where human progress has fought against the establishment for greater freedom and dignity.  This time is different given the Internet.  It’s no surprise that the new “frontier” of the Internet is now under attack by the U.S. corporate state.  Just as our western frontier was continually under attack by an ever-expanding and encroaching plutocracy until the entire nation was under its grips.  (By the way, plutocracy is a 19th century term used to describe America. It’s time we wake up from the dream. This isn’t because of Obama or Trump as so many ideologues wish to see it.)

The free exchange of ideas that the Internet provides is the greatest threat to institutionalized entitlement and the plutocracy that the world has ever seen. We see unsavory elements all over the world attempting to shut it down to maintain the grip of illegitimacy of a ruling class of political and economic parasites.  And, the U.S. is no exception with government cooperation with Google, Facebook and others to stifle freedoms.  In other words, through fascism.

Americans today already hide in the shadows out of fear of retaliation from the state.  Just like they do in China and did in the Soviet Union.  And, when we dare speak the unthinkable, the possibility is more than likely that we will be destroyed or imprisoned economically and socially.  What am I talking about?  Corporations monitor employee free speech and actions on the Internet.  Any Internet manifestations of free speech written by a corporate employee that threatens corporation-enforced political-correctness or could possibly damage a corporation’s reputation almost certainly means its author faces dismissal, financial ruin and economic isolation.  And, as a result, difficulty finding a few position as a corporate slave and being forced into what is essentially a social prison.  This didn’t start with the advent of the Internet.  Any threats to corporate power and the state have always been met with this.  Examples after examples of people who have been targeted and destroyed over the centuries. 

The flip side of this is the most successful in society are those that are willing to conform and do the bidding of our masters.  To sell our souls.  To remain silent in the face of loss of liberty, exploitation and Godlessness.  All for our own selfish benefit.  Or, as emotionally-stunted Ayn Rand titled her book, “The Virtues of Selfishness”.  Again, no surprise.   It is this dynamic that fuels support for endless U.S. wars, unconstitutional policies, unconstitutional court decisions, corporate exploitation of the poor, immigration slave labor and the like.  It’s also why successful corporate donkeys continue to prop up the rotten two-party political system. Because that system supports our own soul-less, unethical careers that have been perpetuated by turning a blind eye to injustices we’ve helped create in our country or elsewhere. The cult of self society.

The government doesn’t have to take away our constitutional freedoms.  It lets corporations do it for them under the propaganda of corporate capitalism, economic freedom and “free” markets.  And, successful workers who focus on their corporate careers enable their own tyranny and those around the world.  They do so by being silent in the face of the horrors and injustices they help perpetuate.  Furthering their own careers by being a silent, obedient, good corporate slave is more important than the truth.  This happens all while the government continues to provide the illusion of maintaining your constitutional freedoms.   And, it has been doing so for most of our country’s existence.

One of my favorite quotes is from Henry David Thoreau and has been written on here many times-

"Others--as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders--serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men--serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. ........  Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

And, we can’t imagine how anyone can be so brainwashed as the Nazis or communists.