Ya know? If we Far Siders weren't so darned smart, we might think that the US is purposely squandering its moral and economic leadership.
Not the the US has/had any real moral superiority, but it was a position into which it thrust itself/was thrust by the currents of history. It was an enviable position for a group of people to be in, had they something to offer beside bombs and grifts.
At any rate, they were there for whatever reasons, and they went and tossed it out the window. Of course, maintaining such a position requires at least a modicum of wisdom, which is a commodity of which Washington has never been accused of having a surplus.
As the so-called "leader of the free world," Obama had a chance to unseat China as the elephant in the living room of Southeast Asia. When he was selected the first time, Indonesia went nuts. The whole country was ready to be annexed into the US. They built statues to him and made his childhood home a museum, nay a shrine is more accurate.
Then Obama kept delaying a victory lap around Southeast Asia, and the fervor cooled a bit. When he finally came to Indonesia, he was aloof and even a bit disrespectful. In fact, everyone was waiting for his big speech in Indonesian, but the whole time here, he spoke all of four words of the local lingo. That left folks scratching their heads.
Then there was the APEC meeting just recently in Bali. Indonesia spent several millions of dollars to meet the US delegation's security demands, jumping through dozens of hoops to make sure the Terrorist in Chief wasn't accosted by his competition.
Obama cancelled at the last minute.
Suppose you're throwing a big party and it is centered around the Guest of Honor. In order to attract the GoH, you spend lavishly to make sure there are no crusts on the sandwiches, no brown M&Ms and no paprika in the egg salad, even though all your other guests love crusts, brown M&Ms and paprika. All is in readiness. Guests are arriving. The phone rings. GoH won't be able to make it after all.
In a panic to rescue your party, you turn to GoH's biggest rival, who was gracious enough to show up...and early at that. You dub him GoH and proceed as if nothing happened, but you'll never forget the snub.
And so China once again has snatched the role of leadership out from under the US, whose bloated self-importance and intense self-interest is wearing thin on the rest of the world.
Americans seem either incapable or unwilling to view themselves as others do. This lack of empathy is generally diagnosed as sociopathic when it occurs in individuals. It is common in the offspring of wealthy, powerful people, since the children inherit without the pain and suffering that tempers hubris. This leads to an inflated sense of self-importance and an inability to comprehend that those called friends are only there because you throw great parties and your left-overs are better than most people's first rounds.
But when you ultimately become withdrawn and the parties become less frequent and perhaps there's a little trouble in paradise, those 'friends' will not only not come to your aid, they lie in wait to pounce on you, should the opportunity arise. Since you can't afford to pay your bodyguards anymore, those opportunities start becoming very frequent. In your paranoia, you become a recluse, thus further reinforcing the perception that you are not worth hanging out with.
Look what has happened to America. Once upon a time, it sent people to fight its wars and people to venture into the unknown (such as Moon landings). Now, it sends drones to fight while the people hide deep in mountain redoubts. It sends robots to explore, while the people go home at night to their cushy southern California manors. Classic signs of paranoid reclusivity.
Instead of throwing lavish parties, the US argues over who will pay the tab. Once upon a time, the US was fun and everyone wanted to hang out with him. Now, to be his friend, you have to take his gifts. Instead of the cool electronics and gadgets he used to give away, now he only gives out guns and bombs, and he expects you to fill in as his bodyguard in your part of town because his regular staff up and quit and the current staff just want to sit in bunkers under mountains.
The worst part is that the world got hooked on Uncle Sugar's gifts. Everyone wanted to have some of those green bits of paper that he handed out and the world got used to having them around. Of course, Uncle Sugar handed out so much of the little green paper that it seems like everyone has a pile or two laying around these days. Used to be you could trade them with other folks for neat stuff, but now everyone's got so many of them that no one will trade anymore.
Not to mention Uncle Sugar's habit of borrowing money and not paying it back. Oh sure, he says he always pays, but really all he does is give you more paper in exchange for the original paper. The new stuff has different magical symbols and incantations on them, but really it's just more paper when it come down to it. People start losing interest in Uncle Sugar's stuff and wander off to look for more novel entertainment. Besides, Uncle is really paranoid and grumpy these days, so who wants to hang around that attitude?
Folks start doing things without inviting Uncle Sugar. He gets upset and starts throwing his weight around. He threatens everyone by saying he'll start throwing his pieces of paper from helicopters to keep everyone using them, but all that does is make folks look for alternatives.
And lo and behold! There's Uncle Chin Xiao just chomping at the bit to step in an be the new party house.
Heck, even Uncle Sugar's own family is turning its back on him. Not a good sign.
Probably too late to fix it, too.
Oh, and the whole budget crisis charade? Just histrionics to get everyone panicked and rallied around old Uncle Sugar again. But this time, the world just shrugged and went about its business. All the apocollapse tales and fear porn don't work anymore. Call it 'boy who cried wolf syndrome'. World's got better things to do.
Here Thar Be Monsters!
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Showing posts with label bankruptcy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bankruptcy. Show all posts
17.10.13
3.3.13
Sequestering A Nation
Here's something you are not likely to see anywhere in the mainstream media:
se·ques·ter [si-kwes-ter]
verb (used with object)
1. to remove or withdraw into solitude or retirement; seclude.
2. to remove or separate.
3. Law. to remove (property) temporarily from the possession of the owner; seize and hold, as the property and income of a debtor, until legal claims are satisfied.
4. International Law. to requisition, hold, and control (enemy property).
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English sequestren < Latin sequestrāre to put in hands of a trustee, derivative of sequester trustee, depositary
1350–1400; Middle English sequestren < Latin sequestrāre to put in hands of a trustee, derivative of sequester trustee, depositary
I draw the reader's attention to the last two definitions, having to do with law, and the etymology of the word. Focus on the use of words like debtor, enemy and trustee.
Now, if you've been under a rock lately, the US government is on the verge of entering sequestration. A law passed about a year and a half ago required Congress to find a solution to the US debt or face 'sequester'. Since Congress is the national law-making body of the US and it is chock full of lawyers, we can safely assume that the use of the word 'sequester' was chosen for its legal meanings.
Furthermore, depending on which set of conspiracy theories you subscribe to, the US has been under international maritime law since the late 1800s, about the time the gold fringe of admiralty law began appearing on flags used in political and religious settings.
Mr. and Mrs. America, you are either a debtor whose property (your country) has been seized to pay a debt, or you are an enemy combatant whose national treasure has been seized to repay war damages. Take your pick; the result is the same. Personally, I think it doesn't matter either way, though I come down on the side of the former.
In a nutshell, what has happened is that Congress failed to come up with a plan to repay the national debt to the holders of that debt, namely the 12 private banking houses that own the Federal Reserve. As a consequence, the Federal Reserve has placed the nation in receivership under a Trustee, whoever that may be.
All property of US citizens, especially those which have mortgages, liens, etc., is now under the control of the Trustee and may be liquidated to service the debt. Clear titles may be a bit stickier, but I doubt owners with clear title will have the knowledge or where-with-all to put up much of a fight when the knock comes at the door.
If the latter case of war damages is true, then the US has lost some war somewhere and is now a captive nation of war under an as yet unseen reparations tribunal. Therefore, all property of the State is under the control of the victor(s), who may opt to liquidate or remove the property as repayment of damages from the war (c.f. Germany post-WW1 & 2).
It is possible that both definitions are intended by the sequester law, as the debt holder may perceive Mr. and Mrs. America as potential combatants once they realize what exactly has taken place, especially if/when they become aware that their birth certificates make them 'property' of the State and thus, under the control of the Trustee.
All of which sheds new light on events of the past several years. The increased use of domestic surveillance is to allow the Trustee to keep an eye on any and all 'property', whether human or material; the wholesale buying of ammunition by government agencies to enforce the Trustee's rights; the privatization of prisons; the Supreme Court decisions debasing the rule of law; and the list goes on.
You see, once the US is under receivership, then the rule of law is suspended. The only thing with any force is the rule of the Trustee. As an agent of the Trustee, the presidency becomes a de facto dictatorship, making Executive Orders the will of the Trustee and the only form of law in the country.
Think of what happens when an individual files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The court appoints a Trustee who is in charge of enforcing the court's orders on the property and income of the individual. The court decides which bills will be paid, how much and when. If necessary, the court will begin liquidating property in order to pay off debts. Various law enforcement agencies can be employed to protect the interests of the debt holder and prevent the individual from interfering with these proceedings.
Sound familiar?
Once the sequester law takes effect, most likely the president will be appointed Trustee in order to maintain the appearance of 'normalcy'. This will prevent the 'property' from figuring things out too fast while the debt holder liquidate the holdings of the nation. In the event the population figures out what is happening, then the command and control system, which has been built up over the past 15 years, will kick in to protect the interests of the debt holders from irate former owners. It's kind of like when the sheriff comes to oversee the auction of a foreclosed property.
What does this mean for expats? Well, open your passport and find the words "property of the United States government". That should be enough. It is conceivable that all passports will be rescinded and the holders forced to return to the US, or at best be restricted from traveling while a full reckoning of their personal holdings can be completed. Much of this scenario depends on what happens and how fast it happens back home.
A lot of folks are going to read this and poo-poo the whole thing. They will default to 'business as usual' mode and tell themselves this would 'never happen in America'. These same people will refuse to read the sequester law, nor will they look up the word 'sequester' in a law dictionary (or any dictionary really). These are the people who chided the EU for their 'austerity' efforts, little realizing that it was all a sneak preview of what's to come.
At the moment I am writing this, each US citizen is in hock to the tune of over $1 million dollars for the national debt, the budget overruns and all unfunded liabilities (government handouts). The debt holder wants his pound of flesh...NOW!
In light of all this, let's review the events of the past 15 years...the Clinton budget balancing act, the offensive wars to control energy centers, the gold repatriation efforts, the bearer bond busts, the currency and computer wars, the growth of Russian and Chinese economic influence, the bank bailouts, the controlling interests in major US corporations (AIG, GM, et al.), the movement in Germany to exit the EU, and even the recent snubs of the new SecState John Kerry. They are all symptoms of a nation desperately trying to pay off its debts, and of other nations in the know trying to unload their dollar-denominated assets and distance themselves from the US. Think of the latter as vendors who smell a rat and stop extending credit to a buyer.
The Big Game is about to come to a crashing halt and 99% of Americans are blissfully unaware of what is being waved under their noses. All this attention to 'sequester' is little more than the PTB giving themselves an out when the SHTF. They can say, "Hey, we've been talking about this for years!" The problem is, they've been using covert language that most ignorant Americans don't understand and wouldn't bother to look up in the dictionary, if they even knew how to use one.
My question is, once the sequester law goes into effect, will the media and their controllers open up finally? Or will they pretend as if nothing has happened to try to keep the Big Game going just a little longer? I come down on the side of the latter. Can't wake 'em all up at once. It will make it far more difficult to liquidate and get paid.
Without gloating, I have to say, "Told you so," and so did a lot of other people. Ron Paul comes to mind, along with Gerald Celente, George Ure, and a bunch of other rather bright folks.
The deed is done. It remains only to see how the masses react when the fog clears and the Big Tit runs dry.
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