The True War

At his trial in Nuremberg, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring is recorded as saying, “Der Sieger wird immer der Richter und der Besiegte stets der Angeklagte sein,”   In common speech, this is often misquoted as, "History is written by the victor."  The actual words are, "The victor is always the judge and the loser is the accused."  Truer words he probably never spoke.

To this I would add that the judge always positions himself as the moral superior.  After all, might makes right, sine qua non?

America is convulsing because its history is a bedtime story told to itself to hide the painful truth.  On all sides of the current mess there, folks are asking, or rather stating that Civil War 2.0 is underway.  In a profound sense, it is just a continuation of the original, much like World War 2 was inevitable because the wrongs of World War 1 where never settled.

After orgies of violence we humans call wars, the winners - and losers - are in a rush to turn away from the horrors that were committed on all sides, and in that rush a convenient narrative is concocted to ease the vivid nightmares.  The winners absolve themselves of the crimes by heaping guilt on the shoulders of the losers, regardless of right or wrong, or the truth.

As any good lawyer will tell you, there are three sides to every story - your side, my side and the truth.

When it comes to the American Civil War of 1860-63, the soothing narrative the winners concocted was that the evil South wanted slavery, and the bright shiny North wanted to abolish it.  Since the North won, their side of the story has dominated the narrative, but that makes it neither right nor the truth.  The real story is much more complex with plenty of guilt to go 'round.  As we proper Southerners know it, it was the War of Northern Aggression.

As the great Greek tragedian Aeschyius reminds us, "The first casualty of war is the Truth."

The issue of slavery began simmering in the Union before the ink was dry on the Constitution.  Abolitionists wanted to end slavery primarily because it was a vestige of British colonialism, but also because it was antithetical to the ideals of the new nation.

Many abolitionists advocated sending slaves back to Africa, which eventually happened when a US colonial group created the western African nation of Liberia and offered passage to any slaves wanting to emigrate there.  Abraham Lincoln recognized Liberian independence in 1862, and liked the idea of repatriating slaves, as he was not a fan of racial integration.

In 1824, the Democratic Republican Party split into two factions - the Democrats and Republicans - over support for John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.  Among the issues at the core of the split was slavery and abolition.  The Democrats were willing to compromise on slavery, as demonstrated by The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which brought the free state of Maine and the slave state of Missouri into the Union.

While the compromise placated both sides for  atime by maintaining the balance between free and slave states, it was undone by the Kanas-Nebraska Act of 1858.

Aside from all the idealistic rhetoric, the underlying tensions were primarily economic.  The northern states were dominated by industrial and financial interests, while the southern states were agricultural.  The balance that the politicians sought to maintain was between the suppliers of raw materials and food in the south, and the factories and banks in the north.  This tension was exacerbated by the apportionment of representation using population.  This one fact is the seed from which the Civil War and two centuries of social unrest have sprung.

The north benefitted from cheap raw materials that made its finished products highly competitive in global markets.  This made the industrialists and financiers grossly wealthy.  But they also faced increasing pressure to raise wages and offer benefits to labor, an issue that didn't affect the slave states.  Furthermore, it was in the best interests of the northern parties to maintain the supply of cheap raw materials.

The south, on the other hand, found that they could fetch much better prices for their goods in Europe, and could buy manufactured goods cheaper than from the north.  More and more of the south's output was shipping overseas.  The southern plantation owners were also hiking the prices for northern buyers, while buying fewer and fewer finished goods from the north, and their wealth was beginning to rival that of the industrial-financial interests.  Thanks to slavery, the plantation owners didn't have an expanding middle class to deal with.

The United States enacted Protective Tariffs almost as fast as the nation came into being.  While they were initially intended to be temporary to help fill up the Treasury, they were never lifted and became a tool of northern interests to maintain control over the south.  By making southern goods more expensive overseas, they forced the flow of raw materials to their factories.  Import tariffs were levied to force the south to buy finished goods from the north.

This made the industrial-financial interests happy, and the expanding middle class enjoyed rising wages, who thus threw their support behind the tariffs, as well.  In the election of 1860, the Morill Tariff was a major plank in the Republican party's platform, and James Buchanan ended up signing the Morill Tariff into law before Abraham Lincoln took office on 4 March 1861.

In November of 1860, frustrated by tariffs, economic shenanigans and the northern dominance of Congress, the southern senators walked out and secession soon followed on 12 April 1861.  The northern bankers and financiers, fearing a middle class uprising and shrinking profits, persuaded Lincoln to set up a blockade.

The blockade was a blatant act of war against sovereign states who were exercising their Ninth Amendment and Tenth Amendment rights.  The blockade covered 3,500 miles of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, cutting off the newly formed Confederacy from their trading partners in Europe.  The same act today is still considered an act of war against a sovereign nation, though the US still uses it as a routine sanction against nations it doesn't like (i.e. the banking and financial interests disapprove of).

There was and is no law preventing secession from the Union and every foundational document of the united States recognizes this fundamental right.  Thomas Jefferson himself wrote in the Declaration of Independence that a people had the right to sever ties with another when the government of the latter was abusive to their interests and liberty.

We must pause here to note that the abolutionist argument at the time was not about ending slavery, but whether new territories conquered by the federal government in its war on the native population would expand slavery into those regions or not.  We must also note that not a single slave ship ever flew the Confederate flag.  They were either British of Union flagged ships.

Having undermined the Confederate economy and brutally invaded a sovereign state (a common practice of the US), the Union forces decimated the South, which produced raw materials and not the finished goods of the north.  So the north cut off the South's livelihood, while protecting their interests by purchasing raw materials from colonial powers abroad.

Note well that the Confederate states were exercising their rights, as recognized and memorialized in the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Also note that the Union invaded the Confederacy, and not the other way around.

The north clearly profited from slavery on all sides and had no intention to end its practice.  On the other side, the cost of purchasing and maintaining slavery was becoming a burden on the southern producers and would have ended one way or another before the end of the century.



On 1 January 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  Contrary to the legend propagated by the victors, this document did not "free" any slaves.  It promised escaped slaves that made it past the Mason-Dixon line that they would not be returned to the Confederacy.    It did not grant equal rights or suffrage or even freedom - just that they would not be returned to their owners.  In other words, it was yet another act of deception by the Union, which it was quite adept at even then.

In fact, slavery in the north did not end for several years after the Civil War and emancipation proclamation.  There was a slave market right where Wall Street is today into the 1870s.

The Dred Scott decision, which affirmed the right of property to a human being, was not overturned until the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868, a full three years after the end of the Civil War, and even then the practice of slavery in the north tapered off slowly.

That the Fourteenth Amendment destroyed God-given rights in favor of "privileges and immunities" is the topic of many a long and dry essay.  Suffice it to say that the bankers and financiers did not free any slaves, but rather made slaves of every citizen of the "United States," itself a corporate entity created by the Act of 1871. (note "united States" versus United States)

It may seem like legal hair-splitting, but there is a profound difference between a "right" and  "privilege".    In Enlightenment philosophy, a right is the sacred property of an individual by virtue of birth.  A privilege is granted by an authority and requires a license or permission to exercise.  Go back and read the Fourteenth Amendment again.  As Thomas Jefferson noted in the Declaration of Independence, rights are "unalienable" or incapable of having a lien placed on them.  In other words, no authority may claim possession of those rights.

The American Civil War was not about slavery as we commonly think of it.  It was in point of fact about expanding slavery to everyone, not ending it for some.  It was a key expansion of the banking and financial interests in the US, and by means of two world wars, expanding that error to the entire world.

Until we recognize the truth of the Civil War, and acknowledge that we are all slaves to the banking class, we will never be truly free.  In many ways, this one Great Lie has caused so much death and destruction in our modern world.  Because we labor under a profound deception, we can never cure the ills that afflict us at this very moment.

Think about how many times you have heard or said, "The Constitution grants us the right to..."  It does no such thing, nor does the government grant rights.  We are born with them as a gift of Nature and Nature's Creator.

The American Civil War never ended, it only became a global conflict with vile banksters pulling the strings.  We need only look a bit closer at where groups like Black Lives Matter or Antifa get their funding to see the subversive hand of banking and finance.

It is not just American blacks who are owed reparations, it is every human being on this planet born since the banksters took over.


New York Slave Market
Dred Scott decision
Franklin Pierce

Carnies And Rubes, Part 1

WARNING: The following will most likely trigger a lot of folks.  I am about to discuss The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.  If that scares you, please turn away now.

If it doesn't scare you, then you should be very aware that I do not consider Zionists to be Jews of any stripe.  The Jewish cover is designed to deflect anger and blame as a ruse to protect the guilty.

Who the guilty are is a matter of heated debate, though I personally believe that they are a delusional branch of the Bavarian Illuminati, a movement originally based on Enlightenment philosophy, but bent far out of shape by those who would rule the Earth and make it in their own image.

I will further warn the reader that I had a most profound and disturbing revelation when I first read The Protocols in the early 1990s, such that my father offered to call a priest, which I recoiled from since it was obvious to me that the Church was the problem, not the solution.  My reasoning should become clear(er) forthwith.

I will begin by justifying why I think the Protocols represent the actual agenda of a real group of people.

I implore readers to overcome their pre-programmed response to this topic and read the Protocols (linked above) dispassionately for what they are: a plan for world domination that is eerily predictive.  Do not let the language and jargon fool you, this is not a Jewish plot, but has been used to achieve certain goals right under our noses, while at the same time demonizing anyone who sees it with a number of trigger terms, such as "anti-Semite".  This has NOTHING to do with Semitic peoples nor Jews specifically.  It is, in fact, a Roman Catholic conspiracy.

The Protocols were reportedly found sitting on a park bench in Odessa, The Ukraine, in the 1890s.  In any case, they were first published in Russia in 1903, and later translated into multiple languages.  I further believe that the name "Elders of Zion" and the liberal use of the word "goyim" in the document were chosen specifically as a smoke screen should (as is the case) these plans ever be brought to light.  It may also be that the "Elders" were Christian fanatics trying to create the Biblical conditions for the Second Coming, and thought of themselves as actual heirs to the Jewish prophesies of the Old Testament.

Whatever the truth may be, my goal is to examine the claims within the document regardless of any other concerns.  I will state emphatically that I do not believe this document represents any religious or ethnical group, but is in fact the political agenda of some secret society based on warped interpretations of Enlightenment philosophy.

All that being said, it is vital that we remember this document is the product of the late 19th century, long before mass media, the internet, pop culture, and the like.    In other words, it is highly unlikely that a 19th century document could be so prescient with regards to modern society unless it was influential enough to bring about the conditions stated.

The only group able to influence society at such profound levels in so many diverse locations was and is the often-referred to "banksters".  If we accept that as a premise, then the most logical group to hold accountable are the Knights Templar, or whatever they became after the persecution in France in the 1300s.  I hold the modern banking system up as Exhibit A in this regard, along with the SWIFT clearing system and the financial markets.

In this case, we also can no longer lay the blame at any Jewish group, and the Templar's connections to the Holy Land and the Crusades would further support the idea of usurping Old Testament language and names as a cover to deflect blame.

Anyone who has studied historical conspiracies for any amount of time knows that a key factor is the publication of the conspiracy in the open, especially in such a way as to be able to deny and/or ridicule it.  Even a cursory study of Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes or L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, or Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland knows that it is quite easy to publish satire as children's stories or allegories, and then laugh off any attempt to charge conspiracy.

The genius of "the Elders of Zion" is that they specifically chose terminology that would cast the eye of suspicion in the wrong direction.  What's more, they were even able to set up a system of "anti-Semitism" that would punish anyone from seriously considering the contents of The Protocols.  I have to admit it is quite an ingenious camouflage.

If the reader is still with me, and I admit this topic may scare many people away, then we are ready to analyze the astoundingly predictive assertions that are contained within The Protocols.  If it makes it easier, the reader is encouraged to substitute the word "Zion" with "Carnies," and the word "goyin" with "rubes".  The meaning and intent will be the same.

(to be continued)

The Hundred-Percent Solution

There is a massive elephant hiding the the American living room and almost no one is talking about it.

Two years ago, Congress passed a debt ceiling law that "kicked the can" down the road to the next administration.  The law, which takes effect this month, prevents Congress from raising the debt ceiling past the $20 trillion mark.  When it takes effect, it will put serious brakes on government programs and force cost-cutting of historical proportions by cutting off the federal government's ability to borrow from - at this point - their great-great-great-grandchildren.

What's more, the Trump administration is either unaware of, or unwilling to discuss this coming train wreck.

Trump was elected by promising to increase military, veteran, immigration, and other budgets, while cutting taxes and regulations, and building infrastructure without ever saying how he was going to do that.  Considering the fact that he has said very little about the national debt, he either intended to borrow, or magically make money appear to fulfill his promises.

The reality is that the debt wall will bring the entire Trump Agenda, not to mention the entire federal government to a complete halt.  Not that a Libertarian finds that prospect unappealing, but for the 60-odd million people who voted for Trump, this will come as a shocker.  And the whole thing can be blamed on Congressional "conservatives" who didn't want to do something unpopular, but still wanted to appear as if they were reining in Obama spending, just before mid-term elections two years ago.

There is only one possible solution, and naturally it is the one that no one will ever dare mention.

Congress can authorize debt-free scrip through the Treasury to pay for military and infrastructure projects.  The scrip must be designated only for certain value-added spending and Congress must allow it as legal tender and mandate taxes to be paid with this scrip.

It's the only solution and it is the only one that no one will bring up, because it completely undermines the hegemony of the Federal Reserve central banksters and creates a debt-free money backed by the increased productivity that new infrastructure would bring.

This is the solution that Hitler used to build Germany from chaos to a powerhouse and caused the other Western powers to mobilize the world against him.

This is the solution that got Kennedy killed with Executive Order 11110 (still in effect).

This is the solution that Putin has chosen for Russia that has the Western powers in a panic, since none of the sanctions or economic wars are working against him and demonizing Russia with all available resources.

It is the only legal, Constitutional solution available to the Trump Administration, but it would effectively make the Federal Reserve a non-entity with the stroke of a pen.

Had FDR paid for his New Deal this way, the US would not be in the financial straits that it is now, nor would World War II have happened.  There would have been no need to expand debt or start a war to increase spending.  All of the CCC and WPA projects would have been paid through the added economic benefits of dams, highways, parks and other infrastructure.  There would have been no interest to pay and future generations (us) would not have been saddled with the current, unspoken crisis.

Debt-free small business loans would have created thousands of start-up companies and millions of jobs, as well as fostering entrepreneurship, without anyone owing a single whit to the banksters.

But that certainly isn't what the banksters have in mind for the world.

Their plan is to enslave the world with debt and usury, making them (not us) the only power to create and destroy wealth.
If Trump were truly a smart man, he would begin now hawking the idea.  Imagine: all of his projects paid for with Treasury notes that carry no interest and pay for real, physical assets, which in turn foster commerce and economic activity.  He would tell Congress this is the only viable way out - to issue Treasury notes that, by law, must be accepted in payment for goods and services, and will be accepted in payment of taxes, i.e. real money.

No need for gold and silver.  No need for a central bank.  No inflation or deflation.  And most importantly, no debt passed on to future generations.

Instead, the scrip pays for new dams, highways, bridges, and communications infrastructure.  These are all assets (positive numbers, not negative) that are passed on to future generations to improve their lives, not shackle them to bankster debt.

It would not be easy.  There would be about ten years (look at Russia and Germany) of real work to do, but the result would be almost immediate in historical terms and would have a generational impact on the US - and by extention - the world economies.

The fact is that the crisis is coming, whether we acknowledge it or not.  There are two ways out - beg the banksters or create real money.  Trump's administration and legacy depend heavily, if not exclusively, on this decision.

Debt-free scrip would create an almost unimaginable future of energetic growth and expansion, unlimited by debt and the avarice of a cabal of greedy slime.  The country's enemies would be defeated, not by guns and bombs, but by economic miracles that had the power to lift everyone up.  Instead of one Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, there would be thousands, all building amazing dreams to further empower We The People.

But alas, sensible solutions have never been the strong point of Congress nor politicians.

Clenched Fist Holds No Water

For nigh on 30 years now, I've been hearing about "the end of cash" and the New Age of Digital Economics.  Folks have been wildly speculating on crypto-currencies for about as long.  All of this, however, assumes that most of the world wants to leave cash behind or even has the ability to access crypto-currencies.  The whole concept is doomed to fail from the outset.

It has been a staple of conspiracy theories that the banksters want to end all cash transactions for a long time.  There is no doubt that those folks would love to install a 3-cubed system (trace, track, tax) to control every single transaction on Earth.  At the same time, there are vast numbers of people and businesses who only deal in cash for one reason or another, usually because they are dealing in illegal trade or because they simply want to avoid the headaches of collecting and accounting for taxes.

Anyone who has owned a business knows that the tax compliance regulations are a bitch in any country.  Having to account and audit their books on at least an annual basis is not only a lot of work, but represents a fair expense itself to hire accountants and tax specialists, not to mention all the freaking paperwork that needs to be filed and stored for years.

For these reasons and more, certain parts of the economy operate almost exclusively in cash, particularly services and illegal trade.  Since services are not tangible assets, like inventory, and illegal trade doesn't want records of their transactions, cash is king in these areas.  However, large cash transactions are cumbersom at best, and storing large amounts of cash is particularly problematic.  Also, how does one convert large amounts of cash into the above-ground economy without raising too much suspicion?

At this point, the economy bifurcates, with "white" and "black" markets emerging.  Entire industries spring up that allow conversion of "black cash" into "white cash," so that it can be spent on traceable assets, like cars, houses and infrastructure to further build businesses.  The conversion services, generally called "money laundering," is a much bigger economic segment than most people realize.

Industries, such as food & beverage, hospitality and entertainment, are particular favorites for both receiving and 'laundering" large amounts of cash.  At some level, they all rely on self-reporting of transactions.  Server tips, room registrations and ticket sales all have some aspect of self-reported transactions involved.

Here in Jakarta, there are thousands of road-side food vendors who don't accept or use credit/debit cards, and they pay cash for their supplies directly to producers, none of whom are under any particular pressure to report any of their transactions, and without constant monitoring, government has no means to book the sales.  Since the transactions are cash from beginning to end, it would cost far more to monitor than is justified by the potential tax revenues.

This highlights the two primary reasons for moving to non-cash economies: 1) banksters want all money to pass through their institutions, so they can generate revenues from fees and loans, and 2) governments want to tax every single exchange to maximize their cut of the action.  In other words, it's pure greed on the part of the "leeches" who produce nothing but want everything.

What the "leeches" fail to comprehend is that economics are organic transactions conducted by organic beings.  Being inorganic, governments and banks must live off of the true economy of real people interacting.  Without the ability to track, trace and tax every transaction, they are wholly unable to function, as they cannot generate money of their own without crashing the organic economy.

The ultimate problem lies in that people and economics are organic.  Once the inorganic systems squeeze too hard, the organic world simply moves away from painful stimulae.  We commonly call this moving away "black markets," "barter" and similar names.  People begin to trade in other currencies or simply trade goods and services that they consider to be of equal value.

In the alternative currency markets, things like gold and silver, which are universally accepted and virtually untraceable if so desired, become the "money" of choice.  However, history tells us that sea shells, nails, salt and similar materials have been used, based on relative rarity in an economy.

In a barter system, the cobbler and the candlestick maker decide that a pair of shoes is worth X number of candles, and they happily exchange their products for each other's wares.  Barter is one of the oldest forms of trade known to us organics, followed closely by cash, which allows the cobbler to sell shoes without having to take immediate trade in other goods, and enables him to store excess output as "savings" for later purchases.

In the end, should state/bankster-issued cash cease to exist, a large (and growing) number of the organic economic actors would simply move to some alternative that everyone found mutually agreeable, whether is be barter or some new form of tangible asset that serves all the functions of "money."

Crypto-currencies are only fun while one has access to digital networks and electronic "wallets," but try buying necessities with Bitcoin in the jungle just a couple of hours from where I sit.  Ain't gonna happen.

Basically, the "end of cash" only implies the beginning of some other means of economic system, whether it is metals and minerals, shells, leaves, nails, or some other tangible asset that can be stored, is easily transported and traded for other items.

Here in Asia, we have several perfect examples.  Indonesia made it illegal to trade in anything but rupiah, and foreign investment dried up practically overnight.  India banned the two most common bank notes and the monied class immediately began moving their wealth out of the country.  South Korea is in the middle of a vast corruption scandal involving several wealthy families and the central government, causing folks to move their savings out of the country.  On the other hand, Vietnam has reduced taxes, made asset ownership and visas easier for foreigners.  Guess where all that moving wealth is going.

Money, or more accurately organic economic activity, will always move from restrictions to freedom.  It is the way of organic systems.  This is why things like TPP and TTIP are so desperately pushed by the government/bankster inorganics.  They want universal regulation that prevents people from doing what people naturally do with their money.  The theory is if there are no Vietnams, then there is nowhere for the organics to run.  Ultimately, though, the organics will simply shed the inorganics in what we commonly call "revolutions" and set up a new and more agreeable system to trade in.

You have to wonder at the idiocy of the inorganics.  They have spent centuries trying to plug the organic holes and prevent economies from leaking out, only to find there are twice as many smaller holes.  They never learn.  As soon as they make the inorganic system too painful to use, the organics simply walk away and find other ways to do things.

As the brilliant Thomas Merton observed, "The more you squeeze, the less you have."

Will the inorganics ever learn?

Banksters And The Straw Man

I come from a long line of "conspiracy theorists."  Of course, back in the day, we didn't have a name for it.  Back then, they just called it history, or research, or something stupid like that.

Anyway, before my dad went into politics, he was an history teacher.  He got his Masters degree from University of Houston and his Bachelors from University of St. Thomas.  So when I was going up, I not only got hours-long lectures on history at home, but I was the go-to student in history classes as the one who could answer any question the other kids weren't willing to attempt.

In short, it sucked.  There I was trying to be cool, but because my dad had drilled this stuff into my head, I always came out looking like the nerd, although secretly my classmates thought it was pretty cool that I knew all that stuff.

Later, "that stuff" became known as "conspiracy theories," and was generally frowned upon and dismissed as complete bunk.  In other words, in less than a generation, it went from being cool to know history (even if only in secret) to being weird and even...dare I say it...a little crazy.

More to the point, Dad wrote his Master Thesis on a guy called Colonel Edward Mandell House.  House was a Texan, from Houston no less, who to the casual observer was a political and diplomatic mover and shaker.  He was eventually fired by Woodrow Wilson, who suspected him of lying about key events in Europe during WW1.  Dad's word for this guy was "traitor."

Before I go on, I should stop and talk about a particular "conspiracy theory" called the Strawman.  In logic, a straw man is a fallacy where a polemicist sets up a false premise and attacks it, appearing to refute the other guy's argument, but in reality is attacking his own unrelated concept.  This particular technique is very popular in political debates, where a candidate will address a topic unrelated to the question asked and then pretend as if the question was fully handled.  Rhetorically, this form of fallacy uses the passive voice so as to disguise the subject of the sentence and put emphasis on the object.

The concept comes from ancient warfare, where fake armies were built up out of straw dummies, and while the enemy attacked the decoys, the real army would sneak around and attack from the rear.  One particularly good depiction of the technique was shown in the Mel Gibson film "The Patriot," when Gibson's character used fake British soldiers to negotiate the release of American prisoners.

The Strawman Conspiracy posits that the banksters have created legal fictions, or straw men, for every citizen, using the Birth Certificate as a means to create a massive amount of debt on the average lifelong economic output of each person.  The person, in turn, can never pay off the debt because he doesn't know it exists, and thus remains a prisoner for life to the system created in his or her name.  The hook is the Social Security system, which acts as a kind of "carrot on a stick" to keep everyone paying into the system, but never getting back more than a fraction of the amount taken.

It's a form of indentured servitude involving a contract of which one party is completely ignorant, and which is often entered into involuntarily before the age of majority status - usually at birth these days.

The system is so devious and insidious that most people never become aware of it.  Those who do mostly dismiss it out of hand as a "conspiracy theory," and those who actually begin the years of research to figure out how it works and (rarely) how to get out of it never pursue it till the conclusion.  Thus, the system perpetuates itself for generations with all but a tiny few ever figuring out what is going on.  The vast majority actually believe it to be a benefit to them.

For the reader interested in this highly complex, but fascinating topic, I highly recommend my interview with Frank O'Collins, and a visit to his library will provide many hours worth of research and education.

But back to Colonel House.  This slimy bastard, for lack of a more polite but accurate term, was a major player in setting up the Social Security system in the US.  He was under no illusions about what the system was designed to do.  His own words are much better at describing the design and intent of the "Strawman" system.  I don't usually quote other sources at great length, but for those truly interested in liberty, or curious why I say that the System cannot be reformed from the inside and must be torn down completely, I offer a fairly long quote from the man himself in a letter to President Woodrow Wilson.  Though it has never been clear, this program may have led - in part - to Wilson and House falling out with each other.  So I leave you with this:

"Very soon, every American will be required to register their biological property (that's you and your children) in a national system designed to keep track of the people and that will operate under the ancient system of pledging. By such methodology, we can compel people to submit to our agenda, which will affect our security as a charge back for our fiat paper currency. 

"Every American will be forced to register or suffer being able to work and earn a living. They will be our chattels (property) and we will hold the security interest over them forever, by operation of the law merchant under the scheme of secured transactions. Americans, by unknowingly or unwittingly delivering the bills of lading (Birth Certificate) to us will be rendered bankrupt and insolvent, secured by their pledges.

 "They will be stripped of their rights and given a commercial value designed to make us a profit and they will be none the wiser, for not one man in a million could ever figure our plans and, if by accident one or two should figure it out, we have in our arsenal plausible deniability. After all, this is the only logical way to fund government, by floating liens and debts to the registrants in the form of benefits and privileges.

 "This will inevitably reap us huge profits beyond our wildest expectations and leave every American a contributor to this fraud, which we will call “Social Insurance.” Without realizing it, every American will unknowingly be our servant, however begrudgingly. The people will become helpless and without any hope for their redemption and we will employ the high office (presidency) of our dummy corporation to foment this plot against America."  - attributed to Colonel Edward Mandell House

Note that the Federal Reserve Bank was created on 23 December 1913, in a midnight voice vote while most of Congress was away on Christmas vacation.  The Social Security Act was signed into law by FDR on 14 August 1935, in (surprise) Austin, Texas.  The Social Security Act was written and supported by John D. Rockefeller, Jr,, and a number of large corporations like General Electric, all of which derived financial benefits from the System.  Similar systems have been set up worldwide, especially in nations where the US has had strong influence over the 20th century.

Food for thought on this December day.  Think about it next time you vote for someone who promises to reform the system from the in

The Global Con Game

Don't know if you've noticed, since not many folks are talking about it, but all of the major countries either having problems, or are on the US shit list are members of the BRICSA bloc of nations.

In case you are a bit behind, the BRICSA is a somewhat loose association between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICSA).  Over the years, they have built up amenable trade and cultural ties, and have tried to synchronize policies in such a way as to benefit and promote the member countries.

The latest BRICSA efforts have centered around creating a new financial clearing system to compete with the ubiquitous SWIFT system, and the essentially Western lap-dog JSCC system in Japan.

Why is this important?  Well, SWIFT handles nearly all the major inter-nation settlements for securities, bank transfers, credit card purchases, and so forth.  Basically, SWIFT is the world's financial system.  Without it, most major economies would simply shut down, because backing the SWIFT system are, for the most part, seven major players who insure the transactions.  For instance, if the US needs to transfer a few billion bux to China on account, one of the players will insure the transaction at value for the few seconds it takes between hitting "enter" and the blips showing up at the other end.

The SWIFT system is enabled by a fleet of secure satellite transponders and the most intimidating (not really the largest and no one is sure if the strongest) military forces on Earth.  It is this system that is the fundamental underpinning of US hegemony since the last World War, and the primary reason that the US dollar is the world's reserve currency.

Along come these BRICSA upstarts who understand the power and influence exerted by the SWIFT system, and they decide they are going to take a stab at making a parallel system that is not beholden to Western power centers, specifically the seven groups who underwrite the transactions.

Well, the Western banksters ain't having none of that.

Since the moment Russia and China announced their intentions to create this new financial system (about five years ago), Russia has been on the NATO target list, China's South China Sea activities have gained increasing attention at the Pentagon, India is suddenly not as chummy as it used to be, and Brazil...well, we'll get to that in a minute.  As for South Africa, hell no one's paid any attention to them since the end of Apartheid.

Most of the world's big geo-political problems can be traced back to this one thing: replacing SWIFT.  If you have any doubts about who runs the Western powers, just look at the Western militaries and their behaviors since the SWIFT system came under close scrutiny.

NATO has suddenly gotten all up in Russia's face.  US covert operations stirred up the Ukraine.  The US navy and air assets have been buzzing around the South China Sea like disturbed hornets and sea lice.  India is suddenly not the hot IT paradise it once was.  And Brazil...well...

Brazil was given the Olympics a few years back as reward for being such good boys and girls and playing nice in the US sandbox.  But, when Brazil started getting uppity and electing people like Dilma Rouseffe, who dared to think her country could be a little more independent, POOF!  Along comes the Zika virus, which first made headlines in Brazil, and where most of the severe cases (so we are told) are at the moment.  Next thing you know, Rouseffe is impeached, folks start pulling out of the Olympics and Brazil is close to being stuck with a huge bill if the games are cancelled due to...um, Zika, yeah Zika.

This whole mess is quite obvious from a certain point of view. Of course the media won't connect the dots because the wizard doesn't want you peeking behind the curtain.

Brazil is receiving special attention because, 1) it is over a barrel with the Olympics, and 2) it is in the US backyard, where other powers are not allowed to play.  You see, the US has this thing about keeping South America and Europe tied tightly to its apron strings.  That's why Venezuela was dealt with so harshly, and Obama made a hurried trip to Argentina for the first time in his administration (the Chinese are making big investments there), and why a bankster (there is no former) is in the lead for president of Peru.

Of course, the BRICSA are fighting back.  All this immigration mess?  Yup, you guessed it.  Just turn the US' and EU's lax immigration laws and policies back on them.  Quiet.  Subtle.

As for the US, we have Killary, whom everyone knows is in the bankster pocket, but Trump?  Well, guess what?  All those billions he brags about?  Gosh, they could all vanish with a keystroke, and he still has to use the SWIFT system to move his bux around, no matter how independent he thinks he is.

In the end, nearly every single problem in the world for the past five years can be traced back to competing financial systems.  The Western oligarchs have gotten used to controlling to world's money, and they won't give up easily.  Think Al Capone, but on a far grander scale.

We are witnessing turf wars, plain and simple, though played out on a global scale, with a game of Risk thrown in for good measure.  Armies move around and deploy, satellite ground stations get built over here, man-made islands appear over there, national economies rise and fall based on whose turf they want to play in.

On the one hand, it's a ridiculous mobster game, but on the other, there are a lot of innocent folks who will get caught in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Remember the shakedown of 2008-9?  Now, imagine this: a couple of well-heeled guys walk into your shop and say, "Pay us some protection money, 'cause I wouldn't want to see your business fall apart or nuttin'."  Same thing.  Gee, Congress, don't wanna pay up?  Ooh, did you feel the economic earthquake just now?  Better hurry or we won't be able to protect you much longer.

It's all one big alphabet soup: SWIFT, JSCC, US, EU, TPP, TTIP, BRICSA...

But it all boils down to one thing: it's an international game of gangsters and mafia, and we are all pawns.  They have the power to destroy nations who don't play along - on either side.  The Big Question is, who will win?  The next question is: how many of us will get crushed in the stampede?

War Among The Clouds

First, the Russians are invited by Syria to clean up the US mess.  Then the Panama Papers.  Then Deutsche Bank admits manipulating gold markets and threatens to spill the beans on its partners in crime.  Then a call to release classified 9/11 documents and the Saudis threaten to crash the US economy and expose even more conspirators in 9/11, even as the royals are going bust themselves.  Voterless elections in the US to ensure the Unchosen don't get too near the reins of power.  Meantime, the Russians are ramping up sub deployments, China sends fighter planes to it spiffy new islands, and the US prepares to dump a load of waterbots in the South China Sea.  Now, Brazil has impeached its president in what appears to be yet another attempt at "nation building" on the part of the bankster class.

By the way, ever wonder why so many folks are getting upset that CHINA is laying claim to a chunk of the South CHINA Sea?  It's got their name on it.

And let's not forget Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was framed for wanting to forgive third-world debt; Iceland, who jailed a bunch of bankers and then let them out again; the long list of mysterious banker deaths; and France, who has now indicted a Rothschild.

Does anyone else get the feeling that there is a war going on in the lofty regions of the global elite structure?

The thing is that most of what affects the vast majority of humans takes place far above in the cloudy realms of Mount Olympus.  Since the moment we mere humans submitted ourselves to "leaders" and "government," we have allowed ourselves to be impoverished, sent to our deaths, manipulated and lied to, and generally kept in the dark and fed shit.

Honestly, can you name anything a government has EVER done that benefited anyone but the highest shadows behind the public face of power?  I guarantee that anything you can list involved robbing one group at gunpoint to pay another, because governments can do nothing without taxes, and taxes are collected by the threat of grievous bodily harm and confiscation of property.

Higher still, though, are the folks who transcend governmental power.  They hold no allegiance to a nation.  They are subject to no laws.  They manipulate world affairs like a massive chess game.  And they keep their minions in check with a complex system of protection and threats.

When you really start looking at it, we are living in that Orwellian world where friends and enemies are interchangeable and based on some well-hidden agenda, of which we mere mortals are not allowed to be informed.  Today, we are at war with Eurasia and East Asia is our friend.  Tomorrow, we love Eurasia and are at war with East Asia.  That's the way it's always been and will always be.  Shut up and believe what you are told.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to figure out who to trust, and perhaps that is the point to all of this.  Humans being skittery and weak on the whole crave "authority" and control, so we feel that some part of our lives can be predictable and "safe."  It's as if we have been programmed, not just at the mental level, but at the cellular and even DNA level.  One begins to suspect that humanity was manufactured to be subordinate and deferential.  As Agent Kay so profoundly put it in Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Every center of power, no matter how benign and enlightened it creators are, always devolves into tyranny.  Power and wealth (hardly separable) always corrupt.  There is no denying it and no excusing it.  We are born to serve someone and we do not seem to be complete without that force in our lives, since we keep inflicting it on ourselves.

In the end, when you take all of human history into a single tapestry, you can begin to discern some force guiding the strands, dictating the colors, manipulating the warp and woof.  Only it knows the final picture it wants and only it can load the shuttle.  The vast majority of humans dismiss its existence as "conspiracy theory" and the musings of disturbed minds, because the ramifications are too disturbing and too huge to contemplate.  We prefer to live with the comforting illusion that we control our destinies and, for the most part, have a say in our leadership.

If one thing positive can be said for Donald Trump, it is that he has touched the live wire of control.  He has exposed some aspects of the "Hidden Hand."  Because of him, "they" have shown us a few cards, but because of the massive campaign to silence Trump, most of us look past these remarkable achievements.

The take-away here is that there is a "they."  It does and has always existed throughout our history.  It is there in the shadows for those who overcome the programming enough to perceive it, though few seem ever to grasp the true nature of it.

To pull one more bit of wisdom from Men in Black, the character Zed sums up the situation brilliantly and succinctly with, "You'll dress only in attire specially sanctioned by MiB special services. You'll conform to the identity we give you, eat where we tell you, live where we tell you. From now on you'll have no identifying marks of any kind. You'll not stand out in any way. Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You're a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist; you were never even born. Anonymity is your name. Silence your native tongue. You're no longer part of the System. You're above the System. Over it. Beyond it. We're "them." We're "they." We are the Men in Black."

Oh sure, like all good comedy, it sugar-coats the truth to make it easier to swallow, but it is nonetheless still there.

"They" live, and "they" are pulling the strings of our lives.  All you need is a little perspective.

All The World's A Stage

Yes, folks, the roar of concern over our long silence on the Far Side has been heard!  We apologize for yanking the rug out from under everyone, but unfortunately, we have yet to discover circumventions to the Laws of Physics, though we are trying furiously!

As we described the situation in one recent response to a long-time reader, we are busy putting all our rants and raves into action.  On top of that, everything we've examined and fretted over here in this column is now coming into reality, so there seems little point to reiterating what can be found in copious amounts in our archives.

As we have previously mentioned, our latest project has been starting up Indonesia's first international-standard theater, as well as several large galleries, a museum, and all the ancillary things attendant to them.

A theater is an incredibly complex series of interlocking technologies married to highly specialized architecture to deliver a spectacle for the eyes and ears.  Cable trucks as big around as a man carry signals to lighting instruments, communications, sound, and rigging, and any mistake in judgement could kill a person.

Consideration like having the systems isolated from the internet because nasties like StuxNet infect the control systems of theaters that support incredibly large loads over people's heads.  A misfire or miscommunication among any of the myriad parts could end up in disaster, as the experience at the Apollo Theater in London a few months back will attest.

Most people are blissfully unaware of how complex putting on modern stage shows can be, and really, that's the point.  The audience is supposed to be amazed and enthralled, not thinking about how that massive chandelier was hung over their heads.  All of the effort and machinery are supposed to be invisible or the illusion is lost.  Yet, somewhere in all that mix, someone has to worry about the safety and security of that 3-year-old in the 24th row who is staring in wide-eyed amazement at flying Disney characters - not on TeeVee or the movie screen - but in real life.

Among our copious responsibilities is knowing the dizzying intricacies of the theater's innards.  If a single cable ceases to function properly, it is our responsibility to know where that cable originates, where it terminates, and the precise path it takes in between.  We must know precisely how much load and stress can be applied to any given spot on the stage or in the rafters.  We must know the precise measurements of every function of every system in the venue.

Add to that the various social and political concerns of being GM of such a place - it's unique position in Indonesian history - and the desire to inform, educate and entertain large masses of people, and one can begin to appreciate the demands on the time of an individual.

Despite the demands and stresses of managing such an effort - still in construction phase - we would not have it any other way.  We have always maintained that when one does the thing one loves the most, there is no such thing as work.  There is only joy.

Some letter writers to us on the Far Side have asked why we don't have columns on Malaysia Air or the Ukraine situation.  The simple answer is that our answers are contained in the archives.

Malaysia Air is a distraction.  It is an operation planned and executed to do one thing - keep you from looking at the Big Picture.  The Ukraine is little more than the dying crash of Western hegemony and the rise of the New East.  These are topics we have explored at great length within these pages.

The Malaysia Air mystery is designed to soak up headlines and column inches, distract the minds, and hold attention off other - more important - events.  There is something in this story for everyone, conspiracy theorist or not.  If there is in fact a real flight with real people involved, then our heart goes out to them for their suffering.  But we are unconvinced to the extent that we have followed the story at all.  It is not a cause, but a symptom of a much larger story being played out on the world's theater, with its attendant million moving parts.

The Ukraine story is also a symptom and part of the kibuki theater of global politics.  Not to make light of the suffering there, but the people of the Ukraine must at some point see that they are being manipulated in a crass and cynical game of geo-pissing.

The Western oligarchs set into motion back in the 80s a plan to crater the Soviet system, rearrange the Mid-East to their liking, and ensure that none of them could mount a serious challenge to Western hegemony.

They had not counted on China having its own agenda.  Instead, they were supposed to be infinitely grateful to the banksters for having unloaded tons of toxic debt within their borders.  They had not counted on the Russians experiencing a moral and religious reawakening and cleaning house of the mafia corruption, as Putin has done.  They had not counted on the internet becoming a means of circumventing the official media and mind-numbing distractions of network TeeVee.  In short, they f^cked up.

Once they realized what they had done, the various factions within the bankster class began fighting amongst themselves trying either to salvage the original plan, or scavenge for any amount of power and wealth as could be grabbed in the collapse.  The dominant group, myopically and pathetically wedded to their 40-year-old plan, are moving as fast as they can to complete it, though nearly all the assumptions of their plan - all the million variables - have changed, and it is no longer viable.

Thus, the Ukraine, and Libya, and Syria, and Iran, and Afghanistan, Egypt, et cetera ad nauseum.

The collapse of Empires is a dangerous time, but as the Chinese say, there is opportunity in chaos, or as their Western counterparts would say, Ordo ab chao.

As the audience, we have three choices: 1) we can sit passively and be enthralled like a 3-year-old in the 24th row; 2) we can seek to understand all the miles of cabling and systems integration of the theater we call the world/ or 3) we can ignore the bastards, refuse to buy a ticket and go set up our own show elsewhere.  We here on the Far Side stand firmly in the Option 3 camp.

Now, back to work!

Rainin' All Over Da World

Ever get the feeling you live in a Magritte painting?

Been raining banksters lately.  Just goes to show you that when they say it's a dog-throw-dog-from-the-window world out there, they ain't kidding!

If you don't follow him regularly, it would be worth your while to pop over to Joseph Farrell's site and check out the brilliant job he has done of constructing a scenario involving global geopolitical realignments, tying bear bond scandals, gold repatriation and events like the Ukraine together.

Without a doubt, we are seeing the end of the world as most of us have known it.  In fact, you'd have to be well over 100 or so and able to recall Woodrow Wilson's administration to remember it any other way.

As for the banksters, it appears they are eating their young.  The thirty-something guys who are falling out of closed windows and popping nail guns into the backs of their skulls obviously pose some sort of threat to the new world order.

Now, when I say "new world order" without caps, I am intending to refer to an apparent shift that is not in the Western global hegemony playbook, commonly called the New World Order.  There is a shift going on that wasn't part of the Orwellian vision (which as we should know was based on the real thing).  The wheels set in motion by the Bavarian Illuminati back in the late 1800s is collapsing quickly, and there is a scramble to reshore the walls.

Imagine a giant game of Risk.  You build up your armies on the two or three countries you control, and when you figure you've got it together, you launch on a campaign to take over the world.  Things go great unless you are trying to hold Asia/Kamchatka.  The borders are long and open from a dozen different directions.  Not even Kublai Khan could hold it.

The Western empire, like so many in history, has dashed its ship on the rocks of Afghanistan and China.  Like an octopus when it touches heat, its tentacles shrivel and it retreats into its tiny cove, squirting a cloud of banksters as it goes.

The Western empire is collapsing under the weight of its own ambitions.  Having spent centuries building up armies, manipulating education and populations, testing with Hitlers and Mussolinis, and perfecting new/ancient technologies, it figured the time was ripe to venture forth.  With World War 2 having devastated most of the world (save the Americas), they Central Cabal saw an opportunity to set their plan in motion.

And it worked...for about a 100 years.

But like all empires, this one came up against the one intractable thing that brings down every attempt to dominate the world - human nature.

There are two things, outside of Maslow's Heirarchy, that guarantee failure of any group to ever gain complete control of the world.  One is greed, and the other is liberty.

No matter how true your believers are, there will always be those who have designs on the reins of power, or who look with envy on the wealth of the inner circle.  In either case, they will begin to draw others to their schemes and quietly undermine the Iron Fist out of simple greed.  This is the destruction from within.

Meanwhile, any dominated people will strive to gain freedom.  It is the core desire of any human.  Some will feel it enough to begin acting on it.  We generally call them patriots if they win, and terrorists if they don't.  In any event, they know that they have no hope of open assault on the Beast, so they chip away at it piece by piece.  It's like those video games where you come up again the big beastie at the end, and you have to keep attacking and running, attacking and running, slowly wearing down its hit points.

From these two forces eventually the octopus feels the heat and like lightning, shrinks back within its walls of safety.  Just as we see going on with the US-led Western empire.  Ukraine, Syria and raining banksters are just several of a great number of symptoms readily apparent to those who look for them.  The empire is crumbling.

The real problem, and what will become the biggest problem for those who just want to be left alone to live out their lives in peace, is this: so many people have been focused on stopping and dismantling the empire.  From my experience, the fight has been going on at least 50 years now.  Originally, it was what most folks called the "lunatic fringe", then it was the "conspiracy theorists", now it's a great number of "normal" folks.

There are plenty of folks out there now telling you to wake up and see what's happening.  But it's already happened.  Now we need to figure out what to do in the aftermath before some other New World Order or Illuminati step in to fill the vacuum.

See?  That's the problem.  This hydra we keep fighting doesn't die easily.  It backs off, licks its wounds and then comes on again in a slightly different form.  Meantime, folks think they get it whupped and head on back to the house to plow the fields and raise their kids.  The more you hack up this beast, though, the more little beasties come at you later.

The way we finally and completely kill this nasty critter that has plagued humanity for millennia is education.  We need to stop handing over education of our children to someone else.  Whoever controls education will be the one through whom the little beasties rise up again.

By education, I don't mean hugging trees and putting condoms on bananas.  I mean, "Here son, read Plato's Republic by the end of the week and be prepared to argue for or against, and why."  I mean controlling the content and quality of media.  I mean injecting real art and beauty into every part of our lives.  I mean working to bring every human up to the highest levels, rather than drag them all down into the most squalid (the current model).

Ultimately, it means taking full and complete responsibility for our own education.  Too many of us see a diploma as the end of something.  It is, in fact, only the beginning.  What that diploma means is that you should have learned the ability to think critically and to apply the greatest of human knowledge to any problem.  Now it is your responsibility to continue that process alone, reading, writing, gathering with friends on a Friday night to loosen the tongue and argue - by argue I don't mean fight, I mean state a position and defend it with reason.

Start a discussion group this week with some close friends.  Set the goal of reading something (preferably not junk fiction) and discussing it.  Invite the kids to sit around and listen, even join in if they have something valuable to add.  Turn off the TeeVee and take control of your mind.  Fill it instead with culture and art and criticism and reason.

The art of the dinner party is nearly dead, but I clearly remember sitting around with the old folks, and later at my own table, over a couple of bottles of good Cabernet and arguing the finer points of Kant, Chaucer, Joyce, Aristotle, etc.  The problem is we have allowed the nabobs and idiots to laugh us into submission, which is why the inmates now run the asylum.  We need to take it back and the war begins with dinner conversation and regular visits to the museum and theater.  It begins by taking your kids to Shakespeare rather than Disney.  It begins with the will to never stop education until you can't physically hold a book any more, but even then you can get someone to read to you, if you know anyone who can read big words anymore.

As a population of humans on this small planet, we are coming to a massive cross-road in history.  The ruling class is on its knees and their replacements have not yet felt strong enough to go head-to-head.  This is our chance, as free humans, to take back what was lost centuries ago - so long ago that none of us remember being free.  But we have books by folks who were free and who knew how to be free.

Now is the time to read those books.  Then start having close friends over for dinner.  Afterwards, pour out the libations and let the conversation begin!  This is the seed of freedom!

It used to be that you had to go to a friend's house with a good library in order to have ready references, but now we have the tool you are using this very moment.  The world's libraries are at your fingertips!  Use it!  Use your mind!  Take control of your destiny and end the centuries-long domination by a self-appointed elite.

And while you're at it...get a good umbrella.  I hear there's a storm a-comin' and those raindrops look awful big.

Most Likely Kill You In The Morning

Few people stop to think just who conspiracy theories are really serving.  Those folks who do bother to think about conspiracy theories (CTs) at all generally come down on the side that whatever has been condemned as a CT is the thing the Powers That Cower (PTC) don't want you to believe.  In fact, most CTs are purposely planted forbidden fruit used to get most folks from looking at certain information, and those that do to be lost chasing their tails and doing the work of the PTC.

One great example is the "One World Currency" (OWC) theory.  This one has prophecy, religion, economics, and fear all rolled up in a tight little ball, and practically no one sees the obvious: we are being manipulated into hating the one thing that could save us.

Let's look at the elements first.  At the top of the list is 'currency'.  A currency is nothing more than some object, commodity or symbol-laden piece of paper to which everyone gives a value.  All a currency allows me to do is conduct business without barter.  In other words, I can make and sell shoes to the candlestick maker without having to take candles in exchange.  He can give me come currency that I can use to buy things I need, including some candles if necessary.  If the currency is accepted in foreign countries, then I have an international currency that expands my options to buy and sell things.

In this regard, the US dollar, gold and silver, and increasingly the renmimbi are global currencies.  Gold has been for thousands of years and is accepted by most people everywhere.  It's perfect as a currency: practically indestructible, doesn't corrode, weighs the same everywhere, and has a reasonably limited supply.  But it is heavy, and so paper currencies came into being, of which the US dollar is the all-time champion of magic paper.

Now you throw in some prophesy.  Let's see...how about the Revelation of St. John?  You tell everyone for a century or two that the "mark of the beast" means a one-world currency.  This immediately gets all the Bible thumpers on your side fighting the one-world currency.  None of them ever stop to think that gold has been a world currency for thousands of years. This gets so ingrained in the culture that even the not-so-religious start thinking one-world currency is bad.  It's not the only example, but it's a prime one.

Now, you're an international bankster.  You are completely useless to society.  You produce nothing and provide no real service that people really need.  All you do is find creative ways to insert yourself into the middle of every commercial transaction and take money for it.  Sweet gig if you can get it.

One of your biggest and oldest scams that has reaped millions in cash for doing nothing is foreign exchange, or 'forex'.  You've been at it for years.  You had all the Jews exchanging money for sacrifical animals at the Temple and taking a profit for no real product or service.  It was so bad that even Jesus lost his temper and started whipping the lot of you.

Now, does it serve your purposes to have a one-world currency, or as many different ones as possible?  If there's a single global currency (gold for instance), how would you collect your fees for exchanging money, when there is no need for exchange?  If this wasn't such a lucrative business, then why are there 75 exchange booths at the international gates of any airport?

To play the game, you first start spreading your 'custom' interpretation of the Bible prophesy to get everyone all on alert against one-world currencies.  Then you get central banks installed in as many countries as possible and start pulling gold out of circulation and replace it with magic paper.  You call gold "the yellow dog" and ridicule those who buy and/or horde it.  You beat down the price to make folks think it's pretty worthless as currency.

Finally, you start playing with the relative values of all the different currencies so that you are not only taking profits from exchanging currencies every time someone crosses a border, but you are using the differential exchange rates as a means of cashing in, as well.  Thus, you throw all your money into the euro and the relative price starts to climb.  When you hit your targe value, to turn it back into dollars (or whatever) and pocket the difference.

One-world currency is the last thing international bankers want, and they have played with our perceptions and beliefs for a century or more to ensure that you reject the one-world currency idea that would literally break their backs by ending one of their oldest and richest scams.

It's all a huge rip-off and the whole 'conspiracy theory' was manufactured to keep us sheep from looking at the truth.  After all, if the banksters could get us to actively fight against the one thing that coudl really harm them, then think of all the time and effort we would save them!

It's all kinda like the Dread Pirate Roberts scam in The Princess Bride:

Well, Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. So he took me to his cabin and told me his secret: "I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts," he said. "My name is Ryan. I inherited this ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from was not the real Dread Pirate Roberts, either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a king in Patagonia." Then he explained the name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley. So we sailed ashore, took on an entirely new crew and he stayed aboard for awhile as first mate, all the time calling me Roberts. Once the crew believed, he left the ship and I have been Roberts ever since. Except, now that we're together, I shall retire and hand the name over to someone else. Is everything clear to you?

And that's how the game is played.

Zombie Tools Unite!

Well, here we are: one year post-Mayan-zombie Apocalypse.  If you look around critically, you could almost believe it really happened.  The past year has been one of vast, profound and subtle shifts in the direction of history.

Global power has been shifting, sometimes like a sloth and others like a leopard, toward the East.  Increasingly, Russia and China are dictating the ways and means of the world political and economic stage.  In recent weeks, China took the lead in our celestial backyard, as it landed a rover on the Moon.

Meanwhile, the US/UK/EU axis of evil continues to live up to its name, having been revealed (yet again over the past 45 years) to be spying on everyone on the planet, including itself.  For some reason, everyone was shocked, or feigning such for the cameras.  It was hardly a surprise, as anyone who has been awake and reading the reams of laws passed in the last few decades would know this system was at work.  Looks like we've all been Snowdened.

Anyone who thinks they have privacy after posting their life histories, scads of photos and hot chats all over the social media deserves it.  It's akin to taking out a billboard on Times Square and then being shocked that anyone recognizes you walking down the street.  Remember back in the old days when people used screen names?

The Brits added another mouth to its royal tax burden, and then began protesting the tax rates there.  Bit o' news, mates.  You're subjects owned lock, stock and barrel.  Fork it over or get rid of the ridiculous pretention of a royal family.  You're paying for the trappings of empire, without the empire.

Global warming continues to be the world's biggest non-issue.  Those who created extravagant business models based on social guilt keep trying to milk it, with movies, TeeVee and Olympic ceremonies pushing a dead issue, while temps haven't risen in 16 years, polar ice caps are growing and deadly winters are becoming the norm.  Liberal agendas always seem to blow up in their faces.  Ever notice that.

Speaking of which...Obamacare.  Nuff said.

Liberals are the biggest hypocrites to be found.  They blather on about "diversity" as long as they don't have to live with xenotypes.  They beat their breasts over "equality", as long as their chosen groups are more equal.  They jet around the globe and ride in limos and own massive mansions while droning endlessly on about the "environment".  Basically, a liberal is anyone who wants you to change your lifestyle so they don't have to.

Oh, and that whole Kuumbaya rubbish about humanity coming from Africa so we can all feel downtrodden because most African nations are so corrupt and full of thieves that they continuously destroy themselves?  Modern genetics has proven beyond a doubt that it is false.  Looks like most of us came from Australia.  G'day, mate! Kind of a weird poetic beauty to that idea.  The Aboriginals I know are way more cool than most of the Africans of my acquaintance.  Take Obama, for instance...

At least conservatives are blatantly open about the prejudices, greed and hatred of all that isn't incorporated.  I can respect honesty, even when both the message and messenger are equally despicable.

The whole damn civilization is fraying and frazzled, and covered stem to stern with bubblegum and bailing wire.  Can't say I'm sad to see it go.  It's kind of like gangrenous flesh - you've got to carve it out before the healing can begin.  It's just a horribly slow and painful process at the scale of a planet.

You'd think after 6,000 years of starting governments and then living to regret the idea very much, humanity would have learned.  It is apparent that we are a masochistic species hell-bent on operating in our own worst interests come what may.

At any rate, Aquarius continues to dawn.  The year of the yin wood green horse is coming up.  The numerical value of the coming year is 7, which a lot of folks call lucky.  Maybe we'll get lucky and squeeze the big boil on the rump of the world and start the recovery for real.

In the immortal words of Shakespeare, "Jail all the bankers!"  Or was that Sven Joergensohn?  I get the two confused.

Machiavelli Versus Sun Tzu

In the 50-year history of the Star Trek franchise, one of the most memorable and poignant lines, packed with metaphor and subtext, was Spock's observation that 'only Nixon could go to China' (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country if you're keeping track).

Indeed, 41 years ago, when Nixon went to China to 'open' the nation to global economic participation, he likely had no idea the can of worms into which he was prying.  To the Western mind, it was a vast supply of cheap labor and a billion potential consumers.

China has always been inscrutable and mysterious to Westerners, not unlike a tiger.  The West was ill-prepared for wrestling tigers, especially the US, which was a mere babe in arms when it came to global hegemony.  The Chinese had conquered the world many times before Nixon boarded Air Force One.  His nation had only shown up yesterday in Chinese history books.

In the 40 short years since Nixon's visit, China has gone from a closed, intensely self-absorbed nation to an economic dynamo sitting squarely atop the globe and directly threatening the century-long plans of the 'exceptional' Americans for world domination.

America's weakness has always been its hubris.  From the days of religious refugees spilling out of Europe to seek peace in North America, there has been an underlying current of 'exceptionalism' in American culture.  When America looked in the mirror, it saw a Shining City Upon The Hill, a civilizing force among nations, a power to reshape the world in its own image.  Balancing precariously on this fragile pedestal, the US has applied its resources and ingenuity to casting a New World Order, with itself as Greek god enthroned on Olympus.  More literally, a new Rome stretching forth its hand to own all it touches.

However, as anyone who has played King of the Hill knows, having the high ground is not enough when you occupy the most desirable position.  Being a leader is a fun place to be, with the perks of power and dominance, but there is always someone waiting in the wings to topple you from your throne, and China has three millennia of experience at doing just that.

China, for better or worse, has sat ensconced on the Eastern hemisphere for centuries.  It has been the center of power, learning and economics on this half of the globe since long before the US ever thought to lead the world.  In fact, it is highly likely that Admiral Zheng He was traipsing around present-day California before Christopher Columbus was even born.

Suffice it to say that China has watched empires rise and fall.  Its own ambitions have touched every continent.  Genghis Khan's Mongol empire, seated in Beijing, knocked at the door of Europe and so scared folks that even today, the expression 'Mongol hordes' still infects the English language.

When it comes to business, the Americans have found themselves outmatched.  Unless you have sat across from Chinese at the negotiating table, you will not understand and fully appreciate the word "ruthless".  When it comes to business, the Chinese will slit your throat while bowing politely and offering soft words of praise on your business acumen.  They are able to scale this technique from one-on-one to nation-on-nation.  Where the US bombs its way into hearts and minds, the Chinese buy and trade, and one can infer which method engenders more loyalty.

When Nixon entered China, he saw himself as liberator.  He was going to undermine the Communist system by showing the Chinese the glory of democracy and capitalism.  Forty years later, the US dangles from a rope and China is tying the other end to the tree.  Welcome to Chinese business dealings.  One can be reasonably sure that when Nixon sat down with Deng Xiaoping, he likely wasn't thinking that the culture behind Deng had invented gunpowder, paper money, state lotteries, and even spaghetti and meatballs - all the tools of US hegemony were, in fact, made in China.  'Opening' China to democracy and capitalism was actually throwing Br'er Rabbit into the briar patch.

One of the US's main strengths, being the new kid on the global block, is also its primary Achilles Heel.  Being new to the list of empires gave the US a certain amount of deference and laissez faire on the part of the world, since it had no operating history, no track record, and folks were willing to offer the benefit of the doubt.  However, this advantage was turned to the dark side and was taken over by greed and lust for power.  Blinded by pride, Nixon marched into China to unwittingly unleash the tiger that would turn to maul the supposed trainer.

Empires are like Super Bowl champions, every year there's a new one, and history is no different.  America got its ring, the trip to Disneyland and enjoyed some endorsement contracts, but this season has seen many injuries and the loss of some key players, so another team has risen to dominate the game.

The US team is a new franchise and has only held championship status once in its history.  The new champion China has been around for a while and has won many Super Bowls before.  Within the culture of the franchise, they recognize that you only sit at the top for a short time before being toppled by the next champion.  While you're at the top, you make a little money, store up some wealth, get a few things done, and then wait for the inevitable losing season.

The US has squandered its position because it has no history.  It forgot its Reformation roots of humility and work, and instead of storing wealth for the eventual fall, it went all-in, like a cocky poker player in a Vegas tournament.  When the deal went south, it could do little else but watch as the pile of chips moved to the wrong side of the table.

The mentalities and strategies of the two sides are vastly different.  The US makes blind bounding leaps throwing caution to the wind and over-extending itself in the quest for glory.  The Chinese advance in increments.  They extend a little, secure and shore up, then extend a little more.  The Americans are brash nouveau riche - spoiled and profligate - while the Chinese are ancient dynasties of wealth and privilege.  The former throws money and caution to the wind, while the latter quietly amasses wealth and fortifies position and influence, yielding when the occasion requires it.

The two sides are like yin and yang.  They are the perfect compliment to each other.  They can not defeat each other, nor can they dominate each other.  They will always return to equilibrium because they can not exist without each other.  In the Chinese view, they are happy to have the flamboyant Americans to hide behind, like a courtier to Louis XIV.  Let the gaudy sun king take all the glory...and the blame.  Meantime, sit quietly behind the throne directing the action and save every scrap that falls from the royal table.  It is the tortoise and the hare writ large.

Indeed, the Chinese and Western banksters are equals, and on the stage of history, it is not the rise and fall of the American empire that is the real drama of our times.  Kings come and go.  Rather, it is the clash of these two hidden powers - the Eastern and Western dynasties - that will be the true action of the play.  Even now, the Eastern bloc is establishing its own system of alliances and finance to compete head-to-head with the mere apprentices in the West.  To add insult to injury, the Eastern dynasties are using the tools of the West against them, like Xiao Lin adepts turning force against itself.  The hapless West keeps throwing empty punches and spends a lot of time on its back staring up at the sky, not quite sure how it got in that position.

For those with eyes to see, it is an epic death match between two fundamentally equal sides - in one corner sits Niccolo Bernardo Machiavelli and in the other Sun Tzu.  Those of us with front row seats will get spattered with blood and body parts, like an audience at a macabre Gallagher concert.  The rock has met the hard spot, the tiger and the bull, and we the world are caught between.  It is not the first time, and won't be the last, but it is the latest event of the season.

It's Rotschildt versus Li in the classic rivalry that has entertained the world for centuries.  Both sides are master manipulators, and both know that empire is just a show to distract from their real plays.  They are adept at avoiding the spotlight.  One side uses the blunt weapons of Machiavelli: the ax, the hammer and the sword.  The other uses the refined weapons of Sun Tzu: deception, stealth and redirection.

Nothing much to do now, but buy some snacks and settle in for a real show.  In the game of empire, these are Princes skilled in the Art of War.