Hello c1oudfire: Enjoy. Take care
"Since coming to the Fed in November 2003—recruited by then-New York Fed chairman Pete Peterson, co-founder of the Blackstone Group—Geithner has learned the ways of the financial industry at the feet of some of its biggest legends."
This helps explain why Simon Johnson was so mealy-mouthed about Geithner when he (Johnson) was interviewed on On Point several days ago. Johnson is associated with The Peterson Group and I am assuming that he draws a paycheck from them in addition to his MIT paycheck.
Johnson may see the oligarchy angle – and kudos to him for pointing it out – but does he understand that the world would be a better place without the IMF altogether?
"America is Being Looted" and if you are reading this you are most likely a lootee.
brjohnson789,
What serious collective action would you propose? It seems to me that the outpouring of negative response directed at our elected officials regarding the bailout last fall would be classified as a "serious collective action". Result - nothing. If it is that we can retake the government through the election process, I would call that naive. So what actions are available?
Wow, Joe.
I know you are trying to be funny, but I see this post got flagged too. That seems to be a trend for you.
You are a glutton for punishment, aren’t you.
I have to say, it was a little funny, but I can also see why it got flagged. I’m guessing you don’t.
Hi Mark,
Unfortunately I think they only avenue left is in fact to retake the gov’t via elections. I think any sort of armed rebellion would be pretty easily handled. The armed forces are just too advanced etc to be taken on by regular ‘joes’ with their hunting rifles. Besides, most people are still ‘asleep’ in my opinion and would not welcome armed conflicts in their streets. However once you get to the point where there are enough people awake then getting people elected who want to do something different than the status quo would not be impossible.
I would like to think I have woken up a few people, but I do admit it is a big hurdle. When our country only graduates half its kids from high school, asking these same people to have a different mind set than what is presented on TV is a pretty large leap for them.
So I guess I would just advocate keep on making noise, because waking these folks up is the only hope we got. When candidates from one party or the other, or a third party, start talking sense and actually end up getting elected to significant positions, we’ll know we’re on the right track.
I have my doubts about whether these "tea bag" protests can be considered serious collective resistance to anything. They may or may not have started out as non-partisan, but now have been co-opted by the Republican right in the personages of Newt Gingrich and Phil Gramm.
One of the demonstrations took place locally and the news media dashed right out to interview the protesters. They weren’t the most articulate lot, the knee jerk responses were along the lines of "They’re all communists."
You can pick your politics, but you might want to think about who your name is likely to be associated with.
I’m certainly no expert on either the psychology, or the organisation of a movement. However, I do believe and am pretty ceratin in saying that unless and until a group becomes informed it will not be motivated to organize, or take action. What I personally have found here is the connection between many different sources information into a picture I find frightening. We’re now all sitting around saying to ourselves, well, what now? We feel our country and the world are going down the wrong path, what do we do with the information? I am sharing the information with people I believe otherwise would only know what major corporations tell them in their local newspapers and on the nightly news so that they too can become more informed citizens and consumers. And, I’m making changes in my life that I believe will ultimately make a difference.
While in some perverse way I really want there to be rioting, but on Wall Street instead of Main Street, I don’t believe that violence is the answer.
Instead, I believe that the people must impose their collective will upon "the system" in order to truly effect real change. Whether its refusing to pay bills or taxes; unplugging from the energy grid; parking automobiles; growing a garden, or raising livestock; withdrawing monies from certain banks; bartering instead of trading fiat currencies; or any number of other ways of breaking the norm advocated by individuals here and elsewhere, we must ultimately break loose from the oligarchs who are imposing their will(s) upon us.
I keep hearing politicians saying that its a bad idea to "waste a crisis". This is our greatest opportunity to share the message because we many never in our lifetimes have the receptive audience we have today. Don’t prey on the fear in the population like our government did post 9/11, rather, use the opportunity to connect the dots for people who otherwise would be driving around in the gas guzzling SUVs and running up their credit card balances. They’re sitting home collecting unemployment with nothing to do, but surf the web!!! Take advantage of the opportunity. Its not that hard for individuals to reach their own conclusions when the information is presented to them in the fashion that Chris Martenson did for us today.
Mark, BR, Goal, others,
I wish I had the link handy, but someone did the math recently and determined that in the current system we are in (Mob Rules) where a majority is required to pass legislation, an then an overwhelming majority to override the presidential veto, there is no way, even if all the the Ron Paul candidates existed and opposed the incumbents at the mid term election, that even then there would be enough in congress to change anything.
Let’s assume there were, and every seat in the legislature and the oval office had a Ron Paul in it. What then? It is too late for any meaningful change for peak oil. The damage to the economy is already done, and we can only change the way we go about responding to the damage.
If we still had 10 years left, we might be in a position to effect real change to save billions of people. My challenge to the group is to ask, if you had the economic dream team, i.e. Chris Martenson as Sec Treas, the Fed Reserve was nearly disbanded, but became much smaller and was under the direct authority of Sec Treas, Ron Paul was pres, and the legislative will of the entire congress was 100% driven by the fundamentals of the crash course, what would you have them do? No back ups or do-overs allowed, we are here today and from here is where we must go.
What to do?
Perhaps this is too much. Let’s just limit it to what to do about peak oil?
Rog
Now that sounds like an fun thread, on its own merit. The Economic Dream Team . . . EDT . . . Who else would we want on it?
Terri Gross on Fresh Air interviewed Simon Johnson about the bank bailout back in March…very good listen.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101360253
"
So, what’s the answer? Anyone?"
STOP servicing your debts…
Mike
Unfortunately, I do not (personally) believe elections are going to do it… we just had that go 'round and 95% of the elected overlords who voted for the first bailout were returned to office!
Honestly… I don’t see the change that America thought they were voting for, do you???
Having said that, here are a few things that most of us can do…
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If you collect a paycheck, go into your employer tomorrow and increase your W-4 exemptions to 10 or 20… that’ll start to choke the Federal Over-Spenders as tax receipts plunge!
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If you control the payment of your property real estate taxes, don’t pay them until you absolutely have to… in my neck of the woods it’s two years before a Tax Sale… that’ll start choking the Local Over-Spenders, forcing them to live within their means (Note: you’ll likely pay a penalty if everything doesn’t collapse, but it’ll also be likely that you’ll pay it with cheaper/ inflated dollars).
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Consider choking the large banksters by defaulting on your credit cards (millions are already doing it)… think of it as getting some of your money back that the politicians have already advanced without our permission (Note: your credit score will suffer, but do you really need more credit? Besides, if you do need it in the future, you can repair your credit later… probably at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar).
Call it Civil Financial Disobedience. Note that none of the above are illegal in any way, but there could be some small financial consequences for making a stand against what you believe is flat out wrong… in the 1770s otherwise-loyal English citizens took a much firmer, forceful stand… surely we can at least do this!
It would take guts, but all lasting change starts from within… and certainly outside of DC!
Pat, Mike,
If we were able to get everyone to do this at the same time, it would certainly have an effect. I can’t say how that helps us solve peak oil, but it would certainly create some sparks and action, although I am not sure what.
I guess this leads us back to gaining in numbers. If I am the only one that doesn’t pay my taxes tomorrow, I get squashed, plain and simple. If 50% of the population doesn’t, whew mama.
Rog
brjohnson789 and others,
Keep waking people up. Things will change when the "awake" people reach critical mass. I have very little faith in changing things through elections. Not that I will stop trying, but we need change YESTERDAY, not over the next ten years. So while I think the election "thing" needs to be pursued, I think other measures are necessary. If you haven’t become active in promoting candidates that reflect your views, I encourage you to do so. However, the political machine (from the bottom up) that grooms these potential officeholders for either of the two main parties is amazing AND THEY DON"T WANT YOU ROCKING THEIR BOAT. Been there, watched it happen.
I don’t advocate armed conflict. However, I don’t think things will change until there are millions in the streets protesting. One of my concerns is, that by the time that happens, many of those involved WILL be more open to violent forms of protest and I believe that dilutes the message to the "average" American. It will keep people at home rather than encouraging them to come out. I think the tea bags are a start and are a good entry point for those maybe not as likely to become involved as others. Hopefully many of these newfound rebels will take a "next step".
I think it is a great idea to promote information such as this blog from Chris to law enforcement friends. We need these people to understand the real issues and be open to the actions of those that are truly concerned about the future of this country.
Great blog entry by Chris here. However, my personal rage just grew a few clicks. I know all the specifics of what is going on, but when I read articles that really tie things together my blood boils. "They" really do take us for uninformed idiots. I don’t respond well to arrogance and elitist mindsets.
"So what actions are available?"
STOP servicing your debts…
What simpler form of revolution could there be? No violence, and the authorities can do nothing about it, cannot send cops into every house for not paying their credit cards etc etc… and the banks would be on their knees in days begging for mercy.
Mike
I’d cancel ALL debts. Everything else is ‘the detail’.
Mike
"Public policy is in the grips of a very powerful and self-interested cabal that seemingly has no concern for the future or the health of this country and does not even see the need to be cautious enough to mask its efforts."
search "The Illuminati"
might be a bit of a conspiracy theory but a lot of it is seeming quite real now
I’m seriously starting to believe Mike!
So cool to see Pat thinking like me… I was starting to think maybe I was crazy or something.
Ready, I see you are a Matrix fan too… NOTHING can fix PO. PO will cause us to have to simplify our lives tremendously, and I think the trick is to pre-empt this while we still have some oil available for cool stuff like solar and wind power…
Canceling debts immediately removes the burden of having to work, and I mean as in a paying job, for that folding fiat stuff.
I instigated a well followed thread here called "What if" last year… you might like to search for it with the CM search engine.
Mike