Is It Too Late? Here's What Former CIA Senior Operations Officer Jim Erdman Thinks

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Originally published at: Is It Too Late? Here’s What Former CIA Senior Operations Officer Jim Erdman Thinks – Peak Prosperity

Can the country be saved, or is it too late? This is the second installment of my podcast series examining these questions.

Today we’re joined by Jim Erdman, a retired CIA senior operations officer, Army Ranger veteran, and co-founder of Feds for Freedom, who initially joined the government after 9/11 out of a sincere desire to help the country and catch bad guys.

Looking back, Jim thinks that 9/11 was the breaking point for the U.S. That’s when elements within the government used and misused the trauma of 9/11 to dramatically expand budgets, surveillance, and executive powers while congressional oversight steadily eroded.

Jim’s personal breaking point happened during COVID. After initially trusting government institutions, Erdman says the pandemic response convinced him that multiple federal agencies abandoned ethical standards, entirely abandoned their missions to help their fellow citizens while coordinating right-stripping policies from the top down.

After many years of experience, Jim’s view is that the near-total lack of accountability for high-level people is one of the biggest problems we face. Whether they’re just really bad at their jobs and deserve to be fired, or have engaged in criminal activities, nothing ever happens. So, nothing ever changes. At least for the better. Things do change for the worse without accountability.

Washington DC, he says, is now operating a ‘blob’ that outlasts any particular presidency or elected official, and carries on with its own sets of incentives and no fear of being ousted by citizens voting or complaining.

So, can the country be saved? Yes, he says, if enough people stand up and demand that change. But he also recognizes the difficulties of that given the fact that our voting processes and systems are, shall we say, vulnerable.

Can the country be saved? Maybe. But first, some things will have to change. One of the main things is that we’re going to have to bring accountability back to the powerful.

Tune in for the rest.

Timestamps

00:00 The Government We Thought We Had
02:43 When The Government Changed
05:30 How The Patriot Act Changed Everything
08:28 The Bureaucracy Learns It Can’t Be Stopped
10:46 When An Intelligence Officer Started Questioning The System
14:50 Why Jim Joined The CIA
20:14 COVID Becomes The Final Wake-Up Call
24:56 The Federal Vaccine Mandate Revolt
32:05 From Counterterrorism To The Surveillance State
35:02 Why Nobody Is Being Held Accountable
43:39 Following The Money In The Epstein Case
46:53 Who Really Owns The Government
50:37 You Can’t Just Vote Your Way Out
55:02 Can America Trust Its Elections
01:01:06 Stop Bitching And Fix The Government
01:06:14 Who Actually Owns America
01:09:08 Is Money The Real Power
01:10:06 What Happened With Havana Syndrome
01:12:29 COVID’s Unintended Consequence
01:17:15 The Political Coalition That Got Lost
01:19:52 What Happened To Trump
01:31:09 The Alternative To Civil Conflict
01:33:17 Individual Responsibility And The Way Forward
01:35:31 Feds For Freedom

 

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The standard of living in the USA is far too wonderful for “everyone” to stand up. What does stand up even mean? Obviously voting a positive change is not an option. If standing up means bloodshed, then who do the citizens attack first?

I don’t think the pandered idea of a revolution is by any means a clear answer, because you don’t know exactly who you should fight.

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To be fair I genuinely wonder why some folks came as illegal immigrant to US. They had business in home country, not too serious crime(US cities also have plenty of crime, petty or more serious) and their living standard was in US average salary level which is globally very good these days. Someone putting up 20k$ for shady organization and leaving kids and family behind to travel for america … (one illegal from south america in NYC was saying this background). Something is seriously wrong in these stories. 20k$ is huge amount for regular joe in west as cash. Not everyone out there in world is living for 1$ a day. That’s leftist framing. I suspect leftist folks go abroad and brag how everyone is millionaire in west with easy job, to fraud people to leave their decent lives and families behind. It is purely selfish leftist agenda to gain power and taxmoney access to spend it. Nurses, healthcare (+ skyrocketed overblown NGO industries in US+europe and west), many from outside have perception and image of helping people but folks tell huge amount of selfish, psychopathic, questionable people work there in those industries. That’s regular jane version of james bond/john wick cover as job.

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Totally agree with that. It’s like Gerald Celente, the founder of the Trends Journal magazine likes to say: “When people lose everything and have nothing else to lose, they LOSE IT!”. That’s been pretty much the case throughout history. When people can’t feed themselves or their family and watch as those in charge are benefiting from their corruption at the expense of those who are suffering, that’s when they lose it.

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Here is a different take on the whole mideast situation. The main point is that it was obvious that the straight would be closed and the fertilizer, alumiinimum and energy would stop. Is anyone stupid enough to believe that the government did not know how this would unfold? This is all on purpose and none of the explanations make any sense unless this is the grand plan. Six months in the effects of the fertilizer shortage and energy shortage will hit together. America first means everyone else is last. This is a very dangerous bet and things will get rough in the next couple of months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx5Dfo6za_A

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I have to make this comment after listening to him. WTH is he saying?

Can’t vote our way out of this.

Dont do a revolt/violence. It’s horrible and I’ve personally witnessed it.

Be personally responsible and speak up.

All of the government is infused with the Blob and it has to be weeded out.

We can’t eliminate the Blob because it is so entrenched. Anyone who is effective resigns or is basically ineffective in place.

Dude, WTF?! The low brow majority that is poor at genuine thought creation is almost guaranteed to turn to violence, which you just said was a win for the powers pressing to collapse “western society.”

Interesting to listen to, but as my one brother once said, “Are you just going to complain about it or actually start providing some solutions?”

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Oof. A lot of firm grasp of the obvious stuff. Glad he broke the code about the government lying. Exposure is interesting but it is not efficacious when zero happens to the exposed.

“We’re not going to vote our way out of it but not voting is dumb.”

“He’s not going to sit by.”

“All these people are speaking up. We need to take ownership. We have to be very vocal. This is not over. This adminsitration better start recognizing this. People better start recognizing who put Trump in office and he better start recognizing it. Pharmaceuticals want to kill us. Politics isn’t an answer to the question but they better pay attention to it. They better start acting like animals again. We’re not going to make it past the midterms until we start speaking up. We are all going to have to own that and start speaking up. We’re going to have to make wise decisions.”

Chris: Why do western values have to be tested?

“Simplest answer is usually true. Maybe they just simply hate us. This is about the individual pulling himself up by his bootstraps. We’re difficult to deal with. Maybe we’re flawed but we still got a better system. They don’t want that because they can’t control things.”

You were gracious and kind as usual but I don’t think this guy could pass the Collum smell test. He may have been absent on “Non-Answer-Answer” Day because his non-answers weren’t very good. Throughout the interview I kept wondering, “Is this guy a plant? If so, they really need to up their game.”

Just my take. Maybe it was because Punkin was a little bitchy today doing ground work and she might be going into heat, my fall carrots haven’t sprouted, I need to fix my brush hog, and the drought here is really sucking.

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I really like this guy. Great interview! But I’m still firmly in the “It’s too late” camp. I’m still going to vote because that’s on the list of “the least you can do.” OTOH I’m not a deluded John Brown who thinks he can trigger the “revolution” by going out in a blaze of glory. We’re living in a huge complex reality that can’t be predicted or controlled and has emergent effects. I’m patiently waiting in the bushes for opportunity to wander into my sphere of influence. Hopefully I’ll recognize it when it does and do the right thing.

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I had proposed a similar take to the situation in the ME to Art Berman. That it basically was a game of Risk being played by the US to move all the chips to their side of the board. He responded with, “I deal in the real world and not in theories”.

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Fun fact - the holdout juror on that Clancy case was…

“I should have figured he was Black.”

Did ya hear about this from Mockingbird Media?

https://x.com/IsaiahLCarter/status/2098532406735015948

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That is awesome, yes I can see it as a big game of Risk. And it looks like the US is moving all the chips to their side wherever they can while the news keeps us entertained with nonsense.This looks to be a huge gamble and the people doing it don’t care about collateral damage. The bases in the mideast were obsolete and can’t be defended so I assume the US is going to pull out of the region as everything gets destroyed. BUT the military will get new toys as replacements for the old toys! I can’t discuss this but with a handful of people that understand. Everyone else is going to get blindsided by the convergence of the energy and food shortages simultaneously.

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Here’s a video clip on X where the Houthis shoot down an F-15. No wonder Israel has not been able to defeat them and Hamas.

https://x.com/MMY1444/status/2100227434750628161

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Welcome to the club. This is a war of economic attrition, being waged by the U.S. dollar system against all rivals.

Degradation of supply and demand. Petro-Piracy-LNG dollar.

Richard Medhurst wrote and spoke about this six months ago. Brian Berletic did as well. Recentl, Dmitry Orlov posted a video about the topic - he framed it as an apology video; he was sorry to have predicted a Soviet-like collapse rather than this blitz; he also mentions his oversight of the immense cultural, economic, soft power, communications, coordination of the U.S. dollar system.

Too many have focused on a military defeat - a defeat all but guaranteed by our own military based on their analysis going back nearly 20 years in their own studies.

Many have overlooked the Mar a Lago Accords whose explicit goals were leaked and criticized, then promptly forgotten about, in Feb. of 2025. Included among those goals is the devaluation of U.S. dollars, the buying back of U.S. treasuries. Each of these goals has been treated as a defeat by analysts when they were both goals of the U.S. dollar system.

Those looking past these facts are missing the sophistication and complexity of the U.S. dollar system, and how it will chew up and spit out entire nations to expand bank collateral, lock in U.S. dollar exchange, and maintain U.S. political system-based control.

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@thewhitemule Agree
After listening i think i wasted my time.
Maybe there was new info for someone just waking up.

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It starts individually as each citizens personal red line is crossed … when they come to force vax you, when they come to trans your kid, when they come to take your land…

it starts when the man who wanted to be left alone just isn’t left alone…

# “The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over.

The moment the men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the men who just wanted to be left alone.”

― Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

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Mystique wants to know if Punkin is a redhead … she says redheads are trouble…

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        I was conceived in 1946 when my father arrived back in the US. I was a mistake but as a life form it was what nature provides. A woman is the horniest when she is most likely to conceive. My older sister and brother were not happy about my arrival as they couldn't enjoy life as well.

Things were hardly perfect when I was young but the degradation in society over the past almost 80 years is appalling. My father died just before my 10th birthday and there was never a male in the household except close neighbors and uncles. My life took a huge turn for the worse when I entered the 8th grade just as the Zionists invaded Hollywood. It took decades but they succeeded in taking control of the news media both written and the new television media.

Tomorrow I will testify to a Grand Jury where the woman who cared for me when I got out of the hospital after breaking my right leg in January faces justice after robbing me of some $40,000. I refused to go to an institution, I wanted to go home. For the next 5 months my mobility was limited to a walker. I finally graduated to a cane. Soon I will be strong enough to not need the cane. I don’t use it

My first patent would have revolutionized fire fighting and saved many millions of lives around the worlds. I could find no support in developing the idea. When I could demonstrate the idea at my business a few years ago I learned that United Technologies was taking baby steps using the same principles. However they were making so much profit selling the wal mounted fire extingusihers they refused to cooperate with me. I had to have two of these at my business in South Salt Lake. I never used them.

I have come to decry all sorts of groups like trade organisations and all the levels of government that exist. I agree with Judge Napolitano quoting Thomas Jefferson that the government that governs least governs best. Ultimately the government has to have the trust of the people but I decry having to vote for politicans at city, county, state and federal positions. I don’t trust all this democracy; to get elected requires making promises to supporters.

The earth is very finite and cannot accomedate 8+ billion people without serious consequences. Our burning of fossil fuels is proof of the disasters that await us.

Teachers, leave these kids alone! Public schools are a disaster and discourage critical thinking.

Why are girls moved thru schooling at the same rate as boys when they mature so much faster? Why are girls not taught how to control their fertility by paying attention to their monthly periods?

Most of the people in the US will starve to death. Sadly this will be the case around most of the world.

A great deal of our problems can be blamed on the British. I hope Putin will use his Oreshniks to take out Mi6 and the remainder of the British aristocracy and bankers.

I see no way the USA can survive. The majority of the electorate are just too uninformed.

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https://x.com/WildSentences/status/2100252907031413145?s=20

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Here’s her hussy-trolip, “come up & see me sometime honey” pose (her mane’s mostly black but there’s those trouble-packed red bangs):

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Western values will be tested because they want to implement Eastern values and control.

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