Ah, yes. Just peachy.

And when the day comes that these coutnries wise up to these facts, well, I hope I'm dead, frankly. It will be the American people who pay the price. It will start with them either GREATLY raising hte price of oil or cutting us off completely,  and then they will send all their FRNs back...and the economy will be basically crippled.

As Gard mentioned in the podcast, the U.S. bailed Mexico out to the tune of $22 billion during the Mexican peso crisis. This amounted to an American taxpayer bailout of Goldman Sachs, a major holder of Mexican bonds. That's all these bailouts and "austerity measures" in Europe really are--bankster bailouts. This process has been going on for quite a while, but has now moved from the Third World to the developed world.

In Confessions of an Economic Hitman, John Perkins explains how this process works.  Perkins was an economist for a large multinational corporation.  He would go to the government of some Third World country with a proposal to build some huge infrastructure project.  His proposal would be backed up by a bogus study that estimated the project's economic impact--numbers that Perkins essentially simply made up.  Of course, the country's leaders would receive a nice kickback.  Generally, they would "liberate" the land or resources from private hands or, if held by the government, hand them over to the multinational.  The project would be financed by loans from the money center banks, Goldman or whoever.  Of course, ultimately the country couldn't pay back the loans.  So then the IMF or World Bank would step in and cover the loans, forcing the country to accept terms like "austerity" (high taxes, low government benefits).  Unfortunately, this process was called "capitalism"  (although Perkins himself refers to it as "neoliberalism.")  No wonder capitalism has such a bad name.  In addition, Perkins calls himself an "economic hitman" because he was really making an offer that couldn't be refused.  If the country wouldn't deal with him, they would have to deal with the CIA.  In any case, the entire process was simply an indirect subsidy to the Perkins's company and to the money center banks.

I'm currently listening to Lysander Spooner's No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority.  Spooner reserves some of his harshest words for those who profit from propping up governments and war:

In Europe, the nominal rulers, the emperors and kings and parliaments, are anything but the real rulers of their respective countries. They are little or nothing else than mere tools, employed by the wealthy to rob, enslave, and (if need be) murder those who have less wealth, or none at all.

The Rosthchilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are the representatives and agents — men who never think of lending a shilling to their next-door neighbors, for purposes of honest industry, unless upon the most ample security, and at the highest rate of interest — stand ready, at all times, to lend money in unlimited amounts to those robbers and murderers, who call themselves governments, to be expended in shooting down those who do not submit quietly to being robbed and enslaved.

They lend their money in this manner, knowing that it is to be expended in murdering their fellow men, for simply seeking their liberty and their rights; knowing also that neither the interest nor the principal will ever be paid, except as it will be extorted under terror of the repetition of such murders as those for which the money lent is to be expended.

These money-lenders, the Rosthchilds, for example, say to themselves: If we lend a hundred millions sterling to the queen and parliament of England, it will enable them to murder twenty, fifty, or a hundred thousand people in England, Ireland, or India; and the terror inspired by such wholesale slaughter, will enable them to keep the whole people of those countries in subjection for twenty, or perhaps fifty, years to come; to control all their trade and industry; and to extort from them large amounts of money, under the name of taxes; and from the wealth thus extorted from them, they (the queen and parliament) can afford to pay us a higher rate of interest for our money than we can get in any other way. Or, if we lend this sum to the emperor of Austria, it will enable him to murder so many of his people as to strike terror into the rest, and thus enable him to keep them in subjection, and extort money from them, for twenty or fifty years to come. And they say the same in regard to the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, the emperor of France, or any other ruler, so called, who, in their judgment, will be able, by murdering a reasonable portion of his people, to keep the rest in subjection, and extort money from them, for a long time to come, to pay the interest and the principal of the money lent him.

And why are these men so ready to lend money for murdering their fellow men? Soley for this reason, viz., that such loans are considered better investments than loans for purposes of honest industry. They pay higher rates of interest; and it is less trouble to look after them. This is the whole matter. The question of making these loans is, with these lenders, a mere question of pecuniary profit. They lend money to be expended in robbing, enslaving, and murdering their fellow men, solely because, on the whole, such loans pay better than any others. They are no respecters of persons, no superstitious fools, that reverence monarchs. They care no more for a king, or an emperor, than they do for a beggar, except as he is a better customer, and can pay them better interest for their money. If they doubt his ability to make his murders successful for maintaining his power, and thus extorting money from his people in future, they dismiss him unceremoniously as they would dismiss any other hopeless bankrupt, who should want to borrow money to save himself >from open insolvency.

When these great lenders of blood-money, like the Rothschilds, have loaned vast sums in this way, for purposes of murder, to an emperor or a king, they sell out the bonds taken by them, in small amounts, to anybody, and everybody, who are disposed to buy them at satisfactory prices, to hold as investments. They (the Rothschilds) thus soon get back their money, with great profits; and are now ready to lend money in the same way again to any other robber and murderer, called an emperor or king, who, they think, is likely to be successful in his robberies and murders, and able to pay a good price for the money necessary to carry them on.

This business of lending blood-money is one of the most thoroughly sordid, cold-blooded, and criminal that was ever carried on, to any considerable extent, amongst human beings. It is like lending money to slave traders, or to common robbers and pirates, to be repaid out of their plunder. And the men who loan money to governments, so called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers, or pirates that ever lived.

When these emperors and kings, so-called, have obtained their loans, they proceed to hire and train immense numbers of professional murderers, called soldiers, and employ them in shooting down all who resist their demands for money. In fact, most of them keep large bodies of these murderers constantly in their service, as their only means of enforcing their extortions. There are now [1870], I think, four or five millions of these professional murderers constantly employed by the so-called sovereigns of Europe. The enslaved people are, of course, forced to support and pay all these murderers, as well as to submit to all the other extortions which these murderers are employed to enforce.

It is only in this way that most of the so-called governments of Europe are maintained. These so-called governments are in reality only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined, and constantly on the alert. And the so-called sovereigns, in these different governments, are simply the heads, or chiefs, of different bands of robbers and murderers. And these heads or chiefs are dependent upon the lenders of blood-money for the means to carry on their robberies and murders. They could not sustain themselves a moment but for the loans made to them by these blood-money loan-mongers. And their first care is to maintain their credit with them; for they know their end is come, the instant their credit with them fails. Consequently the first proceeds of their extortions are scrupulously applied to the payment of the interest on their loans.

In addition to paying the interest on their bonds, they perhaps grant to the holders of them great monopolies in banking, like the Banks of England, of France, and of Vienna; with the agreement that these banks shall furnish money whenever, in sudden emergencies, it may be necessary to shoot down more of their people. Perhaps also, by means of tariffs on competing imports, they give great monopolies to certain branches of industry, in which these lenders of blood-money are engaged. They also, by unequal taxation, exempt wholly or partially the property of these loan-mongers, and throw corresponding burdens upon those who are too poor and weak to resist.

Thus it is evident that all these men, who call themselves by the high-sounding names of Emperors, Kings, Sovereigns, Monarchs, Most Christian Majesties, Most Catholic Majesties, High Mightinesses, Most Serene and Potent Princes, and the like, and who claim to rule "by the grace of God," by "Divine Right" — that is, by special authority from Heaven — are intrinsically not only the merest miscreants and wretches, engaged solely in plundering, enslaving, and murdering their fellow men, but that they are also the merest hangers on, the servile, obsequious, fawning dependents and tools of these blood-money loan-mongers, on whom they rely for the means to carry on their crimes. These loan-mongers, like the Rothschilds, laugh in their sleeves, and say to themselves: These despicable creatures, who call themselves emperors, and kings, and majesties, and most serene and potent princes; who profess to wear crowns, and sit on thrones; who deck themselves with ribbons, and feathers, and jewels; and surround themselves with hired flatterers and lickspittles; and whom we suffer to strut around, and palm themselves off, upon fools and slaves, as sovereigns and lawgivers specially appointed by Almighty God; and to hold themselves out as the sole fountains of honors, and dignities, and wealth, and power — all these miscreants and imposters know that we make them, and use them; that in us they live, move, and have their being; that we require them (as the price of their positions) to take upon themselves all the labor, all the danger, and all the odium of all the crimes they commit for our profit; and that we will unmake them, strip them of their gewgaws, and send them out into the world as beggars, or give them over to the vengeance of the people they have enslaved, the moment they refuse to commit any crime we require of them, or to pay over to us such share of the proceeds of their robberies as we see fit to demand.

I don't even understand why these countries take our money anyway. Considering the actions of Russia and China, the fact that our money is worthless has to be getting around. And, they've printed something like two trillion, 600 billion more recently so now it's that much more worthless. Why would anyone want our money? I've heard Gard, X and Barry Hess say they buy gold and invest in other currrencies so even Americans don't want our money!

BTW X, I'm starting on your boy Rothbard's America's Great Depression hopefully within the next few days.

I love reading Spooner.  He does not beat around the bush or sugar coat.  He's just simple and raw.

I used to always wonder why the Israeli Defense force soliders you see on the news carry M-4 rifles.  Israel is the home of Galil which manufactures military rifles.  Why not have Israili companies manufacture arms for the IDF within their own borders?  Probably because the United States Government directs that our stolen dollars that the Israeli Government recieves come back to certain contractors in the states.

One reason I think the recent "diplomatic" Wikileads issue is important is that is tears a slit in the velvet cover that's thrown over all these games.  For Instance, it was revealed that Arab Rulers want the United States to bomb the crap out of Iran.  It shows that they are not against "the great satan," they are in bed with it.  They are not for peace and non-intervention.  They are prostrate to the great satan and bowing down to encourage that great satan to bomb the crap out of anyone who threatens their own personal power and security, all the while maintaining a face with their people that scorns the West and it's ways.  

I can just picture them, the day after bombs fall on Iran's nuke facilities, all running to the media to condemn the United States government for bombing Iran instead of finding another solution, while behind the scenes slapping Hillary Clinton a high five.  That will be much more difficult now.

Besides foreign aid being part of the broader network of plunder and human farming, in the case of Israel it is also sustained from the bottom up for religious reasons.  I have been involved with the tea party movement here in Indiana for a couple years and it's allowed me to become familiar with the motivations and attitudes of many "conservatives".  There has been a harsh lesson and a wake up call for me as I've begun trying to hold open discussions with these groups about the moral issues invovled with government.  This district of Indiana is highly unlikely to send a representative to Washington that will not pledge support for Israel and the general consensus seems to be that is has to happen because they are ordained as God's chosen people in the Old Testament.  I know that the same underlying disconnect with reason colors attitudes about any conflict that involves a "Muslim Nation" as well.  

On the surface it's all couched as, strategic needs, protection, security, etc. but there is an underlying misguided religious motivation at work underneath in many of the individuals I find myself in discussions with.  A year ago I thought this had died in the West with the crusades and the European Divine right of Kings.  I know now it is alive and well and working just as masterfully for the men of power as it did in 1620.

You folks amaze and thrill me. What a great group of people who are not only informed, but know how to distill and utilize information in order to apply it to new developments.

I really want to do group discussions and record these. It would be incredible.

OK! See you!

I know this is not really the place for it.  However, on the subject of religion and religious groups driving public policy there is a very good book.  It is called "The Family".  One of the scariest books I have read in awhile.