While the Democrats and the courts have blocked Trump’s every move, they are allowing Trump’s roll out of 5G as both parties want absolute control over the people.
Tag: control
China says meets debt control target as it ramps up economic support
February 25, 2019
By Yawen Chen and Se Young Lee
BEIJING (Reuters) – China has met its target for reducing debt levels but will keep cracking down on riskier types of financing to contain risks to its financial system, the banking and insurance regulator said on Monday, urging banks to step up lending to smaller companies.
Concern about China’s debt is rising again as Beijing ramps up support for a slowing economy. New bank loans hit a record in January despite increasing bad loans and record defaults in 2018.
Though top officials have repeatedly pledged not to resort to another massive spending spree like that during the global financial crisis, analysts say it is vital for policymakers to revive weak credit growth to avoid a sharper slowdown.
“After two years of work, various financial disorders have been effectively curbed,” Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), told a news conference.
“This breaks overseas predictions that the ‘barbaric’ growth of shadow banking and the financial overheating of real estate might lead to systemic financial risks and crises in China.”
China has never revealed a specific target for its multi-year risk containment campaign and does not release comprehensive statistics on debt loads.
But documents provided by the regulator said the leverage level in the economy stabilized in 2018, meeting the target, after growing by an average of more than 10 percent a year.
“Our leverage level is basically stable. This is a marvelous achievement,” said Zhou Liang, another CBIRC vice chairman.
Authorities have tried since a 2015 downturn to curb riskier types of financing and a build-up in debt which international monitors like the International Monetary Fund say could trigger a banking crisis in the world’s second-largest economy.
However, the regulatory pressure drove up borrowing costs last year and made it harder for small firms to secure funding, dragging on business activity and prompting policymakers to shift their focus back to growth boosting measures.
Analysts worry that any halt to the financial risk campaign may also delay much-needed structural reforms, such as allowing market forces to dictate a more efficient use of capital.
Corporate bond defaults hit a record last year, while banks’ non-performing loan ratio hit a 10-year high, but authorities have kept pressure on largely state-owned, banks to keep lending to cash-strapped companies facing “temporary” difficulties.
The last round of China’s leverage crackdown is over for now, said Hao Zhou, senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank, adding that the cycle of policy tightening and loosening normally shifts every two to three years.
“Although China is loosening now, it’s possible that the loosening will end as soon as economic growth gathers momentum,” he said.
END DISCRIMINATION
The regulator said in a statement on Monday that it had ordered all of the country’s banks to sharply increase financial support for private companies, with big state-owned banks told to increase loans to smaller firms by more than 30 percent.
The private sector accounts for over half of China’s economic growth and most of its new jobs, but firms have been facing higher borrowing costs and a tougher time obtaining financing as they carry higher credit risks than state firms.
The regulator said banks will now be prohibited from discriminatory practices when approving loans for private firms.
To crack down on “rampant and blind” expansion of financial institutions, the CBIRC has targeted practices ranging from less regulated interbank activities to the shadow banking sector, which has been a major funding source for private companies.
It has also pressed banks to speed up disposal of bad loans and encouraged companies to convert debt into equity to free up capital for new lending.
The scale of high-risk assets shrank by about 12 trillion yuan ($1.79 trillion) in the previous two years, while lenders disposed of 3.48 trillion yuan in non-performing loans, the regulator said.
More than 2 trillion yuan worth of debt-for-equity swap deals have been signed by lenders, it added, though details of many of those arrangements have been murky.
It has also banned consumer loans from being used illicitly to speculate on property to avoid fueling real estate bubbles.
The CBIRC said shadow banking risks have now been contained, which will allow policymakers to better balance the need for stable economic growth this year while continuing to reduce financial risks.
The IMF estimated in 2017 that China’s total non-financial sector debt would rise to almost 300 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2022, up from 242 percent in 2016.
But hidden borrowing by Chinese local governments could be as high as 40 trillion yuan — amounting to “a debt iceberg with titanic credit risks”, S&P Global Ratings said in a report late last year.
When including off-balance sheet local government debt, China’s ratio of government debt to gross domestic product (GDP) could have reached an “alarming” level of 60 percent in 2017, according to S&P.
(Reporting By Yawen Chen and Se Young Lee in BEIJING, Writing by Shu Zhang in SINGAPORE; Editing by Kim Coghill)
U.S. team lowers expectations for second summit with North Korea’s Kim
February 24, 2019
By Josh Smith and David Brunnstrom
HANOI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be open to seeking a limited deal at this week’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, an approach that may yield small but potentially significant results.
It’s unclear how far either side is willing to go, but officials in Washington and Seoul say discussions have included allowing inspectors to observe the dismantlement of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear reactor and opening U.S.-North Korea liaison offices.
Declaring an end to a technical state of hostilities that has existed since the 1950s, and allowing some inter-Korean projects like opening a tourism zone in North Korea are other possibilities.
“Over the last few months, the U.S. position has shifted considerably, putting in play a range of incentives that had been considered out of bounds, even by previous administrations,” said Adam Mount, defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists.
Kim pledged in a first summit with Trump in Singapore in June to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the two sides agreed that mutual confidence building steps could promote that.
But it soon became clear that the two sides had different idea of what they meant by denuclearization. Follow-up talks quickly ran into trouble over U.S. demands for North Korea’s complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, which Pyongyang denounced as unilateral and “gangster like.”
Trump, keen to present his unprecedented engagement with North Korea as a success, now says complete denuclearization remains the “ultimate” goal, but there is no hurry for this, provided a freeze in weapons testing that has lasted since 2017 remains in place.
Trump has also held out the prospect of easing punishing sanctions on the country, a pressing North Korean demand, if it does “something that’s meaningful” on denuclearization.
Any deal however is likely to face intense scrutiny from American lawmakers and other officials who have expressed scepticism that North Korea is really willing to give up its weapons, and concern that a compromise could undermine the United States’ interests in the region.
The U.S. line has been that sanctions will not be lifted until North Korea has completely denuclearized, but U.S. Special Representative Stephen Biegun said last month that this did not mean “we will not do anything until you do everything.”
But while discussing concessions, the U.S. side was still looking to move quickly “in very big bites,” a senior administration official said on Thursday. “We are not looking to have incremental steps as a key driver of this process.”
CORRESPONDING MEASURES
American officials say their priorities going into the second summit on Feb 27-28 have been establishing some basics, including, crucially, developing a shared definition of denuclearization with the North Koreans.
Late last year, North Korean state media published a statement saying that Pyongyang’s definition of denuclearization includes “completely removing the nuclear threats of the U.S.”, an apparent reference to the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting allies in Asia.
That, along with Trump’s complaints about the cost of stationing U.S. troops in South Korea, sparked worries among some American lawmakers that Trump might bargain away some of the U.S. military presence, but officials, and Trump himself, say that is not on the table.
Other U.S. priorities include agreeing on a specific roadmap for future negotiations and securing a freeze on all development or manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
In his annual New Year’s speech, Kim declared that North Korea “would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them,” but it does not appear to have halted weapons production and a Stanford University study released this month said it may have produced enough fissile material in the past year to have added as many as seven nuclear weapons to its arsenal.
As a step South Korean officials see as the minimum needed to secure some American concessions, North Korea has said it could allow international inspectors to observe the dismantlement of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, which has produced plutonium and highly enriched uranium for weapons.
Kim has demanded “corresponding measures” from the U.S. side and analysts doubt he will accept anything less than at least some easing of sanctions in return for the destruction of Yongbyon or other facilities.
“It’s clear what North Korea wants the most is sanctions to be eased,” said Park Won-gon, dean of international affairs at South Korea’s Handong Global University.
One Western diplomat told Reuters North Korea had learned how to live under sanctions and could likely continue indefinitely, but Kim Jong Un cannot achieve the economic development he wants while the restrictions last.
“The North Koreans can soldier on if they have to, but they don’t want to have to,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of working with North Korea.
The two sides will also need to decide the order of any new steps toward denuclearization or sanctions relief, Park said.
“North Korea wants the U.S. to go first, that the United States’ corresponding measures must come first,” he said.
DOMESTIC SKEPTICISM
While Trump and officials of his administration have expressed optimism about progress in Hanoi, U.S. intelligence officials and top regional generals have said they believe Kim is unlikely ever to relinquish all of his nuclear arsenal. United Nations monitors have reported that in recent months North Korea has made moves to hide, disperse and protect its weapons.
Given the intelligence estimates, some analysts argue that the administration should seek more pragmatic arms control goals than all-out denuclearization.
While U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has expressed optimism about denuclearization in public, a New York Times profile on him on Sunday said that in private discussions with Korea experts, he had conceded he would be lucky if North Korea agreed to dismantle 60 percent of what the United States has demanded.
“The United States appears to be adopting more realistic tactics on nuclear disarmament, but not more realistic objectives,” said Mount, at the Federation of American Scientists.
“The agenda is still dominated by the nuclear issue — to the detriment of achievable deals on arms control or other critical interests like human rights, proliferation risks, chemical and biological weapons, or missile limits.”
(Reporting by Josh Smith and Joyce Lee in Seoul, and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Natural soil amendments: Wood ash and crushed rock effectively increase nitrogen bioavailability in soil, acting as a non-chemical fertilizer
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(Natural News) In a recent experiment, scientists analyzed whether adding wood ash or crushed rock to a low-fertility soil, as compared with an unamended control, will result in a fertilizer effect. The results showed that the wood ash created the highest accumulated clover biomass over two cuts, followed by the crushed rock. The circular economy… |
Pro-Israel CFI Lobby in Westminster and AIPAC in Washington, Endorsement of Israel as a Powerful Nuclear Weapons State
All lobbies, by definition, are designed to exert covert control over government or other policy, by using their financial power. That agenda and its negotiations are invariably carried out behind closed doors.
And so, unless you want to deny that
…
The post Pro-Israel CFI Lobby in Westminster and AIPAC in Washington, Endorsement of Israel as a Powerful Nuclear Weapons State appeared first on Global Research.
Yemen’s Houthis to quit two ports Monday under peace deal: sources
February 24, 2019
By Aziz El Yaakoubi
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian-aligned Houthi forces have agreed to draw back from two Yemeni ports on Monday while withdrawal from the main Hodeidah port will occur later alongside a retreat by coalition-backed forces massed outside the city, U.N. and Yemeni sources said.
Houthi forces will withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from the ports of Saleef, used for grain, and Ras Isa, an oil terminal, as a first step agreed with the internationally recognized government, three sources said.
The Houthi withdrawal from Hodeidah port and the pull-back by coalition forces 1 km away from the city’s “Kilo 7” eastern suburb would take place as a second step, they said.
An orderly troop withdrawal from Hodeidah, now a focus of an almost four-year war, is key to U.N.-led efforts to avert a full-scale assault on the port and pave the way for political negotiations.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
The United Nations has been trying to salvage a truce deal agreed at peace talks in December between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. That process has stalled over who would control of Hodeidah, a Red Sea port used to feed Yemen’s 30 million people.
Hodeidah is held by the Houthis while other Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition loyal to ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are positioned on the edges of the city.
Hadi’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani, said the initial Houthi redeployment must be verified before further progress can be made and humanitarian corridors reopened.
“This is what was agreed by the Yemeni government: we verify the first step before implementing the second,” he told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.
A small team of U.N. observers arrived in Hodeidah after the ceasefire went into effect on Dec. 18 to oversee troop redeployments by both sides.
The deal calls for local authorities to assume control of Hodeidah but did not detail the process, leaving it open to interpretation.
The Western-backed Sunni Muslim coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore Hadi’s government after it was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014.
The conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been locked in military stalemate.
The Houthis, who say their revolution is against corruption, control most urban centers including Sanaa. Hadi’s government holds the southern port of Aden and a string of coastal towns.
(Additional reporting by Nafisa Eltahir; editing by Ghaida Ghantous and Jason Neely)
UAE’s ADNOC seals $4 billion pipeline infrastructure deal with KKR, BlackRock
February 24, 2019
By Stanley Carvalho
ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has sealed a $4 billion midstream pipeline infrastructure deal with U.S. investment firms KKR and BlackRock, the government-owned company said on Sunday.
ADNOC has been expanding through strategic partnerships since 2017. Last month it won a combined $5.8 billion investment from Italy’s Eni and Austria’s OMV for a stake in its refining business to establish a new trading operation owned by the three partners.
The latest deal follows ADNOC’s capital markets debut with its Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline bond, the IPO of ADNOC Distribution and other initiatives.
A new entity called ADNOC Oil Pipelines will lease the oil company’s interest in 18 pipelines, transporting crude oil and condensates across ADNOC’s upstream concessions for a 23-year period, ADNOC said in a statement.
The 18 pipelines have a total length of over 750 km and capacity of 13 million barrels per day.
Funds managed by KKR and BlackRock will form a consortium to hold a 40 percent stake in the entity, with ADNOC owning the rest. ADNOC will have sovereignty over the pipelines and management of pipeline operations.
The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2019, will result in upfront proceeds of some $4 billion to ADNOC.
The statement cited Sultan al-Jaber, ADNOC group CEO, as saying the deal validated ADNOC’s approach of “unlocking value from its portfolio of assets while retaining control over their ownership and operation”.
BlackRock is investing through its Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund series while KKR’s investment is through its third Global Infrastructure Investors Fund, the statement said.
“We believe that today’s agreement among ADNOC, BlackRock and KKR will be followed by many more such partnerships to invest in the future growth of the region,” said BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink.
This is KKR’s first direct investment in the region, co-CEO Henry Kravis said, adding that there is substantial potential for more.
ADNOC has undergone major changes since al-Jaber’s appointment in 2016, embarking on privatization, oil trading and expanded partnerships with strategic investors.
“I think the approach taken here by ADNOC reflects a desire to monetize assets they have under their control,” said Edward Bell, director of commodities research at Emirates NBD.
“So I think it reflects an attempt to realize the value of the infrastructure they have in place more than a strategic shift into midstream oil and gas.”
ADNOC produces about 3 million barrels of oil and 10.5 billion cubic feet of raw gas a day.
(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and David Goodman)
Brexit must not be frustrated, UK PM Theresa May says
February 24, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s exit from the European Union must not be frustrated and the government must focus on delivering it, Prime Minister Theresa May said.
May is trying to get changes to the divorce package before putting it to another vote in parliament. If she fails, May will have to decide whether to delay Brexit or endanger the world’s fifth largest economy by leaving without a deal on March 29.
“Our focus to deliver Brexit must be absolute,” May told Conservative Party activists on Saturday, according to the BBC.
“We must not, and I will not, frustrate what was the largest democratic exercise in this country’s history. In the very final stages of this process, the worst thing we could do is lose our focus.”
Three British cabinet ministers have publicly indicated they will back plans to delay Brexit if lawmakers vote down May’s plan for a new deal with the European Union.
Business minister Greg Clark, work and pensions minister Amber Rudd, and justice minister David Gauke signaled in a Daily Mail column that they will side with rebels and opposition parties to stop Britain leaving without a deal if necessary.
May has promised that if she does not bring a revised deal back by Feb. 27, parliament will have an opportunity to vote on the next steps. Some lawmakers are expected to use that to try to wrest control of the process from the government.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
Nancy Pelosi Tells Europe She Has Equal Power To POTUS: “Trump NOT In Charge”
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told European globalists in Brussels that she has equal powers to President Trump.
Pelosi and a delegation of lawmakers were visiting Brussels to convince European leaders that they had control of America amid uncertainty around transatlantic relations.
Pelosi boasted about her recent standoff over the government shutdown, claiming it to be ‘evidence’ of her power over POTUS.
“We’re not a parliamentary government even though we’re parliamentarians,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference.
“We have Article 1, the legislative branch, the first branch of government, co-equal to the other branches and we have asserted ourselves in that way.”
Newsweek.com reports: Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly, who was part of Pelosi’s delegation during the visit on Monday and Tuesday, elaborated on Pelosi’s remarks on the power of Congress.
“Is this a reassurance tour? I think it’s a reminder tour, that the United States government is not just one branch,” Connolly said. “And as the speaker said, Article 1, the first article in the Constitution of the United States, deals with the powers of the legislative branch, not the executive branch, and those powers include war and peace and even direction of the armed forces.”
Pelosi added, “And the power of the purse,” referring to the fact that it is up to Congress to authorize budget requests by the president to fund executive agencies.
The House speaker proved her power late last month when she and other congressional Democrats refused to provide $5.7 billion in funding that Trump demanded to build his border wall, eventually forcing him to relent and temporarily reopen government without any of the money.
After a negotiation period, Trump reluctantly signed a bipartisan deal that allocates only $1.375 billion for 55 miles of wall, to prevent another government shutdown. Last Friday, Trump declared a national emergency in an attempt to get the rest of the funding needed for the wall.
Following Trump’s national emergency declaration, Pelosi tweeted that he took the action because she and her colleagues would not give him what he wanted.
“Clearest sign that @realDonaldTrump’s #FakeTrumpEmergency is not legitimate? The President himself says he didn’t need to declare a national emergency–it’s just a faster way to force taxpayers to foot the bill after Congress wouldn’t let him have his way,” she tweeted.
In Brussels, the European Union’s unofficial capital, Pelosi also tried to do damage control for trans-Atlantic relations that have been hurt by criticisms from Trump. A European colleague asked Pelosi why the House did not adopt a resolution supporting NATO sooner.
“I said, Because we just got the majority and then we can control, we can manage, what goes onto the floor,” Pelosi said.
US Defeat in Syria: The Wrong End of “Might Makes Right”
With Damascus and its allies firmly in control of Syria and its future – the war having been decided on the ground rather than “politically” as envisioned by Western politicians, media, and policymakers – the US proxy war against Syria …
The post US Defeat in Syria: The Wrong End of “Might Makes Right” appeared first on Global Research.
6,250 YEAR OLD BULL STILL GOING STRONG
by Egon Von Greyerz, Gold Switzerland: Is a total collapse of the financial system next or will we see the globalists taking control of the world? Either way, the world is now at one of the most critical crossroads ever in history. Shakespeare expressed it eloquently in Julius Caesar: There is a tide in the […]
The post 6,250 YEAR OLD BULL STILL GOING STRONG appeared first on SGT Report.
The 147 Companies that Control Everything
The 147 Companies that Control Everything
The Average Time Until A Great Civilization Collapses Is 336 Years, And The U.S. Is Now 242 Years Old
Every great civilization throughout human history has eventually collapsed, and if we want to have any hope of escaping the same fate, we need to be willing to learn some lessons from the past. Because many of the same factors that caused the collapse of previous civilizations are weighing very heavily on the United States of America today. According to the BBC, the average lifespan of a great civilization is 336 years from beginning to end. But that doesn’t mean that America will make it that long. Our nation is currently 242 years old, and there are signs of advanced social decay all around us. If we remain on the road that we are currently on, there are many that believe that complete and utter collapse is not too far away.
Ultimately, what does a “society” consist of?
According to Luke Kemp of the University of Cambridge, societies are “just complex systems composed of people and technology”…
Societies of the past and present are just complex systems composed of people and technology. The theory of “normal accidents” suggests that complex technological systems regularly give way to failure. So collapse may be a normal phenomenon for civilisations, regardless of their size and stage.
We may be more technologically advanced now. But this gives little ground to believe that we are immune to the threats that undid our ancestors. Our newfound technological abilities even bring new, unprecedented challenges to the mix.
It is not easy to keep an extremely complex society running, and there have been so many factors that have played a role in collapsing previous civilizations. War, natural disasters, environmental shifts, social degradation, economic problems and disease are just a few examples.
And as Kemp has pointed out, sometimes societies simply collapse “under the weight of their own accumulated complexity and bureaucracy”…
Collapse expert and historian Joseph Tainter has proposed that societies eventually collapse under the weight of their own accumulated complexity and bureaucracy. Societies are problem-solving collectives that grow in complexity in order to overcome new issues. However, the returns from complexity eventually reach a point of diminishing returns. After this point, collapse will eventually ensue.
Even if America wasn’t deteriorating in so many other areas, would our nation eventually collapse under the weight of our own bureaucracy as well? We have the biggest government in the history of the world, and when you total up all levels of government we literally have millions of laws, rules and regulations governing our lives today. It is a horrible system, and it is definitely not what our founders intended. To me, it makes sense that someday it could ultimately collapse as people simply stop believing in it.
In order for a civilization to function smoothly, there must be something that bonds it together. When the United States was originally established, we were united by a common set of values, but that is no longer true.
Today, America is more divided than it has been in my entire lifetime, and one of the biggest reasons is because there is no agreement about what our values should be.
Personally, I am a strong advocate for returning to the values that our nation was founded upon, and Mac Slavo echoed this sentiment in one of his recent articles…
We now have the unique advantage of being able to learn from the wreckages of societies past, but instead of doing so and freeing mankind from government, many who are enslaved continue to push for shorter chains, more violence, control, domination, and theft by the ruling class – not just of themselves, but of all others too. Collapse is imminent in our opinion, as those in control will not willingly give up their stranglehold over the tax cattle slaves.
Unfortunately, many in our society want us to go in the exact opposite direction.
As a result, the fabric of our society is literally coming apart at the seams, and this is something that Jim Quinn commented on in one of his recent articles…
Our society is now infinitely more materialistic, narcissistic, and greedy than it was in the 1950s. Moral degeneration has reached new lows, unthinkable during the relatively innocent 1950s. But the common theme is human failings, foibles, and fallacies. Whatever a culture values you get more of. Our culture values achievement, wealth and power, at any cost.
To illustrate his point, Quinn lamented the growing power that “social media influencers” now have in our society…
Rather than make up our own minds about what we like, what we wear, where we eat, or what entertainment we enjoy, we need to be influenced into our decisions by famous people who are famous for being famous. These “influencers” generate their influential power through the number of social media followers they have accumulated by posting pictures of themselves in their underwear, leaked sex tapes, nude selfies, or generally being attractive.
Most of them are low IQ mouth breathers who can’t do basic math or write a comprehensible paragraph. But those 36DD breasts and pouty lips classify them as a grade A influencer. I can’t decide whether these narcissistic icons are more pathetic or the feeble-minded wretches who are actually influenced by these vacuous bimbos. Moral degeneration of society seems to have reached a new low.
We truly are becoming a real-life version of “Idiocracy”, and it is getting worse with each passing day.
But I can think of no better example of the decline of our society than Jussie Smollett.
Here is a guy that seemingly had everything. He was on a hit show, he had lots of money and he had hordes of devoted fans that loved him.
But he threw it all away because he believed that he was entitled to more, and he was willing to do anything to get it.
Apparently he was not happy that he was making just $65,000 an episode, and so he created one of the most despicable hoaxes in American history in a desperate attempt to get his salary raised.
Piers Morgan has described him as “the most hideous, reprehensible, disgusting, snivelling little liar in America”, and I think that is about right.
But you know what?
He represents the true state of our society better than anyone else that I know. Just like Smollett, we continue to insist that we are “the good guys”, but in reality our nation has become a cesspool of just about every sort of evil that you can possibly imagine.
If we will change our ways and return to the values that the first Americans embraced, we could turn things around.
But if we continue doing the things that we are currently doing, collapse is inevitable.
And it can happen very quickly. In 390 AD, the Roman Empire covered nearly 2 million square miles and it seemed unstoppable.
But by 476 AD it was gone.
As many have said, if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it.
Please wake up America.
About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.
The post The Average Time Until A Great Civilization Collapses Is 336 Years, And The U.S. Is Now 242 Years Old appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
Pierre Omidyar’s Funding of Pro-Regime-Change Networks and Partnerships with CIA Cutouts
from MintPress News: To [Omidyar] it’s … about … integrating things together to give technocrats, business executives and government officials a God’s-eye view of the world — to manage and control society more efficiently.” — Yasha Levine, author of “Surveillance Valley: The Military History of the Internet” As we have seen in part one of this […]
The post Pierre Omidyar’s Funding of Pro-Regime-Change Networks and Partnerships with CIA Cutouts appeared first on SGT Report.
Ooops! Google admits it forgot to tell users about its hidden spy microphone
from RT: All-powerful tech giant Google has apologized for forgetting to tell users that it’s Nest Secure home security system had a built-in microphone. Nothing to see here, guys! Google’s Nest Secure system allows users to connect dozens of motion detectors, magnetic door alarms and security cameras to a centralized control unit. The unit monitors […]
The post Ooops! Google admits it forgot to tell users about its hidden spy microphone appeared first on SGT Report.
Let’s Face It: The U.S. Constitution Has Failed
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
Elections provide the bread-and-circuses staged-drama that is passed off as democracy.
Despite the anything-goes quality of American culture, one thing remains verboten to say publicly: the U.S. Constitution has failed. The reason why this painfully obvious fact cannot be discussed publicly is that it gives the lie to the legitimacy of the entire status quo.
The Constitution was intended to limit 1) the power of government over the citizenry 2) the power of each branch of government and 3) the power of political/financial elites over the government and the citizenry, as the Founders recognized the intrinsic risks of an all-powerful state, an all-powerful state dominated by one branch of government and the risks of a financial elite corrupting the state to serve their interests above those of the citizenry.
The Constitution has failed to place limits on the power of government, on the emergence of unaccountable states-within-a-state agencies and on the political power of financial elites.
How has the Constitution failed? It has failed in three ways:
1. Corporations and the super-wealthy elite control the machinery of governance. The public interest is not represented except as interpreted / filtered through corporate/elite interests.
2. The nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, has the power to debauch the nation’s currency and reward the wealthy via issuing new currency and buying Treasury bonds in whatever sums it deems necessary at the moment. The Fed is only nominally under the control of the elected government. It is in effect an independent state-within-a-state that dominates the financial well-being of the entire nation.
3. The National Security State–the alphabet agencies of the FBI, CIA, NSA et al.–are an independent state-within-a-state, answerable only to themselves, not to the public or their representatives. Congressional oversight is little more than feeble rubber-stamping of the Imperial Project and whatever the unelected National Security leadership deems worthy of pursuit.
The Constitution’s core regulatory element–the balancing of executive, legislative and judicial power–has broken down. The judiciary’s independence is as nominal as the legislative branch’s control of the central bank and National Security state: the gradual encroachment of corporate and state power is rubber-stamped and declared constitutional.
The secret power of the National Security agencies was declared constitutional early in the Cold war, when unleashing unaccountable and secret agencies was deemed necessary.
The bizarre public-private Federal Reserve was deemed constitutional at its founding in 1913, and the Supreme Court famously declared that corporations have the same rights to free speech (including loudspeakers that cost millions of dollars) as living citizens.
The powers of the Imperial Presidency also continue expanding, regardless of which party is in office or the supposed ideological tropisms of Supreme Court justices.
Every step of this erosion of public representation and the elected government’s power is declared fully constitutional, in classic boiled-frog fashion. The frog detects the rising temperature of the water but isn’t alarmed as the heat is increased so gradually.
Since the rise of unaccountable states-within-a-state are constitutional, as is the dominance of corporate / private-wealth elites, on what grounds can citizens protest their loss of representation?
Elections provide the bread-and-circuses staged drama that is passed off as democracy. The key goal of the corporate/state media coverage, of course, is to foster the illusion that elections really, really, really matter, when the reality is they don’t. The National Security State grinds on, the Federal Reserve grinds on and the dominance of corporate-wealth elites grinds on regardless of who’s in office.
Every emergency is met by the ceding of more power to unelected elites in positions to serve their own interests. The Cold War, financial panics, Cold War Redux–every crisis is an excuse to expand the powers of the unaccountable, opaque states-within-a-state.
The media is already gearing up with 24/7 coverage of the 2020 elections. The constant churn of drama-trauma serves to mask the impotence and powerlessness of the citizenry and the unaccountability of the states-within-a-state that rule the nation.
* * *
Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 ebook, $12 print, $13.08 audiobook): Read the first section for free in PDF format. My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF). My book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
The Truth About Ocasio-Cortez With David Icke
In this video, we give you the latest breaking news on Ocasio-Cortez and the progressive movement with David Icke. What is the truth?
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Ask if we are change.org here with the man the myth the legend himself David how was the political landscape.
So much even having all voices and hearing all opinions and has.
Freaking a lot of interesting details and many times has been proven that was way Beyond its time and recognized by a lot of people in this is why I’m in this very specific.
I really wanted to get your take on what people redeeming this kind of new face of politics didn’t you kind of supposed leadership of the democratic party and that of course is Alexandria ocasio-cortez what are your thoughts what’s your analysis on this kind of new politician that people left.
Everyone is just up..
Festival if you.
Controversial in a wheel that’s absolutely insane.
What you doing.
Acceptable in the world.
Who was asking why not.
But you are so.
I don’t know how much time.
Casio Cortez.
Is the personification and the natural outgrowth.
What has been happening.
America.
Universities and colleges.
How many years.
Just that was the results of something.
Process I’ve been observing for a long time.
Which is something..
Progressive Movement shall we say.
It starts in California.
Then it across America.
So what way.
Richest colleges and universities is exactly the same.
Eventually.
Alexandria.
Ocasio Cortez.
Very simply.
Go to college and university.
AIG is today right.
She is basically.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Russet mentality this explained.
Which claims to be.
What is actually the very.
Liberals true liberals.
Definition in the dictionary.
Basically someone.
Maximum Liberty Maxima.
Maximum Ride.
To choose that lifestyle maximum freedom of speech.
Reggie.
Progressive.
Galaxy has four.
Liberal.
Someone who’s live.
What’s 66 years now.
Liberal.
The I was spoiled.
How it’s being hijacked it’s such a spaz.
Ocasio Cortez this whole.
Progressive.
Such as the self-deceit and.
This auntie Libera.
Progressive lenses.
Sees itself as the modern day civil rights movie.
Just look at what.
Internet Corporation.
Remember When.
I still do but I’ve got a good memory.
These corporations.
Should dictate.
WhatsApp Indians like in half.
The right to express them the right to have them.
Between the progress.
Corporations.
Progressive.
When the Ascension.
These Corporation.
The progressive mentality.
The original true.
Supposed.
Nipple.
Would have been.
Black and white television.
Going out on.
Chest demanding now.
Delete freedom of speech now something’s happened to you.
I would have cold and I will still call.
You look at the plaza.
You look at stars.
What’s the first thing they want when they get control.
And all information.
They shut them down they found the public.
So here we have.
Liberal.
Democratic Party.
Money from people like George Soros.
Who are employing.
Responses.
Soap be located.
Unlock Excel for Windows.
The way.
Is the same world.
What’s a rail against.
What you up to.
You can call a Nazi.
What is still terrorism because that’s.
Use the the techniques.
The currency of control.
When I see that Michael Moore.
Kathleen looked at.
Marxism.
Adjustable comb.
Wasn’t some guy fighting for justice for.
Working class.
Go to these days of the one.
Control.
Global control centralized control.
When you are you are you want to control.
Have to centralize decision.
Secure that pallet that the.
One is to accumulate.
Boss majority of the well.
Don’t roll that way which is the capitalist.
There is another way of doing it.
1% class.
A structure of society.
On the basis of government of the people.
You said it as a.
Boss Revolution.
What you do is you create.
Where the whole society is.
Sound control As we soar.
Rosharon BCM communist.
Then sit at the Centre of that structure.
Uncontrolled.
Is anyone..
Russia and Soviet Union.
For the working class in Russian.
Iraq in China China for the working class.
Revolution.
How does.
Basically what this is.
What was the class.
Russian of moxie.
Struggle the class drug.
Basically what that’s founded.
Is transforming Society.
Truecaller.
Whistle.
Casio Cortez.
Class struggle.
Calming but the same structure of the same.
Into the self-identity.
How to do that.
What you have to do.
Roots of self.
What you absolutely must.
Is you must never treat individuals as individuals.
Income bracket you must never met anyone as an individual.
Because if you do.
These groups that you want to play off against each other in the self identity.
Orange with blue spots.
I’m not going to judge income bracket or any of it I’m going to look at your behavior.
If you are I am if you’re awake.
If you wear a black.
You know the White Sox.
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METHANE Mendacity : Cows, Farts And New Green Lies – ‘Climate Crisis Industry has always been the centralized control of human beings’
Illinois Considering “Asset Transfers” To Pensions: Be Afraid
Submitted by Mark Glennon of Wirepoints
Governor JB Pritzker’s administration has now made clear it will seriously consider the latest idea to address Illinois’ pension crisis – transferring public assets directly to state pensions. It recently announced the formation of a task force on the subject.
At its core, the concept is exceptionally simple. In practice, however, it’s exceptionally subject to smoke and mirrors and would further obscure a pension system that’s already far too opaque. More importantly, asset transfers do nothing to improve the state’s overall fiscal health.
Just convey ownership of some public assets to the pension, for free, in addition to the cash contributions taxpayers make now. That’s all this is about. Maybe the Illinois Lottery or Illinois Tollway for state pensions. Maybe Midway Airport or its water system for Chicago pensions. Those are examples of assets that have been mentioned that might be handed over.
Illinois state pensions are officially reported to have assets about $130 billion less than what they need to have on hand to pay for pension benefits already earned. Turn over ownership of the tollway and some other assets and, voila, the thinking goes, that shortfall would shrink by whatever the transferred asset is worth.
The first problem should be obvious – the state, as a whole, would be no better off. Whatever assets the state owns – which are your assets as taxpayers – would simply be moved over to the pension funds for the sole purpose of covering benefit obligations. But the pensions are really just a unit of government because Illinois courts have made clear that the sponsoring unit of government is liable directly to pensioners if pension assets ever fall short. So, pensions might be made more secure by an asset transfer, but the government’s overall balance sheet remains the same.
Not true, I’ve heard some proponents of asset transfers say. They claim there are certain public assets where the value of the asset can only be fully unlocked through a transfer to a pension. Just selling or leasing the asset to some third party, they say, wouldn’t work. I’ll believe that when I see an example.
If you’re wondering at this point whether accounting shenanigans might be at play, you’re right to be concerned. Some valuation would have to be placed on the asset transferred in order to understand a pension’s true position. But public assets don’t have clear market values. What’s the Illinois Lottery really worth, for example? Experts will have different opinions, but the temptation will be to inflate the value in order to make pension financial statements look better.
And how on earth will actuaries decide what rate of return to assume on those assets? Currently, Illinois pensions assume about 7% per year. That’s already extremely controversial, with Nobel economists being the harshest critics. This will make heads explode in the actuary world.
Over time, the value of the asset will change. The lottery’s value, for example, will drop markedly if Illinois expands other forms of gambling as rapidly as planned. Does anybody really expect pensions to honestly report that changing value, given their sordid history distorting their position with phony numbers on things like discount rates and mortality projections?
And even if honest valuations are used, another temptation will be to transfer assets that are on the books at lower valuations. That would improve a government’s reported balance sheet when it’s valued fairly in the pension after transfer, but the government’s position wouldn’t really improve at all.
In the private sector, where asset transfers to pensions are sometimes done, that accounting trick is the whole point – take an asset that’s been heavily depreciated to less than fair value and give it to the pension at fair value, which magically improves the consolidated balance sheet. That’s a sensible tactic for a private company to improve its reported position, but for governments, from a taxpayer’s viewpoint, it doesn’t change the economic realities.
What about management and control of a public asset by a pension? Would you really want a pension managing Midway Airport, for example? No, advocates of asset transfers say, the whole transaction would be set up like a triple net lease, where the governmental unit would continue to be in control. Only the cash flow would be diverted to the pension.
But think about that and all kinds of questions are apparent. If the city truly kept control, it would have every incentive to reduce charges for parking, landing and gate fees, which is how airports make money. They’d be sure to cover operational expenses, but nothing would truly be left for the pension, making the whole deal unfeasible. If, on the other hand, the pension could determine those charges, well, heaven forbid that.
The complexity of asset transfers would be mind-boggling for major things like airports, water and sewer systems. They are tied up by layers of mortgages and covenants protecting bondholders. Disentangling them, if that’s possible at all, would be a matter few officeholders or taxpayers would ever understand.
Other questions are endless. Ask them and one thing will come to mind – Chicago’s disastrous parking meter deal. In that case, a public asset was transferred not for pensions but to cover city operating expenses, but the concept is similar, and similar risks of having a bad deal foisted on the public should be apparent.
If this is getting confusing, take a look at the attached example. It’s from a company promoting the idea of asset transfers – Colliers International, an investment manager and real estate services company. It puts the concept in glowing terms, a “brilliant strategy,” using as an example the transfer of an office building used by an Arizona town to it’s underfunded pension.
Read that, and you’ll understand why the concept is getting attention. But ask yourself whether town residents are really better off because of the transaction. They owned the office building. It was worth what it was worth. They used it to pay their pension. Total assets and total liabilities for the town and its pension, combined together, didn’t change.
Our view on this is the same as our view about other ways to throw money at pensions. Don’t do it unless and until the pension system is reformed. Otherwise, Illinoisans will see that their assets are being tossed into a bottomless, corrupt pit. Don’t do it all unless the economic consequences and future reporting will be transparent and certain (which is probably impossible for most assets). Don’t just give away the assets. Demand reform concessions from current workers in Tier 1, who can negotiate collectively, and Tier 1 is where all unfunded liabilities are.
The Pritzker Administration has shown no interest in any of that.
Prepare for smoke and mirrors.
Diet soda definitively linked to increased stroke, heart attack risk
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Great Civilizations Aren’t Murdered, They Commit Suicide: The U.S.’s Likely Collapse
Historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus A Study of History was an exploration of the rise and fall of 28 different civilizations. Toynbee concluded that great civilizations don’t “get murdered,” rather, they kill themselves, and all the signs of a civilization collapse are here.
The Roman Empire, for example, was the victim of many ills including overexpansion, climatic change, environmental degradation, and poor leadership. But it was also brought to its knees when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455.
Collapse is often quick and greatness provides no immunity. The Roman Empire covered 4.4 million sq km (1.9 million sq miles) in 390. Five years later, it had plummeted to 2 million sq km (770,000 sq miles). By 476, the empire’s reach was zero. –BBC
Collapse can be defined as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity and socio-economic complexity. Public services crumble and disorder ensues as the government loses control of its monopoly on violence. (Meaning people realize they are slaves, and no longer wish to be subjugated and punished at the whims of the ruling class/government, but seek their own liberty and self-ownership.) As people begin to realize that the political class (ruling class) is exceptionally wealthy as they slave away and half their wages are stolen to prop up those who exert power over them, societies tend to collapse. Government stays fat and happy when the slaves don’t realize they are enslaved.
Collapse expert and historian Joseph Tainter has proposed that societies eventually collapse under the weight of their own accumulated complexity and bureaucracy. Meaning the government becomes so burdensome and large that it can no longer maintain a monopoly on violence, as the oppressed begin to fight back. Societies are problem-solving collectives that grow in complexity in order to overcome new issues and government violence is not needed to solve problems. However, the returns from complexity eventually reach a point of diminishing returns. This happens when the government creates so many problems with their solutions that the solutions become problems themselves (a great example of this is the Ponzi scheme known as social security.) After this point, a collapse will eventually ensue and the U.S. is obviously on the cusp. More and more people awaken daily to the reality of what government has done to them; stealing their money, complete enslavement, indebting their unborn children, turning them into tax cattle, etc.
Paris Tax Revolts: The World Begins To Realize The Truth About Government
The collapse of our civilization is not inevitable, however, history suggests it is very likely. We now have the unique advantage of being able to learn from the wreckages of societies past, but instead of doing so and freeing mankind from government, many who are enslaved continue to push for shorter chains, more violence, control, domination, and theft by the ruling class – not just of themselves, but of all others too. Collapse is imminent in our opinion, as those in control will not willingly give up their stranglehold over the tax cattle slaves.
If humanity could awaken to what the government really is (master that owns them) and take the blinders off put there by those who call themselves the government, we could all have a bright future. The government has painted themselves as some sort of religious fairy tale set out to save everyone and keep them safe. Once people realize the truth and claim ownership over themselves.
H/T [BBC]
Which One Wins: Central Planning or Adaptive Networks?
The global economy is in the midst of a grand experiment pitting centralization (Central Planning) against the evolutionary model of adaptive, self-organizing networks. Centralization is the dominant dynamic of the Status Quo everywhere: the economies of China, Japan, Europe and the U.S. are all dominated by Central Planning: central banks, central state agencies, and Deep State / private sector nodes of wealth and power that pull the systemic strings.
Central Planning–the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few–is presented as the “solution”: in China, the “solution” is a Total Information Awareness Social Credit Score system of centralized control of the populace. In the U.S., Medicare for all— the PR term for centralized cartel-state profiteering on a vast scale–is just one of many Central Planning “solutions” being touted by the “Progressives.”
Geopolitically, American “Progressives” and neoconservatives alike are enamored of the centralized Imperial Project as the go-to “solution” to any and every challenge.
As I explain in my latest book (now out as an audiobook), Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic, there’s one fatal flaw in Central Planning “solutions”: they run completely counter to the principles of evolution which guide all systems, natural and human.
That which is rigid and inflexible cannot adapt to rapid change, and thus it fails to adapt and vanishes from the Earth. That is the essence of evolutionary dynamics.
Central Planning is a monoculture that incentivizes self-serving corruption and propaganda. Central Planning is by its very nature opaque, as transparency is its mortal enemy. Propaganda is necessary to mask the true nature of the self-serving elites who benefit from central Planning, as their primary task is to convince the commoner sheep being sheared that being sheared is the best of all possible worlds–and that dissenting sheep will be led off to slaughter.
The essence of Central Planning is coercion: skepticism and dissent are dangerous and thus must be suppressed; everyone must consent to the control of elites and agree with the rigid ideology that provides cover for Central Planning’s blatant inequality, as the few insiders reap the benefits at the expense of the many–the classic definition of systemic corruption.
Central Planning works until it doesn’t, and that moment of failure is at hand.Central Planning is in essence a vast machine of mal-investment of irreplaceable capital. Capital–financial, human and social–that’s squandered on unproductive graft, embezzlement, bridges to nowhere, Imperial misadventures, ghost cities, student loans, grossly overpriced, ineffective medications, monuments to Central Planning, etc. cannot be replaced by creating currency out of thin air, or borrowing it into existence.
Eventually, the fantasy that we can replace capital that has been lost to mal-investment with freshly printed/borrowed capital dies: borrowing from our future eventually runs out of rope when the future arrives and can no longer sustain the fast-accumulating mountain of debt.
Central Planning strips out the all the core dynamics of adaptation as dangers:dissent, experimentation, decentralization of power and capital, and a diversity of competing narratives. These are all mortal threats to Central Planning, which is by its nature rigidly hierarchical.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, the world is placing its bets on which system will survive the coming era of destabilizing non-linear change:inflexible, opaque Central Planning or flexible, self-organizing networks of decentralized autonomy and capital.
Those who are betting on Central Planning do not understand the essential role of adaptation: what cannot adapt will die, and Central Planning is by its very nature incapable of true adaptation. Central Planning exists in a self-defining world in which shuffling the facades of PR passes for adaptation: nothing actually changes structurally, the rigid power hierarchy remains untouched.
Adaptation can’t be faked. Organizations that cannot adapt quickly and efficiently implode. This is a scale-invariant dynamic: the organizational size doesn’t matter. Size and scale do not provide magical protection. Households, corporations, governments and empires that fail to adapt will collapse.
There is a real solution: decentralize, diversify, open the economy and society to dissent, experimentation and self-organizing networks of peers. Rapid adaptation requires radical decentralization, autonomy, transparency, flexibility and experimentation.
Mark Jeftovic and I discuss these topics and more in our new podcast (YouTube, 43:27).
I address these topics in greater depth in my book Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic, Now available as an audiobook. You can read the first section for free in PDF format..
Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 ebook, $12 print): Read the first section for free in PDF format.
My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)
My book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format.
If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.
TESLA TERMINATOR: Tesla car autopilot veers off highway, crashes into road signs as driver locked out of all controls
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