Larry Bradley's Weekly Ezine #100 Noting an Anniversary
1. Welcome to Ezine 100
2. Noting an Anniversary
1. Welcome to Ezine 100
Welcome to Ezine 100. I appreciate you being part of my audience. My intention with this effort over the past two years (four years overall) has been not simply to report what is politically, but to offer an irreverent and pragmatic assessment of why. Further, I intended to offer ideas on changes to our political system to make both our system and our government function better.
While I would like to think I am achieving those objectives, ideas don’t matter much if they don’t get spread and implemented. For that, I need your help. If you’re intrigued by what I write (you don’t have to agree 100%), then please forward my offerings not only to your friends and family, but also to your local newspaper editor, talk show host or blogger.
Lately, I’ve been focused on showing how relatively minor changes to the rules of how things are done can have enormous benefits. Starting next week, I’m going to be focused on how flawed assumptions can also be responsible for holding back progress.
To that end, a number of people have brought a real world example of that to my attention. The example is the Blog of the author Steven Pressfield and his entry entitled, "Tribal Engagement Tutorials: Mental Models". Here’s a link to the posting. Look for the title. The link may lead you to the latest posting instead. blog.stevenpressfield.com/2010/01/tribal-engagement-tutorial-mental-models/
I especially like the first entry in the posting, "Having your head in the game requires accepting that your perception of reality might not be correct." I fear many of our issues come from a distorted perception of reality.
2. Noting an Anniversary
Because of several significant personal anniversaries this week, I’m going to interrupt my lessons from "The Blind Side" to offer a summary of my discoveries over the last four years and where I intend to go from here.
My project to overcome polarized politics began because I saw a government ineffective and inefficient. Today more and more people seem to share that opinion, especially after the 2008 election and deservedly so. Unfortunately, too often the people, organizations and political theories blamed for those conditions are, in my opinion, the wrong ones. (Are you listening, Tea Partiers?) In fact, my opinion is those who are most active in blaming others for conditions are themselves responsible for creating the conditions in the first place.
Why is the blame misplaced? Blame is misplaced because too many people have never developed a political philosophy enabling them to think rationally about topics like the following. Too many people--
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Think about politics as if it were a detestable sport they don’t understand but are forced to participate in; which they do in ignorance to their own detriment.
Don’t understand the "Monkey Head" theory of analyzing political issues.
Have never thought through how to resolve their personal beliefs with their political beliefs and reconcile those beliefs with those of differing opinions.
Have no concept of how to reconcile the rights of individuals to make their own choices with the needs for government to regulate behavior for the common good.
Have never considered how setting proper government policy can be likened to setting the navigation buoys at the entrance of a harbor.
Are unwilling, unable, or just plain afraid to confront and resolve three latter day equivalents of Prohibition that continue to divide us socially and politically.
As a result of the lack of these philosophical skills, if determining political self interest and position were a mathematical exercise like calculating a mortgage payment and comparing it to one’s household budget, then lots of people would be unable to calculate the proper answer and apply it to current circumstances.
How can it be people allow themselves to be so misled politically? Because . . .
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Categories: Weekly Ezine
Tags: Steven Pressfield Politics Tea Party The Blind Side
In noting an Anniversary, you commented on blaming ourselves for how we got here (paraphrasing, of course). I think that is an oversimplification because there are outside forces working against "us." It's become more and more obvious that the government is not our friend (see the Trading with the Enemies Act of 1934, the citizenry is declared "the enemy of the government and the banking system"). You may also find, "The Plot to Seize the White House," by Jules Archer, 1971, entertaining. Even though it describes the 1934 plot by the FED and its allies to overthrow the government and install a Nazi style regime here, it is still pertinent to today's events.
I think that Baron Nathan de Rothschild (Bank of England) said it best (parenthesis added are mine), "I care not what puppet they put on the throne (presidency) of England (America), the man (FED) that controls Britain's (America's) money supply controls the Empire, and I (FED) control the money supply." I do believe that Thomas Jefferson must have read his quote and that is one of the reasons he warned us about allowing private bankers to print our money (control our money supply). For he did say that if we did so, our children's children would wake up homeless in the land their forefathers fought to conquer (paraphrased). And that, I believe, is exactly what is happening now.
One must take into consideration these "outside" forces when looking at today's political/economic landscape. The central banks, by virtue of their control of the money supply, control the economies of the world's countries; so, by manipulation they can create inflation or deflation at will. Most of the central banks, including the Federal Reserve, are owned or controlled by a very few families (most of whose last names start with "R") so worldwide economies are at the mercy of a few.
On a micro level, we have control over how we choose to deal with the manipulations of the few and on a macro level, we are at their mercy. Perhaps our way out is the example of the French revolution where the populace rises up against the so-called privileged and it's "off with their heads!" At the very least, the unconstitutional FED's charter needs to be revoked, the principals prosecuted and the money & assets stolen from the people over generations recovered and redistributed (100% of the Federal Personal Income Tax goes to the Federal Reserve and not one penny goes to the government for the goods and services we expect, Congressional Research Service, 2006; Grace Commission, 1984) to those it was stolen from or who were damaged by the FED's actions.
Other actions that may by worthwhile:
Repeal of the 14th Amendment (gave corporations personhood)
Repeal of 16th Amendment (never legally ratified anyway - only 4 states actually ratified it - see "The Law that Never Was," if you can find it - suppressed by the Courts and DOJ)
Repeal of the 17th Amendment - destroyed the checks and balances by allowing direct election of Senators and thus their corruption by the moneyed (also questionable whether it was actually ratified; logically, what State would be willing to give up its voice in the Federal government?)
With the recent Supreme Court decision, corporations will now be able to control the outcome of elections simply by the amount of money they can spend. God Bless Amerika! Once a great nation, now just another fascist state.
Reply to this
I appreciate your writing, but I refuse to subscribe to the paranoia of the " woe is me, the bankers have conspired against us and have us by the balls and there's nothing we can do about it" type thinking. We put the handcuffs on the bankers in the aftermath of the Depression. We can do it again now.
I recommend the books and other writings of William Greider, such as Secrets of the Temple. I know there are a lot of people who like to cite The Creature from Jekyll Island in discussing the Fed, but when you read the reviews on Amazon, it becomes clear the superior work is Greider's.
Greider also notes in his latest book the real problem is we have both political parties feeding at the same money trough. That makes them beholden to the bankers.
Similarly, I often see the 17th Amendment cited as a loss of checks and balances. In my opinion, the problem is not that we allow the direct election of Senators, per se. Electing Senators by the legislature had its own problems. The problem is we did not also include a recall procedure by the people (added to the system they operate under More on that in the last paragraph.).
In the same way, the 14th Amendment did not directly establish the corporation as a person. The Justices our elected representatives appointed to the Supreme Court allowed that interpretation. We need to elect representatives who will appoint Justices who will reverse that interpretation.
Oveall, I come back to the same point over and over. They system we have enables the behavior we have. If you want to change the behavior, then you have to change the system. The best way to change the system is to institute Instant Runoff Voting IRV). IRV will enable third parties to compete and put the two major parties in a position where they can be defeated. The thing politicians fear most is being defeated. Fear of defeat modifies behavior. As I heard a General Officer say once, "Ipso, facto, wring out the mop-o."
Again, I appreciate your comments.
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