"I love GLOBAL KLEPTOCRACY - GLOBAL ELITE, RULING ELITE, GLOBAL OLIGARCHY, DEEP STATE, GLOBALISM, DYNASTIC ELITE, MONOPOLY CAPITALISM, CORPORATOCRACY, PLUTOCRACY, MONEY LAUNDERING, DRUG TRAFFICKING"

2022-05-25 13:06:20

GLOBAL KLEPTOCRACYSelf-serving leadersthroughout the world increasingly assume power with the goal ofbecoming rich at the expense of the majority of their population,and of the commonweal.Dictators and oligarchs,presidents and prime ministers, bankers and corporate CEOs, intellectualsand technocrats, and assorted enablers and sycophants, are stealingtheir nations' wealth, and laughing all the way to their off-shoretax havens.The endgame of thisplunder will be obscene riches for the plutocratic minority andimmiseration and oppression of the majority.Now more than ever,it is critical to understand the nature of the global neoliberaleconomic system and the kleptocrats who thrive on it, and to giveserious thought to survival options in a world increasingly controlledby and run for the benefit of thieves.INSTITUTIONS OF GLOBALPOWER CENTRAL BANKSBANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTSFEDERAL RESERVEBANK OF ENGLANDCENTRAL BANKS OF MOST NATIONSGLOBAL BANKING CONGLOMERATESTHE 25 LARGEST BANKSIN THE WORLD (2012)HSBCBNP PARABISINDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINAMITUBISHICREDIT AGRICOLEBARCLAYS GROUPROYAL BANK OF SCOTLANDJPMORGAN CHASEBANK OF AMERICACHINA CONSTRUCTION BANKMIZUHO FINANCIAL GROUPBANK OF CHINACITIGROUPAGRICULTURAL BANK OF CHINAING GROUPBANCO SANTANDERSUMITOMO MITSUI FINANCIAL GROUPSOCIETE GENERALEUBSLLOYDS BANKING GROUPGROUP BCPEWELLS FARGOUNICREDITCREDIT SUISSEDEUTSCHE BANKTRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONSTHE 25 CORPORATIONSWITH THE GREATEST GLOBAL IMPACT (2011)1 - BARCLAYS PLC - GREAT BRITIAN2 - CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES INC. - UNITED STATES3 - FMR CORP (Fidelity Management) - UNITED STATES4 - AXA FR 6712 - SWITZERLAND5 - STATE STREET CORPORATION - UNITED STATES6 - JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. - UNITED STATES7 - LEGAL & GENERAL GROUP PLC - GREAT BRITAIN8 - VANGUARD GROUP, INC. - UNITED STATES9- UBS AG - SWITZERLAND S10 - MERRILL LYNCH & CO., INC. - UNITED STATES11 - WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT CO. L.L.P. - UNITED STATES12 - DEUTSCHE BANK AG - GERMANY13 - FRANKLIN RESOURCES, INC. - UNITED STATES14 - CREDIT SUISSE GROUP - SWITZERLAND15 - WALTON ENTERPRISES LLC - UNITED STATES16 - BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON CORP. - UNITED STATES17 - NATIXIS - FRANCE18 - GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. - UNITED STATES19 - T. ROWE PRICE GROUP, INC. - UNITED STATES20- LEGG MASON, INC. - UNITED STATES21 - MORGAN STANLEY - UNITED STATES22 - MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. - JAPAN23 - NORTHERN TRUST CORPORATION - UNITED STATES24 - SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE - FRANCE25 - BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION - UNITED STATESENERGY CORPORATIONS(a partial list)ROYAL DUTCH SHELLCHEVRONBRITISH PETROLEUMEXXON/MOBILTOTALCONOCO PHILLIPSWEAPONS MANUFACTURERS(a partial list)LOCKHEED MARTIN - USABOEING - USABAE SYSTEMS - BRITAINGENERAL DYNAMICS - USARAYTHEON - USANORTHROP GRUMMAN - USAEADS - BRITAIN/FRANCEL-3 COMMUNICATIONS - USAFINMECCANICA - ITALYUNITED TECHNOLOGIES - USAFINANCIAL SERVICESINSTITUTIONSLARGEST HOLDING COMPANIES(2013)JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION CITIGROUP INC. WELLS FARGO & COMPANY GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC.MORGAN STANLEY GENERAL ELECTRIC CAPITAL CORPORATIONLARGEST ASSET MANAGEMENTCOMPANIES (2012)BLACKROCK UBSALLIANZVANGUARD GROUPSTATE STREET GLOBAL ADVISORSPIMCOFIDELITY INVESTMENTS AXAJP MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENTCREDIT SUISSELARGEST HEDGE FUNDS(2011)BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATESMAN GROUPJ.P. MORGAN ASSET MANAGEMENTBREVAN HOWARD ASSET MANAGEMENTOCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUPPAULSON AND CO.BLACKROCK ADVISORSORGANIZATIONS, SOCIETIESAND CLUBS(a partial list)UNITED NATIONSWORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) WORLD BANKINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF)COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (CFR)TRILATERAL COMMISSION (TC)BILDERBERG GROUPCHATHAM HOUSE / ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (RIIA)CLUB OF THE ISLESPILGRIMS SOCIETYCLUB OF ROMETHINK TANKS(a partial list)CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONALSTUDIES (CSIS)BUSINESS ROUND TABLEEUROPEAN ROUND TABLE OF INDUSTRIALISTS (ERT)INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (ICC)WORLD ECONOMIC FORUMWORLD BUSINESS COUNCIL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (WBCSD)BROOKINGS INSTITUTIONRAND CORPORATIONHERITAGE FOUNDATIONAMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTETAX-EXEMPT FOUNDATIONS(a partial list)ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATIONFORD FOUNDATIONCARNEGIE ENDOWMENTGATES FOUNDATIONSOROS OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONTAX HAVENS, SECRECYJURISDICTIONS AND MONEY LAUNDERING CENTERSHIDING THE WEALTHOF THE RICH AND INFAMOUSTRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE "HIDDEN"IN OFFSHORE SECRECY JURISDICTIONSWEALTH OF THE GLOBAL ELITE IS PRESERVEDTRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AVOID PAYING TAXESDRUG MONEY IS LAUNDERED THROUGH INTERNATIONAL BANKSFUNDING OF GOVERNMENT COVERT OPERATIONS IS OBSCURECITY OF LONDON"City of London" is the secrecy jurisdiction of choicefor the global mega-wealthy both directly and from Britain's overseas territories and crowndependenciesWALL STREET (NEW YORK CITY)DELAWARENEVADAFLORIDAWYOMINGSOUTH DAKOTAHONG KONGMACAOTHE VATICANCOUNTRIESUNITED STATESBRITAINPANAMASINGAPORETAIWANMALAYSIAJAPANCHINABELIZEISRAELLEBANONTURKEYCYPRUSUNITED ARAB EMIRATES (DUBAI)BAHRAINSWITZERLANDGERMANYLUXEMBOURGMONACOANDORRALIECHTENSTEINNETHERLANDSIRELANDKENYAMAURITIUSSEYCHELLESNUESAMOAMARSHALL ISLANDSTERRITORIES AND ISLANDS UNDERBRITISH INFLUENCEBritain's overseas territories andcrown dependencies funneltrillions of dollars of laundered money from around the worldinto London banks and real estateGIBRALTARGUERNSEYJERSEYISLE OF MANCAYMAN ISLANDANGUILLABRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDSBAHAMASMONSERRATBERMUDA ANTIGUA AND BARBUDABARBADOS DOMINICA GRENADA ST. KITTS AND NEVIS ST. LUCIA ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES TURKS AND CAICOSISLANDS UNDER NETHERLANDS INFLUENCEARUBABONAIRECURAÇAOST. MAARTENNETHERLAND ANTILLESMONEY LAUNDERING BANKS AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS{a partial list}BANK OF AMERICAJP MORGAN CHASECITIBANKWELLS FARGOWESTERN UNIONAMERICAN EXPRESSCREDIT SUISSEUBSHSBCSTANDARD CHARTEREDBARCLAYSLLOYDS OF LONDONROYAL BANK OF SCOTLANDAND MANY OTHER BANKS AND FINANCIALINSTITUTIONS AROUND THE WORLDDYNASTIC FAMILIESAND INSTITUTIONSEUROPEAN DYNASTICFAMILIESHOUSE OF WINDSOR (Great Britain) NETHERLANDSBELGIUMLIECHTENSTEINLUXEMBOURGSPAINDENMARKNORWAY SWEDENMONACOINTERNATIONAL BANKING DYNASTIESROTHSCHILDSROCKEFELLERSKUHN LOEB WARBURG LAZARD GOLDMAN SACHS ISRAEL MOSES SEIFLEHMANDYNASTIC BANKING INSTITUTIONSROTHSCHILD BANK OF LONDONROTHSCHILD BANK OF BERLINWARBURG BANK OF HAMBURGWARBURG BANK OF AMSTERDAMLAZARD BROTHERS OF PARISISRAEL MOSES SEIF BANK OF ITALYKUHN LOEB BANK OF NEW YORKGOLDMAN SACHS OF NEW YORKJ. P. MORGAN CHASE BANK OF NEW YORKLEHMAN BROTHERS OF NEW YORK (filed for bankruptcy in 2008)THE CITY OF LONDONCORPORATIONTHE "CROWN", THE "CITY",THE "SQUARE MILE"THE VATICANVATICAN BANKDYNASTIC FAMILIESIN THE UNITED STATES(a partial list)ROCKEFELLERBUSH CLINTONDYNASTIC FAMILIESIN ASIA(a partial list)BRUNEIPHILIPPINESCHINA (PRINCELINGS)DYNASTIC FAMILIESIN MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA(a partial list)SYRIAJORDANMOROCCOSAUDI ARABIAKUWAITOMANQATARUNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE)BAHRAINWEBSITES TO VISITBARBARIANS IN SUITSBEYOND THE MEDIA MATRIXDISINFORMATION NATIONEMPIRE OF CHAOSGLOBAL KLEPTOCRACYHOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKSPATHOCRACY: THE GLOBAL ORDERREAL WORLD ORDERTHE PLUTOCRACY CARTELTHE WAR RACKETTHIRD WORLD TRAVELERTRUTH-TELLERSMEET THE KLEPTOCRATS"Where you have a concentrationof power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentalityof gangsters get control."English historian Lord Acton"Kleptocrats have transformedpolitics to trade. They are traders who use their power, accessand privileged information to generate wealth. And at the sametime well-connected financiers and corporate leaders have madea business of politics. They come together to form a kleptocraticcaste."venitism.blogspot.com"Families that have establishedmodern dynasties typically rose to prominence through their concentrationof power and wealth in financial, industrial and corporate spheres.From these positions, political power and influence became a necessity,or else the loss of economic power would be an inevitability."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Oxfam said wealth wasbeing concentrated in the hands of increasingly fewer people,while the world's poorest continued to get poorer. In 2010 some388 people owned as much as the world's poorest 50 percent."www.aljazeera.com, 2016"There is a group of afew thousand people among the corporate elite who effectivelycontrol perhaps $100 trillion, two-thirds of the world's totalassets."David Rothkopf"These are the men who,without virtue, labour, or hazard, are growing rich, as theircountry is impoverished; they rejoice, when obstinacy or ambitionadds another year to slaughter and devastation; and laugh, fromtheir desks, at bravery and science, while they are adding figureto figure, and cipher to cipher, hoping for a new contract froma new armament, and computing the profits of a siege or tempest."Samuel Johnson"The Global Mafiocracy:the banks, corporations, asset management firms, sovereign wealthfunds, insurance companies and holding companies that collectivelyown each other and the wider network of global corporate and financialinstitutions, manifesting as a relatively small cartel of roughly150 large financial institutions that wield unparalleled financialpower in the modern world. Behind the major corporate and financial institutions are individualsand families, smaller units of concentrated power who own thelargest shares and steer the operations of the global cartel.These individual oligarchs and family dynasties - from the Rockefellersin the US, to the Wallenbergs in Sweden, Agnellis in Italy, Desmarais'in Canada, to the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, Oppenheimer inSouth Africa, among others - control and/or influence large percentagesof wealth within their respective nations and in the world ofglobalized financial and corporate networks."Andrew Gavin Marshall"The war against a foreigncountry only happens when the moneyed classes think they are goingto profit from it."George Orwell"Corporate raiders (nowcalled private equity and hedge fund managers) buy up firms usingborrowed money and make the acquired corporation pay back theloans. For pulling off the deal, they use some of that borrowedmoney to pay themselves enormous fees, right off the top. Theyalso provide fat bonuses for the CEOs who are to run the acquiredcorporation. Most importantly, they change the way top officersare rewarded. From this point on, most of their incomes wouldderive from stock options. The more the stock price rose, themore the CEOs would pocket.As a result, the new incentive would be focused solely on makingthe firm's stock price climb. Nothing else mattered. How do youdo that? You use as much of the profits as possible to buy upyour own stocks! And when profits are slim, you borrow more moneyto buy even more of your own stock. The more you buy, the fewershares are in circulation, and therefore each share is worth more.The stock price climbs. Buying back your own stock became thenew corporate way of life."Les Leopold"I spent thirty-three yearsin the Marines, most of my time being a hlgh class muscle manfor Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, Iwas a racketeer for capitalism.I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking houseof Brown Brothers in 1910-1912. I helped make Mexico and especiallyTampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought lightto the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City[Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of halfa dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.In China in 1927 l helped to see to it that Standard Oil wentits way unmolested.I had a swell racket. l was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions.l might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could dowas to operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operatedon three continents."General Smedley Butler, formerUS Marine Corps Commandant, 1935"The neoconservative aim isto change the shape of the trajectory along which Western civilizationhas been moving for the past two centuries. It is nothing lessthan to roll back Social Security, health care and pensions forlabor, health care, education and other public spending, to dismantlethe social welfare state, the Progressive Era of genuine democracyand ultimately even the very concept of classical liberalism."sceptic.ca"With the preservationand propagation of modern dynastic power has come the preservationand propagation of modern imperialism, no longer established asa formal colonial system of control. Instead, it is representedas a complex inter-dependency and interaction of institutionsand ideologies that manifest as a system of globalized 'informalimperialism', with the United States at the center.Some of the names of these dynasties are better known than others,like Rothschild and Rockefeller, while others are better knownwithin their own countries or barely known at all, like Agnelli(in Italy), Wallenberg (in Sweden) and Desmarais (in Canada).Each family dynasty has their own unique history, with power concentratedin particular companies or family offices. Many, if not most,of these families also have significant connections with eachother, acting as joint shareholders in various companies, sittingon the same boards and mingling in the same social circles. Theycooperate and they compete with each other for influence in Globalization's'Game of Thrones'."Andrew Gavin Marshall"By 2008-'09 corporateAmerica was, in effect, using 75% of its profits to buy back itsown stock. At the same time, loan and after loan was piled ontothe corporate books to buy up even more stock. So that after buyingthe stock and paying off the loans, there was very little profitremaining to reinvest in the company. To play this game, worker wages, R&D and new plant and equipmentare cut to the bone. Older plants are eliminated. Production isoutsourced to low-wage areas. Temporary workers replace permanentemployees. Benefits like healthcare and pensions are reduced oreliminated. Unions are undermined. And bankruptcy is sometimesused to break contracts to further reduce these costs. The feesfor all this "financial engineering" go to Wall Street.The stock-option-loaded CEOs become part of Wall Street-its onsite,wealth extraction overseers. Nearly all corporations whether raidedor not, soon followed this lucrative model. Strip-mining the corporationbecame its fundamental activity."Les LeopoldGOVERNMENT KLEPTOCRATS Pres. Barack Obama / VP Al Gore/ Pres. Bill Clinton / Sen. Phil Gramm / Gen. David Petraeus"The Clintons suffer frombeing snobs who like to hang around with rich people in spiteof their populist pretensions. They are the ultimate social climbers,always willing to do one more thing to obtain acceptance fromthe 1% that really matters and ready to reap the rewards thatthey know come with it. Hillary claims that she and Bill werebroke and in debt when they left the White House. They are nowworth over $100 million and command as much as $800,000 for asingle speaking engagement. Hillary's minimum paycheck to speakbefore a group is reported to be $200,000. Does anyone actuallythink that either Bill Clinton's sly smile or Hillary's shrillmonotone is worth a speaking fee in the hundreds of thousandsof dollars? Or are there expectations of other quid pro quos downthe road for those who are coughing up the big money, to includesomething like $18 million from Goldman Sachs and other banksterswho brought the nation to the brink of ruin in 2008?"Philip Giraldi"Bill and Hillary Clintonhave in tandem made enormous sums of money since Bill left theWhite House. According to the Washington Post, they netted atleast $136.5 million between 2001 and 2012."Ken Silverstein"Though an overwhelmingmajority of Americans, according to public opinion polls, believethat human rights should be a cornerstone of American foreignpolicy, Senator Hillary Clinton has repeatedly prioritized theprofits of American arms manufacturers and the extension of Washington'shegemonic reach in parts of the world."Stephen Zunes"President Bill Clintonsaw in the earthquake of 2010 his opportunity to become the newUS High Commissioner of Haiti. Within four months of the earthquake,he formed the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti(CIRH): a strictly pay-to-play group of officials/rich businessmenfrom the MINUSTAH countries and others who agreed to contributearmed personnel from their countries or money in return for apiece of the action in Haiti. After some arm twisting and bribery,the Haitian parliament was forced to declare a state of emergencyfor 18 months during which Clinton and his CIRH gang could doas they pleased with regard to reconstruction, without risk ofliability. One year and a half came and went, and when the HaitianSenate observed that nothing much had been accomplished, the stateof emergency was not renewed, and the CIRH was alleged to be fraudulent."Dady Chery, 2014"President Bill Clintonand other recent White House tenants condemned Haiti to a futureof endemic poverty through a self-serving U.S. rice export policy."a report from the Council on HemisphericAffairs, 2010"The American kleptocracycontinues to suck the American people down a rabbit hole, intoa parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless,the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry is powerlessto defend itself against government agents who steal, spy, lie,plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madnesson everyone and everything in their sphere."John Whitehead, 2018"Up to $300 million hasbeen raised by Bill and Hillary Clinton from the financial-servicesindustry.Goldman Sachs has donated between $250,000 and $500,00 to themonprofit Clinton Foundation and hosts many of its events.The Nation magazine"I am delighted to be herein these new Council on Foreign Relations headquarters. I havebeen often to the mother ship in New York City, but it's goodto have an outpost of the Council right here down the street fromthe State Department.We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won'thave as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how weshould think about the future."Secretary of State Hillary Clinton'sopening remarks during her speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, July 15, 2009"According to a CNBC MillionaireSurvey in 2014 (500 people with investable assets of $1 millionor more, which represents the top 8 percent of American households),Hillary Clinton is the top choice for 31 percent of millionaires.Clinton gets the support of 38 percent of women millionaires and27 percent of male millionaires. Among male millionaires of bothparties, Hillary is the top choice, with 27 percent."Robert Frank"As part of the country's"Reconstruction", the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund invested$2 million in the Royal Oasis Hotel, a deluxe structure to bebuilt in a poverty-stricken metropolitan area filled with displaced-personscamps housing hundreds of thousands of Haitians."Julie Lévesque, 2012"Since 2009, George W.Bush has made upwards of $15 million giving speeches, sometimesfor as much as $200,000 a pop.W's very first speaking gig after leaving the White House, inOctober 2009, was a star-studded affair at the Ft. Worth ConventionCenter. Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and Christian motivationalspeaker Zig Ziglar addressed the crowd, too. The sponsor was anoutfit called Get Motivated! In other words, the 43rd president was making six-digit figuresshilling for "get rich quick" schemes."Joseph L. Flatley"The Clintons have usedtheir foundation [Clinton Foundation] for crass profiteering andinfluence peddling.If the Justice Department and law enforcement agencies do theirjobs, the foundation will be closed and its current and past trustees,who include Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton, will be indicted.That's because their so-called charitable enterprise has servedas a vehicle to launder money and to enrich Clinton family friends."Ken Silverstein"I am delighted to be herein these new [Council on Foreign Relations] headquarters. I havebeen often to, I guess, the mother ship in New York City, butit's good to have an outpost of the Council right here down thestreet from the State Department.We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won'thave as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how weshould think about the future."Secretary of State Hillary Clinton'sopening remarks during her speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, July 15, 2009"Vice-president Cheneydenied that he had any ties with Halliburton Company after heleft his position as CEO of the company in 2000, but an investigationby the Congressional Research Service revealed that while VicePresident, Cheney received deferred compensation from Halliburtonto the tune of $500,000 to $1,000,000. While Cheney was Secretaryof Defense for George H. W. Bush, the Pentagon contracted Halliburtonsubsidiary Brown & Root to study the cost effectiveness ofoutsourcing some military operations to private contractors. Basedon the results of the study, the Pentagon hired Brown & Rootto implement an outsourcing plan."www.sourcewatch.org"Al Gore, a career reportedlybecame a billionaire just a few years after leaving his last governmentjob as Vice President of the United States. He achieved this miraclethrough various "green" business deals. Such deals usuallyinvolve the ancient mercantilist practice of bribing politiciansfor a special favor or subsidy. The bribe-giver becomes wealthy,and the politicians granting the favor/subsidy have the fundsto finance the next campaign. Let's call it crony environmentalism."Lew Rockwell"Al Gore stands to benefitto the tune of billions of dollars if the carbon tax proposalshe is pushing come to fruition in the United States.... The former Vice President is poised to become the world'sfirst "carbon billionaire," profiteering from governmentpolicies he supports that would direct billions of dollars tothe business ventures he has invested in.... Since he left office, Gore's personal net worth has skyrocketedon the back of his advocacy for global warming issues and thefinancial dividends this has reaped.... The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world's pre-eminentcarbon credit trading market, has direct ties to Al Gore and MauriceStrong, two figures intimately involved with a long standing movementto use the theory of man made global warming as a mechanism forprofit and social engineering. Gore's investment company, GenerationInvestment Management, which sells carbon offset opportunities,is the largest shareholder of CCX."Paul Joseph Watson, 2009"As the first presidentof the new global era, Bill Clinton visited more than 70 countries,set up the WTO, boosted the international budget, maintained highlevels of Pentagon spending, militarized the drug wars in SouthAmerica, continued the military and economic assault on Iraq,laid the groundwork for "humanitarian" interventions,bombed the Sudan and Afghanistan, and carried out protracted aerialraids on Serbia. Enthused by prospects for total surveillanceof the world, Clinton raised intelligence spending levels to morethan 30 billion dollars, with increasing emphasis on the supersecretNational Security Agency. The planned, systematic, and brutaldestruction of the Serb infrastructure must be considered oneof the great war crimes of the postwar years."Carl Boggs"The Clinton's are singularin terms of both their greed and their hubristic sense of entitlement...Bill has made at least $136.5 million, mostly from speaking engagements,between 2001 and 2012, and Hillary is now earning even more thanhe is per speech... The Clinton Foundation, administered separatelyfrom their private wealth, had assets totaling nearly $278 millionat the end of 2013."Philip Giraldi"President Bill Clintonand his cronies had begun to search for a way to continue theireconomic stranglehold on Haiti, and this would include a suitableHaitian President: specifically, one who would be popular withthe young but lack patriotism. They found their man in the musicianMichel Martelly."Dady Chery, 2014"Al Gore, former U.S. vicepresident and Current TV founder reportedly made an estimated$70 million for his 20 percent stake when he sold his progressivecable network to Al Jazeera.Gore sold Current TV in January 2013 for a reported $500 million.He also exercised shares of Apple stock - which netted him $30million - two weeks later. His net worth is an estimated $200million."www.huffingtonpost.com, 2013"Since her first Senatecampaign in 1999, Goldman Sachs has been bankrolling Hillary Clintonto the tune of millions of dollars. Individual donors like GoldmanCEO Lloyd Blankfein have been generous, but the firm has soughtto purchase influence and good will through speaking fees as wellas contributions to the nonprofit Clinton Foundation.Goldman Sachs is not alone. Citigroup ranks No. 1 in lifetimedonations to Clinton.Hiring Hillary Clinton as a speaker is one way Goldman Sachs funnelscash to her. Clinton's standard speaking fee is $200,000."The Nation magazine"The Clinton Foundationhas received more than $1 billion over the years to purchase HIV/AIDSdrugs for poor people in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. However,a unit set up to receive the money-the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDSInitiative, Inc., which was run by Ira Magaziner, a Clinton administrationveteran with close ties to Hillary-clearly spent far, far lessthan it took in. In fact, the unit's accounting practices wereso shoddy that its license was revoked by the state of Massachusetts."Ken Silverstein"The North American FreeTrade Agreement [NAFTA] was peddled by the Clinton White Houseas an opportunity to raise the incomes and prosperity of the citizensof the United States, Canada, and Mexico. NAFTA would also, wewere told, stanch Mexican immigration into the United States.... But NAFTA, which took effect in 1994, had the effect of reversingevery one of Clinton's rosy predictions. Once the Mexican governmentlifted price supports on corn and beans grown by Mexican farmers,those farmers had to compete against the huge agribusinesses inthe United States. Many Mexican farmers were swiftly bankrupted.At least 2 million Mexican farmers have been driven off theirland since 1994.... NAFTA was great if you were a corporation. It was a disasterif you were a worker.... Bill Clinton's welfare reform bill, signed on August 22, 1996,obliterated the nation's social safety net. It threw 6 millionpeople, many of them single mothers, off the welfare rolls withinthree years. It dumped them onto the streets without child care,rent subsidies, or continued Medicaid coverage.... Clinton slashed Medicare by $115 billion over a five-yearperiod and cut $25 billion in Medicaid funding.... The Clinton administration, led by Lawrence Summers, signedinto law the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, whichripped down the firewalls that had been established by the 1933GlassSteagall Act. Glass-Steagall established the Federal DepositInsurance Corporation. It set in place banking reforms to stopspeculators from hijacking the financial system. With Glass-Steagalldemolished, and the passage of NAFTA, the Democrats, led by Clinton,tumbled gleefully into bed with corporations and Wall Street speculators."Chris Hedges"The technique, used bythe monopolists to gouge society, was set forth in the early twentiethcentury by Frederick C. Howe in 'Confessions of a Monopolist'.First, says Howe, politics is a necessary part of business. Tocontrol industries it is necessary to control Congress and theregulators and thus make society go to work for you, the monopolist.So, according to Howe, the two principles of a successful monopolistare first to let Society work for you; and second to make a businessof politics."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and the Bolshevik Revolution""Regimes throughout theMiddle East, from Turkey to the United Arab Emirates, have goneon what appears to be a shopping spree for former members of Congress.Compared to the rest of the world, Middle East governments haveaccounted for more than fifty percent of the latest revolvingdoor hires for former lawmakers during this time period."Mike Krieger, 2015"The Project on GovernmentOversight identified 224 high ranking government officials whomoved through the revolving door to become lobbyists or high levelexecutives of government contractors, and disclosed that at leasttwo-thirds of the former members of Congress who lobbied for top20 government contractors served on authorization or appropriationscommittees that approved programs or funds for their future employeror client while they served in Congress."Jeremy Kuzmarov, Global Research,2014"Ex-congressman and GOPstrategist Vin Weber and his lobbying firm, Mercury LLC, signeda lucrative lobbying contract with the Gulf State of Qatar,receivinga $465,000 advance."VICE magazine, 2014"The conventional wisdomout there is that businesses are going to Washington, writingchecks and expecting big returns. But the other side of the storyis that members of Congress may implicitly threaten businessesthat if they don't change their policy, or if they are not heavilyinvolved in the political process, that bad things might happento them.... Our government has become a clearing house for corporationsand plutocrats whose dollars grease the wheels for lucrative contractsand easy regulation."political scientist David Primo"Billy Tauzin, former chairof the the Energy and Commerce Committee, which had oversightof the drug industry, after retiring from Congress in late 2004,became the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturersof America in January 2005."www.sourcewatch.org"Our public coffers beingemptied to benefit major corporations and financial institutionsworking in close alliance with, and passing on remarkable sumsof money to, the representatives of "the people" - kleptocracyon a scale to dazzle."William J. Astore"In the late 1990s, SenatorPhil Gramm, as chairman of the Senate Baking Committee, spearheadedthe repeal of Glass-Steagall for the banks. As soon as it wasdone, he was made vice chairman of one of the largest internationalbanks - Swiss global financial services company UBS AG - and paida multi-million dollar income, and his only duties were to goaround giving speeches."Paul Craig Roberts"Full investigation ofthe Enron scandal would have proven once and for all that thereis almost no one in the US Congress not owned by some corporation."T. P. Wilkinson"The two party system isnothing but a ruse designed to keep the people believing theyhave a say in how things are run in this country. Both partiessupport the military industrial complex. Both parties supportthe militarization of police forces around the country. Both partiessupport the mass surveillance of its citizens. Both parties dothe bidding of their rich corporate and special interest benefactors.Both parties favor deficit spending for eternity. Both partiesbelieve the government should expand its role in our everydaylives. Both parties do the bidding for and protect the Wall Streetinterests who really run this country. No more proof is neededthan what has occurred over the last five years, as criminal WallStreet bankers were rewarded for their malfeasance with trillionsof dollars from taxpayers and their puppets at the Federal Reserve.While we were allowing ourselves to be distracted, amused, entertained,and indebted, the oligarchs were busy conducting a silent coup."www.washingtonsblog.com, 2014"Former US Senator NormColeman is a lobbyist who serves on the board of the RepublicanJewish Coalition. Since July, Coleman has been a registered lobbyistfor the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, hired in part to work on sanctionsagainst Iran, a key priority of Saudi Arabia's ruling family.Shortly after signing up as a lobbyist for the Saudis, Colemangave a speech on Capitol Hill imploring his congressional alliesto realize that Israel and Saudi Arabia have many shared policypriorities, and that the United States should be hand in glovewith our allies in the region.Mike Krieger, 2015"Once upon a time the GOPstood for Grand Old Party - now it stands for Guardians of Privilege,and this is payback time for everything from fracking to gettingthe big banks off the hook; from doing away with the minimum wageand coddling off-shore corporate tax avoiders to privatizing Medicareand Social Security; to gutting the Consumer Financial ProtectionBureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, even the U.S. PostalService.Democrats are so compromised by their own addiction to Big Moneythey have forgotten their history as champion of the working stiff,the little folks down there at the bottom. The great problemsfacing everyday people in America - inequality, stagnant wages,children in poverty, our degraded infrastructure and stressedenvironment - are not being seriously addressed because the politicalclass is afraid to offend the people who write the checks - thecorporations and the rich. Everyone else can be safely ignored."Bill Moyers and Michael Winship"Monopolists never canbe free-enterprise capitalists. Without exception, they embraceeither socialism or some other form of collectivism, because theserepresent the ultimate monopoly. These government-sponsored monopoliesare tolerated by their citizens because they assume that, by themagic of the democratic process and the power of their vote, somehow,it is they who are the benefactors. This might be true if theytook the trouble to become informed on such matters, and if theyhad independent and honest candidates from which to choose, andif the political parties were not dominated by the super-rich,and if it were possible for men to win elections without vastsums of campaign money."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"From 2007 to 2012, the200 most politically active corporations in the United Statesspent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions.And they received more than $4 trillion in U.S. government contractsand other forms of assistance. That's $760 for every dollar spenton influence, a stunning return on investment."Sunlight Foundation, www.blacklistednews.com"Our government has becomea clearing house for corporations and plutocrats whose dollarsgrease the wheels for lucrative contracts and easy regulation."Bill Moyers and Michael Winship"The best of all businessis politics, for a legislative grant, franchise, subsidy or taxexemption is worth more than a Kimberly or Comstock lode, sinceit does not require any labor, either mental or physical, forits exploitation."Frederick C. Howe. "Confessionsof a Monopolist" (1906)"Government becomes thetool of the very forces that, supposedly, it is regulating. Theregulations,upon close examination, almost always turn out to be what thecartels have agreed upon beforehand, except that now they havethe police power of the state to enforce them. And it makes itpossible for these financial and political interests to becomesecure from the threat of competition."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"Former Michigan RepresentativePete Hoekstra, who used to chair the House Intelligence Committee,appears regularly in the media to demand that the US increaseits arms assistance to the Kurds in northern Iraq. Hoekstra hasnot disclosed that he has worked as a paid representative of theKurdistan Regional Government."Mike Krieger, 2015"Between 2007 and 2012,200 of America's most politically active corporations spent acombined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions.What they gave pales compared to what those same corporationsgot: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support."Sunlight Foundation study, www.blacklistednews.com"The 2010 Citizens UnitedSupreme Court case essentially enabled corporations and billionairesto be able buy US elections and politicians without governmentoversight... Rather than creating a level playing field, CitizensUnited gives disproportionate power to corporations and elitesto decide elections. Meanwhile, most voters are left disempoweredon the sidelines, pawns in elections that are largely fueled byclandestine corporate money."Benjamin Dangl"The rule of law in theU.S. has been divided into two branches: one in name only forthe financial Elites and corporate cartels, and one for the restof us mere citizens. Between corporate toadies on the SupremeCourt who have granted corporations rights to spend unlimitedmoney lobbying and buying legislators as a form of "freespeech" ... The U.S. legal system is now a perfection ofkleptocracy."Charles Hugh Smith"[The Supreme Court 'CitizenUnited' decision allowing unlimited money in politics] violatesthe essence of what made America a great country in its politicalsystem. Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political briberybeing the essence of getting the nominations for president orto elect the president. And the same thing applies to governorsand U.S. senators and congress members. So now we've just seena complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to majorcontributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors forthemselves after the election's over. The incumbents, Democratsand Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefitto themselves. Somebody's who's already in Congress has a lotmore to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who's just achallenger."former President Jimmy Carter,Thom Hartmann Show, July 2015"In its Citizens Uniteddecision, the U.S. Supreme Court took for granted that "favoritismand influence" are inherent in electoral democracy and that"democracy is premised on responsiveness" of politiciansto those who support them."Sunlight Foundation study, www.blacklistednews.com"The Supreme Court's CitizensUnited decision opened the floodgates for corporate money to enterWashington. Campaign spending in the 2012 elections was unprecedented,totaling an astounding $6.3 billion, according to the Center forResponsive Politics. Spending on the 2014 elections, at $4 billion,made it the most expensive midterm election in history. In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled in theirmajority decision that corporate spending on federal electionswould not "give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption."A Sunlight Foundation (a government accountability group) studytested the Supreme Court's conclusion and instead found that politicalspending is just about the best investment a company can makein America. Of the 200 companies studied, the report identified 29 companiesthat received 1,000 times more federal money than they spent oncampaign contributions and political lobbying."Alex Ellefson"Under the 2010 SupremeCourt's Citizens United ruling, corporations now have few restrictionson campaign financing. Individuals and political action committeesassociated with the defense sector contributed more than $27 millionto political candidates during the 2012 campaign cycle, with farmore going to Republicans than Democrats: $16.4 million versus$11 million. In that year, DynCorp gave over $300,000 to SuperPACs, 52 percent to Republicans, and CACI $137,000 to Republicanscompared to $21,000 for Democrats."Jeremy Kuzmarov, 2014"The legal system in theUnited States no longer functions to protect ordinary Americans.It serves our oligarchic, corporate elites. These elites havecommitted $26 billion in financial fraud. They loot the U.S. Treasury,escape taxation, drive down wages, break unions, pillage pensionfunds, gut regulation and oversight, destroy public institutionsincluding public schools and social assistance programs, wageendless and illegal wars to swell the profits of arms merchants,and authorize police to murder unarmed black men."Chris Hedges"Major trade groups thatcan now play an unlimited role in influencing elections, thanksto the Citizens United ruling, receive direct funds from corporationsheadquartered in foreign lands."Mike Krieger"By the end of the nineteenthcentury, the U.S. courts had declared that corporations were tobe considered persons under the law - and then used this legalfiction of "personhood" to extend constitutional protectionsto corporations. The courts have ruled that corporate advertisingand political campaign contributions are to be protected as freespeech."George Draffan"Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas worked as a lawyer for Monsanto for four years.As a Supreme Court Justice he has ruled in favor of Monsanto everytime."www.herinst.org"The appearance of influenceor access of corporations will not cause the electorate to losefaith in our democracy."United States Supreme Court "CitizenUnited" ruling"Court rulings - most famouslythe Citizens United case in 2010 - have long meant that any lawsattempting to stop billionaires from buying elections were alreadya lost cause. The Robert's Supreme Court has held that - evenin a time with record levels of income inequality - money is justa form of free speech."www.philly.com"On December 10th, WallStreet's federal appeals court, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals,ruled that if inside information about what is going to happento a corporation is taken advantage of by an investor, it's okay,so long as the source of the inside-tip isn't directly paid forpassing it along.... This ruling establishes two classes of investors: one is insiderswho trade favors but don't pay each other for providing insidetips, they instead do it instead like members of a club; the otheris suckers who rely on the fairness of America's investment marketsand on the Government's enforcement against corruption of theinvestment markets."Eric Zuesse, 2014"The flood of dark moneyunleashed by the 2010 Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commissiondecision and certified by the United States Supreme Court prohibitedthe government from restricting campaign contributions by nonprofitcorporations and other independent groups. Since then, special interest groups have significantly increasedtheir targeting of judicial campaigns in the United States. Groupssuch as the Americans for Prosperity and the Center for IndividualRights - which are funded by conservative billionaires Charlesand David Koch have committed unprecedented sums to influencestate judicial elections, including a number of key state supremecourt retention races.... The rush to throw undisclosed money into state-level judicialraces signals that a dangerous movement has been taking shapesince the Citizens United ruling. And its potential to corruptis not limited to the voting booth or to one political party."Christopher Moraf"Under the 2010 SupremeCourt's Citizens United ruling, corporations now have few restrictionson campaign financing."Jeremy Kuzmarov, 2014"The impact of CitizensUnited corresponds to a widely-shared view that the US is indeednot a democracy. Wealthy and business elites of the nation wieldall of the power, leaving most people on the margins."Benjamin Dangl"Over the past 200 years,all over the world but especially in the United States, legalsystems have been changed to accomplish two things: limit thelegal liabilities of corporations, and give corporations the rightsand protections of citizens by extending constitutional rightsto corporations."George Draffan"It's an incestuous business,what's going on in terms of the defense contractors and the Pentagon."Senator Claire McCaskill"A study by Swiss economistsSimon Luechinger and Christoph Moser "The Value of the RevolvingDoor: Political Appointees and the Stock Market", focusingon the defense industry due to its overwhelming weight in thefederal budget, found that firms who saw their former executivesappointed to government positions experienced an average stockbump of 0.82 percent and 0.84 percent - for the one- and two-dayevent windows - which translates into a great deal of money.Likewise, when government officials took on corporate posts, thefirms in question noticed a bump of between 0.79 and 1.05 percent.A corresponding dip in value could be seen upon the denial ofa government office to a given firm's executives. These gainsand dips were not due to peripheral factors affecting the defenseindustry, the report made clear."Nick Barrickman"Edward C. (Pete) Aldridge,Jr., in the month before he left the Pentagon to join the boardof Lockheed Martin, approved a $3 billion contract to build 20Lockheed planes, after having long criticized the program as overpricedand having threatened to cancel it. While on the Lockheed board,Aldridge was named to head President Bush's commission on spaceexploration. Lockheed is one of NASA's biggest contractors.... John T. Chain, Commander of the Strategic Air Command, retiredin February 1991, and became a member of the board of NorthropGrumman Corporation.... Gordon R. England, Secretary of the Navy from May 2001 toJanuary 2003, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Securityfrom January 2003 to October 2003 and Secretary of the Navy sinceOctober 2003, was executive vice president of General DynamicsCorporation from 1997 to 2001.... Ronald Fogleman, while serving on the Defense Policy Board,which advised the Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on militarystrategy, was hired by Boeing Company as a consultant while itwas seeking Pentagon approval for a $20 billion contract for aerialrefueling tankers.... Joseph W. Ralston, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Stafffrom March 1996 to April 2000 and Commander, U.S. European Commandand Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO, from May 2000 to January2003, became director on the board of Lockheed Martin, April 2003.... James G. Roche, became Secretary of the Air Force in 2001,after holding various positions at Northrop Grumman from 1984to 2001.... Thomas E. White, Secretary of the Army from May 2001 untilApril 2003, and who had retired as an Army brigadier general in1990, had been a senior executive at Enron Corporation, 1990-2001.... Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy under George W. Bush,is the Vice President of Northrop Grumman, which builds many ofthe Navy's warships and receives billions of dollars to buildother weapons."www.sourcewatch.org"Firms dependent one wayor another on relations with the US government have every reasonto expect a financial shot in the arm when one of their own isappointed to a top government post. The marriage of big businessand government has worked to help generate mega-profits for countlesscompanies."Nick Barrickman"The government-industryrevolving door puts industry-friendly experts in positions ofdecision-making power. Often individuals rotate between workingfor industry and working for the government in regulatory capacities,arrangements that are fraught with potential for conflicts ofinterest."www.sourcewatch.orgBANKER AND FINANCIALKLEPTOCRATSRobert Rubin-Citibank / Lloyd Blankfein-GoldmanSachsJaime Dimon-Chase Bank / George Soros-hedgefund & speculator"The overall level of financialconcentration is much greater than can be seen by looking at thebig banks alone, since what has emerged in recent years are financialconglomerates, centered in banking and insurance, and engagedin a wide range of financial transactions that dominate the U.S.economy, including off-balance sheet commitments. The ten largestU.S. financial conglomerates, by 2008, held more than 60 percentof U.S. financial assets, compared to only 10 percent in 1990,creating a condition of financial oligopoly. JPMorgan Chase nowholds $1 out of every $10 of bank deposits in the country. Sodo Bank of America and Wells Fargo. These three banks, plus Citigroup,now issue around one out of every two mortgages and account fortwo out of every three credit cards. "John Bellamy Foster and HannahHolleman"Manipulative characters,people like Lawrence Summers, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, BenBernanke, Timothy Geithner, AIG's Edward Liddy, and GoldmanSachsCEO Lloyd Blankfein, along with most of our ruling class, haveused corporate money and power to determine the narrow parametersof the debate in our classrooms, on the airwaves, and in the hallsof Congress - while looting the country. Many of these men appearto be so morally and intellectually stunted that they are incapableof acknowledging their responsibility for our decline."Chris Hedges"Since 2008, bad debt frombanks, corporations, and private investors was in transferredfrom the balance sheets of private banks to the balance sheetsof the central banks as a result of nine years of bailout viaQE (quantitative easing), zero interest rate free money, and otherpolicies of the central banks. The central banks bailed out thecapitalist system in 2008-09 by shifting the bad debts to themselves.In the course of the last 9 years, the private system loaded itselfup on still more debt than it had in 2007. Can the central banks,already bloated with $20 trillion bail out bankers and friendsonce again? That's the question. Attempting to unload the $20trillion to make room for the next bailout-as the central banksnow propose to do-may result, however, in precipitating the nextcrisis.... After eight years of treating symptoms and not the disease,the global financial system has become addicted to super-low ratesand to continued central bank excess liquidity provisioning. Whatstarted in 2008 as a massive, somewhat coordinated central banklender of last resort experiment - i.e. global bank bailout -has over the past eight years evolved into a more or less permanentsubsidisation of the private banking and financial systems bycentral banks. The system has become addicted to free money.... What happened was an unprecedented acceleration in financialasset markets as equity and bond prices surged for eight years,high end real estate prices rose to prior levels, derivativesboomed, gold and crypto-currencies escalated in value, and incomeinequality soared to record levels - all fueled by the massive$10 trillion central bank liquidity injections that drove interestrates to zero or below."Jack Rasmus, 2017"Former Goldman Sachs executiveHenry Paulson was appointed treasury secretary by George W. Bush.Goldman Sachs was deeply implicated in the illegal dealings thatled to the 2007 collapse of the housing bubble and subsequentfinancial crash. Paulson, the bank's former CEO, convenientlypresided over the bail-out of the banking industry at this time."Nick Barrickman"Since its founding in1889, Goldman Sachs grown to be the most respected name on WallStreet. The firm's annual revenues are now heading toward the$70 billion level, primarily as a result of its incredibly profitableproprietary trading business and its leadership in investmentbanking. The firm earned almost $10 billion in 2006... The averageemployee makes $622,000 a year... The top twenty-five executivesin the firm in 2006 were estimated to make $25 million each, withCEO Lloyd Blankfein the top earner on Wall Street with $54 million.Goldman [Sachs]'s influence extends beyond the ability of itsanalysts and traders to drive stock or bond prices up and down,as they do daily with the reports they write and the decisionsthey make to buy or sell securities... It creates new financialinstruments that shape the global marketplace, it can make orbreak the CEOs and government ministers who regularly pass throughits doors looking for capital and for recommendations linked totheir decisions, and it serves as the hub of an internationalnetwork of deal makers.The revolving door that allows policy makers to leave top firmsto go into government and then to reenter those firms... is oneway that the financial community including = Goldman Sachs - maintainsits influence." David Rothkopf"In 2012 the GovernmentAccounting Office conducted the first top-to-bottom audit of theFederal Reserve. It revealed that the Fed had provided $16 trillionin secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businessesduring the 2008 economic crisis."Ellen Brown, 2016"There is a special breedof international financiers whose success typically is built uponcertain character traits. Those include cold objectivity, immunityto patriotism, and indifference to the human condition. That profileis the basis for proposing a theoretical strategy, called theRothschild Formula, which motivates such men to propel governmentsinto war for the profits they yield... As long as the mechanismof central banking exists, it will be to such men an irresistibletemptation to convert debt into perpetual war and war into perpetualdebt."G. Edward Griffin in his book "TheCreature from Jekyll Island""The Depression was notaccidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence . The internationalbankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so thatthey might emerge as rulers of us all."Congressman Louis McFadden, Chairmanof the House Banking and Currency Committee, 1932"40% of every dollar wespend on goods and services is siphoned off the top as bank interest.The US Government is in the absurd position of paying interestto a private bank for every dollar that is put into circulation.The Federal Reserve system has privatized the power to createmoney, which, according to the Constitution, ought to belong toCongress alone. Presently, interest on the national debt coststhe Federal government $500 billion in 2011, and, it is the fastest-growingportion of the Federal budget."Josh Mitteldorf - first PublicBanking in America conference April 28-29, Philadelphia"George Soros had beenone of the world's most successful and most influential investors:for the thirty years from 1969 through 2000, Soros's Quantum Fundreturned investors an average of 31 percent a year. Ten thousanddollars invested with Soros in 1969 would have been worth $43million by 2000. According to a study by LCH Investments, a fundowned by the Edmond de Rothschild Group, during his professionalcareer Soros has been the world's most successful investor, earning,as of 2010, a greater total profit than Warren Buffett, the entireWalt Disney Company, or Apple."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"The dominant element inour financial oligarchy is the investment banker. Associated banks,trust companies and life insurance companies are his tools.Thedevelopment of our financial oligarchy followed lines with whichthe history of political despotism has familiarized us: usurpation,proceeded by gradual encroachment rather than violent acts, subtleand often long-concealed concentration of distinct functions...It was by processes such as these that Caesar Augustus becamemaster of Rome."Louis Brandeis in Other People'sMoney (1913)"Goldman Sachs has indirectcontrol over all three branches of government."www.zerohedge.com"In the years prior tothe breaking of the Wall Street bubble, the financial industrywas engaged in predatory lending practices. They were targetingthe least educated, the Americans that were most easy to preyon.... The banks used their political power to make sure they couldcontinue engaging in these kinds of predatory behaviors. There'sno principle. It's money. It's campaign contributions, lobbying,revolving door, all of those kinds of things.... I think we ought to go do what we did in the S&L crisisand put many of these guys in prison. These are not just white-collarcrimes or little accidents. There were victims. That's the point.There were victims all over the world. The financial sector reallybrought down the global economy and if you include all of thatcollateral damage, it's in the trillions of dollars."Joseph Stiglitz"A cartel of the most powerfulinternational banks - the current primary dealers of the FederalReserve System... together with hedge funds and their other buy-sidebuddies, have power over nations... these cartel banks work toexpand their territorial control beyond their national bordersto put other populations in debt... The eventual end state ofthis dynamic is one integrated, global banking empire. It's onlya matter of time before their collective balance sheets (plusthe large Chinese banks now that the cartel is colluding withthem) control the rest of the world."Damon Vrabel"During the past two centurieswhen the peoples of the world were gradually winning their politicalfreedom from the dynastic monarchies, the major banking familiesof Europe and America were actually reversing the trend by settingup new dynasties of political control through the formation ofinternational financial combines. These banking dynasties hadlearned that all governments must have sources of revenue fromwhich to borrow in times of emergency. They had also learned thatby providing such funds from their own private resources, theycould make both kings and democratic leaders tremendously subservientto their will."Carroll Quigley in his book "Tragedyand Hope""As the financial crisisraged in September 2008, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley soughtsanctuary from the Federal Reserve.The last two big independent broker-dealers were allowed to becomebank holding companies, giving them access to government liquiditythat could keep them afloat."Financial Times"There is an establishedand well-defined identity and community of interest between afew leaders of finance, created and held together through stockownership, interlocking directorates, partnership and joint accounttransactions, and other forms of domination over banks, trustcompanies, railroads, and public-service and industrial corporations,which has resulted in great and rapidly growing concentrationof the control of money and credit in the hands of these few men."Pujo Committee - House Committeeon Banking and Currency, 1912"It is estimated that some70% of all equity shares traded are exchanged in private "darkpools" operated by the too-big-to-fail banks and Wall Street,and the majority of the remaining 30% of publicly traded sharesare traded by high-frequency trading machines that hold the sharesfor a few seconds, or however long is needed to skim the advantagesoffered by proximity to the exchange and speed."Charles Hugh SmithCORPORATE KLEPTOCRATS Charles Koch / Bill Gates"The Koch Briothers havebought the Republican Party. They paid a specific amount and nowthey own it. There hasn't been anything like that in Americanhistory."Professor Sheldon Wolen, 2014"The 2014 Forbes 400 listcame out in mid-September. Since then, in less than two months,the four Waltons made $4.8 billion dollars, and the Koch brothersmade $1.8 billion dollars. $6.6 billion is enough to pay the totalfood stamp benefits for all 48 million recipients for an entiremonth. Warren Buffett made 3.3 billion dollars in less than twomonths."www.truth-out.org, 2014"The 2012 and 2014 electionswere the most expensive in American history and were financedlargely by corporate money. A report issued by the Sunlight Foundation, a government accountabilitygroup, found that for every dollar the nation's most politicallyactive companies spent on political influence, they received $760from the government in the form of federal business and support.In total, the study reported that 200 of the country's top campaigndonors spent $5.8 billion on political lobbying and campaign contributionsbetween 2007 and 2012 and received a whopping $4.4 trillion inreturn."Alex Ellefson"Among the world's tenrichest people are the conservatives Charles and David Koch. Theyare major funders of the Tea Party, and spent an estimated $290million to aid in Republicans' election in the recent mid-term,helping to put out some 44,000 political ads in an attempt toplace the Senate back into Republican hands."Benjamin Dangl"BMGF (Bill and MelindaGates Foundation), PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology inHealth) and WHO (World Health Organization) were criminally negligenttrialling the vaccines on a vulnerable, uneducated and under-informedpopulation in India of school administrators, students and theirparents who were not provided informed consent or advised of potentialadverse effects or required to be monitored post-vaccination."from the writ of petition submittedto the Supreme Court of India in 2012 by Kalpana Mehta, NaliniBhanot and Dr. Rukmini Rao"The Koch Party is notas large as the Democrats or the Republicans, but is still unprecedentedin size, scope and reach. Like other political parties, it hasa platform, donors and constituents, electoral and advertisingstrategies, voter data, and, after the 2014 midterms, membersof Congress ready to shepherd its pro-corporate, anti-regulatoryagenda."www.alternet.org"Bill Gates and WarrenBuffett are major funders of global population reduction programs,as is Ted Turner, whose UN Foundation was created to funnel $1billion of his tax-free stock option earnings into various birthreduction programs in the developing world.The programs in Africa and elsewhere are masked as philanthropyand providing health services for poor Africans. In reality theyinvolve involuntary population sterilization via vaccination andother medicines that make women of child-bearing age infertile.... Were the intent of Gates really to improve the health andwell-being of black Africans, the same hundreds of millions ofdollars the Gates Foundation has invested in untested and unsafevaccines could be used in providing minimal sanitary water andsewage systems. Vaccinating a child who then goes to drink feces-pollutedriver water is hardly healthy in any respect. But of course cleaningup the water and sewage systems of Africa would revolutionizethe health conditions of the Continent."F. William Engdahl, 2010"The market in which thenew elites operate is now international in scope. Their fortunesare tied to enterprises that operate across national boundaries...They have more in common with their counterparts in Brussels orHong Kong than with the masses of Americans not yet plugged intothe network of global communications."Christopher Lasch"In the United States,a huge percentage of the most successful companies are owned byfamily dynasties, and most of the richest individuals are heirsto these family dynasties. The picture that begins to emerge betterreflects that of an aristocracy, rather than a democracy."Andrew Gavin Marshall"In December 2012, in thesmall village of Gouro, Chad, Africa, situated on the edge ofthe Sahara Desert, five hundred children were locked into theirschool, threatened that if they did not agree to being force-vaccinatedwith a meningitis A vaccine, they would receive no further education.These children were vaccinated without their parents' knowledge.This vaccine was an unlicensed product still going through thethird and fourth phases of testing.Within hours, one hundred and six children began to suffer fromheadaches, vomiting, severe uncontrollable convulsions and paralysis.The children had to wait one full week for a doctor to arrivewhile the team of vaccinators proceeded to vaccinate others inthe village.When the doctor finally came, he could do nothing for the children.The team of vaccinators, upon seeing what had happened, fled thevillage in fear.After being shuttled around like cattle, many of these sick, weakchildren were finally dumped back in their village without a diagnosisand each family was given an unconfirmed sum of £1000 bythe government. No forms were signed and no documentation wasseen. They were informed that their children had not suffereda vaccine injury.The groups involved with this project were PATH, WHO, UNICEF,and the Gates Foundation. During investigations, it was discoveredthat the whole project was being run by the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation."www.vactruth.com, October 5, 2014"AIG's Hank Greenberg,who saved about $300 million when his high-risk insurance companywas bailed out by our tax money, sued the federal government becausehe felt cheated by the bailout, even though without the bailouthis stock would have dropped to zero. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, criticized fracking regulations for "holdingback the American economic recovery," and then protestedwhen a fracking water tower was to be built near his home."Paul Buchhet"The billionaire Koch Brothersspent close to $400 million on their conservative network forthe 2012 election."www.philly.com"In 2005, Bill Gates wasworth $46.5 billion and Warren Buffett $44 billion. That year,the combined wealth of the 120 million people who made up thebottom 40 percent of the U.S. population was around $95 billion- barely more than the sum of the fortunes of these two men."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"Polio vaccines for infantsfunded by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation(GAVI) are causing deaths and disabilities.The main vaccinations in question were the polio vaccine and the5-in-1 pentavelent vaccine, which were said to be responsiblefor the deaths and disability of a number of children in Pakistan,India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Japan.The vaccines were funded by the Global Alliance for Vaccinationand Immunization (GAVI) an organization financed by the Bill andMelinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program, the International Federationof Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, the Rockefeller Foundation,the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World HealthOrganization (WHO) and the World Bank."Express Tribune of Pakistan, 2011"Dynastic families establish'philanthropic foundations' to serve a dual purpose of justifyingtheir wealth and influence (by being perceived as 'giving back'),but which, in actuality, provide concentrations of wealth managedfor the purpose of 'strategic giving': to undertake social engineeringprojects with an ultimate objective of maintaining social control.While appearing to be 'charitable' institutions, the major foundationsare predominantly interested in the process of long-term socialengineering. Notably among such foundations are the RockefellerFoundation, Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Open SocietyInstitute, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, amongmany others."Andrew Gavin Marshall"On average, for everydollar spent on influencing politics, the nation's most politicallyactive corporations received $760 from the government."Sunlight Foundation study"Global Alliance for Vaccinationand Immunisation (GAVI) was using an untested vaccine on Pakistanichildren. Giving this dangerous vaccine to children shows thelack of empathy associated with these organizations.GAVI was blamed for the deaths of 10,000 children in Pakistanwhen they administered polio vaccines that resulted in casualties."[GAVI is heavily funded by the Gates Foundation]Susanne Posel, 2013MEDIA KLEPTOCRATSEric Schmidt-Google / Jeff Bezos-Amazon/WashingtonPost"Google is destroying themost glorious gift humanity was granted in the last 300 years[the internet]. The future under Google is a fascist dystopia,their way or the highway, no room for dissidents, no room forfree speech. Google is a boot stomping on your face for eternity.Google is the deep state. Forget about conventional wars, forgetabout spies, forget about intelligence agencies, forget aboutall of that. It's all about the internet and Google running theinternet. They decide how you feel, what you think, what informationyou can and can't look at, and ultimately who does and doesn'thave a voice."David Bowie's final message writtenweeks before he died, 2015"The American media doesnot serve the truth. It serves the government and the interestgroups that empower the government. The function of the "mainstreammedia" is to sell products and to brainwash the audiencefor the government and interest groups. By subscribing to it,Americans support their own brainwashing."Paul Craig Roberts"The mainsteam media'sview of the world is much the same as the view from the StateDepartment and the Pentagon."Michael Parenti in his book "ContraryNotions""To keep information fromthe public is the function of the corporate media."Gore Vidal"How the press loves tobrag bout its freedom. Yes, the press may be free to lie and distortand suppress and deceive and malign, but is it free to tell thetruth? Many have reason to believe that the truth is dead as faras the mass media concerned."Willis Carto"Media in the United Statesconvey a remarkably uniform view of the world, and it has beena politically specific one: anticommunist, pro-corporate, andnationalist."Daniel Hellinger and Dennis R.Judd in their book "The Democratic Facade""The people who own andcontrol the mainstream media are never going to risk their salariesto explore the unanswered questions of 9-11 or the money trailsof JP Morgan Chase Bank, GoldmanSachs, Citibank, Haliburton, Blackwaterand Homeland Security, or the Rothschilds, or the Rockefellersor the secrecy of the Council on Foreign Relations, the BilderbergGroup, the Trilateral Commission, Skull and Bones, the Bushesand the Carlyle Group or our Federal Reserve System and it's 12private Federal Reserve Banks or the IMF or the World Bank."Chris Pratt from his movie "Deception""The media provides a forumfor those in power."Amy Goodman in her book "Exceptionto the Rulers""Big media in the UnitedStates effectively represent the interests of corporate America."9/11 and American Empire : IntellectualsSpeak Out, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale ScottREGULATORY KLEPTOCRACY"A "revolving door"exists between boards of corporations, think tanks, foundations,educational institutions and advisory groups, not to mention betweenthe state and corporate sectors."Andrew Gavin Marshall"In 1960, Senate investigatorsdiscovered that FDA officials had been receiving financial incentivesfrom the companies they were supposed to regulate. In 1969, acongressional study revealed that thirty-seven of forty-nine topFDA officials who left the agency took jobs with food and drugcompanies."Jeffrey M. Smith"The U.S. government agencieshave done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do andtold them to do."Henry Miller, in charge of biotechnologyissues at the FDA from 1979 to 1994"Corporations dominatepublic policy making via lobbying, formal advisory committees,political campaign financing, and a constantly revolving doorbetween business and government. Each of these mechanisms of influenceis supposed to be regulated."George Draffan"A revolving door blursthe lines between one of the nation's most important regulatoryagencies and the interests it regulates.Former employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)routinely help corporations try to influence SEC rulemaking, counterthe agency's investigations of suspected wrongdoing, soften theblow of SEC enforcement actions, block shareholder proposals,and win exemptions from federal law.The revolving door was on display in 2012 when the investmentindustry opposed one of the top priorities of the SEC chairman,a plan to tighten regulation of money market funds. Former SECemployees lobbied to block the plan, and an SEC Commissioner whopreviously worked for an investment firm played a pivotal rolein derailing it."Michael Smallberg"The revolving door betweengovernment defense leadership positions and leadership positionsin the defense contracting community has become a fixture of Washingtonlife."Nicholas Kristof"There is a long historyof a revolving door between Monsanto and the US agencies thatregulate its activities. Ever since the first Bush Administration, presidents have beenappointing ex-Monsanto lawyers, consultants, directors, chairmen,and CEOs to highly important positions in the FDA [Food and DrugAdministration] and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]. Someexamples include: ... Linda Fisher worked for the EPA then headed Monsanto's Washingtonlobbying office before becoming deputy administrator of the EPA.She then became a Vice President of Government Affairs at Monsantofollowed by vice president at DuPont. ... Margaret Miller, a senior Monsanto scientist, became DeputyDirector of Human Food Safety and Consultative Services, in theFDA.... Michael R. Taylor, a lawyer for Monsanto for several yearsbecame deputy commissioner for policy at the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) and then Administrator of the Food Safety & InspectionService of the Dept of Agriculture. In 2010 he was appointed deputycommissioner for foods at the FDA."www.herinst.org/"The American empire isruled by a group of people who collectively act very much likea king. They run our largest corporations and, through them, ourgovernment. They cycle through the "revolving door"back and forth between business and government. Because they fundpolitical campaigns and the media, they control elected officialsand the information we receive. These men and women are in chargeregardless of whether Republicans or Democrats control the WhiteHouse or Congress. They are not subject to the people's will andtheir terms are not limited by law."John Perkins"The Food and Drug Administrationis so closely linked to the biotech industry now that it couldbe described as their Washington branch office."Betty Martini of the consumer groupMission Possible"Michael Taylor, a formerattorney for Monsanto, went to work for the United States Foodand Drug Administration (FDA), where he helped draft FDA's policydeclaring that genetically modified foods are "generallyregarded as safe" (GRAS). While at the FDA, Taylor also wrotethe policy that exempted biotech foods from labeling. His formerlaw firm, which still represented Monsanto, then began suing dairiesthat labeled their milk rBGH-free (Monsanto's bovine growth hormoneto increase milk production). After these policies were written,Taylor left the FDA and eventually went back to work for Monsanto.... Ann M. Veneman, U. S. Secretary of Agriculture (2001-2004),previously served on the International Policy Council on Agriculture,Food and Trade, a group funded by Cargill, Nestle, Kraft, andArcher Daniels Midland, and served on the board of directors forCalgene Inc (makers of genetically-engineered Flavr Savr tomato,bought by Monsanto in 1997)"www.sourcewatch.org"The movement of peopleto and from the financial industry is a key feature of the SEC.... The SEC has the power to affect investors, financial markets,and the economy. Yet, the SEC has exempted certain senior employeesfrom a "cooling off period" that would have restrictedtheir ability to leave the SEC and then represent clients beforethe agency. In addition, the SEC has shielded some former employeesfrom public scrutiny by blacking out their names in documentsthey must file when they go through the revolving door.The SEC is a microcosm of the federal government, where widespreadrevolving expands the opportunities for private interests to swaypublic policy."Michael Smallberg"At the FDA, there seemedto be a trend in the place toward approval at any price. It wentfrom a university-like setting where there was independent scientificreview to an atmosphere of 'approve, approve, approve... the thinkingis, 'How many things can we approve this year?' Somewhere alongthe way they abdicated their responsibility to the public welfare."FDA veterinarian Richard Burroughsdescribing what the saw at the FDA"Monsanto is a virtualretirement home for members of the Clinton administration."The Globe and Mail newspaper, London,UK"At the top of the FDAthere are political appointees not necessarily bound by science,but often influenced by other agendas. Many pass through the agencyat a rapid clip, moving from one regulated enterprise to another.At the same time, some of the finest scientists and public servantsthat I have ever met worked at the FDA. Unfortunately many ofthem are often hired away by universities, nonprofit groups, andother public health agencies, leaving a less dedicated and lesscompetent residue of people not highly sought after outside ofgovernment."James Turner, author of "TheChemical Feast: The Nader Report on the Food and Drug Administration""People think the Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) is protecting them. It isn't. Whatthe FDA is doing and what the public thinks it's doing are asdifferent as night and day."former FDA Commissioner Dr. HerbertLey said in 1969"The SEC's revolving doorseems to be more active than ever."Senator Charles Grassley, a seniormember of the Senate Finance Committee, 2011"We found there was a hugenumber of connections of people who had gone through the revolvingdoor to the banks and back again, with alarming speed. The biggestbanks had the most concentrated connections, and the countriesthat had the biggest connections were the UK, the US and Switzerland."Organization for Economic Co-operationand Development (OECD) study led by David Miller, 2009"The revolving door thatallows policy makers to leave top firms to go into governmentand then to reenter those firms, is one way that the financialcommunity maintains its influence."David Rothkopf"In 1976 several FDA officialsand drug company executives were convicted on corruption, racketeering,and similar charges for a bribery scheme that went on from 1989-1992.Generic drug companies paid off FDA officials to approve theirdrugs and block approval of competitors' drugs. The generic drugcompanies also withheld data and even substituted other companies'brand name drugs for evaluation, instead of risking an evaluationof their own product."Jeffrey M. Smith"The first head of theEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA), William Ruckleshaus, becameSenior Vice President of Legal Affairs of the timber giant WeyerhaeuserCompany, then returned to head the EPA in 1983. In 1988 he wasappointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Browning FerrisIndustries, the nation's largest solid waste company, and heldboard positions for Monsanto, Pharmacia Corporation, Nordstrom,Weyerhaeuser and others."www.herinst.org/"A report by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) foundthat from 2001 through 2010, more than 400 SEC alumni filed almost2,000 disclosure forms saying they planned to represent an employeror client before the agency. Those disclosures are just the tipof the iceberg, because former SEC employees are required to filethem only during the first two years after they leave the agency."Michael Smallberg"The major think tanksof the nation are the policy-makers of the American Empire. Thinktanks bring together elites from most power sectors of society- the military, political, corporate, banking, intelligence, academia,media, etc. - and they discuss, debate and ultimately producestrategy blueprints and recommendations for American foreign policy.Individuals from these think tanks move in and out of the policy-makingcircles, creating a revolving door between the policy-plannersand those that implement them".Andrew Gavin Marshall"A report by The Projecton Government Oversight (POGO), says that former employees ofthe Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) routinely help corporationstry to influence S.E.C. rule-making, counter the agency's investigationsof suspected wrongdoing, soften the blow of S.E.C. enforcementactions, block shareholder proposals and win exemptions from federallaw.... The report says that in three cases against UBS, after enforcementactions threatened to limit the giant Swiss bank's ability toissue new securities, the bank hired former S.E.C. lawyers. Eachtime, the report says, the agency granted relief.... The POGO report found that from 2001 through 2010, 419 alumniof the S.E.C. filed almost 2,000 disclosure forms saying theyplanned to represent an employer or client before the agency.... The report also found that former employees had helped companiesavoid certain penalties and thwart regulatory initiatives, includingan effort by Mary L. Schapiro, then its chairwoman, to reformmoney market funds, a sector central to the financial crisis.The report noted that former S.E.C. employees had lobbied to blockthe plan."Ben Protess and Susanne Craig,2013"War profiteering fitshand-in-glove with secured profits from "defense" contracts.Suchpractices win bi-partisan support and keep well oiled Washington'subiquitous revolving doors."Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdes"A report by a non-profitgovernment watchdog group - Project on Government Oversight (POGO)- said former SEC employees, hired away from the commission bythe private sector, "routinely" help their new employersto influence the agency and blunt SEC enforcement actions.The POGO called the phenomenon a "revolving door" thatblurs the lines between one of the nation's most important regulatoryagencies and the interests it regulates."Scott Cohn"At least 219 former officialsat the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have left since2006 to help clients with business before the agency, bringingfresh allegations of a "revolving door" that leavesthe commission too cozy with the Wall Street firms it regulates.Between 2006 and 2010 there were 219 former SEC employees whofiled letters with the agency indicating their intent to representa client with business before the commission.In all, those former officials advised firms on SEC business nearly800 times."Tim Reid"The Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) has tapped a Wall Street lawyer to police WallStreet.The appointment comes as no surprise because the agency typicallydraws regulators from the ranks of the regulated. But it doesillustrate a significant problem: relying heavily on people withindustry connections."Michael Smallberg, 2013"The revolving door hasconnected the Clinton Cabinet with major manufacturers (LockheedMartin, Union Carbide, and Ford Motors), banks and investmentfirms (Goldman Sachs and Citigroup), corporate foundations andthink tanks (Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Brookings Institution),and public relations firms (Hill & Knowlton and Timmons)."George DraffanACADEMIC AND SCIENTIFICKLEPTOCRACY"Over the last thirty years,in parallel with deregulation and the rising power of money inAmerican politics, significant portions of American academia havedeteriorated into 'pay to play' activities. The sale of academicexpertise for the purpose of influencing government policy, thecourts, and public opinion is now a multibillion-dollar business.Academia has become embedded within the finance industry and itsgreatest apologist."Charles H. Ferguson in his book"Predator Nation", 2012"A study of major researchcenters in the field of engineering found that 35 percent wouldallow corporate sponsors to delete information from papers priorto publication."Jeffrey M. Smith"Academia have become partof the business, banking, military, and political nexus. The ivorytower was supposed to be a place devoted to knowledge for itsown sake and truth. Now, universities pursue truths that someonewill fund a grant for."Larry Beinhart"It is simply no longerpossible to believe much of the clinical research that is published,or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritativemedical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, whichI reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editorof the New England Journal of Medicine."Dr. Marcia Angell, a physicianand longtime editor-in-chief of the New England Medical Journal(NEMJ)"The case against scienceis straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhapshalf, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small samplesizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrantconflicts of .interest, together with an obsession for pursuingfashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken aturn towards darkness."Dr. Richard Horton, current editor-in-chiefof the Lancet"There is a systemic problemwhere industry, academia and government combine to determine thehealth of the country. Industry provides funding for public healthreports, and academic leaders with industry ties play key rolesin developing them. A revolving door exists between governmentjobs and industry jobs, and government research funding goes tothe development of drugs and devices instead of healthy nutrition.T. Colin Campbell"With less research moneyavailable from public sources, more and more scientists in theU.S. and Europe are dependent on corporate sponsors, and hence,corporate acceptance of their research and results. Among Britain'stop research universities, for example, dependence on privatefunds often amounts to 80 to 90 percent of the total researchbudget."Jeffrey M. Smith"Thirty-six private collegepresidents were paid more than $1 million in 2012, according toa 2014 report from the Chronicle of Higher Education.... Median pay was up 2.5% over 2011, to nearly $400,000. The highest paid president in 2012 was Shirley Ann Jackson fromNew York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She made $7.1 million.RPI specializes in engineering and science and has 5,400 undergradstudents and 1,200 graduate students. ... The president of a similarly sized school, Quinnipiac University,came in second. John Lahey raked in $3.8 million that year, his25th at the school. ... Columbia University's Lee Bollinger made $3.4 million in 2012.Rounding out the top five are University of Pennsylvania's AmyGuttman, who got $2.5 million, and Charles Middleton at RooseveltUniversity in Chicago who made $1.8 million. ... Meanwhile, average tuition at private colleges was up 4.2%that year, jumping from $27,883 to $29,056, according to The CollegeBoard. And it's still on the rise. This year, tuition is up 3.7%.... More students are taking on debt to finance their collegeeducation. Forty million Americans now have at least one outstandingstudent loan. That's up from 29 million in 2008."Katie Lobosco"In higher education todaycorporations not only sponsor a growing amount of research, theyfrequently dictate the terms under which it is conducted."Atlantic Monthly"A poll of 500 scientistsworking in either government or recently privatized research institutesin the UK revealed that 30 percent had been asked to change theirresearch conclusions by their sponsoring customer."Jeffrey M. SmithNGO, AID AGENCY, FOUNDATIONAND THINK TANK KLEPTOCRACY"It is a well-known anddocumented fact in independent media circles that internationalaid is nothing but business masquerading as charity. Approximately80% of the aid money dedicated to developing countries ends upin the coffers of businesses and non-governmental organizations(NGOs) from the donor countries. Far from helping, this dynamiconly creates a relationship of dependency hampering, even preventingthe "recipient" country from developing the very structureswhich could liberate it from this colonial relationship."Julie Lévesque, 2015"The NGOs carry out USimperial policies in Haiti in exchange for "charity funding"- which means, they money-launder US taxpayer and donor dollarsand put it in their pockets. US imperial policy is about destroyingHaiti manufacturing and local economy, expropriating Haiti naturalresources and making a larger Haiti market for their subsidizedWall Street monopolies."Ezili Dantò, 2013"The U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), among other agencies, encouraged Haiti tostart exporting manufactured and processed agricultural products,in tandem with emphasizing the need to import grain staples onthe international market U.S. experts worked to disassemble Haiti'srural economy By 2003, approximately 80% of all rice consumedin Haiti was imported from the United States."Leah Chavla, 2010"The New York Times reportedthat major think tanks, including the Brookings Institute andthe Atlantic Council, have allowed foreign donors to call theshots on their policy prescriptions."Mike Krieger"The tax-free status ofmany institutions - including the Rockefeller Foundation, theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Ford Foundation- allowed the incredibly wealthy to shield their fortunes fromtaxation, appear to do good works and boost public opinion oftheir principle members while influencing, writing and developingofficial public policy through the steering mechanisms of itsown tax-free grant making, think tank and research powers. Manyof its directors and board members were in "respectable"positions to shift into official government positions throughthe revolving door without appearing to be acting on behalf oftheir corporate masters."Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton"The U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), among other agencies, encouraged Haiti tostart exporting manufactured and processed agricultural products,in tandem with emphasizing the need to import grain staples onthe international market . U.S. experts worked to disassembleHaiti's rural economy. By 2003, approximately 80% of all riceconsumed in Haiti was imported from the United States."Leah Chavla, Council on HemisphericAffairs, 2010"International "aid"is a well-known capitalist scheme aimed at developing marketsin the global south for businesses from the North. Of course this"aid" will benefit Haitians. But only the very few eliteones: those in power and the rich corporate elite. Haiti's openfor business and deluxe hotels will be welcoming businessmen sothey can set up their sweat shops in a cool and luxurious environment."Julie Lévesque, 2015"NGOs and their Hollywood,media and academic cohorts play firemen to the US government'sarsonist role in Haiti and the global south. The professionalposers - the white industrial charitable complex - play an underhandedgame. For instance, The Center for Economic and Policy Research(CEPR) analyzed the $1.15 billion pledged after the January 2010quake to Haiti and found that the vast majority of the money itcould follow went straight to U.S. companies or organizations,more than half in the Washington area alone."Ezili Dantò, 2013"The American PetroleumInstitute is run by a board of directors that includes an executivefrom ARAMCO, the Saudi state-owned oil company that takes itsorders from the Saudi ruling family."Mike Krieger"The Bill & MelindaGates Foundation, as well as the Gates-Buffett led billionaires'"giving pledge" are keeping in stride with the groundworklaid and continued by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation.Heavily funded initiatives to push vaccines, birth control, populationcontrol, Western-oriented "education," GMO and corporate-dominatedagriculture and the like remain some of the most consequentialand troubling policies done in the name of "good" bytax-free entities wielding enormous, nearly incalculable wealthand power."Aaron Dykes and Melissa MeltonKLEPTOCRATS IN RELIGIONRev. Pat Robertson"The real value of theCatholic Church is its secret worldwide monetary network headquarteredin a sovereign state and a financial division in the Cayman Islandswith no accountability or fear of criminal prosecution.The Church has roughly 5,000 prelates around the world, each oneappointed by the Pope based on the man's demonstrated loyaltyto the Church above all else, as heads of dioceses. Each one hasthe capacity for hidden bank accounts, investments, slush fundsnamed for some phony charity or foundation. Under the guise of"freedom of religion," most can operate with littleor no governmental oversight.Betty Clermont"The Vatican has largeinvestments with the Rothschilds of Britain, France and America,with the Hambros Bank, with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich.In the United States it has large investments with the MorganBank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank, the First National Bank of NewYork, the Bankers Trust Company, and others. The Vatican has billionsof shares in the most powerful international corporations suchas Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric,International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc. At a conservativeestimate, these amount to more than 500 million dollars in theU.S.A. alone."Avro Manhattan from his book "TheVatican Billions""The Vatican rules overapproximately 2 billion of the world's 6.1 billion people. Thecolossal wealth of the Vatican includes enormous investments withthe Rothschild's in Britain, France, and the USA, and with giantoil and weapons corporations like Shell and General Electric.The Vatican solid gold bullion worth billions, is stored withthe Rothschild controlled Bank of England and the US Federal ReserveBank."Alan Lamont"Vaticano S.p.A. by GianluigiNuzzi was published January 1, 2009. Documents obtained by a Vaticanemployee who didn't want them published until after his deathshow the Vatican Bank [Institute for Works of Religion (IOR)]to be "a unique 'offshore' corridor for politicians aroundthe world who want to keep their money away from legal controls.TheIOR is like a credit card that ensures privileges to be grantedin exchange for political backing, legal provisions and businesssupport"."Betty Clermont"With the spreading gapbetween rich and poor, the ideal of a public state in which allclasses participated was slowly supplanted by the dominance ofa deep state in which a few manipulated the many. This was facilitatedby a parallel development in the media, thanks in large part tohuge influxes of foreign money invested by new press barons ...including the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, withlinks to the Korean CIA."Peter Dale Scott"The Institute for Worksof Religion (IOR), commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank, isa privately held financial institution located inside VaticanCity. Founded in 1942, the IOR's role is to safeguard and administerproperty intended for works of religion or charity. The bank acceptsdeposits only from top Church officials and entities, accordingto Italian legal scholar Settimio Caridi. It is run by a presidentbut overseen by five cardinals who report directly to the Vaticanand the Vatican's secretary of state. Because so little is knownabout the bank's daily operations and transactions, it has oftenbeen called "the most secret bank in the world"."Avi Jorisch"The EU Commission andthe Council of Europe's MONEYVAL inspectors ... are seeminglyoblivious to the accusation before the International CriminalCourt at The Hague of Vatican "crimes against humanity."They sustain the pretense of Vatican decency and respectabilitybecause they want the Pope's banking empire to continue servicingtheir "dark money" - a financial system so effectivethe Pope was just moved up from 7th to 5th on Forbe's list ofthe "Most Powerful People in the World"."Betty Clermont"Billionaire Sun MyungMoon lost $2 to $3 billion on The Washington Times. The lossesin supporting conservative media are part of a strategy of ideologicalcontrol. He and other billonaires buy bulk quantities of ultra-conservativebooks bringing them to the top of the NY Times bestseller listand then give away copies to "subscribers" to theirwebsites and publications. They fund conservative "thinktanks" like Heritage and Cato with hundreds of millions ofdollars a year. All this buys them respectability and a megaphone."Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff"The Vatican's treasureof solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazineto amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this isstored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, whilebanks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is justa small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S.alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporationsof the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property,stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation ofthe wealth of the Catholic church becomes so formidable as todefy any rational assessment."Avro Manhattan from his book "TheVatican Billions"EUROPE KLEPTOCRATSTony Blair-Britain / Nicolas Sarkozy-France"The late 1970s and early1980s was the decade of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Theyboth sharply cut taxes at the top - Reagan slashed the highestmarginal tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and reduced themaximum capital gains tax to 20 percent-reined in trade unions,cut social welfare spending, and deregulated the economy.This Washington Consensus was exported abroad, too. Its greatestimpact, and its greatest validation, was in communist regimes.The collapse of communism in the Soviet bloc and the adoptionof market economics in communist China ended that ideology's seventy-year-longintellectual and political challenge to capitalism, leaving themarket economy as the only system anyone has come up with thatworks."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"While modern dynastiesshare many characteristics of past ruling families, they havetheir major distinctions, largely derived from the fact that mostof them do not hold formal political or absolute authority. Pastdynasties typically held absolute authority over their local regions,states or kingdoms. That type of authority does not exist at themajor state, regional or global levels today, with few exceptions,such as the ruling monarchs of the Gulf Arab dictatorships. Yet,while the mechanism of authority is less centralized or formalizedin the modern world, the scope and reach of authority - or influence- has expanded exponentially. In short, while in past eras, asingle family may have exerted absolute authority over a comparablysmall region or empire, today, the indirect influence of a dynasticfamily may reach across the globe, though it remains far fromabsolute."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Why are millions of peoplein Britain persuaded that a collective punishment called "austerity"is necessary?Following the economic crash in 2008, a rotten system was exposed.For a split second the banks were lined up as crooks with obligationsto the public they had betrayed.But within a few months, the message changed. The mugshots ofguilty bankers vanished from the tabloids and something called"austerity" became the burden of millions of ordinarypeople. Today, many of the premises of civilised life in Britain are beingdismantled in order to pay back a fraudulent debt - the debt ofcrooks. The "austerity" cuts are said to be 83 billionBritish pounds. That's almost exactly the amount of tax avoidedby the same banks and by corporations like Amazon and Murdoch'sNews UK. Moreover, the crooked banks are given an annual subsidyof £100bn in free insurance and guarantees - a figure thatwould fund the entire National Health Service."John Pilger"Former French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy is under investigation for his involvement ina drug deal worth over $54 million. Investigators discovered thathe was connected to possible drug traffickers, and regularly useda private airplane that was caught attempting to transport largeamounts of cocaine internationally.... The Dassault Falcon 50 jet that was raided on a DominicanRepublic Airfield on March 19, 2013, was regularly used by Sarkozy,and there is a trail of paperwork connecting him and his associatesto the aircraft. He is also known to have been on the jet on severaldifferent occasions while the operations were occurring, flyingat least three times between December 2012 and February 2013.... Sarkozy is well-known for his history of corruption and hasbeen facing numerous criminal charges since he lost his presidentialimmunity from prosecution in 2012."John Vibes, 2015"The City of London dominatesthe world's speculative markets. A tightly interlocking groupof corporations, involved in raw materials extraction, finance,insurance, transportation, and food production, controls the lion'sshare of the world market, and exerts virtual ``choke point''control over world industry."Jeffrey Steinberg"In China, the politicaldecision-making process is given the democratic facade. Individualsare perceived to rise by way of their virtue and merit, slowlymaking their way up to leadership positions, all the way up tothe Politburo Standing Committee, and Party members participatein selection process. In reality, the Party bosses behind thescenes control the major factions within the Party which in turncontrol the votes. That's how the process works in the European Union as well, whenit comes to electing members of the European Commission presidentand commissioners. As in China, European Union member states formfactions behind the scenes, and jockey for position, seeking allies,to advance their preferred candidates for the most important postson the European Commission."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"It doesn't matter whopays Tony Blair, as long as Tony Blair gets paid. When he's notbusy committing war crimes or advising JP Morgan, the former UKPrime Minister, who has amassed a fortune estimated at over $115million, can be found doing public relations work for some ofthe world's most autocratic rulers... The oil and gas rich formerSoviet Republic of Kazakhstan has a horrible record when it comesto human rights, but that doesn't stop Tony Blair from advisingthe country's leadership in exchange for millions of dollars peryear."Michael Krieger, 2014"Thanks to lax legislationand limp enforcement, SICAV Funds [translated as 'investment companieswith variable capital', similar to open-ended mutual funds] haveeffectively become mini-tax havens allowing many of the Spain'sbest-heeled individuals and families to avoid paying almost anytax on their investment earnings. One way they do that is by notcashing in their dividends or selling their shares in the funds,since that would accrue taxes of 19 percent and 21 percent respectively.Instead, what they do is execute regular draw-downs on their capitalinvestment. By withdrawing just part - rather than all - of theirinitial investment, they can pay as little as 1 percent tax ontheir earnings."www.blacklistednews.com"Ex-British Prime MinisterTony Blair is now reported to be worth nearly 105 million dollars."Philip Giraldi"With the 2008 debt crisis,there was an increased centralization of power in all technocraticEU governing bodies including the European Commission, the EuropeanCouncil and the European Central Bank. ... When it comes to electing members of the European Commissionpresident and commissioners, European Union member states formfactions behind the scenes, and jockey for position, seeking allies,to advance their preferred candidates for the most important postson the European Commission.... In Europe you have the formal appearance of a democratic process,while behind the scenes, powerful factions vie for power, dictatingwho gets appointed to the top spots in the technocratic institutionsthat run the European Union. The European Parliament, which essentiallyhas no real power, is tasked with approving and appointing througha largely ceremonial vote, rubber-stamping the preselected candidatesfor president of the European Commission and his or her commissioners.In the end, you have unelected technocrats implementing policiesthe affect the lives of 500 million people in the EU."Andrew Gavin Marshall, 2014"At a lavish receptionat a private residence from which the press is barred, Kate andWilliam - Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - will shake the handsof 15 wealthy couples who are each paying 35,000 British poundsfor the privilege. It is the start of an important US campaignwhich they hope will pull in millions for their favourite charities.The event will be hosted by British advertising mogul Sir MartinSorrell and his wife Cristiana at their vast apartment in mid-townManhattan.... William and Kate are principally there to meet and greet andto raise money for the Royal Foundation, the charity run by thecouple and Prince Harry. ... More than 650,000 British pounds was raised at a polo match,with individuals paying up to 65,000 British pounds to play alongsideWilliam."Katie Nicholl and Caroline Graham- www.dailymail.co.uk, December 2014"Tony Blair gave Kazakhstan'sautocratic president advice on how to manage his image after theslaughter of unarmed civilians protesting against his regime.In a letter to Nursultan Nazarbayev, obtained by The Telegraph,Mr Blair told the Kazakh president that the deaths of 14 protesters"tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormousprogress" his country had made.Mr Blair, who is paid millions of pounds a year to give adviceto Mr Nazarbayev, goes on to suggest key passages to insert intoa speech the president was giving at the University of Cambridge,to defend the action.Mr Blair is paid through his private consultancy, Tony Blair Associates(TBA), which he set up after leaving Downing Street in 2007. TBAis understood to deploy a number of consultants in key ministriesin Kazakhstan. It is thought TBA's deal with Kazakhstan is wortharound £7 million a year."The Telegraph newspaper, London,2014"The Duchess of Alba, Spain's second richest woman, passedaway this week at the age of 88. She was the head of the world'smost ennobled family, with a staggering 46 noble titles to itsname. Besides the titles and the privileges and prestige thatcome with them, the duchess left behind an estimated wealth ofsomewhere between ¤600 million and ¤3.2 billion.The reason for such a gaping discrepancy is that it's almost impossibleto put a price tag on many of her family's most valuable possessions.They include Christopher Columbus' first ever map of the Americas;the first edition of Cervantes' Don Quixote; the first ever Bibletranslated into Spanish; three Goyas, eight Rubens, a Velázquezand 15 Rembrandts. That's not to count the family's castles, palaces,stately homes and tens of thousands of hectares of land, almostall of which have been passed down to her children and grandchildren.The family has already benefited from preferential treatment bythe Spanish tax authorities: because of its cultural importance90% of the family's foundation is exempt from inheritance tax.As for the remaining 10%, it is to be taxed at an average rateof 0.2%, meaning that out of a total estimated wealth of up to¤3.2 billion, the Duchess' heirs will pay ¤6 millionin tax."www.blacklistednews.com"In China, the politicaldecision-making process is given the democratic facade. Individualsare perceived to rise by way of their virtue and merit, slowlymaking their way up to leadership positions, all the way up tothe Politburo Standing Committee, and Party members participatein selection process. In reality, the Party bosses behind thescenes control the major factions within the Party which in turncontrol the votes. That's how the process works in the European Union as well, whenit comes to electing members of the European Commission presidentand commissioners. As in China, European Union member states formfactions behind the scenes, and jockey for position, seeking allies,to advance their preferred candidates for the most important postson the European Commission."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"Many of Europe's richestlandowners and corporations receive billions of euros annuallyfrom the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). CAP has becomea huge slush fund for assorted European dukes, earls and princes.The reason is simple: the payment of CAP subsidies is based onacreage alone and takes no account of wealth, making the schemeone of the most regressive imaginable - the more you own, themore you get.80 families in Andalusia pocketed a combined ¤100 millionin CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) funds last year. Of the total¤2 billion spent on the region, one of Spain's poorestwith an unemployment rate of 35%, ¤1.6 billion ended upin the pockets of landowners.A similar trend has been witnessed across the EU, although itis most pronounced in countries with a very unequal distributionof land ownership - countries like Spain and the UK.Billions of euros will continue to be pried from the half-emptypockets of Europe's austerity-wracked workers and deposited inthe bank accounts of some of the continent's wealthiest companiesand families - not once, as happened with the bank bailouts, butin perpetuity. In the most perverse of incentives, the more landthe nobility, both of old and new, buy up, the more money theywill receive in welfare checks."www.blacklistednews.com"Greece has failed to addressrising wealth/income inequality because the country's elites havea vested interest in keeping things as they are. Since the early1990s, a handful of wealthy families -- an oligarchy in all butname -- has dominated Greek politics. These elites have preservedtheir positions through control of the media and through old-fashionedfavoritism, sharing the spoils of power with the country's politicians.Greek legislators, in turn, have held on to power by rewardinga small number of professional associations and public-sectorunions that support the status quo."writer Pavlos Eleftheriadis"With the 2008 debt crisis,there was an increased centralization of power in all technocraticEU governing bodies including the European Commission, the EuropeanCouncil and the European Central Bank. Just like in China, in Europe you have the formal appearance ofa democratic process, while behind the scenes, powerful factionsvie for power, dictating who gets appointed to the top spots inthe technocratic institutions that run the European Union. TheEuropean Parliament, which essentially has no real power, is taskedwith approving and appointing through a largely ceremonial vote,rubber-stamping the preselected candidates for president of theEuropean Commission and the commissioners. In the end, you haveunelected technocrats implementing policies the affect the livesof 500 million people in the EU."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"In the Britain, just 0.6%of the population owns 69% of the land."www.blacklistednews.comEURASIA AND SOUTHASIA KLEPTOCRATSMikhail Khodorkovsky-Russia / Islom Karimov& Gulnara Karimov (daughter)-Uzbekistan"Russia, with a populationof 139 million, has the highest wealth inequality in the world(except for a few Caribbean islands).... Russia currently has 84,000 dollar millionaires, a figureforecast to rise to 133,000 by 2018.... Worldwide there is 1 billionaire for every $170 billion inhousehold wealth; but in Russia, there is 1 billionaire for every$11 billion.... Most of the dollar billionaires in Russia, made their fortunesby buying up highly prized state assets of the old USSR, or throughsecuring lucrative contracts awarded by the Kremlin for whichthe closest political connections are necessary."www.economywatch.com, 2013[2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report]"With the collapse of theSoviet Union, efforts were made to distribute state assets equitably:most of the housing stock was given away to residents and sharesin Gazprom were allocated to Russian citizens.But other choice assets in resource-rich companies went to thechosen few, and subsequent developments reinforced the importanceof political connections rather than entrepreneurial talent."www.economywatch.com, 2013"Hamid Karzai's regimein Afghanistan evolved into a full-blown narco-kleptocracy, itsbanking and justice system operating as giant extortion rackets.Government officials accepted bribes from Taliban commanders andsecured their release from prison to ensure the perpetuation ofthe war so they could continue to grow rich off of foreign aidmoney and the war economy."Jeremy Kuzmarov, Global Research,2014"One hundred people inIndia own wealth equivalent to 25% of India's GDP.... India has more poor people than allthe poorest countries of Africa put together. India has more than800 million people who live on less than .50 cents a day. It hasthe largest population of malnourished children. It has deployedits army against its poorest. The reason Narendra Modi is beingbacked by all the corporations to be Prime Minister, is becausehe has shown himself to be unblinking in the face of bloodshed."Arundhati Roy"The success of kleptocratsrests on their ability to use a particular type of political strategy-divide-and-rule. Members of society need to cooperate in orderto depose a kleptocrat. The kleptocrat may undermine such cooperation,however, by using tax revenues, the rents from natural resourcesand the funds from foreign aid to bribe other groups to maintainhis position."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003"An upmarket spa in Kazakhstanplans to offer discerning tourists caviar spas. Visitors willbe offered a set of luxury treatments based on Beluga caviar,a variety of cavier found primarily in the Caspian Sea. Consideredone of the best caviars in the world, Beluga cavier costs up to$4,500 a pound."http://rt.com, 2014"Mining mogul and ex-Karnataka-stateminister Janardhan Reddy, after spending 3 years in jail on chargesof corruption, and released on bail in January 2015, has throwna wedding for his daughter costing an estimated $100 million.Bride Brahmani's jewellery for the wedding cost $7.5 million,while her sari cost a further $3.5 million. The guests were invitedto the wedding with gold-plated invitations, which arrived ingold-plated boxes. Bollywood stars were lined-up to perform inthe three-day spectacular, and Bollywood directors were hiredto create sets that resembled ancient Hindu temples to form abackdrop to the wedding, inside the sprawling grounds of the BangalorePalace. Guests were transported about in luxury bullock cartsand fed in a purpose-built village inside the grounds. Elephantsstood guard at the entrance of the huge air-conditioned tent wherethe ceremony took place. An estimated 50,000 guests were in attendance.... The extravagant event is taking place at the same time asthe government's demonetization of the country's currency, whichhas forced millions of Indians to queue up in day-long lines outsidebanks across the country as they attempt to change old currencynotes that are now worthless."www.thesun.co.uk, November 2016"Most of India's super-richweren't software pioneers or inventive manufacturers. Insteadtoo many people have gotten too rich based on their proximityto the government. Land, natural resources, and government contractsor licenses are the predominant sources of the wealth of our billionairesand all of these factors come from the government."Indian entrepreneur Raghuram Rajan"A 1,000-room palace builtfor Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan will cost even more thanthe original £385m ($615m) price tag.The additional costs are due to a new 250-room private residencefor the president, and thousands of imported Italian trees.It is bigger than either the White House or the Kremlin."www.bbc.com, 2014EAST ASIA AND SOUTHEASTASIA KLEPTOCRATSThan Shwe-Myanmar / General Suharto-Indonesia/ Sultan Bolkiah-Brunei"In China, the politicaldecision-making process is given the democratic facade. Individualsare perceived to rise by way of their virtue and merit, slowlymaking their way up to leadership positions, all the way up tothe Politburo Standing Committee, and Party members participatein selection process. In reality, the Party bosses behind thescenes control the major factions within the Party which in turncontrol the votes."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"The seventy richest membersof the NPC [National People's Congress] made more money in 2011than the total combined net worth of all the members of all threebranches of U.S. government - the president and his cabinet, bothhouses of Congress, and the justices of the Supreme Court. Thetop seventy members of the NPC added $11.5 billion to their combinednet worth in 2011, bringing their total to $89.8 billion. That2011 gain of the top seventy Chinese legislators is more than50 percent greater than the total net worth of all 660 membersof the three federal branches of U.S. government, whose 2011 networth was $7.5 billion. The contrast is equally striking whenyou compare the very richest members of the NPC with their U.S.equivalents. The wealthiest 2 percent of the NPC-the top sixtymembers-had an average net worth of $1.44 billion in 2011. Thetop 2 percent of U.S. legislators-eleven Congress members-hadan average wealth of $323 million."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"Those who understand powerin China and how it works, know that they need to work with thosewho wield power, so it's important that they know how the princelingsystem works and how the family power system and dynastic structurewithin China functions.The Chinese economy and wealth is dominated by as few as 12 familiesand as many as several hundred families. These families have immensewealth and power. When you hold power in China, you are able tobuild up networks of power and privilege, developing strategicpower alliances with other princeling families.Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"In a state-capitalistsystem like China's, making money by being close to the stateisn't an exception to the rules or a violation of them - it ishow the system really works.... In China, what moves this structure is not a market economyand its laws of supply and demand, but a carefully balanced socialmechanism built around the particular interests of the revolutionaryfamilies who constitute the political elite. China is a family-runbusiness.... Greed is the driving force behind the protectionist wallsof the state-owned economy inside the system, and money is thelanguage."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"The descendents and thefamilies of the eight immortals [Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997), ChenYun (1905-1995), Li Xiannian (1909-1992), Peng Zhen (1902-1997),Yang Shangkun (1907-1998), Bo Yibo (1908-2007), Wang Zhen (1908-1993),Song Renqiong (1909-2005)], and many of their supporting cadres,as well as supporting cadres of former presidents Jiang Zemin(1993-2003) and Hu Jintao (2003 -2013), spun vast networks inwhich they were able to control major state-owned industries whichwere responsible for China's rapid economic growth. These familiesand their descendents were able to enrich themselves, siphoningpublic funds into private and foreign bank accounts, hidden offshorein the Caribbean, in Switzerland and various other opaque taxhavens and banking paradises.... The descendents of the "eight immortals" are knownwithin China and outside China as "princelings". Theprincelings lead lavish and extravagant lifestyles. They are largelyeducated in elite Western universities like Oxford, Harvard andYale. The princelings are deeply influential within China by virtueof their birth, because their relatives run the State-owned companiesand key institutions, and therefore, they have great access tothe levers of power. Western political, corporate and financial interests seeking togain a foothold in China typically do so through reaching outto the princelings. Major corporations and banks hire princelingsin order to gain access to the Chinese market through their parentsor relatives who run major state banks or industries. It is amutually beneficial relationship to enrich both the families andthe western banks or corporations involved. All the big westernWall Street banks and city of London banks are involved."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"The "princelings"are the sons and daughters of today's Chinese leadership, andoften the grandchildren of the leaders of the Maoist revolution.They form an important political faction in the Chinese CommunistParty, and many of them are plutocrats."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"China is still at thepoint of the gangster state - ruled by gangster crime familieswhich have been very effective in taking power, holding powerand exploiting power, and establishing family dynasties to continueto wield power and accumulate wealth. They engage in backroomdeals with each other in order to decide who serves on the PolitburoStanding Committee and who rules the country. It's all a gameof power politics."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"Many accounts of the worstkleptocracies illustrate how the ruler was able to use foreignaid to stay in power and fight off challenges... Foreign aid seemsto have little positive effect on the rate of economic growthin less-developed countries...There is a large amount of anecdotalevidence that foreign aid leads to worse governance."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003"The Chinese presidentis the chief dictator of China and holds enormous power, and pastpresidents continue to wield enormous power through the networksand the patronage systems that they established.These main power factions and dominant families largely revolvingaround former presidents and heads of state who manage significantpatronage networks, are able to negotiate and pre-decide behindclosed doors who is appointed to the Politburo Standing Committeeand who becomes President. It's the same system that has ruledChina for thousands of years.... Xi Jinping, China's current president (a princeling), waspreselected many years ago to be president. Ultimately, StandingCommittee members choose the next President. The selection processis organized behind the scenes by the main power factions withinChinese politics - one centered around the former Chinese presidentJiang Zemin, and the other centered around former Chinese presidentHu Jintao."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"Many developing countrieshave suffered under the personal rule of kleptocrats, who implementhighly inefficient economic policies, expropriate the wealth oftheir citizens, and use the proceeds for their own glorificationor consumption... Kleptocratic policies are more likely when foreignaid and rents from natural resources provide rulers with substantialresources to buy off opponents."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003MIDDLE EAST KLEPTOCRATS Sheikh Salman-Saudi Arabia / Hosni Mubarak-Egypt"Kleptocratic regimes seemto be more common in natural-resource-rich countries... Greaternatural resource rents facilitate kleptocracy... The presenceof oil increases the probability that a country will be a dictatorship."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003"Arab governments are undemocratic,authoritarian, autocratic governments. They rule in spite of andagainst the will of their peoples."Rashid Khalidi"40,000 Masai people willbe evicted from their homeland in Tanzania, because the Dubairoyal family has bought it with the intention of using it as areserve to hunt big game.The sale of the land will rob them of their heritage and directlyor indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80,000 people. The areais crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Masai depend."www.salon.com"In powerful states andempires, families have been essential in the process of constructingand governing the major institutions within those societies, aswell as in the direct control of the imperial or state structureitself. Whether emperors, kings, queens or sultans, family dynastieshave very often exerted direct political control of society. Thishas been the case for much of human history."Andrew Gavin Marshall"For Arab regimes, keepingtheir chairs, keeping their thrones, keeping their money, theirpower, is the only thing that's really important. Their people?They don't care about their people."Rashid KhalidiAFRICA KLEPTOCRATSMobutu Sese Seko-Zaire / Jose Eduardo dos Santos-Angola / RobertMugabe-Zimbabwe"Isabel dos Santos is Africa'sonly female billionaire, and also the continent's youngest. Shehas quickly and systematically garnered significant stakes inAngola's strategic industries-banking, cement, diamonds and telecom-makingher the most influential businessperson in her homeland.... Every major Angolan investment held by Isabel dos Santos stemseither from taking a chunk of a company that wants to do businessin the country or from a stroke of the president's pen [her fatherJose Eduardo dos Santos] that cut her into the action. Her storyis a rare window into the same, tragic kleptocratic narrativethat grips resource-rich countries around the world.For President Dos Santos it's a foolproof way to extract moneyfrom his country, while keeping a putative arm's-length distanceaway. If the 71-year-old president gets overthrown, he can reclaimthe assets from his daughter. If he dies in power, she keeps theloot in the family.... The dos Santos family had Christmas trees flown in from NewYork and $500,000 worth of bubbly imported from a Lisbon restaurateur....Some 70% of Angolans live on less than $2 a day. And by thegovernment's own count, 10% of the country's population is scramblingfor food due to drought and bureaucratic neglect."Kerry A. Dolan and Rafael Marquesde Morais, 2014"Jacob Zuma, the presidentof South Africa, plans to renovate his rural home in Nkandla,KwaZulu-Natal province at an estimated cost of 16.62 million Britishpounds. ... Upgrades to Zuma's private residence, include a helipad, undergroundliving quarters with about 10 air-conditioned rooms, a medicalclinic for the president and his family, houses for security staff,air force and police units, underground parking, playgrounds anda visitors' centre.... Zuma, shares the property with his four current wives andtheir children. Taxpayers already maintain two state residencesin Pretoria and Cape Town.... Newspaper reports in South Africa said public spending onZuma's residence dwarfed that for the past presidents FW De Klerk,Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Zuma's residence was declareda "national key point", meaning details are secret underan apartheid-era law."www.theguardian.com, 2012"Paul Kagame, the heroof the official story of Rwanda's genocide, was almost certainlythe biggest war criminal to have emerged from those horrifyingevents. Kagame led the Tutsis' main militia, the RPF. He almostcertainly ordered the shooting down of the Rwandan president'splane, the trigger for a civil war that quickly escalated intoa genocide; on the best estimates, his RPF was responsible forkilling 80% of the 1 million who died inside Rwanda, making theHutus, not the Tutsis, the chief victims; and his subsequent decisionto extend the civil war into neighbouring Congo, where many Hutucivilians had fled to escape the RPF, led to the deaths of upto 5 million more.... Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Kofi Annan and many others havehelped to whitewash Paul Kagame's crimes against humanity andprovide a veneer of legitimacy to his current oppressive rule.Anyone who has threatened to blow the lid, like Carla del Ponte,the chief prosecutor at the UN's international tribunal on Rwanda,has been forced out."Jonathan Cook, 2014"The perpetrator of theRwandan genocide, Paul Kagame, is the President of Rwanda.Western governments and media have covered up his crimes and praisehim as a great humanitarian who has healed Rwanda and is totallysupported by the people. The truth is that Kagame has proved himselfa worse totalitarian that Hitler, Stalin, and Poll Pot combined.He has turned Rwanda into a fear-ridden psychological prison.Paul Kagame is a genocidist who has killed more than five timesas many people as Idi Amin."Paul Craig Roberts"The International CriminalTribunal on Rwanda indicted 93 Rwandan Hutus, and no Tutsis, forthe 1994 massacres in Rwanda. The court never indicted anyonefor the assassinations of the Rwandan and Burundian presidentsthat shattered Rwanda's fragile peace and, by the court's ownadmission, started the slaughter.... During its 20 years in operation, the court indicted 93 RwandanHutus, convicted 61 and spent $2 billion. In 2003, former ChiefProsecutor Carla Del Ponte announced that she intended to indictRwanda's Tutsi president, Paul Kagame, for the assassination ofhis predecessor, Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, and BurundianPresident Cyprien Ntaryamira; but instead, she was summarily fired.No one was ever indicted for the assassinations, which, by theICTR's own admission, shattered a fragile peace and started theensuing panic and slaughter of 1994.... The International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) werereally engaged in a political exercise to basically justify theregime that exists there today, which is a military dictatorshipestablished by Paul Kagame masquerading as a political structure."Phil Taylor, radio host of CIUT-Ontarioradio, 2014"Joseph Mobutu seized powerin the Congo in a military coup in 1965 and quickly establishedhimself as a dictator at the head of a one-party state. Thereis no doubt that the aim of Mobutu was to use the state for theenrichment of himself and his family. He was a true kleptocrat.In the 1970s, 15-20% of the operating budget of the state wentdirectly to Mobutu. In 1977 Mobutu's family took $71 million fromthe National Bank for personal use and by the early 1980s hispersonal fortune was estimated at $5 billion.The personal wealth accumulation of Mobutu and his clique destroyedmuch of the economy. The nationalization of foreign owned firms,most of which ended up in the hands of Mobutu and the regime,was particularly disastrous, destroying what was left of the economy.... An analysis of the relationship between the Mobutu regimeand foreign aid agencies suggests that aid and foreign financialsupport was crucial in propping up the regime."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003"Between 2007 and 2010at least $32 billion of oil revenue went missing from the Angolanfederal ledger, according to the International Monetary Fund,which later tracked most of the money to "quasi-fiscal operations."Angola comes in at 157 out of 176 nations ranked by TransparencyInternational's Corruption Perceptions Index."Kerry A. Dolan and Rafael Marquesde Morais, 2013LATIN AMERICA ANDCARIBBEAN KLEPTOCRATS Jean-Claude Duvalier-Haiti / Anastasio Somoza-Nicaragua"Many countries in Africaand the Caribbean suffer under "kleptocratic" regimes,where the state is controlled and run for the benefit of an individual,or a small group, who use their power to transfer a large fractionof society's resources to themselves. Examples of kleptocraticregimes include the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) underMobutu Sese Seko, the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo,Haiti under the Duvaliers, Nicaragua under the Somozas, Ugandaunder Idi Amin, Liberia under Charles Taylor, and the Philippinesunder Ferdinand Marcos."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdierand James A. Robinson, 2003"President Bill Clintonand his cronies had begun to search for a way to continue theireconomic stranglehold on the Haiti, and this would include a suitableHaitian President: specifically, one who would be popular withthe young but lack patriotism. They found their man in the musicianMichel Martelly. His election became a mere formality after anelectoral commission excluded from participation the Fanmi Lavalasparty, which commanded 80 percent of the electorate. Observerslegitimized the results despite countless irregularities and ballotsfrom only about 20 percent of the electorate. Such are the conditionsunder which Michel Martelly was (s)elected President of Haiti."Dady Chery, 2014"On November 25, 2014,tens of thousands poured through the streets of Port-Au-Prince,Haiti to demand the departure of President Michel Martelly. Martelly plans to begin ruling by decree on Jan. 12, 2015 whenParliament expires, because he has held no elections during histhree and a half years in power.Since Martelly has come to power, he has organized three carnivalsa year and zero elections. He has corrupted state institutions,particularly the judiciary and Parliament. He replaced electedmayors with his own hand-picked representatives. Corruption isunprecedented. Unemployment, inflation and insecurity are allsurging around the country."Thomas Péralt"There is no doubt aboutthe kleptocratic tendencies of Rafael Trujillo. Indeed, relativeto the size of the economy, Trujillo's regime was probably themost successful case of kleptocratic accumulation in history.By the end of his regime, the fortune of the Trujillo family wasequal to about 100% of GDP at current prices and the family, controlledalmost 80% of the country's industrial production. About 60% ofthe country's labor force depended on him directly or indirectly,with 45% employed in his firms and another 15% working for thestate."Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdier,James A. Robinson, 2003"The giant Caracol IndustrialPark in Haiti was inaugurated in March 2013 in the presence ofPresident Martelly, as well as "Haitian and foreign diplomats,the Clinton power couple, millionaires and actors, all presentto celebrate the government's clarion call: 'Haiti is open forbusiness.... Caracol was promoted as a way to decentralize the countryand potentially create between 20,000 and 65,000 jobs. The resultsone year later are far from expectations. Only 1,388 people workin the park, and, at the end of the day, most Haitians have only57 gourdes, or US$1.36, in hand after paying for transportationand food out of their minimum wage 200-gourde (US$4.75) salary."Julie Lévesque, 2015THE KLEPTOCRATIC POWERSTRUCTURETHE INNER CIRCLEA CABAL OF THE RICHESTAND MOST POWERFUL ELITE WHO SET THE AGENDA AND COMMAND THE GLOBALORDERTHE RULING OLIGARCHYRUN THE GLOBAL POLITICALAND FINANCIAL SYSTEMBILLIONAIRES, CORPORATEAND BANKING ELITE, DYNASTIC RULING ELITETHE COUNSELORSINFORM AND GUIDE THEINNER CIRCLE AND THE RULING OLIGARCHYCONSULTANTS, ADVISORS,LAWYERS, THINK-TANKS, CLUBS AND SOCIETIES, BOARDS OF DIRECTORSTHE ENABLERSINTELLECTUALS - LEGITIMIZETHE SYSTEMACADEMICS, ECONOMISTS,HISTORIANSTECHNOLOGISTS - KEEPTHE SYSTEM WORKINGCOMMUNICATONS, SURVEILLANCEAND COMPUTER SPECIALISTSPROPAGANDISTS - SELLTHE SYSTEM TO THE PUBLICPOLITICIANS, CELEBRITYELITE, PUNDITS, JOURNALISTS, EDITORS, PRODUCERS, MEDIA OWNERSENFORCERS - PROTECTTHE SYSTEMPENTAGON, POLICE, HOMELANDSECURITY, FBI, NSA, CIA, SURVEILLANCE SPECIALISTSDESTROYERS - KILLFOR THE SYSTEMMERCENARIES, ASSASSINS,SPECIAL FORCES, FALSE-FLAG SPECIALISTS, MILITARY COMMANDERSTHE RESTTHE BOTTOM 99%WHAT DOES GLOBAL KLEPTOCRACYLOOK LIKE?RULE BY A PLUTOCRATICELITE"When plunder becomes away of life for a group of men living together in society, theycreate for themselves in the course of time a legal system thatauthorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."Frédéric Bastiat"The world is controlledby a small group of sociopaths for their benefit. Consequentlyall the systems that we take for granted were designed by themor manipulated into a form that supports their agenda of exclusivecontrol and personal benefit.While it is not hard to imagine different systems and ways oforganizing structures that would be much more equitable, why wouldthe group that currently controls governments, the issuance ofmoney, armies, media, energy, medical, education, chemicals, etc.be interested in accommodating more equitable ways of runningthe world?After all, since they are sociopathic, what does the loss andsuffering of millions or even a billions of "useless eaters"mean to them. The psychopaths are in charge because a normal human,who can feel empathy and compassion, cannot compete with a psychopath.That is why they constantly rise to the top positions of powerand control."Hugh Tierna, 2014"The plutocrats who runour societies need figureheads, behind whom they can conceal theirunaccountable power. Until now they preferred the slickest salespeople,ones who could sell wars as humanitarian intervention rather thanprofit-driven exercises in death and destruction; the unsustainableplunder of natural resources as economic growth; the massive accumulationof wealth, stashed in offshore tax havens, as the fair outcomeof a free market; the bailouts funded by ordinary taxpayers tostem economic crises they had engineered as necessary austerity;and so on.A smooth-tongued Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were the favouredsalespeople, especially in an age when the elites had persuadedus of a self-serving argument: that ghetto-like identities basedon colour or gender mattered far more than class.Plutocrats and their media spokespeople much prefer a far-rightpopulist to a populist leader of the genuine left. They preferthe social divisions fuelled by neo-fascists, divisions that protecttheir wealth and privilege, over the unifying message of a socialistwho wants to curtail class privilege, the real basis of the elite'spower."Jonathan Cook, 2018"The continued concentrationof government power into the hands of a few - until it is totalpower - is exactly what the world's "super-rich" aredetermined to achieve."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"The power elite exploitednational resources, waged economic wars among themselves, enteredinto combinations, made private capital out of the public domain,and used any and every method to achieve their ends. They madeagreements with railroads for rebates; they purchased newspapersand bought editors; they killed off competing and independentbusinesses and employed lawyers of skill and statesmen of reputeto sustain their rights and secure their privileges. There issomething demonic about these lords of creation; it is not merelyrhetoric to call them robber barons."C. Wright Mills in "The PowerElite"In the 1970s, as wagesdetached from productivity, the rich progressively got richer.They used their wealth to reduce taxes on capital, role back criticalregulations, break up the unions, install their own lapdog politicians,push through trade agreements that pitted US workers against low-paidlabor in the developing world, and induce their shady CentralBank buddies to keep interest rates locked below the rate of inflationso they could cream hefty profits off gigantic asset bubbles.Now, 40 years later, they own the whole shooting match, lock,stock and barrel. And it's all because management decided to takethe lion's share of productivity gains."Mike Whitney"The question is not howto get good people to rule; the question is how to stop the powerfulfrom doing as much damage as they can to us."Karl Popper"International "aid"is a well-known capitalist scheme aimed at developing marketsin the global south for businesses from the North. Of course this"aid" will benefit Haitians. But only the very few eliteones: those in power and the rich corporate elite. Haiti's openfor business and deluxe hotels will be welcoming businessmen sothey can set up their sweat shops in a cool and luxurious environment."Julie Lévesque"Kleptocracy is a wordthat's usually applied to flawed or failed governments in Africa,Latin America or Asia. Such governments are typically led by autocraticstrong men who shower themselves and their cronies with all thefruits of extracted wealth, whether stolen from the people orsqueezed from their country's natural resources."William J. Astore"Corporate capitalism,which has destroyed our democracy, has given unchecked power tothe uber-rich. And once we understand the pathologies of theseoligarchic elites, it is easy to chart our future. The state apparatusthe uber-rich controls now exclusively serves their interests.They are deaf to the cries of the dispossessed. They empower thoseinstitutions that keep us oppressed-the security and surveillancesystems of domestic control, militarized police, Homeland Securityand the military-and gut or degrade those institutions or programsthat blunt social, economic and political inequality, among thempublic education, health care, welfare, Social Security, an equitabletax system, food stamps, public transportation and infrastructure,and the courts. The uber-rich extract greater and greater sumsof money from those they steadily impoverish. And when citizensobject or resist, they crush or kill them."Chris Hedges, 2018"It makes no differencewhich party is in power; whether a Democrat or Republican Administration,the Rockefeller people hold the key positions, especially in thefields of foreign policy and finance. The House of Rockefelleris the eternal power.... To the Rockefellers, socialism is not a system for redistributingwealth - especially not for redistributing their wealth - buta system to control people and competitors. Socialism puts powerin the hands of the government. And since the Rockefellers controlthe governments, government control means Rockefeller control."Gary Allen"Over the course of thepast 240-plus years, democracy has given way to kleptocracy (agovernment ruled by thieves), and representative government hasbeen rejected in favor of a government run by the most unprincipledcitizens that panders to the worst vices in our nature: greed,violence, hatred, prejudice and war, ruled by career politicians,corporations and thieves-individuals and entities with littleregard for the rights of American citizens."John Whitehead, 2018"The shaping of the willof Congress and the choosing of the American president has becomea privilege reserved to the 20% of the population that holds 93%of the wealth, the happy few who run the corporations and thebanks, own and operate the news and entertainment media, composethe laws and govern the universities, control the philanthropicfoundations, the policy institutes, the casinos, and the sportsarenas."Lewis H. Lapham"In the world of globalization,families cooperate, compete, and perhaps even conspire againstand with each other or themselves. They keep the politics of dynasticpower from being understood or contemplated by the masses. Weare distracted with sports, entertainment, 'royal weddings', afear of foreigners and terrorism, and are blinded and manipulatedby a deeply embedded propaganda system."Andrew Gavin Marshall"When a majority of citizensdisagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests,they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quobias built into the US political system, even when fairly largemajorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally donot get it."from a research study at Princetonand Northwestern University (2014)"The upward distributionof wealth is the natural corollary of decades of aggressive lobbying,government infiltration, and political arm-twisting. Ruling elitesare a like-minded bunch who know what they want and will stopnothing until they get it. The system has been effectively restructuredto serve their needs and those of their constituents. They alonecontrol the levers of state power as well as the marionette politicianswho do their bidding."Mike Whitney"There is no force withinruling institutions that will halt the pillage by the uber-richof the nation and the ecosystem. The uber-rich have nothing tofear from the corporate-controlled media, the elected officialsthey bankroll or the judicial system they have seized. The universitiesare pathetic corporation appendages. They silence or banish intellectualcritics who upset major donors by challenging the reigning ideologyof neoliberalism, which was formulated by the uber-rich to restoreclass power. The uber-rich have destroyed popular movements, includinglabor unions, along with democratic mechanisms for reform thatonce allowed working people to pit power against power. The worldis now their playground."Chris Hedges, 2018"If big government is goodfor cartels, then bigger government is better, and total governmentis best. It is for this reason that, throughout their entire history,cartels have been found to be the behind-the-scenes promotersof every conceivable form of totalitarianism. They supported theNazis in Germany; they embraced the Fascists in Italy; they financedthe Bolsheviks they in Russia. And they are the driving forcebehind that nameless totalitarianism that increasingly becomesa grim reality in the United States of America."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"What is at hand isn'tso much about lofty ideals. It's not about Socialism. It's notabout Capitalism. It's not about Communism. It's not about beinga progressive, a conservative or a liberal. It's not about leftvs right... It's much more fundamental than all of that. Quitesimply, it's about People vs. Power, that's it, nothing more.Those that have and wield institutional power, and those thatdo not. ... Take a good look around, I defy you to point to a single socioeconomicconstruct in our supposedly enlightened and advanced society oftoday which is not essentially determined by that crude polarizingcharacterization. Whether it be our bought and paid for PoliticalClass, our rapacious Banking Sector, our completely captured Regulators,our entitled Multinational Corporations, our entrenched GovernmentalAgencies, our marauding Military Industrial Complex, our fleecingHealthcare Providers, our muzzled Free Press, our hijacked JusticeSystem, or our grossly overpaid CEOs, Athletes, and Entertainers,they all have one thing in common. What they seek above all elseis to expand existing institutional dominion and their own privilegeswithin it."Bruno de Landevoisin, 2014"The global super-eliteare becoming a transglobal community of peers who have more incommon with one another than with their countrymen back home.Whether they maintain primary residences in New York or Hong Kong,Moscow or Mumbai, today's super-rich are increasingly a nationunto themselves."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"It is no use trying toescape their arrogance by submission or good behavior. Robbersof the world, having by universal plunder exhausted the land,their drive is greed. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious;if poor, they lust for domination. Neither rule of the East norWest can satisfy them. Alone among men, they crave with equaleagerness poverty and riches. To plunder, slaughter, seize withfalse pretenses, they give the lying name 'empire.' And wherenothing remains but a desert, they call that 'peace.'"Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania"The public good has been,and is today, used as a device and an excuse for self-aggrandizementby an elitist circle that pleads for world peace and human decency...These same international interests and promoters are always willingto determine what other people should do, but are signally unwillingto be first in line to give up their own wealth and power. Theirmouths are open, their pockets are closed."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and the Bolshevik Revolution""One percent of the populationowns more than seventy percent of the nation's industry, and tenpercent own all of it. About half of this, in turn, is held intrust by the ten leading Wall Street banks, which, in turn, areheavily influenced, if not controlled outright, by a group sosmall that they could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Thisrepresents the greatest and most intense concentration of wealthand power that the world has ever seen."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"Ruling elites are a like-mindedbunch who know what they want and will stop nothing until theyget it. The system has been effectively restructured to servetheir needs and those of their constituents. They alone controlthe levers of state power as well as the marionette politicianswho do their bidding."Mike Whitney"Our elites - the onesin Congress, the ones on Wall Street, and the ones being producedat prestigious universities and business schools - do not havethe capacity to fix our financial mess. Indeed, they will makeit worse. They have no concept, thanks to the educations theyhave received, of how to replace a failed system with a new one.They are petty, timid, and uncreative bureaucrats superbly trainedto carry out systems management. They see only piecemeal solutionsthat will satisfy the corporate structure. Their entire focusis numbers, profits, and personal advancement. They lack a moraland intellectual core. They are as able to deny gravely ill peoplemedical coverage to increase company profits as they are to usetaxpayer dollars to peddle costly weapons systems to blood-soakeddictatorships. The human consequences never figure into theirbalance sheets. The democratic system, they believe, is a secondaryproduct of the free market-which they slavishly serve.... Our power elite has a blind belief in a decaying politicaland financial system that has nurtured, enriched, and empoweredit. But the elite cannot solve our problems. It has been trainedonly to find solutions, such as paying out trillions of dollarsof taxpayer money to bail out banks and financial firms, to sustaina dead system. The elite, and those who work for them, were nevertaught how to question the assumptions of their age. The sociallyimportant knowledge and cultural ideas embodied in history, literature,philosophy, and religion, which are at their core subversive andthreatening to authority, have been banished from public discourse.... The elite as well as those equipped with narrow, specializedvocational skills, know only how to feed the beast until it dies.Once it is dead, they will be helpless. Don't expect them to saveus. They don't know how. They do not even know how to ask thequestions. And when it all collapses, when our rotten financialsystem with its trillions in worthless assets implodes and ourimperial wars end in humiliation and defeat, the power elite willbe exposed as being as helpless, and as self-deluded as the restof us."Chris HedgesCENTRAL BANK CONTROLOF ECONOMIES"Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild'sfive sons were sent to the major capitals of Europe - London,Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Naples - with the mission of establishinga banking system that would be outside government control. Theeconomic and political systems of nations would be controllednot by citizens but by bankers, for the benefit of bankers. Eventually,a privately-owned "central bank" was established Innearly every country. This central banking system has now gainedcontrol over the economies of the world. Central banks have theauthority to print money in their respective countries, and itis from these banks that governments must borrow money to paytheir debts and fund their operations. The result is a globaleconomy in which not only industry but government itself runson "credit" (or debt) created by a banking monopolyheaded by a network of private central banks.""Central banking functions on the expansion and creationof money and debt, which is lent at interest, thus serving asthe source of income for the central banking system."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Powerful private familiesdecide who controls the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England,the Bank of Japan and even the European Central Bank. Money isin their hands to destroy or create. Their aim is the ultimatecontrol over future life on this planet, a supremacy earlier dictatorsand despots only ever dreamt of."F. William Engdahl"Central banks controlthe monetary system of the world and determine when business cyclesare going to change simply by increasing or decreasing the moneysupply in the banking system."Joan Veon"Eventually internationalbankers owned as private corporations the central banks of thevarious European nations. The Bank of England, Bank of Franceand Bank of Germany were not owned by their respective governments,as almost everyone imagines, but were privately owned monopoliesgranted by the heads of state, usually in return for loans."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""International financierswant a completely centralized global economic structure, includinga single currency system, the eventual removal of physical currencyto be replaced with more easily controlled digital currency, andultimately a central authority for global economic governance.In the pursuit of a "New World Order," they must destroythe structure of the "old world"."zerohedge.com, 2016"Bank for InternationalSettlements (BIS) was part of a plan to create a world systemof financial control in private hands able to dominate the politicalsystem of each country and the economy of the world as a whole...tobe controlled in a feudalistic fashion by the central banks ofthe world acting in concert by secret agreements."Carroll Quigley in his book "Tragedyand Hope""In the 1920s, the Governorof the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Governor of theBank of England, decided to use the financial power of Britainand the United States to force all the major countries to operatethrough central banks, free from all political control, with allquestions of international finance to be settled by agreementsby such central banks without interference from governments. Thesemen were not working for the governments and nations of whom theypurportedly represented, but were the technicians and agents ofthe dominant investment bankers of their own countries."Andrew Gavin Marshall in his book"Global Power and Global Government""The private issuance ofa nation's money has given tremendous power to central bankers,a power so great that even democratically elected governmentsare subservient to them. Governments are not in control of theeconomy; it is the all-powerful banksters who create the money,determine interest rates, and decide who gets loans and who doesn't."Gabriel Donohoe"An overview of all warssince the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694 suggeststhat most of them would have been greatly reduced in severity,or perhaps not even fought at all, without fiat money. It is theability of governments to acquire money without direct taxationthat makes modern warfare possible, and a central bank has becomethe preferred method of accomplishing that."G. Edward Griffin in his book "TheCreature from Jekyll Island""The Bank of InternationalSettlements [BIS] is where all of the world's central banks meetto analyze the global economy and determine what course of actionthey will take next to put more money in their pockets, sincethey control the amount of money in circulation and how much interestthey are going to charge governments and banks for borrowing fromthem. When you understand that the BIS pulls the strings of theworld's monetary system, you then understand that they have theability to create a financial boom or bust in a country. If thatcountry is not doing what the money lenders want, then all theyhave to do is sell its currency."Joan Veon"BIS regulations serveonly the single purpose of strengthening the international privatebanking system, even at the peril of national economies. The IMFand the international banks regulated by the BIS are a team: theinternational banks lend recklessly to borrowers in emerging economiesto create a foreign currency debt crisis, the IMF arrives as acarrier of monetary virus in the name of sound monetary policy,then the international banks come as vulture investors in thename of financial rescue to acquire national banks deemed capitalinadequate and insolvent by the BIS."economist Henry CK Lui"Central banks are integralto the modern fiat monetary system, and the power and influenceinvested in this role is such that central banks, and, more importantly,those who control them, have an immense impact on human affairs.The evolution of the banking system from earliest times has involvednot only empirical, accidental modifications, but also a secret,concerted, plan to create a financial system of supremely corruptingand corruptible capacity.""Bank of England" fromwww.overlordsofchaos.com/"Eight families - onlyfour of which reside in the US. - have 80% ownership of the NewYork Federal Reserve Bank, by far the most powerful Fed branch.They are the Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Lehmans and Kuhn Loebsof New York; the Rothschild's of Paris and London; the Lazardsof Paris; and the Israel Moses Seifs of Rome."J. W. McCallister, an oil industryinsider with House of Saud connections"The Federal Reserve iscommonly called the "Fed," confusing it with the U.S.government; but it is actually a private corporation. It is soprivate that its stock is not even traded on the stock exchange.The government doesn't own it. You and I can't own it. It is ownedby a consortium of private banks, the biggest of which are Citibankand J. P. Morgan Chase Company. These two megabanks are the financialcornerstones of the empires built by J. P. Morgan and John D.Rockefeller, the "Robber Barons" who orchestrated theFederal Reserve Act in 1913."Ellen Hodgson Brown in her book"Web of Debt""The Federal Reserve Bankscreate money out of thin air to buy Government bonds from theUnited States Treasury, lending money into circulation at interest,by bookkeeping entries... Where does the Federal Reserve systemget the money with which to create Bank Reserves? Answer. It doesn'tget the money, it creates it. When the Federal Reserve writesa check, it is creating money. The Federal Reserve is a totalmoneymaking machine."Congressman Wright Patman HouseBanking and Currency Committee, 1964"The establishment of theFederal Reserve (1913) ensured that the United States would becomeindebted to and owned by international banking interests, andthus, act in their interest. The Fed financed the US role in WorldWar I, provided the credit for speculation, which led to the GreatDepression and massive consolidation for the interests that ownthe Federal Reserve System. It then financed US entry into WorldWar II."Carroll Quigley in his book "Tragedyand Hope""When the federal government needs more money, the FederalReserve does not merely create and print it as it would do wereit a government agency. No, the Federal Reserve creates it asa loan and charges the government interest on it."U.S. State Senator Jack Metcalf"The central banking systemhas been the most powerful network of institutions in the world;it has reigned supreme over the capitalist world order, almostsince its inception. Central banks are the perfect merger of privateinterests and public power.Central banks work behind the scenes; their weapons are the financialinstruments they create and employ. With the stroke of a pen,they can destroy a nation and bankrupt a people."Andrew Gavin Marshall"It must not be felt thatthese heads of the world's chief central banks were substantivepowers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were techniciansand agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries,who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwingthem down."Carroll Quigley in his book "TragedyAnd Hope""The Federal Reserve Systemis in effect a private banking monopoly, not answerable to Congressor the public, but with legal monopoly control over money supply."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and FDR""A cartel of the most powerfulinternational banks - the current primary dealers of the FederalReserve System... together with hedge funds and their other buy-sidebuddies, have power over nations... These cartel banks work toexpand their territorial control beyond their national bordersto put other populations in debt... The eventual end state ofthis dynamic is one integrated, global banking empire. It's onlya matter of time before their collective balance sheets (plusthe large Chinese banks now that the cartel is colluding withthem) control the rest of the world."Damon Vrabel"States, most especiallythe large hegemonic ones, such as the United States and GreatBritain, are controlled by the international central banking system,working through secret agreements at the Bank for InternationalSettlements (BIS), and operating through national central banks(such as the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve)... The sameinternational banking cartel that controls the United States todaypreviously controlled Great Britain and held it up as the internationalhegemon. When the British order faded, and was replaced by theUnited States, the US ran the global economy. However, the sameinterests are served. States will be used and discarded at willby the international banking cartel; they are simply tools."Andrew Gavin Marshall"There are six major banksin the U.S. at the present time, and they control most of thestock of the Federal Reserve System. The Rockefeller family haslarge blocks of stock in two of the major banks: J.P. Morgan Chaseand Citigroup. The Rothschild family has a controlling interestin two major banks and significant holdings in the other majorbanks through the Barclay Bank and the State Street Bank. Whyis that important? Two families control the major banks, the majorbanks control the FED, and the FED controls the U.S. economy."Stanley Monteith"Powerful private familiesdecide who controls the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England,the Bank of Japan and even the European Central Bank. Money isin their hands to destroy or create. Their aim is the ultimatecontrol over future life on this planet, a supremacy earlier dictatorsand despots only ever dreamt of."F. William Engdahl"Central banks have utilizedand promoted wars for their own profit, starting with the Rothschildinvolvement with the Napoleonic wars, and continuing up to thepresent day."G. Edward Griffin in his book "TheCreature from Jekyll Island""The first step in havinga Central Bank established in a country is to get them to acceptan outrageous loans, which puts the country in debt of the CentralBank and under the control of the Rothschilds. If the countrydoes not accept the loan, the leader of this particular countrywill be assassinated and a Rothschild aligned leader will be putinto the position, and if the assassination does not work, thecountry will be invaded and have a Central Bank established withforce all under the name of terrorism."www.godlikeproductions.com, 10/23/11"The most vital and powerfulforce within the capitalist global political economy is the centralbanking system... the central banking system, is also the sourceof the greatest wealth and power, essentially managing capitalism- controlling the credit and debt of both government and industry."Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Research"The private issuance ofa nation's money has given tremendous power to central bankers,a power so great that even democratically elected governmentsare subservient to them. Governments are not in control of theeconomy; it is the all-powerful banksters who create the money,determine interest rates, and decide who gets loans and who doesn't."Gabriel Donohoe"Central banks controlthe monetary system of the world and determine when business cyclesare going to change simply by increasing or decreasing the moneysupply in the banking system."Joan Veon in an article "WhoRuns The World And Controls The Value Of Assets?""Eventually internationalbankers owned as private corporations the central banks of thevarious European nations. The Bank of England, Bank of Franceand Bank of Germany were not owned by their respective governments,as almost everyone imagines, but were privately owned monopoliesgranted by the heads of state, usually in return for loans."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""The Chairman of the FederalReserve has one essential mandate: to preserve the power of thebig banks."F. William Engdahl"The Rothschilds have amajority stake in nearly all the central banks in the world."Dean Henderson in his book "BigOil & Their Bankers In The Persian Gulf"AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENT"For George Orwell, thestate was organized through traditional forms of authoritarianpolitical power. What Orwell could not have imagined was the reconfigurationof the state under a form of corporate sovereignty in which corporations,the financial elite, and the ultra-rich completely controlledthe state and its modes of governance. Hyper-capitalism was nolonger merely protected by the state, it has become the state."Henry Giroux"The technotronic era involvesthe gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a societywould be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values.Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillanceover every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containingeven the most personal information about the citizen. These fileswill be subject to instantaneous retrieve/review by the authorities."National Security Adviser ZbigniewBrzezinski wrote in 1970"Over the past few decadesAmerica's political system has slowly transformed from a democracyinto an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power. A PrincetonUniversity study concludes that rich, well-connected individualson the political scene now steer the direction of the country,regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters."www.talkingpointsmemo.com, 2014"The central point thatemerges from our research is that economic elites and organizedgroups representing business interests have substantial independentimpacts on U.S. government policy while mass-based interest groupsand average citizens have little or no independent influence."Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page,Princeton University study researchers, 2014"[The National SecurityAgency's monitoring capability] at any time could be turned aroundon the American people and no American would have any privacyleft, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephoneconversations, telegrams, it ç doesn't matter. There wouldbe no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny,if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technologicalcapacity that the intelligence community has given the governmentcould enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be noway to fight back, because the most careful effort to combinetogether in resistance to the government, no matter how privatelyit was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Suchis the capability of this technology... I know the capabilitythat is there to make tyranny total in America."Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligencein 1975"At no period in Americanhistory has our democracy been in such peril or the possibilityof totalitarianism as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligateconsumption is finished. Our children will never have the standardof living we had. This is the bleak future. This is reality.Chris Hedges"The term oligarch is reservedfor those with extreme wealth who also want to control the politicalprocess, policy levers and most other aspects of the lives ofthe citizenry in a top-down tyrannical and undemocratic manner.They think they know best about pretty much everything, and believeunelected technocrats who share their worldview should be empoweredso that they can unilaterally make all of society's importantdecisions. The unwashed masses in their minds are unnecessarydistractions who must to be told what to do - useless eaters whoneed to be brainwashed into worshipping the oligarch mindset,or turned into apathetic automatons incapable or unwilling toengage in critical thought."Michael Krieger"The most immediate challengeto Plutonomy comes from the political process. Ultimately, therise in income and wealth inequality to some extent is an economicdisenfranchisement of the masses to the benefit of the few. Howeverin democracies this is rarely tolerated forever.... We see the biggest threat to plutonomy as coming from a risein political demands to reduce income inequality, spread the wealthmore evenly, and challenge forces such as globalization whichhave benefited profit and wealth growth."from a Citigroup Plutonomy symposium,2006"Politics and power arenow on the side of lawlessness as is evident in the U.S. government'sendless violations of civil liberties, freedom of speech, andthe most constitutional rights, mostly done in the name of nationalsecurity. Lawlessness wraps itself in repressive government policiessuch as the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act,Military Commissions, and a host of other legal illegalities.These would include the "right of the president "toorder the assassination of any citizen whom he considers alliedwith terrorists", use secret evidence to detain individualsindefinitely, develop a massive surveillance panoptican to monitorevery communication used by citizens who have not committed acrime, employ state torture against those considered enemy combatants,and block the courts from prosecuting those officials who commitsuch heinous crimes. The ruling corporate elites have made terrorrational and fear the modus operandi of politics."Henry Giroux"The top .01 percent inAmerica have been investing their money in politics. And theseinvestments have been changing the game.In the 2012 election cycle donations from the top .01 accountedfor over 40 percent of all campaign contributions.The richest .01 percent haven't been donating out of the goodnessof their hearts. They've donated out of goodness to their wallets.Their political investments have paid off in the form of lowertaxes on themselves and their businesses, subsidies for theircorporations, government bailouts, federal prosecutions that endin settlements where companies don't affirm or deny the factsand where executives don't go to jail, watered-down regulations,and non-enforcement of antitrust laws.If you want to know what's happened to the American economy, followthe money. That will lead you to the richest .01 percent.And if you want to know what's happened to our democracy, followthe richest .01 percent. They'll lead you to the politicians whohave been selling our democracy."Robert Reich"Wealth and political powerare so dramatically concentrated in this country that electionshave become a bitter farce. The 2010 Citizens United Supreme Courtcase essentially enabled corporations and billionaires to be ablebuy US elections and politicians.... Meanwhile, most voters are left disempowered on the sidelines,pawns in elections that are largely fueled by clandestine corporatemoney."Bejamin Dangl"The US today is ruledby an oligarchy of private interests. The US government is notindependent of the powerful interest groups that fund politicalcampaigns. The US ceased being a democracy during the Clintonadministration."Paul Craig Roberts, 2012"One document from theSnowden files, dated 3 October 2012 ... revealed that the agency[NSA] has been monitoring the online activities of individualsit believes express "radical" ideas and who have a "radicalising"influence on others.The NSA explicitly states that none of the targeted individualsis a member of a terrorist organisation or involved in any terrorplots. Instead, their crime is the views they express, which aredeemed "radical", a term that warrants pervasive surveillanceand destructive campaigns to "exploit vulnerabilities"."Glenn Greenwald in his book "NoPlace To Hide""What exists in the UnitedStates today is fundamentally a new mode of politics, one weddedto a notion of power removed from accountability of any kind...The collapse of the public into the private, the depoliticizationof the citizenry in the face of an egregious celebrity culture,and the disabling of education as a critical public sphere, makesit easier for neoliberal capital with its hatred of democracyand celebration of the market to render its ideologies, values,and practices as a matter of common sense, removed from criticalinquiry and dissent."Henry Giroux"Capital market liberalization-freeand unfettered movement of capital across borders-can, in somesense, undermine democracy. Some developing countries have experiencedthis very strongly: When a Wall Street-oriented party loses theelection, the markets become unhappy and start pulling their capitalout. And because voters know this, they worry about Wall Street'sreactions. Wall Street votes as much as the people of the country.The interesting thing is that some markets, like Korea, do notneed the money from Wall Street because their people have savedenough on their own. They've linked their market to the globalsystem, so that the people in the country with money can movetheir money to Wall Street and the people from Wall Street canmove the money into and out of the country freely. Liberalizingcapital markets - making it easier for those on Wall Street tomove their money in and out of the country-gives more voting powerto Wall Street."David Rothkopf"Karl Polanyi warned thatwithout heavy government regulation and oversight, unfetteredand unregulated capitalism degenerates into a Mafia capitalismand a Mafia political system."Chris Hedges"The quaint notion thatthe U.S. political system remotely resembles either a Republicor a Democracy should have been abandoned long ago... The USAis nothing more than a corrupt oligarchy."Mike Krieger, 2015"47 individuals in the U.S.own more than all 160 million Americans below the median wealthlevel of about $53,000.... As of November 8, 2014 just 43 individuals own as much asthe bottom half of America [based on the Credit Suisse GlobalWealth Databook (GWD)].... The top 0.01% of Americans now owns as much as the bottom90%.www.washingtonsblog.com"Majorities of the Americanpublic actually have little influence over the policies our governmentadopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democraticgovernance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association,and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But, if policymakingis dominated by powerful business organizations and a small numberof affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democraticsociety are seriously threatened."from a research study at Princetonand Northwestern University (2014)"The fossil fuel companies,megabanks, and defense industries such as Boeing, General dynamicsNorthrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin now control the major seatsof political power and the commanding institutions necessary toinsure that the deeply anti-democratic state rule in the interestsof the few while exploiting and repressing the many."Henry Giroux"The first truth is thatthe liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people toleratethe growth of private power to a point where it becomes strongerthan their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism-ownershipof Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controllingprivate power."Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Messageto Congress on Curbing Monopolies.", 1938"When George Orwell wrote"1984" (1948), he probably never thought that the "totalitarian,bureaucratic world" that he imagined would ever actuallybecome a reality. But that is precisely what is happening. Welive at a time when the United States' government monitors billionsof our phone calls and emails and hardly anyone gets upset aboutit. We live at a time when corporations systematically collectour voice-prints and our televisions watch us. We live at a timewhen reporters that try to dig into the misdeeds of the governmenthave their computers hacked, and when nearly one out of everythree Americans has a file in the FBI's master criminal database.The control freaks that run our society are absolutely obsessedwith watching, tracking, recording and monitoring virtually everythingthat we do. We truly are becoming a "1984" society,... Even though we are not in prison, we are being systematicallytrained to act as if we were. Our police forces are being increasinglymilitarized, and all law enforcement authorities are now trainedto bark orders at the general public and treat them like dirt.Most of the population fears those in authority these days, andthat is precisely how those in power want it."Michael Snyder"The most outrageous ofthe FBI's activities was its COINTELPRO operation, which the Bureauadmitted it had conducted for fifteen years, between 1956 and1971. Under this program, a secret arm of the United States government,using taxpayers' funds, harassed American citizens and disruptedtheir organizations, using a wide variety of covert techniques."David Wise"A Princeton University scientificstudy analyzed policies passed by the U.S. government from 1981to 2002 and discovered that vast majority of such policies hadnothing to do with the needs and voiced interests of the Americanpeople The study made clear that the opinions of the public perse simply do not count. The study concluded that rather than beinga democracy the United States had become an oligarchy where poweris effectively wielded by the rich, the well connected and thepolitically powerful, as well as particularly well placed individualsin institutions like banking and finance or the military."Henry Giroux"There are powerful corporateentities, fearful of losing their influence and wealth, arrayedagainst us. They are waiting for a moment to strike, a nationalcrisis that will allow them, in the name of national securityand moral renewal, to take complete control. The tools are inplace. These antidemocratic forces, which will seek to make analliance with the radical Christian Right and other extremists,will use fear, chaos, the hatred for the ruling elites, and thespecter of left-wing dissent and terrorism to impose draconiancontrols to extinguish our democracy. And while they do it, theywill be waving the American flag, chanting patriotic slogans,promising law and order, and clutching the Christian cross."Chris HedgesCORPORATE HEGEMONY"Corporations have capturedevery major institution, including the judicial, legislative andexecutive branches of government, and deformed them to exclusivelyserve the demands of the market. They have, in the process, demolishedcivil society."Chris Hedges"We don't consider ourselvesbasically an American company. We are a multi-national company.And when we approach a government that doesn't like the U.S.,we always say, 'Who do you like? Britain? Germany? We carry alot of flags'."Robert Stevenson, former vice-presidentof the Ford Motor Company, quoted in Business Week, December 19,1970"Nearly half of all WorldBank financing goes directly to the multinational corporationsthat are the real beneficiaries of 'foreign aid' and 'developmentassistance'."George Draffan"Power lies with the corporations.These corporations, not we, pick who runs for president, Congress,judgeships, and most state legislatures. You cannot, in most instances,be a viable candidate without their blessing and money. Thesecorporations, including the Commission on Presidential Debates(a private organization), determine who gets to speak and whatissues candidates can or cannot challenge, from universal, not-for-profit,single-payer health care to Wall Street bailouts to NAFTA."Chris Hedges"The growth of the corporatewar economy represents the logical outgrowth of a capitalist systemwhich values "profits over people," and has contributedto the erosion of democracy."Jeremy Kuzmarov"By the time Ronald Reagan,imitating Margaret Thatcher, pledged to "get government offthe back of the people", the only "people" whocounted were corporations and those in thrall to them."T. P. Wilkinson"The well-paid televisionpundits and news celebrities, the economists and the banking andfinancial sector leaders, see the world from inside the comfortof the corporate box. They are loyal to the corporate state. Theycling to the corporation and the corporate structure. It is known.It is safe. It is paternal. It is the system."Chris Hedges"In the largest and mostsophisticated multinational corporations, planning and subsequentmonitoring of plan fulfillment have reached a scope and levelof detail that, ironically, resemble more than superficially thenational planning procedures of Communist countries."United States Tariff Commission,in its report to the Senate, 1973"The biggest social responsibilityof any CEO is to maintain and ensure the successful and profitablefuture of his enterprise.... The main argument for the 35-hour week was that there wasa certain amount of work and it would be better if we worked lessand distributed the work amongst more people. That has provedquite clearly to be wrong.... I see absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be positive aboutthe future. We've never had it so good, we've never had so muchmoney, we've never been so healthy, we've never lived as longas we do today. We have everything we want and we still go aroundas if we were in mourning for something."former Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck"The global corporatocracyis almost fully operational. The intentions of those negotiatingthe multiple trade treaties are now crystal clear: to place completepower and control over our economies in the hands of the largestglobal corporations, ... The main driver of this change are the bilateral and multilateraltrade and investment treaties being negotiated in complete secrecyand behind closed doors between corporate lobbyists, free tradeactivists and our own elected "representatives" (a termI use in the loosest possible sense, especially given the context).The ultimate goal of these treaties is to reconfigure the legalapparatus and superstructures that govern national, regional andglobal trade and business - for the primary, if not exclusive,benefit of the world's largest multinational corporations."Don Quijones"Ninety percent of the800 largest U.S. corporations are interlocked in a continuousnetwork, with any one corporation within a few steps of any othercorporation in the network.... Corporations dominate public policy making via lobbying, formaladvisory committees, political campaign financing, and a constantlyrevolving door between business and government. "George Draffan"The corporate forces thatcontrol the state will never permit real reform. It would meantheir extinction. These corporations, especially the oil and gasindustry, will never allow us to achieve energy independence.That would devastate their profits. It would wipe out tens ofbillions of dollars in weapons contracts. It would cripple thefinancial health of a host of private contractors."Chris Hedges"Full investigation of theEnron scandal would have proven once and for all that there isalmost no one in the US Congress not owned by some corporation."T. P. Wilkinson"The fossil fuel companies,megabanks, and defense industries such as Boeing, General dynamicsNorthrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin now control the major seatsof political power and the commanding institutions necessary toinsure that the deeply anti-democratic state rule in the interestsof the few while exploiting and repressing the many."Henry Giroux"When no more money or exportscan be squeezed from the poor, selling state-owned companies toNorthern corporations becomes an option... Once again, a handfulof multinational corporations are the beneficiaries."George Draffan"Corporations are ubiquitousparts of our lives, and those that own and run them want themto remain that way. We eat corporate food. We buy corporate clothes.We drive in corporate cars. We buy our fuel from corporations.We borrow from, invest our retirement savings with, and take outcollege loans with corporations and corporate banks. We are entertained,informed, and bombarded with advertisements by corporations. Manyof us work for corporations. There are few aspects of life leftthat have not been taken over by corporations, from mail deliveryto public utilities to our for-profit health-care system. Thesecorporations have no loyalty to the country or workers. Our impoverishmentfeeds their profits. And profits, for corporations, are all thatcount."Chris HedgesMONOPOLY CAPITALISM"Competition is a sin."John D. Rockefeller"What drives America todayis, in fact, business. But it's not the fair-minded "freeenterprise" system . It's a rigged system of crony capitalismthat increasingly ends in what, if we were looking at some othercountry, we would recognize as an unabashed kleptocracy."William J. Astore"In the late 19th and early20th centuries, the railroad owners wanted state control of railroadsin order to preserve their monopoly and abolish competition."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and the Bolshevik Revolution""If you wanted to controlthe nation's manufacturing, commerce, finance, transportationand natural resources, you would need only to control the apex,the power pinnacle, of an all-powerful socialist government. Thenyou would have a monopoly and could squeeze out all your competitors."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""Corporations hold a nearmonopoly on all electronic and printed sources of information.A few media giants, such as AOL/Time Warner, General Electric,Viacom, Disney, and Rupert Murdoch's NewsGroup, control nearlyeverything we read, see, and hear."Chris Hedges"These are the rules ofbig business... Get a monopoly; let Society work for you: andremember that the best of all business is politics, for a legislativegrant, franchise, subsidy or tax exemption is worth more thana Kimberly or Comstock lode, since it does not require any labor,either mental or physical, for its exploitation."Frederick C. Howe. "Confessionsof a Monopolist" (1906)"John D. Rockefeller wasdefinitely convinced that the competitive system under which theworld had operated was a mistake. It was a crime against order,efficiency, economy. It could be eliminated only by abolishingall rivals. His plan, therefore, took a solid form. He would bringall his rivals in with him. The strong ones he would bring inas partners. The others would come in as stockholders. Those whowould not come in would be crushed."John Flynn in his book "God'sGold The Story of Rockefeller and His Times", 1932"The German fascist statewas a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism. Its 'fascism' was thatof business enterprise organized on a monopoly basis and in fullcommand of all the military, police, legal and propaganda powerof the state."economist Robert Brady"By the late nineteenthcentury the inner sanctums of Wall Street understood that themost efficient way to gain an unchallenged monopoly was to "gopolitical" and make society go to work for the monopolists- under the name of the public good and the public interest."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and the Bolshevik Revolution""In the public eye werethe great Titans of the new business era, the coal and meat "barons"and the copper, railway, steel, and other "kings," menof the type of the elder J.P. Morgan, of James J. Hill, WilliamH. Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Frick, William H. Clark, and Rockefeller.Such men had certain broad traits in common, differ as they mightfrom each other as individuals. They were men of wide economicbut intensely narrow social vision, and of colossal driving powerand iron wills. They could lay their economic plans with imperialvision in time and space, but for the effect of their acts onsociety they cared nothing whatever. They claimed the right torule the economic destinies of the people in any way that wouldenure their own personal advantage. Illogically, they insistedupon the theory of laissez-faire for all except themselves, whilethey demanded and received every favor they wished in the wayof special privileges from the government. The whole machineryof government must be at their disposal when desired - legislation,court decisions, and Federal troops. They combined their businessunits into "trusts" and combinations of almost unlimitedpower, yet they insisted on "freedom of contract" whendealing with labor, whose organization in any form they almostwholly refused to sanction."James Truslow Adams, 1940"The first truth is thatthe liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people toleratethe growth of private power to a point where it becomes strongerthan their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism-ownershipof Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controllingprivate power."Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Messageto Congress on Curbing Monopolies.", 1938"Big government with itscapacity to regulate every facet of economic life, is the naturalfriend and ally of cartels and monopolies."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"The monopoly which theinternational financiers most covet is control over a nation'smoney."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""Monopoly laws are bornin corruption. The commercialism of the press, or education, evenof sweet charity, is part of the price we pay for the specialprivileges created by law. The desire of something for nothing,of making the other fellow pay, of monopoly in some form or other,is the cause of corruption. Monopoly and corruption are causeand effect. Together, they work in Congress, in our Commonwealths,in our municipalities. It is always so. It always has been so.Privilege gives birth to corruption, just as the poisonous sewerbreeds disease. Equal chance, a fair field and no favors, the"square deal" are never corrupt. They do not appearin legislative halls nor in Council Chambers. For these thingsmean labor for labor, value for value, something for something.This is why the little business man, the retail and wholesaledealer, the jobber, and the manufacturer are not the businessmen whose business corrupts politics."Frederick Howe, in his 1906 booklet"Confessions of a Monopolist""A syndicate of Wall Streetfinanciers enlarged their monopoly ambitions and broadened horizonson a global scale. The gigantic Russian market was to be convertedinto a captive market and a technical colony to be exploited bya few high-powered American financiers and the corporations undertheir control."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and the Bolshevik Revolution""Eventually internationalbankers owned as private corporations the central banks of thevarious European nations. The Bank of England, Bank of Franceand Bank of Germany were not owned by their respective governments,as almost everyone imagines, but were privately owned monopoliesgranted by the heads of state, usually in return for loans."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""John D. Rockefeller andhis 19th century fellow-capitalists were convinced of one absolutetruth: that no great monetary wealth could be accumulated underthe impartial rules of a competitive laissez faire society. Theonly sure road to the acquisition of massive wealth was monopoly:drive out your competitors, reduce competition, eliminate laissez-faire,and above all get state protection for your industry through compliantpoliticians and government regulation. This last avenue yieldsa legal monopoly, and a legal monopoly always leads to wealth."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and FDR""The "super-rich"do not fear the progressive taxation scheme that oppresses themiddle class. Their political influence enables them to set upelaborate tax-exempt foundations to preserve and multiply theirgreat wealth with virtually no tax at all. This is why monopolistscan never be true capitalists."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"Corporate socialism isa system where those few who hold the legal monopolies of financialand industrial control profit at the expense of all others insociety."Frederick Howe, in his 1906 booklet"Confessions of a Monopolist""Corporate socialism isthe political way of running an economy that is more attractiveto big business because it avoids the rigors and the imposed efficiencyof a market system... Through business control or influence inregulatory agencies and the police power of the state, the politicalsystem is an effective way to gain a monopoly, and a legal monopolyalways leads to wealth."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and FDR""One must draw the distinctionbetween competitive free enterprise ... and cartel capitalismdominated by industrial monopolists and international bankers.The difference is the private enterpriser operates by offeringproducts and services in a competitive free market while the cartelcapitalist uses the government to force the public to do businesswith him."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""The objective of the financialelite is monopoly acquisition of wealth - corporate socialism.It thrives on the political process, and it would fade away ifit were exposed to the activity of a free market."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and FDR""Monopolists never canbe free-enterprise capitalists. Without exception, they embraceeither socialism or some other form of collectivism, because theserepresent the ultimate monopoly. These government-sponsored monopoliesare tolerated by their citizens because they assume that, by themagic of the democratic process and the power of their vote, somehow,it is they who are the benefactors. This might be true if theytook the trouble to become informed on such matters, and if theyhad independent and honest candidates from which to choose, andif the political parties were not dominated by the super-rich,and if it were possible for men to win elections without vastsums of campaign money."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"Until the 1980s, the basicphilosophy of corporate America was 'retain and reinvest'. Corporatesurvival and prosperity depended on plowing back most of a corporation'sprofits into increased worker wages and training, research anddevelopment, and new plant and equipment. Banks provided loansfor expansion and for mergers, but stringent New Deal regulationskept high finance in check. From WWII until 1980, there was nowage premium to be gained by working on Wall Street, and the wagegap between CEOs and the average worker hovered at about 20 to1.Then came financial deregulation, and Wall Street escaped itsNew Deal shackles. Almost immediately a new crop of financiersemerged who raised large sums of money to buy up companies. Insteadof creating new value within the corporation, the fundamentalgoal of these corporate raiders (now called private equity andhedge fund managers) was to extract value away from the corporationand into their pockets. What they did was nothing short of revolutionary. What they didalso should have been outlawed. They transformed the corporateethos of 'retain and reinvest' into 'downsize and distribute/."Les Leopold"Weapons manufacturer LockheedMartin, which spent $8.4 in campaign contributions and $84.1 inlobbying, received $332 billion in federal business and support,making it the largest recipient of federal business."Alex Ellefson"The essence of socialismis monopoly control by the state.... The difference between a corporate statemonopoly and a socialist state monopoly is essentially only theidentity of the group controlling the power structure.... The phenomenon of corporate legal monopoly-market controlacquired by using political influence is called "corporatesocialism". Corporate socialism is intimately related to making society workfor the few."Antony C. Sutton in his book "WallStreet and FDR""Privilege gives birthto corruption, just as the poisonous sewer breeds disease. Equalchance, a fair field and no favors, the "square deal"are never corrupt. They do not appear in legislative halls norin Council Chambers. For these things mean labor for labor, valuefor value, something for something. This is why the little businessman, the retail and wholesale dealer, the jobber, and the manufacturerare not the business men whose business corrupts politics."Frederick Howe, in his 1906 booklet"Confessions of a Monopolist"FINANCE REIGNS SUPREME"The global banking eliteare moving the world to a New World Order in which they will haveabsolute and total control of all wealth and all levers of politicaland military power. To a world that utilizes 21st Century technologyto enslave the population. All based on lies and the greed ofa very small number of very powerful people leading the massesinto the worst nightmare of human history. Ultimately, where theircurrent End Game in the drive for a New World Order is takingus is a place of total global destruction. Sadly, there is noforce, political or otherwise, that seems capable of reversingthe trend to global economic disaster and global war."Don Quijones"By 1974 one-third of the$60 billion pool of OPEC windfall petrodollars flowed into thelargest US banks... Out of $14.5 billion in Middle East oil revenuesthat made it to US shores, 78% was deposited into six mega-banks:Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guaranty Trust, Citibank, Bank of America,Manufacturers Hanover Trust and Chemical Bank. After a spate ofmergers those six banks are now three: JP Morgan Chase, Citigroupand Bank of America."Dean Henderson in his book "BigOil & Their Bankers In The Persian Gulf""Fidelity Investments,the world's largest mutual fund, accounts for 24 percent of theglobal 401(k) market and over 12 percent of the world's equitymarket. It manages more than $3 trillion in financial assets."David Rothkopf"Some of the country'sbiggest financial institutions - Goldman Sachs, Bank of Americaand others - are the top recipients of federal aid. That's becauseit cost so much to rescue the financial sector after the 2008market crash."Peter Overby"Banks were the biggestbeneficiaries of Washington (2008 bank bailout) policies due tothe enormous bailouts that helped Wall Street weather the 2008recession, even while many homeowners suffered due to the recklessbanking and investment practices that caused the collapse."Alex Ellefson"The American banking oligarchyconsists of six megabanks - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorganChase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo... They haveassets equivalent to 60 percent of our gross national product.And to put this in perspective, in the mid-1990s, these six banksor their predecessors had less than 20 percent."James Kwak"The global banking cartel,centered at the IMF, World Bank and Federal Reserve, have paidoff politicians and dictators the world over [Including Washington].In country after country, they have looted national economiesat the expense of local populations, consolidating wealth in unprecedentedfashion ."David DeGraw"Today, we have a far moreconcentrated and less competitive banking system. There are fewerbanks operating across the country, and the five largest institutionscontrol more than half of the industry's assets, which is equalto almost 60 percent of GDP. The largest 20 institutions control80 percent of the industry's assets, which amounts to about 86percent of GDP."Charles Hugh Smith"The money powers preyon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in timesof adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than monarchy,more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. Theydenounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throwlight upon their crimes."Abraham Lincoln"The powers of financialcapitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to createa world system of financial control in private hands able to dominatethe political system of each country and the economy of the worldas a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashionby the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secretagreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences."Carroll Quigley in his book "Tragedyand Hope""Black Rock is the world'slargest asset manager, with nearly four trillion dollars undermanagement in the spring of 2012."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats""Banks such as HSBC havecreated a system for making themselves rich at the expense ofsociety, by assisting in tax evasion and money laundering. Moneyis easy to hide. These branches invite their clients to sportingand cultural events, where they meet intermediaries who explainhow to get money to Switzerland without having to physically transportit across the border. They offer clients non-banking products,life insurance policies that exist for the sole purpose of taxevasion for example, or gold, which the bank stores in its safetydeposit boxes for a fee."Hervé Falciani, a whistleblowerand former HSBC employee who was a systems engineer for the bank'sGeneva operations"A handful of investmentbanks exerts an enormous amount of control over the global economy.Their activities include advising Third World debt negotiations,handling mergers and breakups, creating companies to fill a perceivedeconomic void through the launching of initial public stock offerings,underwriting all stocks, underwriting all corporate and governmentbond issuance, and pushing the bandwagon down the road of privatizationand globalization of the world economy."Dean Henderson in his book "BigOil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf""A cartel of the most powerfulinternational banks - the current primary dealers of the FederalReserve System - hold a monopoly position in international banking."list compiled by Damon VrabelUnited StatesBank of America Securities LLC, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., CitigroupGlobal Markets Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., Jefferies &Company, Inc., J. P. Morgan Securities Inc., Morgan Stanley &Co. Inc.BritainBarclays Capital Inc.. HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.SwitzerlandCredit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, UBS Securities LLC.JapanDaiwa Capital Markets America Inc., Mizuho Securities USA Inc.,Nomura Securities International, Inc.GermanyDeutsche Bank Securities Inc.FranceBNP Paribas Securities Corp.CanadaRBC Capital Markets Corp.ScotlandRBS Securities Inc.ENDEMIC CORRUPTION"The United States governmentis subservient to the whim of the .01%. Political office is nowmerely a stepping-stone and initiation process that politiciansgo through to be accepted into the aristocracy."David DeGraw"Kleptocrats have transformedpolitics to trade. They are traders who use their power, access,and privileged information to generate wealth. And at the sametime well-connected financiers and corporate leaders have madea business of politics. They come together to form a kleptocraticcaste."Charles Hugh Smith"American politicians don'trepresent "the people." With a few honorable exceptions,they represent the 1%. American democracy is being corrupted outof existence."Juan Cole"American democracy hasbeen dying a death by a thousand cuts for years. Every successivefederal election in recent memory brings new ways for smallernumbers of super-rich people and institutions to have more powerand influence."www.alternet.org"As the public begins tograsp the depth of the betrayal and abuse by our ruling class;as the Democratic and Republican parties expose themselves ascraven tools of our corporate state; as savings accounts, collegefunds, and retirement plans become worthless; as unemploymentskyrockets and home values go up in smoke, we must prepare forthe political resurgence of reinvigorated right-wing radicalsincluding those within the Christian Right."Chris Hedges"The oligarchs have hada good run. The system cannot be reformed from within. The corruptionruns too deep. The system is broken and can't be fixed."www.washingtonsblog.com, 2014"Other countries have longemulated aspects of the American Way in designing their own developmentmodels. Having access to higher education, creating conditionsthat support innovation and allowing for greater upward mobilityhave all been deeply attractive qualities to many nations. Butit is the construction of a durable U.S. middle class that hasbeen perhaps most compelling to highly stratified societies acrossLatin America, Asia and Africa. Now, however, the United Statesis moving in the other direction, toward an unstable society dividedbetween astronomically rich elites and everyone else. This underminesa critical component of U.S. soft power and is a model for societalengineering that few would choose to emulate."Assistant Secretary of State forEast Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009 to 2013 Kurt Campbell"Every general in the militaryhoped to cash out by going to work for a major defense contractoras soon as he or she retired from active duty. Many feared thatif they took any actions against these contractors (to hold themaccountable for fraud or shoddy work) while still in the militarytheir post-retirement job prospects would dim."author James Risen, 2014"Once upon a time the GOPstood for Grand Old Party - now it stands for Guardians of Privilege,and this is payback time for everything from fracking to gettingthe big banks off the hook; from doing away with the minimum wageand coddling off-shore corporate tax avoiders to privatizing Medicareand Social Security; to gutting the Consumer Financial ProtectionBureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, even the U.S. PostalService.Democrats are so compromised by their own addiction to Big Moneythey have forgotten their history as champion of the working stiff,the little folks down there at the bottom. The great problemsfacing everyday people in America - inequality, stagnant wages,children in poverty, our degraded infrastructure and stressedenvironment - are not being seriously addressed because the politicalclass is afraid to offend the people who write the checks - thecorporations and the rich. Everyone else can be safely ignored."Bill Moyers and Michael Winship"Over 400 years ago, theFlorentine statesman Niccolo Machiavelli engaged in a profoundstudy of methods used by various rulers to attain power... Thefindings of Machiavelli and other students of power decree thatto obtain power it is essential to ignore the moral laws of manand of God; that promises must be made only with the intentionto deceive and to mislead others to sacrifice their own interests;that the most brutal atrocity must be committed as a matter ofmere convenience; that friends or allies must be betrayed as matterof course as soon as they have served their purpose. But, it isalso decreed that these atrocities must be kept hidden from thecommon people except only where they are of use to strike terrorto the hearts of opponents; that there must be kept up a spuriousaspect of benevolence and benefit for the greater number of thepeople, and even an aspect of humility to gain as much help aspossible."E. C. Knuth in his book "TheEmpire of the "City": The Secret History of BritishFinancial Power""The US military budgetis bloated and enormous, bigger than the military budgets of thenext twelve major states. What isn't usually realized is thatperhaps half of it is spent on outsourced services, not on themilitary. It is corporate welfare on a cosmic scale. Officersin the military get out and then form companies to sell thingsto their former colleagues still on the inside."Juan Cole"Police forces in Americaare oppressive organizations now controlled by the one percentof corporate America. Corporate America is using police forcesas their mercenaries.... This police system is corrupt, that police really are oppressingnot only the black community, but also the whites."retired Philadelphia Police Captain,Ray Lewis"Kleptocracy has clearlyfigured out how to extract wealth from the rest of us based solelyon their position and proximity to power. If you have a seat atthe table, you are in for a feast. If you don't have a seat atthe table, you are on the menu."Charles Hugh Smith"The conventional wisdomout there is that businesses are going to Washington, writingchecks and expecting big returns. But the other side of the storyis that members of Congress may implicitly threaten businessesthat if they don't change their policy, or if they are not heavilyinvolved in the political process, that bad things might happento them.... Our government has become a clearing house for corporationsand plutocrats whose dollars grease the wheels for lucrative contractsand easy regulation."political scientist David Primo"Our public coffers beingemptied to benefit major corporations and financial institutionsworking in close alliance with, and passing on remarkable sumsof money to, the representatives of "the people" - kleptocracyon a scale to dazzle."William J. Astore"From 2007 to 2012, the200 most politically active corporations in the United Statesspent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions.And they received more than $4 trillion in U.S. government contractsand other forms of assistance. That's $760 for every dollar spenton influence, a stunning return on investment."Sunlight Foundation"Monopoly laws are bornin corruption. The commercialism of the press, or education, evenof sweet charity, is part of the price we pay for the specialprivileges created by law. The desire of something for nothing,of making the other fellow pay, of monopoly in some form or other,is the cause of corruption. Monopoly and corruption are causeand effect. Together, they work in Congress, in our Commonwealths,in our municipalities. It is always so. It always has been so.Privilege gives birth to corruption, just as the poisonous sewerbreeds disease. Equal chance, a fair field and no favors, the"square deal" are never corrupt. They do not appearin legislative halls nor in Council Chambers. For these thingsmean labor for labor, value for value, something for something.This is why the little business man, the retail and wholesaledealer, the jobber, and the manufacturer are not the businessmen whose business corrupts politics."Frederick Howe, in his 1906 booklet"Confessions of a Monopolist""Our government has becomea clearing house for corporations and plutocrats whose dollarsgrease the wheels for lucrative contracts and easy regulation."Bill Moyers and Michael WinshipEXTREME INEQUALITY"Oxfam said wealth wasbeing concentrated in the hands of increasingly fewer people,while the world's poorest continued to get poorer. In 2010 some388 people owned as much as the world's poorest 50 percent."www.aljazeera.com, 2016"When you are used to beingcatered to twenty-four/seven, you start to feel the world shouldbe built around you and your needs. You lose all sense of perspective."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats""One hundred people inIndia own wealth equivalent to 25% of India's GDP.... India has more poor people than allthe poorest countries of Africa put together. India has more than800 million people who live on less than .50 cents a day. It hasthe largest population of malnourished children."Arundhati Roy"In the 1970s, as wagesdetached from productivity, the rich progressively got richer.They used their wealth to reduce taxes on capital, role back criticalregulations, break up the unions, install their own lapdog politicians,push through trade agreements that pitted US workers against low-paidlabor in the developing world, and induce their shady CentralBank buddies to keep interest rates locked below the rate of inflationso they could cream hefty profits off gigantic asset bubbles.Now, 40 years later, they own the whole shooting match, lock,stock and barrel. And it's all because management decided to takethe lion's share of productivity gains."Mike Whitney"47 individuals in theU.S. own more than all 160 million Americans."www.truth-out.org, 2014"Economic hit men (EHMs)are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globeout of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the WorldBank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), andother foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers ofhuge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families whocontrol the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulentfinancial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex,and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that hastaken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."John Perkins"The corporation is designedto make money without regard to human life, the social good, orthe impact of the corporation's activities on the environment.Corporation bylaws impose a legal duty on corporate executivesto make the largest profits possible for shareholders."Chris Hedges"Over the last 20 yearsor so, in certain countries, the rich have been getting substantiallyricher. The share of the top 1% of the population of income hasgrown substantially in countries such as the US, UK and Canada.The countries, which apparently tolerate income inequality, arewhat we call plutonomy countries - economies powered by a relativelysmall number of rich people."from a Citigroup Plutonomy symposium,2006"Inequality in America today is twiceas bad as in ancient Rome, worse than it was in Tsarist Russia,Gilded Age America, modern Egypt, Tunisia or Yemen, many bananarepublics in Latin America, and worse than experienced by slavesin1774 colonial America."www.washingtonsblog.com"For those who work fora living, the level of inequality in the U.S. is probably higherthan in any other society at any time in the past, anywhere inthe world."Thomas Piketty"There is rising evidencethat extreme inequality harms, durably and significantly, thestability of the financial system and growth in the economy. Itslows development of the human, social and physical capital necessaryfor raising living standards and improving well-being."Andrew Haldane, the Bank of England'schief economist"The international communityis not helping rebuild Haiti. It is improving colonialism in Haitiwith its companies, using the country's population as slave laborto boost profits. The startling difference between the slow reconstructionefforts for Haitians as opposed to the rapid rise of the luxuryhotel industry shows that in Haiti, the foreigners come first."Julie Lévesque, 2015"The rich are well placedto bribe our politicians to reduce taxes on the rich. This andother government policies have produced a situation where 400American billionaires are worth $2 trillion, as much as the bottom150 million Americans. That kind of wealth inequality hasn't beenseen in the US since the age of the robber barons in the nineteenthcentury. Both eras are marked by extreme corruption."Juan Cole"Private capital tendsto become concentrated in a few hands, partly because of competitionamong the capitalists, and partly because technological developmentand the increasing division of labor encourage the formation oflarger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones.The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capitalthe enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked evenby a democratically organized political society."Albert Einstein, Monthly Review,1949"The world's billionaires,those roughly one thousand individuals, have combined wealth greaterthan that of the poorest 2.5 billion."David Rothkopf"Credit Suisse calculatedthat there were about 29.6 million millionaires - people withmore than $1 million in net assets - in the world, about halfa percent of the total global population. North Americans accountfor 37 percent of the global millionaires, slightly fewer thanthe 37.2 percent who are European. Asia-Pacific, excluding Chinaand India, is home to 5.7 million (19.2 percent), while thereare just over 1 million in China (3.4 percent) The remaining 937,000live in India, Africa, or Latin America."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"As with previous wavesof plutonomy - such as sixteenth century Spain, seventeenth centuryHolland, Industrial Revolution Britain, the Gilded Age and theRoaring Twenties in the US - the technological revolution hasgenerated a new wave of ultra-high net worth individuals."from a Citigroup Plutonomy symposium,2006"Oxfam International reportedthat the 85 richest people in the world now have the same wealthas the 3.5 billion poorest. The wealthiest 1% of the global populationowns roughly half of the world's wealth. Inequality is risingmost rapidly in the US, where the richest 1% have benefitted themost from economic growth since 2009. During that same period,the poorest 90% in the US became poorer."Benjamin Dangl"The fortunes of the wealthyhave grown, especially at the very top. The 16,000 families makingup the richest 0.01%, with an average net worth of $371m, nowcontrol 11.2% of total wealth-back to the 1916 share, which isthe highest on record. Those down the distribution have not donequite so well: the top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth$73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the1929 peak-and exactly the same share as the bottom 90% of thepopulation. Meanwhile the share of wealth held by families fromthe 90th to the 99th percentile has actually fallen over the lastdecade, though not by as much as the net worth of the bottom 90%."Emmanuel Saez of the Universityof California, Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London Schoolof Economics, 2014"The World is dividinginto two blocs - the Plutonomy and the rest. In a plutonomy thereis no such animal as 'the U.S. consumer' or 'the UK consumer'or indeed 'the Russian consumer.' There are rich consumers, fewin number but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of incomeand consumption they take. There are the rest, the nonrich, themultitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly smallbites of the national pie."a Citigroup 2005 memo"Inequality is extremeand growing, and economic recovery following the financial crisishas been skewed in favour of the wealthiest. In poor countries,rising inequality means the difference between children gettingthe chance to go to school and sick people getting life savingmedicines."Emma Seery, Oxfam, 2014"When it comes to super-wealth,the United States is unassailably at the top. America is hometo 42 percent of all UHNWIs [ultra high net worth individuals],with 35,400. China is in second place, with 5,400, or 6.4 percentof the total, followed by Germany (4,135), Switzerland (3,820),and Japan (3,400). Russia has 1,970, India 1,840, Brazil 1,520,Taiwan 1,400, Turkey 1,100, and Hong Kong 1,030."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"Global wealth has risenby 68 percent over the past 10 years. The richest 1 percent own46 percent of global wealth, with the top 10 percent claiming86 percent."www.economywatch.com[2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report]"The number of billionairesin the world has more than doubled to 1,646 since the financialcrisis of 2009, with inequality reaching new extremes.The combined wealth of today's billionaires has grown by 124 percentin the last four years to $5.4 trillion.The 85 richest people saw their fortunes increase by around $240billion over the past year, and own as much as the poorest halfof the world's population - the equivalent of $668 million perday or almost half a million dollars per minute."Luke MacGregor (Oxfam report-2014)"The 85 richest peoplehave as much money as the 3.5 billion poorest people [half ofthe entire world population]."www.washingtonsblog.com"The moment China, theoil-rich states, and other international investors stop buyingU.S. Treasury Bonds, the dollar will become junk. Inflation willrocket upward. We will become Weimar Germany. A furious and sustainedbacklash by a betrayed and angry populace, one unprepared intellectuallyand psychologically for collapse, will sweep aside the Democratsand most of the Republicans. A cabal of protofascist misfits,from Christian demagogues to simpletons to loudmouth talk-showhosts, will find a following with promises of revenge and moralrenewal. The elites, the ones with their Harvard Business Schooldegrees and expensive vocabularies, will retreat into their shelteredenclaves of privilege and comfort. We will be left bereft, abandonedoutside the gates, and at the mercy of the security state."Chris Hedges"Other countries have longemulated aspects of the American Way in designing their own developmentmodels. Having access to higher education, creating conditionsthat support innovation and allowing for greater upward mobilityhave all been deeply attractive qualities to many nations. Butit is the construction of a durable U.S. middle class that hasbeen perhaps most compelling to highly stratified societies acrossLatin America, Asia and Africa. Now, however, the United States is moving in the other direction,toward an unstable society divided between astronomically richelites and everyone else. This undermines a critical componentof U.S. soft power and is a model for societal engineering thatfew would choose to emulate."Assistant Secretary of State forEast Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2009 to 2013 Kurt Campbell"In the 1970s, the top1 percent of earners captured about 10 percent of the nationalincome. thirty-five years later their share had risen to nearlya third of the national income, as high as it had been duringthe Gilded Age."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"12,000 families aroundthe United States have been pulling in anywhere from $40 millionto $60 million a year from their post-recession investments. Over100,000 families have made $4 million per year."www.truth-out.org, 2014"The fortunes of the wealthyhave grown, especially at the very top. The 16,000 families makingup the richest 0.01%, with an average net worth of $371m, nowcontrol 11.2% of total wealth-back to the 1916 share, which isthe highest on record. Those down the distribution have not donequite so well: the top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth$73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the1929 peak-and exactly the same share as the bottom 90% of thepopulation. Meanwhile the share of wealth held by families fromthe 90th to the 99th percentile has actually fallen over the lastdecade, though not by as much as the net worth of the bottom 90%."[from a study by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California,Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics]www.economist.com, 2014"As our financial crisisunravels, and our currency becomes worthless, there will be aloss of confidence in the traditional mechanisms that regulatesociety. When money becomes worthless, so does government. Alltraditional standards and beliefs are shattered in a severe economiccrisis. The moral order is turned upside down. The honest andindustrious are wiped out while the gangsters, profiteers, andspeculators walk away with millions."Chris Hedges"The bottom half of theglobal population own less than 1% of total wealth. In sharp contrast,the richest decile hold 87% of the world's wealth, and the toppercentile alone account for 48.2% of global assets."Credit Suisse global wealth report,2014"Plutocrats can lack sympathy,shading sometimes into disdain, for everyone else. For the super-elite,a sense of meritocratic achievement can inspire self-regard, andthat self-regard - especially when compounded by their isolationamong like-minded peers - can lead to obliviousness and indifferenceto the suffering of others."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats""While the number of super-richis skyrocketing, one million women have died in childbirth dueto lack of basic health care, and 57 million children do not receiveany form of education.16 billionaires live in Sub-Saharan Africa alongside 358 millionpeople living in extreme poverty, while inequality in South Africais higher than it was at the end of apartheid."Luke MacGregorRISE OF THE POLICESTATE"When and if a true historyof the FBI is ever written, it will not only track the rise ofthe American police state but it will also chart the decline offreedom in America: how a nation that once abided by the ruleof law and held the government accountable for its actions hassteadily devolved into a police state where justice is one-sided,a corporate elite runs the show, representative government isa mockery, police are extensions of the military, surveillanceis rampant, privacy is extinct, and the law is little more thana tool for the government to browbeat the people into compliance."John W. Whitehead"By Nazi or Soviet standards,America is not a police state. But the dictionary definition doesnot require the extremes of a Gestapo, or a KGB; it defines apolice state as "a government that seeks to intimidate andsuppress political opposition by means of police, especially asecret national police organization." The FBI and the CIAhave done precisely that."David Wise"Never once did I hearanybody, including myself, raise the question: 'Is this courseof action which we have agreed upon lawful, is it legal, is itethical or moral?' ... We never gave any thought to this lineof reasoning, because we were just naturally pragmatists. Theone thing we were concerned about was this: 'Will this courseof action work, will it get us what we want ...?' As far as legalityis concerned, morals or ethics, it was never raised... I thinkthis suggests really in government that we are amoral."William Sullivan, number threeat the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, told the Senate IntelligenceCommittee"The emergence of the warriorcop and the surveillance state go hand in hand and are indicativeof the rise of the authoritarian state and the dismantling ofcivil liberties. Brutality mixed with attacks on freedom of dissentand peaceful protest prompts memories of past savage regimes suchas the dictatorships in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s."Henry Giroux"The rapidity with whichthe U.S. is being transformed into a police state is astonishing.It has occurred under the guise of "the war on terror,"itself a product of 9/11. Americans were told that the policestate regime was only for terrorists, but the suspension of constitutionallyguaranteed civil liberties now extends to all."Paul Craig Roberts, 2010"[The National SecurityAgency's monitoring capability] at any time could be turned aroundon the American people and no American would have any privacyleft, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephoneconversations, telegrams, it ç doesn't matter. There wouldbe no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny,if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technologicalcapacity that the intelligence community has given the governmentcould enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be noway to fight back, because the most careful effort to combinetogether in resistance to the government, no matter how privatelyit was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Suchis the capability of this technology... I know the capabilitythat is there to make tyranny total in America."Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligencein 1975"The basic authority ofa modern state over its people resides in its war powers... Ona day-to-day basis, it is represented by the institution of police,armed organizations charged expressly with dealing with 'internalenemies' in a military manner."from "Report from Iron Mountain""It's no coincidence thatthe similarities between the American police state and past totalitarianregimes such as Nazi Germany grow more pronounced with each passingday. This is how freedom falls, and tyrants come to power."John W. Whitehead"The last twenty yearsof global "free market" economy have destroyed, throughpoverty and social destitution, the lives of millions of people.Rather than addressing an impending social catastrophe, Westerngovernments, which serve the interests of the economic elites,have installed a "Big Brother" police state, with amandate to confront and repress all forms of opposition and socialdissent."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Anyone who speaks outagainst the government's policies could be declared an 'unlawfulenemy combatant' and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes Americancitizens."Military Commissions Act, 2006"To this day I do not understandwhy I was made the subject of the wiretapping, the bugging, orthe surveillance, or whether the purpose was really to entrapme or perhaps someone inside the government who might be speakingto me. I am only sure that a monster has been allowed to growup, and unless it is subject to regular control by impartial personsI think all of us will be the victims.... We came a hell of a lot closer to a police state than I thoughtpossible."Washington DC columnist JosephKraft in his testimony to the United States Senate in 1974, aboutsurveillance of him by the Nixon Administration."Police forces in Americaare oppressive organizations controlled by corporate America.Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries.... The police system is corrupt, police are oppressing not onlythe black community, but also the whites."retired Philadelphia Police Captain,Ray Lewis"The police have been turnedinto soldiers who view the neighbourhoods in which they operateas war zones. Outfitted with full riot gear, submachine guns,armoured vehicles, and other lethal weapons imported from thebattlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, their mission is to assumebattle-ready behaviour."Henry Giroux, 2014"We have created a uniquelyAmerican police state, one that has managed to grow and operatewithin, or at least alongside, the democratic system."David Wise"In the U.S., the FederalBureau of Investigation that does the secret police dirty workof ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential dissidents,and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagoguesand mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access toAmericans' phone records; using intimidation tactics to silenceAmericans who are critical of the government, or persuading impressionableindividuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, theoverall impression of the nation's secret police force is thatof a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss'dirty work."John W. Whitehead"It's worse than GeorgeOrwell could have imagined in his book "1984" becausefechnological advancements between his time and ours.The power of government today to control far exceeds what BigBrother had in Orwell's imagination. Homeland Security has announced that it is no longer focused onterrorists, but on domestic extremists - and that's war protesters,radical enviromentalists and people that disagree with the government."Paul Craig Roberts, 2012"The Defense AuthorizationAct of 2007 has laid the foundation for martial law, since itempowers the president to order National Guard troops from onestate to any other to respond to what the president sees as anational emergency. The occurrence of another "terroristact" could provide the government with the excuse it needs."William F. Pepper in his book "AnAct of State: the Execution of Martin Luther King""The Military CommissionsAct of 2006 effectively suspended habeas corpus and freed up theexecutive branch to designate any American citizen an "enemycombatant" forfeiting all privileges accorded under the Billof Rights."Christopher Ketcham"The FBI jeopardizes thewhole system of freedom of expression which is the cornerstoneof an open society. At worst it raises the specter of a policestate. In essence the FBI conceives of itself as an instrumentto prevent radical social change in America."Yale law professor Thomas Emersonat a conference on the FBI, 1971"Over the years we havebeen warned about the danger of subversive organizations, organizationsthat would threaten our liberties, subvert our system, would encourageits members to take further illegal action to advance their views,organizations that would incite and promote violence, puttingone American group against another... There is an organizationthat does fit those descriptions: the FBI did all of those things."Senator Philip Hart of Michigantestifying before the Church Committee, 1975"The most outrageous ofthe FBI's activities was its COINTELPRO operation, which the Bureauadmitted it had conducted for fifteen years, between 1956 and1971. Under this program, a secret arm of the United States government,using taxpayers' funds, harassed American citizens and disruptedtheir organizations, using a wide variety of covert techniques."David Wise"I cannot say that ourcountry could have no central police without becoming totalitarian,but I can say with great conviction that it cannot become totalitarianwithout a centralized national police ... A national police...will have enough on enough people, even if it does not elect toprosecute them, so that it will find no opposition to its policies."Supreme Court justice Robert H.Jackson 'The Supreme Court in the American System of Government'(1955)"What keeps most Americansfrom being shocked by the shredding of the Bill of Rights is thatthey have yet to feel the consequences, either personally or throughsomeone close to them. It would appear, however, that they onlyhave to wait."William Blum in his book "RogueState""In the U.S., the FederalBureau of Investigation that does the secret police dirty workof ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential dissidents,and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagoguesand mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access toAmericans' phone records; using intimidation tactics to silenceAmericans who are critical of the government, or persuading impressionableindividuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, theoverall impression of the nation's secret police force is thatof a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss'dirty work."John W. Whitehead"The Military CommissionsAct of 2006 effectively suspended habeas corpus and freed up theexecutive branch to designate any American citizen an "enemycombatant" forfeiting all privileges accorded under the Billof Rights."Christopher Ketcham"Anyone who speaks outagainst the government's policies could be declared an 'unlawfulenemy combatant' and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes Americancitizens."Military Commissions Act, 2006"While we all have a partto play in laying the foundations for this police state--the Americanpeople due to our inaction and gullibility; the corporations,who long ago sold us out for the profit they could make on us;the federal government, for using our tax dollars to fund technologiesaimed at entrapping us; lobbyists who have greased the wheelsof politics in order to ensure that these technologies are adoptedby government agencies; the courts, for failing to guard our libertiesmore vigilantly; the president, for using our stimulus funds tofatten the pockets of technology execs at the expense of our civilliberties--it's Congress that bears the brunt of the blame. Ourso-called elected representatives could and should have providedoversight on these technologies in order to limit their wide-spreaduse by corporations and government agencies. Yet they have donenothing to protect us from the encroaching police state. In fact,they have facilitated this fast-moving transition into a suspectsociety."John W. WhiteheadRoman Emperor CaligulaTRIUMPH OF THE PSYCHOPATHS" Pathocracy is a systemof government wherein a small pathological minority takes controlover a society of normal people."Andrew M. Lobaczewski in his book"Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil Adjustedfor Political Purposes""Psychopaths do well inpolitics. They are ideally suited to the ruthless, competitive,self-promoting and manipulative power games that dominate partypolitics."Stuart Hertzog"Psychopathic behaviorseems to be on the rise because of the very nature of Americancapitalistic society. The great hustlers, charmers, and self-promotersare perfect examples of where the psychopath can thrive. The entertainmentindustry, the sports industry, the corporate world in a capitalisticsystem, are all areas where psychopaths naturally rise to thetop."Laura Knight-Jadczyk"Has the government ofthe United States of America become a criminal enterprise? Isthe nation ruled by psychopaths? How can the impoverishment ofthe people, the promotion of the military-industrial complex andendless wars and their genocidal killing, the degradation of theenvironment, the neglect of the collapsing infrastructure, andthe support of corrupt and authoritarian governments abroad beexplained? Worse, why are corporations allowed to profiteer duringwars while the people are called upon to sacrifice? Why hasn'tthe government ever tried to prohibit such profiteering?"John Kozy"Psychopaths are naturallyattracted to positions of power, and they will overwhelm anyonewith a conscience, who plays by the rules and has good intentions.So you will have people with very dark interior lives, who arecontrolling channels of communication, controlling finance, controllingindustry. And, they will promote their psychopathic "family"values. Psychopathic "values" now permeate all facetsof our culture."Stefan Verstappen"Most psychopathic serialkillers and many professional politicians must mimic what theybelieve are appropriate responses to situations they face suchas sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outsidestimuli. ... These traits exist in men and women who are drawnto high-profile and powerful positions in society including politicalofficeholders."Jim Kouri"Psychopaths seek positionsof power and influence, and politics offers publicity, prestige,and other perks. It also provides positions of ultimate authorityover military, industry, and entire populations. In a world wherepsychopaths are understandably viewed as morally repulsive, oftenfinding themselves at home in the criminal world, politics offersan opportunity to create a new world, to be free from the moraland legal rules of society."Harrison Koehli"American leaders are perhapsnot so much immoral as they are amoral. It's not that they takepleasure in causing so much death and suffering. It's that theyjust don't care. The same that could be said about a sociopath.As long as the death and suffering advance the agenda of the empire,as long as the right people and the right corporations gain wealthand power and privilege and prestige, as long as the death andsuffering aren't happening to them or people close to them, thenthey just don't care about it happening to other people, includingthe American soldiers whom they throw into wars and who come home- the ones who make it back alive - with Agent Orange or GulfWar Syndrome eating away at their bodies. American leaders wouldnot be in the positions they hold if they were bothered by suchthings."William Blum"When we view the truenature of psychopathic influence - that it is conscienceless,emotionless, selfish, cold and calculating, and devoid of anymoral or ethical standards - then everything suddenly begins tomakes sense. Our society is ever more soulless because the peoplewho lead it and who set the example are soulless - they literallyhave no conscience."Andrzej Lobaczewski in his book"Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjustedfor political purposes""Power is an addictionits abusers can neither comprehend nor arrest. They are programmedtowards ruthless, hegemonic domination of the 'other'... The 'freemarket' really means freedom for the few to steal everything fromthe many. The game is rigged so that the people lose either way."Niall Bradley"Many politicians sharethe traits of psychopaths who are not sensitive to altruisticappeals, such as sympathy for their victims or remorse or guiltover their crimes. They possess the personality traits of lying,narcissism, selfishness, and vanity. These are the people to whomwe have entrusted our fate. Is it any wonder that America is failingat home and world-wide?"John Kozy"Psychopaths have playeda disproportionate role in the development of civilization, becausethey are hard-wired to lie, kill, injure, and generally inflictgreat suffering on other humans without feeling any remorse."Kevin Barnett"We continue to allow leaderswho are motivated by self-interest, or by their own psychologicalissues from the past, to fan bitterness and political crisis intoarmed confrontation and war."Martha Stout"In politics the professionalpsychopath's ruthlessness and cunning gives them a distinct advantageover any nonpsychopath rival. They make charismatic leaders, manipulatingand brainwashing the naive, vulnerable, uneducated, or mentallyweak. Mastery of lying allows them to make whatever outrageouscampaign promises straight faced with, of course, no intentionof keeping any of them. A life spent faking being human give themthe ability to assume the roles of virtuous public servant, theperfect father, husband, advisor, mentor, and everyman. In additionwhen things get rough they have no inhibitions in playing dirtyand readily resort to murder, assassination, persecution, warand genocide."Stefan H. Verstappen"Our leaders are cruelbecause only those willing to be inordinately cruel and remorselesscan hold positions of leadership in the foreign policy establishment.People capable of expressing a full human measure of compassionand empathy toward faraway powerless strangers do not become presidentof the United States, or vice president, or secretary of state,or national security adviser."William BlumREPUGNANT EXCESS FORTHE RICH"The richest one-hundredthof one percent of Americans now hold over 11 percent of the nation'stotal wealth. That's a higher share than the top .01 percent heldin 1929, before the Great Crash. We're talking about 16,000 people,each worth at least $110 million."Robert Reich"Oxfam said wealth wasbeing concentrated in the hands of increasingly fewer people,while the world's poorest continued to get poorer. In 2010 some388 people owned as much as the world's poorest 50 percent."www.aljazeera.com, 2016"Credit Suisse notes thatthe super-rich, which it calls "ultra high net worth individuals"or UHNWs, have assets above $50 million."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"47 individuals in theU.S. own more than all 160 million Americans....12,000 families around the country have been pulling in anywherefrom $40 million to $60 million a year from their post-recessioninvestments. Over 100,000 families have made $4 million per year."www.truth-out.org, 2014"The rich are likely tokeep getting even richer, and enjoy an even greater share of thewealth pie over the coming years. Rising profit margins will keepprofit growth strong, and equities are at any rate undervalued.And the rich tend to be disproportionately exposed to the equitymarkets. While there are challenges to this, not least throughpopulations/the political process demanding a more "equitable"share of the wealth, in the short term we think the trend of therich getting richer is likely to persist."from a Citigroup Plutonomy symposium,2006"The fortunes of the wealthyhave grown, especially at the very top. The 16,000 families makingup the richest 0.01%, with an average net worth of $371m, nowcontrol 11.2% of total wealth-back to the 1916 share, which isthe highest on record. Those down the distribution have not donequite so well: the top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth$73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the1929 peak-and exactly the same share as the bottom 90% of thepopulation. Meanwhile the share of wealth held by families fromthe 90th to the 99th percentile has actually fallen over the lastdecade, though not by as much as the net worth of the bottom 90%."Emmanuel Saez of the Universityof California, Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London Schoolof Economics, 2014"The richest 1% of theworld's population own more than 48% of global wealth."The Guardian newspaper, 2014"The "ultra-rich"economic top 0.01% of US households now has an all-time high 11.1%of overall wealth. while the top 1% now has an all-time high 39.8%of wealth."David DeGraw, 2014"Most stocks and bondsare now owned by other corporations, not by people."George Draffan"Sales of the largest,most expensive private jets - including private jumbo jets - aresoaring, with higher prices and long waiting lists. Smaller, cheaperjets, however, are piling up on the nation's private-jet tarmacswith big discounts and few buyers.The wealthy now have a wealth gap of their own, as economic gainsbecome more highly concentrated at the very top. As the top one-hundredthof the 1 percent pulls away from the rest of that group, the superrichare leaving the merely very rich behind. Demand for billionaires' most coveted jet, the $65 million G650from Gulfstream, is so strong that some G650 owners are now flippingtheir planes for millions of dollars in profit just months afterbuying them. Sales of personal, V.I.P. jetliners are also strong. Boeing hasreceived several orders from individuals for its 777-300ER (whichnormally carries 400 passengers) and its even bigger 747-800.Sales and orders of boats longer than 300 feet are at or neara record high, according to brokers and yacht builders. But pricesfor boats 100 to 150 feet long are down 30 to 50 percent fromtheir peak.Feadship, the yacht builder, is about to deliver its largest boat- a 330-footer that sells for more than $250 million - and itrecently expanded its shipyard to make ever-bigger hulls. The largest yacht in the world is the 590-foot Azzam, owned bythe president of the United Arab Emirates."Robert FrankDIRTY MONEYDRUG TRAFFICKING AND MONEY LAUNDERING"A huge chunk of internationalbanking and related financial operations have been created solelyto manage dirty money. ... The Anglo-Dutch banking operations control illegal drug andrelated trade.... The Anglo-Dutch oligarchy's banking operations have the followingqualifications:They have run the drug trade for a century and a half.They dominate those banking centers closed off to law enforcementagencies.Almost all such "offshore," unregulated banking centersare under the direct political control of the British and Dutchmonarchies and their allies.They dominate all banking at the heart of the narcotics traffic;the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, created in 1864 to finance thedrug trade, is exemplary.They control world trade in gold and diamonds, a necessary aspectof "hard commodity" exchange for drugs.They subsume the full array of connections to organized crime,the pro-drug legislative lobby in the USA, and all other elementsof distribution, protection, and legal support."www.bibliotecapleyades.net "Howthe Drug Empire Works""The $500 billion internationalnarcotics trade today is second only to the world oil trade. Totalworld trade volume is $1.7 trillion... The question that emergesis: "How is it possible that $500 billion and up in dirtymoney, crisscrossing international borders, can remain outsidethe control of the law?" Only one possible answer can beadmitted: A huge chunk of international banking and related financialoperations has been created solely to manage dirty money."from the book "DOPE, INC.",1992"The American habit oftraining, arming, and financing its drug-trafficking allies inorder to help secure oil resources abroad has been a major factorin the huge increase n global illicit drug trafficking since WorldWar II."Peter Dale Scott, 2003"British Overseas Territoriesand Crown Dependencies make up around 25 per cent of the world'stax havens.Tax havens include Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands,the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islandsto name just a few and each is inextricably linked to the Cityof London's crime offices.The consequence of its operations is that money laundering isnow at such levels and so widespread that the authorities haverecently admitted defeat in its battle of attrition by statingopenly it has been completely overwhelmed and lost control."Graham Vanbergen"Money laundering, accordingto IMF estimates for the 1990s, was between 590 billion and 1.5trillion dollars a year. The proceeds of the drug trade are depositedin the banking system. Drug money is laundered in the numerousoffshore banking havens in Switzerland, Luxembourg, the BritishChannel Islands, the Cayman Islands and some 50 other locationsaround the globe. It is here that criminal syndicates involvedin the drug trade and the representatives of the world's largestcommercial banks interact. Dirty money is deposited in these offshorehavens, which are controlled by major Western banks and financialinstitutions which have a vested interest in maintaining and sustainingthe drug trade."Michel Chossudovsky"Antonio Maria Costa ofthe UN Office on Drugs and Crime found that drug trafficking organisationswere blatantly recycling dirty money through European and Americanbanks, but no one takes any notice. He found that banks were welcomingdirty money because they need cash, liquidity during the financialcrisis."Roberto Saviano"New York and London havebecome the world's two biggest laundries of criminal and drugmoney, and offshore tax havens. Not the Cayman Islands, not theIsle of Man or Jersey. The big laundering is right through theCity of London and Wall Street."Martin Woods, bank money launderinginvestigator, to the Observer newspaper in 2011"The Hong Kong and ShanghaiBank [HSBC] and related companies finance the opium trade. Inthis, they are acting as designated agents of the British monarchy,through the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The world illegal drug traffic is controlled by a single groupof men whose intimate ties of ownership, family, and politicalcollaboration go back 200 years."www.bibliotecapleyades.net"Drug money is aninherent part of the American and world economy. The amount ofprofit generated annually by the drug trade is somewhere around$700 billion. This figure includes heroin, opium, morphine, marijuana,cocaine, crack cocaine and hallucinogens.... The International Drug Trade is the most highly organized,top-down political machinery in the world, enjoying the protectionof every political entity Britain and the US have created throughthese vast invisible earnings.Daniel Estulin in his book "ShadowMasters""The economy in Britainand America is totally dependent on drug money."James Casbolt in his article "MI-6Are The Lords of the Global Drug Trade""The City of London nowstands as money launderer of the world, the capital of globalcrime. It is the heart and engine of the offshore haven, withJersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man its european collection centres,the caribbean and others hoovering up billions of dollars fromall over the globe... It has a dark and shadowy client list; terrorists,drug barons, arms dealers, politicians, corporations and companies,millionaires, billionaires - most with something to hide."Graham Vanbergen"From Colombia to Miami,from the Golden Triangle to the Golden Gate, from Hong Kong toNew York, from Bogota to Frankfurt, the drug trade, and more especiallythe heroin trade, is big business and it is run from the top downby some of the most "untouchable" families in the world...It is not a street corner business, and it takes a great dealof money and expertise to keep it flowing smoothly.... It is, in fact, the largest single enterprise in the worldtoday, transcending all others. That it is protected from thetop down is borne out by the fact that, like international terrorism,it cannot be stamped out which should indicate to a reasonableperson that some of this biggest names in royal circles, the oligarchy,the plutocracy are running it, even if it is done through intermediaries."John Coleman in his book "Conspirators'Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300""Drug profits are securedthrough the ability of the drug cartels to launder and transferbillions of dollars through the US banking system. The scale andscope of the US banking-drug cartel alliance surpasses any othereconomic activity of the US private banking system."James Petras"The Hong Kong and ShanghaiBank [HSBC] and related companies finance the opium trade. Inthis, they are acting as designated agents of the British monarchy,through the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The world illegal drug traffic is controlled by a single groupof men whose intimate ties of ownership, family, and politicalcollaboration go back 200 years."www.bibliotecapleyades.net "Howthe Drug Empire Works""The large internationalbanks that finance the drug trade, get it and launder it, usingit to prop up their bankrupt international financial system."from the book "DOPE, INC.",1992"The mafia and the CIAare the same group at the upper levels. In Britain, the MI-6 drugmoney is laundered through the Bank of England, Barclays Bankand other household name companies. The drug money is passed fromaccount to account until its origins are lost in a huge web oftransactions.The drug money comes out 'cleaner' but not totally clean. Diamondsare then bought with this money from the corrupt diamond businessfamilies like the Oppenheimers.These diamonds are then sold and the drug money is clean."James Casbolt"Some of the world's leading private financial institutionsare deeply implicated in the laundering of hundreds of billionsof dollars a year in illegal dope money... Illegal drugs are thelargest commodity in international trade, with the exception ofpetroleum, and the annual revenues of the narcotics traffic exceedsthe national product of most of the world's nations, and the revenuesof the largest multinational companies."from the book "DOPE, INC.",1992"The drug activities of the US - and the US-led NATO -are tightly linked with the NATO expansion and the creation ofUS military bases in the protectorates established along the drug-traffickingand pipeline routes. The best example is the supervised stateof Kosovo used by drug lords to relay narcotics from Afghanistanto Europe via the Balkan route. The Albanian drug mafia's throughputis estimated at four to six tons of heroin of the Afghan originmonthly, the annual revenues being as high as $2 billion. Accordingto the UN, Europe which is the key market for Afghan opiates absorbsup to 150 tons of heroin annually, with 35-50 tons going to Russia.The Albanian mafia is responsible for 75% of heroin supplies toWest Europe and 50% - to the US."Elena Ponomareva"Shipments of cocaine are sometimes interdicted and seized.That is mere window dressing. Often times the shipments seizedbelong to a new organization trying to break into the trade. Suchcompetition is put out of business by informing the authoritiesexactly where it is going to enter the U.S. and who the ownersare. The big stuff is never touched; heroin is too expensive."John Coleman in his book "Conspirators'Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300""The U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001was accompanied by restoration of opium for the world market,a recreation of what happened with the earlier U.S. interventionof 1979-1980, and before that with the U.S. intervention in Indochinaafter 1959, and in Southeast Asia in 1950."Peter Dale Scott, 2003"The City of London catersfor those above the law, it operates on the basis of bypassingdemocratic society as a whole. This has come about over time wherean extraordinary 'gentlemens agreement' has stood the test oftime. The head of state and his/her governments have the needof large loans for wars and the like, the City, in exchange forsuch commodity has extracted certain privileges the rest of thepopulation do not enjoy. The end result over the centuries isthat it now has its own financial jurisdiction to do pretty muchas it pleases.... The City of London has its own private funding and will 'buy-off'any attempt to erode its powers; any scrutiny of its financialaffairs are put beyond external inspection or audit."Graham Vanbergen"A large share ofthe multibillion dollar revenues of narcotics are deposited inthe Western banking system. Most of the large international bankstogether with their affiliates in the offshore banking havenslaunder large amounts of narco-dollars."Michel Chossudovsky"Nothing has changed inthe opium-heroin-cocaine trade. It is still run by the same "upperclass" families in Britain and the United States. It is stilla fabulously profitable trade where what seem to be big lossesthrough seizures by the authorities are written off in paneledboardrooms in New York, Hong Kong and London over port and cigarsas merely the cost of doing business."John Coleman in his book "Conspirators'Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300""The strengthening of theglobal narcotics traffic has fueled other smuggling and relatedcriminal activities, leading to the consolidation of an internationalcriminal milieu. Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, Russian gangs,and the Mafias of Italy, America, and Colombia have now combinedinto a "worldwide criminal consortium."Peter Dale Scott, 2003"The drug "industry"is run as a single integrated world operation, from the opiumpoppy to the nickel bag of heroin sold on an inner-city streetcorner. Not only is illegal drug traffic under the control ofa single world network, but opiates traffic in particular is withoutdoubt the best-controlled production and distribution system ofany commodity in international trade, illegal or legal.... The drug-related illegal economy is the biggest business inthe world. ... The British monarchy organized most of the Far East to conformto the drug traffic.... The Anglo-Dutch "offshore" banking system and relatedprecious metals and gems trade were designed around illegal money.... The world drug traffic is a top-down operation under the immediatecontrol of the British and allied monarchies."www.bibliotecapleyades.net "How the Drug Empire Works""The heroin epidemic that ravaged our cities during the fiftiesand sixties originated with the CIA out of Southeast Asia. Almostfrom the moment of their founding in 1947, the CIA was givingcovert support to organized drug traffickers in Europe and theFar East, and eventually the Middle East and Latin America. Duringthe Vietnam War, heroin was being smuggled into this country inthe bodies of soldiers being flown home."Jesse Ventura in the book "AmericanConspiracies""Drug trafficking constitutes the third biggest globalcommodity in cash terms after oil and the arms trade. Supportedby powerful interests, heroin is a multibillion-dollar business,which requires a steady and secure commodity flow. One of thehidden objectives of the war In Afghanistan was effectively torestore the CIA sponsored drug trade to its historical levelsand exert direct control over the drug routes."Michel Chossudovsky"Britain has been involvedin the China opium trade for over two centuries. No one is goingto be so foolish as to rock the boat when millions upon millionsof dollars flow into the bank accounts of the British oligarchists,and more gold is traded on the Hong Kong gold market than thecombined total traded in London and New York."John Coleman in his book "TheCommittee of 300""The drug "industry"is run as a single integrated world operation, from the opiumpoppy to the nickel bag of heroin sold on an inner-city streetcorner. Not only is illegal drug traffic under the control ofa single world network, but opiates traffic in particular is withoutdoubt the best-controlled production and distribution system ofany commodity in international trade, illegal or legal."www.bibliotecapleyades.net "The real reason that the drug problem is not eradicatedis because it is being run by the highest families in the entireworld as part of a coordinated gigantic money-making machine.... The plutocracy controlling British banks held the purse stringsand then, as now, put up a most respectable facade to cover theirtrue business. No one ever caught them with dirtied hands. Theyalways had front men, even as they do today, willing to take theblame if things went awry. Then as now the connections with thedrug trade were tenuous at best. No one was ever able to lay afinger on the respectable and "noble" banking familiesof Britain."John Coleman in his book "Conspirators'Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300"PRESERVING ELITE WEALTH"The Status Quo aroundthe world - from France to China to the U.S. - is optimized toprotect its Elites and the sprawling Upper-Caste of academics,managers, think-tank toadies, technocrats, apparatchiks, functionaries,factotums, lackeys and apologists who serve the Elites, and arewell-paid for enforcing the Status Quo on the disenfranchizedcastes below."Charles Hugh Smith, 2014"The legal structure ofa family trust differs greatly from public corporations, in thattheir focus is not on maximizing short-term quarterly profitsfor shareholders, but in maintaining multi-generational wealthand prestige. Family trusts are increasingly used to manage thewealth of the world's super-rich dynasties, alongside privatebanking institutions and other wealth management and consultingfirms. There is an entire industry dedicated to the managementof money, wealth and investments for the super-rich, and it isfocused largely - and increasingly - on family dynasties."Andrew Gavin Marshall"The lesson is clear: ifyou are a thief, steal by the billions or trillions, and thenno one can do anything about it. If you are in the drug trade:handle only billions (or hundreds of billions) in drug money,and then you will get away with it. If you don't want to pay taxes,be a member of the top 0.001% of the world's super-rich and hideyour billions in offshore tax-free accounts. If you want more,create a global economic crisis, demand to be saved by the stateto the tune of tens of trillions of dollars, and then, tell thestate to punish their populations into poverty in order to payfor your mistakes.In other words, if you want to indulge your criminal fantasies,lie and steal, profit from death and drugs, dominate and demand,be king and command, become the highly-functioning socially-acceptablesociopath you always knew you could be... think big. Think bank.Serial killers, bank robbers and drug dealers go to jail; bankersget bailouts and get an unlimited insurance policy called "toobig to fail."Jurriaan Maessen, Global Research"The City of London isthe money-laundering centre of the world's drug trade. In addition,due to incredibly lax financial laws by the British government,the London property market is built largely on the laundered moneyof crime from all over the world involving hidden tax havens,most of which are British."Graham Vanbergen"More than 170 of the Fortune500 companies have a Luxembourg branch. A total of $95 billionin profits from American corporations' overseas operations flowedthrough Luxembourg in 2012, the most current statistics from theU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show. On those profits, corporationspaid $1.04 billion in taxes to Luxembourg - just 1.1 percent."Stephen E. Shay, professor of internationaltaxation at Harvard Law School, 2014"The top economic one-tenthof one percent is currently holding over $40 trillion in investiblewealth, not counting an equally significant amount of wealth hiddenin offshore accounts."David DeGraw"Pepsi, IKEA, FedEx and340 other international companies have secured secret deals fromLuxembourg, allowing many of them to slash their global tax billswhile maintaining little presence in the tiny European duchy.These companies appear to have channeled hundreds of billionsof dollars through Luxembourg and saved billions of dollars intaxes.Big companies can book big tax savings by creating complicatedaccounting and legal structures that move profits to low-tax Luxembourgfrom higher-tax countries where they're headquartered or do lotsof business. In some instances, companies have enjoyed effectivetax rates of less than 1 percent on the profits they've shuffledinto Luxembourg."report from the International Consortiumof Investigative Journalists"Pfizer had 40% of its2013 sales in the U.S., but claimed all of its profits overseas."Paul Buchhet"The process of movingmassive amounts of international capital from typical tax havens,into the U.S., is being driven by a familiar name in the worldof international finance - Rothschild & Co. Rothschild, a centuries-old European financial institution, managesthe wealth of many of the world's most wealthy families and hasbeen instrumental in helping move the global elite's wealth fromtraditional tax havens like the Bahamas, Switzerland and the BritishVirgin Islands to the U.S. ... After opening a trust company in Reno, Nev., Rothschild &Co. began ushering the massive fortunes of the world's most wealthyindividuals out of typical tax havens, now subject to OECD internationaldisclosure requirements, and into the Rothschild run U.S. trusts,which are exempt from the international reporting requirements.The U.S. Treasury Department takes a very strong stand againstinternational tax evasion - unless you put that money into a U.Strust account - which coincidentally is being helmed by Rothschild& Co."Jay Syrmopoulos"The U.S. is effectivelythe biggest tax haven in the world."Andrew Penney, managing directorof Rothschild & Co."The incestuous embraceof privilege and power by entrenched, socially isolated Elitescharacterizes failed states and brittle, doomed regimes throughouthistory. This is what the Status Quo everywhere is optimized for:protecting those who have secured the wealth, perquisites andpower by strangling competition, democracy and social mobility."Charles Hugh Smith, 2014"Greed has grown so extremethat even within the top 1% inequality is soaring. The top 1%of the 1%, the .01%, now has 28% of the 1%'s wealth. When youfactor in hidden wealth, they have an estimated 33% of the 1%'swealth. An individual must have over $100 million in wealth tobe in the .01%."David DeGraw, 2014"The City of London nowstands as money launderer of the world, the capital of globalcrime. It is the heart and engine of the offshore haven, withJersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man its european collection centres,the caribbean and others hoovering up billions of dollars fromall over the globe... It has a dark and shadowy client list; terrorists,drug barons, arms dealers, politicians, corporations and companies,millionaires, billionaires - most with something to hide."Graham Vanbergen, 2016"Much of the untaxed corporateforeign income is actually held in U.S. banks and stocks and otherassets. Microsoft, for example, at one point held 93 percent ofits offshore profits in U.S. assets."Paul Buchhet"Vested interests everywhereuse this script to maintain the status quo: 1. Control the media so it focuses exclusively on manufactured"good news". Anything that undermines the dominant narrativeis buried, discredited or ignored.2. Buy political favors and influence to insure that "reforms"are superficial public relations exercises rather than than actualreforms that change the power structure.3. Rig the accounting, regulations and reporting so any scrutinyis misdirected or blunted. This enables the status quo to continueon unfazed, despite the erosion of the economy's fundamentalsand the widening gap between those with power and those who arepowerless."Charles Hugh-Smith"As the economic gap betweenthe plutocrats and everyone else becomes a chasm, plutocrats arecoming to inhabit their own global gated community."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"If you want to know thetrue state of our government and where it's heading, follow themoney, and remain vigilant: our kleptocratic Houdinis are hardat work, seeking to make yet more money vanish from your pockets- and reappear in theirs."William J. Astore"British Overseas Territoriesand Crown Dependencies make up around 25 per cent of the world'stax havens.Tax havens include Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands,the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islandsto name just a few and each is inextricably linked to the Cityof London's crime offices.The consequence of its operations is that money laundering isnow at such levels and so widespread that the authorities haverecently admitted defeat in its battle of attrition by statingopenly it has been completely overwhelmed and lost control."Graham Vanbergen"Relative to lower-classindividuals, individuals from upper-class backgrounds behavedmore unethically. Increased resources and independence from otherscause people to prioritize self-interest over others' welfareand perceive greed as positive and beneficial, which in turn givesrise to increased unethical behavior."Paul Piff, a psychologist at UCBerkeley"Extractive states arecontrolled by ruling elites whose objective is to extract as muchwealth as they can from the rest of society and to maintain theirown hold on power."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"Today, as the rich getricher and the poor get poorer, it seems we are approaching anew Middle Ages in America, as inequality increasingly spreadsthrough the land. It is as if the super-rich are like the newroyalty and the top 1 percent are living in mansions like theold castles of kings in the kingdoms that eventually melded intoEurope and the U.K."Gini Graham ScottPERPETUAL WARREGIME CHANGE, WAR PROFITEERING,PROXY WARS, WAR ON DRUGS, WAR ON TERRORISM, PRIVATE MERCENARYARMIES, ECONOMIC WARFARE, CYBER WARFARE"The permanent possibilityof war is the foundation for stable government; it supplies thebasis for general acceptance of political authority. It has enabledsocieties to maintain necessary class distinctions, and it hasensured the subordination of the citizen to the state, by virtueof the residual war powers inherent in the concept of nationhood.No modern political ruling group has successfully controlled itsconstituency after failing to sustain the continuing credibilityof an external threat of war."from "Report from Iron Mountain""The war against a foreigncountry only happens when the moneyed classes think they are goingto profit from it."George Orwell"The Democrats, like theRepublicans, are pledged to an even bigger U.S. military. It'sgood for business, if your business is war or war-related, andit's good for votes - especially the votes, active support, andpolitical contributions of the growing group of Americans whoselivelihoods, and claim to some sort of social status, depend onthe continuation of our foreign policy of perpetual war."Justin Raimondo, 2008"The armed forces haveembedded themselves so deeply into the country that they havealmost become the country. America is little more than a fundingmechanism for what may be called the military-industrial-intelligence-media-Israelicomplex. Some of these entities belong to the military (NSA).Some depend on it (Lockheed-Martin). Some use it to their ownends (Israel), But the military is the central infection fromwhich the other symptoms flow. Congress? A storefront, a subcommitteeof the Knesset. Factories, jobs, contracts, towns depend on militaryspending. "Fred Reed, 2018"The military/industrial/governmentalcomplex is perfectly positioned to profit handsomely from boththe endless war on terror and the privatization of public resources,with nary a complaint from government officials and next to nomeaningful media coverage of the long term ramifications of such'profit centers'."Geraldine Perry, 2009"Since 1945, what you callthe military-industrial complex has been a terribly importantvehicle in American development. It has been the center of whatwe call military Keynesianism. It's the one sector where deficitfinancing was thoroughly permitted, and it was the one sectorunder Reagan that expanded immensely and has never been let goof, in spite of the end of the Cold War."David Harvey, 2009"Retired senior officerswith financial ties to the military-industrial complex teamedup with the Pentagon to sell the case for war on the major newsnetworks. Ultimately, the rottenest apples are at the top of thebarrel, and that's certainly the case in the military. The meninvolved in the military analyst program were, by and large, retiredgenerals, many of them retired four-stars. They were sending Americankids into harm's way to line their own pockets."Jeff Huber, 2009"President Dwight Eisenhowerwarned of the increasing power and influence of the military industrialcomplex and it seems his worst fears have come true. He believedin a strong national defense, but warned that the building upof permanent military and weapons industries could prove dangerousif their influence got out of hand. After all, if you make yourmoney on war, peace does you no good. With trillions of dollarsat stake, there is tremendous incentive to keep the decision makersfearful of every threat in the world, real or imagined, presentor future, no matter how ridiculous and far-fetched."Ron Paul, 2009"An evolving military-industrialcomplex, a partnership of interlocking government and corporatenetworks, has used public wealth to enrich itself. The manufacturingpart of this complex rarely produces anything people live in,wear, or eat - armaments do not meet civilian needs. In fact,there exists a dramatic gulf between a healthy economy and a socialorder based on military spending."Saul Landau and Nelson P. Valdes,2010"Washington has a vestedinterest in preserving the status quo, no matter how much it costsor where it leads. For the military-industrial complex, thereare contracts to win and buckets of money to be made. For thosewho dwell in the bowels of the national security state, thereare prerogatives to protect. For elected officials, there arecampaign contributors to satisfy. For appointed officials, civilianand military, there are ambitions to be pursued."Andrew Bacevich, 2010"Because of the enormousdollar potential of the war in Vietnam to the great military-industrialcomplex of the United States and because of other threats to thepower elite, it had become absolutely necessary, for them, tobring about a coup d'etat (JFK assassination) on the streets ofDallas."L. Fletcher Prouty, JFK: The CIA,Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, 1996"The military-industrialcomplex today finances and dominates both political parties, aswell as dominating our international policy."Peter Dale Scott, 2011"President Eisenhower recognizedthat the United States was turning into a military-industrial-congressionaldominated national security state. And the Republicans have cheeredthat transmogrification. They've gained their political powerfrom helping it move in the right direction when it needs to bemoved. The Republican Party leadership live, drink, breath andsleep the military-industrial complex. They love war because itkeeps them in power."Lawrence Wilkerson"The so-called war on terrorhas been a monumental fraud from the very start. The U.S. military-industrialcomplex needs terrorists in order to necessitate neo-colonialexpansion abroad and domestic oppression at home, which is whythe U.S. government does its best to create and sustain them invirtually every corner of the Middle East and North Africa."Paul Joseph Watson, 2014"The ideology that militaryactivities may become a profitable enterprise leads to the realizationthat peace is the main enemy of the military-industrial complex.The military-industrial complex would be put out of business bylasting peaceful conditions because the development, production,marketing and use of military equipment would be not needed."Julie Lévesque, 2014"'Controlled' wars tendto safeguard the fortunes of war profiteers and beneficiariesof military spending - mainly the military-security-industrialcomplex and major banks."Ismael Hossein-Zadeh, 2014"The ability of privatemilitary companies who profit massively from war to finance elections,lobby the government and manipulate public opinion representsa dangerous evolution of the military-industrial complex."Jeremy Kuzmarov, 2014"American leadership isruthlessly pursuing immoral wars all over the world with the intentof creating outside enemies to focus public anger on, as a consciousdiversion away from the criminality happening domestically. Asan added bonus, the intelligence-military-industrial complex makesan incredible sum of money. The end result: serfs are distractedwith inane nationalistic fervor, while the "elites"earn billions."Michael Krieger, 2015"Once the Cold War ended,the ruling class sought enemies to keep their military-industrialcomplex and Wall Street financiers enriched and happy. 9/11 wasused to further that agenda, as the war on terror will never end.Perpetual conflict is a chief goal of the establishment. Bothparties continue to promote war and increase the profits of themilitary-industrial complex."blacklistednews.com, 2015"Continuing small wars(or the threat thereof) are essential for the corporate componentof the military-industrial-congressional complex. These companieshave no alternative means to survive."former Pentagon insider FranklinC. "Chuck" Spinney"The American citizenryhas no say over the military-industrial complex, which is autonomousand out of control. If the Complex wants war with Russia or China,we will have war with Russia or China.The military-industrial complex drives foreign policy, and indirections of no benefit to America or Americans.We are being forced to pay through the nose for endless wars thatdo more to fund the military industrial complex than protect us,pork barrel projects that produce little to nothing, and a policestate that serves only to imprison us within its walls."Fred Reed, 2018"The profits behind thewar industry are what drives the demand for war.Enemies are always needed, and the corporate media will tell ushow evil the new enemy is. If it's not communism it's terrorism.For those who direct the war industry, terrorism is much moreflexible than communism or other so-called enemies.The United States will always be at war because war is so profitable."Christian Sorenson"War is the consumer oflast resort. Wars can burn up excess capacity, shift global markets,generate monopoly rents, and return future labour to a state ofhelplessness and reduced."Cathal Haughian"American leadership isruthlessly pursuing immoral wars all over the world with the intentof creating outside enemies to focus public anger on, as a consciousdiversion away from the criminality happening domestically. Asan added bonus, the intelligence-military-industrial complex makesan incredible sum of money. The end result: serfs are distractedwith inane nationalistic fervor, while the "elites"earn billions."retired U.S. Major General RobertH. Scales"The United States hasbecome the largest single seller of arms and munitions on theplanet."Chris Hedges"I spent thirty-three yearsin the Marines, most of my time being a hlgh class muscle manfor Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, Iwas a racketeer for capitalism.I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking houseof Brown Brothers in 1910-1912. I helped make Mexico and especiallyTampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought lightto the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City[Bank] boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of halfa dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.In China in 1927 l helped to see to it that Standard Oil wentits way unmolested.I had a swell racket. l was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions.l might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could dowas to operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operatedon three continents."General Smedley Butler, formerUS Marine Corps Commandant, 1935"Wealth concentration isonly one aspect of our increasingly kleptocratic system. War profiteeringby corporations is another."William J. Astore"Since the keystone ofthe international banking empires has been government bonds, ithas been in the interest of international bankers to encouragegovernment debt. The higher The debt the more the interest. Nothingdrives government deeply into debt like a war; and it has notbeen an uncommon practice among international bankers to financeboth sides of the bloodiest military conflicts."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""There are factions inmany governments that crave a state of endless war because thatis when power is least constrained and profit most abundant."John Jay"I spent thirty-three yearsand four months in active service in the country's most agilemilitary force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from secondlieutenant to major general. And during that period I spent mostof my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, forWall Street and the bankers. I was a racketeer, a gangster forcapitalism.... I helped make Mexico safe for Americanoil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent placefor the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helpedin the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for thebenefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. Ihelped purify Nicaragua for the benefit of the banking house ofBrown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the DominicanRepublic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras"right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China,in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested."Major General Medley Butler"The revolving door betweengovernment defense leadership positions and leadership positionsin the defense contracting community has become a fixture of Washingtonlife.... The military defense industry's tendency toward consolidation,especially in the last quarter century, has given a few individualsgreater influence. In 2006, only a dozen or so companies aroundthe world accounted for the majority of international defenserevenues... The leaders of the largest military defense industryfirms emerged as a clique of powerful individuals, each with hisown ties to government.... These leaders play a dominant market role and assumed theresponsibility once held by public institutions for decisionsthat play a role in shaping a nation's defense doctrine. Theyare particularly active a advocates of expensive weapons systemssuch as carrier battle groups, major aircraft, and high-tech spaceweaponry, all of which are both profitable and offer maximum prestigeto service leaders. Real change and reevaluation are resisted."David Rothkopf"Capitalism requires WorldWar because Capitalism requires profit and cannot afford the unemployed."Cathal Haughian"Endless war has ruinedour economy. It benefits a handful of elites, while levying atax on the vast majority of Americans.Congress members - part of the super-elite which has made moneyhand over fist during this economic downturn - are heavily investedin the war industry, and routinely trade on inside informationperhaps even including planned military actions.No wonder the American government is making the state of war permanent,and planning to unleash new, widespread wars in the near future."www.globalresearch.ca"The arbitrary nature ofwar expenditures and of other military activities make them ideallysuited to control the essential class relationships. Obviously,if the war system were to be discarded, new political machinerywould be needed at once to serve this vital subfunction. Untilit is developed, the continuance of the war system must be assured,if for no other reason, among others, than to preserve whateverquality and degree of poverty a society requires as an incentive,as well as to maintain the stability of its internal organizationof power."from "Report from Iron Mountain""Wars are fought to controlstrategic routes, to open markets, and to gain access to naturalresources."George Draffan"Since World War II, 90percent of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians, a thirdof them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestineto Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next targetmay be, their murders are not collateral damage. They are thenature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms.They hate us because every day, we are funding and committingcrimes against humanity. The so-called 'War on Terror' is a cover for our military aggressionto gain control of the resources for Western nations. This issending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslimcountries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, andto most of the world, we are the terrorists.... Our soldiers don't sacrifice for duty, honor, and country.They sacrifice for Kellogg, Brown, and Root. They don't fightfor America-they fight for their lives and their buddies besidethem because we put them in a war zone. They're not defendingour freedoms-they are laying the foundations for permanent militarybases to defend the freedoms of ExxonMobil and British Petroleum.They're not establishing democracy; they're establishing the basisfor an economic occupation to continue after the military occupationhas ended."Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, in a speech tothe Congressional Progressive Caucus, April 27, 2006"The dangerous patriotis the the one who drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasmfor military actions. He is a defender of militarism and its idealsof war and glory. Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form ofpatriotism, which identifies numerous enemies who can only bedealt with through military power and which equates the nationalhonor with military victory." -American lawyer and U.S. Navy ReserveCommanderJames A. Donovan"As the Founders all recognized,nothing vests elites with power - and profit - more than a stateof war." Glenn Greenwald"Of all the enemies topublic liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, becauseit comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is theparent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies,and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing themany under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionarypower of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing outoffices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied: and all the meansof seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force,of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism maybe traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunitiesof fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracyof manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation couldpreserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."James Madison"The Rothschilds becameincredibly wealthy during the nineteenth century by financinggovernments to fight each other."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""The war on terrorism isnot only a war against innocent people in other countries, butalso a war on the people of the United States: a war on our liberties,a war on our standard of living. The wealth of the country isbeing stolen from the people and handed over to the superrich.The lives of our young are being stolen. And the thieves are inthe White House."Howard Zinn"The global elite thriveson war and widespread human misery, on death and destruction bydesign."Prof. Mujahid Kamran"An acceptable economicsurrogate for the war system will require the expenditure of resourcesfor completely nonproductive purposes at a level comparable tothat of the military expenditures otherwise demanded by the sizeand complexity of each society... A viable political substitutefor war must posit a generalized external menace to each societyof a nature and degree sufficient to require the organizationand acceptance of political authority... A credible substitutefor war must generate an omnipresent and readily understood fearof personal destruction. This fear must be of a nature and degreesufficient to ensure adherence to societal values to the fullextent that they are acknowledged to transcend the value of individualhuman life."from "Report from Iron Mountain""The CIA manages the highlylucrative international drug smuggling business. Ever since the Iran-Contra Affair of the 1980's when CIA got caughtred-handed running drugs for guns during the Reagan years, andfinancing, arming, and training death squad commandos throughoutCentral America, the US government has always played an integraland active role in covert drug smuggling operations generatingover the decades trillions in drug money revenue laundered throughthe central banking cabal. The CIA controls and manages global drug smuggling from the Afghanpoppy fields to the coca plantations run by Central-South American-Mexicandrug cartels that supply and feed the constant demand for illicitdrugs into both North America as well as Europe. "Joachim Hagopian"The corporate economyand the military are codependent, and the military has becomean integral and permanent part of the global - and especiallythe U.S. - economy."George Draffan"Wars should be directedso that the nations on both sides should be further in our debt."Amschel Mayer Rothschild, 1774"Retired senior military officers typically line up tocash in on the kleptocratic equivalent of welfare, peddling their"expertise" in return for impressive corporate and Pentagonpayouts that supplement their six-figure pensions."William J. Astore"Nations in general willmake war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything byit."John Jay in Federalist No 4"Many countries, includingthe United States and the United Kingdom, are not signatoriesto the 1989 United Nations Mercenary Convention banning the useof mercenaries."www.special-ops.org"For financial or politicalreasons, Empires have always used external militarized cells andmercenaries to commit unsavoury acts under a flag different thanthe monarchy, nation-state, or private corporation who was directingthem behind the scenes.Ruthless and unconventional "asymmetric" enemies arenothing new to the United States."writer Patrick Henningsen"Academi is a most harmless-soundingname, but don't be fooled: The company is actually the infamousBlackwater. The company's history of atrocities runs far and deep.The name "Academi," which has been in use since 2011,marks the second time the company has attempted to whitewash itsname in a "corporate restructuring". Judging by thefact that they have already been forced to admit to at least 17federal criminal charges and pay millions of dollars in fines,it seems it's just a matter of time before they have to come upwith an even less threatening name. Though with their reputationat this point, there probably is no name that could soften theirpublic image."www.listverse.com"Without war, no governmenthas ever been able to obtain acquiescence in its 'legitimacy',or right to rule its society. The possibility of war providesthe sense of external necessity without which no government canlong remain in power."from "Report from Iron Mountain""The U.S. military haswon the ideological war. The nation sees human and social problemsas military problems. To fight terrorists Americans have becometerrorists. Peace is for the weak. War is for the strong. Hypermasculinityhas triumphed over empathy."Chris Hedges"The private military company(PMC) is the contemporary strand of the mercenary trade, providinglogistics, soldiers, military training, and other services. Thus,PMC contractors are civilians (in governmental, international,and civil organizations) authorized to accompany an army to thefield; hence, the term civilian contractor. Nevertheless, PMCsmay use armed force."www.special-ops.org"The US intentionally armedand funded terrorists in the Middle East to create a terroristmercenary army."Tony Cartalucci"One of the more terrifyingprivate militaries is Executive Outcomes. This South African companyhas been sighted in most African war zones, where it is said tohold high influence. Executive Outcomes mercenaries have beenseen in Sierra Leone, Angola, Uganda, Botswana, Zambia, Ethiopia,Namibia, Lesotho and, of course, South Africa. Although they officiallystate their only mission is bringing peace, they have been suspectedof several shady activities ranging from Sierra Leone-based oilcompany shenanigans to diamond dealings with the jewel giant DeBeers.The company is notorious for targeting the client country's mineral-richregions, often regaining and securing control of gold, oil anddiamond regions before paying attention to other matters. Somewhisper they don't always get around to returning these possessionsto the country. Executive Outcomes is said to own gold mines inUganda, oil drilling facilities in Ethiopia and a variety of otherpeacetime business ventures in the other countries it has foughtfor."www.listverse.com"The military functionof the war system serves simply to defend or advance the 'nationalinterest' by means of organized violence. It is often necessaryfor a national military establishment to create a need for itsunique powers... And a healthy military apparatus requires regular'exercise', by whatever rationale seems expedient, to preventits atrophy."from "Report from Iron Mountain""The Romans called thepeople who lived outside the Roman Empire barbarians. In the 4thcentury AD the Roman Army had considerable difficulty in stoppingthese Barbarians from entering the Roman Empire.The Romans were forced to increase the size of their army. Bythe end of the 4th century AD it had grown to 600,000 men. Emperors were forced to recruit slaves, gladiators and criminals.It was also decided to employ barbarian mercenaries. This createdlong-term problems as the barbarians did not always remain loyalto their Roman paymasters.In AD 476, Odoacer, leader of the barbarian mercenaries in theRoman army, overthrew Emperor Romulus Augustulus, and installedhimself as King of Italy. The Roman Empire in the west had cometo an end."www.spartacus-educational.com"In 2006, a U.S. congressionalreport listed a number of private military companies and otherenterprises that have signed contracts to carry out anti-narcoticsoperations and related activities as part of Plan Colombia. DynCorpwas among those contracted by the State Department, while otherssigned contracts with the Defense Department. Other companiesfrom different countries, including Israel, have also signed contractswith the Colombian Defense Ministry to carry out security or militaryactivities."www.special-ops.org"There is something peculiarlyhypocritical about the occasional condemnation of mercenary activityissued by various British Governments over the past quarter ofa century. British governments have always used mercenaries wheneverit suit their interests and indeed continue to do so even now."Anthony Mockler in his book 'TheNew Mercenaries""In February 2002, a British Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO) report about private military companies (PMCs) noted thatthe demands of the military service from the UN and internationalcivil organizations might mean that it is cheaper to pay PMCsthan use soldiers. "www.special-ops.org"No war ever fought bythe US military has been about freedom. The only reason an empireever fights wars is to maintain empire.... Every year, the establishment hijacks Memorial Day, IndependenceDay and Veterans Day - not only to audaciously commemorate thewar criminals that send our brothers and sisters off to needlesslydie - but to justify decades of bloodshed and militarism whilepaving the way for decades more.... People don't join the military to be called heroes, or becausethey think they're fighting evil incarnate. Most do so becausethere are no jobs and no hope.... The next time you hear someone say "Support the Troops",ask what they're doing to make sure there will be no more bloodshed,no more body bags and no more war."Abby Martin , 2013"Iraq is a money makingmachine. All you have to do is look around. All the companiesthat work over here are getting rich."Jon Coté worked for militarycontractor Crescent Security"War spending, consideredpragmatically, has been a consistently positive factor in therise of gross national product and of individual productivity...No combination of techniques for controlling employment, production,and consumption has yet been tested that can remotely compareto war in effectiveness. It is, and has been, the essential economicstabilizer of modern societies."from "Report from Iron Mountain"PRIVITIZATION OF THECOMMONS"With privatization comesa kind of collective amnesia about the potential democratic roleof government, the importance of the social contract, and theimportance of public values. For instance, war, intelligence operations,prisons, schools, transportation systems, and a range of otheroperations once considered public have been outsourced or simplyhanded over to private contractors who are removed from any senseof civic and political accountability. The social contract andthe institutions that give it meaning have been transformed intoentitlements administered and colonized by largely the corporateinterests and the financialelite.... War, intelligence operations, prisons, schools, transportationsystems, and a range of other operations once considered publichave been outsourced or simply handed over to private contractorswho are removed from any sense of civic and political accountability.The social contract and the institutions that give it meaninghave been transformed into entitlements administered and colonizedby largely the corporate interests and the financial elite."Henry Giroux, 2014"A global financial cabalengineered a fraudulent housing and debt bubble [2008], illegallyshifted vast amounts of capital out of the US; and used 'privatization'as a form of piracy -- a pretext to move government assets toprivate investors at below-market prices and then shift privateliabilities back to government at no cost to the private liabilityholder... Clearly, there was a global financial coup d'etat underway."Catherine Austin Fitts"Although water has beenmanaged as a commons throughout human history and across diversecultures, and although most communities manage water resourcesas common property or have access to water as a commonly sharedpublic good even today, privatization of water resources is gainingmomentum."Vandana Shiva"Water has become big businessfor global corporations, which see limitless markets in growingwater scarcity and demand. The two major players in the waterindustry are the French companies Vivendi Environment and SuezLyonnaise des Eaux, whose empires extend to 120 countries. Vivendiis the water giant, with a turnover of $17.1 billion. Suez hada turnover of $5.1 billion in 1996."Vandana Shiva"Water is of course themost important raw material we have today in the world, but It'sa question of whether we should privatize the normal water supplyfor the population. And there are two different opinions on thematter. The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by theNGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That meansthat as a human being you should have a right to water. That'san extreme solution.The other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other,and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value."former Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck"The erosion of water rightsis now a global phenomenon. Since the early 1990s, ambitious,World Bank-driven privatization programs have emerged in Argentina,Chile, Mexico, Malaysia, and Nigeria. The World Bank has alsointroduced privatization of water systems in India. In Chile,it has imposed a loan condition to guarantee a 33 percent profitmargin to the French company Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux."Vandana Shiva"We are mining our groundwater faster than we can replenish it, sucking it to grow waterguzzling chemical-fed crops in deserts or to water thirsty citieswho dump an astounding 700 trillion liters of land-based waterinto oceans every year as waste.The global mining industry sucks up another 800 trillion literswhich it also leaves behind as poison and fully one-third of globalwater withdrawals are now used to produce biofuels, enough waterto feed the world."Maude Barlow"I believe it's betterto give a foodstuff a value so that we're all aware it has itsprice, and then that one should take specific measures for thepart of the population that has no access to water."former Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck"Knowing there will notbe enough food and water for all in the near future, wealthy countriesand global investment pension and hedge funds are buying up landand water, fields and forests in the Global South, creating anew wave of invasive colonialism that will have huge geopoliticalramifications. Rich countries faced by food shortages have alreadybought up an area in Africa alone more than twice the size ofthe United Kingdom."Maude BarlowRESOURCE EXPLOITATIONAND ECOLOGICAL DESTRUCTION"For America the chiefgeopolitical prize is Eurasia. About 75 percent of the world'speople live in Eurasia Eurasia accounts for about 60 percent ofthe world's GNP and about three fourths of the world's known energyresources."Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book"The Grand Chessboard""Bank of America, JP MorganChase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup own Shell, Chevron, British Petroleum,Exxon, in tandem with Deusche Bank, Banque Paribas, Barclays andother European old money behemoths."Dean Henderson in his book "BigOil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf""The US-led war in thebroader Middle East Central Asian region consists in gaining controlover more than sixty percent of the world's reserves of oil andnatural gas. The Anglo-American oil giants also seek to gain controlover oil and gas pipeline routes out of the region. Muslim countriesincluding Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates,Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan,Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess between 66.2 and 75.9 percentof total oil reserves."Michel Chossudovsky, 2012"ExxonMobil's energy reservesspan six continents and produce nearly twice as much oil and gasevery day as all of Kuwait... earned nearly $40 billion in profits,more than the combined GDP of Yemen and Bahrain, and more thanany other company in history."David Rothkopf"The Rothschild, Rockefellerand Warburg banking combines control Big Oil... Royal Dutch/Shellis controlled by the Rothschild, Oppenheimer, Nobel and Samuelfamilies along with the British House of Windsor and the DutchHouse of Orange."Dean Henderson from his book "BigOil & Their Bankers In The Persian Gulf""Control oil and you controlnations."Henry Kissinger"The United States handledthe quadrupling of oil prices in the 1970s by arranging, by meansof secret agreements with the Saudis, to recycle petrodollarsback into the U.S. economy. The first of these deals assured aspecial and ongoing Saudi stake in the health of the U.S. dollar;the second secured continuing Saudi support for the pricing ofall OPEC oil in dollars. These two deals assured that the U.S.economy would not be impoverished by OPEC oil price hikes. Theheaviest burdens would be borne instead by the economies of lessdeveloped countries."Peter Dale Scott, 2003"You will not read aboutthe Club of the Isles in any textbook or popular magazine. Itis unincorporated and it has no membership lists. Yet, as an informalassociation of predominantly European-based royal households andprincely families, the Club of the Isles commands an estimated$10 trillion in assets. It lords over such corporate giants asRoyal Dutch Shell, Imperial Chemical Industries, Lloyds of London,Unilever, Lonrho, Rio Tinto Zinc, and Anglo American DeBeers.It dominates the world supply of petroleum, gold, diamonds, andmany other vital raw materials; and deploys these assets not merelyin the pursuit of wealth, but as resources at the disposal ofits geopolitical agenda. Its goal: to reduce the human populationfrom its current level of over 5 billion people to below 1 billionpeople within the next two to three generations in the interestof retaining their own global power and the feudal system uponwhich that power is based.""The Coming Fall of the Houseof Windsor" an article from The New Federalist newspaper,1994"The oil market is now corneredby five major companies - Exxon-Mobil, Chevron-Texaco, BritishPetroleum-Amoco-Arco, Royal Dutch Shell and Conoco-Phillips -which control over 60 percent of refinery output.... The operating strategy is to force independent refiners outof business, tighten gasoline supplies, and then jack up the price.Finally, when the profit skyrockets, take ads in newspapers toclaim that the profit is reasonable."Ravi Batra in his book "TheNew Golden Age", 2007"The US-led deadly civilwars and coup d'etats in Venezuela and Ukraine as well as Libyaand Syria mass terrorize and destroy societies into defenselessdependency so that their resources, lands and markets are availablefor transnational corporate exploitation."Professor Mujahid Kamranfrom the book "DOPE, INC.",1992"The Persian Gulf/CaspianSea area is where most of the world's remaining oil is located- approximately 70 percent of known petroleum reserves. Whoevercontrols Persian Gulf oil controls the world's economy."Michael Klare in his book "PoxAmericana""The Four Horsemen of Oil[British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil]are the top four retailers of gas in the US and own every majorpipeline in the world and the vast majority of oil tankers...Today they control over half the world's uranium reserves, keyto fueling nuclear power plants... Exxon Mobil is the leadingcoal producer in the US and has the second largest coal reserves."Dean Henderson from his book "BigOil & Their Bankers In The Persian Gulf""Right after World WarII ... the United States moved to dominate a global system forthe production and distribution of oil. Starting with the TrumanDoctrine in 1946, U.S. geostrategic thinking was oil based. Whatbegan as a strategy for containment of the Soviet Union has becomemore and more nakedly a determination to control the oil resourcesof the world. This pursuit has progressively deformed the domesticU.S. economy, rendering it more and more unbalanced and dependenton heavy military expenditures in remote and ungovernable areas-mostrecently Afghanistan."Peter Dale Scott, 2003"The "Club of theIsles" is an informal association of predominantly European-basedroyal households including the Queen [of England]. The Club ofthe Isles commands an estimated $10 trillion in assets. It lordsover such corporate giants as Royal Dutch Shell, Imperial ChemicalIndustries, Lloyds of London, Unilever, Lonrho, Rio Tinto Zinc,and Anglo American DeBeers. It dominates the world supply of petroleum,gold, diamonds, and many other vital raw materials; and deploysthese assets at the disposal of its geopolitical agenda."Henry MakowFOOD INSECURITY"CONTROL FOOD AND YOU CONTROLTHE PEOPLE""95 percent of all grainreserves in the world [in 1974] were under the control of sixmultinational agribusiness corporations--Cargill Grain Company,Continental Grain Company, Cook Industries Inc., Dreyfus, BungeCompany and Archer-Daniel Midland. All of them were American-basedcompanies."F. William Engdahl"Cargill and Continental,control 45-50% of the world's grain trade."Richard Freeman"Destroying food sovereigntyin the global South is a common practice used by the global Norththrough international bodies like the World Bank and the IMF.The goal is to keep the South dependent on the North and createa market for exportation, deceptively labelled "food aid"for photo ops and to conceal the real intent: dumping."Julie Lévesque, 2015"By the early years ofthe new century, it was clear that no more than four giant chemicalmultinational companies had emerged as global players in the gameto control patents on the very basic food products that most peoplein the world depend on for their daily nutrition--corn, soybeans,rice, wheat, even vegetables and fruits and cotton."F. William Engdahl"The Club of the Islesis a House of Windsor-led Anglo-Dutch-Swiss cartel. The cartel'sBig Six grain trading companies own and control 95% of America'swheat exports, 95% of its corn exports, 90% of its oats exports,and 80% of its sorghum exports. A few smaller companies, almostall in the grain cartel's orbit, control the remaining marketshare. The grain companies' control over the American grain marketis absolute."Richard Freeman, Executive IntelligenceReview, 1995"Henry Kissinger introducedthe idea of using "food as a weapon" into United Statesforeign policy."F. William Engdahl"Nestlé Corp., S.A.,based in Vevey and Cham (near Geneva), Switzerland, and Borden,Inc., based in Columbus, Ohio, are the two largest exporters ofwhole milk powder in the world. Founded in 1867, Nestlégrew significantly in 1905, when it merged with the Anglo-SwissCondensed Milk Company, also of Switzerland.. All told, it isthe biggest food company in the world. In 1994, there were 13countries in which Nestlé had sales of 1 billion Swissfrancs or more, including all advanced sector nations. Its total1994 sales were SF 56.9 billion, or $45.5 billion. Its 1994 profitswere $4.8 billion, bigger than all but a half-dozen companies."Richard Freeman"Control food and you controlthe people."Henry Kissinger"President Clinton andother recent White House tenants condemned Haiti to a future ofendemic poverty through a self-serving U.S. rice export policy."Julie Lévesque, from a studyof the economic liberalization strategies imposed by the U.S.on Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s"Cargill, which had $51billion in annual sales in 1994, has a dominant position in manyaspects of the world food trade. It is the world's and the UnitedStates' number-one grain exporter, and has a market share of 25-30%in each of several commodities. It is the world's number-one cottontrader; the number-one U.S. owner of grain elevators (340); thenumber-one U.S. manufacturer of corn-based, high-protein animalfeeds (through subsidiary Nutrena Mills); the number-two U.S.wet corn miller and U.S. soybean crusher; the number-two Argentinegrain exporter (10% of market); the number-three U.S. flour miller(18% of market), U.S. meatpacker (18% of market), U.S. pork packer/slaughterer,and U.S. commercial animal feeder; the number-three French grainexporter (15-18% of the market); and the number-six U.S. turkeyproducer. It also has a fleet of 420 barges, 11 towboats, 2 hugevessels that sail the Great Lakes, 12 ocean-going ships, 2,000railroad hopper cars, and 2,000 tank cars."Richard Freeman"Terminator seeds had beendesigned to prevent the germination of harvested grains as seeds...This technology would block farmers in developing countries fromsaving their own seed for re-sowing."F. William Engdahl"Ten to twelve pivotalcompanies, assisted by another three dozen, run the world's foodsupply. They are the key components of the Anglo-Dutch-Swiss foodcartel, which is grouped around Britain's House of Windsor. Ledby the six leading grain companies-Cargill, Continental, LouisDreyfus, Bunge and Born, André, and Archer Daniels Midland/Töpfer- the Club of the Isles - a House of Windsor-led oligarchy, hascomplete domination over world cereals and grains supplies, fromwheat to corn and oats, from barley to sorghum and rye. But italso controls meat, dairy, edible oils and fats, fruits and vegetables,sugar, and all forms of spices."Richard Freeman, Executive IntelligenceReview, 1995GLOBAL GOVERNMENT"China and Europe cooperateon many levels and support each others oligarchical systems, buton the other hand they are major competitors along with the UnitedStates. A lot of the structural changes being implemented by theEuropean Union's technocratic elite and political leaders, likeausterity measures, are designed to make Europe more competitive,impoverishing their populations, undertaking structural reformsto increase labor flexibility, dismantling labor protections,benefits, regulations, union rights, workers rights, which makesthem a poor exploitable cheap labor force more capable of competingwith China. China is on the other end of this labor spectrum, where theirlabor costs have increased due to popular unrest and protests,forcing wages to increase in China. China wants to develop a consumereconomy rather than be an export oriented economy. While Chinais moving itself up the economic ladder, Europe is pushing itselfdown, as they try to find some kind of level playing field, inorder to compete more as equals."Andrew Gavin Marshall, 2014"Who shall rule the world:the emerging 1% as a financial oligarchy, or elected governments.The two sets of aims are antithetical: rising living standardsand national independence, or a renting economy, austerity andinternational dependency."Michael Hudson"Big government is thenecessary ally of monopoly, and world government is the goal ofthe cartelists who are the quiet, seemingly philanthropic sponsorsof the U.N..... Everything the cartels and multi-national companies do isin furtherance of one or both of their two objectives: the creationof greater wealth for those who control them; and the coalescingof political power into a true world government - with themselvesin control from behind the scenes."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"If you wish to establishnational monopolies, you must control national governments. Ifyou wish to establish international monopolies or cartels, youmust control a world government."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""If the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP) is adopted, it will be the most important step toward aone world economic system that we have ever seen. ... The TPP is not just an economic treaty. It is basically agigantic end run around Congress. If adopted, this treaty willfundamentally change our laws regarding Internet freedom, healthcare,copyright and patent protection, food safety, environmental standards,civil liberties and so much more.Michael Snyder"About two hundred yearsago, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, there waswhat was called the "great divergence" as industrializationmade some economies rich. Western empires forced many developingcountries to deindustrialize, and to remain as colonial export-orientedeconomies, while the colonial powers industrialized to advancetheir economies. This created a great divergence between whatwe call the third world, developing, emerging economies and thedeveloped, advanced economies - Western Europe, United Statesand Japan. Now there is a process of convergence, as countries such as China,Russia, Brazil, India, South Africa, and others rise economically.The G20 is trying to advance the process of global convergenceby allowing the twenty largest economies in the world to try tomanage the global economic system in a process called global governance."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Today's world is ruledby a myriad of multinational corporations and financial institutionsthat belong to a network of private round table organisationsthat stretch across the planet. There exists an internationalruling elite that has been building an economic-corporate empirefor over a century, which oppresses any dissent to their agenda."Steven MacMillanWe shall have World Government,whether or not we like it. The only question is whether WorldGovernment will be achieved by conquest or consent."international banker James Warburgtestifying before the United States Senate on Feb. 7, 1950"Oligarchs and the centralizedinstitutions they control pose the greatest threat to humanityat this time. A world created in their image will be at best atechnocratic, fascist dictatorship, and at worst end in a nuclearholocaust."Michael Krieger"The wheels now are in motion to create a world politicalentity... With possession of all nuclear weapons, that super-statewould be so powerful that no man and no disarmed nation-statecould resist its edicts. ... However, before it would be possible to merge the United Stateswith the rest of world, it would be necessary to bring their economiesand standards of living into line. That means massive foreignaid to the less developed nations to bring them up, and all kindsof wasteful spending, exhausting wars, and productivity-cripplingrestrictions to bring the United States down."G. Edward Griffin, 2011"TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership)details* domestic court decisions and international legal standards (e.g.,overriding domestic laws on both trade and nontrade matters, foreigninvestors' right to sue governments in international tribunalsthat would overrule the national sovereignty)* environmental regulations (e.g., nuclear energy, pollution,sustainability)* financial deregulation (e.g., more power and privileges to thebankers and financiers)o food safety (e.g., lowering food self-sufficiency, prohibitionof mandatory labeling of genetically modified products, or bovinespongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease)* Government procurement (e.g., no more buy locally produced/grown)* Internet freedom (e.g., monitoring and policing user activity)* labour (e.g., welfare regulation, workplace safety, relocatingdomestic jobs abroad)* patent protection, copyrights (e.g., decrease access to affordablemedicine)* public access to essential services may be restricted due toinvestment rules (e.g., water, electricity, and gas)"Michael Snyder[from a Malaysian news source}"There is a transnationalruling class, a "Superclass", that agrees on establishinga world government. The middle class is targeted for elimination,because most of the world has no middle class, and to fully integrateand internationalize a middle class, would require industrializationand development in Africa, and certain places in Asia and LatinAmerica. The goal of the Superclass is not to lose their wealthand power to a transnational middle class, but rather to extinguishthe notion of a middle class, and transnationalize a lower, uneducated,labor oriented class, through which they will secure ultimatewealth and power.The global economic crisis serves these ends, as whatever remainingwealth the middle class holds is in the process of being eliminated,and as the crisis progresses, the middle classes of the worldwill suffer, while a great percentage of lower classes of theworld, poverty-stricken even prior to the crisis, will sufferthe greatest, most probably leading to a massive reduction inpopulation levels, particularly in the "underdeveloped"or "Third World" states."Andrew Gavin Marshall in the book"The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of theXXI Century"WHO WILL SUFFER IN THEGLOBAL KLEPTOCRACY?AUSTERITY, UNEMPLOYMENT,ECONOMIC DECLINE, AUTHORITARIANISM"The Federal Reserve controlsour money supply and interest rates, and thereby manipulates theentire economy - creating inflation or deflation, recession orboom, and sending the stock market up or down at whim... Between1923 and 1929, the Federal Reserve expanded (inflated) the moneysupply by sixty-two percent. Much of this new money was used tobid the stock market up to dizzying heights. In 1929, the FederalReserve Board reversed its easy money policy and began raisingthe discount rate. The balloon which had been inflated constantlyfor nearly seven years was about to be exploded."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""The moment China, theoil-rich states, and other international investors stop buyingU.S. Treasury Bonds, the dollar will become junk. Inflation willrocket upward. We will become Weimar Germany. ... As our financial crisis unravels, and our currency becomesworthless, there will be a loss of confidence in the traditionalmechanisms that regulate society. When money becomes worthless,so does government. All traditional standards and beliefs areshattered in a severe economic crisis. The moral order is turnedupside down. The honest and industrious are wiped out while thegangsters, profiteers, and speculators walk away with millions.... A furious and sustained backlash by a betrayed and angry populace,one unprepared intellectually and psychologically for collapse,will sweep aside the Democrats and most of the Republicans. Acabal of protofascist misfits, from Christian demagogues to simpletonsto loudmouth talk-show hosts, will find a following with promisesof revenge and moral renewal. The elites, the ones with theirHarvard Business School degrees and expensive vocabularies, willretreat into their sheltered enclaves of privilege and comfort.We will be left bereft, abandoned outside the gates, and at themercy of the security state."Chris Hedges"Since 2007, well-payingjobs have become rare and low-paying full-time, part-time andtemporary jobs have replaced them. Companies are cutting backfull-time employment so they don't have to pay for workers' healthcare.In total, 50% of jobs created over the past three years are "low-paying,"mostly in retail, food service or temporary help."David DeGraw, 2014"99 percent of the U.S.public, especially young people and minorities of class and colorare considered disposable. At a time when politics is nation-basedand power is global, the rulers of the state no longer care aboutthe social contract and make no compromises in their ruthlesspursuits of power and profits. The social contract, especiallyin the United States, is on life support as social provisionsare cut, pensions are decimated, and the certainty of a once securejob disappears. The new free-floating global elite are unrestrainedby the old rules of politics and not only refuse to make any politicalconcessions, they also no longer believe in long-term social investmentsand are more than willing to condemn those populations now considereddisposable to a savage form of casino capitalism."Henry Giroux, 2014"Using a central bank tocreate alternate periods of inflation and deflation, and thuswhipsawing the public for vast profits, had been worked out bythe international bankers to an exact science."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""in the 1970s, as wagesdetached from productivity, the rich progressively got richer.They used their wealth to reduce taxes on capital, role back criticalregulations, break up the unions, install their own lapdog politicians,push through trade agreements that pitted US workers against low-paidlabor in the developing world, and induce their Central Bank buddiesto keep interest rates locked below the rate of inflation so theycould cream hefty profits off gigantic asset bubbles. Now, 40years later, they own the whole shooting match, lock, stock andbarrel."Mike Whitney"At no period in Americanhistory has our democracy been in such peril or the possibilityof totalitarianism as real. Our way of life is over. Our profligateconsumption is finished. Our children will never have the standardof living we had. This is the bleak future. This is reality.Chris Hedges"Unemployment is much worsethan the 6% that the government reports. The 6% rate does notinclude part-time workers who need full-time work, long-term unemployedpeople who have not been able to find work for over six months,and "discouraged workers" who do not consistently lookfor work. When you account for those groups, as the Bureau ofLabor Statistics (BLS) did until 1994, the real unemployment rateis currently 23.2%."David DeGraw, 2014"The logic seems to bethe familiar old class war, rolling back the clock to the hard-linetax philosophy of a bygone era - rolling back Social Securityand health care, public pensions, rolling back public spendingon education and other basic needs, and above all, increasingunemployment to drive down wage levels... A half-century of failedIMF austerity plans imposed on hapless Third World debtors shouldhave dispelled forever the idea that the way to prosperity isvia austerity. The ground has been paved for this attitude bya generation of purging the academic curriculum of knowledge thatthere ever was an alternative economic philosophy to that sponsoredby the rentier Counter-Enlightenment. Classical value and pricetheory reflected John Locke's labor theory of property: A person'swealth should be what he or she creates with their own labor andenterprise, not by insider dealing or special privilege."economist Michael Hudson"To think that the scientificallyengineered Crash of '29 was an accident or the result of stupiditydefies all logic. The international bankers who promoted the inflationarypolicies and pushed the propaganda which pumped up the stock marketrepresented too many generations of accumulated expertise to haveblundered into "the great depression."Gary Allen in his book "NoneDare Call It Conspiracy""In the present economy, itis impossible for 70% of the working age population to earn enoughincome to afford basic necessities, without taking on ever-increasinglevels of debt, which they will never be able to pay back becausethere are not enough jobs that generate the necessary income tokeep up with the cost of living."David DeGraw, 2014"The capitalist dream machineoffers huge profits for the ultra-rich, hedge fund managers, andmajor players in the financial service industries. In these newlandscapes of wealth, exclusion, and fraud, the commanding institutionsof a savage and fanatical capitalism promote a winner-take-allethos and aggressively undermine the welfare state while waginga counter revolution against the principles of social citizenshipand democracy."Henry Giroux"Western businesses areless dependent on a prosperous domestic middle class because theycan now sell to the rising middle class of the emerging markets."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2013"The worse reality becomes,the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it, andthe more it distracts itself with squalid pseudo-events of celebritybreakdowns, gossip, and trivia. These are the debauched revelsof a dying civilization. The most ominous cultural divide liesbetween those who chase after manufactured illusions, and thosewho are able to puncture the illusion and confront reality. Morethan the divides of race, class, or gender, more than rural orurban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, our culturehas been carved up into radically distinct, unbridgeable, andantagonistic entities that no longer speak the same language andcannot communicate. This is the divide between a literate, marginalizedminority and those who have been consumed by an illiterate massculture."Chris Hedges"Economic hit men (EHMs)are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globeout of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the WorldBank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), andother foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers ofhuge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families whocontrol the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulentfinancial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex,and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that hastaken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."John PerkinsIMMISERATION OF THEMOST VULNERABLE"The global elite thriveson war and widespread human misery, on death and destruction bydesign."Prof. Mujahid Kamran"If necessary, nationsof the Third World must be forced to remain poor if their developmentthreatens resources on which all life depends."Michael Soverstein, president ofEnvironmental Economics"The biggest problems arethe damn national sectors of these developing countries. Thesecountries think that they have the right to develop their resourcesas they see fit."Thomas Lovejoy, vice president,World Wildlife Fund U.S.A., 1984"If Fritz [Fritz Leutwiler- chairman, Bank for International Settlements] had his way, hewould kill them all, in the Third World, except a few raw materialsproducers, of course."one of Fritz Leutwiler's fellowGeneva bankers"There is a single themebehind all our work - we must reduce population levels. Eithergovernments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or theywill get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or inIran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once populationis out of control, it requires authoritarian government, evenfascism, to reduce it.Our program in El Salvador didn't work. The infrastructure wasnot there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people....To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all themales into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbersof fertile age females.The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, likein Africa, or through disease like the Black Death."Thomas Ferguson, State DepartmentOffice of Population Affairs, Latin American Desk, February 1981interview"The Mexican populationmust be reduced by half. Seal the border and watch them scream.The population will be reduced by the usual means: famine, war,and pestilence."William Paddock, State Departmentconsultant, 1975 interview"Disregard for the commongood is at the root of all developed-world and developing-worldfailed states."Charles Hugh Smith, 2014"The current entrenchedpowers that be have been in their positions for a very long timeand they have no intention of giving up that role. What the moralpercentage of humanity needs to understand in no uncertain termsis that these folks and their minions have no conscience. Theycould care less how many starve to death, get blown to bits inwar or waste their lives away in front of the television set."by Michael Krieger"As in every totalitarianstate, the first victims are the vulnerable, and in the UnitedStates this means poor people of color. In the name of the "waron drugs" or the necessity of enforcing immigration laws,those trapped in our urban internal colonies are effectively strippedof their rights."Chris Hedges"While the number of super-richis skyrocketing, one million women have died in childbirth dueto lack of basic health care, and 57 million children do not receiveany form of education.16 billionaires live in Sub-Saharan Africa alongside 358 millionpeople living in extreme poverty, while inequality in South Africais higher than it was at the end of apartheid."Luke MacGregor"President Clinton andother recent White House tenants condemned Haiti to a future ofendemic poverty through a self-serving U.S. rice export policy."a study of the economic liberalizationstrategies imposed by the U.S. on Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s"In the US's War on Terror,by far the greatest and most systematic terrorization of civiliansis in fact perpetrated by the US state itself. Unarmed citizensare murdered across the world as 'collateral damage', 'illegalenemy combatants' or other license of impunity, but this realityis taboo to report and so too all the killing and terrorizationof civilians. The historical record demonstrates the US is provablyguilty of continual lawless mass murder of civilians across theworld, but the truth is unthinkable within the ruling ideologicalregime."Professor Mujahid Kamran"The average British householdcontributes £245 a year to the EU's Common AgriculturalPolicy - most of which is handed out to the wealthiest landowners.In 2011 the Duke of Westminster, the UK's richest home-grown billionairewhose Grosvenor Estate includes the most valuable real estatein London (in Belgravia and Mayfair), received a sweet ¤1.1million in EU handouts. The Duke of Devonshire picked up ¤490,000,the Duke of Buccleuch ¤510,000, the Earl of Plymouth ¤700,000and the Earl of Moray a cool ¤1 million."www.blacklistednews.com"The impact of "developmentfinancing" is often to increase debt rather than to facilitatedevelopment and to enrich multinational corporations rather thanto build domestic industries... Nearly half of all World Bankfinancing goes directly to the multinational corporations thatare the real beneficiaries of "foreign aid" and "developmentassistance."... The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund began totie loans to "structural adjustment" programs, whichchanneled more of the debtor country's financial and productiveresources toward debt repayment.... Structural adjustments were originally imposed on an ad hocbasis upon individual nations when it appeared that they couldnot keep up with existing debt payments. By 1985, fifteen debtornations had been subjected to SAPs, and by 1991, a quarter ofthe World Bank's total lending was tied to structural adjustmentin 54 nations. As more of the "debtor" nations' dwindlingresources went to debt service, new loans were simply used torepay previous loans, and the total debt of the low income nationsmore than quadrupled from $100 to $473 billion between 1980 and1992. World Bank and IMF "reforms" continued, and bythe mid-1990s, more than a hundred countries and 80 percent ofthe world's population had been "structurally adjusted."The average developing nation's debt payments were a third ofits gross national product.... When no more money or exports can be squeezed from the poor,selling state-owned companies to Northern corporations becomesan option... Once again, a handful of multinational corporationsare the beneficiaries.... Structural adjustment proved to be such a useful tool forleveraging corporate power that it was time to make it a permanentpart of the global economy, and that is just what the internationaltrade treaties of the 1990s have done-codified the elements ofstructural adjustment into international law."George Draffan"The situation is muchlike what existed in the Middle Ages, with today's poor underclassmuch in the position of the peasants, and the super-rich likethe nobility."www.washingtonsblog.com"The global elite thriveson war and widespread human misery, on death and destruction bydesign."Prof. Mujahid Kamran"In seeking to export ourform of government to Iraq and Afghanistan, we've produced nottwo model democracies, but two emerging kleptocracies, fueledrespectively by oil and opium?William J. Astore"In a world where hundredsof millions of people are living without access to clean drinkingwater and without enough food to feed their families, a smallelite have more money than they could spend in several lifetimes."Oxfam's chief executive Mark Goldring"Billions of euros willcontinue to be pried from the half-empty pockets of Europe's austerity-wrackedworkers and deposited in the bank accounts of some of the continent'swealthiest companies and families - not once, as happened withthe bank bailouts, but in perpetuity. In the most perverse ofincentives, the more land the nobility, both of old and new, buyup, the more money they will receive in welfare checks."www.blacklistednews.com"If the world's billionaireswere taxed at just 1.5 percent on their wealth over one billiondollars, it would raise more than $70 billion a year, enough tofill the annual gap of funding needed for basic medical care andeducation in the poorest countries."Luke MacGregor"The 85 richest peoplein the world now have the same wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest.That was one of the findings of a report from UK-based Oxfam International,which also concluded that the wealthiest 1% of the global populationowns roughly half of the world's wealth. Inequality is risingmost rapidly in the US, where the richest 1% have benefitted themost from economic growth since 2009. During that same period,the poorest 90% in the US became poorer."Benjamin Dangl"Political authority and power in America have beentransformed into a savage form of corporate governance and rule.The United States has moved from a market economy to a marketsociety in which all vestiges of the public good and social contractare viewed with disdain and aggressively eliminated."Henry Giroux"The international communityis not helping rebuild Haiti. It is improving colonialism in Haitiwith its companies, using the country's population as slave laborto boost profits. The startling difference between the slow reconstructionefforts for Haitians as opposed to the rapid rise of the luxuryhotel industry shows that in Haiti, the foreigners come first."Julie Lévesque"According to the CensusBureau, 28% of children are now born into poverty. This marksa dramatic increase from an already alarming 25% in 2008. In total,the Census Bureau reports that 22% of children live in poverty.However, when we make the proper adjustments to the methodologyof the poverty rate, an even more horrifying 45% of children livein poverty. That means there are currently 33,389,063 US childrenliving in households that cannot afford basic necessities."David DeGraw, 2014"Neoliberalism has createda U.S. society of ruling brutes for whom pain and suffering arenow viewed as entertainment, warfare a permanent state of existence,and militarism as the most powerful force shaping masculinity.Politics has taken an exit from ethics and thus the issue of socialcosts is divorced from any form of intervention in the world."Henry Giroux, 2014NO JUSTICE FOR THEHAVE-NOTS"Americans now live undera form of casino capitalism and promulgates what might be calledan all-embracing punishing state. Idealism and hope for a betterfuture has been replaced by a repressive disciplining machineand a surveillance state that turns every space into a war zone,criminalizes social problems, and legitimates state violence asthe most important practice for addressing important social issues.The carceral state and the surveillance state now work togetherto trump security over freedom and justice while solidifying therule of the financial elite and the reigning financial servicessuch as banks, investment houses, and hedge funds, all of whichprofit from the expanding reach of the punishing state. "Henry Giroux, 2014"Since 1980 the UnitedStates has constructed the world's largest prison system, populatedwith 2.3 million inmates, 25 percent of the world's prison population.Police, to keep the system filled with bodies, have had most legalconstraints on their behavior removed. They serve as judge andjury on the streets of American cities. The police, who are often little more than predatory, armed gangsin inner-city neighborhoods, arbitrarily decide who lives, whodies and who spends years in prison. They rarely fight crime orprotect the citizen. They round up human beings like cattle tomeet arrest quotas, the prerequisite for receiving federal cashin the "drug war." Because many crimes carry long mandatorysentences it is easy to intimidate defendants into "pleadingout" on lesser offenses. The arrested are acutely aware theyhave no chance - 97 percent of all federal cases and 94 percentof all state cases are resolved by guilty pleas rather than trials.The pressure employed by state and federal prosecutors to makedefendants accept guilty pleas - an action that often includeswaiving the right to appeal to a higher court - is "closerto coercion" than to bargaining. There are always policeinformants who, to reduce their own sentences, will tell a courtanything demanded of them by the police.Chris Hedges, 2014"The US has a vast gulagof 2.2 million prisoners in jail and penitentiary. There is anincreasing tendency for prisons to be privatized, and this tendencyis corrupting the system. It is wrong for people to profit fromputting and keeping human beings behind bars. This troubling trendis made all the more troubling by the move to give extra-longsentences for minor crimes, to deny parole and to imprison peoplefor life for three small thefts."Juan Cole"The mediaeval turn toembracing forms of punishment that inflict pain on the psychesand the bodies of young people, poor minorities, and immigrants,in particular, is part of a larger immersion of society in publicspectacles of violence. Under the neo-Darwinian ethos of survivalof the fittest, the ultimate form of entertainment becomes thepain and humiliation of others, especially those considered disposableand powerless, who are no longer an object of compassion, butof ridicule and amusement."Henry Giroux"The United States, withless than 5 percent of the global population, has almost 25 percentof the world's prisoners. One in nine black men between twentyand thirty-four is behind bars."Chris Hedges"Police forces in Americaare oppressive organizations controlled by corporate America.Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries.... The police system is corrupt, police are oppressing not onlythe black community, but also the whites."retired Philadelphia Police Captain,Ray Lewis"The police have been turnedinto soldiers who view the neighbourhoods in which they operateas war zones. Outfitted with full riot gear, submachine guns,armoured vehicles, and other lethal weapons imported from thebattlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, their mission is to assumebattle-ready behaviour."Henry Giroux, 2014"The bodies of the incarceratedpoor fuel our system of neo-slavery. In prisons across the country,private corporations profit from captive prison labor. The incarceratedwork eight-hour days for as little as a dollar a day. Phone companies,food companies, private prisons and a host of other corporationsfeed like jackals off those we hold behind bars. And the lackof employment and the collapse of education and vocational trainingin communities across the United States are part of the design.This design - with its built-in allure from the illegal economy,the only way for many of the poor to make a living - ensures ratesof recidivism of over 60 percent. There are millions of poor peoplefor whom this country is little more than a vast penal colony.Chris Hedges, 2014"The US has the largestprison population in the world, not only as a percentage of thepopulation but also in absolute numbers. America has an absolutelarger number of incarcerated citizens than "authoritarian"China, a country with four times the US population.... Today the criminal justice system is largely indifferent toa defendant's guilt or innocence. This is a far worst problemthan racism. It is the main reason that there are so many falseconvictions in the US and so many wrongfully convicted Americansin prison. ... The primary reason for wrongful conviction is that the successindicator for police, prosecutor, and judge is conviction, notjustice. Crimes are solved by wrongful convictions. High convictionrates boost the careers of prosecutors, and high profile convictionsboost their political careers.... Very few wrongful convictions are mistakes. They are donewillfully, because the overriding incentive of the American criminaljustice system is to produce convictions at all cost.... In America, police, prosecutorial and judicial misconductseldom bear any cost. ... State and federal courts have persistently insulated prosecutorsfrom accountability for egregious misconduct that results in innocentpeople being sent to death row. In 2011 a Republican Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor cannotbe held liable for misconduct in a criminal case, even if he intentionallyand illegally withheld evidence of innocence.Criminal actions against the innocent are now the legalized policyof the American criminal justice system.... America is a country totally devoid of justice where law existssolely for the economic benefit of those whose careers rise withconviction rates, whether of the innocent or the guilty."Paul Craig Roberts, 2017"The US has not only alarger percentage of its citizens in prison than any other countryon earth, but also the largest absolute number of prisoners. TheUS actually has more of its citizens in prison than "authoritarian"China which has a population four times larger than the US. TheUS, possibly the greatest human rights abuser in history, is constantlybringing human rights charges against China. Where are the humanrights charges against Washington?"Paul Craig Roberts, 2013"Domestic terrorism nowfunctions to punish young people whenever they exercise the rightof dissent, protesting peacefully, or just being targeted becausethey are minorities of class and color and considered a threatand in some cases disposable."Henry Giroux, 2014"Police arrest some 13million people a year, 1.6 million of them on drug charges andhalf of those on marijuana counts. They take DNA samples frommany whom they arrest to build a nationwide database that includesboth the guilty and the innocent. And they charge each of thesampled arrestees $50 for DNA processing. They confiscate cash,cars, homes and other possessions based on allegations of illegaldrug activity and use the proceeds to swell police budgets. Theyimpose fines in poor neighborhoods for absurd offenses - ridinga bicycle on a sidewalk or not having an ID - to fleece the pooror, if they cannot pay, toss them into jail. And before deportingundocumented workers the state levels fines, often in the thousandsof dollars, on those being held by the U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement agency in order to empty their pockets before theyare shipped out. Prisoners locked in cages often spend decadesattempting to pay off thousands of dollars, sometimes tens ofthousands, in court fines from the paltry $28 a month they earnin prison jobs; the government, to make sure it gets its money,automatically deducts a percentage each month from their prisonpaychecks. It is a vast extortion racket run against the poorby the corporate state, which also makes sure that the interestrates of mortgages, car loans, student loans and credit card loansare set at predatory levels."Chris Hedges, 2014UNAFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE"YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE""The US has the most dysfunctionalhealthcare system in the industrial world. It has about twicethe per capita costs and some of the worst outcomes. It's alsothe only privatized system."Noam Chomsky"The US now has the mostexpensive healthcare system in the world."David DeGraw, 2014"Health care costs area cause of two-thirds of the personal bankruptcies in United States."Kevin Zeese"The only way everyonewill get insurance is with national health insurance. People withcatastrophic illness usually lose their jobs and lose their insurance.They often cannot afford the high premiums for the insurance theycan get when they are unable to work. Most families that filefor bankruptcy because of medical costs had insurance before theygot sick. They either lost the insurance because they lost theirjobs or faced gaps in coverage that meant they could not affordmedical care."Stephanie Woolhandler, MD"Our health system costs nearly twice as much as nationalprograms in countries such as Switzerland. The overhead for traditionalMedicare is 3 percent, and the overhead for the investment-ownedcompanies is 26.5 percent. A staggering 31 percent of our health-careexpenditures is spent on administrative costs."Chris Hedges"The health insurance industryhas always tried to make Americans think that government-run systemsare the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. They haveused scare tactics for years to keep that from happening. If therewere a broader public health insurance program like Medicare,it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies.So that is their biggest concern."Wendell Potter"Despite a lofty reputationand purported commitment to universal coverage, AMA has foughtalmost every major effort at health care reform of the past 70years."Sam Stein"We've got a medical systemin which private for-profit insurers are spending a lot of moneytrying to avoid sick people."Robert Reich, 2009"In every industrial countryexcept the United States, the government uses its massive purchasingpower to negotiate drug prices. That's one of the reasons pricesare so much higher in the United States than in other countries.But, by law, the government is not permitted to do that in thecase of healthcare.Noam Chomsky"Health insurers confusetheir customers and dump the sick so they can satisfy their WallStreet investors. They look carefully to see if a sick policyholdermay have omitted a minor illness or a pre-existing condition,when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justificationto cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed apremium payment. ...The average family doesn't understandhow Wall Street's dictates determine whether they will be offeredcoverage, whether they can keep it, and how much they'll be chargedfor it. But, in fact, Wall Street plays a powerful role. The toppriority of for-profit companies is to drive up the value of theirstock.... The health insurance industry and its backers are usingfear tactics to tar a transparent, publicly-accountable healthcare option as a government-run system. But what we have todayis a Wall Street-run system.... Health insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping,they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and theymake it nearly impossible to understand-or even to obtain-informationwe need... Our health care system is both the most expensive andone of the most dysfunctional in the world."Wendell Potter testimony beforethe U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation,June 24, 2009"The for-profit insuranceindustry through waste, fraud, abuse and bureaucracy eats up 31%of the cost of health care in the United States."Kevin Zeese"The health insurance andhospital industries are highly concentrated, dominated by marketpower that allows providers and insurers to overcharge Americansby 50 to 100 percent more than other nations pay for equal orbetter care and universal coverage."Jon Walker, Firedoglake"62 percent of all bankruptciesin the United States are due at least in part to medical illnessor medical bills and that the majority of folks in medical bankruptcystarted that illness with private health insurance."Dr. Steffie Woolhandler"Capitalists should neverbe allowed near a health care system. They hold sick childrenhostage as they force parents to bankrupt themselves in the desperatescramble to pay for medical care."Chris Hedges"All that stands in theway of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrialcomplex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and thegullibility of voters who believe those lies."economist Paul Krugman"They health insurancecompanies have been part of the problem in a major way. They'vebeen immoral all along. They are doing everything in their powerto stop a public health insurance option from happening."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2009"The health insurance industryshifted from selling primarily managed care plans, to what theyrefer to as consumer-driven plans. And they're really plans thathave very high deductibles, meaning that they're shifting a lotof the cost off health care from employers and insurers, insurancecompanies, to individuals. And a lot of people can't even affordto make their co-payments when they go get care, as a result ofthis."Wendell Potter, former Cigna seniorexecutive, 2009"With government collusion,health insurance industry created a system of inhumane rationingthat denies insurance to nearly 50 million and hawks fraudulentcoverage to tens of millions more. The failure of the insurancesystem leads directly to the most egregious rationing of actualhealth care of any industrialized nation. Only in America is aprivate system allowed to bankrupt and deny care to millions,causing tens of thousands to die every year."Jon Walker, Firedoglake"Percentage change since2002 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies:+87%Percentage change in the profits of the top ten insurance companies:+428%The percentage American families bankrupted by medical bills thathave health insurance: 7 in 10."Harper's Index, September 2009"We force 700,000 Americansinto bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France,the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan:zero. Germany: zero."T.R. Reid"The health insurance industrywants all the uninsured to have to be enrolled in a private insuranceplan. They see those 50 million uninsured people as 50 millionpotential customers. They see this as a way to essentially lockthem into the system, and ensure their profitability in the future...Behind the scenes, the health insurance industry uses front groupsand third-party advocates and ideological allies. And, those inCongress who are aligned with them philosophically, to do thedirty work, to demean and scare people about a government-runplan, to try to make people not even remember that their Medicareprogram, is a government-run plan that has operated very efficiently.The satisfaction ratings are higher in our Medicare program, agovernment-run program, than in private insurance. But the healthinsurance industry doesn't want you to know that, and they wantto scare you into thinking that any government-run system is bad."Wendell PotterEDUCATION FOR THERICH"In most states, tuitioncovers more than half of the costs for colleges. Pretty soon onlythe community colleges will be publicly financed under currenttendencies and even they are under attack. The era of affordablefour-year public universities, heavily subsidised by the state,may be over.Meanwhile in private universities, costs are going out of sight.Students often find themselves in a debt trap, which has now passeda trillion dollars - higher than the total debt in credit cards.Student debt is exceptionally punishing. Most debt you can getout of in more or less unpleasant ways, like declaring bankruptcy.Not in this case. There's no expiration date on the debt. Collectorscan garnish your wages, unemployment benefits and Social Securityfor the rest of your life. That's a very effective trap for students."Noam Chomsky, 2013"In the current economy73% of people with student debt will not be able to pay it backwhile also maintaining the cost of living, without going deeperinto debt. The US government has sentenced graduates to a lifetimeof ever-increasing debt and ever-declining living standards."David DeGraw, 2014"The elite school activelyseeks students who suffer from the appropriate imbalance and thensets out to exaggerate it. Imagination, creativity, moral balance,knowledge, common sense, a social view - all these things wither.Competitiveness, having an ever-ready answer, a talent for manipulatingsituations - all these things are encouraged to grow. As a resultamorality also grows; as does extreme aggressively when they arequestioned by outsiders; as does a confusion between the natureof good versus having a ready answer to all questions. Above all,what is encouraged is the growth of an undisciplined form of self-interest,in which winning is what counts."John Ralston Saul in his book 'Voltaire'sBastards'"Harvard is very well endowed.It has at least $20 or $25 billion. Schools like Yale, Stanford,and Princeton are not far behind."Chris Hedges"The average student loandebt is now $33,000. Until the Obama administration went Keynesian,student loan debt was primarily in the private sector. In 2008,total student loan debt was $620 billion and delinquencies totaled$50 billion. There are now $1.3 trillion of student loans outstanding,with the Federal government accounting for $830 billion and guaranteeinga large portion of the rest. Delinquencies have skyrocketed to$125 billion, as another taxpayer bailout beckons."www.washingtonsblog.com, 2014"Thirty-six private collegepresidents were paid more than $1 million in 2012. Median paywas nearly $400,000. The highest paid president in 2012 was Shirley Ann Jackson fromNew York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She made $7.1 million.RPI specializes in engineering and science and has 5,400 undergradstudents and 1,200 graduate students. The president of a similarly sized school, Quinnipiac University,came in second. John Lahey raked in $3.8 million that year, his25th at the school. Columbia University's Lee Bollinger made $3.4 million in 2012.Rounding out the top five are University of Pennsylvania's AmyGuttman, who got $2.5 million, and Charles Middleton at RooseveltUniversity in Chicago who made $1.8 million. ... Meanwhile, average tuition at private colleges was up 4.2%that year, jumping from $27,883 to $29,056, according to The CollegeBoard. And it's still on the rise. This year, tuition is up 3.7%.More students are taking on debt to finance their college education.Forty million Americans now have at least one outstanding studentloan. That's up from 29 million in 2008."Katie Lobosco"For everybody who canafford the price of a Harvard diploma and a pet politician, Americais a very nice place to live; for people not so fortunately situated,America is fast becoming a brand name pasted on a bad movie oran empty box."Lewis H. Lapham"The student loan industryis huge - a large majority of students from every type of schoolare in debt. Debt is held by 62 percent of students enrolled atpublic colleges and universities, 72 percent at private non-profitschools and 96 percent at private, for-profit schools. It wasannounced last summer that total student loan debt, at $830 billion,now exceeds total US credit card debt... And student loan debtis growing at the rate of $90 billion a year."Alan Nasser, CounterPunch, "TheStudent Loan Swindle""The Bay Area of Californiais one of the richest regions on earth. They are destroying thegreatest public education system in the world, systematically.The major universities are practically being privatized for therich, becoming like Ivy League colleges. And educational opportunitiesin the rest of the public system are slowly being modified toprovide some kind of technical training."Noam Chomsky"Things have become worsesince 2005 when Congress passed a much more onerous bankruptcylaw at the urging of the financial industry. Some types of debt,such as student loans and taxes, can never be forgiven."Richard C. Cook"The explosion in the costof a college education is one of the Economic Elite's most devastatingweapons. To have any chance of succeeding in this economy, itis commonly believed that you must attend the best college possible.With the rising costs involved, today's students are graduatingwith record levels of debt from student loans. At the same time,the unemployment rate among recent college graduates has risenhigher than the national average, and those who do find work aremaking significantly less than they expected to make. This combinationof extreme debt and reduced pay has crippled an entire generationright from the start and has put them in a vicious cycle of spiralingdebt that they will struggle with for the rest of their lives."David DeGraw"It's not possible forstudent debtors to escape financial devastation by declaring bankruptcy.This most fundamental of consumer protections would have beenavailable to student debtors were it not for legislation explicitlydesigned to withhold a whole range of basic protections from studentborrowers. I'm not talking only about bankruptcy protection, butalso truth in lending requirements, statutes of limitations, refinancingrights and even state usury laws - Congress has rendered all theseprotections inapplicable to federally guaranteed student loans.The same legislation also gave collection agencies hitherto unimaginablepowers, for example to garnish wages, tax returns, Social Securitybenefits and disability income.... Legislators made the suspension of state-issued professionallicenses, termination of public employment and denial of securityclearances legitimate measures to enable collection companiesto wring financial blood from bankrupt student-loan borrowers.Student loan debt is the most punishable of all forms of debt- most of those draconian measures are unavailable to credit cardcompanies."Alan Nasser, CounterPunch, "TheStudent Loan Swindle""Legions of self-centered,spoiled, intellectually limited and wealthy elitists are churnedout by places like Andover, Yale, and Harvard, propelled forwardby money and connections. The real purpose of these richly endowedschools is to perpetuate their own."Chris HedgesCONTROLLING THE PEOPLE"The United States is movinginto an era unlike any of its predecessors; we were moving towarda technotronic era that could easily become a dictatorship.... Our society is now in an information revolution based on amusementfocus, spectacles which provide an opiate for an increasinglypurposeless mass.... At the same time the capacity to assert social and politicalcontrol over the individual will vastly increase. It will soonbe possible to assert almost continuous control over every citizenand to maintain up-to-date files, containing even the most personaldetails about health and personal behavior of every citizen inaddition to the more customary data.These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by theauthorities. Power will gravitate into the hands of those whocontrol information. Our existing institutions will be supplantedby pre-crisis management institutions, the task of which willbe to identify in advance likely social crises and to developprograms to cope with them.This will encourage tendencies through the next several decadestoward a technotronic era, a dictatorship, leaving even less roomfor political procedures as we know them. Finally, looking aheadto the end of the century, the possibility of biochemical mindcontrol and genetic tickering with man, including beings whichwill function like men and reason like them as well, could giverise to some difficult questions."National Security Adviser ZbigniewBrzezinski wrote in 1970"The shadow of Orwell'snightmarish vision of a totalitarian society with its all-embracingreach of surveillance and repression now works its way throughAmerican politics like a lethal virus. Orwell's dystopia has cometo fruition, reshaping the American body politic."Henry Giroux, 2014"The goal of the corporatestate is to create a total control society - one in which thegovernment is able to track the movements of people in real timeand control who does what, when and where. In exchange, the governmentpromises to provide security and convenience, the two highly manipulative,siren-song catchwords of our modern age."John W. Whitehead"Police and national intelligenceand security agencies, which carry out wholesale surveillanceagainst the population and serve as the corporate elite's brutalenforcers, are omnipotent by intention. They are designed to impartfear, even terror, to keep the population under control."Chris Hedges"The society of expertswill control propaganda and education. It will teach loyalty tothe world government, and make nationalism high treason. The government,being an oligarchy, will instill submissiveness into the greatbulk of the population It is possible that it may invent ingeniousways of concealing its own power, leaving the forms of democracyintact, and allowing the plutocrats or politicians to imaginethat they are cleverly controlling these forms whatever the outwardforms may be, all real power will come to be concentrated in thehands of those who understand the art of scientific manipulation."Bertrand Russell"What keeps most Americansfrom being shocked by the shredding of the Bill of Rights is thatthey have yet to feel the consequences, either personally or throughsomeone close to them. It would appear, however, that they onlyhave to wait."William Blum in his book "RogueState""I cannot say that ourcountry could have no central police without becoming totalitarian,but I can say with great conviction that it cannot become totalitarianwithout a centralized national police ... A national police...will have enough on enough people, even if it does not elect toprosecute them, so that it will find no opposition to its policies."Supreme Court justice Robert H.Jackson 'The Supreme Court in the American System of Government'(1955)"The future era involvesthe gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a societywould be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values.Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillanceover every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containingeven the most personal information about the citizen. These fileswill be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities."National Security Adviser ZbigniewBrzezinski wrote in 1970"The most outrageous ofthe FBI's activities was its COINTELPRO operation, which the Bureauadmitted it had conducted for fifteen years, between 1956 and1971. Under this program, a secret arm of the United States government,using taxpayers' funds, harassed American citizens and disruptedtheir organizations, using a wide variety of covert techniques."David Wise"It's worse than GeorgeOrwell could have imagined in his book "1984" becausefechnological advancements between his time and ours.The power of government today to control far exceeds what BigBrother had in Orwell's imagination. Homeland Security has announced that it is no longer focused onterrorists, but on domestic extremists - and that's war protesters,radical enviromentalists and people that disagree with the government."Paul Craig Roberts, 2012"In the U.S., the FederalBureau of Investigation that does the secret police dirty workof ensuring compliance, keeping tabs on potential dissidents,and punishing those who dare to challenge the status quo.Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagoguesand mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access toAmericans' phone records; using intimidation tactics to silenceAmericans who are critical of the government, or persuading impressionableindividuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, theoverall impression of the nation's secret police force is thatof a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss'dirty work."John W. Whitehead"The Military CommissionsAct of 2006 effectively suspended habeas corpus and freed up theexecutive branch to designate any American citizen an "enemycombatant" forfeiting all privileges accorded under the Billof Rights."Christopher Ketcham"One of the characteristicsof tyranny is the monitoring and surveillance of citizens. Doneprimarily as a means of control, this has existed in every authoritarianstate, not to mention totalitarian dictatorship, which seeks totalcontrol of the population. The defense is almost always basedon national security grounds."William F. Pepper in his book "AnAct of State: the Execution of Martin Luther King""Anyone who speaks outagainst the government's policies could be declared an 'unlawfulenemy combatant' and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes Americancitizens."Military Commissions Act, 2006"The last twenty yearsof global "free market" economy have destroyed, throughpoverty and social destitution, the lives of millions of people.Rather than addressing an impending social catastrophe, Westerngovernments, which serve the interests of the economic elites,have installed a "Big Brother" police state, with amandate to confront and repress all forms of opposition and socialdissent."Andrew Gavin Marshall"When and if a true historyof the FBI is ever written, it will not only track the rise ofthe American police state but it will also chart the decline offreedom in America: how a nation that once abided by the ruleof law and held the government accountable for its actions hassteadily devolved into a police state where justice is one-sided,a corporate elite runs the show, representative government isa mockery, police are extensions of the military, surveillanceis rampant, privacy is extinct, and the law is little more thana tool for the government to browbeat the people into compliance."John W. WhiteheadIMMUNITY PASSPORTNO VACCINATION - NO TRAVEL"Years ago, "conspiracytheorists" were ridiculed for warning of a system in whichvaccines would be required to access normal aspects of life. Today,however, government officials and the mainstream media are openlydiscussing the very same system.For the moment, vaccine passports are mainly intended for internationaltravel. However, their use can be extended to many other areasof life. Vaccine passports in the form of free mobile apps inwhich a traveler uploads their COVID-19 test results or vaccinationstatus. Whatever the "new normal" is for travel will quicklyspill over into everyday lifeResearchers suspect these new "passports" will quicklybe extended to employment, education, and even buying food."Robert Wheeler, Global Research, 2020"A coalition of big techcompanies, including Microsoft is developing a COVID passport,with the expectation that a digital document linked to vaccinationstatus will be required to travel and get access to basic services.The group is calling itself the Vaccination Credential Initiative(VCI), and includes Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle.Anyone who has been vaccinated will receive a QR code that canbe stored on their mobile phone in the wallet app. Those withoutphones will have access to a printed version.The coalition expects standards to be adopted that will see mandatorynegative tests or proof of vaccination, in order to re-engagein society.The Commons Project has received funding from the RockefellerFoundation."Steve Watson, snapwire.com, 2021"The so-called COVID-PASSImmunity Passport is a smartphone app that will determine whogets to eat at restaurants versus who still has to get testedfor the coronavirus (COVID-19) and get vaccinated.If you go along with the New World Order, your COVI-PASS willgive a "green" light to proceed. If you do not, however,then your COVID-PASS will say "restricted" until youcomply.Endorsed by Bill Gates and other globalists, COVI-PASS is everyauthoritarian's dream come true, and it is coming to a countrynear you.Besides leisure and entertainment activities, COVI-PASS will alsogovern who gets to go back to work and who has to stay home andbasically starve.Those who desire entry into the new world will need to have COVI-PASSapproval, allowing them "safe" re-entry back into theirworkplaces.Residents of the new world will no longer be able to buy, sell,or do much of anything without a COVI-PASS, which is a dream cometrue for eugenicist Bill Gates, who lives not only to vaccinate,but also to control the human "herd" through technology.In the end, if you refuse vaccinations and COVI-PASS, you willnot be allowed to work, eat, or participate in society - whichsuggests that most people will accept these things just to survive."thetruthrevolution.net, 2020"Immunity passports wouldrequire people to present proof of immunity to COVID-19 in orderto access public spaces, work sites, airports, schools, or othervenues.In many proposed schemes, this proof would be stored in a digitaltoken on a phone.Immunity passports would be a significant step toward a systemof national digital identification that can be used to collectand store our personal information and track our location.... Advocates of immunity passports visualize a world where wecan't pass through a door to a workplace, school, or restaurantuntil the gatekeeper scans our credentials.This would habituate gatekeepers to demand such status credentials,and habituate the public to submit to these demands.This digital system could easily be expanded to check not justa person's immunity status, but any other bit of personal informationthat a gatekeeper might deem relevant.The system could be adjusted to document not just a person's status,but also when that person passed through a door that requiredproof of such status.And all data of all such passages could be accumulated into onedatabase.This would be a troubling step towards digital national identification,which would create new ways to digitally monitor our movementsand activities."EraOfLight, 6/1/2020UNIVERSAL ID CARDTOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS - PERSONAL,FINANCIAL, MEDICAL"The power of governmenttoday to control far exceeds what Big Brother had in Orwell'simagination. Homeland Security has announced that it is no longer focused onterrorists, but on domestic extremists - and that's war protesters,radical enviromentalists and people that disagree with the government."Paul Craig Roberts, 2012"What keeps most Americansfrom being shocked by the shredding of the Bill of Rights is thatthey have yet to feel the consequences, either personally or throughsomeone close to them. It would appear, however, that they onlyhave to wait."William Blum in his book "RogueState""When and if a true historyof the FBI is ever written, it will not only track the rise ofthe American police state but it will also chart the decline offreedom in America: how a nation that once abided by the ruleof law and held the government accountable for its actions hassteadily devolved into a police state where justice is one-sided,a corporate elite runs the show, representative government isa mockery, police are extensions of the military, surveillanceis rampant, privacy is extinct, and the law is little more thana tool for the government to browbeat the people into compliance."John W. Whitehead"National ID cards havelong been advocated as a means to enhance national security, unmaskpotential terrorists, and guard against illegal immigrants. Theyare in use in many countries around the world including most Europeancountries, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. ... The Clinton administration advocated a "Health SecurityCard" in 1993 and assured the public that the card, issuedto every American, would have "full protection for privacyand confidentiality." Still, the idea was rejected and thehealth security card was never created. ... In response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, there has beenrenewed interest in the creation of national ID cards. Larry Ellison,head of California-based software company Oracle Corporation,called for the development of a national identification system.He proposed ID cards with embedded digitized thumbprints and photographsof all legal residents in the U.S. ... The public continues to debate the issue, and there have beenmany other proposals for the creation of a national identificationsystem, some through the standardization of state driver's licenses.... The U.S. Congress has passed the REAL ID Act of 2005, whichmandates federal requirements for driver's licenses. Critics arguethat it would make driver's licenses into de facto national IDs.EPIC and others have called for the repeal of this ill-conceivednational identification law."Electronic Privacy InformationCenter (www.epic.org)"An effective solutionto dissuade illegal immigration would be to issue tamper-proof,biometric ID cards - using fingerprints or a comparably uniqueidentifier - to all citizens and legal residents."www.washingtonpost.com, February3, 2013"Creating a biometric nationalID will usher government into the very center of our lives. Everyworker in America will need a government permission slip in orderto work. And all of this will come with a new federal bureaucracy.America's broken immigration system needs real, workable reform,but it cannot come at the expense of privacy and individual freedoms."Christopher Calabrese, ACLU legislativecounsel"Democratic congressionalleaders go to great lengths to say that their immigration reformproposal is not a national ID card, and make it unlawful for anyperson, corporation; organization local, state, or federal lawenforcement officer; local or state government; or any other entityto require or even ask an individual cardholder to produce theirSocial Security card for any purpose other than electronic verificationof employment eligibility and verification of identity for SocialSecurity Administration purposes.But it's still a biometric national ID card. ... Essentially,if you want to participate in the American economy, you need thiscard."Ezra Klein, Washington Post, 2010"Universal Electronic Card (UEC) is an identity E-cardthat is issued to Russian citizens starting from January 2013and is gradually replacing the Internal Passport of Russia. TheUEC allows remote order, pay and receive government services,replaces a number of documents, including medical insurance policiesand pension insurance certificate, bringing together differentservices on a single card including electronic purse, debit card,electronic signature, the ticket and other possibilities."Wikipedia"Russia will adopt a universalID card starting 2012. The Universal Electronic Card (UEC) isintended to eventually replace all local, regional, and nationalforms of ID, providing a central database through which Russianscan access everything from medical insurance to ATMs. The UEC is designed to push the Russian ID system into the 21stcentury. Not only is the card to provide a way for citizens toeasily make electronic purchases, it is supposed to cut down onfraud. While it doesn't seem to include any biometrics, the cardhas other security measures. All information will be stored ina database, not on the card. The UEC will have a number, a 'passcode',that points the user to the appropriate record in the database.For financial transactions users will be able to set predefinedlimits so that the card can only withdraw a restricted amountof funds over a period of time. Each use of the UEC will requirethe entry of a personal identification number. Everyone will begranted a fake PIN as well! If someone is coercing you into usingyour UEC, then enter the fake PIN. Authorities will be notifiedsurreptitiously while the transaction appears to be continuingregularly.... Starting in 2012, Russians will be able to carry the UEC andstart connecting it to their bank accounts, credit cards, buspasses, etc. Due to the legal mandate most of the businesses andall of the local/regional/national services will be required toaccept it. But Russia's not going to be alone in this. India isadopting a universal ID for national identity, and is going toencourage public institutions and commercial enterprises to acceptit. The Indian UID, however, will contain some pretty thoroughbiometrics. Programs in Mexico will experiment with iris-basedidentification for public and commercial purposes. Universal ID,especially those with advanced security features, seem to be arising trend on the global stage.... There are some real benefits here. Convenience, certainly.Many Russians simply don't have a way to make a secure purchaseonline, and their public system is a warren of overlapping IDcards that require an equally tangled bureaucracy. Properly setup, a UID tied into bank accounts could help you keep track ofpurchases and manage finances with greater accuracy. ... With a single ID, agencies will be able to track personalactivity more precisely. That could mean catching terrorists,but it could also mean a large scale invasion of privacy. Themore often we see universal ID adoption, the more some form ofthat technology is going to spread to every industrialized nationaround the world. Government or private issue, service or commercialorientated, biometrically enhanced or not - UID is on the rise."Aaron Saenz, January 18, 2011,www.singularityhub.com"Electronic money is moneywhich exists only in banking computer systems and is not heldin any physical form. In the United States, only a small fractionof the currency in circulation exists in physical form. The needfor physical currency has declined as more and more citizens useelectronic alternatives to physical currency.In the U.S. many people receive their paychecks through directdeposit, move money with electronic fund transfers, and spendmoney with credit and debit cards. While physical currency stillhas advantages in certain situations, its role has gradually diminished.While it might seem to be a worrying thought that your bank accountbalance is nothing but an entry in a computer system, it is reallynothing new. Fiat paper currency has no inherent worth either."www.investopedia.com" E-money refers to anymoney that is only transferred electronically. Digital currencyproviders may make their money selling the e-currency to consumersor by charging transaction fees to change e-money into actualcurrency. Several e-money scripts are eCash, eCache, WebMoney,Google Checkout and Gogopay. Digital currency can offer more privacythan debit and credit card transactions.... Credit cards are consumer loans. The consumer is charged intereston the amount of debt they charge on the credit card. Credit cardsare legal contracts and can go into collections if not paid. ... Both e-money and credit cards are frequently used in onlinepurchases. Both online transactions using credit cards and e-moneyrequire the Internet to send money. Both forms of currency canbe used anywhere in the world if the vendor accepts that meansof payment. Both credit card transactions and e-money via digitalcurrencies require trust between sender and receiver. Both e-moneyand credit cards rely on the same advances in encryption to transferinformation digitally.... Many e-money accounts for digital currencies are initiallyfunded by the user's credit card. ... E-money when used to transfer legal tender between vendorsor individuals can be exchanged for cash. Digital currencies arenot legal tender, though that currency may be traded with thelocal currency. "www.ehow.comSURVEILLANCE INTERNET, CELL PHONES, EMAIL, VIDEOSURVEILLANCE, DRONES, CORNEAL SCANS, FACIAL RECOGNITION"There was of course noway of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in onany individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable thatthey watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they couldplug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live-didlive, from habit that became instinct-in the assumption that everysound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movementscrutinized."George Orwell, from his novel "1984""The NSA specifically targetsthe communications of everyone. It ingests them by default. Itcollects them in its system and it filters them and it analyzesthem and it measures them and it stores them for periods of timesimply because that's the easiest, most efficient and most valuableway to achieve these ends. So while they may be intending to targetsomeone associated with a foreign government, or someone thatthey suspect of terrorism, they are collecting your communicationsto do so."Edward Snowden"Totalitarian systems accrueto themselves omnipotent power by first targeting and demonizinga defenseless minority. Poor African-Americans, like Muslims,have been stigmatized by elites and the mass media. The state,promising to combat the "lawlessness" of the demonizedminority, demands that authorities be emancipated from the constraintsof the law. Arguments like this one were used to justify the "waron drugs" and the "war on terror"."Chris Hedges, 2014"In the future, whetherit's entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace,getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medicalrecords pulled up, everything will come off that unique key thatis your iris. iris. Every person, place, and thing on this planetwill be connected to the iris system."Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers"The capacity to assertsocial and political control over the individual will vastly increase.It will soon be possible to assert almost continuous control overevery citizen and to maintain up-to-date files, containing eventhe most personal details about health and personal behavior ofevery citizen, in addition to the more customary data. These fileswill be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.Power will gravitate into the hands of those who control information.Our existing institutions will be supplanted by pre-crisis managementinstitutions, the task of which will be to identify in advance,likely social crises and to develop programs to cope with them."Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book'Between Ages, America's Role in the Technetronic Era'"I do not want to livein a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That isnot something I am willing to support or live under.... I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy,and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."Edward Snowden"[The National SecurityAgency's monitoring capability] at any time could be turned aroundon the American people and no American would have any privacyleft, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephoneconversations, telegrams, it ç doesn't matter. There wouldbe no place to hide. If this government ever became a tyranny,if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technologicalcapacity that the intelligence community has given the governmentcould enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be noway to fight back, because the most careful effort to combinetogether in resistance to the government, no matter how privatelyit was done, is within the reach of the government to know. Suchis the capability of this technology... I know the capabilitythat is there to make tyranny total in America."Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligencein 1975"New security technologiescould one day make a digital surveillance state a reality, changingfundamentally the character of American democracy."Prof. Alfred W. McCoy"The shadow of Orwell'snightmarish vision of a totalitarian society with its all-embracingreach of surveillance and repression now works its way throughAmerican politics like a lethal virus. Orwell's dystopia has cometo fruition, reshaping the American body politic."Henry Giroux, 2014"Police and national intelligenceand security agencies, which carry out wholesale surveillanceagainst the population and serve as the corporate elite's brutalenforcers, are omnipotent by intention. They are designed to impartfear, even terror, to keep the population under control."Chris Hedges"One of the characteristicsof tyranny is the monitoring and surveillance of citizens. Doneprimarily as a means of control, this has existed in every authoritarianstate, not to mention totalitarian dictatorship, which seeks totalcontrol of the population. The defense is almost always basedon national security grounds."William F. Pepper in his book "AnAct of State: the Execution of Martin Luther King""Even if you're not doinganything wrong, you're being watched and recorded. ...it's gettingto the point where you don't have to have done anything wrong,you simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody,even by a wrong call, and then they can use this system to goback in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, everyfriend you've ever discussed something with, and attack you onthat basis, to sort of derive suspicion from an innocent life."Edward Snowden"Police and national intelligenceand security agencies, which carry out wholesale surveillanceagainst the population and serve as the corporate elite's brutalenforcers, are omnipotent by intention. They are designed to impartfear, even terror, to keep the population under control. And untilthe courts and the legislative bodies give us back our rights- which they have no intention of doing - things will only getworse for the poor and the rest of us. We live in a post-constitutionalera."Chris HedgesDIGITAL CURRENCY ANDTHE CASHLESS SOCIETY"Currency will ultimatelybe digital. Cash will likely be banned to enhance control, andall payments will be authorized and monitored. Through a new waveof bank fees and fines, and charges for deposits, average peoplewill be hurt on all sides of transaction by money that has beenthoroughly debased and manipulated."Mac Slavo, 2015"Should a government staffmember suspect an individual of some misconduct, or perhaps deemthat person's politics or speech unacceptable. It would take justa few keystrokes to order all financial institutions to declineany withdrawal or payment from that individual or at least freezeany access to funds."Graham Vanbergen, 2015"The central banks areplanning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see movingto electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy,but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis...Physical paper money provides the check against negative interestrates for if they become too great, people will simply withdrawtheir funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allowsfor bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up withis the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw fundsfrom a bank."Martin Armstrong, 2015"It is not difficult toimagine what the implications of Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi's massive demonetization operation might have in a countrylike India, where hundreds of millions live in or near poverty,with a large rural population, where almost all transactions arecarried out in cash - and where cash is everything for survival.This is death by financial strangulation.No blood, No traces - no media coverage. It is a clandestine willfulmass-murder, carried out by the Indian government on its own people,while instigated by the chief assassins, operating from withinthe Washington Beltway.... This crime was dictated by Washington. A cooperation agreement,also called an "anti-cash partnership", between theUS development agency USAID, with the Indian Ministry of Finance,was worked out. One of their declared 'common objectives' wasgradually eliminating the use of cash by replacing it with digitalor virtual money."Peter Koenig"If all money becomes digital,it would be much easier for the government to manipulate our accounts....If society becomes cashless, dissenters can't hide cash. Allof their financial holdings would be vulnerable to an attack bythe government.This would be the ultimate form of control. Because - withoutaccess to money - people couldn't resist, couldn't hide and couldn'tescape".www.blacklistednews.com, 2015"The Federal Reserve bankand its owners, the largest banks on Wall Street, want badly tobe able to charge you interest for the privilege of depositingyour funds. The problem is getting you to stand for it."Mac Slavo, 2015"It is deemed by governmentofficials that cash is used for money laundering and tax evasion.Cash is bad for society in that respect. Not that the governmenthas stopped the biggest money launderers and facilitators of taxevasion in the world - the banks, the very organisations managingthis new system."Graham Vanbergen, 2015"Washington's interestin a cashless society goes far beyond the business interests ofIT, credit card and other financial institutions. More importantlyis the surveillance power that goes with digital payments. Aswith electronic communications today - every one of them read,listened to and spied on throughout the world - some 7 to 10 billionelectronic messages per day - every digital payment and transferwill be controlled and checked worldwide."Peter KoenigMEDIA CONTROL ANDPROPAGANDA"There is no such thing, at this date of the world'shistory, in America, as an independent press. You know it andI know it.There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions,and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appearin print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out ofthe paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similarsalaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolishas to write honest opinions would be out on the streets lookingfor another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear inone issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupationwould be gone.The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lieoutright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon,and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. Youknow it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independentpress?We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. Weare the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Ourtalents, our possibilities and our lives are all the propertyof other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."John Swinton, preeminent New Yorkjournalist, at a press banquet,1880"The most effective propagandais found not in the Sun newspaper (London) or on Fox News - butbeneath a liberal halo. When the New York Times published claimsthat Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, its fakeevidence was believed, because it wasn't Fox News; it was theNew York Times.The same is true of the Washington Post and the Guardian, bothof which have played a critical role in conditioning their readersto accept a new and dangerous cold war. All three liberal newspapershave misrepresented events in Ukraine as a malign act by Russia- when, in fact, the fascist led coup in Ukraine was the workof the United States, aided by Germany and NATO.This inversion of reality is so pervasive that Washington's militaryencirclement and intimidation of Russia is not contentious. It'snot even news, but suppressed behind a smear and scare campaignof the kind I grew up with during the first cold war."John Pilger"The long record of theUS state and its oligarch allies destroying societies across theworld is unspeakable in the mass media because they themselvesare financed and advertised in by the same transnational corporationsthat demand the resources and territories of societies everywhere."Professor Mujahid Kamran"A set of cultural apparatusesextending from schools and mainstream media to an idiotic celebrityculture and advertising apparatus, functions primarily to underminethe ability of individuals to think critically, imagine the unimaginable,and engage in thoughtful and critical dialogue. Put simply, tobecome critically informed citizens of the world."Henry Giroux"The major news outletsare controlled. Reporters understand the rules perfectly. Youdo not ever, criticize Israel. The endless wars get minimal coverageand almost nothing that would upset the public is covered.... The New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journalare quasi-governmental organs, predictably predictable and predictablydishonest. The truth is not in them.... You don't need to ban unwelcome books, because the only peoplewho read them already agree with them. You don't need to kickin doors at three in the morning to seize forbidden typewriters.People might revolt against that sort of thing. Just keep prohibitedtopics off the networks and out of the papers. It is enough."Fred Reed, 2014"How can the public havea government representing informed consent, if the 'news' mediaare constantly, and systematically, lying about the most importantthings, and covering up that government's worst, most heinous,crimes? Yet, this is what Americans have today.The United States is thus no longer a model for any country exceptfor a dictatorship. How likely is it that America's press willlet the American public know this now-established fact?"Eric Zuesse"The faux journalists beingpaid millions by one of the six corporations controlling the mediaand dependent upon the government, Wall Street bankers, and mega-corporationsfor their advertising revenues regurgitate whatever they are toldby those pulling the purse strings. The mainstream media are nothingbut propaganda peddlers for the Deep State and truth telling isprohibited in their world of deception, debt, and denial. Theirjob is to sustain, enhance, and further enrich the status quoby engineering consent through what they report and what theydo not report. The true ruling powers who operate in the shadowsbehind the scenes are men of power, wealth, status and educationwho truly believe they are better equipped to consciously manageand manipulate the public mind to achieve their ends."www.washingtonsblog.com"Had journalists done theirjob in 2003, had they questioned and investigated the propagandaabout Iraq's WMD, instead of amplifying it, hundreds of thousandsof men, women and children might be alive today; and millionsmight not have fled their homes; the sectarian war between Sunniand Shia might not have ignited, and the infamous Islamic Statemight not now exist.Most of the public in western countries have little idea of thesheer scale of the crime committed by our governments in Iraq.Even fewer are aware that, in the 12 years before the invasion,the US and British governments set in motion a holocaust by denyingthe civilian population of Iraq a means to live.... Denis Halliday, Assistant Secretary General of the UnitedNations and the senior UN official in Iraq, resigned rather thanimplement policies he described as genocidal. He estimates thatsanctions killed more than a million Iraqis.... The handmaidens of suppression have done their job well. In2013, a ComRes poll found that a majority of the British publicbelieved the casualty toll in Iraq was less than 10,000 - a tinyfraction of the truth. A trail of blood that goes from Iraq toLondon has been scrubbed almost clean."John Pilger"Six monolithic corporategiants control most of what we watch, hear and read every singleday. These giant corporations own television networks, cable channels,movie studios, newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, musiclabels and even many of our favorite websites."www.theeconomiccollapseblog.com, 2013"If you wonder how theworld could stumble into world war three - much as it did intoworld war one a century ago - all you need to do is look at themadness that has enveloped virtually the entire US political/mediastructure over Ukraine where a false narrative of white hats versusblack hats took hold early and has proved impervious to factsor reason."Robert Parry"The major media are notcomfortable with intelligence. Television is worst, the mediumof the illiterate, barely literate, stupid, uneducated, and uninterested.It cannot afford to air much that might puzzle these classes.Newspapers can assume that their subscribers can at least readbut, intelligence being pyramidal in distribution, have to focusof the lower end. They also have to avoid offending the advertisers,the politically correct, or the corporate ownership.By contrast, web sites have few of these problems. Since theyaggregate their readership from the whole planet, they do nothave to concern themselves with grocery ads in St. Louis. Theycost little to run. They do not need the bottom end of the distribution.And they have become multitudinous. Collectively you might callthem "a free press?"."Fred Reed, 2014"In 1977, Carl Bernstein,of Watergate fame, revealed that more than 400 journalists andnews executives worked for the CIA. They included journalistsfrom the New York Times, Time magazine and the TV networks. In1991, Richard Norton Taylor of the Guardian revealed somethingsimilar in Britain."John Pilger"If the British peoplereally knew the truth, the war (World War I) would be stoppedtomorrow, but of course they don't know and can't know."British prime minister David LloydGeorge confided in C.P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian"In the US's War on Terror,by far the greatest and most systematic terrorization of civiliansis in fact perpetrated by the US state itself. Unarmed citizensare murdered across the world as 'collateral damage', 'illegalenemy combatants' or other license of impunity, but this realityis taboo to report and so too all the killing and terrorizationof civilians. The historical record demonstrates the US is provablyguilty of continual lawless mass murder of civilians across theworld, but the truth is unthinkable within the ruling ideologicalregime."Professor Mujahid Kamran"Facebook, corporate mediaorganizations, quasi-government organizations, and the NSA arecreating a corporate totalitarian state where the slaves willinglysacrifice their privacy, liberty and freedom for mindless entertainmentand distractions. The 21st Century totalitarian state capturesyour political beliefs, daily activities, habits, interests, spendingbehaviors, organizational associations, love life, pictures, psychologicalmakeup, and fears from your own postings on the internet. Withthe right algorithms they can uncannily predict how you will reactto different situations and messaging. They can also uncover threatsto the status quo. Under the guise of keeping you safe from terroriststhey are actually ferreting out subversives and radicals who refuseto conform to their idea of a good citizen slave. We will allbe subject to our own Room 101."www.washingtonsblog.com"In 2009, the Universityof the West of England published the results of a ten-year studyof the BBC's coverage of Venezuela. Of 304 broadcast reports,only three mentioned any of the positive policies introduced bythe government of Hugo Chavez. The greatest literacy programmein human history received barely a passing reference.In Europe and the United States, millions of readers and viewersknow next to nothing about the remarkable, life-giving changesimplemented in Latin America, many of them inspired by Chavez.Like the BBC, the reports of the New York Times, the WashingtonPost, the Guardian and the rest of the respectable western mediawere notoriously in bad faith."John PilgerSPORTS AND CELEBRITYTHE GREAT DISTRACTIONS"One of the functions thatthings like professional sports play, in our society and others,is to offer an area to deflect people's attention from thingsthat matter, so that the people in power can do what matters withoutpublic interference."Noam Chomsky"College and universityadministrators defund libraries, close foreign language and classicsdepartments and invest staggering sums in gargantuan sports arenasand athletic programs. And the only time the student body protestsor riots is when something unpleasant happens to the beloved footballcoach. Pity the student who goes there to learn."Chris Hedges"The addiction to sportsin a peculiar degree marks an arrested development of man's moralnature."American social scientist ThorsteinVeblen"Since there is a finiteamount of wealth that can be transferred from the expiring globalmiddle class, and since everything above that is merely dilutionfrom excess printing of fiat money, inquiring minds want to know:is the world financial system due for another massive collapse,one which will even further accelerate the wealth redistribution,or is the world's population so zombified that nothing can everpossibly tips the scales ever again, and the lesson from the Frenchrevolution, when an unprecedented amount of wealth and power washeld by a precious few, have been forever lost on the world andits citizens?"from a Citigroup Plutonomy symposium,2006"People call in to sportstalk shows and have long and intricate discussions, and it's plainthat quite a high degree of thought and analysis is going intothat. People know a tremendous amount. They know all sorts ofcomplicated detail and enter into far-reaching discussions. Theseare ordinary people, not professionals, who are applying theirintelligence and analytic skills in these areas and accumulatingquite a lot of knowledge. On the other hand, when people talkabout international affairs or domestic problems, it's at a levelof superficiality that's beyond belief."Noam Chomsky"Sports do not build character.They reveal it."Heywood Broun"The professional celebrity,is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makesa fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried tothe point where a man who can knock a small, white ball into aseries of holes in the ground with more efficiency and skill thananyone else thereby gains access to the President of the UnitedStates."C. Wright Mills"The fame of celebrities disguises those who possess truepower: corporations and the oligarchic elite... The fantasy ofcelebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain. It is designedto keep us from fighting back.... Those captivated by the cult of celebrity do not examine votingrecords or compare verbal claims with written and published factsand reports. The reality of their world is whatever the latestcable news show, political leader, advertiser, or loan officersays is reality."Chris Hedges"Serious sport has nothingto do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness,disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence.In other words: it is war minus the shooting."George Orwell"In American society ourgods are celebrities. Religious belief and practice are commonlytransferred to the adoration of celebrities. Our culture buildstemples to celebrities the way Romans did for divine emperors,ancestors, and household gods."Neal Gabler in 'Life: The Movie:How Entertainment Conquered Reality'"For many Americans, waris like a sports contest in which they take vicarious pleasureand cheer on their side to victory."Paul Craig Roberts"Concentration on suchtopics as sports makes a certain degree of sense. The way thesystem is set up, there is virtually nothing people can do anyway,without a degree of organization that's far beyond anything thatexists now, to influence the real world. They might as well livein a fantasy world, and that's in fact what they do. I'm surethey are using their common sense and intellectual skills, butin an area which has no meaning and probably thrives because ithas no meaning, as a displacement from the serious problems whichone cannot influence and affect because the power happens to lieelsewhere."Noam Chomsky"In the world of globalization,families cooperate, compete, and perhaps even conspire againstand with each other or themselves. They keep the politics of dynasticpower from being understood or contemplated by the masses. Weare distracted with sports, entertainment, 'royal weddings', afear of foreigners and terrorism, and are blinded and manipulatedby a deeply embedded propaganda system."Andrew Gavin Marshall"Football, beer, and aboveall gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep themin control was not difficult."George Orwell"How is it, in the UnitedStates, excellence in sports is celebrated, while excellence inscholarship is considered elitist?"Morris Berman"The triviality of Americanpopular culture, its emptiness and gossip, accelerates this destructionof critical thought. Television allows viewers to preoccupy themselveswith context-free information. The homogenized empty chatter onthe airwaves, the banal amusement and clichés, the bizarredoublespeak endlessly repeated on cable news channels and thehuge spectacles in sports stadiums have replaced America's politicalsocial and moral life, indeed replaced community itself."Chris Hedges"Many more people in theworld are concerned about sports than human rights."political scientist Samuel P Huntington"Sports plays a societalrole in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They'redesigned to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators."Noam ChomskyPOPULATION CONTROLPRESERVING THE WORLD FOR THE .01%"Depopulation should bethe highest priority of foreign policy towards the Third World."Henry Kissinger"All children who are born,beyond what would be required to keep up the population to a desiredlevel, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them bythe death of grown persons.... Therefore, we should facilitate,instead of foolishly and vainly endeavoring to impede, the operationsof nature in producing this mortality; and if we dread the toofrequent visitation of the horrid form of famine, we should sedulouslyencourage the other forms of destruction, which we compel natureto use. Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encouragecontrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower,crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of theplague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnantpools, and particularly encourage settlement in all marshy andunwholesome situations. But above all we should reprobate specificremedies for ravaging diseases; and restrain those benevolent,but much mistaken men, who have thought they are doing a serviceto mankind by protecting schemes for the total extirpation ofparticular disorders."Thomas Malthus"The World Health Organization[WHO]/ United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund[UNICEF] vaccination campaign in Africa is not about eradicatingneonatal tetanus, but is a well-coordinated, forceful, populationcontrol, mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertilityregulating vaccine."obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. WahomeNgare, Kenyan Catholic Doctors' Association president, publisheda letter in the Kenyan press, November 4, 2014"From its inception, theRockefeller Foundation was focused on culling the herd, or systematicallyreducing populations of "inferior" breeds.... The Rockefeller Foundation, working with John D. RockefellerIll's Population Council, the World Bank, the UN Development Programand the Ford Foundation, and others had been working with theWHO [World Health Organization] for 20 years to develop an anti-fertilityvaccine using tetanus as well as with other vaccines."F. William Engdahl"From the beginning, whathas become the environmentalist movement, has never been aboutthe environment. The modern day green movement is and has alwaysbeen a cover for population reduction."Executive Intelligence Review"The diptheria and tetanusvaccines would function as a social and political mask - to hidethe sterilizing intent, as millions of women in the Third Worldwould receive vaccines they're told would protect them againstinfections and disease."Jon Rappoport, 2014"We have been the mostsuccessful species ever; we are now a species out of control.Population must be stabilized, and rapidly."Maurice Strong - at the 1992 EarthSummit Conference in Rio"There should be a deliberatequest of poverty ... educed resources consumption ... settinglevels of mortality control.... The birth rate is unlikely to be lowered by measures designedto reduce the child death rate by programmes for mass immunization.... Reduced childhood mortality must no longer be promoted. Weshould refrain from advocating public health policies for othercommunities ... such desustaining measures as oral rehydrationshould not be introduced on the public health scale."Prof. Maurice King published inthe prestigious British scientific journal The Lancet,1990"By 1977, Reimart Ravenholt,the director of AID's [US Agency for International Development]population program, was saying that his agency's goal was to sterilizeone-quarter of the world's women."Alexander Cockburn, 1994"Spermicides hidden inGMO corn provided to starving Third World populations throughthe generosity of the Gates' foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation,or vaccines that contain undisclosed sterilization agents arejust two documented cases of using vaccines or GMO seeds to "reducepopulation"."F William Engdahl, 2010"When challenged in SouthAmerica in the early 1990's about the tetanus vaccine used intheir camping being laced with HCG, the World Health Organization[WH]O brushed off the claims as unfounded and asked for proof.When proof was provided by the Catholic based bodies in thosecountries, WHO claimed that the other components of the vaccineproduction process may have caused false positive results. Whenpushed further, they accepted that a few vaccines may have beencontaminated with HCG during the production process. However,HCG is not a component nor is it used in the production of anyvaccine let alone tetanus! It was only after antibodies againstHCG were demonstrated in the women who were immunized with thelaced tetanus vaccine that the matter was sealed. The immunizedwomen have suffered multiple abortions and some have remainedsterile."cryptogon.com, 2014"Somewhere, in the vastlabyrinth of Gates and Rockefeller-funded alliances of world banksand health organizations, academic institutions, pharmaceuticalgiants and government ministries, civil society organizations,NGOs and population councils, someone has intentionally kept secretexperimental contraceptives in a medicine [tetenus], pretendingto save innocent babies."Celeste McGovern, 2014"If Fritz [Fritz Leutwiler- chairman, Bank for International Settlements] had his way, hewould kill them all, in the Third World, except a few raw materialsproducers, of course."one of Fritz Leutwiler's fellowGeneva bankersThe World Health Organization[WHO] vaccination campaign in Kenya is not about eradicating neonataltetanus, but a well-coordinated forceful population control masssterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine."Dr. Muhame Ngare of the Mercy MedicalCentre in Nairobi and spokesman for the Kenya Catholic DoctorsAssociation, 2014"There is a single themebehind all our work - we must reduce population levels. Eithergovernments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or theywill get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or inIran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once populationis out of control, it requires authoritarian government, evenfascism, to reduce it.Our program in El Salvador didn't work. The infrastructure wasnot there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people....To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all themales into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbersof fertile age females.The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, likein Africa, or through disease like the Black Death."Thomas Ferguson, State DepartmentOffice of Population Affairs, Latin American Desk, February 1981interview"The present vast overpopulation,now far beyond the world carrying capacity, cannot be answeredby future reductions in the birth rate due to contraception, sterilizationand abortion, but must be met in the present by the reductionof numbers presently existing. This must be done by whatever meansnecessary."Initiative for the United NationsECO-92 Earth Charter"Bill Gates and WarrenBuffett are major funders of global population reduction programs,as is Ted Turner, whose UN Foundation was created to funnel $1billion into various birth reduction programs in the developingworld.The programs in Africa and elsewhere are masked as philanthropyand providing health services for poor Africans. In reality theyinvolve involuntary population sterilization via vaccination andother medicines that make women of child-bearing age infertile.The Gates Foundation, where Buffett deposited the bulk of hiswealth two years ago, is also backing introduction of GMO seedsinto Africa under the cloak of the 'Second Green Revolution' inAfrica."F William Engdahl, 2010"In order to stabilizeworld population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. Itis a horrible thing to say, but it's just as bad not to say it."Jacques Cousteau, UNESCO Courier"All the children born,beyond what would be required to keep up the population to thislevel, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them bythe deaths of grown persons. . . . To act consistently, therefore,we should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly endeavoringto impede, the operation of nature in producing this mortality,and if we dread the too frequent visitation of the horrid formof famine, we should sedulously encourage the other forms of destruction,which we compel nature to use. Instead of recommending cleanlinessto the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our townswe should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into thehouses, and court the return of the plague. In the country weshould build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularlyencourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations.But above all, we should reprobate specific remedies for ravagingdiseases: and those benevolent, but much mistaken men, who havethought they were doing a service to mankind by projecting schemesfor the total extirpation of particular disorders. If by theseand similar means the annual mortality were increased . . . wemight probably every one of us marry at the age of puberty andyet few be absolutely starved."Thomas Malthus"A reasonable estimatefor an industrialized world society at the present North Americanmaterial standard of living would be 1 billion. At the more frugalEuropean standard of living, 2 to 3 billion would be possible."United Nations, Global BiodiversityAssessment"A total population of250-300 million people, a 95% decline would be ideal."Ted Turner, founder of CNN andmajor United Nations contributor"We've got airborne diseaseswith 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think aboutthat. "You know, the bird flu's good, too. For everyone whosurvives, he will have to bury nine."Dr. Eric Pianka University of Texasspeaking on the topic of reducing the world's population to anaudience on population control."A cancer is an uncontrolledmultiplication of cells, the population explosion is an uncontrolledmultiplication of people. We must shift our efforts from the treatmentof the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operationwill demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions."Stanford Professor Paul Ehrlich,The Population Bomb"We have to take away fromhumans in the long run their reproductive autonomy as the onlyway to guarantee the advancement of mankind."Francis Crick, The discoverer ofthe double-helix structure of DNA"Malthus has been vindicated;reality is finally catching up with Malthus. The Third World isoverpopulated, it's an economic mess, and there's no way theycould get out of it with this fast-growing population. Our philosophyis: back to the village."Dr. Arne Schiotz, World WildlifeFund Director of Conservation"The idea of using vaccinesto covertly reduce births in the Third World is not new. DavidRockefeller and his Rockefeller Foundation were involved as earlyas 1972 in a major project together with WHO and others to perfectanother "new vaccine."The results of the WHO-Rockefeller project were put into massapplication on human guinea pigs in the early 1990's. The WHOoversaw massive vaccination campaigns against tetanus in Nicaragua,Mexico and the Philippines. Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a RomanCatholic lay organization, became suspicious of the motives behindthe WHO program and decided to test numerous vials of the vaccineand found them to contain human Chorionic Gonadotrophin, or hCG.That was a curious component for a vaccine designed to protectpeople against lock-jaw arising from infection with rusty nailwounds or other contact with certain bacteria found in soil. Thetetanus disease was indeed, also rather rare. It was also curiousbecause hCG was a natural hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy.However, when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier, it stimulatedformation of antibodies against hCG, rendering a woman incapableof maintaining a pregnancy, a form of concealed abortion."F William Engdahl, 2010"Society has no businessto permit degenerates to reproduce their kind."Theodore Roosevelt"The world's populationneeds to be reduced by 50%."Dr. Henry Kissinger"The Planetary Regime mightbe given responsibility for determining the optimum populationfor the world and for each region and for arbitrating variouscountries' shares within their regional limits. Control of populationsize might remain the responsibility of each government, but theRegime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits."Obama's science czar John P. Holdren:From Ecoscience"It is easier to kill amillion people rather than trying to control a million peoplepeople are fighting backour capacity to impose control over humanityis at an historical low"Zbignew Brzezinski"The mainstream media findsit hard to believe that anyone would deliberately inoculate awoman against pregnancy without her foreknowledge or consent.But as someone who has followed abusive population control programsnow for 30 years, and seen repeatedly how such programs violatethe fundamental rights of women, I am no longer surprised. Ithas happened before. It will happen again."Steven Mosher, president of thePopulation Research Institute"The Mexican populationmust be reduced by half. Seal the border and watch them scream.The population will be reduced by the usual means: famine, war,and pestilence."William Paddock, State Departmentconsultant, 1975 interview"The global agenda of Rockefellers,Gates, Clintons, Bushes and their very rich loveless friends isracist. It calls for elimination of non-white populations, genocide.Their tools of choice include wars everywhere from Afghanistanto Pakistan to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. It includes campaignsof massive select vaccinations in war-torn countries."F. William Engdahl, 2015"In the mid 1990s, theWorld Health Organization, in partnership with other internationalgroups, including UNICEF, rolled out anti-tetanus vaccine campaignsin developing countries including the Philippines. Women and girlsof child-bearing age only were recruited for multiple tetanusvaccine injections just months apart - not the usual tetanus vaccineschedules several years apart - in order to prevent neonatal tetanus.... Some health workers in the Philippines began to notice thatwomen were miscarrying after the vaccine and they grew suspicious.Eventually, the Philippine Medical Association retrieved 47 vialsof the vaccine and had them tested in an FDA-approved laboratory.Nine of the vials were found to contain the hCG subunit. The WHOand other global health organizations involved vehemently deniedthe claim, but when the PMA sent their lab results in September1996 they admitted that the hCG anti-fertility drug was there."Celeste McGovern, 2014"There are only two possibleways in which a world of 10 billion people can be averted. Eitherthe current birth rates must come down more quickly. Or the currentdeath rates must go up There is no other way There are many waysin which the death rates can go up. In a thermonuclear age, warcan accomplish it very quickly and decisively. Famine and diseaseare nature's ancient checks on population growth, and neitherone has disappeared from the scene."Robert McNamara, Oct. 2, 1979"No woman shall have thelegal right to bear a child without a permit for parenthood."Margaret Sanger - founder of PlannedParenthood - in her proposed "The American Baby Code""Every promoted so-called"pandemic" is an extended sales pitch for vaccines.And not just a vaccine against the "killer germ" ofthe moment. We're talking about a psyop to condition the populationto vaccines in general."Jon Rappoport, 2014"The world today has 6.8billion people. That's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if wedo a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductivehealth services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."Bill Gates at the 2010 TED conference"Total control of conceptionwith a variant of the ubiquitous 'pill' via water supplies orcertain essential foodstuffs, offset by a controlled 'antidote',is already under development."from "Report from Iron Mountain""The global agenda of Rockefellers,Gates, Clintons, Bushes and their very rich loveless friends isracist. It calls for elimination of non-white populations, genocide.Their tools of choice include wars everywhere from Afghanistanto Pakistan to Libya to Syria to Ukraine. It includes campaignsof massive select vaccinations in war-torn countries. It includessetting the CIA and Mossad to the job of creating fake Islamic"jihadist" terrorists to kill and maim and create thecover for a Washington "war on terror"."F. William Engdahl"The most merciful thing thata family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."Margaret Sanger, 1922"We have been the mostsuccessful species ever; we are now a species out of control.Population must be stabilized, and rapidly."Maurice Strong - at the 1992 EarthSummit Conference in Rio"There should be a deliberatequest of poverty ... reduced resources and consumption ... settinglevels of mortality control.... The birth rate is unlikely to be lowered by measures designedto reduce the child death rate by programmes for mass immunization.... Reduced childhood mortality must no longer be promoted. Weshould refrain from advocating public health policies for othercommunities ... Such desustaining measures as oral rehydrationshould not be introduced on the public health scale."Prof. Maurice King, published inthe prestigious British scientific journal The Lancet, 1990"A part of eugenic politicswould finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber.A great many people would have to be put out of existence simplybecause it wastes other people's time to look after them."George Bernard Shaw, Lecture tothe Eugenics Education Society, 1910"In nature the hCG hormonealerts the woman's body that she is pregnant and causes the releaseof other hormones to prepare the uterine lining for the implantationof the fertilized egg. The rapid rise in hCG levels after conceptionmakes it an excellent marker for confirmation of pregnancy: whena woman takes a pregnancy test she is not tested for the pregnancyitself, but for the elevated presence of hCG.However, when introduced into the body coupled with a tetanustoxoid carrier, antibodies will be formed not only against tetanusbut also against hCG. In this case the body fails to recognizehCG as a friend and will produce anti-hCG antibodies. The antibodieswill attack subsequent pregnancies by killing the hCG which naturallysustains a pregnancy; when a woman has sufficient anti-hCG antibodiesin her system, she is rendered incapable of maintaining a pregnancy."from the report by The ThinkTwiceGlobal Vaccine Institute about the program to vaccinate thousands of women in Mexico, Nicaraguaand the Philippines with a tetanus vaccine containing human chorionicgonadotropin (hCG) hormone"The World Health Organization(WHO) began its "Special Programme" in human reproductionin 1972, and by 1993 had spent more than $356 million on "reproductivehealth" research. It is this "Programme" whichhas pioneered the development of the abortificant vaccine. Over$90 million of this Programme's funds were contributed by Sweden;Great Britain donated more than $52 million, while Norway, Denmarkand Germany kicked in for $41 million, $27 million, and $12 million,respectively. The U.S. contributed $5.7 million."J. A. Miller, 1995"We should hire three orfour colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds,and with engaging personalities. The most successful educationalapproach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don'twant the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negropopulation. and the minister is the man who can straighten outthat idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."Margaret Sanger's December 19,1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble"The moment we face itfrankly we are driven to the conclusion that the community hasa right to put a price on the right to live in it If people arefit to live, let them live under decent human conditions. If theyare not fit to live, kill them in a decent human way. Is it anywonder that some of us are driven to prescribe the lethal chamberas the solution for the hard cases which are at present made theexcuse for dragging all the other cases down to their level, andthe only solution that will create a sense of full social responsibilityin modern populations?"George Bernard Shaw, Prefaces"The universal requirementthat procreation be limited to the products of artificial inseminationwould provide a fully adequate substitute control for populationlevels."from "Report from Iron Mountain""In the early 1990's, accordingto a report from the Global Vaccine Institute, the WHO oversawmassive vaccination campaigns against tetanus in Nicaragua, Mexicoand the Philippines. Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholiclay organization, became suspicious of the motives behind theWHO program. When they tested numerous vials of the vaccine they,like in Kenya today, found they contained the same Human ChorionicGonadotrophin, or HCG. They found that to be very curious in avaccine designed to protect people against lock-jaw arising frominfection with rusty nail wounds. Tetanus is also rather rare,so why a mass vaccination campaign and that for only women ofchild-bearing age?HCG is a natural hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy. However,when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier, it stimulated theformation of antibodies against HCG, rendering a woman incapableof maintaining a pregnancy, a form of concealed abortion."F. William Engdahl"Eugenics is the most adequateand thorough avenue to the solution of racial, political and socialproblems."Margaret Sanger "The EugenicValue of Birth Control Propaganda." Birth Control Review,October 1921"Every promoted so-called"pandemic" is an extended sales pitch for vaccines.And not just a vaccine against the "killer germ" ofthe moment. We're talking about a psyop to condition the populationto vaccines in general.There is much available literature on vaccines used for depopulationexperiments. The research is ongoing. Undoubtedly, we only knowa fraction of what is happening behind closed laboratory doors.Depopulation has several objectives. Along one vector, it is anelite strategy designed to get rid of large numbers of people,in key areas of the world, where local revolutions would interferewith outside corporations staging a complete takeover of fertileland and rich natural resources."Jon Rappoport, 2014"During the era leadingup to World War II, eugenics laws were passed in 27 states whichallowed for the forcible sterilization of tens of thousands ofAmericans.... The Rockefellers funded a eugenics initiative to sterilize15 million Americans.... For over a century, they have been one of the largest financialbackers and drivers of the eugenics and the depopulation agenda."www.blacklistednews.com, 2014"Population reduction andgenetically engineered crops were clearly part of a broad strategy:the drastic reduction of the world's population. It was in facta sophisticated form of what the Pentagon termed biological warfare,promulgated under the name of "solving the world hunger problem."F. William Engdahl in his book"Seeds of Destuction""Our failure to segregatemorons who are increasing and multiplying demonstrates our foolhardyand extravagant sentimentalism. Philanthropists encourage thehealthier and more normal sections of the world to shoulder theburden of unthinking and indiscriminate fecundity of others; whichbrings with it, as I think the reader must agree, a dead weightof human waste. Instead of decreasing and aiming to eliminatethe stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the raceand the world, it tends to render them to a menacing degree dominant... We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates ofan ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beingswho never should have been born at all."Margaret Sanger. The Pivot of Civilization,1922 - Chapter on "The Cruelty of Charity""In 1994, the World HealthOrganization was discovered to be vaccinating females aged between15 and 45 in developing countries with a tetanus vaccine containingthe hCG hormone.The vaccines were given to thousands of women in Mexico, Nicaraguaand the Philippines. This was discovered after an organizationcalled Comité Pro Vida de Mexico became suspicious of theprotocols surrounding the vaccines and obtained several vialsfor testing.It was discovered that some of the vials contained human chorionicgonadotropin (hCG). When combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier, the vaccines causea woman's body to produce antibodies against pregnancy, forcingher body to abort the fetus spontaneously."www.vactruth.com, 2014"The Bill & MelindaGates Foundation, as well as the Gates-Buffett led billionaires'"giving pledge" are keeping in stride with the groundworklaid and continued by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation.Heavily funded initiatives to push vaccines, birth control, populationcontrol, Western-oriented "education," GMO and corporate-dominatedagriculture and the like remain some of the most consequentialand troubling policies done in the name of "good" bytax-free entities wielding enormous, nearly incalculable wealthand power."Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton"Global depopulation andfood control became US strategic policy under Henry Kissinger."F. William Engdahl"Vaccines containing thehCG hormone have been used on women of childbearing ages in Kenyain what can only be described as a deliberate attempt to reducethe population."www.vactruth.com, 2014THRIVING IN THE GLOBALKLEPTOCRACYBE A KLEPTOCRAT"What is at hand isn'tso much about lofty ideals. It's not about Socialism. It's notabout Capitalism. It's not about Communism. It's not about beinga progressive, a conservative or a liberal. It's not about leftvs right... It's much more fundamental than all of that. Quitesimply, it's about People vs. Power, that's it, nothing more.Those that have and wield institutional power, and those thatdo not. ... Take a good look around, I defy you to point to a single socioeconomicconstruct in our supposedly enlightened and advanced society oftoday which is not essentially determined by that crude polarizingcharacterization. Whether it be our bought and paid for PoliticalClass, our rapacious Banking Sector, our completely captured Regulators,our entitled Multinational Corporations, our entrenched GovernmentalAgencies, our marauding Military Industrial Complex, our fleecingHealthcare Providers, our muzzled Free Press, our hijacked JusticeSystem, or our grossly overpaid CEOs, Athletes, and Entertainers,they all have one thing in common. What they seek above all elseis to expand existing institutional dominion and their own privilegeswithin it."Bruno de Landevoisin, 2014"Of all the forms of tyrannythe least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of merewealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy."Theodore Roosevelt"The elite rarely confrontgenuine differences of opinion. They are not asked to examinethe roles they play in society and the inequities of the structurethat sustains them. They are cultural philistines. The sole basisfor authority is wealth. And within these self-satisfied cocoonsthey think of themselves as caring, good people, which they oftenare, but only to other members of the elite or, at times, thefew service workers who support their lifestyles. The gross socialinjustices that condemn most African Americans to urban povertyand the working class to a subsistence level of existence, theimperial bullying that led to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,do not touch them. They engage in small, largely meaningless foraysof charity, organized by their clubs or social groups, to givetheir lives a thin patina of goodness. They can live their entirelives in state of total self-delusion and perpetual childhood."Chris Hedges"There were 1,600 billionairesin the world in 2013."Forbes magazine"When countries go throughradical economic and political transformations, powerful oligarchiesand gangsters control the vast wealth and resources of the economyand in turn are able to control large aspects of the state andthe society. Over time they pretend to reign in their overtlycriminal behavior and activities, while institutionalizing theirpower in a more technocratic way through forms of social controlwhich aim to establish consent among the population."Andrew Gavin Marshall , 2014"Kleptocrats are not init for the country. They are there to line their own pockets.They want to make as much money for themselves as possible. Kleptocrats want to get re-elected and if that means they haveto sacrifice the country in the process, well that is the sacrificethey're willing to make."venitism.blogspot.com"Just 22 percent of themen in the Harvard class of 1970 took jobs in finance and management.In 1990, 38 percent of the men went into finance and management- more than the numbers who chose law and medicine combined. Womenshifted their choices even more sharply. Just 12 percent of thewomen in the class of 1970 took jobs in finance and management.Two decades later the number had nearly doubled, up to 23 percent."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2013"Throughout history, thebest path to becoming a member of any era's dominant elites wasto be the offspring of a member of the preceding generation'sdominant elites... The drive that brings people to the top istypically matched by a desire to hold on to the position, power,and possessions that they have acquired, and to pass them on tochosen successors-typically family members. With this in mind,elites have most often tried to accumulate the tools of maintainingpower that they feel will be most valuable. These could be armies,titles, or laws to secure their position and keep others fromseizing it."David Rothkopf"20% of all entitlements(tax credits, Medicare, Social Security, etc.) flows to the top10%.""Charles Hugh Smith, 2014"In the present world of'globalization' ... dynastic power remains a central institutionin the global system.... Today, most dynasties do not hold formal or direct politicalauthority. The world's most economically and politically powerfulcountries are no longer governed by kings and queens or emperors.Instead, modern dynastic power is largely a development that emergedwith the decline in the authority of monarchs, and with the risein parliamentary democracy and capitalism.... As kings and queens handed over the ultimate authority toissue coin to other institutions, merchants and financiers steppedin to increase their influence over the new institutions of achanging world order. Out of these monumental social transformationscame new dynasties, embedded within the financial, industrialand corporate oligarchies. Their power was not in direct controlof the political apparatus, but in their concentration of controlover the financial, economic and industrial spheres. ... Today, it is the industrial, financial and corporate dynastiesthat have risen to unparalleled positions of authority in theage of globalization."Andrew Gavin Marshall"The global top .01% has$9.1 trillion in wealth, while the global top 1% has $32.6 trillionin wealth.David DeGraw, 2014"In 2005 18 percent ofthe putocrats were in finance. That number has grown sharply inrecent decades, up from 11 percent in 1979. The only occupationthat accounts for a bigger share of the income at the very topis the CEO class. Moreover, within the generally prospering communityof the 0.1 percent, the incomes of bankers are growing, the fastestof all."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2013"Our national wealth hasgrown by an astonishing $30 trillion since the recession (2008),but most of it has gone to people who were already wealthy. Weare living through a massive redistribution of America's net worthto the beneficiaries of a financial industry that has used cunningand money and power to impose their version of economic "freedom"while deregulating any policies that might have stopped the incessanttransfer of wealth."www.truth-out.org, 2014"The top 10 percent ofadults worldwide own 85 percent of global wealth, while the bottomhalf of the world's population owns barely 1 percent of the total.Within the top 10 percent, that requires $61,000 in assets toqualify for entry, a similarly stark stratification occurs. Whilethis particular "elite" controls 85 percent of globalwealth, the top 2 percent in this group owns half the planet'swealth, and the top 1 percent possesses around 40 percent. Eachof those in the top 1 percent owns a minimum of $500,000 in assets.This top 1 percent of global adults represents about 40 millionpeople. Within this group, however, according to a 2007 reportby Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, there are 9.5 million individualswhose financial assets exceed $1 million.... Within this group of exceptionally fortunate individuals isanother group - the 1 percent of them, or roughly 95,000, whoeach own financial assets in excess of $30 million (these arethe UHNWIs, or Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals), for a totalof $13 trillion. And we know that within this group there is anotherapproximately 1 percent elite, the world's thousand or so billionaires.David Rothkopf"The nation has been hijackedby oligarchs, corporations, and a narrow, selfish, political,and economic elite, a small and privileged group that governs,and often steals, on behalf of moneyed interests. This elite,in the name of patriotism and democracy, in the name of all thevalues that were once part of the American system, has systematicallydestroyed our manufacturing sector, looted the treasury, corruptedour democracy, and trashed the financial system.Chris Hedges"The Elites running theAmerican institutions of governance have become an inbred neofeudalAristocracy characterized by a sense of entitlement to the reinsof power and control of the national income. The Aristocracy rulingthe nation has lost all interest or recognition of the commongood."Charles Hugh Smith, 2014"Children raised in anatmosphere of power are educated in its uses in ways that thosewho are distant from it cannot he. They are taught tricks andgiven catchphrases to use to help maintain the public's goodwillor cooperation ("noblesse oblige" comes to mind), andthey inherit networks of contacts and often a support system ofstaff and/or institutional affiliates who can assist them andwho, as part of the existing establishment, share their desireto maintain the status quo. It is a natural system and one thathas helped produce and maintain the class structures that havedominated social hierarchies since the dawn of time."David Rothkopf"One hundred people inIndia own wealth equivalent to 25% of India's GDP."Arundhati Roy"The substantive financialpowers of the world were in the hands of investment bankers (alsocalled "international" or "merchant" bankers)who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporatedprivate banks. These formed a system of international cooperationand national dominance which was more private, more powerful,and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks.This dominance of investment bankers was based on their controlover the flows of credit and investment funds in their own countriesand throughout the world. They could dominate the financial andindustrial systems of their own countries by their influence overthe flow of current funds through bank loans, the discount rate,and the re-discounting of commercial debts; they could dominategovernments by their control over current government loans andthe play of the international exchanges. Almost all of this powerwas exercised by the personal influence and prestige of men whohad demonstrated their ability in the past to bring off successfulfinancial coupes to keep their word, to remain cool in a crisis,and to share their winning opportunities with their associates."Carroll Quigley, in his book "Tragedyand Hope""In the 1960s the gap betweenCEOs and the average worker was 20 to 1. By the 1990s it was nearly350 to 1."Les Leopold"For the rich and powerful,the family unit has been the principal institution through whichpower is accumulated, preserved and propagated, precisely becausethe interest is multi-generational, requiring long-term planningand strategy."Andrew Gavin Marshall"The combined net worthof the world's richest thousand or so people - the planet's billionaires- is almost twice that of the poorest 2.5 billion."David Rothkopf"CEOs are a very specialsort of superstar: the one who is in charge of the company thatpays his salary. Superstar athletes are paid by the owners ofsports teams, superstar chefs by their diners, and even superstarhedge fund managers are paid by their investors. But CEOs arepaid by the companies they run. Their compensation, to be sure,is determined by the board of directors, but, particularly inthe United States, the chairman of the board is often the CEO."Chrystia Freeland in her book "Plutocrats",2012"Millionaires are most unitedon corporate tax reform, with 23 percent of Republicans and 25percent of Democrats saying it should be the most important priority.Among multimillionaires (those individuals with investable assetsof $5 million or more), corporate tax reform is far and away thetop priority."Robert Frank, 2014SERVE THE KLEPTOCRATS"Being a courtier to powerrequires agility and eloquence. The most talented of them shouldbe credited as persuasive actors. They entertain us. They makeus feel good. They persuade us; they are our friends. They arethe smiley faces of a corporate state that has hijacked the government.When the corporations make their iron demands, these courtiersdrop to their knees. They placate the telecommunications companiesthat want to be protected from lawsuits. They permit oil and gascompanies to rake in obscene profits and keep in place the vastsubsidies of corporate welfare doled out by the state. They allowour profit-driven health-care system to leave the uninsured andunderinsured to suffer and die without proper care.We trust courtiers wearing face powder who deceive us in the nameof journalism. We trust courtiers in our political parties whopromise to fight for our interests and then pass bill after billto further corporate fraud and abuse."Chris Hedges"We have an entire classof people whose jobs, social prestige, and livelihoods are directlytied to our foreign policy of global intervention. These peopleare naturally inclined to favor militarism and meddling in theaffairs of other nations. This group, while small in numbers,wields an outsized influence."Justin Raimondo"Kleptocracy has clearlyfigured out how to extract wealth from the rest of us based solelyon their position and proximity to power. If you have a seat atthe table, you are in for a feast. If you don't have a seat atthe table, you are on the menu."venitism.blogspot.com"Oligarchs are assistedin their control by a "clerisy" class - an amalgam ofacademics, media and government employees who play the role thatmedieval clergy once played in legitimizing the powerful, andin implementing their policies while quelling resistance fromthe masses. The clerisy isn't as rich as the oligarchs, but itdoes pretty well for itself and is compensated in part by status."demographer Joel Kotkin, 2014"Look at the writings ofBrzezinski, Kissinger, Samuel P Huntington, and their likes. Itis important to note that members of these elite paid think tankspublish books as part of a strategy to give respectability tosubsequent illegal, immoral and predatory actions that are tobe taken at the behest of the elite. The views are not necessarilytheir own - they are the views of the think tanks. These stoogesformulate and pronounce policies and plans at the behest of theirmasters, through bodies like the Council on Foreign Relations,Bilderberg Group, etc.... Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger et al, as well asthe neo-con "thinkers," owe their positions and goodliving standards to the largesse of the elite. These thinkersand writers are on the payroll of the elite and work for them."Prof. Mujahid Kamran"The specialized dialectand narrow education of doctors, academics, economists, socialscientists, military officers, investment bankers, and governmentbureaucrats keeps each sector locked in its narrow role. The overarchingstructure of the corporate state and the idea of the common goodare irrelevant to specialists. They exist to make the system work,not to examine it."Chris Hedges"Technocrats serve theelite by developing the information systems, formulating the imagesand messages deceiving and manipulating the masses and designingtheir economic programs."James Petras"Every general in the militaryhoped to cash out by going to work for a major defense contractoras soon as he or she retired from active duty. Many feared thatif they took any actions against these contractors (to hold themaccountable for fraud or shoddy work) while still in the militarytheir post-retirement job prospects would dim."author James Risen, 2014"Behind the PR facade ofdemocracy and free-market capitalism, a parasitic Aristocracyextracts income and wealth from a financially indentured classof serfs. This Aristocracy is composed of several Elites whichare served by the Upper Caste of technocrats. These Elites andthe Upper Caste serve each others interests. "Charles Hugh Smith, 2014SURVIVING THE GLOBALKLEPTOCRACYINFORM YOURSELFOver the millennia, as communitiesbegan to organize into societies and ultimately into nations,elites occupied positions of power. Today, economic globalizationand advances in transportation and communication permit an exclusiveclub of plutocrats to rule the earth. They have developed globalnetworks and institutions that allow them to control the wealthand resources of their nations, for their own benefit. This revolutionarychange represents a new historical paradigm - a global corporateand financial super-elite, transcending nations and governments,whose allegiance is only to themselves and to the members of theirwealthy class. These are the kleptocrats who rule the world.In the United States and Europe,as well as in other western-centric nations, financial eliteshave undermined their countries' democracies and economies, allowingcorporate and banking institutions to reign supreme, stranglingrepresentative government and the public commons.A globalized financial and commercialworld has allowed transnational corporations and big banks tovastly increase their wealth by off-shoring jobs to low-incomecountries, trolling the world for profits at the expense of workerseverywhere.While globalization has been goodfor many people in some developing countries who for the firsttime have the possibility of leaving their impoverished livesfor a more prosperous future, it is at the same time destroyingthe life prospects for millions of middle class families in thedeveloped world, where well-paying jobs, with benefits and pensions,have been relegated to the historical "dust bin". Formany in the middle-class, part-time work at low wages and withoutbenefits is now the norm.In the West, there is no longera facade of "government of, by and for the people".Corporate profits and market share have replaced the health andhappiness of people and communities as the primary objectivesof democratic governments. Plutocrats now control once vibrantdemocracies. The well-being of a wealthy ruling class has becomethe paramount objective of government. Politicians are boughtand paid for, and are no longer accountable to the people. Theyserve only money and power.A plutocratic system of rule bythe mega-wealthy is entrenched, with no global actors or movementson the horizon with the potential to dislodge it. So, global ruleby the rich will persist and become even more oppressive and controllingin the future. Not a pleasant thought.As if in a trance, the majorityof people in western democracies continue to be apathetic andindifferent to the dramatic changes that are occurring, and obliviousto the impact these changes will have on their lives. People havebeen mesmerized by sports, celebrity and personal technology,while being fed endless streams of propaganda and disinformationby the mainstream media, that confuse them, leaving them disorientedand impotent.Only those who make the effortto inform themselves about how their world is changing, and whoplan for this new global order, will be prepared for what is tocome.PUT SOME MONEY INA SAFE PLACEIt will be necessary to accumulatesome money and put it in a safe place. But, that "safe place"may no longer be banks.Following the global economic crash of 2008, the weakened economiesof some European Union-member states, were further impacted byrevelations of impending bank failures on the Mediterranean islandof Cyprus. The European Union refused to bail-out the Cyprus banks,but instead forced them to bail themselves out with the savingsof their depositors. This confiscation of the savings of bankdeposits - unheard of before this - was termed a "bail-in"(as opposed to a "bail-out").In the future, as Western economiesweaken and decline, and as banks become more fragile and at riskof collapse, "bail-ins" may become the new "normal".To insure yourself against future"bail-ins", it would be prudent to have some money tuckedaway outside of bank accounts. Safe-deposit boxes may offer someprotection, but a location totally outside of banks may be a goodidea.A home safe may be a good option,or a safe at a business location or with family or friends shouldbe considered.GET A PASSPORTThe United States, and most Westerndeveloped countries, have been politically stable for decades.Most people cannot remember a time in the U.S. when instabilitythreatened their lives or their livelihoods. But, times are changing.An overextended U.S. military, foreign adventurism, excessivefinancialization of the economy, reckless money-printing, trillionsof dollars of derivative losses, and an almost pathological refusalto face economic reality, may have positioned Western democraciesat the threshold of an abyss. One more shock - economic, political,or strategic - could push them over the edge.As difficult as it is to imagine,if things in the United States deteriorate fast enough and severelyenough, it may be necessary for you and your family to considerleaving the country, to start a life elsewhere, at least for awhile. In that case, passports will be needed for each familymember.Those who have never had a passportor those whose passports have expired, should get a new passport.A passport is generally good for ten years, and is needed to flyanywhere outside the United States.Most countries require a visa toenter. Often visas must be applied for weeks or even months aheadof time, but many countries grant visas at ports-of-entry - airports,sea ports, and overland crossings. There is always a fee, usuallyquite moderate, and passport-type photos are often necessary.Search the internet for country visa requirements.A less valuable alternative isa passport card, a wallet-size travel document that can be usedto re-enter the United States at land border-crossings and seaports-of-entry from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The cardprovides a less expensive, smaller, and convenient alternativeto the passport book for those traveling to these destinationsby land or by sea. The passport card, however, cannot be usedfor international travel by air.HAVE SOME MONEY INOTHER CURRENCIESThe United States dollar has beenthe world's reserve currency since World War II. What this meansis that the dollar can be accepted anywhere, for anything. However,due to decades of financial machinations, out-of-control moneyprinting, derivative speculation, and government spending wellbeyond the ability to generate income, the U.S. dollar is at riskof losing its reserve currency status.Government-to-government transactionsand currency swaps, have been negotiated between Russia, China,the BRICS countries, and other nations, bypassing the dollar entirely.This is means trouble for the dollar's reserve currency status.There may soon come a time whenthe dollar will just be one more international currency, and maynot be as widely accepted around the world. In addition, becauseof repeated bouts of "quantitative-easing" (money printing),the dollar may lose its value relative to other currencies.As a hedge against the loss ofvalue or status of the dollar, it would be prudent to hold othercurrencies. Consider Chinese yuan/renminbi, Singapore dollars,Swiss francs and currencies from countries that have sustainableeconomic policies.REDUCE YOUR DEBT ANDBECOME AS FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT AS POSSIBLEDebt should be of concern to mostfamilies. Debt requires a steady income for repayment. Debt demandsforgoing other important needs to satisfy creditors. Debt, whetherfor medical care, mortgage payments, college or credit cards,cannot be ignored. The penalties are too great and too threateningto your credit rating, your lifestyle, and to your family.As economic times become more difficult,as unemployment increases, as jobs become harder to find, as paydecreases, and as more and more jobs become part-time and withoutbenefits, your level of debt will continue to have a greater impacton your family's financial stability, on your employment prospects,and on your survival.So, you need to reduce your debt,forgo some of the things you would not think twice about gettingduring good times, pull in your belt, and put some money awayfor a rainy day - because rainy days will be coming, maybe soonerthan you imagine.DISSENTThe political class has decidedthat people no longer matter, and that their job is to serve theplutocrats, and corporate and banking interests.It may not be enough to try toprotect yourself and your family from the kleptocrats. You mayneed to join the fight against corruption, injustice and rapaciousindividual and corporate behavior that are the hallmarks of thepresent global order.One way to dissent, is to disengagefrom some of the more destructive corporate and political institutions,and send a message that business as usual is no longer acceptable.Don't shop at big box stores thatexploit workers, pay less than livable wages and offer no benefits.Don't eat at restaurants that serve unhealthy food, especiallyfast-food franchises. Shop locally. Eat organic for your healthand the health of your family.Avoid all GMO foods and tell yourmarkets not to carry them. Protest against Monsanto's genetically-engineered"frankenfoods" and its herbicides. that are killingour bees and our butterflies, and may be slowly killing us. GMOshave been banned in many places around the world.However, in June 2016, PresidentBarack Obama signed a bill supported by the food industry thatwill prevent states and cities from labeling genetically modifiedfoods. The standards for GMO labeling will be set at the federallevel, with the USDA in charge of establishing a uniform nationaldisclosure standard for bioengineered food. The result is sureto be ineffective GMO labeling, or no labeling at all, leavingAmericans in the dark regarding what is in their food. Americanswill now have to be even more vigilant to avoid GMO foods.Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide- Roundup - is causing untold harm to our health. Don't buy itand tell your friends and family members to avoid using it. Andtell your local nurseries and garden-supply stores not to stockglyphosate herbicide.Do your banking at local communitybanks and credit unions. Don't put your money in too-big-to-failbanks, such as Citibank, GoldmanSachs, Bank of America, Chase,Wells Fargo, and others, that have exploited us, bought-off governmentofficials and helped destroy our economy. We are hurting our owncommunities when we do business with these predatory institutions.Join public protests against banksand corporations that exploit us and damage our communities. Letyour representatives in government know that they can either representyou or the 21st century corporate robber barons. If they won'tsupport your community, don't support them."Support Our Troops"is a slogan spouted by well-intentioned, but ill-informed people.In reality, our "troops" are young men and women whoknow nothing of the world. They have been convinced - by the media,by their schools, by their families and by their country - thatby joining the military and going to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,Yemen, Ukraine, or other countries they can't find on a map, theyare helping people become free and countries become democracies,while being true to America's ideals.But, it is all a lie. The U.S.is a bully, violating international law, and indiscriminatelycausing harm to poor vulnerable people around the world. The warsthat the United States fights are not for democracy and freedom,but for corporate profit, market share and global hegemony.The military-industrial-surveillancecomplex needs enemies. Without enemies - real or imagined - thePentagon, weapons manufacturers, surveillance companies and intelligenceagencies would have nothing to do. So, war - and the threat ofwar - becomes a jobs program, and enemies are needed to keep thisbloody enterprise going.By joining the military, America'syoung people unknowingly participate in American aggression. Theyterrorize and kill innocent civilians around the world, who don'twant American troops in their countries. They become cannon fodderfor corporate profiteers, and in the process, they lose theirsouls, their minds and their lives. That is the truth and thetragedy of our "just" wars. Itis the job of thinking people to try to stop the abhorrent killingof poor innocent faraway strangers, and the destruction of thelives of ten-of-thousands of young Americans.DO YOUR PART TO ENDCORRUPT POLITICS AND PREDATORY CAPITALISMThe plutocrats have done everythingin their power to corrupt government and to make it serve them.The U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizen United" decision saidthat corporations - artificial entities that do not breath airand do not die, and that have almost unlimited wealth - have asmuch right to influence our elected representatives as the peopledo. But, that's not what the Declaration of Independence and Constitutionsay.Corporations and wealthy individualsare smothering our country's founding documents. In a societyin which money rules, plutocrats are turning democracy into kleptocracy.Government officials are bribed while in office, and then seamlesslymove from "public service" to the private sector, sellingthemselves to the highest bidder. If it continues, democracy willbe dead, everywhere.It may finally be time to consideralternatives to the current pathologic economic and politicalorder. If the global elite are a predatory class that has respectfor neither human beings nor the richness and diversity of theearth, and whose sole goal is too exploit the earth and its resourcesuntil they are exhausted, then the result will be the gradualdestruction of all that is beautiful and worthwhile - the destructionof life itself.There are individuals and organizations- not yet full-fledged movements - that are working on alternativesto predatory capitalism and the hierarchical political order thatthrives on it. These visionaries recognize that our current pathis leading to the immiseration of the vast majority of people,and ultimately, the destruction of life as we know it. And, theyunderstand that if they do not act, and if others do not jointhem, there will be no hope.We need to inform ourselves aboutthe early efforts being made by diverse groups toward developingalternative economic and political systems. And, we need to workwith others, toward a more humane and sustainable world.PREPARE FOR A PLUTOCRAT-CONTROLLED NEOLIBERAL ECONOMIC ORDER AND GLOBAL AUTHORITARIANISM Things are moving rapidly. Inequalityin America is extreme. Authoritarianism is increasing. Beforewe realize it, America's democratic experiment will have endedin failure, and possibly chaos. Societies with extreme inequalityhave always come to ignoble ends. The question is whether Americawill end with a whimper, or with a bang.American hubris has resulted inglobal economic chaos and strategic confrontation. We are no longerthe only superpower. Both Russia and China, once great empires,want a second chance at global prosperity and respect. As theU.S. is forced by circumstances to abandon its role as the soleglobal policeman and economic powerhouse, others are ready totake its place. But, dying empires are known to flail about andfight viciously to preserve their former hegemony. And, it lookslike the United States will not go quietly into the night.U. S. power was at its peak followingWorld War II. America ruled the globe economically and militarily.It's influence was ubiquitous and its soft power seemingly unlimited.But, arrogance and greed have turned the United States into apariah. We are feared for our power, but no longer respected forour institutions. Inequality, injustice, corruption, and our projectionof violence, have turned much of the world against us.Throughout the 20th century andinto the 21st century, while the United States rhetorically laudedthe benefits of democracy, it undermined democratically-electedgovernments everywhere. U.S.-sponsored coups and "color revolutions"dressed-up as spontaneous popular uprisings, have shown that democraticgovernments are not well-suited to withstand 21st century 'realpolitik'.Developing countries, which oncelooked to the United States as a model for political and economicdevelopment, are re-evaluating whether democracy is their bestpolitical choice. As the economic and political might of Russiaand China grow, so does their influence. And, as the United Statesrepeatedly demonstrates how easily it can manipulate electionsand exploit popular unrest, while hypocritically preaching aboutdemocracy, developing countries may conclude that authoritariangovernment may be their best survival option.The result: democracy will be leftin the dustbin of history.On the economic front, a new feudalismis emerging. As work is made contingent and part-time, employeebenefits are cut, operations are moved offshore, unemploymentincreases, well-paying manufacturing jobs become minimum-wageservice jobs, family debt grows, inequality increases and opportunitiesdisappear, the United States is beginning to look more like amal-developed country in the global South, than an economic giant,while American workers, once the envy of the world, struggle tocompete with workers in the third world.21st century neoliberal capitalismis producing chaos, globally. Unabashed greed, absence of effectiveregulation of business activity, and the growth of global casinocapitalism have caused untold damage. Austerity, privatization,extreme financial risk-taking, endemic fraud and market manipulationhave combined to produce a perfect economic storm. Regulatorshave stopped regulating, plutocrats continue to accumulate wealth,and politicians grab what they can. Nobody trusts anybody, bankswon't lend, unemployment is high and rising, personal debt isstaggering, and hardship and immiseration are growing, while the.01% spends with abandon and economic inequality has achievedheights not seen since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.Business and political elites haveshown a willingness to undermine and severely damage their owncountry's economy, in order to weaken a populist government thatrefuses to support neoliberal economic policies that enrich thewealthy. As the economy is covertly sabotaged, the population,unaware that the source of their misery is the business elite,blame the populist leaders, and remove them from office. The resultis that neoliberal governments replace populist governments, anti-workerpolicies are adopted and accelerated, the elites grow richer,and the working class suffers even more.In Asia, China's growing economicpower is transforming global finance. The Chinese yuan may soontake its place as an international reserve currency, joining thedollar - or even replacing it. The global impact of the dollar'sreserve currency displacement would be enormous.Banks have started restrictingcash withdrawals. It is now difficult to take out more than afew thousand dollars in cash from some banks. Soon it may be nearlyimpossible to withdraw cash from bank accounts.Some countries are consideringbecoming cashless societies, where money will no longer be acceptedand all monetary transactions will be digital. The result willbe the end of financial privacy. Governments will then have totalcontrol over the economic lives of their citizens.In the new "normal" financialenvironment, banks will prosper by taxing the deposits of savers(rather than paying interest on deposits) or by taking some ofthe savings of their customers (bail-ins) as needed to enhancetheir balance sheets.As the economic noose tightens,political turmoil, popular unrest and even global conflict mayresult.Kleptocratic elites in concertwith corrupt political and business leaders, will not be the solutionto the probem - they will be the problem.Every person will have to fendfor himself or herself, and for their loved ones, in a more chaotic,less fair, less democratic, more authoritarian world.The time to prepare is now.