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Gold9472
09-27-2005, 03:21 PM
America is Running Out of Time

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09262005.html

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
9/26/2005

George W. Bush will go down in history as the president who fiddled while America lost its superpower status.

Bush used deceit and hysteria to lead America into a war that is bleeding the US economically, militarily, and diplomatically. The war is being fought with hundreds of billions of dollars borrowed from foreigners. The war is bleeding the military of troops and commitments. The war has ended the US claim to moral leadership and exposed the US as a reckless and aggressive power.

Focused on a concocted "war on terrorism," the Bush administration diverted money from the New Orleans levees to Iraq, with the consequence that the US now has a $100 billion rebuild bill on top of the war bill.

The US is so short of troops that neoconservatives are advocating the use of foreign mercenaries paid with US citizenship.

US efforts to isolate Iran have been blocked by Russia and China, nuclear powers that Bush cannot bully.

The Iraqi war has three beneficiaries: (1) al Qaeda, (2) Iran and (3) US war industries and Bush-Cheney cronies who receive no-bid contracts.

Everyone else is a loser.

The war has bestowed on al Qaeda recruits, prestige, and a training ground.

The war has allied Iran with Iraq's Shi'ite majority.

The war has brought soaring profits to the military industries and the firms with reconstruction contracts at the expense of 20,000 US military casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilian casualties.

The Republican Party is a loser, because its hidebound support for the war is isolating the party from public opinion.

The Democratic Party is a loser, because its cowardly acquiescence in a war that is opposed by the majority of its members is making the party irrelevant.

The latest polls show that a majority of Americans believe the US cannot win against the Iraq insurgency. The majority support withdrawal and the redirection of war spending to rebuilding New Orleans. Despite the clarity of the public's wishes, the Republican Party continues to support the unpopular war.

With the exceptions of Reps. Cynthia McKinney and John Conyers, Democrats fled the scene of the Sept. 24 antiwar rally in Washington DC. The cynical Democrats are apparently owned by the same interest groups that own the Republicans and are refusing the mantle of majority party that the electorate is offering to the party that will end the war.

The Bush administration is churning out red ink in excess of $1 trillion annually. The federal budget deficit is approaching $500 billion. The US trade deficit is approaching $700 billion.

The budget deficit is being financed by foreigners, primarily Asians who now hold enough US government debt to exercise power over US interest rates and the value of the dollar whenever they decide to use the power that Bush has placed in their hands.

The trade deficit is being financed by turning over the ownership of US assets and future income streams to foreigners, making Americans forever poorer from the loss of accumulated wealth.

For the time being, China is willing to accumulate US assets as a way of taking over our consumer markets, attracting US manufacturing industry with cheap labor subsidized by artificial currency values, and gaining our technology. China's strategy is to over-value the US dollar in order to encourage the transfer of US economic capabilities to China. China's strategy gives artificial value to the dollar and keeps US interest rates at an artificial low.

The values of US stocks, bonds, and real estate depend on the support that Asians' economic strategies provide the dollar and US interest rates. As Asia achieves its goal of preeminence in manufacturing, innovation, and product development, the strategy will change. Once China completes its acquisition of US capabilities, it will no longer have a reason to support the dollar.

When the dollar goes, it will affect costs, profits, interest rates and living standards in dramatic ways. Costs and interest rates will soar, and profits, living standards, equity values, bond prices and real estate will plummet.

These unpleasant events await only Asia's decision to curtail its support for US red ink. That will happen when this support no longer serves Asia's interest.

When Asia pulls the plug on the dollar, the US government will find that monetary and fiscal policy are powerless to offset the consequences.

Compared to US budget and trade deficits, terrorists are a minor concern. The greatest danger that the US faces is the dollar's loss of reserve currency role. This would be an impoverishing event, one from which the US would not recover.

An intelligent government sincerely concerned with homeland security would find a way to halt the global labor arbitrage that is stripping the American economy of high value-added jobs and manufacturing capability, thereby causing the US trade deficit to explode. The loss of tax base that results when US companies outsource jobs and relocate production abroad makes it ever more difficult to balance a budget strained by war, natural disasters, and demographic impact on Social Security and Medicare.

Global labor arbitrage is rapidly dismantling the ladders of upward mobility and thereby endangering American political stability. This threat is far greater than any Osama bin Laden can mount.

Time is running out for Republicans and Democrats to escape from the distraction of a pointless war and to focus on the real threats that endanger the United States of America.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

beltman713
09-27-2005, 04:01 PM
This shit sounds dead on.

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 04:07 PM
Yup... Karl Schwarz actually sent me the article... (Karl Schwarz is a questionable 9/11 Truther who happens to be a nice guy)

beltman713
09-27-2005, 04:10 PM
I've been saying that losing our manufacturing ability is more of a threat to national security that terrorism ever will be. Our great manufacturing base is what won two world wars for us, more than anything else.

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 04:37 PM
I've been saying that losing our manufacturing ability is more of a threat to national security that terrorism ever will be. Our great manufacturing base is what won two world wars for us, more than anything else.

Absolutely... I think the statistic was that less people die a year from "terrorism" than they do from lightning strikes... Bush has bankrupted this country... in every way...

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 07:09 PM
This statement though... "With the exceptions of Reps. Cynthia McKinney and John Conyers, Democrats fled the scene of the Sept. 24 antiwar rally in Washington DC." is inaccurate... Maxine Waters, Raul M. Grijalva were there as well.

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 07:10 PM
Also keep in mind that Maxine Waters was listed as one of the top 13 Corrupt Politicians... I don't get it... she always seemed sincere to me... just... maybe I was wrong...

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 07:13 PM
And also keep in mind he's probably writing this article based on the news reports which said only Conyers, and McKinney were going to be there... so he's not "wrong".

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 07:36 PM
I just wrote the author a very simple email...

Mr. Roberts...

I just read your article "America Is Running Out Of Time". What can we do? BTW... Maxine Waters, and Raul Grijalva showed up. I know you probably got your information from the newspaper reports... anywho... what can we do?

Thank you...

Jon Gold
www.yourbbsucks.com

princesskittypoo
09-27-2005, 09:09 PM
did they respond back?

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 09:12 PM
no

Gold9472
09-27-2005, 09:12 PM
Anyone see a "pattern" here (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4046)?

PhilosophyGenius
09-27-2005, 11:01 PM
Yup... Karl Schwarz actually sent me the article... (Karl Schwarz is a questionable 9/11 Truther who happens to be a nice guy)

why is he 'questionable'?

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 11:31 AM
BUMP

dMole
10-26-2007, 11:56 AM
Umm, I think it's pronounced Federal Reserve Act (about 1913 or so- Wilson's reign?) Then the Bushes jumped in bed with the Nazis in WW2 and FDR pulled an IgNORAD with the relatively-new radar at Pearl Harbor. [I believe they demolished the original radar installation on the north shore of Oahu, I can look for the link that shows the concrete foundations out in the jungle if needed]

Shoot a president in the head in Dallas, Gulf of Tonkin, USS Liberty, USS Scorpion, Cold War, Vietnam, Opium Trafficking, yada yada...

Which brings us up to the current crop of pathological PNAC douchebags you all know and love like Cheney/Rumsfeld who've basically been plaguing us since the Nixon/Ford administration.

The quiz will be next week class... JK

dMole
10-26-2007, 12:38 PM
Better not forget the National Security Act of 1947- that would take several chapters... Get a copy of James Bamford's "Body of Secrets" and "The Puzzle Palace". Mark Zepezaur's "The CIA's Greatest Hits" is a tiny little illustrated book that outlines much of this history (chapters are only 2 pages long).

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 01:27 PM
Umm, I think it's pronounced Federal Reserve Act (about 1913 or so- Wilson's reign?)

Wilson later admitted he had ruined the country for doing that.

dMole
10-26-2007, 01:31 PM
Admission? Apology? Fuck that! I want our gold back!

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 01:36 PM
I never understood gold as a medium of exchange. What good is it? So 3000 years ago a race was obsessed with it. So it sparkles. Can you eat it? Granted it has some electrical properties that are above average. Beyond that who gives a shit...

dMole
10-26-2007, 01:43 PM
I was playing a little "Bad Cop" there- I agree on the barter/exchange idea (been doing it all my life). I think it is sometimes called "marriage" too.

AFA gold's electrical properties- silver and platinum are better. I'd take the platinum since it is a KILLER catalyst for water hydrolysis and for fuel cells that we've been talking about. Silver is used to inhibit microbial growth in medical tubing, and it stores oxygen like a sponge (part of its "tarnish" problem). The Navy and aerospace industry are pretty fond of gold for electrical connections. Aside from that, I'm agreed on the precious metals' "value". I am pretty fond of my diamond files, saws, and knife sharpeners though (cheap "industrial" diamonds there)...

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 01:51 PM
IMO, silver is a bit more prone to tarnishing, thus adding resistance. Platinum IS awsome, but a motherfucker to processs. The whole thing takes six months, and it takes 700 pounds of stone to yield one ounce of that shit. So I wouldn't expect it to take over any time soon. I think crack cocaine should be our new medium of exchange...

dMole
10-26-2007, 02:13 PM
IMO, silver is a bit more prone to tarnishing, thus adding resistance.

My recent job was essentially Electrical Engineer for a flexible circuit manufacturer (microwave and gas pump "keyboards" 'n such). We used silver screen printed inks, and the resistance often went DOWN on tarnished circuits, but the change was small enough that most non-EEs would even notice or care- took quite a bit of data to even notice a change. Silver and Copper are some damn fine conductors of most wave phenomena. You ever use silver solder (used all the time in gunsmithing)- that's some pretty dandy stuff too?

On our clicky "tactile" switches, we often needed nickel plating to pull the resistance of stainless steel down where our customers wanted it.

Aluminum's pretty much just good for beer cans and softball bats, but they sure build a lot of airplanes and semi-trailers out of that crap! What are your thoughts on the Aluminum +3 ion and Alzheimers? I don't try to ever cook in aluminum pans if I can help it- makes backpacking pretty heavy though with cast iron.

That's the problem with this Truth business- people saw it so it must be a certain way. Joe Q. Public doesn't know enough optics to discuss holography and "illusion" or enough materials science to describe even everyday household objects. But he "knows" that we're all Kooks and those 19 Iraqis destroyed 'Merica!

I agree that AuG observed considerable silver tarnish in his day, and "common sense" supports his statement. 2 years of my test data does not. Oxygen is HELLA electrically active, and I suspect that's a factor.

Now don't even get me started on the carbon conductive ink- that's deep water there...

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 02:22 PM
I have run across alot of residential wiring over the years from the Vietnam era that was aluminum. Most times it was AFTER the resulting fire. Stranded aluminum is ok for services, ranges and the like as lkong as you use an antioxidant.

What was (and still is) the gold plated craze on A/V connectors?

I read somewhere that carbon in some forms was an excellent conductor. That represents my store of knowledge on the topic, except that it had something to do with nodes, or nodules.


That's the problem with this Truth business- people saw it so it must be a certain way. Joe Q. Public doesn't know enough optics to discuss holography and "illusion" or enough materials science to describe even everyday household objects. But he "knows" that we're all Kooks and those 19 Iraqis destroyed 'Merica! Take the hologram talk no further my friend. As a representative of the owner of this sites intrests I ask you this.

dMole
10-26-2007, 02:32 PM
I know- it's a raw nerve everywhere. I'd just like to read an "expert" use the words evanescent wave, quantum electrodynamics, constructive interference, or even tell me how many Maxwell equations there are and what type of mathematics is needed, for that matter.

I've just had to damn much optics and seen too much disinfo to buy or dismiss any one "silver bullet" 100%. If I were truly evil (like Cheney), I'd probably have redundancy stacked upon redundancy. I think most of the "illusions" would have happened on a taperoom editing floor IMHO. Is the word "optics" still okay?

Point taken. I've probably elevated Jon's blood pressure more than enough- sorry sir.

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 02:37 PM
I think you skirted the edges enough that you haven't crossed any lines. I have no idea about any of the things you said. If you wanted to start a thread in para/ UFO forum that in NO WAY connected the 911 to the technology you were talking about that would be OK. I would be interested to read it. Other than that Jon is very stern on the topic of holograms, space beams, CGI and the like.

dMole
10-26-2007, 02:57 PM
Yeah, I'll just admit I've got a little different perspective on the curve in the road here where many in the Truth movement didn't make the turn and plunged off the cliff...

Besides- AuG used the H-word, I "skirted" it ;)

AuGmENTor
10-26-2007, 02:58 PM
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Good point sir, good point.