Debt Rattle September 3 2017
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Edward Hopper Sunday 1926 • America’s Superstar Companies Are a Drag on Growth (BBG) • Forget Wall Street – Silicon Valley Is The New Political
[See the full post at: Debt Rattle September 3 2017]Libya and Italy have recently severely restricted the ability of NGOs to come to the rescue of the smugglers of refugees from Libya to Italy, and taken measures to improve the protection of their borders. This was shrilly denounced by everyone, from Cecile Kyenge in the italian government, to the NGOs themselves, to bleeding-hearted humanitarians everywhere, including our very own Raúl Ilargi Meijer here in TAE. They said that trying to stem the flow was first of all completely futile – nothing would prevent millions fleeing what pro-refugees asserted was certain death from throwing themselves into the Mediterranean; and then that such policies would only result in very many more dead bodies being fished out of the sea.
Well the results are in. First of all, the number of refugees has dwindled markedly. And then the number of drowned refugees has fallen to… zero. World Migration Organization numbers say that there has not been a single drowned refugee for the past twenty days, something that had not occured since 2013. The repeated denegations and assertions that there is no such thing as a pull factor from NGO rescue missions have been proven wrong. Not only wrong, but shown to be actually causing human deaths. Yes, those arguing for more rescue operations in the Mediterranean were fools arguing for a policy resulting in more dead refugees. That is in addition to creating chaos and misery in Europe, in the unfortunate countries that were suddenly having to cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people stranded in countries they did not know and in which they have an infinitesimal chance of being happy, productive members of society. The policy of encouraging and welcoming this lawless immigration in humongous numbers is only generating misery and chaos everywhere, and increasingly, hostility and hatred. Oh, it was well-meaning policy, absolutely. Which does not mean it was not completely demented.
The von Miesesian homily on Houston eating its freedom fries, while not illuminating, does remind one of the variety of magical thinking of obscure religious sects. The screed does obliquely refer to Houston’s too big to fail status and is a case study in the type of thinking that contributes to making a bad situation worse.
The U.S. Bill of Rights is a list of explicit limitations on government power, not corporate power. Google (including YouTube) and Facebook can LEGALLY trample all over the “free speech rights” of everyone consuming their services because the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply to them. Seeing this, the government circumvents its own First Amendment legal constraints by nurturing a fascist partnership between itself and corporations, providing itself the ability to wear a corporate mask while violating human rights. Government / corporate partnerships have already enabled extreme levels of surveillance. They’ve also made it possible for government to commit war crimes using corporate mercenaries. Not to mention inroads made into a compliant quasi-corporate NRA to limit gun rights. And now we’re dealing with increasing Internet censorship as Google, YouTube and Facebook succumb to the same government / corporate forces that increasingly captured the mainstream media over the last half-century.
But the most egregious example is the relationship the U.S. government has with the Federal Reserve. In that government-corporate alliance, the borrower inexorably and perhaps unwittingly became servant to the lender. Which relegated government to becoming the enforcement arm of unelected corporate oligarchs who, among other things, manipulate the world’s reserve currency. Until recently, most of the rest of the world functioned in various degrees as appendages on the world’s reserve currency. In response to those appendages’ growing independence, the oligarchs now prepare for war. Possibly a world war that 99.99% of the world’s population doesn’t want and cannot possibly benefit from.
V. Arnold: just my long-winded way of saying I agree.
Tabarnick: Your observations are a breath of fresh air. Except for, “Oh, it was well-meaning policy, absolutely.” Sarcasm? Soros and his ilk meant well?
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