Jlknapp505's Blog

When is a Conspiracy Theory not a Theory?

Answer, when is is backed up by facts. It helps if the facts are widely known and from reliable sources. This is seldom true, which is why I’ve been skeptical of conspiracy theories in the past. This essay may, in fact, be no more than theory. I invite you to read it, think about it, fact-check it.

I begin with a question: Lacking military and economic assets to launch an external attack, how would an enemy destroy the United States?
Answer, from within. Use US institutions against it. Weaken or destroy links to friendly nations. Do so covertly so as to avoid the risk of open war. That has been tried before, unsuccessfully.

Do we have such an enemy?

Consider recent events in Eastern Europe, the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. Consider the annexation of Crimea. Consider the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Facts, easily verified.
Conclusion, Russia, directed by Vladimir Putin, is expansionist. It is actively engaged in an attempt to bring the former nations of the USSR under Russian control. There is no reason to suppose Putin’s ambitions will stop at that. Some conjecture, but based on fact.

How can Putin remove the greatest obstacle to his ambitions, the United States of America?

Consider American alliances, American trade partners, and American institutions. Consider American weakness. We destroyed the political system set up by the founders. We turned our government over to two political parties, which systematically set up procedures designed to hamper formation of others. Power was their goal, money was the means. Political professionals sold our government for money. Which they spent in the effort to gain political power, which would then be used to generate more money to gain more power. The cycle was endless. We knew, and did nothing.
Our economy was handed over to oligarchs and multi-national corporations, which did what capitalist entities always do: invest money and seek the greatest possible return on that investment. If cheap labor could not be brought in, jobs would be sent to where the cheap labor was. Socialism became a curse word. Capitalism ruled. No one questioned the false doctrine that competition always ensured more opportunity, more social mobility, more efficiency.
Competition could easily be blocked by payment to a Congressman, who would then slip an ‘amendment’ into an unrelated, must-pass bill. We knew, and did nothing.
We sheep prepared ourselves for slaughter.
Vladimir Putin recognized our weakness. Now we come to the recent national elections.

US and foreign intelligence agencies have evidence that has led them to conclude that Russia interfered in the election. Putin ordered the interference. It was carried out by hacking and disinformation, commonly called fake news, generated to aid Donald Trump and discredit Hillary Clinton. Information gathered from the hacks was released through Wikileaks, possibly others. It was furnished through a cutout to protect the source of the information, but hacking is based on code which includes information about where it originated. Intelligence agencies report the hacks were done by Russians and the campaign was directed by Vladimir Putin.
The effort was designed to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. Clinton supporters considered him a joke at first, a boor, a bully, a clown. Others, victimized by our political parties and the people who control our economy, saw him as an outsider who would reset the stage. Already looking for a way to upset those in control, they were ready when Putin launched his covert effort to weaken the US from within.
The operation succeeded. We elected Donald Trump. Most of those who voted (many didn’t, or couldn’t) voted for Hillary Clinton. Nevertheless, Donald Trump won election.
We assumed his first official acts, nominations of persons to head departments or advise him, were based on foolishness.
But were they? Or were they part of an effort to attack American institutions, part of a covert attack on the nation? Consider the following:
Trump nominated a man to head the Energy Department who once promised, if elected, to shut it down. The Energy Department is responsible, among other things, for the nation’s nuclear stockpile.
He nominated a woman to head the Education Department whose expressed aim is to weaken public education by taking money from public schools and handing it over to for-profit charter schools.
He nominated a man for Secretary of State, fourth in line of succession to the presidency, who has never held public office, never served in the armed forces, but who holds an award given him by Vladimir Putin: the Russian Order of Friendship. This nominee still has deep economic ties to Russia and Russians. The award has been given to many, including George Blake, an espionage double agent from the UK. Fact.
He nominated a man to head the Department of Health and Human Services who once declined a similar position, citing lack of knowledge and experience. Fact.
He has surrounded himself with people who would not question his motives. These include a propagandist, formerly the head of an Alt-Right news organization. Another is a former intelligence director, removed for inability to lead a major agency. Whose ability to bend truth labeled his conclusions as ‘Flynn Facts’. Fact.
Foolish? Or something more?
Donald Trump has already acted to weaken our trading relationship with China. China has responded by pressing harder in the South China Sea, threatening US allies and some who may no longer be allies.
Donald Trump has disparaged NATO, threatening to not respond if, in his judgment, member nations had not ‘been paying their bills’. His remarks were made during an interview with a NY Times reporter. Facts. It is noteworthy that US troops just moved into Poland; their presence is intended to act as a deterrent to Russian pressure. Poland, formerly occupied by the USSR, is now a member of NATO.
Foolish? Or something more?
One more fact: The U.S. Constitution states, in Article Three, Section Three: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”
The Russian Federation, with the knowledge of and at the order of Vladimir Putin, interfered with the American election in an effort to elect Donald Trump. Putin’s Russia is, by definition, an enemy.
Donald Trump has frequently expressed admiration for Putin and Russia. Fact.
Donald Trump, as President-elect, has acted and spoken in a manner designed to weaken American government institutions, including departments headed by nominees to become part of his cabinet. His nominations include persons who have stated in the past that they intend to destroy such institutions. He has made statements designed to weaken American alliances and trade relationships. Fact.
I therefore consider the evidence clear, that more than two ‘witnesses’ have observed overt acts by Donald Trump. He has ‘adhered to an enemy, has given an enemy aid and comfort’. Fact.
By his statements and his actions, Donald Trump has met the definition of treason. Fact.
Donald Trump is a traitor.
Conjecture: Donald Trump may be a fool, but he may also be part of a massive covert attack against the United States, an attack directed by Vladimir Putin. I have not included another conjecture in this essay, that Trump is being influenced by compromising information held in a dossier by Russians.
I wonder if essayists in the past have felt as nervous, even fearful, as I do now?

 

From an article in the NY Times:
“In a Nov. 15 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, (Steve) Bannon described the goal of the “entirely new political movement” he believes Trump is leading:
“It’s everything related to jobs. The conservatives are going to go crazy. I’m the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, it’s the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Shipyards, ironworks, get them all jacked up. We’re just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution — conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.”
Bannon is explicit in his identification of the enemy:
“The globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia. The issue now is about Americans looking to not get f—ed over. If we deliver, we’ll get 60 percent of the white vote, and 40 percent of the black and Hispanic vote and we’ll govern for 50 years.””
Issues:
Financing this plan means borrowing, increasing the national debt, something Tea Partiers don’t want. The other option is raising taxes, which Republicans generally don’t want. Chance of passing such a plan, not good.
A third option, simply create money by fiat to finance up-front costs is what I believe would work best. Looked at like that, I could find a lot of common ground with Bannon. I’ve described a similar idea and called it ‘turning the economy inward’.
Instead of constantly pressing for exports, which many can’t afford, turn the nation’s attention inward, to fix our own problems. Highways, including the back roads. Power distribution systems, including measures making them less vulnerable to hacking. More wind and solar power. Things like that.
But will the Fed go along? They did, when creating money bailed out the banksters. But to bail out the economy? To bail out ordinary workers?
Will CONGRESS go along? A lot of congresscritters are invested in industries that Bannon’s plan will hurt. It’s like healthcare, if they rein in what Medicare is forced to pay pharma companies, they hurt their own pocketbook. Nope, can’t be doing THAT!
We’ll see.

We’re watching a tragedy unfold in Greece right now, and no one can do anything to head it off. It’s going to have to run its dreary course, creating suffering for most Greeks and death for a few.
Yes, it’s that bad. As politicians and bankers try to work out something, anything, Greeks cannot withdraw enough money daily to live. Companies cannot pay their employees. Customers can’t buy goods. A Greek man being interviewed on television confessed that he hadn’t eaten in two days.
For the elderly and the ill, it’s worse. Their pensions have been systematically cut. Taxes on food are absurdly high by our standards, in excess of 20%. ‘Capital flight’ has been going on for some time as wealthy Greeks moved their money beyond the reach of government tax collectors.
The reason for all of this is simple: Greece has not been in control of her own economy since the country joined the nations using the euro. The euro is controlled by the European Central Bank, which acts in a fashion similar to the US Federal Reserve system.
There are implications for the US in all this. We’re part of a financial system that is  interconnected. Goods flow almost interrupted from nation to nation and finance flows with them. This is getting worse. It’s good for the financialists, that free flow of capital, but it’s dangerous for the rest of us. That flow of capital is not restrained. It goes to where the most profit is to be made, creating booms in economies, but inevitably it goes too far, creating busts. The system is unbalanced.
But no one, no entity, is responsible for the ‘system’. There’s no one to say ‘Stop!’ So Greece now finds herself starved of capital and the Greek people find themselves literally starving, in a world of plenty.
Because it’s all about profit, you see. Earn profits, you can invest those and put the money to work for you. You can earn even more profits. Eventually, you can occupy yourself not in producing value for others but in managing your money. You too can become a capitalist.
What’s forgotten in all this is that capitalism also carries risk. It’s called ‘risk capital’ for a reason. European bankers forgot that. They loaned money to a government, then forced that government into economic depression in an attempt to get the investment (and the high profits from the associated risk) back. Which cause the economy of Greece to shrink even further, leading to a kind of economic death spiral. That is the Greek tragedy.
There’s a place for capitalism in a modern economy. But economies must have balance. There must be private enterprise. There must be socialism, and also social support systems.
And someone, or some agency, must exercise control. We’ve lost control of our system. Capitalism has become financialism, where the capital pool is an industry in itself, divorced from creating more wealth for the system as a whole. This is done through banks and investment agencies and insurance companies, which in turn have grown to the point that they’re ‘too big to fail’. Allowing the system to fail crashes the conomy of the world, it’s just that simple. Because the fortunes of all of us are tied to capitalism, and capitalism isnt’ subject to any controls, including those of the market. There is collusion, not competition. The system itself drives it further and further, the oscillations between economic increase and contraction become ever greater, nations loan money to each other (expecting, of course, to profit thereby), and the whole house of cards totters.
So what’s the solution? In my view, it’s balance. Nations must exeercise balance, and by doing so they balance the system as a whole. They do this by judicious infusions of capital into their own economy, something Greece can’t do because their capital comes from the European Central Bank, which Greeks don’t control. So Greece has been starved for capital; business can’t borrow, can’t expand. Workers get laid off. Pensions to the elderly and sick are cut. The system contracts. Capital fluctuations at the top are followed by hunger, illness, and death at the bottom.
The cure for this system is to start at the top. Break up the too-big entities. That includes not only financial but multinational corporations. This allows portions of the system to be reduced to manageable size, and market forces may finally, through actual competition, make the system stronger. If one of those smaller entities goes bankrupt, let it. The system can survive that, where it could not survive the collapse of a national economy.
Reinstate controls. We had those once, but capitalism bought politicians who in turn allowed the growth of the companies to behemoth size. They became too big to fail. We allowed companies to buy up weaker competitors, reducing competition.
And somehow we were taught to fear direct investment by government in their economy. That’s socialism, evil. Government must always act throught a bank and a private company, paying them a profit to do what has to be done. Government can’t hire people to build roads, that’s socialism. Government must instead hire contractors, and the hiring of such brings with it corruption. That corruption is a form of competition in itself. Your company can deliver a better product cheaper, or it can bribe the people who make decisions. That latter course is most profitable, so that web of corruption spreads, despite laws to the contrary.
This principle is ignored by theorists, but it’s there. Far better to simply decide that a task must be done, replace a bridge perhaps; hire supervisors/architects/managers/workers and get it done. That injects capital directly into the system, which means it’s a form of socialism.
We need to understand that an economy that contains socialism as well as private enterprise and capitalism, including regulated capitalism, is the only way to have a balanced economy.
And until we get that balanced economy, we’ll watch economic tragedy continue. Greece is the current victim of unrestrained capitalism, but it won’t be the last.