In response to Donald Trump’s latest demonstration of his version of foreign policy – i.e, coming out into the center of the ring very aggressively and then backing away before his opponent figures out what hits him – Bill Bonner published a very instructive essay on his blog. I pass it along to you here, pretty much in its entirety…

“The Age of Descent: A Short History of the 21st Century (So Far)” by Bill Bonner 

 “The Age of Descent began at the end of the 20th century. Then, four decades of bad money, bad policies, and the badass Deep State caught up with the U.S.

“By 2016, the War on Terror – designed to transfer wealth from the public to the armed wing of the Deep State – had already been going on for 15 years, funded by debt.

“And for the most recent six years, the Federal Reserve had conducted a war against normal business and economic cycles – preventing normal corrections – in order to keep the wealth flowing to Wall Street and the richest 10% of the population.

“It was then, in the election of 2016, that voters faced a sour choice. There was the devil they knew, Hillary Clinton. And there was the one they didn’t know, Donald Trump.

“Given what they knew at the time, they seem to have made the best choice; they voted, by a hair, to get to know the devil, Trump. At the very least, he promised something new.

“He said he would end the foreign wars… and pay off the national debt in eight years. The reasonable voter could say to himself: ‘Even if he disappoints me, he still seems to want to go in the right direction.’

“Mr. Trump also promised to call a spade a spade. In that, voters got perhaps even more than they expected. But it soon became evident that the reality TV show star didn’t know what a spade was. His shows had been scripted for him.

Deep State Script 

“In the fall of 2018, the Fed was normalizing interest rates and draining away the $3.6 trillion in excess liquidity (new money) it had introduced during the crisis years. This policy was known as QT or quantitative tightening.

“But then, with a sell-off in the stock market, and under threat from the Trump White House, the Fed panicked. It promptly ended its ‘normalizing’ of interest rates. A year later, in September 2019 and still, under pressure from the president, it panicked again and ended QT.

“Suddenly, it began flooding the markets with new money again. More spending and a tax cut had increased federal deficits. By that time, foreigners had largely stopped funding U.S. red ink. Americans were reluctant, too. This left only the Fed. It funded 90% of federal borrowing needs by creating about $4 billion per day of new, fake money.

“But it probably didn’t matter very much who was in the White House. While the president keeps his ratings up with unchecked impulses and improv dialog, the real, important lines are still scripted – by the Deep State.

Bitter Catastrophe

“By the opening of the 21st century, the military/industrial/congressional complex that Eisenhower had warned about in 1961 was a reality. It could not be stopped.

“Too many powerful people depended on it – for their reputations, their careers, and their wealth. Trillions of dollars were taken from the public in order to reward the Pentagon and its crony suppliers, Wall Street, and all the hangers-on, chislers, and shysters of The Swamp.https://www.markford.net/wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack

“Nor could the demographic trends be denied. More and more people were leaving productive careers to go into retirement. The over-75 population segment was the fastest-growing of all; it was also the group that needed the most care and attention. Now, with so many older voters, increased entitlement spending could not be stopped, either.

“And now, despite the irrefutable math and ineluctable financial debacle, the public barely seems to notice. Impeachment. Assassination. Partisan politics. Rising stock prices. Everything seems more important than saving the nation from a bitter catastrophe.

Insiders vs. the People

“The voters take sides. Some are for the president, some are against him.

“But they square off on issues that have little significance. Good guys vs. bad guys. Rich vs. Poor. White vs. Black. Straight vs. Gay. Red vs. Blue. Even man vs. woman. The Chinese are the enemy one day. The next, it is the Mexicans. And then, the Iranians.

“The real fight, the Deep State insiders vs. the People, is rarely mentioned. And so the Deep State keeps winning. Debt increases. The wars go on.

“And while the empire still has its soldiers all over the world… and controls the seas with its heavy ships… and the air with its high-tech airplanes… it nevertheless descends, sinks, and slides deeper and deeper into the mud.”

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By Dr. Martin Luther King 

* We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. (Western Michigan University, December 1963)

* Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. (Nobel Lecture, University of Oslo, December 1964)

* We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. (In My Own Words, a collection of King’s sermons, speeches, and writings selected by his widow, Coretta Scott King)

* I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. (“I Have a Dream” speech, Lincoln Memorial, August 1963)

* I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there…. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. (“Where Do We Go From Here?” speech, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1967)

* Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  (“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963)

* Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness. (“The Most Durable Power” speech, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 1956)

* Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. (Strength to Love, 1963)

* There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right. (“A Proper Sense of Priorities” speech, Washington, DC, February 1968)

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ineluctable (adjective) 

Ineluctable (in-uh-LUK-that-bul) means inescapable; unable to be resisted or avoided. As Bill Bonner used it in the above essay: “And now, despite the irrefutable math and ineluctable financial debacle, the public barely seems to notice.”

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Impeachment (which is basically a charge of misconduct made against the holder of a public office) is rare. The House has initiated proceedings against top U.S. civil officials more than 60 times, but only 17 of them have been voted on. Prior to Donald Trump, only 2 presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1998). Neither was removed from the office.

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An email from RN:

I’ve read through Ready, Fire, Aim. I loved it, and in 2019 built a 7-figure… business based on the strategies you teach.

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Leaked ABC News Insider Recording EXPOSES #EpsteinCoverup “We had Clinton, We had Everything” – 

 

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