Dive Conquer, Rule
Divide, Conquer, Rule
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
Today’s
ruling elites are extremely adroit at using an old strategy called “divide and
conquer” or “divide and rule” to maintain their domination and advantage over
the masses. This strategy was implemented in modern times by the British who
used it effectively to maintain their global empire by fomenting discord
amongst various ethnic, religious or resistance groups, to keep them fighting
amongst themselves thus rendering them unable to unify, marshal or galvanize
their resources against their colonial oppressors.
Today the
plutocrats use their ownership and control of media programming, government,
indoctrination (education and religion), state sanctioned violence and
intimidation to create and maintain their domination of the world. Their two
pronged strategy is to: create psychological, socio-economic, racial and ethnic
conflict, division and enmity so their subordinates are so preoccupied trying
to win arguments, promoting ideologies the 1% had a hand in creating or using hot
button issues the elites know will distract, consume and derail any
possibilities of insurgence, resistance or revolution against them.
We are
witnessing this today in the red state blue state division, the left-right
dichotomy, the progressive-conservative schism and the generational and class
“culture wars” that dominate conversations and foster bunker and silo
mentalities. We see it in the gender wars, (a reaction to oligarchic male
patriarchal power) and identity politics. This is all by design and very
deliberate. It is being purposefully exacerbated by the mainstream media which
is owned lock, stock and barrel by the 1%.
In the US,
divide and rule goes back to colonial times when the monarchs’ and monopoly
trading company (the forerunners of today’s corporations) surrogates withstood rebellions
by white bond servants and enslaved Africans (and in isolated cases Native
Americans) against the colonial administrators.
Actual rebellions occurred in
places like Gloucester County Virginia
in 1663, Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia in 1676
and a rumored revolt by whites and blacks in New York City in 1774. While the issues that sparked the rebellions
differed by location, the common thread was they united the lower classes
against the colonial rulers because of the way the authorities treated them and
because of their system of governance.
The response by the status quo was
swift, violent and vicious. Any suspected leaders were captured and killed,
their mutilated bodies were allowed to fester and rot as public examples; while
others were expelled and sent to different colonies.
But these rebellions put fear in the hearts
and minds of the colonial administrators. The colonial 1% feared for their
lives, property and status. They could not allow the rabble to take control or
exert authority lest their profits and status be diminished. So they devised means
to prevent European, African and Native American unity, their solution was,
divide and rule.
The British colonizers used the
concept of race as the medium to prevent poor whites, who were little more than
slaves themselves, from uniting with the Africans and where possible Native
Americans. The colonial legislators passed laws consigning Africans to
permanent slavery and “the other” status. These laws kept Africans on the
bottom of the socio-economic ladder while the Europeans waged relentless wars
of extermination and land expropriation against the indigenous population.
The colonial administrators and
legislators granted poor white males a modicum of status by recognizing them as
“white” (meaning acceptable) and if the were able to secure property they could
gain respectability in the eyes of the colonial gentry and administrators.
Of course in return, white males were mandated
to participate in the defense of the colony by being part of regular militia
duty and slave patrols to make sure no enslaved Africans escaped or congregated
without supervision or a pass and as canon fodder in European intercolonial
wars and extermination campaigns against the Native Americans.
With the transition from an
agrarian to a mixed agrarian- industrial then mechanized industrial economy,
the ruling class violently resisted all organizing attempts by farmers, miners
and factory workers. The owners and their government allies worked assiduously
to stamp out all forms of unified, organized labor.
When that failed, ownership begrudgingly granted
concessions to various unions but used racial and gender division to prevent
organized labor from being a universal counterweight to unbridled capitalistic
exploitation.
This arrangement still exists today. The
ruling elites create rigid class stratification but cunningly promote the perception
anyone can move up, out and improve their lot, despite the fact today’s wealth
inequality is almost as bad as it was in the 1920’s and prospects for social
elevation are declining rapidly.
The fact is the deliberate
deindustrialization, the off shoring of capital and jobs and the ruling class’
financial policies have created massive debt peonage, wage stagnation and
disaffectedness. The increase of immerging technologies that are replacing
workers are making the “American Dream” just that, a fruitless fantasy.
A sense of anomie is permeating
this culture. This is why the frustration and depression levels are so high and
addictions and suicide are on the rise. This is why people fall for slogans and
political sound bytes like “Hope and Change” and “Make America Great Again”,
they know they are being squeezed, they see their wages, savings and lifestyles
dissipating before their eyes and they want genuine relief. But the system is not designed to provide
justice or relief, only profits.
The fact is, any attempts to resist
other than the prescribed channel of voting (which in itself is a form of
divide and rule) will be co-opted just like the original Tea Party or smashed
by the state like The Occupy Wall Street movement. Unless we are willing to
raise our consciousness, unite and truly challenge the 1% things will only get
worse.
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Fiscal Insanity
Fiscal Insanity
Junious Ricardo Stanton
“For the month of January, the Treasury
reported a budget surplus of $9 billion, down $41 billion or 82% from the same
month a year ago… The widening deficit comes as
the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a shortfall of $897 billion for
the full fiscal year, or 4.2% of gross domestic product. That’s up from $779
billion in fiscal 2018, when spending climbed and revenue remained nearly flat.
The CBO sees trillion-dollar deficits beginning in fiscal 2022.” https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-runs-january-budget-surplus-of-9-billion-2019-03-05?mod=economic-report
When
Trump and the Republicans were selling their supply side tax cut snake oil, I
did some research to determine whether or not tax cuts actually spurred
economic growth and boosted the economy. I discovered they did/do not. I went all
the way back to 1920 and discovered that only in a short seven year period from
1920 to 1927 in the administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge
did a fiscal policy of austerity actually produce the desired results.
Despite
taking office during a depression in 1920 (https://fee.org/articles/the-depression-youve-never-heard-of-1920-1921/),
Warren Harding following the advice of his Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon,
cut taxes, cut government spending targeted paying down the national debt and
actually generated a three hundred million dollar surplus! Harding died in
office in 1923 (there was no autopsy; he was embalmed within hours of his death
so no one knows what he died from). His Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed
office and continued Harding’s policies.
Coolidge
declined to run again in 1928 and a recession occurred in the final months of
his administration that eventually morphed into the Great Depression once
Herbert Hoover took office. Various schools of economic theory debate and argue
over why Harding and Coolidge were able to resolve the 192-21 depression
without using accepted “modern” interventions like increased government
spending or inflationary monetary policy.
What
these economists ignore is the basic approach Harding and Coolidge took to the
economy which was: don’t spend more than you take in in revenue, live on a
balanced budget and pay off your debts. They cut taxes, cut spending and paid
down the debt. Their actions along with new technologies, spurred economic
growth during the era known as the “Roaring Twenties”.
Despite
these policies, when Hoover
assumed office in 1929 the recession was worsening. He doubled down on
Harding and Coolidge’s policies but they didn’t work for him. Hoover
had always an interventionist. In Harding’s diary he noted Hoover who was his Secretary of Commerce was
always coming to him with one idea after another about how to deal with the
depression. Hoover’s
ideas were more interventionist than either Harding or Coolidge’s.
Ironically
one of the justifications for creating the Federal Reserve Bank (it’s not a
government entity at all, it’s a group of privately owned banks) was it would
end the relentless cycles of boom, bust, prosperity, recession and depression.
However, history has shown this not to be true.
Since
the 1929 Great Depression all Presidents even so called “conservatives” like
Ronald Reagan have eschewed the holistic policies of Harding and Coolidge: tax
cuts, spending cuts, paying down the debt and accountability (Harding created
the General Accounting Office to audit government spending) in favor of either
tax cuts or spending cuts done separately and randomly rather than in tandem.
Of course in 1921 there were no gargantuan New Deal Programs or Military
Industrial Complex to pay for like today.
Today
a charlatan like Donald Trump hoodwinks the people by telling them tax cuts
will stimulate the economy while he simultaneously increases government
spending (granted some government spending was for wildfires, floods and
hurricane relief) in addition to initiating a boneheaded trade war around the
world.
But Trump is not the only president to do this,
all of his immediate predecessors even the ones who raised taxes like Bu$h
Senior and Clinton have spent more than the government took in. Presidents Bu$h Jr. and Obama both cut taxes
(Obama extended Bu$h’s tax cuts), but simultaneously increased spending. By
doing so, they increased the federal deficit. Ronald Reagan did the same thing
although the media perpetrates the lie his tax cuts stimulated the economy
which they did not!
The United States is in a deep fiscal hole.
It spends far more than it takes in. Trump’s tax cuts and spending spikes increased
the federal deficit over $700 billion dollars in 2018 and is projected to
increase the deficit by $879 billion in 2019! This is insane.
Even though the Federal Reserve
Bank and US Treasury can theoretically continue to create and print money via
computer strokes, that policy is unsustainable over the long haul. Even the IMF
says so.
https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2018/10/imf-raises-concerns-for-fiscal-stability-of-the-united-states.
This coupled with the escalating economic slowdown we are now experiencing https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/u-s-job-cut-announcements-rise-117-percent-to-the-highest-level-that-we-have-seen-in-more-than-3-years/
things do not bode well for us.
Insanity is defined as, doing the
same thing over and over with the same people, expecting different results. By that
reckoning we truly are insane.
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Gaslighting America
Gaslighting America
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
We are constantly being manipulated, coerced, cajoled and
programmed both on subtle and obvious levels. The manipulators’ goal is to
control our minds and ultimately our behavior. One such form of manipulation is
called gaslighting. Gaslighting is a
form of direct manipulation, obfuscation and lies designed to make the target (the
person being manipulated) question their sanity, their reality or their
competency.
Gaslighting gets its name from two American motion pictures
an original and a remake in which the male character who is having an
extramarital affair tries to make his wife think she’s crazy for suspecting he
is being unfaithful to her.
Gaslighting is a power
play, a way for one person or group to gain and maintain power over others. In
the United States
we are gaslighted on a daily basis by individuals and institutions such as: religions,
our education systems, the mass media and politicians. There are numerous ways,
means and techniques devious people use to control, disorient and disarm people
they want to have power over.
One technique is to
tell blatant lies and then make you think you are insane for questioning or disbelieving
them. The ruling glass and their minions lie to us daily. When the ruling class
decides (they are not a monolithic group but they do cooperate to accomplish
their goals) they want to bum rush a country and steal their natural resources
they demonize that nation’s leader to gain public acquiescence and consent for
their actions.
Remember how the US demonized and lied about Saddam
Hussein and his non-existent weapons of mass destruction? Weapons inspectors
told the world Saddam did not have nuclear weapons nor the capability to
manufacture them but the US
government gaslighted the masses against United Nations weapons inspector Scott
Ritter and Hans Blinx the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who
steadfastly stated Iraq
had no WMDs; which in fact was the truth. Nevertheless Bu$h and Co.’s
gaslighting set the stage for a blatant, immoral and illegal invasion of Iraq
and a series of crimes against humanity that have thus far gone unpunished.
Gaslighting also occurs when a person, group or nation’s
actions don’t match their creed or purported values. The United States
purports to be the “exceptional and indispensible nation” but for most if not
all of its history exploitation, oppression, systemic violence and trauma have
been its real way of life and MO.
Don’t fall for the okey-doke. We are being gaslighted about
the economy; Trump tells us the economy is strong and growing. Yes, for a select
few. But for far too many of us, the economy is not rebounding and there are growing
indications a major readjustment coming. This readjustment is being fueled by
technological innovation, corporate and government mismanagement, greed and
apathy on our part.
Major retail organizations are closing their stores because
they cannot compete with Online commerce giants like Amazon and eBay and
because people don’t have money to buy their goods. Last week it was announced GAP, JC Penny, Macy’s,
Victoria’s
Secret, Foot Locker, Payless Shoes are closing stores and some are filing for
bankruptcy. Over four thousand stores will close in 2019! https://www.businessinsider.com/stores-closing-in-2019-list-2019-3
US auto sales fell in 2018 and
remain slow in 2019 yet Trump and the cable news and business channels tell us
the economy is fine! http://fortune.com/2019/03/01/auto-car-sales-decline-jeep-ford-toyota-honda-nissan/
More gaslighting!
Trump’s trade wars have negatively impacted the US economy but
you won’t hear that in the corporate mind control apparatus. His trade war with China has severely hurt US farmers https://www.ft.com/content/93a21e84-0f55-11e9-a3aa-118c761d2745
farm bankruptcies are on the rise but Trump says things are great. More
gaslighting!
Don’t fall for the okey-doke think for yourself and have the
courage of your convictions.
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