I’ve had a few requests from people to give them a copy of all the programs I use… however, this isn’t quite what I want to do as my personal data is often saved into the application folders of those programs. So I decided to create a post about the items I use and provide links.

Where did I get these applications? Mostly from http://portableapps.com but also from http://www.portablefreeware.com and a few other places.

So without further ado… here are the programs I use. It’s not ALL of them, but I will endeavor to update this document with more as I can, and update it with changes in my lineup. You’ll notice that at the bottom I have apps with no information or links. These will get updated as I have time or requests to do so.

Legend

	I have on my thumb drive
	Open Source Software
	For Windows
	For Ubuntu (Debian linux

Ratings are based on the quality of the application, plus if it’s open source, and whether it runs on Linux and Windows. I run Linux at home and Windows at work, so I want to be able to use the same quality program in both places if possible and not worry about data problems.

Communication

• Putty Portable - If you want to be able to get through a firewall, or just want to keep all of your communication secure from prying eyes…then you will need both a SSH client (Putty) and SSH server. Once you’ve got access to an external SSH server, use Putty and the world is your oyster. There’s no need for Putty on Linux as SSH is built right in.
• Firefox Portable - The same nutty goodness as your normal Firefox installation, but it’s completely portable and won’t leave any traces on the host system.
  • Addons
    • My favorite addons
      • Foxmarks - Syncronize your bookmarks to all your firefox installs
      • Download statusbar - places your downloads on the statusbar. Very unobtrusive.
      • Gmail Manager - Manage all your Gmail accounts and get notified of new mail.
      • Google Preview - On the google search screen, get a thumbnail preview of the site.
      • Noscript - Blocks all script unless you tell it to
      • Inline Google Definition - Right click on a word and get the definition
      • Forecastbar - Local weather forecasts always visible.
    • Other addons I use - Reload Every, All-in-one sidebar, FireUploader, Nuke Anything, Gmail Space, Colorful tabs, Firebug, FireFTP, GreaseMonkey, Save Image in Folder, Split Browser, StumbleUpon, text/plain links, Fast Video Download, Alexa Sparky, Fox Clocks, SEO for Firefox
• Pidgin Portable - Supports all the various IM protocols, so you can chat with people across them all but never have to switch clients. Some advanced functionality isn’t supported like Cams and photo sharing, etc. Supports AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-gadu, Google Talk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo
  • Plugins
    • Bot Sentry, History, Psychic Mode

Multimedia (Music, Video, Images)

Video

• MPlayer Portable - Originally I preferred VLC over MPlayer but as they have both improved over time I’ve found myself preferring MPlayer now. They both play most any video you would want, but MPlayers interface is slightly more intuitive. It’s much better than Windows Media Player and always improving.
  • Alternative
    • VLC Portable - Although I have chosen MPlayer over VLC for now, they are both quality video apps and you can’t go wrong with either.
• VirtualDub Portable - Video conversion application. I have only used it once or twice. On Linux you the similar program is called AVIdemux or if you want even greater power then use MediaCoder but it’s not quite portable.

Images

• GIMP Portable - For image and Photo manipulation, this is the Open Source app of choice. Similar in some ways to PhotoShop, but also different enough that there is a learning curve.
• Cornice Portable - For quick image viewing as thumbnails. I especially like this over the default view in Vista that takes like 30 seconds to come up after clicking a picture. Quick and easy but no corresponding app in Linux.

Audio

• Coolplayer+ Portable - An open source audio player similar to the old WinAmp. Not much for bells and whistles, but it does play music streams. I usually just use MPlayer if I’ve got a set of files or playlist to play though…
• Audacity Portable - Record and manipulate audio encodings. Useful when you have the need to change an audio recording (i.e. chop out a particular part).
• BonkEnc Portable - Extract, convert, and encode various audio formats.

Office Apps

• OpenOffice Portable - The open source alternative to pay office suites. It’s every bit as good, and less bloat. Your documents can be saved in proprietary formats or open formats
  • Alternatives
    • AbiWord Portable - If you don’t want the full OpenOffice suite but want a lighter implementation to do documents with.
• Thunderbird Portable - Email client similar to Outlook. However, I use GMail exclusively for all my email needs.
• Sunbird Portable - Calendar App similar to what is in Outlook. However, again I use Google for my calendaring needs.
• GnuCash Portable - I don’t use a program anymore for my finances. I strictly use online banking through USBank and bill-pay and work at simplifying my life and finances down to a basic level instead of trying to track all the complex budgeting.
• Task Coach Portable - Again I’ve moved to an online solution for this functionality, because I want my data to be wherever I am. But it’s a nice app if you carry your thumb drive around with you.
• PDF Apps
  • Sumatra PDF Portable - A lightweight PDF viewer… so you won’t have to install Adobe bloatware. Use Evince on Ubuntu.
  • PDFTK Builder Portable - When you want to collate, split, or otherwise change a pdf file. pdftk on Ubuntu.

Security

• KeePass Portable - An excellent and very secure storage for your passwords and other information. And your saved password file will work on versions whether linux or Windows.
• Truecrypt - Keep all of your data completely secure. With Truecrypt you create encrypted storage at the file, partition or drive level. And the best feature is the hidden container system giving you complete deniability.

Utilities

• PeaZip Portable - Excellent. Supports dragging a file onto the interface. Opens just about everything. 7Z, 7-Zip sfx, ARJ, BZip2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, GZip, ISO, JAR, LHA, LZH, NSIS, OOo, PAQ, PEA, QUAD, RAR, RPM, split, TAR, Z, ZIP
  • Alternatives
    • 7-Zip Portable - Interface not as intuitive and only for Windows. 7z, ZIP, CAB, RAR, ARJ, LZH, CHM, GZIP, BZIP2, Z, TAR, CPIO, RPM, DEB
• ClamWin Portable - It is a manual scan only system, but you can take it with you and scan when you need it. It is fairly slow, but reliable. The Clam AV Engine is also around for Linux although it’s not needed quite as much as Windows.
• Command Prompt Portable - A simple way to have a command prompt setup just the way you like it on any machine.
• On-Screen Keyboard Portable - Mouse driven support for keyboarding.
• Eraser Portable - Securely erase files off of Windows. They will be gone for good. On Linux you would use Wipe.
• SpeedCrunch Portable - A full featured algebraic calculator.
• Toucan - Backup, Sync, Secure and more
• Undelete-Plus Portable - Recover files that have been accidentally deleted… well as long as they weren’t Erased…
• System Info Windows - Get tons of very valuable information from the windows system you are using. Great for troubleshooting or cataloging.
• WinDirStat Portable - Originally I used Treesize on my portable drive, but after playing with WinDirStat I started to see the power of it. The graphical display of the relative sizes of your files helps tremendously to determine where the space is being taken up.
  • Alternatives
    • Treesize - The free version is portable, simple, and easy to use. Not quite as nice at finding disk usage as WinDirStat though.

Burning Utilities

• DVDStyler Portable
• InfraRecorder Portable - Accomplish just about all your burning needs. Create DVD’s including Dual layer, Create Audio cd’s from mp3s and other audio files, plus much more.
  • Alternatives
    • Burrrn
    • ImgBurn

Games

• Jooleem Portable
• Mines-Perfect Portable
• PokerTH Portable
• Sudoku Portable

Still to explain

• ConvertAll Portable
• Cygwin - not really portable, but if you use it much… it might be worth the time to setup
• eMule
• EssentialPIM Pro
• KLDetector
• Lightscreen Portable
• PNotes Portable
• PStart
• RegShot
• Tight VNC
• uTorrent
• WildReplace
• WinMd5Sum Portable
• WinMerge Portable
• WinSCP Portable
• WinWGet Portable
• Wireless Keyview
• Xampp-Win32
• Xenon File Manager Portable
• Xnote Stopwatch

The financial meltdown was predicted a few years in advance along with the mortgage crisis that precipitated it, and even though the majority of people want to remain positive (or blind) and turn their head from the coming years of hardship, the fact remains that there is no good news on the short term horizon. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

I just don’t know how far “worse” goes down the ladder at this point. I mean, is this a worse as in gas costs $6/gal and people have to start tightening their belts, or is this a worse as in complete financial collapse and another great depression, or is this a worse as in zombies rule the world and you’re the only remaining human alive?

Let’s start with defining some levels of hardship, because you have to know what the possibilities are before you can plan for them.

What you will need to do and need to know will depend greatly upon at what level we sink to, but there will always be a few actions you can take that will not go to waste and leave you prepared in any event.

For instance, stocking up on non perishable food items, especially can foods that will last for a few years… you just can’t go wrong. If nothing happens, you can eat them, if it goes badly, then you have food stored and won’t go hungry and if you have an abundance that is secured then you have items for trade.

Other actions may or may not be beneficial depending on the level of the crash. Putting your money into gold or other currencies may be a good idea in a financial crash limited to the US, but what if it affects the world… the currencies aren’t going to help… and gold sounds good, but is the local farmer going to know how much a chip of gold is worth and going to trade you his produce? Probably not. So using the monetary system only works to your advantage at the top two levels.

Something as basic as whether you should buy or rent your living space can have huge consequences during volatile times. The drop in real estate property is forecast to go on through 2010.

Awareness of what can happen and what actions to take and prepare for at each level is the smartest thing you can do.

Learn about how you can convert your money to and from whatever currency you are in to make the best of large swings in valuation. Don’t try to capture the small swings as you’re just as likely to get bitten by an unexpected turn of events.

Stock up on items that will definitely be usable by you in any case, like canned foods. Buy items that don’t take much space but can save your life in a pinch, like water filtration devices, solar blankets, first aid, oil lamps, matches, etc.

Be on the lookout for deals at your local grocery stores for cheap sales on canned foods, etc.

Learn what it will take to survive at different levels and whether you are prepared, and if not then how you can get prepared.

Learn technologies that can really make your life easier when services like electricity, gas, oil, etc go away. You’re going to be limited to cooking food with fire and something as simple as a rocket stove can go a long way towards making your life livable over having to create a camp fire just to cook breakfast. Or how about learning how to build simple but effective generators that can be made from scrap parts and powered using water or wind.

Learn the basics of gathering or growing your own food and have a book on hand that you can reference as you need it.

Learn a trade that people will really need as other services go away like bicycle repair, tool creation, plot farming, clothing repair and creation, or teaching others the basics of survival, etc.

Really learn and research your area… is is a suitable area for subsistence farming? Without whole house heating will it be too cold? Is it a hard to travel area by foot or bicycle or carting a load on a trailer? And learn about your options for leaving it and where you would go to live a more comfortable life.

Some good sources of further reading:

• What if US Collapses?
• Possum living
• Homemade survival kit
• Rocket Stoves
  • How to build a simple Rocket Stove
  • Capturing heat

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Resources List

The following list is what I have been thinking through and coming up with as some items to think about and start to plan for. Please feel free to help with this effort and spur discussion about what else should be on people’s minds.

• Eating and Stocking your larder
  • Water - the most basic necessity
    • Live near good water with a manual pump
    • Have high quality food grade water containers available. These can be filled as needed before hard times and stored for future use.
    • Water filters/purifiers + repair kit (this should be efficient, easy to clean, repair, and use)
    • Hand pumps and siphons
  • Cooking
    • Coleman fuel with an efficient burner for cooking with the need of a large heat source. Plus a simple wrapping to keep heat close to pot.
    • Learn the basics of creating a rocket stove which is a very efficient way of heating using small amounts of fuel (wood twigs, etc)
    • Cast iron cookware - Heavy but lasts, keeps heat for a long time.
    • Matches - strike anywhere and plenty of them!
    • Have the basic utensils available such as a whisk, a hand can opener, a knife, and eating utensils. Paper plates and cups? Paper towels, napkins.
  • Food to grow
    • Live where you can grow or find your own food
    • Rabbits and Chickens - Both are small and easy to keep. Quick growing. Chickens are smellier, but give eggs. Chicken wire and wood for pens. Easy and cheap to feed.
    • Stockpile seeds (non-hybrid) that will grow in your area.
  • Food to store
    • Basics: Rice, beans
    • Canned foods: Veggies, Fruits, Soups, Tuna, gravy (best ones are tasty and edible without heating)
    • Cooking: Olive oil, Honey, Powdered/condensed milk, vinegar, flour, yeast
    • Water enhancers: Instant coffee, tea, tang, cocoa
    • Seasonings: Soy sauce, bullion cubes, garlic, salt/pepper, small amount of other spices
    • Treats: Graham crackers, trail mix, gum, candies, popcorn, peanut butter, nuts, jerky
  • Storage
    • Insulated ice chests - Great for keeping things cool in summer and from freezing in winter.
    • Canning supplies (jars, lids, wax) for future storage.
• Shelter and Warmth and lighting
  • Seasoned firewood (wood takes 6-12 months to cure for home use)
  • Weatherization items - Window/door insulation, wall/roof insulation
  • Sleeping - Sleeping bags (high performance materials), mats, pillows. Cots and inflatable mattresses.
  • Lighting - Long buring candles, Oil lamps (oil - clear, wicks)
• Clothing
  • Washing - Clothes pins, lines, hangars, multi-use soap (Dr. Bronners)
  • Heavy work clothes - Jeans, shirts, boots, belts
  • Repair - Sewing supplies (scissors, fabrics, thread, needles, etc)
  • Wool clothing - High performance in all weather. Scarves, mittens, hats, socks, shirts, etc
  • Gloves - Work, warming, gardening, etc.
  • Rain gear
  • Cold weather gear
• Personal Supplies
  • Learning, education, recording
    • Writing pads/paper/pencils/pens
    • Solar calculator
    • Reading glasses
    • Books (learning and pleasure, survival book)
  • Health and Hygiene
    • First Aid kits
    • insect repel, vermin killing.
    • Toilet paper, kleenex.
    • Baby wipes, baby oil, alcohol wipes/lotion.
    • Atomizers - cooling and bathing
• Tools
  • Tin snips (for creating rocket stoves, and other things out of flat metal)
  • Gardening tools
  • Wood tools - Bow saw, axe, hatchet, sharpening tools
  • Animal capture tools - Fishing supplies, snares, hunting, etc.
  • Transportation
    • Personal - Bikes + repair (tires, tubes, pumps, chains, oil)
    • Hauling - Carrying large items (wagons, trailers)
  • General use tools - Aluminum foil, plastic Garbage bags, bleach, Paraffin wax (food, candles, etc)
  • Patching - Screen, rubber, wood, bolts/nuts, etc.
  • Solar charging system - Useful long term? Hard to repair? Useful charging of items?
• Safety and Security
  • Protection - Guns, ammo, Pepper Spray, Knives, Slingshots
  • Safety - Baking soda as fire extinguishers, Carbon monoxide alarm, fire alarm
  • “Survival in a Can” - Good for having on hikes, traveling, trading, etc.
• Trading
  • Liquor, food, tp, cigarettes, bikes, books, humanity (toothpaste, rouge, soap, cologne)

After traveling around with it for two months I really appreciated it’s size. It fit perfectly into my motorcycle tank bag and at less than 2 pounds it’s practically not noticed when carrying it around.

The size of the screen is actually not a problem at all for using the internet or doing most other normal work.

The only thing I found myself disliking are that the buttons on the touchpad don’t always work, and the low powered CPU can at times be slow enough to be irritating.

After installing Ubuntu 8.04 and getting all the drivers and functionality working just right… any update to the kernel will cause you to go through many of the steps again as they require kernel updates.  This is not a fun process… so I ended up skipping updates while I was traveling as to avoid the hassle. In fact after the first two times of going through the process, I stopped doing it at all until I decided to try out the Ubuntu-eee distribution.

Here you see the main interface. Your programs are easily accessible from the left tabs, and your data from the right tabs. This is such a slick way of presenting information that even grandma could figure it out.

If you have the Asus eee pc 900, I’d highly recommend Ubuntu-eee for it instead of regular Ubuntu. You’ll have just a tad more screen room while doing all your normal tasks, an easy install and seemless updates, and a very intuitive main screen that minimizes the searching through menus.

In the screenshot above, note that there are 6 running applications, and each is give a small icon in the tab strip to provide access. This is very minimalistic but perfect for the tiny screen size.

Ubuntu-eee has all the correct drivers, everything just works out of the gate and seems to be faster. With the favorites tab, all of your apps are easy to get to. A fantastic environment on a still great little computer.

Analysis - I like the final result, but I think it’s more from the beauty of the subject than from my drawing. In other words it’s hard to mess up such a beautiful flower. But the shading on the green leaves is terrible in my eyes.

——————————————-

Note - I’ve decided to start posting my drawings to my blog. For a few reasons… To share the art, to stimulate me to draw more, and to keep a record of them all. Click on the small image to get the larger size view. There will be a small flood of posts as I put up all of my back dated drawings, then only as I produce new works.

————————-

I spent many hours transcribing the movie Zeitgeist: Addendum into text and marking up the quotations and speech with the speaker. I wanted to contribute to these ideas, and as I couldn’t find a full transcript online yet, I took it on myself.

This movie is phenomenal. Even if you don’t agree with everything in it, be open to the messages it has. Open your mind, think through what is and how it could be done in other ways. If you have questions or doubts… go research it, let others know about your research. Don’t react and yell and scream because it upsets you, give it some thought and some attention.

If you see errors in the transcript let me know. If you find references that I can link to within the transcript also let me know.
—————————————————————-

Zeitgeist: Addendum

Narrator: Peter Joseph

“The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work.” - Carl Sagan

“The business of who I am, whether I’m good or bad or achieving or not, all that’s learned along the way.” - Dr. Richard Albert

“It’s just a ride, and we can change it anytime we want. It’s only the choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money.” - Bill Hicks

“I realized I had the game wrong. The game was to find out what I already was.” - Dr. Richard Albert

“We will see how very important it is to bring about, in the human mind, the radical revolution. The crisis is a crisis in consciousness. A crisis that cannot, anymore, accept the old norms, the old patterns, the ancient traditions. And, considering what the world is now, with all the misery, conflict, destructive brutality, aggression, and so on… Man is still as he was. Is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive. And, he’s built a society along these lines.” - J. Krishnamurti

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” - J. Krishnamurti

[Peter Joseph]

Society today, is composed of a series of institutions. From political institutions, legal institutions, religious institutions. To institutions of social class, familiar values, and occupational specialization.

It is obvious, the profound influence these traditionalized structures have in shaping our understandings and perspectives. Yet, of all the social institutions, we are born into, directed by, and conditioned upon.. There seems to be no system as taken for granted, and misunderstood, as the monetary system.

Taking on nearly religious proportions, the established monetary institution exists as one of the most unquestioned forms of faith there is. How money is created, the policies by which it is governed, and how it truly affects society, are unregistered interests of the great majority of the population.

In a world where 1% of the population owns 40% of the planets wealth. In a world where 34.000 children die every single day from poverty and preventable diseases, and, where 50% of the world’s population lives on less than 2 dollars a day… One thing is clear. Something is very wrong. And, whether we are aware of it or not, the lifeblood of all of our established institutions, and thus society itself, is money.

Therefore, understanding this institution of monetary policy is critical to understanding why our lives are the way they are. Unfortunately, economics is often viewed with confusion and boredom. Endless streams of financial jargon, coupled with intimidating mathematics, quickly deters people from attempts at understanding it. However, the fact is: The complexity associated with the financial system is a mere mask. Designed to conceal one of the most socially paralyzing structures, humanity has ever endured.

[/Peter Joseph]

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe- 1749-1832

[Peter Joseph]

A number of years ago, the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve, produced a document entitled “Modern Money Mechanics”. This publication detailed the institutionalized practice of money creation as utilized by the federal reserve and the web of global commercial banks it supports.

On the opening page the document states its objective. The purpose of this booklet is to describe the basic process of money creation in a fractional reserve banking system. It then precedes to describe this fractional reserve process through various banking terminology.

A translation of which goes something like this:

• The United States government decides it needs some money.
• So it calls up the federal reserve and requests say 10 billion dollars.
• The FED replies saying: “sure, we’ll buy ten billion in government bonds from you”.
• So the government takes some pieces of paper, paints some official looking designs on them, and calls them treasury bonds.
• Then it puts a value on these bonds to the sum of 10 billion dollars and sends them over to the FED.
• In turn the people of the FED draw up a bunch of impressive pieces of paper themselves, only this time calling them federal reserve notes, also designating a value of ten billion dollars to the set.
• The FED than takes these notes and trades them for the bonds.
• Once this exchange is complete, the government than takes the ten billion in federal reserve notes, and deposits it into an bank account.
• And, upon this deposit the paper notes officially become legal tender money.
• Adding ten billion to the US money supply.

And there it is! Ten billion in new money has been created. Of course, this example is a generalization. For, in reality, this transaction would occur electronically, with no paper used at all. In fact, only three percent of US money supply exists in physical currency. The other 97 percent essentially exists in computers alone.

Now, government bonds are by design instruments of debt. And when the FED purchases these bonds with money it essentially created out of thin air, the government is actually promising to pay back that money to the FED. In other words, the money was created out of debt.

This mind numbing paradox, of how money or value can be created out of debt, or a liability, will become more clear as we further this exercise.

So, the exchange has been made. And now, ten billion dollars sits in a commercial bank account. Here is where it gets really interesting. For, as based on the fractional reserve practice, that ten billion dollar deposit instantly becomes part of the banks reserves. Just as all deposits do. And, regarding reserve requirements as stated in “Modern Money Mechanics”: “A bank must maintain legally required reserves equal to a prescribed percentage of its deposits”. It then quantifies this by stating: “Under current regulations, the reserve requirement against most transaction accounts is ten percent”. This means that with a ten billion dollar deposit, ten percent, or one billion, is held as the required reserve. While the other nine billion is considered an excessive reserve, and can be used as the basis for new loans.

Now, it is logical to assume, that this nine billion is literally coming out of the existing ten billion dollar deposit. However, this is actually not the case. What really happens, is that the nine billion is simply created out of thin air on top of the existing 10 billion dollar deposit. This is how the money supply is expanded.

As stated in “Modern Money Mechanics”: “Of course they” (the banks) “do not really pay out loans for the money, they receive as deposits. If they did this, no additional money would be created. What they do when they make loans is to accept promissory notes” (loan contracts) “in exchange for credits” (money) “to the borrowers transaction accounts.” In other words, the nine billion can be created out of nothing. Simply because there is a demand for such a loan, and that there is a 10 billion dollar deposit to satisfy the reserve requirements.

Now let’s assume that somebody walks into this bank and borrows the newly available nine billion dollars. They will then most likely take that money and deposit it into their own bank account. The process then repeats. For that deposit becomes part of the banks reserves. Ten percent is isolated and in turn 90 percent of the nine billion, or 8.1 billion is now available as newly created money for more loans. And, of course, that 8.1 can be loaned out and redeposited creating an additional 7.2 billion to 6.5 billion… to 5.9 billion… etc…

This deposit money creation loan cycle can technically go on to infinity.

The average mathematical result is that about 90 billion dollars can be created on top of the original 10 billion. In other words: For every deposit that ever occurs in the banking system, about nine times that amount can be created out of thin air.

[/Peter Joseph]

“Money-Jitters? Ask the obliging Bank of America for a jar of soothing instant money. M-O-N-E-Y in the form of a convenient personal loan.” - TV Ad

[Peter Joseph]

So, now that we understand how money is created by this fractional reserve banking system. A logical yet illusive question might come to mind: What is actually giving this newly created money value? The answer: the money that already exists. The new money essentially steals value from the existing money supply. For the total pool of money is being increased irrespective to demand for goods and services. And, as supply and demand defines equilibrium, prices rise, diminishing the purchasing power of each individual dollar. This is generally referred to as inflation. And inflation is essentially a hidden tax on the public.

[/Peter Joseph]

[Ron Paul]

“What is the advice that you generally get? And that is, inflate the currency. They don’t say: debase the currency. They don’t say: devalue the currency. They don’t say: cheat the people who are safe. They say: lower the interest rates. The real deception is when we distort the value of money. When we create money out of thin air, we have no savings. Yet there is so called “capital”. So, my question boils down to this: How in the world can we expect to solve the problems of inflation… That is: increase in the supply of money, with more inflation?” - Rep. of Texas, Ron Paul

[/Ron Paul]

[Peter Joseph]

Of course it can’t.

The fractional reserve system of monetary expansion is inherently inflationary. For the act of expanding the money supply, without there being a proportional expansion of goods and services in the economy, will always debase a currency. In fact, the quick glance of the historical values of the US dollar, versus the money supply, reflects this point of definitively. For inverse relationship is obvious.

One dollar in 1913 required $21.60 in 2007 to match value. That is a 96 percent devaluation since the Federal Reserve came into existence.

Now, if this reality of inherent and perpetual inflation seems absurd and economically self defeating… Hold that thought… For absurdity is an understatement in regard to how our financial system really operates. For in our financial system money is debt, and debt is money.

Here is a chart of the US money supply from 1950 to 2006. Here is a chart to the US national debt for the same period. How interesting it is, that the trends, are virtually the same. For the more money there is the more debt there is. The more debt there is the more money there is. To put it a different way. Every single dollar in your wallet is owed to somebody by somebody. For remember: the only way the money can come in to existence is from loans. Therefore, if everyone in the country were able to pay off all debts including the government, there would not be one dollar in circulation.

[/Peter Joseph]

“If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn’t be any money.” - Marriner Eccies

[Peter Joseph]

In fact, the last time in American history the national debt was completely paid off was in 1835 after president Andrew Jackson shut down the central bank that preceded the Federal Reserve. In fact, Jackson’s entire political platform essentially revolved around his commitment to shut down the central bank. Stating that one point: “The bold efforts the present bank has made to control the government… are but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution or, the establishment of another like it.”

Unfortunately this message was short lived. And the international bankers succeeded to install another central bank in 1913, the Federal Reserve. And as long as this institution exists perpetual debt is guaranteed.

Now, so far we have discussed the reality that money is created out of debt through loans. These loans are based on a banks reserves, and reserves are derived from deposits and through this fractional reserve system. Any one deposit can create 9 times its original value. In turn, debasing the existing money supply raising prices in society. And, since all this money is created out of debt and circulated randomly through commerce, people become detached from their original debt, and a disequilibrium exists where people are forced to compete for labor in order to pull enough money out of the money-supply to cover their costs of living.

As dysfunctional and backwards as all of this might seem there is still one thing we have omitted from this equation. And it is this element of the structure which reveals the truly fraudulent nature of the system itself. The application of interest.

When the government borrows money from the FED or when a person borrows money from a bank it almost always has to be payed back with accrued interest. In other words: Almost every single Dollar that exists must be eventually returned to a bank with interest payed as well. But, if all money is borrowed from the Central Bank and is expanded by commercial banks through loans only what would be referred to as the “principal” is been created in the money supply. So then, where is the money to cover all of the interest that is charged? Nowhere. It doesn’t exist.

The ramifications of this are staggering for the amount of money owed back to the banks will always exceed the amount of money that is available in circulation. This is why inflation is a constant in the economy. For new money is always needed to help cover the perpetual deficit build in to the system. Caused by the need to pay the interest. What this also means, is that mathematically the faults and bankruptcy are literally build into the system and there will always be poor pockets of society that get the short end of the stick.

An analogy would be a game of musical chairs: For the once music stops, somebody is left out to dry. And that is the point. It invariably transfers true wealth for the individual to the banks. For, if you are unable to pay for your mortgage, they will take your property. This is particularly enraging when you realize, that not only is such a default inevitable due to the fractional reserve practice, but also because of the fact that the money, that the bank loaned to you didn’t even legally exist in the first place.

In 1969 there was a Minnesota court case involving a man named Jerome Daly, who was challenging the foreclosure of his home by the bank, which provided the loan to purchase it. His argument was that the mortgage contract required both parties, being he and the bank, each put up a legitimate form of property for the exchange. In legal language this is called consideration (a contracts basis. a contract is founded on an exchange of one form of consideration for another.)

Mr Daly explained that the money was in fact not the property of the bank, for it was created out of nothing as soon as the loan agreement was signed. Remember what Modern Money Mechanics stated about loans? What they do, when they make loans is to accept promissory notes in exchange for credits. Reserves are unchanged by the loan transactions, but deposit credits constitute new additions to the total deposits of the banking system. In other words: The money doesn’t come out of their existing assets, the bank is simply inventing it, putting up nothing of it’s own, except for a theoretical liability on paper.

As the court case progressed, the bank’s president Mr. Morgan took the stand. And in the judge’s personal memorandum he recalled that “the Plaintiff (banks president) admitted that in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank did create the money and credits upon its books by bookkeeping entry. The money and credit first came into existence when they created it. Mr Morgan admitted that no US Law or Statute existed which gave him the right to do this. A lawful consideration must exist and be tendered to support the Note. The Jury found that there was no lawful consideration and I agree.” He also poetically added: “Only God can create something of value out of nothing.”

And upon this revelation the court rejected the bank’s claim for foreclosure and Daly kept his home.

The implications of this court decision are immense, for every time you borrow money from a bank, whether it is a mortgage-loan or a credit-card charge, the money given to you is not only counterfeit, it is a illegitimate form of consideration and hence voids the contract to repay, for the bank never had the money as property to begin with.

Unfortunately such legal realizations are suppressed and ignored. And the game of perpetual wealth transfer and perpetual debt continues and this brings us to the ultimate question: Why?

During the American Civil War President Lincoln bypassed the high-interest loans offered by the European banks and decided to do what the founding fathers advocated which was to create an independent and inherently dept-free currency. It was called “The Greenback”. Shortly after this measure was taken an internal document circulated between private British and American banking interests, stated: “…slavery is but the owning of labor and carries with it the care of the laborers, while the European plan… Is that capital shall control labor by controlling wages. This can be done by controlling the money it will not do to allow the Greenback… as we cannot control that.”

The fractional reserve policy perpetrated by the Federal Reserve, which has spread in practice to the great majority of banks in the world, is in fact a system of modern slavery. Think about it, money is created out of debt, and what the people do when they are in debt? They submit to employment to pay it off. But if money only can be created out of loans, how can society ever be debt free? It cant, and that´s the point.

And it is the fear of losing assets coupled with the struggle to keep up with the perpetual debt and inflation inherit in the system, compounded by the inescapable scarcity within the money supply itself, created by the interest that can never be repaid that keeps the wage slave in line. Running on a hamster wheel, with millions of others. In effect, powering an empire, that truly benefits only the elite at the top of the pyramid.

For, at the end of the day who are you really working for? The Banks! Money is created in a bank, and it variable ends up in a bank. They are the true masters, along with the corporations and governments they support.

Physical slavery requires people to be housed and fed. Economic slavery requires people to feed an house themselves. It is one of the most ingenious scams for social manipulations ever created, and at it’s core it is an invisible war against the population. Debt is the weapon use to conquer and enslave societies, and interest is it’s prime ammunition.

And as the majority walks around oblivious to this reality the banks in collusion with governments and corporations continue to perfect and expand their tactics of economic warfare, spawning new bases such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. While also inventing a new type of soldier, the birth of the economic hit man.

[/Peter Joseph]

“There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword. The other is by debt” - John Adams, 1735-1826

[John Perkins]

“We economic hit men really have been the one’s responsible for creating this first truly global empire and we work many different ways. But perhaps the most common is that we will identify a country that has resources our corporations covet, like oil, and then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or one of it’s sister organizations. But the money never actually goes to the country, instead it goes to our big corporations to build infrastructure projects in that country. Power plants, industrial parks, ports… things that benefit a few rich people in that country in addition to our corporations. But really don’t help a majority of the people at all. However, those people, the whole country is left holding a huge debt.

It’s such a big debt they can’t repay it, and that’s part of the plan, that they can’t repay it. And so at some point we economic hit men go back to them and say ‘Listen, you owe us a lot of money. You can’t pay your debts, so sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies, allow us to build a military base in your country, or send troops in support of ours to someplace in the world like Iraq, or vote with us on the next U.N. vote, to have their electric utility company privatized and their water and sewage system privatized and sold to US corporations or other multinational corporations.’

So there was a whole mushrooming thing, and it’s so typical of the way the IMF and the World Bank work. They put a country in debt, and it’s such a big debt it can’t pay it, and then you offer to refinance the debt and pay even more interest. And you demand this quid pro quo which you call ‘conditionality’ or ‘good governance’ which means basically that they’ve gotta sell off their resources, including many of their social services, their utility companies, their school systems sometimes, their penal systems, their insurance systems, to foreign corporations.

So it’s a double, triple, quadruple whammie! “

[/John Perkins]

“Iran 1952″ - Headline

[John Perkins]

“The precedent for economic hit men really began back in the early 50’s when the democratically elected Mossadegh who was elected in Iran. He was considered to be the hope for democracy in the middle east around the world. He was time magazine’s ‘Man of the Year.’ But, one of the things that he’d run on, and began to implement was idea that foreign oil companies needed to pay the Iranian people a lot more for the oil that they were taking out of Iran. The Iranian people should benefit from their own oil… strange policy.

We didn’t like that of course. But we were afraid to do what we would we were normally doing, which was to send in the military. Instead we sent in one CIA agent, Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s relative. And Kermit went in with a few million dollars and was very very affective, and efficient, and in a short amount of time he managed to get Mossadegh overthrown, and brought in the Shah of Iran to replace him, who alway was favorable to oil. And it was extremely effective.” - John Perkins. Former Chief Economist for Chas. T. Main Inc. Author: Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

[/John Perkins]

“Revolt in Iran” - Headline

“Mobs over through Tehran. Army officers shout that Mossadegh has surrendered, and his regime as virtual dictator of Iran is ended. Pictures of the Shah are paraded through the streets as sentiment reverses. The Shah is welcomed home.” - Clip announcer

[John Perkins]

“So back here in the United States, in Washington, people looked around and said ‘Wow, that was easy, and cheap!’ So this established a whole new way of manipulating countries, of creating empire. The only problem with Roosevelt was that he was a card carrying CIA agent, and had he been caught the ramifications could have been pretty serious. So very quickly at that point the decision was made to use private consultants, to channel money through the World Bank, or the IMF or one of the such agencies… to bringing people like me who worked for private companies… so that if we got caught there would be no governmental ramifications.”

[/John Perkins]

“Guatemala 1954″ - Headline

[John Perkins]

“When Arbenz became president of Guatemala, the country was very much under the thumbs of United Fruit Company and the big international corporations. And Arbenz ran on this ticket that said ‘you know, we want to give the land back to the people.’ And once he took power, he was implementing policies that would do exactly that… give the land rights back to the people.

United Fruit didn’t like that very much. And so they hired a public relations firm, launched a huge campaign in the United States, to convince the United States people, the citizens of the United States, the press of the United States, and the congress of the United States, that Arbenz was a Soviet puppet, and that if we allowed him to stay in power the Soviets would have a foothold in this hemisphere. At that point in time this was a huge fear on everyones mind. The Red terror. The Communist terror. And so to make a long story short, out of this public relations campaign came a commitment on the part of the CIA and the military to take this man out.

And if fact we did. We sent in planes, we sent in soldiers, we sent in jackals, we sent everything in to take him out. And did take him out. And as soon as he was removed from office, the new guy that took over after him basically reinstated everything to the big international corporations including United Fruit.”

[/John Perkins]

“Ecuador 1981″ - Headline

[John Perkins]

“Ecuador for many many years had been ruled by pro US dictators. Often relatively brutal. Then it was decided they were going to have a truly democratic election. Jaime Roldos ran for office, and his main goal he said as president would be to make sure that Ecuador’s resources would be used to help the people. And he won. Overwhelming. By more votes than anybody had ever won anything in Ecuador. And he began to implement these policies, to make sure that the profits from oil went to help the people.

Well… we didn’t like that in the United States. I was sent down as one of several economic hit men to change Roldos, to corrupt him, to bring him around, to let him know, you know ‘OK, you know, you can get very rich, you and your family if you play our game, but if you continue to try to keep these policies you’ve promised, you’re gonna go.’ He wouldn’t listen.

He was assassinated.

As soon as the plane crashed, the whole area was cordoned off. The only people allowed in were US military from a nearby base, and some of the Ecuadorian military. When an investigation was launched, two of the key witnesses died in car accidents before they had a chance to testify. A lot of very very strange things that went on around the assassination of Jaime Roldos. I like most people who’ve really looked at this case have absolutely no doubt that it was an assassination. And of course in my position as an economic hit man I was obviously expecting something to happen to Jaime, whether it be a coup or assassination I wasn’t sure, but that he would be taken down because he was was not being corrupted, he would not allow himself to be corrupted the way we wanted to corrupt him.”

[/John Perkins]

“Panama 1981″ - Headline

[John Perkins]

“Omar Torrijos, president of Panama was, you know, one of my favorite people. I really, really liked him. He was very charismatic. He was a guy who really wanted to help his country. And when I tried to bribe him or corrupt him he said ‘Look John…’He called my Juanito. ‘Look Juanito, I don’t need the money. What I really need is for my country to be treated fairly. I need for the United States to repay the debts that you owe my people for all the destruction you’ve done here. I need to be in a position where I can help other Latin American countries win their independence, and be free of this terrible presence from the north. You people are exploiting us so badly. I need to have the Panama canal back in the hands of the Panamanian people. That’s what I want. And so, leave me alone, don’t try to bribe me.’

It was 1981 and in May, Jaime Roldos was assassinated. And Omar was very aware of this. Torrijos got his family together and said ‘I’m probably next, but it’s Okay because I’ve done what I came here to do. I’ve renegotiated the canal. The canal will now be in our hands.’ He’d just finished negotiating the treaty with Jimmy Carter.

In June of that same year, just a couple of month later, he also went down in an airplane crash. Which there is no question, was executed by CIA sponsored jackals. A tremendous amount of evidence that one of Torijjos’ security guards handed him at the last moment as he was getting on the plane a tape recorder. A small tape recorder that contained a bomb.”

[/John Perkins]

“Venezuela 2002″ - Headline

[John Perkins]
“It is interesting to me how this system has continued pretty much the same way for years and years and years, except the economic hit men have gotten better and better and better.

Then we come up with very recently what happened in Venezuela. In 1998, Hugo Chavez gets elected president, following a long line of presidents who’d been very corrupt and basically destroyed the economy of the country. And Chavez was elected amidst all that. Chavez stood up to the United States, and he’d done it primarily by demanding that Venezuelan oil be used to help the Venezuelan people.

Well… we didn’t like that in the United States. So in 2002, a coup was staged which was no question in my mind, in most other peoples minds, that the CIA was behind that coup.

The way that that coup was fomented was very reflective of what Kermit Roosevelt had done in Iran. Of paying people to go out into the streets, to riot, to protest, to say that Chavez was very unpopular. You know, if you can get a few thousand people to do that, Television can make it look like it’s the whole country and things start to mushroom.

Except in the case of Chavez, he was smart enough and the people were so strongly behind him that they overcame it. Which was a phenomenal moment in the history of Latin America.”
[/John Perkins]

“Iraq 2003″ - Headline

[John Perkins]
“Iraq actually is a perfect example of the way the whole system works. We economic hit men are the first line of defense. We go in, we try to corrupt governments and get them to try to accept these huge loans which we then use as leverage, to basically own them. If we fail, as I failed in Panama with Omar Torrijos, and Ecuador with Jaime Roldos, men who refused to be corrupted, then the second line of defense is we send in the jackals. And the jackals either overthrow governments or they assassinate. And once that happens then a new government comes in and boy it’s gonna toe the line because the new president knows what will happen if he doesn’t.

In the case of Iraq, both of those things failed. The economic hit men were not able to get through to Saddam Hussein. We tried very hard. We tried to get him to accept a deal very similar to what the House of Saud had accepted in Saudi Arabia, but he wouldn’t accept it. And so the jackals went in to take him out. They couldn’t do it. His security was very good. After all, he at one time had worked for the CIA. He’d been hired to assassinate the former president of Iraq, and failed, but he knew the system.

So in ‘91 we send in the troops and we take out the Iraqi military. So we assume at that point that Saddam Hussein is gonna come around. We could have taken him out, of course, at that time, but we didn’t want to. He’s the kind of strong man we like. He controls his people. We thought he could control the Kurds, keep the Iranians in their border, and keep pumping oil for us. And that once we took out his military, now he’s gonna come around.

So the economic hit men go back in in the 90’s without success. If they’d had success he’d still be running the country. We’d be selling him all the fighter jets he wants, and everything else he wants, but they couldn’t, they didn’t have success. The jackals couldn’t take him out again, so we sent the military in once again and this time we did the complete job and took him out. And in the process created for ourselves some very very lucrative construction deals… had to reconstruct a country that we’d essentially just destroyed. Which is a pretty good deal if you own a construction companies, big ones.

So Iraq shows the three stages. The economic hit men failed there. The jackals failed there. And as a final measure the military goes in.

And in that way we’ve really created an empire, but we’ve done it very very subtly. It’s clandestine. All empires of the past were built on the military, and everybody knew they were building them. The British knew they were building them, the French, the Germans, the Romans, the Greeks… and they were proud of it. They always had some excuse like spreading civilization, spreading some religion, something like that, but they knew they were doing it. We don’t. The majority of the people in the United States have no idea that we’re living off the benefits of the clandestine empire. That today there is more slavery in the world than ever before.

Then you have to ask yourself, well… if it’s an empire, then who is the emperor? Obviously our presidents of the United States are not emperors. An emperor is someone who is not elected, doesn’t serve a limited term, and doesn’t report to anyone, essentially. So you can’t classify our presidents that way. But we do have what I consider to be the equivalent of the emperor, and it’s what I call the Corporatocracy.”
[/John Perkins]

“Corporatocracy” - Headline

[John Perkins]
“The Corporatocracy is this group of individuals who run our biggest corporations. And they really act as the emperor of this empire. They control our media, either through direct ownership or advertising. They control most of our politicians because the finance their campaigns, either through the corporations or through personal contributions that come out of the the corporations. They’re not elected, then don’t serve a limited term, they don’t report to anybody, and at the very top of the Corporatocracy you really can’t tell whether the person is working for a private corporation or the government because their always moving back and forth. So you’ve got a guy who is one moment is the president of a big construction company like Halliburton, and the next moment he’s Vice President of the United States.

Or the President who was in the oil business. And this is true whether you get Democrats or Republicans in the office. You have this moving back and forth, a revolving door. And in a way, our government is invisible a lot of the time, and policies are carried out by our corporations on one level or another. And then again, the policies of the government are basically forged by the Corporatocracy, and then presented to the government and they become government policy. There is an incredibly cozy relationship. This isn’t a conspiracy theory type of thing. These people don’t have to get together an plot to do things. They all basically work under one primary assumption, and that is that they must maximize profits regardless of the social and environmental costs.”
[/John Perkins]

[Peter Joseph]
This process of manipulation by the Corporatocracy through the use of debt, bribery and political overthrow is called: Globalization.

Just as the Federal Reserve keeps the American public in a position of indentured servitude, though perpetual debt, inflation and interest. The World Bank and IMF serve this role on a global scale.

The basic scam is simple: Put a country in debt you divide is own in digression, or through corrupting the leader of that country, then impose “conditionalities” or “structural adjustment policies” often consisting of the following:

Currency devaluation. When the value of a currency drops, so does everything valued in it. This makes indigenous resources available to predator countries at a fraction of their worth.

Large funding cuts for social programs. These usually include education and health care, compromising the well-being and integrity of the society leaving the public vulnerable to exploitation.

Privatization of state-owned enterprises. This means that socially important systems can be purchased and regulated by foreign corporations for profit. For example in 1999 the World Bank insisted that the Bolivian government sell the public water system of it’s third-largest city to a subsidy of the US corporation “Bechtel”. As soon as this occurred water bills for the already impoverished local residents skyrocketed. It wasn’t until after full-blown revolt by the people that the Bechtel contract was nullified.

Then there is trade liberalization or the opening up of the economy through removing any restrictions on foreign trade. This allows for a number of abusive economic manifestations, such as transnational corporations bringing in their own mass-produced products undercutting the indigenous production and ruining local economies. An example is Jamaica, which after accepting loans and conditionalities from the World Bank lost it’s largest cash crop markets due to competition with western imports. Today countless farmers are out of work for they’re unable to compete with the large corporations. Another variation is the creation of numerous, seemingly unnoticed, unregulated, inhumane sweetshop-factories, which take advantage of the imposed economic hardship.

Additionally, due to production-deregulation, environmental destruction is perpetual as a country’s resources are often exploited by the indifferent corporations while outputting large amounts of deliberate pollution.
[/Peter Joseph]

[John Perkins]
“The largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the world, today is being brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian and Amazonian people against Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron so it’s against Chevron, but for activities conducted by Texaco.

They estimate to be more than 18 times what the Exxon Valdez dumped into the Coast of Alaska. In the case of Ecuador it wasn’t an accident. The oil companies did it intentionally; they knew they were doing it to save money rather than arranging for proper disposal.”
[/John Perkins]

[Peter Joseph]
Furthermore, a cursory glance at the performance record of the World Bank reveals that the institution, which publicly claims to help poor countries develop and alleviate poverty, has done nothing but increase poverty and the wealth-gap, while Corporate profits soar.

In 1960 the income-gap between the fifth of the world’s people and the richest countries, versus the fifth in the poorest countries was thirty to one. By 1998, it was seventy-four to one. While global GNP rose 40% between 1970 and 1985, those in poverty actually increased, by 17%. While from 1985 to 2000, those living on less than one dollar a day increased by 18%. Even the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress admitted that there is a mere 40% success rate of all World Bank projects.

In the late 1960’s, the World Bank intervened in Ecuador with large loans. During the next 30 years, poverty grew from 50% to 70%. Under or unemployment grew from 15% to 70%. Public debt increased from 240 million to 16 billion, while the share of resources allocated to the poor went from 20% to 6%. In fact, by the year 2000, 50% of Ecuador’s national budget had to be allocated for paying its debts.

It is important to understand: the World Bank is, in fact, a U.S. bank, supporting U.S. interests. For the United States holds veto-power over decisions, as it is the largest provider of capital. And where did it get this money? You guessed it: it made it out of thin air through the fractional reserve banking system.

Of the world’s top 100 economies, as based on annual GDP, 51 are corporations. And 47 of that 51 are U.S. based. Walmart, General Motors, and Exxon, are more economically powerful than Saudi Arabia, Poland, Norway, South Africa, Finland, Indonesia, and many others. And, as protective trade-barriers are broken down, currencies tossed together and manipulated in floating markets, and State economies overturned in favor of open competition in global capitalism, the empire expands.
[/Peter Joseph]

“You get up on your little 21 inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America, there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbine, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.What do you think the Russians talk about in their counsels of state- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, min and max solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. We no longer live in a world of Nations and Ideologies, Mr. Biel. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business Mr. Biel.” - Character Arthur Jensen from the movie Network.

[Peter Joseph]
The World is being taken over by a hand-full of business powers who dominate the natural resources we need to live, while controlling the money we need to obtain these resources. The end result will be world monopoly based not on human life but financial and corporate power. And, as the inequality grows, naturally, more and more people are becoming desperate. So the establishment was forced to come up with a new way to deal with anyone who challenges the system. So they gave birth to the ‘Terrorist’.

The term ‘terrorist’ is an empty distinction designed for any person or group that chooses to challenge the establishment. This isn’t to be confused with the fictional ‘Al Qaida’, which as actually the name of a computer database of the U.S.-supported Mujahadeen in the 1980’s.

In 2007, the Department of Defense received 161.8 billion dollars for the so-called global war on terrorism. According to the national counter-terrorism center, in 2004 roughly 2000 people were killed internationally due to supposed terrorist acts. Of that number, 70 were American. Using this number as a general average, which is extremely generous, it is interesting to note that twice as many people die from peanut allergies a year than from terrorist acts. Concurrently, the leading cause of death in America is coronary heart disease, killing roughly 450,000 each year. And in 2007, the government’s allocation of funds for research on this issue was about three billion dollars. This means, that the US government, in 2007, spent 54 times the amount for preventing terrorism, than it spent for preventing for the disease, which kills 6600 times more people annually, than terrorism does. Yet, as the name terrorism and Al Qaida are arbitrarily stamped on every news report relating to any action taken against US interests the myth grows wider!

In mid 2008 the “US Attorney General” actually proposed, that the US congress officially declare war against the fantasy. Not to mention as of July 2008, there are now over 1 million people currently on the US terrorist watch list.

These so called “Counter-Terrorism Measures” of course had nothing to do with social protection, and everything to do with preserving the establishment amongst the growing Anti-American sentiment both domestically and internationally, which is legitimately founded on the greed based corporate empire expansion that is exploiting the world.

The true terrorists of our world, do not meet at the docks at midnight or scream “Allah Akbar” before some violent action. The true terrorists of our world, wear 5000 dollar suits, and work in the highest positions of finance, government and business.

So, what do we do ?

How do we stop a system of greed and corruption, that has so much power and momentum?

How do we stop this aberrant group behavior, which feels no compassion for say, the millions slaughtered in Iraq and Afghanistan, so the Corporatocracy can control energy resources and opium production for Wall St. profit?
[/Peter Joseph]

“Before 1980, Afghanistan produced 0% of the world’s opium.
After the US/CIA backed Mujahadeen won the Soviet/Afghan war. by 1986 they were producing 40% of the world’s heroin supply.
By 1999, they were producing 80% of the total market supply.
But then, something unexpected happened.
The Taliban rose to power, and by 2000 they had destroyed most of the opium fields.
Production dropped from 3.000+ tons to only 185 tons, a 94% reduction.
On Sept. 9th 2001, the full Afghanistan invasion plans were on President Bush’s Desk
Two days later they had their excuse
Today, opium productions in US controlled Afghanistan,
which now provides more than 90% of the world’s heroin, breaks new production records nearly every year.” - Source Washington Post and UNODC Report

[Peter Joseph]
How do we stop a system of greed and corruption, that condemns poor populations to “Sweatshop-Slavery” for the benefit of Madison Avenue? Or that engineers false-flag terror attacks for the sake of manipulation? Or that generates built-in modes of social operation which are inherently exploited? Or that systematically reduces civil liberties, violates human rights in order to protect itself from it’s own shortcomings?

How do we deal with numerous covert institutions, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, and the other undemocratically elected groups, which behind closed doors collude to control the political, financial, social, and environmental elements of our lives?

In order to find the answer, we must first find the true underlying cause. For the fact is, the selfish corrupt power and profit based groups are not the true source of the problem, they are symptoms.
[/Peter Joseph]

“Greed and Competition are not the result of immutable human temperament… greed and fear of scarcity are in fact being created and amplified… the direct consequence is that we have to fight with each other in order to survive.” - Bernard Lietaer

[Jacque Fresco]
“My name is Jacque Fresco. I’m and industrial designer and a social engineer.

I’m very much interested in society and developing a system that might be sustainable, for all people.

First of all the word ‘corruption’ is a monetary invention, that aberrant behavior, behavior that’s disruptive to the well-being of people. Well you’re dealing with human behavior. And human behavior appears to be environmentally determined. Meaning if you were raised by the Seminole indians as a baby, never saw anything else, you’d hold that value system.

And this goes for nations, it goes for individuals, as families they try to indoctrinate their children to their particular faith, and their country and make them feel like they’re part of that. And they build a society which they call established. They establish a workable point of view and tend to perpetuate that. Whereas all societies are really emergent, not established. And so they fight new ideas that would interfere with the establishment.

Governments try to perpetuate that which keeps them in power. People are not elected to political office to change things. They’re put there to keep things the way they are. So you see the basis of corruption is in our society. Let me make it clear. All nations then are basically corrupt because they tend to uphold existing institutions. I don’t mean to uphold or downgrade all nations, but communism, socialist, fascism, the free enterprise system, and all others sub-cultures are the same. They are all basically corrupt.”
[Jacque Fresco]

“Self-Preservation” - Headline

[Peter Joseph]
The most fundamental characteristic of our social institutions is the necessity for self-preservation. Whether dealing with a corporation, a religion, or a government, the foremost interest is to preserve the institution itself. For instance the last thing an oil company would ever want is the utilization of a energy that was outside of its control. For it makes that company less relevant to society. Likewise the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union was in reality a way to preserve and perpetuate the established economic and global hegemony of the United States.

Similarly religions condition people to feel guilty for natural inclination, each claiming to offer the only path to forgiveness and salvation.

At the heart of this institutional self-preservation lies monetary system. For it is money that provides the means for power and survival. Therefore, just as a poor person might be forced to steal in order to survive, it is a natural inclination to do whatever is needed to continue an institutions profitability. This makes it inherently difficult for profit-based institutions to change, for it puts in jeopardy not only the survival of large groups of people, but also the coveted materialistic lifestyle associated with affluence and power.

Therefore, the paralyzing necessity to preserve an institution regardless of it’s social relevance is largely rooted in the need for money, or profit.”
[/Peter Joseph]

“industry” - Headline

[Jacque Fresco]
“What’s in it for me?, is why people think. And so if a man makes money selling a certain product, that’s where he’s going to fight the existence of another product that may threaten his institution.

Therefore, people cannot be fair. And people do not trust each other. A guy will come over to you and say ‘I’ve got just the house you’re looking for’… he’s a salesman. When a doctor says ‘I think your kidney has to come out’, I don’t know if he’s trying to pay off a yacht or that my kidney has to come out. It’s hard in a monetary system to trust people.

If you came into my store and I said ‘This lamp that I’ve got is pretty good, but the lamp next door is much better’, I wouldn’t be in business very long. It wouldn’t work. If I were ethical, it wouldn’t work.

So when you say industry cares for people… that’s not true. They can’t afford to be ethical. So your system is not designed to serve the well-being of people. If you still don’t understand that there would be no outsourcing of jobs if they cared about people. Industry does not care. They only hire people because it hasn’t been automated yet. So don’t talk about decency and ethics, we cannot afford it and remain in business.”
[/Jacque Fresco]

[Peter Joseph]
It is important to point out that regardless of the social system; whether fascist, socialist, capitalist, or communist; the underlying mechanism is still money, labor, and competition.

Communist China is no less capitalistic than the United States. The only difference is the degree by which the state intervenes in enterprise.

The Reality is that “Monetary-ism”, so to speak, is the true mechanism, that guides the interests of all the countries on the planet.

The most aggressive and hence dominant variation of this monetary-ism is the free enterprise system. The fundamental Perspective as put forth by early free market economists, like Adam Smith, is that self interest and competition leads to social prosperity, as the act of competition creates incentive, which motivates people to persevere.

However, what isn’t talked about, is how a competition based economy invariably leads to strategic corruption, power and wealth consolidation, social stratification, technological paralysis, labor abuse and ultimately a covert form of government dictatorship by the rich elite.

The word corruption is often defined as moral perversion.

If a company dumps toxic waste into the ocean to save money, most people recognize this as corrupt behavior. On a more subtle level, when Walmart moves into a small town and forces small businesses to shut down for they are unable to compete, a grey area emerges. For what exactly is Walmart doing wrong? Why should they care about the Mom and Pop organizations they destroy? Yet even more subtly, when a person gets fired from their job because a new machine has been created which can do the work for less money, people tend to just accept that as ‘the way it is,’ not seeing the inherent corrupt inhumanity of such an action.

Because the fact is whether it is dumping toxic waste, having a monopoly enterprise, or downsizing the workforce; the motive is the same - Profit. They are all different degrees of the same self-preserving mechanism, which always puts the well being of people second to monetary gain. Therefore, corruption is not some byproduct of monetary-ism, it is the very foundation. And while most people acknowledge this tendency on one level or another, the majority remains naive as to the broad ramifications of having such a selfish mechanism as the guiding mentality in society.
[/Peter Joseph]

“Internal documents show that after this company positively absolutely knew they had a medication that was infected with the AIDS virus, they took the product off the market in the US, and then they dumped it in France, Europe, Asia and Latin America. The US government allowed it to happen. The FDA allowed this to happen, and now the government is completely looking the other way. Thousands of innocent hemophiliacs have died from the AIDS virus. This company knew absolutely that it was infected with AIDS, they dumped it because they wanted to turn this disaster into a profit.” - MSNBC report on Bayer

[Jacque Fresco]
“So you see, you have built-in corruption. We’re all chiseling off each other, and you can’t expect decency in that sort of thing.
[/Jacque Fresco]

“politics” - headline

[Jacque Fresco]
“…a feeling that they don’t know who to elect. They think in terms of a democracy, which is not possible in a monetary based economy.

If you have more money to advertise your position, the position you desire in government, that isn’t a democracy. It serves those in positions of differential advantage. So it’s always a dictatorship of the elitist, the financially wealthy.”
[/Jacque Fresco]

“We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” - Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice

[Peter Joseph]
It is an interesting observation to note how seemingly unknown personalities magically appear on the scene as presidential candidates. Then before you know it, somehow you are left to choose from a small group of extremely wealthy people who suspiciously have the same broad social view. Obviously it’s a joke. The people placed on the ballot are done so because they have been pre-decided to be acceptable by the established financial powers who actually run the show.

Yet many who understand this illusion of democracy, often think ‘If only we could just get our honest, ethical politicians in power,’ then we would be okay. Well, while this idea of course seems reasonable in our established oriented world view, it is unfortunately another fallacy. For when it really comes down to what is actually important, the institution of politics and thus politicians themselves, have absolutely no true relevance as to what makes our world and society function.
[Peter Joseph]

[Jacque Fresco]
“It’s not politicians that can solve problems. They have no technical capabilities. They don’t know how to solve problems. Even if they were sincere, they don’t know how to solve problems.

It’s the technicians that produce the desalinization plants. It’s the technicians that give you electricity. That give you motor vehicles. That heat your house, and cool it in the summer time. It’s technology that solves problems, not politics. Politics cannot solve problems ’cause they are not trained to do so.”
[/Jacque Fresco]

[Peter Joseph]
Very few people today stop and consider what it is that actually improves their lives.

Is it money? Obviously not. One cannot eat money, or stuff money into their car to get it to run.

It is politics? All politicians can do is create laws, establish budgets, and declare war.

Is it religion? Of course not, religion creates nothing except intangible emotional solace for those who require it.

The true gift that we as human beings have, which has been solely responsible for everything that has improved our lives, is technology.
[/Peter Joseph]

“technology” - headline

[Peter Joseph]
What is technology? Technology is a pencil, which allows one to solidify ideas on paper for communication. Technology is an automobile, which allows one to travel faster than feet would allow. Technology is a pair of eye glasses, which enables sight for those who need it.

Applied technology itself is merely and extension of human attributes, which reduces human effort, freeing humans from a particular chore or problem. Imagine what your life would be like today without a telephone, or an oven, or a computer, or an airplane. Everything in your home, which you take for granted; from a doorbell, to a table, to a dishwasher is technology generated from the creative scientific ingenuity of human technicians. Not money, politics, or religion. These are false institutions.
[/Peter Joseph]

[Jacque Fresco]
“…and writing your congressman is fantastic. They tell ya, ‘Write your congressman if you want something done.’ The men in Washington should be at