Yeats certainly caught the essence of the American political folly that has been on stage for the past two weeks. I was going to write this column two days ago about the phony government shut down which turned into a three ring circus. But I knew we were close to a resolution and I wanted to include the fanny covering excuses that always come out when the dust settles.
I’m glad I did. We not only got excuses, but the long knives came out, and not just to jab the opposing party, but Republicans and conservatives were even slicing each other up, which some felt was good for the country.
The language was most colorful, with new creations like ‘default deniers’, and my favorite so far, the ‘GOP gigantic tire fire’. Even media weighed in with the New York Daily News running a headline calling the House of Representatives the “House of Turds.” You just can’t make this stuff up.
The spin quotes were plentiful. From House leader John Boehner we had, “We fought the good fight, we just didn’t win.” On the flip side of that we had this from Republican Representative Peter King of New York, “This party is going nuts…they just can’t understand what’s going on.” And from Senator John McCain, the big kid himself, we had, “Hopefully, the lesson is to stop this foolish childishness,”
Republican Senator Orin Hatch of Utah took on the flagship conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which on Wednesday was lobbying lawmakers to vote no on the Senate compromise to re-open the federal government and avert default. On MSNBC he blasted Heritage,
“There is a real question in the minds of many Republicans now and I’m not just speaking for myself, for a lot of people, is Heritage going to go so political that it really doesn’t amount to anything anymore?… Right now, I think it’s in danger of losing its clout and its power around Washington D.C.”
So I will now throw my own term into the brawl by describing it as Republican Hari-Kari, but where they did not quite finish the job. But lost in all the smoke bombs and verbal arrows are a few items that got lost in the battle despite the massive news coverage.
We experienced another major blow to the public’s trust in government in general, where the political elites continued with their routine response of not caring. And then had the political class seeming tone deaf to world opinion during the whole crisis, like that did not matter despite the dollar being the reserve currency.
First, the most buried part of the story. The day before the shut down coup began, and that was what it was folks, a financial coup attempt, the House leadership anticipated that the Democrats would try to bring a clean funding bill to the floor for a vote to reopen the full government. And we learned later that there were enough Republican votes for it to pass. So what they did was just change the House rules to block it. This is somewhat similar to carjacking your own family car.
During the two week battle the Tea Party faction was framed as the driving force behind the shut down with the House leadership was hiding behind them, but the rule change shows they were into holding the door shut by blocking a majority of the House wanting to reopen full government operations. That is why I used the term ‘coup’. It is perfectly appropriate.
The Republicans had threatened to block Obama Care funding long ago and had been planning to use the budget and debt limit tools. The dummies thought it was a no loose deal even if they lost the fight because it would fire up their base for the mid-term elections next year.
Obama’s people overreacted thinking things like the National park closures would increase people’s anger at the Republicans only, but they just handed the Tea Party a big event to throw their big veteran protest at the National mall. That was very poor staff work at the White House.
In the fragile financial condition the world was in, the Republicans were viewed as playing petty party politics by threatening a default to get Obama Care changed. The precedent of such a move would find the same tactic being used continually in the future. All the major world financial institutions and countries like China went public with their concern that this game of chicken the Repubs were playing was endangering all of their economies.
The Republicans had assumed the role of Israel in the Syrian strike reversal and the resolution of the Iranian nuclear concern. But they still don’t seem to ‘get it’. Rep. John Fleming (R-La), who voted against reopening the government and raise the debt ceiling told the New York Times, “I’ll vote against it…But that will get us into Round 2. See, we’re going to start this all over again.”
Military Intelligence monitors unusual financial activity in crises like this for any evidence of an attack being made on the financial system. They picked up that huge amounts were being made on currency trading during the whole shut down show. Big insider trading scams always have top people advising them of key timing to make their moves, and they are well rewarded. No top political person has ever been prosecuted for being an inside source that I am aware of.
Gordon Duff first reported in Veterans Today another financial scandal motive for the Repubs wanting to hold up Obama Care. New regulations were going into effect to stop the cross collateralization of insurance company reserves, who are all owned by banks, so they could be market traded. The sums involved were astronomical.
“The Obama Care issue is about ‘funds in management.’ The health insurance industry, through investment banks and hedge funds, accounts for 35% of the entire investment capital of the United States. This sector has been totally unregulated with, not just individual policyholders but industries and government forced to subsidize a health care Ponzi scheme where in some cases fewer than 3% of policy premiums were paid back in benefits.”
And there are more aspects to the charade. This summer we had been expecting a major public discussion about the renewal of the Federal Reserve, including possible changes in the ownership structure. But all that went out the window with what we now know was an orchestrated Syrian gas attack with all its subsequent turmoil, and with the looming debt limit renewal in October where we know the Repubs were going to make their big play.
Bill Engdahl gave us more behind the scenes financial moves in his Oct. 17th, VT article, about the gold market doing strange things, going down when it should be going up during financial upheavals, an indication of market manipulation.
“The Chicago Commodity Exchange where contracts in gold derivatives are traded, announced on Friday October11th, that at 8:42 am Eastern time, trading was halted for 10-seconds after a safety mechanism was triggered because a 2 million ounce gold futures sell order was executed.”
Whereas a huge sell order like that with in the middle of a crazy default battle would have investor running to buy gold, the price went down $30 that day.
Engdhal continues, “This past April 10th, the heads of the five largest US banks, the Wall Street “Gods of Money”—JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup—requested a closed door meeting with Obama at the White House. Fifteen days later, on April 25, the largest one day fall in history in gold took place. Later investigation of trading records at the Comex revealed that one bank, JP Morgan Securities, was behind the huge sell-off of gold derivatives.”
Our sources point to this huge gold market manipulation being targeted primarily at China for its major gold accumulations. There had been rumors of China’s planning a gold backed renminbi. Many assumed that China was buying more than it was reporting but no one knew for sure what their totals were.
So we have a dual headed financial monster to fear for all of our financial futures. We have a monetary system built on a house of cards, matched up with official government intervention policies in conjunction with groups of banks who can crash the markets. We are to trust that this is all being done for the public good, but the track record would suggest otherwise.
Public trust of the American government, and our country’s institutions is declining steadily. Their former system of hiding past lies is developing big cracks as even loyal elements in the Intelligence community are becoming concerned as to who really is government serving.
The search for domestic national security threats has never been more intense than it is now, and there are many targets. So we will be revisiting America’s financial follies with you in the future, if there is one. Removing a potential war with Syria was one dodging of a bullet. Doing the same with Iran would be another, and our confidence would get a much needed boost.
Jim W. Dean is the managing editor for VeteranToday.com, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for New Eastern Outlook.
