Column #343 April 1, 2022

Generally speaking, maybe I can say that those of us between the ages of 65 and 85 are primarily responsible for today’s America. Unfortunately, I don’t think our country has the same freedoms, integrity, and gumption that existed 75 years ago. And it’s not that we weren’t warned about the consequences of our ways. In my youth, a great many Americans of integrity voiced warnings that were, by and large, totally ignored.

I can start with President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address on January 17, 1961. In that ten-minute speech, he said this about the military-industrial complex: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” He also warned us that “public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” Furthermore, he said: “The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.” In that speech he warned us that the military-industrial complex can influence foreign policies that lead to war rather than peace and people like Tony Fauci and Bill Gates can literally destroy our democracy with money and the government’s domination of what is “science.”^{1 2}

Paul Harvey, an inspiration to many Americans, passed away in 2009 at age 90. In 1965 he made one broadcast that was titled, “If I Were the Devil.” It’s footnoted below. It only takes a few minutes to hear it. It’s an uncannily accurate prediction about what it takes to create the very challenges we face today.³

On finances, there have been many unheeded warnings about deficit spending and its consequences for the purchasing power of the dollar and long-term economic stability. I can list three individuals who represent what is a very long list of people who have fought for monetary integrity: Col. E. C. Harwood, John Exter, and Ron Paul. Unfortunately, the citizens ignored them and voted for politicians who gave them what they wanted—which was more “free” stuff.^{4 5 6 7}

Instead of practicing self-discipline, the mob has wanted to embrace all the possible freedoms from self-responsibility that are possible. Instead of getting informed and staying informed it has been easier to just go with the propaganda flow and keep up with the Joneses. Borrowing for consumption has not only been a national policy, but an individual policy as well. Relying on the government and its mouth pieces for direction seem easy, but citizens lose everything in the process.

Today’s woke Big Business corporate entities are compounding the errors by turning into disciples of the political left and the oligarchs that control them. As David Stockman says, “Well, they got that right, but are clueless about the danger. Namely, that neither capitalism nor democracy can thrive when business becomes a subservient tool of the state and a vessel for the expression of political fashion and social conformity.”⁸

The Russian/Ukraine conflict is another manmade disaster brought to us by American leadership. There was a point where a settlement could have been reached without any bloodshed. But that would have required distasteful compromises which weren’t part of the US game plan. Therefore, US and NATO leaders left Vladimir Putin with only two choices. The first was to be humiliated on the world stage by backing down, tucking tail, and calling his troops back from inside his nation’s own borders. The other was to attack. So he attacked which the US figured he would do all along.⁹

In 2016 Oliver Stone produced a documentary titled “Ukraine on Fire.” It unpacked Ukraine’s complicated history to that time. Many leaders were interviewed in the movie with Putin being just one. At that time Putin expressed the same concerns he was expressing in January 2022: 1) Ukraine was under the influence of the United States and neo-Nazi groups. 2) Former Russian nationals in Eastern Ukraine were being persecuted and killed. 3) NATO was expanding and would soon be placing rockets on the Russian border. 4) Crimea had voted to join Russia by an overwhelming majority, so it was rightfully a Russian state. 5) Ukraine was a very corrupt country.^{10 11}

When Russia attacked, America’s MSM was able to rally both the right and left wingers into being supporters of a very corrupt Ukraine. They did that with outright lies and by telling less than half of the story. They certainly didn’t remind Americans that Ukrainians have been marginalizing Russian-speaking people in the east since 2014 when they went to war against the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. They don’t remind Americans that it was America, teaming up with neo-Nazis, that flipped the Ukranian government in 2014. Daily they regurgitate reports of Russian atrocities, but until this past weekend we haven’t heard a word about Ukrainian atrocities against captured Russian troops. Reportedly Ukranian soldiers, probably neo-Nazi soldiers, are shooting restrained Russian POWs in the knees and letting them lie. I also read an unverified report about hospitalized Russian POWs being treated in the hospitals. Shockingly, they wake up from operations and find they’ve been castrated.^{12 13}

Reports explaining how the United States has been hindering chances for a negotiated settlement are quite numerous. The authors are informed intellectuals such as Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. from the Mises Institute; Glenn Greenwald an American journalist, author, and First Amendment lawyer; Victor Davis Hanson a commentator, classicist, and military historian; Ron Paul of The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity; and many others. But their viewpoints are not being aired in the public square by the MSM.^{14 15 16 17}

President Biden is obviously mentally compromised which means there won’t be any peace or cease-fire agreements achieved because of his doing. His vice president, Kamala Harris, is totally out of her league with no filters, no knowledge, no charisma, and no wisdom. Yet our president, who exhibits fits of rage while spouting whatever manages to come to light in his feeble mind, has total control over America’s nuclear arsenal. Or does he? Are these two clowns just puppets? We have to wonder what has become of our country when we ask that?

Our country’s finances are in pitiful shape. Money printing is out of control, prices are soaring, and government policies discourage hard work while promoting slothfulness. New regulations are restricting commerce and newly proposed taxes are causing wait-and-see attitudes. At the same time price inflation is soaring because of the fiscal policies of the past two years. In an attempt to reign in runaway inflation, our nation’s central bank has only one option. That one is to stop the growth of consumptive credit which is normally accomplished by raising interest rates and flattening the yield curve. That means all interest rates will have to increase while short-term interest rates go up even faster so they exceed long-term rates. Historically, that has always caused recessions.^{18 19 20}

When countries, businesses, and individuals are in debt up to their ears, they no longer have the liquid resources required to carry themselves through hard times. Yet in hard times they will continue to have maintenance requirements for their newly acquired assets along with their debt payment obligations. So, even if we look around and see extravagant wealth everywhere, it’s a thin veneer of opulence that isn’t sustainable when even just a small slowdown in cash flow occurs. Opulence requires upkeep and upkeep requires excess cash flow.

Politics has always had a bad reputation. Just look up quotes from Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) and Will Rogers (1879 - 1935). There’s always too much money flowing through the fingers of politicians with way too little oversight. Power itself is also a corrupting influence. It’s the same with bureaucrats. Power goes to their heads. Unfortunately, 70 years ago the MSM had more integrity than it does today to help keep some of the corruption in check. Today, the MSM is on the side of government rather than the people. Schools, including our nation’s top universities, are also woke!^{21 22}

America, like Ukraine, is fertile ground for corruption. These days Americans can’t trust the CDC and all the agencies under its umbrella. They can’t trust the FBI, CIA, nor the Justice Department. The EPA, Energy, USDA, and Transportation agencies are issuing impractical business rulings. The woke Defense Department has also lost considerable respect. The list of Federal agencies Americans can no longer trust is as long as the online directory of government agencies. This isn’t constructive for the long-haul.

Nation states fail when they overextend themselves and their citizens begin to suffer. National patriotism fades away and mere survival requires that unnecessary obligations must be terminated. When this happens corruption becomes a norm and soon a great nation turns into a banana republic with all its associated instabilities.

There’s only one way to stop the trend. It’s for the majority to mind the warnings of the past and act on them. This requires thinking for oneself, hard work, living within one’s means, and sacrificing today’s consumption in order to increase liquid reserves and reduce debts. At the same time people must be mindful of their health and be less reliant on expensive drugs and operations in order to maintain above average health and quality of life.²³

To your health.

Ted Slanker

Ted Slanker has been reporting on the fundamentals of nutritional research in publications, television and radio appearances, and at conferences since 1999. He condenses complex studies into the basics required for health and well-being. His eBook, The Real Diet of Man, is available online.

Don't miss these links for additional reading:

1. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address on January 17, 1961

2. Eisenhower Warned About Scientific Elites Like Dr. Fauci by Barry Brownstein from Charlemagne Institute

3. If I Were the Devil by Paul Harvey (three minutes)

4. Col. E. C. Harwood founder of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER)

5. Gold, The Fed, Exter’s Pyramid – When John Exter Met Paul Volcker

6. A World Upside-Down by Ted Slanker

7. Ron Paul from Wikipedia

8. How the C-Suite Embraced Lockdowns and Economic War by David Stockman from Brownstone Institute

9. Rand Report Prescribed US Provocations Against Russia and Predicted Russia Might Retaliate In Ukraine by Rick Sterling from Antiwar.com

10. Ukraine on Fire by Oliver Stone

11. Oliver Stone from Wikipedia

12. Ukraine to Probe after Videos Show Alleged Russian POWs Shot, Abused from NY Post

13. Does Video Show Russian Prisoners Being Shot? by Reality Check & BBC Monitoring from BBC News

14. A Manufactured World Crisis by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. from Mises Institute

15. Victor Davis Hanson on Russia-Ukraine: Cutting Through the Information War by Jan Jekielek from American Thought Leaders of The Epoch Times   Part One     Part Two

16. Biden's Reckless Words Underscore the Dangers of the U.S.'s Use of Ukraine As a Proxy War by Glenn Greenwald

17. Ron Paul Says the US Should Mind Its Own Business Regarding Ukraine by Adam Dick

18. Money Growth Causes Inflation M2 Chart from FRED

19. Total Federal Debt from FRED

20. Households and Nonprofit Organizations; Consumer Credit; Liability, Level from FRED

21. Mark Twain Quotes About Politics

22. Will Rogers Quotes About Politicians

23. Humilitainment: How to Control the Citizenry Through Reality TV Distractions by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead from The Rutherford Institute