Sometimes it takes a very small quote to wake up to the new reality. I contend that this reality could have come much earlier, like in 1814, or 1860, 1867, 1870s, 1913, 1941, 1950, 1964, 1971, 1990, 2002, or 2008. I think it comes from our nature to assume the best in some tough situations.
But, consider this quote from Angelo Codevilla in his article “Facing Up to the Revolution” :
Our country is in a state of revolution, irreversibly, because society’s most influential people have retreated into moral autarchy, have seceded from America’s constitutional order, and because they browbeat their socio-political adversaries instead of trying to persuade them. Theirs is not a choice that can be reversed. It is a change in the character of millions of people.
The sooner conservatives realize that the Republic established between 1776 and 1789—the America we knew and loved—cannot return, the more fruitfully we will be able to manage the revolution’s clear and present challenges to ourselves. How are we to deal with a ruling class that insists on ruling—elections and generally applicable rules notwithstanding—because it regards us as lesser beings?
It does have to be considered how the US Constitution actually helped the oligarchy, the ruling class, to gain access to the US government. If the colonies had remained sovereign states, like under the Articles of Confederation, it would have been more difficult and easier to resist from a grassroots level. The spread of “general” government to that of a federal government forever changed the structure of this nation as well as the fabric of society. Today, 99% of people can not imagine life without their safety net, their protector, their ‘mom’, their ‘dad’, .. their government.
Last month in a Lew Rockwell article, Gary D. Barnett proclaimed:
No nation-state is valid, as all states tend to seek a hierarchal structure of power, specifically in the name of protecting the common man collectively with profoundly restrictive laws. No free individual has need for such false protection. The beginning of this American experiment to create a powerful state was said to be about freedom of the individual, while all along, the hierarchy of power became more and more evident. What started out as a few separate colonies quickly became separate states with a new ruling class, and then one nation-state was formed and centralized, with allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. This progression was intended all along, and so the sought after tyrannical state came to fruition. Today we live as slaves in a society with a ruling structure akin to a fascist oligarchy. This is now a nation that is in constant war, and has become the largest and most murderous empire in the history of the world.
Unfortunately, secession will never be tolerated (if Lincoln didn’t tolerate it, you can bet no 21st century president would), and those who speak of this will be marginalized one way or another.
The US Empire will have to die before anything like the 1783-1789 federated group of states could ever be attempted again. As Mr. Barnett predicts:
Collectivism breeds empire and allows it to flourish, and because of the loss of individual thought, it becomes the internal disease that leads to the extermination of that empire. This is the real America, not the land of the free and home of the brave, but a collective mob of ignorant sheep awaiting the slaughter due to their own weakness and stupidity.
With collectivist thought at an all time-high we seem to be a long way from breaking up this evil empire that continues to wage war all around the globe. War is the only thing it knows, and the only thing that brings in the $USD and props up the petro-dollar.
Sad times indeed, however, by planting the seeds of individual thought in our kids and our friends, we can all be best prepared for the next season of the US Empire.
In the grand scheme of things, and politicians and their masters, the elites, are always scheming, one has to wonder about the trajectory of the confederated united States of America (former British colonies in North America) –> United States of America (the republic) –> United States of America (the centralized federal government from Lincoln’s policies) –> the United States of America (democracy that embraced via 16th and 17th amendments to the US Constitution both federal income (direct) taxes on the people as well as popular election of senators vs. state appointed PLUS social security, the original welfare program and FDR’s decision to leave the gold standard) –> the US Empire that emerged post WWII that replaced the British Empire. Debts were still being paid by the nations that fought WWI and the Marshall Plan meant even more debt was to be incurred as a result of WWII for the US:
The UK/US effort with Middle East oil started in the late 1940s and early 1950s made it clear that the US imperialism was to be more covert and economic than the British effort. The CIA’s assassination of Iranian prime minister in 1953 signaled to the region that the US was dead serious about maintain control of oil production in the region to the US’s benefit.
By the 1970s, after the US totally severed all ties with the gold standard in 1971 under Nixon and his short-term efforts to deal with more war debt, this time from the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger setup the petro-dollar system to enable the US to incur even more debt than ever before as an article from Southfront’s Dr. Leon Tressell points out:
The Petro-dollar system set up by Kissinger in the 1970s underpins the American control of the global trading system and allows it to maintain a massively over bloated military the scale of which the world has not seen since World War 2.
With this backdrop that articulates an empire’s trajectory, from federated sovereign states to a global superpower empire, one can only wonder how long the US can fake it until it makes it time and again before the petro-dollar magic wears off.
To help unpack what is really happening in the oil world, one has to understand the initial promises of shale, the technology that allowed both Obama and Trump to brag that the US is now a net exporter of oil production and to leverage this “bubble” (no pun intended) to strong arm other nations not on the US Empire’s dependents list.
President Trump’s abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions on Tehran was based on the premise that the drop in Iranian oil exports would be made up for by U.S. shale oil production. Thus keeping down any inflationary pressures on the global oil market.
While Iran is definitely in the empire’s crosshairs, so is Russia:
Trump has also used the stick to force Europe away from Russian gas supplies. Under the terms of the misnamed ‘Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019, a sanctions law ironically written by oil and gas rich Texas Senator Ted Cruz,‘the U.S. has threatened EU countries with sanctions if they participate in helping with the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic sea.
The world’s bully continues to play cards like it has a full house, but it may be bluffing:
The EIA 2020 forecast is for shale oil production to peak in 2022 at 14 million barrels per day and continue at that level until 2050. The vast majority of this oil production is expected to come from the shale oil pays in just 3 states: Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. The bulk of this oil production is expected to come from the world’s largest oil field in the Permian basin that runs across Texas and New Mexico.
There is the bluff. The US is treating shale like oil, and they are not the same. In the first half of the 1900s, oil wells put in place in this time-frame STILL makeup 50% of the global oil market. Shale is proving to have a much different curve:
The problem oil companies face is that the decline rate of shale oil wells are frighteningly rapid at a rate of 70% in the first year and 30% in the second year of operation. This means they have to keep pumping and drilling new wells like mad to just to keep up production levels.
Sounds like the EIA forecast may have been some “fake news”. Not cool.
Of greater concern are the reports warning that the Permian basin, the jewel in the crown of America’s fracking industry, is approaching peak production.
In 2018 Paul Kibsgaard CEO of Schlumberger, one of the oil industry’s largest service provider, warned, “We are already starting to see a similar reduction in unit well productivity to that already seen in the Eagle Ford, suggesting that the Permian growth potential could be lower than earlier expected.”
A respected scientist took the EIA projects and offered his own report:
This is not good news. This is the type of news the media will bury and the US government will ignore.
Maybe this is the reason Trump refuses to leave Syria’s eastern oil fields, or Iraq. Maybe this is why Trumps economic sanctions target Iran and Venezuela?
Oil production from countries that Washington designates as enemies, such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, will increase in importance on the global market as U.S. shale oil production starts to decline. This will give greater power and influence to OPEC and Russia when it comes to determining oil prices through production cuts/increases.
Maybe this is also why Trump has actually stepped up the Middle East warfare, buy dropping more bombs per day than O-bomb-a and taking the additional aggressive step of threatening assassination of Iraqi politicians that might strike new deals with China for Iraqi oil:
Nations from Iraq to Saudi Arabia are developing trade and infrastructure relations with China which the United States takes strong exception to. Take for example, the recent bombshell admission by Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister that Trump threatened him with assassination if Iraq proceeds with an oil for infrastructure project with China. In the first phase of this deal Iraq will send 100,00 barrels of oil to China in return for a $10 billion credit. China would finish the building of the country’s electricity grid and other major infrastructure projects including its vital oil and gas sector.
As U.S. shale oil production declines it will seek to maintain control over the regions oil production. China’s desire for growing amounts of Middle Eastern oil will intensify this clash for resources, influence and power in the region. Thus leading to greater geo-political and economic conflict.
So basically, for three decades, since the Cold War with the USSR ended, the USA has destabilized the Middle East, and now, blow-back will be a real thing and not just a CIA projection. The War of Terror costing $6T may have spawned a new season of global conflict.
So the US is in a “pre-War” period and we are already $23T(2020) in debt, usually all that debt piles up AFTER a war. This can’t end well especially if the petro-dollar status slips away.
So now what?
“… Jesus then left the Temple. As he walked away, his disciples pointed out how very impressive the Temple architecture was. Jesus said, “You’re not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there’s not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble.”Later as he was sitting on Mount Olives, his disciples approached and asked him, “Tell us, when are these things going to happen? What will be the sign of your coming, that the time’s up?” Jesus said, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming…” – The Bible (The Message paraphrase) – Matthew 24:1-8
This might be another world war, or this might be a more final clash ..
“.. Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come…” The Bible (The Message paraphrase) – Matthew 24:13,14
