Social Security Now!

To join this group, just send an e-mail to;

socialsecuritynow@yahoogroups.com

---THE ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN---

We are making news!

Stop The Privatization Of Social Security! There is no crisis in Social Security!

Save Social Security from WALL STREET! Wall Street profiteers want to plunder the program for all it's worth! We must stop them!

Join the ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN!!! Collectively, our voice reaches millions!

Join us in an effort to flood the mainstream media with Letters To The Editor! Send in your letters that are in opposition to the privatization of Social Security!

We need you to condemn any House or Senate members that support the Bush plan to privatize and hand Social Security over to CORPORATE CONTROL!

Each weekday we target a single major national media outlet!



--ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN--

--Letters To The Editor--

--MONDAYS--

USA TODAY:

Send your letters to: editor@usatoday.com

(250 words or less, include name, address & day time phone number)

USA Today

7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22108

703-854-3400

703-854-3100 (fax)

Email: editor@usatoday.com

Attn: Mng. Editor

Web: www.usatoday.com

--TUESDAYS--

THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Send your letters to; Letters@NYTimes.com

(250 words or less - include your name, address & day time phone number)

New York Times

229 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036

212-556-1234

212-556-3690 (fax)

Email: Letters@NYTimes.com

New York Times Business Editor(Sunday Edition) - sunbiz@nytimes.com

Attn: Mng. Editor

--WEDNESDAYS--

TIME MAGAZINE:

Send your letters to: Letters@Time.com

(Note-Time Magazine wants your letters to be 150 words or less)

Time Magazine

1271 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10020

212-522-3817

212-522-9153 (fax)

Email: Letters@Time.com

Attn: Mng. Editor

--THURSDAYS--

Newsweek

Send your letters to: Letters@newsweek.com

(Make your letters 150 words or less, include name, address, & phone number)



251 W. 57th St., NY, NY 10019

212-445-4000

212-445-5068 (fax)

Email: Letters@newsweek.com

Attn: Mng. Editor

--FRIDAYS--

U.S. News and World Report

Send your letters to: Letters@USNews.com

(Make your letter 150 words or less, include name, address & phone number)

1050 Thomas Davidson St., NW

Washington, DC 20007-3837

202-955-2000

202-955-2049 (fax)

Email: Letters@USNews.com

Attn: Mng. Editor

Web: www.usnews.com



Our Rolling Letter Campaign has reached millions so far! It works!

One of our letters was just published in USA Today on Friday January 7, by one of our members!

--OUR PLAN--

We have over 50 members so far, and when possible as a group we all target the same Newspaper, on the same day. We are running a national campaign in opposition to the Bush Regime plan to kill off Social Security. Our goal is to make this movement into a force that shapes public opinion against the plans of the Bush Regime.

We need your help to make this campaign grow!

--This is how our plan works--

As a group, on the same day, we all send letters to the same major media outlet!

We then move on and target a different editor on the following day with our letters.

We do not tell them (editors) we are part of a group.

USA Today receives 800 to a thousand letters a week from the public. If they receive 30 to 50 letters to the editor in a single day from people who oppose Social Security, it's a good chance that one of those letters gets published!

We targeted USA Today last week, and our members received confirmation that their letters may be published on Friday. One of them was! Our plan works!

It's a simple plan. It works. The message reaches millions of people in the process.

With your help, we can reach millions more! Join our effort to speak out against any plan to privatize Social Security! Say, NO TO THE PROFITEERS! Send your letters!

--WHAT YOU CAN DO--

Send in those letters to oppose the scheme to steal Social Security! See above schedule. It only takes a moment to create your letter and send it off by e-mail!

Tell others about this campaign!

Our ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN works! With your letters being sent on the same day, to the same major media outlet, we can shape public opinion to oppose the Wall Street/Bush Regime plans to terminate Social Security!

Feel free to join Social Security Now, for updates on the ROLLING LETTER CAMPAIGN, and the latest news updates about those that are in opposition to CORPORATE CONTROL of Social Security.

Join the movement to keep Social Security from the profiteers!

Just send an e-mail to;

socialsecuritynow-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Excerpted from Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil by Michael C. Ruppert, scheduled for release in the late spring of 2003.

© Copyright 2003, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All rights reserved. May be copied, distributed or posted on the Internet for non-profit purposes only.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

Eating The Chosen People

Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,

since it is the merger of state and corporate power. - Benito Mussolini

----------

If you understand nothing else about the map that I have been trying to draw for you, understand that the post 9-11 erosion of civil liberties and the economic devastation that is being felt here at home - in the land of The Chosen People - are opposite sides of the same coin. One begets and demands the other, whether the Empire consciously considers it or not. And the currents of behavior depicted on the map dictate, as surely as gravity pulls things down and not up, that what has already started can only get worse. This is both the good news and the bad news. For years many already aware Americans have complained about the complacency of the general population in this country, seeing it as the single biggest obstacle to meaningful change. In the metaphor I used earlier in the book about a ham and eggs breakfast, the American people were playing the role of the chicken rather than the pig. - Mike Ruppert

The role has changed and the obstacle is being removed...

----------

HOMELAND (IN)SECURITY

...And then we have the advent of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which came into being in January of 2003 and became fully operational in March. The best way to understand the Homeland Security Act is to think of it as the vehicle which will be driven on the road to complete totalitarianism. When overt or covert operations are carried out, cars need to be rented, motel rooms need to get paid for, staff has to be funded. Telephone numbers and data bases need to be created. Airplanes need to be chartered or scheduled.

Homeland Security is, at least in part, the vehicle by which the Patriot Act is brought to life. It has combined 22 different components of the U.S. government into a complete unified command structure. It has given the President absolute authority to give it orders (through the Secretary). It has removed many of the labor protections of employees who are now much more closely related to members of the Armed Forces than they understand - "property of the U.S. government". And it has made sure that no dissenting voices can arise by removing dialogue between differing cabinet departments over varying priorities.

And it has done much more than that. For within its pages and hidden behind its mission, stated in Title I, "to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism and minimize the damage from...attacks that do occur" are some very insidious provisions. These provisions attack both your rights and your pocketbook with equal vigor.

Employees of the DHS will be enforcers. They will carry weapons and they will also enforce drug laws.1 They will take control of and coordinate all communications, including radio, teletype and telephone communications at state and local levels to maximize efficiency, and they will coordinate federal grants and provide equipment to upgrade all state and local radio and closed "intranet" systems which means that they will both control and monitor all state and local emergency communications.2 And they will also set up secure communications for private industry (the corporations who will be selling the equipment), the banking industry and all other corporations deemed to be "critical infrastructure.3

The DHS will collect and share intelligence vital for its primary mission which is the protection of critical infrastructure. In the process of doing this, it will access the intelligence of state and local agencies and "coordinate" the dissemination of that information.4 This means that local police agencies, if they want to continue receiving federal subsidies and don't want to look as though they aren't concerned about their citizens, will effectively become intelligence gathering units for the federal government. In addition the DHS Secretary and his employees are also given total access to all information in any federal agency, whether verified or not on a level of priority equal with the President and the Director of Central Intelligence.5 It will also have complete access to all banking and stock transaction records and may share that information as it sees fit.6

In fulfilling its mandate to enhance cyber security the DHS will be given access to all state and local databases and programs and "upon request" to privately owned data bases (e.g. your HMO records) to make sure that each system's vulnerabilities have been analyzed and that the "proper technical assistance" has been rendered to upgrade each system as needed.7 This is where TIA and the PROMIS back door get introduced. Even if Congressional attempts to suspend funding for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program are successful, the program will still be in place and operating "off the books" using either funds obtained from the drug trade or stolen from the U.S. Treasury (see below). The government doesn't give up such power easily.

Kissinger PROMIS and TIA - Not long after Henry Kissinger withdrew his name as a candidate to head the independent commission investigating 9/11 - ostensibly because he didn't want to name his private clients - journalist Jim Rarey ripped the covers off an unnoticed bombshell in Kissinger's background. Henry Kissinger's partner in one of his consulting firms (Kissinger-McLarty Associates), and the Vice Chairman of Kissinger's other firm (Kissinger & Associates) is former Clinton Chief of Staff Mack McLarty. As it turns out McLarty also sits on the board of directors of a company called Acxiom.

That name might not ring a bell, but Acxiom is a recent name change from a company formerly called Alltel which was once known as Systematics. Systematics is the information, communications, data processing firm owned by Arkansas billionaire and kingmaker Jackson Stephens. And Systematics has been part and parcel - linked in paperwork and court records - of the PROMIS software saga almost from day one. It was Systematics that reportedly received stolen copies of the software in the 1980s. If Inslaw founder Bill Hamilton ever had any doubt about the fact that the progeny of his creation were at the heart of TIA, he can lay it to rest now. In a December 17, 2002 story Rarey revealed that Acxiom had been selected "the lead company to provide software and pull together the network to furnish the information to DARPA's "Information Awareness Office" headed by John Poindexter.8

DHS will also fund a massive science and technological research branch that will develop new law enforcement technologies and see that they are tested and implemented at the state and local levels.9 It will then certify and test the various pieces of equipment and technology, and it will follow that no local agency that does not use them can participate in DHS funding.10 This is a great guarantee of billions of dollars in income for corporations that support the administration. The DHS will even have a seal of approval! Then the DHS will train and certify state and local agencies to make sure that they know exactly what to do, especially when DHS takes over in a major emergency. The DHS will also certify training programs and be allowed to assume command and control of local agencies, including medical facilities in the event of an attack or even an "imminent" attack.11

Another great giveaway to pharmaceutical companies comes at the very end of the Homeland Security Act, where DHS is charged with maintaining a Strategic National Stockpile of Smallpox Vaccine.12

By issuing security clearances to state and local personnel after appropriate training and screening, DHS will guarantee that only those personnel in local agencies loyal to the federal agenda will be given access to key information as DHS deems necessary.13 Following on that, the DHS will have the authority to go into any local agency and evaluate its methods for control of sensitive and classified information and it will have legal control of all such information in the hands of local agencies including decision-making power as to who sees it and who doesn't.14

Voila! All local law enforcement agencies are now working for the federal government.

The DHS is also empowered to engage in massive research programs on everything from DNA sequencing, to chemical and biological warfare "countermeasures", to biometric identification technology.15

The Act creating DHS has a particular obsession with biological warfare (Biowar) and, in particular, smallpox, which is the only disease specifically mentioned throughout Title 3. And in a magnanimous gift to vaccine makers it has made it a law that, in the event of a declared emergency when millions might be ordered to receive untested (for efficacy) and dangerous vaccinations, the vaccine makers and those who administer the vaccinations at government direction will be immune from lawsuits, even if you drop dead or suffer permanent disability as a result.16

And, in the event that the Secretary of DHS declares a health emergency or "a potential health emergency", certain provisions of U.S. public health laws may be activated to not only compel vaccinations, but to give the DHS the power to condemn and seize private property without advance hearings or court procedures. And during such emergencies the FBI and all other U.S. government functions will report to the DHS Secretary at all times.17

The Act also allows the DHS to go to universities under government contract to make sure that their research conforms with what the government wants and needs. The DHS will also exercise security control over material that is deemed sensitive. The DHS will have the ability to suspend funding if the universities are not complying with the government program.18

The DHS will have the authority and responsibility to monitor livestock throughout the country and to either quarantine or condemn livestock at will.19

DHS will assume control of all visa issuance for those wishing to enter the United States and will have personnel posted at U.S. embassies and consulates all over the world.20

And although the Homeland Security Act conveys a sense of Congress, that the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the military from being used in domestic law enforcement operations, should be honored, it ignores position papers originating from within the military that the Posse Comitatus Act has already been nullified by previous legislation, court decisions and precedent. One such position paper, written in 2000, even refers to Posse Comitatus as a "myth."21

YOUR MONEY AND YOUR RIGHTS!

Every American who reads this book needs to understand that the process of rendering him or her financially disabled is already well underway, just as it was for the citizens of Russia long before it hit them. The quote from Benito Mussolini at the beginning of this chapter goes to the heart of the map and why what you are about to learn is only the beginning. Of course, with the reality of Peak Oil, financial disasters are very easy to predict; fish in a barrel. But within that global reality there will linger in the hearts and minds of many Americans the belief that somehow the Great Emperor will see to it that they are protected and have more than anyone else as the world suffers. Nonsense!

This is one of the biggest lies which this book must dispel once and for all. The truth is that the abundance enjoyed by the American people for two centuries must be utterly destroyed if the Empire is to survive. Few will be prepared for how far that destruction has already progressed and fewer still will even think of preparing before the disaster arrives.

Before looking at how badly the Chosen People have already been eaten, it is important to understand an important dynamic driving globalized capitalism. That is the fact that the current "operating system" has evolved into one which makes its profits by killing things, by removing people's liberties, and by lowering standards of living for everyone except the elites. Simple reason then dictates that whatever solutions the Empire presents to Peak Oil and a failed economic system will be destructive rather than constructive; that they will create more, rather than less suffering. To think otherwise would be to blithely assume that a rattlesnake might somehow inject vitamins rather than venom.

There are currently 6.6 million people in the United States either in jail, on probation or on parole.22 Of those, as I have documented in previous issues of From The Wilderness, more than two million are incarcerated, mostly in state and federal penitentiaries. And of those two million - half of which were added in the last ten years - more than sixty per cent are nonviolent drug offenders.23 There has been a growing trend in corporate America to employ many of these prisoners as virtual slave labor for multi-national corporations. Inmate laborers now do everything from processing your credit card statements to making your airline reservations, to assembling your tennis shoes and the circuit boards for your stereo. And the Department of Justice operates something called Federal Prison Industries, better known as Unicor, as a profit-making venture to benefit American corporations. Unicor runs more than 100 factories in prisons in at least 30 states.24

According to Unicor's web site:

One example was its [UNICOR's] role as a supplier to the military during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf conflict. UNICOR provided Kevlar helmets, camouflage battle uniforms, lighting systems, sandbags, blankets, and night vision eyewear for the military to use during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. It even manufactured cables for chemical gas detection devices and for the Patriot missile systems that played a key role in defending Allied troops during the Persian Gulf War. Brigadier General John Cusick, commanding officer of the Defense Personnel Support Center, praised UNICOR for the "superb support [it] provided to America's Fighting Forces" and for helping ensure that "we received the supplies the troops needed to win the war.25

About thirty per cent of the prisons in this country are run by private corporations which trade their stock based upon how many human beings they "house". In pure economic terms, inmates have become inventory. The two largest of these corporations are Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America.

In recent years many law abiding Americans have lost their jobs to prison industries which are able to provide labor costs at a fraction of those in an uncorrupted marketplace. This means that the corrupt economy makes money by first selling drugs to people and then by putting them in prison for using drugs.

Consider also that when Iraq released its 12,000 page report on its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs, the U.S. government promptly censored several thousand pages. Among the pages that it withheld from public view in the U.S. were pages showing which corporations had made billions of dollars in profits during the 1980s and '90s by selling Iraq all of the technology, equipment and weapons that it needed to become the threat that the U.S. government insists it is today.

Those corporations include: Honeywell, Spektra Physics, Semetex, TI Coating, UNISYS, Sperry Corp., Tektronix, Rockwell, Leybold Vacuum Systems, Finnigan -MAT-US, Hewlett Packard, Dupont, Eastman Kodak, American Type Culture Collection (involved in bioweapons research), Alcolac International, Consarc, International computer Systems, Bechtel, EZ Logic Data Systems, Canberra Industries. Many of these companies which operate overseas are subsidiaries of larger corporations based in the U.S. And the Iraqi government also received assistance from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and the Sandia National Laboratory.26

We should not forget that Dick Cheney's Halliburton made extensive sales to Saddam Hussein right up until 9-11. And even on the brink of invasion, a year and a half later, the United States is still purchasing Iraqi oil on the open market.

So therefore, when examining the recent pandemic of corporate fraud in America which, according to a 2002 FOX News report, had wiped out $600 billion in shareholder equity (mostly pension funds held in stocks), one needs to ask just a couple more questions. Looking at the list of corporations under investigation for cooking their books* it is important to look at how much money the top executives made through fraud. The Financial Times published an excellent series on this titled The Barons of Bankruptcy under a broader compendium of reports titled Capitalism in Crisis. That report disclosed that 61 executives made an estimated $3.3 billion in insider stock trades before the collapse of their respective companies.27

But these figures tell only a tiny part of the story because they only describe a small fraction of the share volume that was actually dumped after the prices had been fraudulently inflated by these same executives. For every CEO or CFO that sold shares, there were members of the Boards of Directors, the audit committees and the major shareholders who dumped tens and perhaps hundreds of times as many shares. Their personal profits were also that much greater.

And the big show made by the Bush administration about corporate reform was just that - a show. Just one day after the Corporate Reform Act was signed into law by President Bush in late-July of 2002, he turned around and gutted it by declaring a White House policy that whistle-blowing protection would not apply to those who exposed fraudulent practices unless and until the whistle blowers were sworn in under oath at a Congressional hearing. That means that the whistle blowers, the one group of people essential to making the new law work, are defenseless. They will have no protection when they go to the FBI, the SEC, or even if they go to congressional staff outside of a hearing.28

Few potential whistleblowers will ever come forward if they understand that they will only be protected for the last yard of a hundred yard dash under fire.

The Julia Childs of Book Cooking

And the U.S. government is the champion of book cooking in ways that make the corporate scandals appear pedestrian. By sleight of hand in changing the dates by which corporations had to pay quarterly income taxes, it conjured up $33 billion in paper money needed to finance the Bush tax cut. One news report quoted former Minnesota congressman Bill Frenzel as saying, "If you look at the books of the corporate world, even the fraudulent ones, they are less subject to manipulation than the federal budget is."29

We saw in Chapter Nine how Bush's budget director Mitch Daniels refused to comply with a congressional request to submit the government's books to the same standards that corporations are now supposed to follow.

The Ostrich Economy

Only twice in its history has FTW issued an urgent economic bulletin, warning our subscribers of pending economic crashes. In both cases, our warnings were followed within days by major events. Our first alert on September 9th 2001 was followed two days later by the World Trade Center attacks. Our second alert in early July of 2002 was followed only days later by a plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, lasting weeks, which took the index down more than 1400 points.

Anyone who thinks that the market fundamentals aren't just as bad as they were a year ago is delusional. In fact, there are many signs showing that they are much worse. One of the most cogent and penetrating columnists of our day, Arianna Huffington, in May of 2002 warned of a coming economic devastation and stated that the signs of collapse were multiplying at an alarming rate:

"Here are a few of them: in the last two years, 433 public companies - including Enron, Global Crossing, and Kmart have declared bankruptcy. Two million Americans have lost their jobs. Four trillion dollars in market value has been lost on Wall Street. And each day brings a fresh, stomach-turning revelation of the rampant corruption infecting corporate America..."30

Huffington was warning about the dismal failure of legislation that would have banned a non-transparent form of accounting called "pro forma." The big money in Congress had seen to it that the bill, sponsored by Senator Paul Sarbanes (D - MD) died in committee. To put it simply, what pro-forma accounting does, as opposed to much stricter Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), is that it allows you to cheat, to hide money, to hide debt and to cook the books. A recent article in CFO Magazine revealed that 54% of 181 U.S. publicly traded corporations responding to their survey used pro forma accounting and that most CFO's felt some pressure to hide data and that many felt pressure to resist change.31

It is a relatively safe assumption to say that where there's pro forma accounting, there is a choice of profit over truth-telling. A look at some of the major corporations opting to use pro forma and the media outlets they own says quite a bit about the myth of a free press.

GENERAL ELECTRIC (NBC)

AOL/TIME-WARNER (CNN, Headline News, TIME Magazine, PEOPLE, HBO)

MICROSOFT (MS-NBC, MSN)

VIACOM (CBS)

DISNEY (ABC)

IBM

INTEL

CISCO SYSTEMS

SUN MICRO

TRIBUNE Co. (The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune)

THE WASHINGTON POST (The Washington Post, NEWSWEEK)

THE NEW YORK TIMES...

Thus, almost all of the major media outlets in the United States are vested in a system which makes profits and competes by destroying things and hiding the truth. A notable exception in this case is FOX News. But FOX News is owned by the Australian company NEWSCORP and it does conform, at least in the most recent filing I could find, to Australian GAAP. But they're not quite off the hook. With Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as its second largest shareholder, and with former Reagan political strategist and Republican Party operative Roger Ailes as the CEO of its news operations, FOX has plenty of other questions to answer.

What's Already Been Stolen

In March of 2000 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Inspector General Susan Gaffney testified before the House Committee on government reform. She answered questions about the fact that HUD had lost $17 billion in 1998 and $59 billion in 1999. She could not explain what had happened to the money and when she was asked what HUD had done about the missing funds, her basic explanation, made simple, was that HUD had made an adjustment to its checkbook.32

In September of 1999, it was disclosed that the U.S. Navy had lost $3 billion in equipment.33 Most of the equipment had probably been channeled to illegal covert operations. Other losses that turned up soon after that are more difficult to explain.

In August of 2001, INSIGHT Magazine's Kelly O'Meara disclosed that the Department of Defense could not account for $1.1 trillion for Fiscal Year 2000. It had been stolen, or it was lost and nobody knew where to find it - same thing.34

And then came the bombshell. On January 29, 2002 CBS News reported that the Pentagon could not account for 25% of its funds or more than $2.3 trillion. That amount, reported CBS, equaled $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. In dissecting the case of one missing batch of money, CBS came up with an explanation that was to fit all the rest of the money. "We know they spent it but we don't know what they spent it on."35

A skeptic will say, "How can the Pentagon lose trillions of dollars? Its annual budget is only $400 billion (larger than the next six nations combined)." The answer is simple. The Pentagon manages the pension funds for more than two million service people and about another million civilian employees. It also manages their medical insurance plans. It owns real estate, collects rents, and operates concessions and businesses on military bases. And when a multi-year weapons program is approved by Congress all of the earmarked funds go into Pentagon accounts but are only "dispersed" by year.

The great irony here is that most of the financial data processing for U.S. government accounting systems is done by DynCorp and by Lockheed-Martin. DynCorp was the brainchild of Harvard's Herbert "Pug" Winokur, who chaired Enron's finance committee. Former Assistant Secretary of Housing Catherine Austin Fitts has done extensive research on these and other thefts and come to the conclusion that HUD, which probably handles your mortgage, is "a candy store for covert operations and rigged financial markets", and that the U.S. Treasury is being systematically looted.36 When you take the damage to individual taxpayers and workers from this, financial fraud, and the draining of entitlement programs like Social Security and federal pension funds together, the picture gets worse than ugly.

The Plunge Protection Team and Rigged Markets (From FTW's July 2002 economic bulletin)

The Washington Post acknowledged the existence of a select group of four who could and would intervene in markets to prevent massive capital flight and a run on shares that would cause an economic collapse if there weren't enough cash to pay out during a massive sell off. In his Feb. 23, 1997 story titled "Plunge Protection Team," Post reporter Brett Fromson identified the Federal Reserve chairman, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, the chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and the secretary of the Treasury as the team's key players. The intervention of the team in the 1998 crash of Long Term Capital Management, after it became wildly overexposed in the gold market (see below), revealed that private institutions such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch and other major banks could be involved as well.

Fromson quoted a former team member as saying, "In a crisis, a lot of deference is paid to the Fed. They are the only ones with any money." Or, I might add, the ability to print it. The Treasury has lots of money too.

Pointing to the 1987 stock market crash, the single largest crash in history, Fromson observed, "The Fed kept the markets going by flooding the banking system with reserves and stating publicly that it was ready to extend loans to important financial institutions, if needed."

On April 5, 2000 New York Post reporter John Crudele reported that the stock market had turned back from the abyss. After a 500-point drop that looked like it was leading to a meltdown, "...someone started buying large amounts of stock index futures contracts through two major brokerage firms -- Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch...Unless the brokers tell, there is no way of knowing which of their clients were making the purchases...Then the market rebounded."

Calling it the PPT, Crudele both referred to the 1997 Washington Post story and suggested that private banks were acting as team captains.

Gold activist David Guyatt, relying on information obtained from Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) Chairman Bill Murphy, pointed to the PPT in October 2000. "The hand of the Plunge Protection Team (PPT) is clearly visible for the first time. The entire short gold play over the last few years is a technique that has been used to 'prop up key stocks' and 'fund futures' operations. In the simplest form it works like this. Borrow (at negligible interest rates) someone's [America's, Germany's, Britain's, Goldman Sachs'] gold and sell it in the market. This gives a handsome pool of near-interest-free dollar cash. Whenever the stock market looks shaky, or key stocks come under pressure, dive in and buy, buy, buy...

"But it is not only necessary to manipulate the stock market to succeed. It is also necessary to manipulate the gold price and keep the price of gold below the price PPT sold the leased gold for...This is a game of double jeopardy...The problem the PPT now have is that there is virtually no more official gold left to borrow."

The causes of this intervention were a pending NASDAQ crash and the imminent downgrading of IBM and Intel stocks.

And the PPT's hand has been noted recently from as far away as Australia. Progressive Review Editor Sam Smith recently quoted a story by Richard Bromby of the Australian Financial Review:

"At 2:32 Wednesday [June 26], New York time, something extraordinary happened at the corner of Wall and Broad streets. The New York Stock Exchange's Dow Jones industrial index -- struggling since the opening bell after the WorldCom fraud revelations -- threw off its problems. From an intraday low of 8,926.6, the Dow shot skywards to its high of 9,160 at 3:29 p.m...Could it be the work of the much talked about, but never seen, Plunge Protection Team? There is a belief that this team represents a powerful and secretive hand that is ready to act at any time the Dow looks ready to tank big-time...

"...London's Observer newspaper last October reported it had information the plunge team was preparing to spend 'billions of dollars' to avert a repeat of 1929 and 1987."

The problem is clear: With a strong dollar the PPT has demonstrated that it has enough cash to suppress gold prices or to save the stock market. It may not have enough cash to do both -- especially if the dollar were to suddenly lose its value. Then, all of the chickens that have been locked out will come home to roost with a vengeance.

As The International Forecaster reported on April 26, "The American consumer has run out of credit and buying power...All bets are off if the housing and credit bubbles break and that's a distinct possibility...Debtor's prison is drawing nearer. House and Senate conferences are deciding on a new set of rules for Chapter 7 bankruptcy...If the Plunge Protection Team weren't manipulating the market with all these scandals, the Dow would already be at 4,500."

----------

Adding Up The Losses

Let's take a look at the financial raiding that can be documented and add it up. The Bush administration has taken some of it just to pay the bills but I have no doubt that vast quantities of this stolen money are being used to manipulate financial markets, stimulate investor confidence and encourage small investors to keep putting their money into a failed Ponzi scheme. Bear in mind that the following "thefts" are just what I can document.

Taken From (source)

Amount

Social Security (2001) - (USA Today/Washington Post)

$34 Billion

Social Security (2002) - (White House Office of Management and Budget)

$ 455 Billion

Fed. Employee Retirement System to meet '02 budget deficits (Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2002)

$42 Billion

Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund in '02 (WS Journal, above)

$2 Billion

Stolen from the Department of Defense 1999

$1,100 Billion

Stolen from the Department of Defense 2000

$2,300 Billion

Stolen from HUD 1998

$17 Billion

Stolen from HUD 1999

$59 Billion

U.S. government funds paid to companies and individuals not entitled to receive it (Reuters)

$20 Billion

Shareholder Equity Lost to Financial Fraud (FOX)

$600 Billion



------------------------

TOTAL

$4.629 Trillion Dollars

The Democrats have begun their campaign to frighten voters before the fall

elections. It's nothing but a replay of past elections, the only difference

being that they seem to be starting the scare tactics a bit early this year.

I guess you can't blame them. Nothing else has worked. The tried to hand the

Florida election problems on Bush. No go. Then it was the economy, and that

didn't work either. They gave a stab at the "Bush is stupid" routine, but

Americans aren't buying it. Enron looked worse for Clinton than it did for

Republicans, so the Social Democrats had to give up on that one too. So,

it's time to go back to Democratic roots. Try to scare the beejezus out of

older voters. It's worked in the past -- so it will surely work this time.

The ploy is simple. Convince wrinkled citizens that the evil Republicans

want to take away their Social Security. It's an old trick, tried and true.

The Democrats roll this one out every single election. This time the point

men are Richard Gephardt and Terry McAuliffe. They're both telling voters

that the evil Republicans have a "secret" plan to reduce Social Security

benefits as soon as they are reelected.

So .. now that the Democrats have opened this whole "secret plan" idea –

what about the secret plans of the Democratic Socialists? Just what

legislative agenda does the Democrat Party plan to pursue if and when they

gain control of the Senate, the House and the presidency? Well, your

Talkmaster has been watching these socialists for years, and taking notes.

Here are just some of the goodies the Social Democrat Party has in store for

the people of America.

Remove a majority of voters from responsibility for income taxes This is the

biggie – and they've made no attempt to hide their goals here. The Democrats

have been working on this plan for decades --- with no small amount of help

from the cowardly Republicans. The idea is simple. Using "refundable" tax

credits and deductions and such ideas as the fraudulent Earned Income Tax

Credit the Democrats are working to shift the entire burden for the payment

of federal income taxes onto a minority of US taxpayers. Right now the top

50 percent of taxpayers pay almost 96 percent of the taxes. The Democrats

are close to their goal. When the majority of voters have no federal income

tax liability it will be almost impossible to pass any meaningful tax cuts –

and further tax increases will be a piece of cake, especially if the taxes

only affect those to be considered to be rich. Through this ploy the

Democrats plan to create a defeat-proof socialist congress.

Shift Social Security and Medicare Taxes to the "Rich"

Payroll taxes, as you know, are basically Social Security and Medicare

taxes. The Democrats have almost achieved their goal of shielding the

so-called "poor" from any income tax liability at all. But --- the poor saps

still have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. Democrats conveniently

ignore the fact that these same people will get full Social Security and

Medicare benefits when they reach the magic age ... and those benefits must

never be touched! It's OK, though, to excuse these people from the

responsibility of actually having to pay the premiums for these insurance

and retirement benefits. So ..... the next element of the Democrats' Secret

Plan! The elimination of payroll taxes for the poor!

This is a plan that was put forth by Democrat Robert Reich on the Cutie-Pie

and Holmes show on Fox News Channel on July 31, 2002. The idea is to, as

Reich puts it, "lift the tax burden off the poor" by eliminating payroll

taxes on the first $15,000 of income. Here's how you do it. The Democrats

pass a law which says that nobody has to pay any payroll taxes on the first

$15,000 of their income. Bingo -- the poor now have a completely free ride!

They are now life-long, dedicated Democratic voters. But wait! Isn't that

going to cost the government money? Are you kidding? Of course it's not!

It's not going to cost the government money because they're simply going to

raise the salary cap for Social Security taxes by enough to cover the lost

revenues! Right now the cap is around $88,000 on Social Security taxes. To

cover the shortfall Reich says they will just raise the salary cap by

$15,000 ... to $103,000 a hear. Reich forgets, though, that there is no cap

on Medicare taxes, so raising the cap by $15,000 would not recover the

Medicare taxes lost by excluding the first $15,000 in income. In reality the

Democrats would have to raise the salary cap by about $19,000. They would

just round it off to $20,000.

So, there you go. Shifting the burden for the cost of Social Security and

Medicare for low income earners onto high income earners. The Democratic

way.

Massive increase in Social Security taxes As we've said, Social Security is

a mainstay when it comes to Democrat vote-buying. Social Security was, is

and always will be nothing more than a giant income redistribution scheme

designed to create dependency on government and loyalty to the program's

protectors in congress. The more money you pour into Social Security

benefits, the more the wizened class loves you, depends on you and will be

dedicated to keeping you in office. The Democrats need massive new funding

sources to pay expanded Social Security benefits --- but they must get that

money without raising Social Security taxes on the middle and lower income

groups. The solution? The Democrats have a "secret plan" to expand the wage

base for Social Security taxes. Right now you only pay these taxes on the

first $88,000 or so of income. Give the Democrats the power and watch that

wage base jump to $100,000, $200,000 and beyond. The eventual Democrat Party

goal is to have people pay Social Security taxes on every penny they earn

... no matter how much that is. There will no comparable increase in

benefits for the high income earners. The extra money will be used to keep

the Democratic middle and low-income constituency happy.

End the home mortgage interest deduction

Democrats have been after this income tax deduction for decades. They call

it a "subsidy." Now the more intelligent among us will clearly understand

that allowing someone to keep more of the money that they earn can hardly be

called a "subsidy." But we're talking about the more intelligent among us.

These people aren't likely to be voting for Democrats anyway!

As soon as the Democrats manage to gain control of the federal government

they will move to eliminate this "subsidy for the rich." They know that

there will be little adverse political fallout. After all -- the mortgage

interest deduction is only valuable to people who actually pay income taxes

AND who itemize their deductions. Democrats have already succeeded in

removing most of their core constituency from the income tax rolls --- so

what is there to lose?

When the Democrats ride into power you had better be prepared to kiss that

mortgage interest deduction -- and a lot more of your money -- a fond

farewell.

Socialized Medicine

They already tried this with Hillary Care. It failed. Democrats aren't

discouraged by failure. They just try and try again until they finally get

you to swallow the poison pill. There are two basic reasons the Democrats

are working so hard for complete government control of this huge segment of

our economy. One, of course, is power. Health care comprises about 15% of

our national economy. If the government can seize control of this large a

segment of our economy a giant step toward a socialist economy will have

been achieved. The second reason is control. Think about it. If you control

a person's access to healthcare ... you effectively control that person.

Right now the Democrats have had to put their plans for socialized medicine

on hold. Those pesky Republicans in the House and the White House are making

things tough. Democrats have to be satisfied with just sitting up there in

the Beltway blocking any efforts to introduce competition into the medical

marketplace.

Democrats live in quaking fear of free market competition. This was one of

the reasons they worked so hard to defeat Bush's economic stimulus plan.

There was a provision in that plan that would allow laid-off workers to go

out into the marketplace to find health insurance. They would then be

allowed a tax credit to cover the cost of that health insurance premium.

Democrats wanted federal funds to be paid to employers to encourage

employers to extend health insurance benefits to laid-off workers. Democrats

knew that if private individuals ventured into the free marketplace to find

health insurance they might just find that free market competition could

deliver a superior insurance product at a reduced price.

Tax your pension funds

This idea first received serious consideration in the early Clintonista

years. As soon as the Republicans took control of the Congress the idea

disappeared. Right now it's being "secretly" incubated by Democrats to be

hatched when they regain control. The idea is simple. There are trillions of

dollars out there in various private pension and 401K plans. All of these

trillions of dollars are earning interest for (gasp!) private investors and

individuals and not for the government! To make matters worse – most of

these private pension and 401K plans are owned by the evil, hated upper

income earners.

The "secret" plan? A one-time 15% tax on the outstanding balance of all

private pension and 401K retirement plans. This money would be paid into the

general fund of the federal government and used to fund various social

programs for low and middle-income earners.

Is this a dangerous plan for Democrats? Not really. The plan would take

money chiefly from those who earn enough money to actually pay income taxes

and contribute to pension plans. These people do not make up the core of

Democratic voters.

Tax your pension contributions also

After the Democrats levy their 15% tax on the outstanding balance of all

pension and 401K plans, they intend to follow up with a tax on all future

contributions to these plans. The theory is that "rich" people shouldn't be

allowed to contribute that money to these plans tax free when "poor" people

don't have that opportunity.

The Magic of Imputed Income

Imputed? What does "imputed" mean?

One definition is to "credit." So, by imputed income, we mean that you are

credited with income you didn't necessarily earn.

The goal is clear. Democrats want to milk the high-achievers for as much

money as they possibly can. There are really only two ways Democrats can get

more income tax out of you. One way is to raise the tax rates. At some point

this is going to prove to be politically risky. So, how else can they bleed

you for more? Even Democrats who have been to government schools can do

simple math. They know they can get more money out of you if that line on

your income tax return that reads "taxable income" can be increased. Forty

percent of $120,000 is more than 40% of $90,000. All you have to do is

impute – credit – more income to the poor taxpaying high-achiever.

So --- here is the idea that the Clinton Administration was tossing around

prior to the voter revolution of 1994. They were going to impute – credit –

extra income to people who own their own homes. This was going to be done

for two reasons. First, to push more people into the higher income brackets

where Clinton tax increases could reach them. Second, to increase the amount

of taxes actually collected from these people. Here's how Clinton's imputed

income scheme was going to work:

Let's say you own a home worth $250,000. Your payments on that home are

about $2,000 a month. The government uses census data (there is a reason

they ask all of those extra questions) to figure out what a $250,000 home in

your neighborhood would rent for. Let's say it would rent for $3000 a month.

This means that you could rent your home for $1000 a month more than your

payments. But you're not renting your home, you're living in it. You must

know that this just isn't fair to people who have to rent homes. They don't

get the tax deductions you get. They don't own their own homes because,

unlike you, they haven't, as Dickie Gephardt likes to phrase it, "won life's

lottery."

Well .. since you're so rich and since you own your own home, the Democrats

would really like to get a little more money from you, to spend on those

poor renters and people who aren't as "fortunate" as you are. This would all

be in exchange of their votes, of course.

So ... here is this element of the Democrats' secret plan for you and your

bank account. When you fill out your tax return you will have to consult

certain tables and government data to determine what a home like yours would

rent for in your neighborhood. Using the example above, your home would rent

for $3000. You're paying $2000 a month to your mortgage company. You will be

instructed to take the difference ($1000 a month) and multiply it by 12.

This gives you $12,000. That's your imputed income. Add that to your other

earnings to come up with your taxable income. That adds up to more than

$4,500 in additional income taxes if you're in the top tax bracket. Hey,

it's only fair ... you being rich and all.

Don't gripe. This is all for those needed government programs for the "less

fortunate."

By the way --- you should know that there is an imputed income bill in the

Congress. It's about child support, not home mortgages. If you're a deadbeat

dad who owes back child support you would, under this law, have to add the

amount of your arrearage to your taxable income and pay taxes on it. Fact

is, you've already paid taxes on this income once. The bill would just

punish you for not forking it over to the ex-wife by making you pay tax on

it a second time. Today, child support. Tomorrow, that money you could be

making if you would only rent your home instead of live in it.

Economically Targeted Investments -- controlling your pension fund

investments.

Here we are, right back at your pension funds and 401K funds again. Again

--- there is so much money in these funds, trillions of dollars, that the

Democrats just can't leave them alone. All of this money just sitting there

and not one penny of it is being used to buy votes for Democrats. So ---

here comes the idea of Economically Targeted Investments. "ETIs" the

Democrats call them, and they're a huge part of the Democrat "secret"

agenda. All they need is control in Washington.

Here's the deal. The government grants various tax breaks to these

retirement plans. As you know, or as you should know, tax breaks are usually

granted to force some individual or corporation to act and behave in some

manner pleasing to government. The Democrats plan to change the rules on

pension and 401K accounts. Instead of just investing these funds in stocks

and bonds, fund managers will be required by the government to invest these

funds in certain investments dictated by government -- by Democrats. In this

way the governments can fund some of their spending schemes, but without

using government funds. The Democrats will simply pass laws requiring fund

managers to invest in corporations building low income housing; or companies

who are hiring workers off welfare roles. Other "allowed" investments will

be in such things as environmental protection, waste recycling and other

causes popular with the left. In short order the Democrats will have rules

in place which state that these pension funds cannot be invested in

companies that are "unfriendly" to unions. To a Democrat ... any company

with a non-union workforce is "unfriendly" to unions. Corporations who have

affirmative action programs will get the nod. Companies who hire and promote

on merit will not.

All of this will mean that the Democrats can claim credit for spending on

some of their favorite programs without going to the taxpayers. They can

just, in effect, use pension money. The end result, of course, is lower

returns on pension fund investments -- and lower pension benefits to

retirees. That doesn't bother the Democrats, though. The less money you have

to retire on the more dependent on government you will be.

Force employers to pay for "family leave."

Right now the Family Leave Act requires employers to give employees about 12

weeks of unpaid "family leave" to take care of certain family events and

emergencies, such as having a baby, illness, death or some other situation.

The key here is that the family leave is unpaid. The Democrats want

employers to continue to pay the employees while they take their extended

vacation. The Democrats "secret" plan is to begin with a law requiring

payment of about one-half of the employee's salary. This will give

Democratic candidates the opportunity to campaign in future years on the

basis of increasing the percentage paid to those on family leave. Paying

people for not working --- a Democrat staple.

Seizure of property of those who flee Democratic tyranny As Democrats work

diligently for more control over our economy and increase levels of income

redistribution many high-achieving Americans are making plans to run. The

greater the confiscation of wealth becomes the more people start looking for

other countries in which to base their businesses. Democrats have a "secret

plan" to impose confiscatory taxes on any Americans who try to move their

wealth or their business interests out of this country.

Government paid childcare for majority of voters

The absolute last thing a Democrat would ever do would be to suggest to

anyone that they shouldn't have a baby they can't afford to raise. Democrats

know that children are the absolute more important thing in the lives of

millions of Americans. They have been working for decades to impose ever

more expensive rules and regulations on private child care agencies. They

have also been working to raise taxes to the point that it is difficult

beyond reason to raise a child on the income of one working parent. Thus ...

the necessity of child care. If the government steps in and provides the

funds for that child care then, to that extent, the parents become just that

much more dependent on government ... and Democrats.

Government control of all childhood education (indoctrination) Democrats are

the party of big government. Democrats are more than thrilled with the

increased propensity of many Americans to look to government for the

solution to virtually all problems they face in their daily lives. Democrats

know that to teach people that they can expect the government to be there to

solve all of their problems you have to start with the children. Catholic

schools can be expected to teach their students that Catholicism is good.

Jewish private schools are going to sing the praises of Judaism. Christian

schools will teach the children that Jesus is really cool. Government

schools? Government schools will promote what? Government! Thus, Democrats

see a clear need to keep as many children in government education programs

as possible. The "secret" plan? Continue to work against any ideas that

would make it easier for parents to remove their children from government

schools. This means working against such ideas as vouchers or tax credits to

help parents afford the cost of private schools. They will also work to add

increased regulations to parents who make the decision to home school their

children.

Government imposed limits on executive income

This one is really going to have to wait until Democrats have a solid

control of the federal machine. The Social Democrat party has plans to

institute limits on executive compensation. The idea is to impose

confiscatory corporate income taxes on companies who pay their top

executives more than X-times the compensation paid to the lowest-paid

employees.

Repealing the Second Amendment

Haven't you ever thought it a bit odd that leftists and Democrats are

generally opposed to the concept of the private ownership of firearms, while

conservatives and libertarians favor the idea? Well, there's a reason. Those

who value and celebrate the worth of the individual and of individual

freedom generally believe that the individual should be permitted to own and

bear arms. Those who put the power of government over and above the power of

the individual would just as soon see the individual unarmed. Armed

individuals are, of course, a threat to tyranny.

Destroy talk radio

Democrats aren't fond of talk radio. They know that Rush Limbaugh played a

huge role in the voter revolution of 1994. Leftists realize that almost all

successful talk radio shows are hosted by people who do not share their

political views. They will try to neutralize talk radio through regulation.

Since Democrats love the "fair" word so much, they'll try to resurrect

something called the "Fairness Doctrine." How would this law work? Well, for

example, a talk show host would not be allowed to voice opposition to a

particular Democrat goal without finding some Democrat to go on the air to

defend that goal. Talk radio soared in listenership and popularity following

the death of the Fairness Doctrine. Democrats know that talk radio can once

again be pushed into the radio background with new regulations that stifle

conservative and libertarian voices. Give them the power -- and it's time

for me to retire. You should be aware that at a recent meeting of the

Democratic Party of Oregon a resolution was adopted to use the power of

government and the "fairness doctrine" to reign in those horrible right wing

talk show hosts.

Wait! There's more

The above list is by no means complete. Keep you eye on this page as we work

to expose even more of the "secret plans" of America's socialist party, the

Democrats.