Since an audit of military spending has been required by law, Global Private Military Companies have given at least $240 million in known campaign contributions to the Republican and Democratic parties.

Given the loosening of campaign finance laws regarding “dark money,” it is impossible to account for all the money that Global Private Military Companies, their numerous shell companies and aligned interests have actually contributed.

Since an audit of military spending has been required by law, known Global Private Military Companies have spent a stunning $2.3 billion lobbying Congress.

Beyond campaign finance and lobbying, the revolving door – between Global Private Military Companies and government officials – is a significant source of demonstrated corrupt behavior.

Since an audit of military spending has been required by law, over 12,000US government officials have gone through the revolving door with known Global Private Military Companies.

Other than the corruptly implemented Legalized Bribery schemes, after an extensive analysis, it is evident that the National Security Act, and corresponding agencies and laws derived therefrom – with the power of secrecy that it provides – has been the primary enabler of the greatest theft of taxpayer wealth in history.

The National Security Act set several precedents that have severely undermined the U.S. Constitution. The National Security Act created the “National Military Establishment,” the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, thereby codifying institutional secrecy.

Corresponding laws, such as the State Secrets Privilege, Classified Information Procedures Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the PATRIOT Act, the Totten Rule, The Espionage Act and the recent Executive Order 13526, which defines rules for the classification of information, have all played a pivotal role in concealing unprecedented criminal activity.

Here’s how the Center for Constitutional Rights explains the State Secrets Privilege (SSP):

“The State Secrets Privilege originates in England where the law allows the king or queen the ‘Crown Privilege,’ which grants the monarch the absolute right to refuse to share information with Parliament or the courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court then borrowed the SSP almost entirely…. More recently – and more troublingly – the government has invoked the SSP in the very beginning of cases to dismiss them altogether….

The State Secrets Privilege undermines the very idea of an independent judiciary; contradicts the core idea of judicial review, which is independent judges making independent evaluations of all of the facts; and essentially allows the executive branch to dictate to the federal courts what cases they can and can’t hear….

The greater good is actually served by denying the executive a trump card that would allow it to cover up its abuses of power.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation sums it up this way:

“The Bush and the Obama Administration have aggressively used the ‘state secrets’ privilege, insisting that entire cases could be exempt from judicial review at the outset if they touch on national security. They seek to use the narrow, evidentiary scalpel like a chainsaw, to deny justice for millions of ordinary Americans for rampant violations of their rights….

Under this theory, the government could potentially violate the law and Constitution as it sees fit, and—just by stamping ‘STATE SECRET’ on the top of their actions—those injured by their actions would be denied justice.

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel once described the argument as such:

‘According to the government’s theory, the Judiciary should effectively cordon off all secret government actions from judicial scrutiny, immunizing the CIA and its partners from the demands and limits of the law.’”

This unaccountable system of secrecy has been evolving since the 1940s. Here’s how President Kennedy described it in 1961:

“It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised.

No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed….

If you are awaiting a finding of ‘clear and present danger,’ then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.”

As Senator Chuck Schumer revealingly said while warning President Trump, “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Surveillance of government officials, political opponents, whistleblowers, journalists and activists has become Standard Operating Procedure.

Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, keeping “Control Files” on politicians and political adversaries has been the norm. Now, with the PATRIOT Act and unprecedented surveillance powers, intelligence agencies, Global Private Military contractors and anyone with enough money have the power to know everything about any “targeted individuals,” and thanks to Big Data analytics and algorithms they can do it with increasing effectiveness on entire populations.

While working on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall pointed out:

“There is a significant discrepancy between what most Americans – including many members of Congress – think the PATRIOT Act allows the government to do and how government officials interpret that same law.

We believe that most members of the American public would be very surprised to learn how federal surveillance law is being interpreted in secret. ”

To understand how surveillance powers are used as a political weapon, for one of many examples, let’s look at the most recent news about Global Private Military Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL). One of their front companies, Cambridge Analytica (CA) is now caught up in a wide-ranging scandal that reveals how power politics really operate in the United States and around the world.

CA’s CEO Alexander Nix and Managing Director Mark Turnbull were recently recorded on video in a public restaurant very casually saying that surveillance, blackmail, honey-pot traps, threats and bribery are all frequently used tactics throughout the political landscape. UK-based Channel 4 News has incredible video from an undercover reporter posing as a potential client. Nix and Turnbull matter-of-factly discuss these highly corrupt activities in detail, as standard operating procedure.

As Mark Turnbull summed it up, “You know who the opposition is. You know their secrets.”

He later added: “They will find all the skeletons in the closet, quietly, discreetly, and give you a report.”

And if political adversaries don’t have any secrets that they can use to manipulate them, they can always attempt to bribe and/or entrap them. As CEO Alexander Nix put it:

“I mean deep digging is interesting, but you know we do much more than that, equally effective can be to just go and speak to the incumbents and to offer them a deal that’s too good to be true, and make sure that that’s video recorded, you know. These sorts of tactics are very effective….

We’ll have a wealthy developer come in… they will offer a large amount of money to the candidate, to finance his campaign in exchange for land, for instance.

We’ll have the whole thing recorded on cameras…. Send some girls around to the candidate’s house. We have lots of history of these things.

We can bring some Ukrainians in on holiday with us, you know, you know what I’m saying. They are very beautiful. I find that works very well….

I’m just giving you examples of what can be done, what has been done… there’s so many options we can look at. I’ve had lots of experience in this.”

And when all else fails, Nix has one more dirty trick up his sleeve: “I mean, it sounds dreadful to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true, as long as they’re believed.”

Turnbull reassured their potential client on the covert nature of their activities: “We’ve just used a different organization to run a very, very successful project… no one even knew they were there. They just drift. They were ghosted in, did the work, ghosted out, and produced really, really good material. So we have experience in doing this.”

When asked who would be paid for such services, Nix replied: “We’ll take care of that. We subcontract it out to them…. We use UK companies, Israeli companies, they’re very effective in intelligence gathering.”

Turnbull added, “It may be that we will have to contract under a different name. A different entity, with a different name, so that no record exists with our name attached to this at all.”

It is also vital to point out that many intelligence agencies and Global Private Military contractors also frequently use shell companies to deploy similar tactics on behalf of their wealthy cliental against any adversaries, whether it is political opponents, business rivals, whistleblowers, journalists or activists, as we will be reporting throughout this series.

Nix also flippantly said that he was confident his company was above the law and could avoid any U.S. investigation: “I’m absolutely convinced that they have no jurisdiction. We’ll say, none of your business.” Nix is so cocky about being above the law because his Global Private Military parent company SCL has had significant contracts with U.S. and U.K. intelligence agencies.

At the end of the day, they are confident in their criminal activities and highly corrupt actions because they know they can wave the wand of National Security to avoid any legal consequences.

When Nix pushed to close the deal with the undercover client, he said, “We’re used to operating through different vehicles, in the shadows, and I look forward to building a very long-term and secretive relationship with you.”

On SCL’s website they say:

“For over 25 years, we have conducted behavioral change programs in over 60 countries and have been formally recognized for our work in defense & social change.”

As Channel 4 News reported:

“In the meetings, the executives boasted that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) had worked in more than two hundred elections across the world.”

From National “Security” classification to nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and gag orders, there is an extensive system in place to keep criminal actions from ever being known by the public.

Whistleblower safeguards have been weakened. Many whistleblower cases have never been investigated, as reprisals and retaliations have increased throughout government agencies. Intelligence Community (IC) watchdogs have warned that IC officials are forced to sign NDAs that effectively make whistleblower protections null and void.

NSA, DIA and CIA officials have recently been caught retaliating against whistleblowers, not processing reprisal claims, and lying to Congress about it.

In fact, as part of a full-scale assault on whistleblowing programs, the head of the Whistleblowing and Source Protection Program has recently been fired. As the Project On Government Oversight reports:

“The firing of Dan Meyer, who led the Whistleblowing and Source Protection Program at the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, or IC IG, may have wide repercussions.

He was forced out of the pivotal job at a time when whistleblowers may already be wary of trusting that their jobs will be safe due to allegations of misconduct involving the handling of whistleblower complaints by inspectors general in other intelligence agencies. It’s now not clear who, if anyone, is doing his job.

The exact cause of Meyer’s ouster remains murky. For years, he led outreach and education campaigns highlighting proper disclosure channels and whistleblower protections to employees across U.S. intelligence agencies under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence….

In fact, Meyer even lodged his own complaint at one point, alleging he was punished for disclosing misconduct earlier in his career while working at the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.

In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats — whose office houses the Intelligence Community Inspector General — earlier this month, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) stated that Meyer ‘was terminated in a process marked by procedural irregularities and serious conflicts of interest’ while the agency’s acting leadership ‘demonstrated a lack of support for the critical whistleblower protection mission of the office.’ …

The letter requested the agency preserve and secure potentially sensitive information about ongoing whistleblower retaliation investigations left in Meyer’s office when he was put on leave and to provide Grassley’s staff with all documents about the personnel action against Meyer.

The agency never responded to Grassley’s requests, according to the Senator’s statement last week.”

Senators Grassley and Wyden added, “We are concerned that any preemptive steps taken by the acting leadership risk undercutting the constitutional authority of the U.S. Senate….”

Retaliation against corporate whistleblowers is also dramatically increasing; doubling over the past five years. As the Wall Street Journal reported: “Bad news for those coming forward to report problems: The number of people who said they suffered retaliation for speaking up rose to 44% from 22% in 2013.”

In addition to increased suppression and attacks against whistleblowers, the Freedom of the Press Foundation reported, “Three months into 2018, the most under the radar threat to press freedom has shown itself to be not arrests or attacks on journalists, but rather subpoenas to produce documents or attempt to force journalists to testify about their sources.”

Another new report from the Project on Government Oversight, featured in USA Today, also notes the increasing number of secret cash settlements (hush money payoffs) regarding various forms of injury and harassment:

“Congress should prod the Marines, and other government agencies, to be more transparent about cash settlements…. Congress should be looking at all federal agencies to make disclosures about settlement amounts and where they come from… Congress needs to make sure it does not cover up misconduct.”

Congress itself is certainly not leading by example, as they are now unconstitutionally cracking down on congressional staff and interns by forcing them to sign “sweeping” NDAs as well. Having staff sign “sweeping” NDAs is a new favorite unconstitutional tactic of the Trump White House as well.

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project concisely summed up the overall situation: “Public employees can’t be gagged by private agreements. These so-called NDAs are unconstitutional and unenforceable.”

Norman Eisen, former Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform, said: “White House lawyers who knowingly participated in a scheme to illegally coerce unrepresented non lawyer employees and deprive them of First Amendment and other rights could be subject to bar discipline for violating ethics rules – and maybe even lose their licenses.”

We can add this wide-ranging crackdown on whistleblowers to the long list of unconstitutional actions committed in the name of secrecy to cover-up criminal activity.

There is another unconstitutional and vital aspect underpinning this culture of secrecy, and financial crimes in general:

“Through the Federal Reserve Act, the federal government delegated, and continues to delegate, its power to create our money to the private banks that comprise the Federal Reserve System. In so doing, Congress (and, by the 1980s, the Federal Reserve itself) lost control over the money supply…. Thus, Congress can no longer fulfill its Constitutional responsibility to the public to regulate the value of our money, the vast majority of which private banks (and by the 2000s, shadow banks) create through private-interest-bearing debt.”

In summing up the overall state of affairs regarding National Security secrecy, the $21 Trillion in missing taxpayer money and the Federal Reserve’s role, former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Catherine Austin Fitts said:

“Many of our problems are related to how the federal government, the banks and private corporations that run its operations can access trillions in secret outside of the Appropriations Clause of Article I of the US Constitution, and US financial management laws.

This means the Federal Reserve and their member banks are transacting government money outside the law. So are the corporate contractors that run the payment systems….

This nearly infinite amount of money finances whatever the people who can access the money want.

The policies are set by the people who control the operations, assets and technology that secret money finances.

Notice that Congress consistently votes against the wishes of the American people and their constituents. Their votes are following the money.”

As for how many secret financing and accounting systems there are, in an interview with Reuters former Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England said, “There are thousands and thousands of systems. I‘m not sure anybody knows how many systems there are.”

In a little-noticed May 2011 speech at the American Enterprise Institute, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the Pentagon “an amalgam of fiefdoms without mechanisms to allocate resources, track expenditures, and measure results relative to the department’s overall priorities.” Later in the speech, Gates added, “My staff and I learned that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as, ‘How much money did you spend?’ and ‘How many people do you have?’.”

This was an important admission from Gates, as Secretary of Defense for the Bush and Obama administrations, it was his responsibility to sign off on Pentagon spending. This is also why Gates’ Secretary of Defense predecessor Donald Rumsfeld, in his now infamous speech at the Pentagon on September 10, 2001, said it was time to “declare war” on Pentagon waste for not being able to account for $2.3 trillion in taxpayer money.

Given what we know now, and our current political environment, Rumsfeld’s speech that day is of historical significance. Here are excerpts from his speech at the Pentagon:

“The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America.

This adversary is one of the world’s last bastions of central planning. It governs by dictating five-year plans. From a single capital, it attempts to impose its demands across time zones, continents, oceans and beyond.

With brutal consistency, it stifles free thought and crushes new ideas. It disrupts the defense of the United States and places the lives of men and women in uniform at risk.

Perhaps this adversary sounds like the former Soviet Union, but that enemy is gone: our foes are more subtle and implacable today. You may think I’m describing one of the last decrepit dictators of the world. But their day, too, is almost past, and they cannot match the strength and size of this adversary.

The adversary is closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy.

In this building… money disappears into duplicative duties and bloated bureaucracy…. An average American family works an entire year to generate $6,000 in income taxes. Here we spill many times that amount every hour by duplication and by inattention.

That’s wrong. It’s wrong because national defense depends on public trust, and trust, in turn, hinges on respect for the hardworking people of America and the tax dollars they earn….

According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.

We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building because it’s stored on dozens of technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible…

Why is DOD one of the last organizations around that still cuts its own checks? …

There’s a myth, sort of a legend, that money enters this building and disappears, like a bright light into a black hole, never to be seen again.

In truth, there is a real person at the other end of every dollar, a real person who’s in charge of every domain, and that means that there will be real consequences from, and real resistance to, fundamental change….

And let there be no mistake, it is a matter of life and death. Our job is defending America, and if we cannot change the way we do business, then we cannot do our job well, and we must.

So today we declare war on bureaucracy….

I’ve read that there are those who will oppose our every effort to save taxpayers’ money…. Well, fine, if there’s to be a struggle, so be it….

It’s about respect for taxpayers’ dollars. A cab driver in New York City ought to be able to feel confident that we care about those dollars.

It’s about professionalism, and it’s also about our respect for ourselves, about how we feel about seeing GAO reports describing waste and mismanagement and money down a rat hole.”

Speaking of “money down a rat hole”…

It is all coming to a head now. After decades of “hard-core foot-dragging” and “internal resistance” the first ever “full scope audit” of the Pentagon has recently begun, and while the government’s Chief Financial Officer David Norquist’s plan has flaws, the initial findings are further evidence of widespread malfeasance.

For example, in preparation for the audit the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which buys and distributes military supplies, recently spent over $2 billion on a faulty accounting system. As Politico reported:

“Ernst & Young found that the Defense Logistics Agency failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects, just one of a series of examples where it lacks a paper trail for millions of dollars….

Across the board, its financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums it’s responsible for, the firm warned in its initial audit… as the auditors found, the agency often has little solid evidence for where much of that money is going.”

As you will read throughout this series, the problems at the DLA are emblematic of widespread systemic problems throughout many Pentagon agencies. There are consistent reoccurring themes: billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on accounting, tracking and IT systems that cost significantly more than originally quoted, take longer to implement, and rarely ever work properly.

William Hartung, Director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, summed up the accountability crisis at the Pentagon by saying:

“The Department of Defense can’t tell us how much equipment it has purchased, how often it has been overcharged, or even how many contractors it employs.

Call it irony or call it symptomatic of the department’s way of life, but an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight notes the Pentagon has so far spent roughly $6 billion on ‘fixing’ the audit problem — with no solution in sight.

If anything, the Defense Department’s accounting practices have been getting worse.”

As Reuters summed it up, “an organization that fields the most sophisticated technology in the world to fight wars and spy on enemies has come to rely on an accounting system of antiquated, error-prone computers… these thousands of duplicative and inefficient systems cost billions of dollars to staff and maintain… efforts to replace these systems with better ones have ended in costly failures… it all adds up to billions of taxpayer dollars a year in losses to mismanagement, theft and fraud.”

As the Defense Logistics audit reveals, and as you will see in this series, not only are our tax dollars not being accounted for, the Pentagon cannot adequately track weapons, ammunition and supplies stored in military facilities within the United States, let alone the weapons that are stored in over 1000 military bases worldwide, with troops in 177 countries.

The Pentagon cannot even track where tens of thousands of troops are stationed, let alone all the Global Private Military Contractors who now outnumber U.S. troops three-to-one in war zones around the world.

In fact, as evidence clearly demonstrates, our weapons are routinely “lost” in war zones and have consistently ended up in the hands of the people our troops are fighting.

Despite all the “Support the Troops” rhetoric, evidence shows that the Pentagon has frequently failed to properly pay soldiers, and provide basic benefits and adequate healthcare. As you will see, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has been plagued by scandal after scandal; from billions of dollars wasted on failed IT projects and contractor self-dealing, to patient neglect and unsanitary conditions.

Even high profile U.S. Veteran fundraising campaigns have failed to deliver donations, stealing millions of dollars from the veterans who need it most.

Perhaps most terrifying of all, our Nuclear Weapons lack adequate oversight and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has been besieged by scandalous corruption.

After an extensive analysis of Pentagon procedures, the outrageous level of corruption, staggering incompetency, outright fraud and obscene theft are beyond comprehension.

As you will see in detail throughout this series, the systemic and chronic wasteful spending that we can account for costs U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually.

When you understand how the money that is accounted for has been spent, you will be shocked and horrified.

After understanding that, you can make some obvious educated estimates on what has been happening to the unaccounted for, untraceable and unauthorized “tax” money.

After reporting on the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crisis in-depth, it is clear that those events pale in comparison to what is unfolding now. As devastating as those events were, they were warm up acts. In many ways, the present feels eerily like 2005 – ’08 all over again. The present moment is that brief window of time when you can clearly see the wrecking ball heading your way.

In 2005, when we started to investigate what became the financial crisis — with trillions of dollars in fraud from subprime mortgages, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were somehow triple-A rated by the corrupt credit agencies — we had a very hard time getting the general public to understand the colossal scale of the fraud that was taking place, and how the consequences of it would soon wreak havoc throughout the global economy.

Then, factor in all the post-crash looting schemes that further redistributed wealth from hardworking Americans to the world’s richest 0.01% — quantitative easing (QE), zero-interest rate loans (ZIRP), high frequency trading (HFT), various market rigging mechanisms, the entire shadow banking system and derivatives in general — it became almost impossible to conceptualize the scale of it all into a frame of reference that people could relate to and comprehend.

We had to constantly explain to people that $1 trillion is $1000 billion, and we were talking several trillion / thousands of billions per each one of these various schemes. It was all so absurd, as if mafia accountants and corrupt global central banking economists got into mathematical surrealism – previously unimaginable economic mechanisms of extraction were deployed.

In other words, to get away with this spectacular theft and keep the racket rolling, Global Central Banks doubled-down on all-out mafia rule and decided to blatantly bribe everyone — in broad daylight — by creating trillions of dollars out of thin air, and giving out zero-interest loans to their primary dealer banks, when no one else had access to this limitless funding flow.

Then they pumped it into the stock market to create the greatest QE High Frequency Simulation bubble ever, while the biggest perpetrators, still to this day, continue to make off with trillions of dollars more. In fact, the “too big to fail” banks who caused the crisis are now significantly bigger, and the world’s richest 0.01% are now richer than ever, as economic inequality has exploded since the crisis began.

As a consequence to all of this corruption, the stock market has decoupled from reality and has become an inverse correlation to societal stability.

Central Banks and High Frequency Looting Algorithms have rigged the market to the point where vital pricing mechanisms, which determine the cost of commodities that people need to live, have been destroyed.

Once reality hits, this new artificial bubble will pop, and the U.S. economy will be devastated, much worse than it was in 2008. It’s just a matter of time.

As this economic time bomb is ticking, trillions upon trillions of dollars more in all-out looting is just beginning to be revealed in the Audit of the Pentagon.

The Pentagon and the Global Private Military prop up, backstop and keep the Wall Street racket rolling.

With the Audit of the Pentagon, we have finally reached the center of the onion, the very core of the outrageously corrupt Global Empire that consolidates wealth and resources into fewer and fewer hands, while systematically destroying the future of the American People, and the chances for freedom worldwide.

As this backstop unravels, with evidence of the greatest theft of public wealth and weapons in the history of civilization coming to light, we are about to confront the greatest crisis our nation has ever faced.

“I find you guilty of the crime of sleeping at a time, when you should have been
Wide Awake…”
~ Chris Cornell

The window of opportunity to avoid exponential collapse is closing fast.

As you will see in this series, in an analysis of global battlefield operations, there is a major escalation in armed conflict and war worldwide, resulting in a huge surge of large-scale humanitarian crises presently occurring.

In addition, widespread Human Rights violations, blockades, economic sanctions, spiraling debt, Structural Adjustment Policies and tighter control of natural resources are also destabilizing nations worldwide.

Escalating war-games and more precise geostrategic positioning among the world’s most powerful nations prove that they are preparing for war with much more intensity.

This series will cover hotspots, including but not limited to: Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., Yemen, Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China, North Korea, Japan, India, Libya/Niger/North Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Philippines, Venezuela, Honduras, Mexico and Myanmar.

Mass human suffering due to war, economic sanctions, debt and corrupt political systems are compounded by extreme weather events, toxic pollution and a general lack of resources and basic necessities. These are all critical factors and urgent priorities throughout collapsing societies worldwide.

This perfect storm of destabilization is driving increased militarization and armed conflict over the world’s remaining fossil fuels, clean water supply and natural resources in general.

Environmental Degradation

The challenges and costs of fossil fuel energy extraction have skyrocketed. The process of extraction has become much more hazardous, horrifyingly toxic and highly destructive to the surrounding environment. It is an urgent public health hazard, a direct immediate threat.

Global Energy Companies are robbing our resources, and poisoning our land in the process.

It is open season on looting the wealth of America, in every conceivable way.

As you will see throughout this series, in a spectacular act of pathological shortsighted greed, in an absolutely suicidal strategic blunder, Global Energy Companies, in partnership with the Trump Administration, are now using National Security as a cover to loot U.S. Natural Resources, at maximum extraction rates, which will turn large sections of the continental U.S. into toxic, earthquake-prone land with poisonously polluted soil, water and air.

Other than causing frequent earthquakes, fracking is a highly poisonous process. A new report reveals “Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.” The report was co-authored by Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).

CHPNY “is an initiative by health professionals, scientists, and medical organizations for raising science-based concerns about the impacts of fracking on public health and safety.” PSR “uses medical and public health expertise to educate and advocate on urgent issues that threaten human health and survival… protecting the public and the environment from toxic chemicals.”

“The Harms of Fracking: New Report Details Increased Risks of Asthma, Birth Defects and Cancer

‘Our examination uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health,’ states a blistering 266-page report released by Concerned Health Professionals of New York and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Drawing on news investigations, government assessments and more than 1,200 peer-reviewed research articles, the study finds that fracking – shooting chemical-laden fluid into deep rock layers to release oil and gas – is poisoning the air, contaminating the water and imperiling the health of Americans across the country.

‘Fracking is the worst thing I’ve ever seen,’ says Dr. Sandra Steingraber, one of the report’s eight co-authors, a biologist who has worked as a public health advocate on issues like breast cancer and toxic incinerators.

‘Those of us in the public health sector started to realize years ago that there were potential risks, then the industry rolled out faster than we could do our science.’

In recent years, the practice has expanded from rural lands to backyards, farms, and within sight of schools and sources of drinking water.

‘Now we see those risks have turned into human harms and people are getting sick,’ says Steingraber.

‘And we in this field have a moral imperative to raise the alarm.’”

It’s not just fracking, at this point all fossil fuel extraction is a significant threat. Here’s another recent report on coal ash waste:

“At more than 70 sites across the country, toxins like arsenic, mercury, and radium are leaching into groundwater from pond-like storage pits filled with the sludgy leftovers of coal burning….

Scientists and environmental watchdogs have long known that coal ash pits—of which there are more than a thousand in the United States—were leaking toxins into groundwater.

‘The data released is consistent with data we’ve seen before, and also measured before, that showed shallow wells underlying most everywhere are being affected by leaking coal ash,’ said Avner Vengosh, a geochemist and coal ash researcher at Duke University….

Other independent studies… have found coal ash–contaminated groundwater flowing into drinking water sources. In a lawsuit targeting the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal plant in Gallatin, Tennessee, the Southern Environmental Law Center found ‘a hydrologic connection’ between the polluted groundwater surrounding the company’s waste storage ponds and the Cumberland River, which provides drinking water to one million people living downstream of the site.

A federal court later agreed, and found the Tennessee Valley Authority violated the Clean Water Act.”

As previously mentioned, which this series will cover in more detail, our nuclear energy supply is also severely lacking oversight and contamination is becoming more widespread. Several large nuclear waste sites are one storm away from widespread catastrophe.

Toxic pollution is also affecting many military bases nationwide. As military community news outlet Stars and Stripes recently reported:

“In 2016, the EPA set stricter limits on the amount of the chemicals allowed in drinking water, citing adverse health effects such as low birth weight, accelerated puberty, cancer and liver, immune and thyroid effects from exposure to PFOS and PFOA….

The Defense Department identified 393 installations with a known or suspected release of PFOS or PFOA in a Dec. 31, 2016 document. That number included six sites in North Carolina: Fort Bragg, Cherry Point, Charlotte Air National Guard Base, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base and Stanly County Airport…. But it is a nationwide issue.”

Our food supply is also being contaminated at alarming rates. Other than fossil fuel pollution entering our food supply, pesticides, chemicals, anti-biotics and Genetically Modified Organisms have created a food crisis and health epidemic nationwide. Our food supply has become so toxic that countries have either passed legislation or are presently working to ban food imported from the United States.

As a consequence to all of this contamination, cancer, birth defects, autism, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, viruses and infectious disease outbreaks have been skyrocketing. In fact, the average American life expectancy has declined for the past two years and is now 1.5 years lower than the OECD average, according to a study by Virginia Commonwealth University and the Urban Institute:

“Life expectancy in the US has fallen for the second year in a row. This is alarming because life expectancy has risen for much of the past century in developed countries, including the US…. In 1960, Americans had the highest life expectancy, 2.4 years higher than the average for countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But the US started losing ground in the 1980s. US life expectancy… is now 1.5 years lower than the OECD average.”

Looking at it from that perspective, we have lost four years off our life span.

According to a recent United Nations Human Rights report on the United States:

“US infant mortality rates are the highest in the developed world.

Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the ‘health gap’ between the US and its peer countries continues to grow.

The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world. [Primarily due to GMOs, growth hormones, antibiotics and chemicals put into low-cost processed food.]

In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.”

With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now gutted and being run by Scott Pruitt, a Global Energy Industry Profiteer who previously sued the EPA 14 times on behalf of polluting Global Energy Companies, this critical US government defense against dangerous pollution has been severely weakened.

If defense wins championships,
the American People are in trouble. 

The EPA is one of many examples of captured government agencies that have been taken over by the predatory Global Corporate Interests that they were designed to protect the American people from.

The capture rate of government agencies by Global Interests has been rising for decades. It picked up pace during the Obama Administration, and despite Trump’s campaign rhetoric, he is giving away control to Global Interests at a record rate. As ProPublica recently reported:

“At least 187 Trump political appointees have been federal lobbyists, and despite President Trump’s campaign pledge to ‘drain the swamp,’ many are now overseeing the industries they once lobbied on behalf of.

We’ve also discovered ethics waivers that allow Trump staffers to work on subjects in which they have financial conflicts of interest.”

To reiterate, this tragically corrupt process has been unfolding for decades. The bipartisan tactical dismantling of the American People’s support systems has been shocking.

As you will read in this series, the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Communications Commission, Interior Department and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board are some of the American People’s vital defenses that that have been captured and severely weakened.

Other than eliminating or not enforcing vital laws, captured agencies are also pushing for more corporate welfare schemes. For instance, the already absurdly low royalty rates we get in return for our Natural Resources are about to be lowered even further.

As Arizona Congressman Grijalva, the ranking member on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee put it: “This isn’t about increasing taxpayer returns, it’s about looting public resources, opening up more of everything for drilling, charging the industry less, and pretending it’s all coming from outside experts.”

In addition to the looting of our natural resources, various taxpayer-funded public investment initiatives, such as military spending in general, which has been a significant source of research and development for Global Private Military Companies’ and Silicon Valley’s profit, return very little to U.S. taxpayers.

For one of many examples, when foreign countries purchase weapons from U.S. military companies, a scandalously small percentage of that money goes back to the Defense Department and U.S. taxpayers to cover the costs of developing those weapons. To make matters even worse, the percentage that is supposed to go back to U.S. taxpayers is often waived.

Based on a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, from 2012 through 2017, the Pentagon approved $9.2 billion in waivers, which were supposed to be given back to U.S. taxpayers, on weapons sales to foreign countries.

$4.5 billion of those waivers were from last year alone, up from roughly $500 million in 2016. Out of the $4.5 billion from the past year, the primarily benefactor was Saudi Arabia, with $3.5 billion in waivers.

In other words, Saudi Arabia owed U.S. taxpayers $3.5 billion last year. However, the Trump Administration agreed to waive those costs – just as the Obama Administration had done for billions of taxpayer dollars during his presidency.

If you are a stockholder in Lockheed Martin or Boeing though, don’t worry. They’re still getting paid in full.

When it comes to the U.S. taxpayer’s Return On Investment, the $9.2 billion lost to foreign countries in weapons sales is a small percentage of what is lost to Global Military Companies and Silicon Valley overall.

While we’re at it, let’s add in the Federal Reserve’s $4.5 trillion Quantitative Easing scheme, which allows them to retain profits that should be given back to the U.S. Treasury.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other corporate welfare schemes that redistribute wealth from hardworking Americans to the richest 0.01% Global Interests.

Global corporations have made off with trillions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer investment. At this point, individual Americans shouldn’t even have to pay taxes. The return on decades of public investment into the world’s most profitable Global corporations would be enough to fund the government and state of the art infrastructure nationwide.

Unfortunately, due to outrageous corruption, this is not the case – and due to extensive propaganda, this isn’t even considered by the public.

Instead of having a record-breaking surplus, we now have an all-time high deficit.

In fact, the overall economic situation is dire.

The methodologies behind vital economic statistics have been frequently “revised” to mask economic conditions that are much more severe than the average person realizes. Economic indicators such as inflation, G.D.P., unemployment and poverty are all much worse than the government reports. Throughout this series, we will show you how these statistics are falsified.

The bottom line: when you compare the actual cost of living to income, 50% of the U.S. population is presently living in poverty. Nationwide 75% of the population is being mathematically eliminated. The majority of the U.S. population cannot generate enough income to keep up with the cost of living without taking on ever-increasing levels of debt.

The United States is trapped in a debt spiral.

On all fronts, debt is rising – personal, household, state and national.

On a proportional basis, the national debt is growing much faster than the US economy. Over the past decade, the US economy has grown by 36%. Meanwhile, over the same timeframe, the national debt has increased from $9.4 trillion to $21 trillion, which is a 123% growth rate.

And the situation is now deteriorating at an increasing rate; in the past six months the national debt has increased by an astounding $1.2 trillion.

We are now paying $310 billion per year on national debt interest alone. Interest payments have increased by 10% over the past year. According to the Congressional Budget Office, over the past ten years interest payments rose from 7% of federal spending to 21%.

To sum up the unsustainably of the U.S. economy: it now takes over $4 in new debt to create $1 of G.D.P..

Other than the national debt, overall household debt has also hit an all-time high. Credit card, student and auto debt are all at all-time highs.

As a recent United Nations report revealed, despite being the richest nation in the world, “the youth poverty rate in the United States is the highest across the OECD.” Overall, the US has the most severe economic inequality of all Western countries. The economic top 0.1% now has more wealth than 91% of the US population combined.

As the Baby Boom generation hits retirement age en masse, retirement will not be economically possible for many Americans. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “nearly half of families have no retirement account savings at all.”

Breaking it down further, people between the ages of 55 and 64, who do have retirement accounts, only have 12% of what they need to retire, according to Federal Reserve median data.

To make matters even worse, Social Security, pension/retirement funds and Medicare are the largest holders of our national debt. The government has already taken $2.85 trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund and spent it elsewhere, and pension funds will be targeted once the stock market starts to fall, as this series will demonstrate.

While the stock market hovers around an all-time high, Bankrate reports that 34% of the population has zero savings and 61% cannot afford to pay for a $1,000 emergency.

Speaking of emergencies, our per capita healthcare costs are double the OECD average, and much higher than all other nations. Yet, we have significantly fewer doctors and hospital beds per person than the OECD average.

As more and more people can’t afford healthcare and/or retirement, what will the government do?

According to a new study by the Brookings Institution, 80% of people who are imprisoned in the U.S. had no income the year leading up to their incarceration. In fact, a new report from the People’s Policy Project says that class is now “a more potent predictor of incarceration than race.”

The ominous growth of the for-profit prison industry has led to America having the highest incarceration rate in the world. No other country is even close to our per capita imprisonment rate; it is five times the OECD average.

Despite already having the world’s highest imprisonment rate, the Trump Administration is dramatically increasing the use of private for-profit prisons, as Government Executive reports:

“The Trump administration is following through on its promise to use more private contract prisons…. The Bureau of Prisons has the stated goal of ‘increasing population levels in private contract facilities,’ according to a memorandum sent by the agency’s Assistant Director for Correctional Programs Division….”

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. The latest government budget makes the answer very clear. As our national debt and deficit skyrockets, the largest global corporations and multi-millionaires are getting massive tax cuts. Meanwhile, social safety net programs are getting slashed, as an all-time annual record of $1.2 trillion in known military spending is being poured into an unaccountable black hole.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities…. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

Those wise words were from a World War II hero, a Five-Star General who became President.

Alas, President Eisenhower’s worst fears have come true. Prepare to reap what far too many have passively sown…

Exit Strategy

“However critical the situation and circumstances in which you find yourself, despair of nothing; it is on the occasions in which everything is to be feared that it is necessary to fear nothing; it is when one is surrounded by all the dangers that it is not necessary to dread any; it is when one is without resources that it is necessary to count on all of them….”
~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It is always darkest just before the dawn.

On the precipice of the abyss, an evolutionary leap is required. In this spirit, we will crowdsource and propose Exit Strategies.

The modern day dominance hierarchy is a global centralizing system that consolidates power, wealth and resources into fewer and fewer hands, which makes the masses dependant upon it for the basic necessities of life for ever-increasing costs.

However, new decentralized sustainable technologies empower people to become self-sufficient for basic necessities. We now have the technological capabilities to form self-sufficient micro-communities in synergy with nature.

Renewable energy, hydro/aquaponic farming, water purification, wireless communication, liquid democracy, cryptocurrencies, alternative systems of trade and new economic systems that decentralize power are emerging.

These innovations must be urgently spread to reach a critical mass tipping point as quickly as possible.

Alas, the biggest obstacle to the more widespread use of these empowering technologies is the National Security State, which diverts resources and undermines and/or co-opts any innovation that does not centralize power. (The Iron Law of Oligarchy Dominance Hierarchy)

Therefore, to get the debate started, this proposed Exit Strategy runs on two tracks:

1) Proliferating sustainable technologies in alignment with nature to become self-sufficient for basic necessities, while deploying decentralized systems that make the entrenched centralized power structure obsolete.

2) Either transcending or repealing the National Security Act, corresponding secrecy laws, the Federal Reserve Act, and corruptly implemented campaign finance, lobbying, gerrymandering and revolving door laws, while demanding a Return On Public Investment and protecting our natural resources, environment and overall health.

On these issues, we should demand firm commitments, clear strategic plans and immediate action from our political representatives. In the 2018 mid-term elections, people running for office should sign statements specifically describing their strategies for solving these issues.

To the extent that all of this is too much to ask, we are in for a serious crash and exponential collapse. If widespread strategic action is not implemented and acted upon, we should start seriously debating proposals and implementing new local governments that can act independently and peacefully defend local populations from illegitimate and tyrannical government activities that are designed to enrich Global Interests by exploiting hardworking Americans, poisoning our land and robbing our resources.

Make no mistake, on the precipice of the abyss, an evolutionary leap is required.

In closing this Opening Statement, while it is vital to enforce personal accountability, it is also important to clarify that focusing on any individuals or particular groups of people will not solve our challenges. At this point, to just blame President Trump, Republicans, Democrats, Wall Street, Global Military/Energy Companies, the Business Roundtable, the world’s richest 0.01% and/or whoever else you want to nominate is extremely shortsighted and misses the most pivotal point. They are all the inevitable byproducts of a wholly corrupted system.

This is a systemic problem.

We must remove the support systems that enable corrupt behavior. If we can fix the underlying systems that incentivize shortsighted greed and make all of this corruption possible in the first place, we can save our families, and our planet, and create a new renaissance.

Much easier said than done, of course. It is not going to be easy, to say the least, but it is still possible, if we boldly act now.

We need to evolve beyond this obsolete collapsing dominance hierarchy before it kills us.

We need to heal and thrive. As a nation, we must confront our shadow and shed this skin.

These are our tax dollars. These are our resources. This is our future. To not take bold action now is a grotesque abdication of responsibility, responsibility to our children, responsibility to our families, to humanity, to this planet, to ourselves.

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
~ Who am I