opiates for the bankers

OPIATES FOR THE BANKERS


I’ve read the wonderful book “Crossing The Rubicon” by Ruppert twice already. And I’ve always been a bit bewildered about his focus on drugs to go along with Peak Oil. Okay, so it funds our intelligence services? And? But as I was just reading “The Oil Age Is Over” by Savinar, his answer was much more illuminating. I guess I was busy plowing through Rupperts book too quick to pick up on this point, although I believe Savinar’s source is from Rupert ( from his website, which I believe is no longer accessible since From The Wilderness closed its doors ). The money that comes from drugs is plowed back into the US economy. And surprisingly is a rather large amount. And once you see that, it is easy to add that into the Afghan equation. I always had a bad opinion about the natural gas pipeline that was supposed to be placed through Afghanistan as the primary reason for our invasion. I’ve just bought into the line that we invaded the country to have a centrally strategic fortress. I even bought a book on “The Great Game”, the history of Russia and Britain fighting over Afghanistan ( the book wasn’t exactly horrid or unreadable, but as I quickly bogged down in it I abandoned my attempt ). If I had thought about it a little I would have realized this was BS. The Britain of old protecting India and the Russia of old contesting her are not the same thing the war for oil today. Do we really need to be in Afghanistan? Isn’t Iraq enough of a base to control Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or even China? I’ll leave that question for another time. But perhaps the reason we occupied Afghanistan two years before we bothered with Iraq was the opium issue.

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True, Iraq has lots of oil and we had to smack down the “Euro for oil” problem. But Savinar brings up an interesting bit of math. In 2000 the Taliban banned opium production. Not much more than a year later, we invaded the country. 70% of the worlds opium had disappeared. And estimates are that about two thirds of narco profits stay in US banks. Remember, we run on fractional reserve banking. A dollar gets deposited and then a fraction of that gets loaned out. The new loan is redeposited and a fraction of that is loaned, etc. All told, a dollar deposited created six dollars for the bankers. So, you don’t see just a $500 billion drug money. The bank sees $3 trillion. And back in the early 2000’s, this was ONE THIRD OF THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT of the US economy. One third of all economic activity was creating money from the drug trade deposits. Now, of course this might be a bit high. The Justice Department has a figure of only $100 billion. But you know the true figure, multiplied by six, has to be larger than the cost of invading and occupying Afghanistan ( although the banks make a bit of pocket change on the military activity ).

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The Caspian sea oil deposits turned out to be grossly overestimated. So the gas pipeline wasn’t going to be profitable. Most oil companies never invested after the initial bust. But bringing back 70% of the worlds opium crop certainly was immediately profitable. I’m not saying we are staying in Afghanistan indefinitely just because we are protecting the opium trade. That might have been the initial reason, since it paid for itself at once. I’ll admit there simply have to be other more compelling reasons to stay. WWII wasn’t just about getting out of the Great Depression, itself caused by too much credit. It was also about becoming the world’s number one empire. And creating customers. We never went to Britain’s rescue because we loved her all to pieces. The Pacific war could have easily been prevented by continuing to sell oil to Japan ( and don’t even go there- IBM sold punch card machines to the Nazi’s to help administer the “Jewish Solution” and Detroit helped build the mobility in the Blitzkrieg. And the Soviets earlier were helped out by our banker/corporate whores. We will sell to the enemy if we wish to, or not if it pleases us ). And the Nazi’s went to great lengths, just as in WWI, to appease us. We chose to enter the war. We built a strong war economy, only possible because at the time we produced more oil than anyone else, leveled everyone else’s cities, then took over as the globes factory. It was win-win except for the poor bastards killed and maimed. Kind of like the poor schmucks over in the middle east now, sucking in depleted uranium dust, starting that cancer the VA won’t admit to, keeping the US economy from collapsing but enriching the super-elite at the same time. Sorry, I get a bit pissed on memorial day, thinking about the waste of human lives that rest on the heads of our “leaders”.

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I want to throw out the bi-monthly obligatory “thanks whole big bunches, you beautiful bastards” for all my minions who bought through my Amazon links. It got me through a few tight spots financially. Last weekend when I went to get my bike rack mounted, having decided a few hours earlier that the truck would violate me indecently no more, I got the dreaded “Ooooh, I don’t like the looks of that”. After a year and a half my rear wheel teeth were wore down ( or perhaps worn to a point, I can’t remember ) and needed to be replaced. And the derailer too, of course. Throw in a shifter cable and housing and a new chain. Not a big deal, I’m surprised they lasted that long ( the four miles a day of dirt road added to the oiled metal help wear down those kind of parts ). I was a bit suspicious it had happened a few hours after the truck started going bad, but who am I to tempt the fates by lifting my face skyward, screaming the sound of the cursed, and imploring those divine powers to stop their harassment? All told, it cost as much as the truck the month before. Now, in a perfect world, that should be it for mechanic work for a time ( the reason it doubled from the original cost, and the reason I blame the fates, is that two miles down the road after the mechanic work, I noticed my front tire splitting open- I had to turn right around and go back ). If, and I stress IF, that is the case, I’m going to force myself, strictly for the benefit of my loyal minions who are so generous you understand, not for my benefit at all, double up on my book orders. That means more reviews, and more article ideas.

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Speaking of which, the book “Dying To Live” by Kim Paffenroth. I don’t read a whole lot of zombie books, preferring the movies usually. So I can’t compare this one to a lot of others. But I did really like his writing style. A bit more on the literate side it seemed. A bit more philosophical. The illusive “thinking man’s zombie book” as others have described it. It was otherwise pretty cartoonish, as most are. Groan, shuffle, oh the horror, bash in head, move to next scene. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t like the genre, but if you do this one is pretty good even if on the pricey side. And, speaking of the gods toying with me, one moment screwing me financially, the next rewarding me, Nova has book #4 out in paper version. The American Apocalypse series is very much the kick-ass story. I buy each new book without even reading a description of it or worrying as much as I usually do about the price. That is how much I love them. And #5 is ready for pre-order, but we have to wait until August, damn the luck. A running truck, or more books. HMMM. What a dilemma. No, just kidding. More books of course. Perhaps the gods do love me, but must keep up appearances of impartiality so they send smallish, manageable issues my way. But always moving me towards better. I like that theory, we’re going with it.

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