Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Redux--- The Shadow Government: A Bit of History


This is from Professor Carroll Quigley--- the late and renowned macro-historian who was Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown University---and was written about 45 years ago  [Now, 53 years ago; I first wrote this in 2007].  Following are excerpts from his book, Tragedy and Hope (1966)---
[All emphasis added...below.]

"There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Group has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so... 

"I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960's, to examine its papers and secret [private] records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments...

"[A] front organization, called the Royal Institute of International Affairs, had as its nucleus in each area the existing submerged Round Table Group. In New York it was known as the Council on Foreign Relations and was a front for J.P. Morgan and Company in association with the very small American Round Table Group...

"On this basis, which was originally financial and goes back to George Peabody, there grew up in the twentieth century a power structure between London and New York which penetrated deeply into university life, the press, and the practice of foreign policy...

"In England the center was the Round Table Group, while in the United States it was J.P. Morgan and Company or its local branches in Boston, Philadelphia, and Cleveland...

"The American branch of this 'English Establishment' exerted much of its influence through five American newspapers (The New York TimesNew York Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and the lamented Boston Evening Transcript )...

" They were gracious and cultured gentlemen of somewhat limited social experience who were much concerned with the freedom of expression of minorities and the rule of law for all, who constantly thought in terms of Anglo-American solidarity, of political partition and federation, and who were convinced that they could gracefully civilize the Boers of South Africa, the Irish, the Arabs, and the Hindus, and who are largely responsible for the partitions of Ireland, Palestine, and India, as well as the federations of South Africa, Central Africa, and the West Indies...

"It was this group of people, whose wealth and influence so exceeded their experience and understanding, who provided much of the frame-work of influence which the Communist sympathizers and fellow travelers took over in the United States in the 1930's...

"It must be recognized that the power that these energetic Left-wingers exercised was never their own power or Communist power but was ultimately the power of the international financial coterie, and, once the anger and suspicions of the American people were aroused, as they were by 1950, it was a fairly simple matter to get rid of the Red sympathizers...

"Before this could be done, however, a congressional committee, following backward to their source the threads which led from admitted Communists like Whittaker Chambers, through Alger Hiss, and the Carnegie Endowment to Thomas Lamont and the Morgan Bank, fell into the whole complicated network of the interlocking tax-exempt foundations...

The Eighty-third Congress in July 1953 set up a Special Committee to investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations with Representative B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee, as chairman. It soon became clear that people of immense wealth would be unhappy if the investigation went too far and that the 'most respected' newspapers in the country, closely allied with these men of wealth, would not get excited enough about any revelations to make the publicity worth while, in terms of votes or campaign contributions..."

[My point here is to illustrate that those who founded the "Shadow Government" were beyond political party affiliations, right v. left, and all that Propaganda. I believe that is still true today...and today, the Shadow Government is greatly expanded and includes many multi-national corporations, not just those in banking, oil, and newspapers.]

Quigley's book, Tragedy and Hope, quickly was suppressed.  I doubt you can find a copy today.  Finally, keep in mind that the good Professor was not a deranged nutcake; instead, he was well respected and very credible.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well
p.s.  Some years ago, Bill Moyers also did an excellent piece on "The Shadow Government".

Monday, December 7, 2015

Notice How the Corporate Media Take a Terrorism Story...


and beat it to death...over and over...day after day.  I'm not saying these fanatical, philosophically ignorant, "true believers" are not dangerous (whether it's "jihadists" or some nut attacking Planned Parenthood), but the fact remains, you have more chance of being killed by lightning than by a terrorist.  Plus, while the stories of terror attacks are "in-depth", there's hardly a peep from the Corporate Media about how the U.S. Govt's military misadventures (especially drone attacks) are generating terrorism, not preventing it.

Here's what we all really should be afraid of---
1.  Neoliberal politicians---such as McConnell, McCain, Obama, Schumer, etc. ad nauseam---who are backing policies and laws that are destroying this great Land economically.
2.  The fact that we are in a deep Recession with an imploding economy.
3.  The fact that the world economy is in deep trouble...mostly because the Powers-That-Be still are shifting wealth from the Lower & Middle Classes to the Upper Crust...at an astounding pace.
4.  The Fed Reserve engenders Boom-Bust economic cycles; it doesn't prevent them.
5.  The true unemployment rate in America is somewhere between 20% and 40%.
6.  The fact that Edward Bernays style Propaganda continues to mold minds to the benefit of the Rich and Powerful, and to the detriment of the rest of us.

I vote for some in-depth reporting on those fearsome items.  I realize that the true economic situation may not be "flashy" news, but it's much more valuable than the fact that the latest nutcake criminal pledged her allegiance to ISIS...which I've heard on the Corporate Media now for about four straight days.  Who gives a damn about to whom she pledged anything?  Yes, Terrorism poses a danger of sorts; but Neoliberalism is a much greater danger.  Bizarre financial derivatives and Financialization are much greater dangers.  Wall Street still running amok is a much greater danger.  Economic/Financial Bubbles bursting are a much greater danger...especially now.  A Police State is a much greater danger.  Outright lies by politicians and bureaucrats such as Clapper and Brennan and Obama and Trump are a much greater danger.  Blatant Propaganda is a much greater danger.  Criminal Mega Banks (whose CEOs think they are Masters of the Universe) are a much greater danger.

The Corporate Media are complicit with other Powers-That-Be (both public & private) in distracting, dividing, and in general, conquering Lower & Middle Class Americans, thus completely destroying the "American Dream".  They all do it not just for money, but for power and control as well.  Finally, once again, it's not any kind of grand "conspiracy".

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

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