Politics of the Dollar: Petrodollar

anyway good afternoon this is this is week four politics of the dollar and as you can see from that handout making society work for the few that's inspiring that's inspiring I just so you know I've already I've already spoken to them and I guess we're gonna get ready for two more in the fall and I've written one of them up I got to edit it and I got to send it in to them and then I got to write up the second one so the first one will be in road blocks to Republic and the second one will be revolt of the planters which deals with the Civil War but from the perspective that the Confederacy was a revolution I'm not gonna get into the battles and that kind of stuff yes the library library but I was already told that they'll know they'll get together with me and schedule them so yeah squeeze me in so it'll probably be the same bat-time same bat-channel I guess yes a lot of what's about the civil yeah a lot about the Civil War they you know there's a lot about the battles and so on uh so far we kind of lose perspective here as the put asked well what really caused it when what what is what's the agenda here I mean the Confederacy was a right wing revolution that's what it was anyway making society work for the few if you take a look at that handout note the quote there hmm I am I referenced I think this quote last week but I love this quote and it comes in from a movie and it's Eli Wallach in the Magnificent Seven remember the premise of that movie he was a Mexican bandit chieftain and they kept pillaging the same village and the villagers didn't know what to do so they hired seven american gunmen you know Eli Steve McQueen was one of them and Yul Brenner was the leader of the group a young young who was it was a man from uncle Robert Vaughn yeah young Robert Vaughn yeah and there was a conversation between near the beginning of the movie when Eli Wallach finds out they've got the seven American gunmen and he says something inspiring our profession trying to leave Leave leave to these people as sacrilegious and he says he says weaken he says we're in the same business together and Steve McQueen pipes up and goes just as competitors interesting and then the current he gets the conversation about you know taking as opposed to leaving for the villages and that's where Eli Wallach says if God did not want them sheared he would not have made them sheep what a line what a line excellent line here well couldn't that be construed as being the American public there's a discussion for you but then again going back to in that first part of this handout again getting back to that book that I that this gentleman who hunts for books for me I found I was able to get confessions of a monopolist written in nineteen six interesting what Frederick Clemson house says it was really self-interest that led me into politics and he preface is this in this book by saying he was really not political at all well you know by that and as an elected official well you don't have to be an elected official be a politician witness Eleanor Roosevelt she was a politician even though she wasn't an elected official the city was growing rapidly and real estate values were going up I owned a large block of land near the center of the city which was covered with small buildings that I did not care to replace with larger ones I had bought the land at a low price and was holding it for speculation I found it's tax valuation going up so fast that it was becoming unprofitable to hold the land as it was the rental scarce meant tacked met/met the taxes and charges against the property I made some inquiries about the local Assessor and prior to the next assessment went to the county auditor to see if a man whom I employed might not be appointed in that Ward he suggested that at month a day he had a fight on his hands for re-election and intimated that a campaign contribution might help my case I contributed $100 and on his election secured the appointment of a man as Assessor whom I could rely through him I was able to keep my assessments down to a reasonable figure in this way I made my entrance in the local politics about this time I concluded my property would be event would be greatly enhanced in value if the street were paved and Seward in this matter I engaged the interest of the aldermen from the Ward through him came in touch with the mayor and his Committee on highways in a short time I found that the politician was a very human fellow and not as such a bad sort as I had supposed interesting years ago it was not political but attacks that well you know gets involved in politics the other way around in other words becoming a monopolist and the whole book is based on this and he references the idea that if you want to be very rich politics no make politics a business isn't that what politics has become like it's always been that to a certain extent we know that but I don't think in my lifetime it's become any more of a business than it is now and so he he gets into this idea of making society work for the few and that's what he says making politics a business interesting premise he wrote this in nineteen six he wrote this in nineteen six but then again when you look on a grander scale and I make the case in that in that handout John F Kennedy John F Kennedy and AT&T remember them yeah AT&T and this this fledgling effort government government-sponsored paid for by the taxpayers communication satellites you know this is becoming a brand new thing here going in outer space and so on and so forth and yet AT&T z-- domination in communications and through the Kennedy administration were able to take monopolist monopolizing control of communication satellites thanks to the Kennedy administration now keep in mind what else happens here to create you know monopolies are created with government collusion you have to have a certain amount of corruption in government to create monopolies because government will protect the monopoly from really price competition yeah and one way AT&T was helped JP Morgan the banking firm JP Morgan interesting with JP Morgan does it denies loans or charges higher rates of interest on competing firms to preserve a tenth a party oligarchs both Democrat and Republican will make sure that intrastate tax laws intrastate laws guiding communications will preserve a 8080 and T's position to dominate this form of communications and then on the interstate laws again these various party Oleg are interstate laws will make sure that small companies involved in this field will not grow to become a threat to AT&T this is an amalgamation of party with corporation campaign contributions that kind of thing and so the party sort right so the party oligarchs will make sure that certain that certain people running for office will see to this agenda they get involved they get an office whether it's on the state level or it's on the national level and so this is what this is what mr. Howe is explaining here and obviously that example is not in this book that was written nineteen six this is the early 1960s so what happened here it's the same sort of thing yes well yeah but but but then again talking about using a using in part of this as using the currency go back again I made mention this or none another another different type of talk about JP Morgan who realized you know as America is becoming this this economic monolith and I'm going back to the late 19th century what does he propose that you know they do these oligarchs can't make money on free market they can't but when they rigged the system they can now I was reading another economist and that's interesting what he calls this free market capitalism where businesses are on that plane free market you live or die by the market right that's and when you can make a few bucks that's unprivileged wealth however if you can create a monopoly situation where a few corporations dominate a market that's privileged wealth interest the interesting definitions here of different facets in the use of capitalism interesting here and so but again fast-forward today our is America really free market she's shaking her head now are we take a look at take a look at China and then perhaps even Singapore are these examples of free market or state-sponsored capitalism yeah again look at what Joe Stalin did from 1927-28 to the war again he organized the Russian economy based on the Industrial Revolution only you know Stalin was in control of this you know creating a system of creating this this this class of factory workers but also overseers of the factory system which some people in the common is not the Communist Party or the what Communist Party the Soviet Union would say well aren't we creating a bourgeoisie yes we are but then we will have a true communist revolution eliminate the bourgeoisie and the proletarian revolution will come to an end because we'll all be proletarian so what a hogwash this is you know again this idea of a proletarian revolution that's not gonna work but going to an industrialized system will work and that means you're creating classes you're gonna pay you're gonna pay the overseers more than you're paying the workers well now we're back to a capitalist system not a communist system but here JP Morgan a john d rockefeller thought that yes what we want is to arrange the system the American economy to benefit us in other words the oligarchs not just him Carnegie the Morgans people like this now keep in mind again it needs to be remembered that at this point you couldn't vote for your senators not til 1913 your state legislators appointed your senators so according to according to Rockefellers thinking week put the pressure on the state legislators to appoint the Senators who will write those resolutions those those tax regulations and laws to benefit us that's not free market that's not free market not at all that's the construction of a corporate socialist state and again go back to what I mentioned you know when you get to the first world war Bernard Baruch with the war industries board hardly related to free market organizing the economy for a corporatized commercialized industrialized war you're organizing you're organizing your economy for this conflict by standardizing it I need so much of this delivered free ready for such-and-such a day delivered to the ports and again all this is organized by government in fact even the Wilson administration standardized many products it's no longer free market where's the innovation here we need these products standardized for the war effort does that stymie innovation yeah it does well where's the improvement in the product it's not going to be that's standardizing the product that's counter to what American capitalism really should be about or innovation invention imagination does that stifle imagination yes so it's interesting what you're seeing coming down the pike and then with the depression again going back to standardization Gerard Swope of GE interestingly enough that Pro that probe that agenda that scheme he puts together where large corporations and large banks will try to organize the economy to get us out of the depression and when Herbert Hoover says that smells like warmed over fascism to me okay you know where the money's going during 1932 and who gets elected in 33 Franklin D Roosevelt and that Swope plan including also the war industries board that put together by or chaired by Bernard Baruch in the First World War will form the basis for the National Recovery administration by Franklin D Roosevelt which in essence amounts to a blueprint for a corporate socialist state and it's interesting that some of the some of the people who participated in the war industries board guess who where they're gonna wind up in the National Recovery administration like General Hugh Johnson people like this interesting here what just say yes based on based on what you're asking here corporations and large banks taking control is essentially what you're asking here yeah if you read if you read Benito Mussolini's Uribe nozomu Benito Mussolini's 1927 Charter on the worker and all of us in also night his 1932 doctrine on the state itself the corporate state yes large corporations large banks take control of their industries they run the economy and to the point where to the point where Mussolini states that the corporation is the highest endeavor and a corporate fascist system and the worker the workers the workers rights are based on the fact that he is part of this fascist state that's the workers value so what happened to the idea of individual rights here it's collectivized into the corporate fascist state I would say well that word fascism can control people - it depends on what you're talking about by comparison standards today you don't have a real dictator you don't have a single dictator Trump can think what he wants but NOLA gargy means what leadership by committee that's what you see here but then again how did you get here how did you get here take a take a look and again this gets back to monopolization you go back to the late 1940s and you will see that for every dollar you paid in taxes business paid this isn't corporations paid a buck fifty today for every buck you pay they're paying twenty five cents so who so we're getting back to this idea of primacy with the money who is now being asked to pay for the greater percentage of the budget oh I like that word the proletariat and so what you are seeing here is a change over in your economy so in other words what I'm telling you is that that gets you to another aspect of this discussion how relevant is voting well yeah but I mean you know to see where this is going it's interesting because I did some research here in 1980 big finance represented some four or five percent of the economy by 2015 it accounted for some eight to ten percent of the economy yet it generates twenty five percent of profits in this country now does big finance produce anything what what does it stock in trade debt that's its stock and trade interesting here when you take according to the Federal Reserve small business credit survey in 2015 half of all small businesses had trouble securing financing that goes back to what this young lady sitting up front here was talking about with regards to homes some thirty two percent had a delay their expansion plans twenty one percent had a turn twenty one percent of small businesses had to turn to personal loans to get financing interesting here where this goes many banks many however under Stan we're banking is going here they might not want to lend you know that's the old isn't that how you bought your house you went to a bank you put down on all 20 percent or whatever the case may be and you financed it over the term right isn't that what you did wasn't that the old standard way a bank worked besides lending to business well what are many banks doing now student loans credit card debt why would you want to lend to a business at four or five six or seven even 7% when you can get into the credit card business and charge somebody twenty five but does the business produce things yes does the debt produce something profit for the bank's maybe and so it's interesting what you see here it's absolutely fascinating control eighty you know that the markets interesting here the banks are the banks are fronting the top 10% of the population will control 80% of the markets anyway interesting here they will in fact the Standard & Poor's Company can Standard and Poor's 500 companies are spending upwards of a trillion dollars every year to buy back stocks and control a bond market now why couldn't that money be put into into building more productive space innovation so what does that do to the American worker and so where are jobs going I mean just a few years ago just a few years ago I mean at one well more than a few years ago but you go back to the 80s and a General Motors worker was getting paid what together with his benefits I read what I read one economist said they were getting paid between salary and benefits upwards of seventy one dollars an hour but average pay might have been you know hourly wage might may be thirty five thirty six dollars an hour now it's 14 in fact at one point it was General Motors it was costing them at one point for the medical benefits for the United Auto Workers were workers $7,000 a year for each worker when they transferred when they transferred their some of their production to Canada don't they have a national form of national health insurance up there the cost dropped to $1,000 a worker Wow interesting isn't it interesting R&D now this stifles R&D where's the money for research and development interesting 1985 10,000 employees are more accounted for 73% of non federally backed R&D by 1998 the share dropped to 54% ten years later 51% does this impact Brit buzz start business startups in 1977 there were 257 business startups per hundred thousand people in this country by 1992 this had fallen to a hundred and eighty one per hundred thousand and by 2050 2013 there were a hundred and twenty nine startups four hundred thousand people interesting interesting interesting what's happening to the country's economy why because the few are able to determine where the economy is going it's fascinating to see this progression and then you go back to the book Confessions of a monopolist now again you can't have this unless you have government collusion and so when you go to the polls and you're gonna vote for somebody who who in 2008 promised hope and change and then you vote for somebody in 2016 who promises to drain the swamp since then it's been turned into a toxic waste dump site that's virtually what you're seeing here absolutely astounding here it truly is you know and and then what about taxes what about taxes here you go back to the 40s 50s up to even 1981 nineteen during even during the other the Eisenhower administration a Republican the top tax rate was ninety one percent ninety-one and I'm sure there's some in the Republican Party today who would consider him a socialist and you know after nineteen eighty one then you see the tax rate being lowered to the point where the top rate was what thirty five percent but then how many of them are paying thirty five percent they're not but then again this from what you're talking about the bankruptcy of the country beginning with the Reagan administration you can actually get into after that the Clinton administration when he got rid of the glass-steagall Act and then that you know where you had that separation between savings and commercial banks from financial from from from investment institutions which in 1933 the Roosevelt administration was smart enough to separate ya but then who helped draw that together but who helped draw that together Lawrence Summer and Robert Rubin but he's at the whim he's at the whim of those people who control Congress and it's not Republicans not Democrats but who pays for them it didn't make any difference where there's Democrats or Republicans in the end who pays for them the banks and that's what they want and so they open up that they open up the mid-america the country's financial system as a mega ATM for the privileged that's exactly what they did and then you get Bush coming along and the tax cuts which Obama would later continue Obama was wall street anyway you know Clinton was the Clintons are Wall Street anyway Roosevelt was Wall Street only I'll give you that he was a pragmatist you know Eleanor Eleanor was the liberal here not-not-not Franklin but you know mr. mr. mr. Rosen of course keep in mind the time here that's not happening now you don't have competing systems like Nazism fascism communism in the 30s you don't have that now and so what you're seeing here and again another aspect of this is and I'm a big booster of this when you go back to World War two again controlling the economy controlling the money go back to World War two in this country when people were virtually on the same page er you know if you weren't at the front fighting you were in a factory working but it was for the war effort people gave up their meat cheese sugar assault so on and so forth gasoline was rationed people were into this and so many of your future politicians for Congress were what war vets and it didn't make any difference in some respects whether they were democrat or republican they got to the House of Representatives they got to the Senate and who were your presidents Eisenhower was a war vet Kennedy was a war vet yeah didn't Reagan come out of the Second World War well Nixon was with the yeah but Nixon was part of that government-sponsored program to make sure the economy was running right but the fact of the matter is many of your elected officials came from an era where there was compromise or people got together for the betterment of the country does that exist now what happened to that it's gone it's gone and interestingly enough you know as this idea of financialization has taken control here you know again the few are making the society work for the few and so you see this this this this growth of financial will going back to financialization again you know charging charging many of these kids you know these student loans even if it's only six seven eight percent they can't declare bankruptcy they're stuck and on top of that some of the jobs they went to school for where did they go overseas and so now they're stuck in this limbo of indentured servitude not all of them some of them she's asking about right yours you're asking about getting rid of regulations to it to increase the profit margin of companies that's what it's going to do right well at the same time here yeah I mean what you're seeing now is a deconstruction of the government look what's happened to the State Department and again EPA is another one yes cutting back on regulations and making it more advantageous for these companies to make money but does that mean you're gonna wind up breathing dirtier air meeting maybe even drinking dirtier water and so on and so forth you say yes you say yes but again getting back to how you know how the markets manipulated go back to 2006 in March of 2006 Microsoft get this Microsoft announced new technologies with computer software right the stock market went down the stock price went down for two months went down for two months as soon as they announced they were gonna buy back the shares the stock at what the stock went up seven percent well what's happening to innovation here new product lines what's happening to that where are these investors for innovation and technology but what are they in for as many of them what I can get today or next week you know what happened to long term investments you know you know hasn't China been trying to plan for the next five years 10 years 15 years 20 years maybe that's what we used to do yeah I mean Apple Computer was another one not all that long ago Apple Computer you know what what happened what has happened to interest rates they're dirt cheap they're dirt cheap you know I mean the Obama administration during the Obama administration they pumped four to four and a half trillion dollars into the economy you would have thought small and medium-sized businesses would have ballooned here no interestingly enough when you have somebody like an Apple Computer that borrowed a lot of money from these banks not for it not for innovation not for investing in Newton in anything like new technology what did they do they bought back their shares it was better to borrow the money and buy back the shares and invest in new technology and they wound up with a stash of two hundred billion dollars in cash where is this idea to better the American economy I don't see it maybe some people do but I don't see it I don't see it it's fascinating what's happening here with regard to who controls the money in fact I'm tonight I'm going over to this American orc City Hall because we as east Nora Walker's are against this building they want to put up a near the south not east Noah Crale Road station where the old some of you remember where the old factory store was along the along the railroad tracks in East Norwalk well they want to put up a five six story building with a hundred and eighty nine rentals in it near it near it near a whistle-stop railroad station oh the east NOC railroad station is not Westport and it's not South Norwalk we don't even have a body there to sell tickets you get your tickets through a kiosk you know a terminal you know it's you're not you know it's that it's that it's that railroad station you get on and you get off and there's no other there's no what there's there's no other services here and when I ask the developers at one of these meetings here I said well let me ask you a question if all these these hundred eighty nine rentals are filled have that has a prognostication or survey been done by you folks a study been done as to how many of the people in these rentals are going to be using the railroad station yeah 15 percent so I said obviously here this isn't being built for a whistle-stop railroad station so what's that going to do the traffic problem on East Avenue if you're if you're familiar with East Avenue in East Norwalk and so this I so mike my counter idea was well why don't you have a development of two or three stories and gear this to the people of East Norwalk like maybe a nice neighborhood pharmacy how about maybe trying to get a grocery store in here for the for the elderly who live in Roger let low old-age home they don't have to go far I said how about an establishment for children I haven't heard any of that any of these planning meetings a place for kids East Norwalk kids to go have small offices you know bit for bit small businesses that kind of thing something geared for East Norwalk I said we already have that that many story those rentals you have in the boondocks of where norden's was near the railroad tracks on the other side of East no look now we got to put another one of these up what happened to the small town atmosphere and there are a lot of Eastern or workers who were against this but again and I brought this out again this collusion between money and the land developers this isn't these aren't going to be single-family homes what's happening to land here too much land in too few hands that's part of what's happening with the dollar why because they can control the money again go back to with John Adams stated for a functioning system of representative government to exist the wide ownership of land was a requirement to me this is at odds with what's going on here my wife had an idea how many pair have been on West Avenue in Norwalk lately that way point development my wife hates that she says you know what I'd like to do she says you remember the movie High Plains Drifter with Clint Eastwood I said yeah I said I don't have money to go buy a lot of c4 if you're gonna blow the buildings up she says no I do that but if we can get enough people in Norwalk with buckets of red paint paint the whole building to read and put a big sign up welcome to hell yeah in fact when I was at a the last time Mayor willing ran for re-election it was a Romeo you know there's some of the guys from lifetime learners Romeo's yeah over Bertucci's they had him there and I you know talking about Waypoint and he he intimated that yes he knew three guys renting an apartment at Waypoint paying 50 300 a month and I'm 53 huh what is in Norwalk that's worth paying 50 $300 a month on a rental for the Maritime Center in Stew Leonard's I mean this shows you how to me how out of whack it is I even brought up the point with this with this development you know bringing something in the East Norwalk that would make East Norwalk different from the rest of the town I contacted the State Liquor Commission and what I did was I said how many liquor stores are there in Norwalk Norwalk ranks number five in the state for the town with the most liquor stores 3234 liquor stores no bookstores and so when I saw how about we have a bookstore good one like that someone says well that won't last I said well there's a hole in the war a bookstore called the Bank Street Book Nook in New Milford it's not a big if any of you've been there it's a big it's not a big bookstore but they have named authors coming in they're giving talks selling their books and in generating conversation with the public what's wrong with having some like that here that would city snorlock apart from the rest of nar walk that's it yeah the pooch hotel is there that place for dogs and so you see if you see these these agendas that really are out of whack here and it's a drag on the economy and on the people again too few people making decisions at the expense of the mass granted I'll get I'll give you that I'll give you the fact that maybe not enough people attend Common Council meetings on maybe not enough people vote did you see the vote in Egypt the other day Egypt has some 60 million registered voters and 23 million showed up gee it's nice to see we're better than somebody yeah it's for Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom's it's supposed to coincide with the ambience of of what's going at so no you know they got the Maritime Center there you've got these nice new office buildings and apartments and it's supposed to coincide with that and I made another remark I said yeah I said that's a bourgeoisie shopping plaza and everyone else's all the proletarians are gonna go up on West AB West on a Connecticut Avenue to Walmart and so we'll have to see how far this goes but then again at one point they were supposed to put a hotel on top of those and that and I understand that's not going to happen and so it's yeah it's our malls our malls closing down in certain areas of the country right right well if you go back to the early part of the 21st center of this century there were 1.8 1.9 million workers in retail and I understand the figures down a 1.2 1.1 that that underscores what you're saying here it's changing the economy - yes well it's interesting that again the change in economy a lot of has to do with money but yeah if you go up route 7 and you again go to that book nook in the middle of New Milford that bookstore in that bookstore in rich rich feel as a bookstore it's been around since 1984 bigger pardon Greenwich I go to kit Madison Kent on route 7 house of books it's been around since 1976 I think and then you continue up what but again it depends on the community too and it depends on that bookstore personally I know I'd rather go to one of those bookstores and go to Barnes & Noble but but that's that's a small aspect of this but yeah it's a change in the economy and so you're right many people would rather but then again that changes the people they don't want to leave their home they'd rather shop from home but but then but then again it does it's emblematic on the change of the economy you know we're no longer many like you say some people they don't want to go to a store anymore they would rather sit in front of their computer or their little phone and do their shopping that way yeah yeah it is it is which somebody brought that up with that development for that perspective development in East Norwalk well ten percent will have to be you know affordable yeah but at but as we go on here the more of these townhouses these rentals whatever go up what's happening to the what's happening to the single-family home owner owner it well that's true well that that gets back that gets back again to this how again are the developers and even a new Norwalk local government and the developers that East nor wet area but that East Noack train station where the factory store was was zoned for business only to permit the rentals and that's the meeting I'm going through tonight he's Norwalk and supposedly this is gonna be one of our last attempts here to try to stop this and so yeah it's interesting here whether it's on a national level or go back to the local level that you know large money begets baguettes an issue for the regular the regular run-of-the-mill voter and the in the common man right well yeah that's part of the issue here but but then again going back to you know politics of the dollar here where are the young going here in fact in January of 1916 you know as the presidential campaign is beginning to really kick into the election season they you know for apparently 43% of some of people under 30 have a favorable outlook toward socialism what does that say for long term long term here the long term in fact there was another poll done upwards of a group of you know 18 19 year-olds stated that upwards of 20% of them said they don't consider themselves capitalist at all now that's not to say that didn't exist before but what I'm telling what I'm implying here is that you know with this with this too much money and too much land hay land in too few hands what is it doing to capitalism itself that's a discussion we should have why can't we have that discussion and again going when I when I bring back that when I still have that one of those series in the fall on the the roadblocks to Republic I'm going to get into that Lewis Powell memo which no one talks about it seems no one talks about anymore and how at you know Lewis Powell came up with this attack on the American enterprise system and found it in a front that perhaps people keep in mind coming out of the 60s here 1971 not only the students but even the academics are calling into question capitalism why can't we call it into question not capitalism itself how its wielded that's the discussion you have not so much capitalism how its wielded how its employed who employs it I mean it go back I'm certain maybe some of your parents were had a mom-and-pop store right now they might not consider themselves capitalists but didn't I have to keep track of their money didn't they have to keep track of what they were buying and selling now they did were they in competition perhaps with another store weren't they were they making money did they live comfortably there's an example of unprivileged wealth they did it on their own perhaps or went to a bank you know when it when this was how it went I borrowed a few dollars here opened up my own business paid back the loan and maybe I opened up a secre store or maybe I am I enlarged the store I had or maybe I'm selling other products now that's unprivileged wealth going back to what how this economist was was writing about it as opposed to privileged wealth like Trump who said my father gave me a million dollars that's a head start that's privileged or even Bill Gates didn't his father give him $50,000 to get started that's nothing against him for that I mean if 50 thousand has a notable difference from a million I'll give you that so it's interesting and now and then what do both of them do with their money you got to give them credit to a certain extent look what they've turned themselves into I'll give him credit for that but then again do they have the inside track in planning where the economy is going yes that's a discussion I think we need to have number one people getting involved in more and more in the political process is one thing but again you know again a but here here is a here's a great point talking about how these youngsters protesting automatic weapons and mass shootings now that could start a political agenda and one of the reason why are they getting a backlash now yes yeah what it wouldn't rick santorum say that not all that long ago correct correct but the over but the long-term picture here is if they can make inroads here if they can make inroads on the firearms agenda and they stay politically savvy and they stay in the game what's next student loan debt ah now one would think here you would think maybe the banks would be on the kids side here right these masks on no she says these mass shootings isn't that taking customers away when these kids go to college for student loans yeah i would say it is i would say it is but then again if these kids come politically savvy enough could they attack student loan debt after guns stay tuned for that that's it's gonna be interesting because you know i've gone to a couple of these rallies just to hear just just to take a temperature here right and I've heard this more than once I'm 15 and I'm voting in three years I'm sure you heard that one before yeah I do it's interesting you know and yeah and this one girl in particular in Norwalk holy Christmas she was shaking her fist I said Christmas this month must be Mussolini's daughter I mean she was in tune it I mean it the eyes were open the face was getting red I saw holy Christmas again they pick it a name DMT here this kid's gonna have a cardiac arrest when someone someone asked this before and again it revolves around the money and the economy in the end who controls that controls the agenda the problem here is again go back to what I mentioned before about Mussolini's corporate state the corporation is the highest point of a corporate state it is correct he says that's a corporate fascist state correct because again you know you're using the largest corporate creations and the largest banks to run their industries correct in fact at one point by 1939 1940 the the fascist government control had 20% of the economy in its pocket government and business the only country that had a higher percentage of the fascist Italy want they could guess who it was no the Soviet Union Stalin mr. CEO of the Soviet Union and that's interesting - when you say he's not a communist but the fact of the matter is here yes what you're comparing and I agree with - in part to part of your comparison here large corporations and large banks controlling the economy different industries ok different different companies controlling their industries however at the same time we don't have a dictator yet we are a committee of oligarchs we don't have a dictator yet Trump would like to be he's a dictator looking for a place to happen but the oligarchs run in fact people like Sheldon Adelson and the cokes could buy and sell that land developer from Queens anytime they want well Eisenhower was a New Deal Republican he was a New Deal Republican he had respect for that of course it was but keep in mind here what keep in mind what you keep in mind what taxes do here taxes rain in the appetites of the few because they don't have that they don't have that money that grease for the wheels and so when you lower that and that mutton and then they send jobs overseas what can they do with that money well they can buy an extra airplane they can buy an extra boat they can do they can do whatever they want with that money or buy back their stock to raise their shares in an economy that has what 2% growth and so where is the innovation in innovation and invention and investment in the economy it's not there and it's not going to be there because as you were mentioning before some of these jobs are going overseas that's it and now at this point when you hear no matter who it is in office well we're going to bring we're going to bring back some of these jobs the the scheme or the or the mechanism that has already sent these jobs overseas is too entrenched to change and so you are in fact if if we had if we had a population innovative enough you people reinvent themselves which is a Centon which gets us to another point here who controls the internet who controls the internet is going to be conducive on what you're talking about having the people maybe take control of the economy and take control of their politics and I got and I brought this up with some of these kids to net neutrality making sure that the net remains a utility instead of having it priced by by the few companies that control communications well no it's not till the towards the end of this month where it will really take effect but as you know but but the common everyday Joe the internet is becoming very very important for a livelihood in fact where I work an army aviation magazine some people have expressed concerns what's going to net neutrality gonna do to us and my boss is on the fringe of the military-industrial complex to figure that one out even if the Russians were involved that's foreign policy gamesmanship I would expect them to do that personally I would expect them to do that because if you go back over the past decades look what we did to many other countries we did the same thing all you got to do is read the nineteen won Platt Amendment to show you what the United States did to Cuba it's it's not it's not a pretty picture but of course back then you didn't have an internet you didn't have an internet back then but at the basic premise is the same take control of a country's political posturing you run the country that's that's that's you know that's foreign policy gamesmanship we were coming on this in the scene as a global power okay so let's take advantage of Cuba the sugar interest here that's what we did you had your hand up yeah bro yeah you know your your your idea here of you is democracy and capitalism are not in parallel here yeah I know maybe were splitting hairs here but I I get I find that it's it's interesting that you know when we bring up this idea of capitalism and democracy and we were founded as a republic the idea of one candidate likeable one unlikable well of course when you when you when you step back and take a look at this election you had to political lowbrows one's a wall street one's a wall street jessabelle and the other the other the other is well you know in the land developer let's leave with that but both both and if this is the best that Democrats and Democrats and Republicans are no longer parties anyway they're just denominations of the one party that exists you've heard me say that in class the corporate state and so if this is the best that they can provide then why vote for Democrats and Republicans and all now that leads to another discussion changing the political structure I'm talking I'm talking these so-called parties and going back to what you were mentioning about these kids and that's a very important point and then throwing in throwing in people like black lives matter the anti-fracking people the twelve the $15 an hour minimum wage people how about the Iran and or how about the Iraq and Afghan vets against the wars you see these grassroots movements done I'm not talking about things like the Tea Party I'm talking about real grassroots movements that could eventually foment new parties new parties and that will be by who the people if they're persistent enough and that means they have to become more politically savvy now one way getting back to your question earlier on the economy how do we change it how about worker coops why hat why should we be stuck on that old business model where you have a company with a CEO and maybe 12 15 20 on a Board of Directors determining the the pernt determining the fates of a hundred thousand ten thousand people why can't we have if a company's going to close a factory down why can't we have the option for the workers to buy that factory you think they're going to want it to close down or business in fact I understand in Italy Italy somebody can correct me if I'm wrong I understand in Italy you know you know when you get your unemployment insurance if you lose your job well you've got unemployment insurance for two years apparently if you've got another ten eleven twelve people who are Auto are gonna be out of work and going to be getting that unemployment insurance for two years if you got together with them each of you would get a check for the two years then you can start your own business instead of sitting back and collecting no I'm not saying that'll work here but in other words trying to think out of the box how are we gonna jumpstart the economy to benefit the American public you know we have to start thinking out of the box here we have to start thinking out of the box but then again going back to your premise earlier capitalism democracy or even a socialist system you know if that's what people want none of them are gonna work unless the people take part none of them will work none of them but then again isn't much of your press controlled isn't much of your press controlled yeah of 90 percent of it's owned by corporate you know it's corporate owned so don't think you're getting everything you need to know there I mean I mean I was giving a talk not all that was a few months back and I talked about how the the the bean counter at the Pentagon announced they couldn't find the army couldn't find six point five trillion dollars and holy Christmas this guy looked at me I thought his eyes were gonna roll out onto the floor and I in you know and I mentioned that in 1990 again controlling the money here controlling money is very important 1990 1990 Congress passed the chief financial officers act were these major branches of government were supposed to do an audit and turn it into Congress well isn't that to be expected here don't you elect these people to have power of the purse that's one of the basics of the American system supposedly and guess who never did the audit from 1990 till now Pentagon that's a surprise so who really runs the country you have to ask that question although to give him credit last December they said they were gonna do an audit how far that's gonna go who knows but it's 28 years after the fact that's poor accounting procedures maybe I don't know but that's over a period of years that's not even the Air Force in the Navy that's the army interesting interesting what you see here without accountability yes you know you know you know when I you know maybe one of the best ways to answer that question with the dollar is interestingly enough between 1979 and 2014 when you look at at who's making the money when when you look at that 35-year period the bottom 20% of the economy you know wait you know of the people on the on the on that class level here the poor in other words when you take into effect inflation taxation and government programs their income went up 69% the middle the middle yeah they're over the 35 years their income went up 42% uh-huh but then when you look at the top income bracket she's putting a finger of 1% they went up two hundred and twenty-eight percent and so again 40 years ago according to the Fed 40 45 years ago 61 percent of Americans could have been considered middle class that is now down to 50 or 51 that's a large drop but it's who controls the money correct our back we're back to who trolls the dollar who controls the money so it's interesting here what's developing and that gets back to what you're mentioning earlier more people taking part that's got to be because if you don't take part you're leaving a void and you know what happens in history when you leave a void somebody's gonna fill it and are they filling it to the benefit of the mass she's saying no I said a coup at the house a political coup at your house I like in you admit it right you know I used to be a Republican I used well let me answer it this way I used to be a Republican and I remember even during the Reagan years I remember even back then watching this the beginning of this influx of ultra-nationalist racists and people of who I used to construe as being of questionable religious character and I remember as the elections Perez these as the years proceeded here you know and these people have a right to be heard in the party they're you're not gonna let you're not gonna let people in unless they want to be heard right okay however whenever they put a candidate up to represent their interest I'm talking like a Santorum or a Huckabee somebody like this what did the party do well they had a Reagan they had a bush senior they had a Bob Dole they had a Bush jr. they had a Mitt Romney they had a John McCain somebody who could be considered more middle of the road in their eyes this time in 2016 it 2015-2016 it didn't work and so what you've seen develop here and I was out of the party years before that I left you know you could see that if you really watched you could see the handwriting on the wall this ain't working and then I turn right then I was asked I was even best by 2x mayors of Norwalk Democrats great you left the Republican Party you want to join us know why go from the frying pans of the fire not doing that the long haul is Democrats Republicans they gotta go they have got to go and that's gonna happen you mark my words that day is coming of course it is one day at a time now some of my repo of my Republican friends don't want to be bothered with me anymore they don't want to be bothered with me anymore say in fact one of them asked me how come you left or how come you left the party I said because I don't spell Republican or Republic which is how we were founded I don't spell it FAS C is T that was the end of that discussion yeah well you know again it doesn't make any difference which party who controls the money controls the agenda it is but you better be able to buy them out in today's America that's what it takes well yeah but but again that's controlling the message Edward Bernays would be proud well yeah well yeah but I mean every time every country every country goes through a series of bumps and we're no different you know we're not immune to this for those who think we are well that goes back to what I mentioned earlier the world war two generation you know democrat or republican there were compromises made why they all come out of that same generation sure I may not quite believe agree with what you believe in but well okay go back to Reagan at one point here didn't him and Tip O'Neill sometimes sit down hey look what do we got to do to get this done how do you think you do you think do you think that's going to happen today oh of course not but again the country itself is different and part of that is the economy the money the politics and where we're going and on top of that it was more of a together country back then it is not together country now and I will offer to you and I still think that you know we we got this me too we got the kids we've got all these different groups and they're all going where if the American public ever got together to understand and whether you're black or you're white or Latino whatever you are if you're young or you're old if you're middle-aged or what it whatever whatever whatever religious persuasion you are if you understood that 90 to 95 percent of Americans do share one thing there are all workers that's your commonality we're all workers the numbers would be mind-boggling understand that we all get a piece of the economy which we're not getting now we are all workers there's your common bind makes no difference who you are how old you are or whatever you are you're all raw all workers although as some of the economy gets offshore overseas there's less workers it's almost 4:30 you know something we're gonna have to close this up because they have something going on here and in a little bit but the idea here is who controls the money's controlling the agenda well that should be the objective that should be the objective but there has to there has to be something to fill the void that's the problem yes I know exactly what you're saying and you make some valid points here you make great points but it's fascinating to see where this is going to go thank you very much [Music]

Channel: Darien Library

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Keywords: Darien Library, Darien, Darien CT, Mark Albertson, Politics, Dollar, U.S. Dollar, US Dollar, currency, Saddam Hussein, Iraq, oil, Middle East

Id: 4abP3hw-yr0

Length: 66min 16sec (3976 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018