A MEMO FROM DOUG REGARDING CURRENT CONDITIONS

A MEMO FROM DOUG TO MY SPOUSE, MY EXTENDED FAMILY, FRIENDS AND STRANGERS

I am concerned about the fragility of our economy coupled with the criminality of the 1% who rules us. Both are extreme. When coupled with the coexisting problems arising from peak oil and global warming, it is not an exaggeration to say that civilization as we know it could fall in our lifetimes. Google /argentina inflation/ and see what happened to a very rich country recently. The currency inflated 3000% almost overnight. Bread that cost $1 a loaf suddenly cost $30.

Our economy is similar to Argentina’s and “on very thin ice” because:

· Our trade deficit is at an all time high and increasing, and there are no prospects that the deficit will be brought under control.

· Our national debt is ever increasing to the highest level ever. We are totally dependent on the Chinese buying our US bonds. They continue to buy so far because they want us to have money to buy their goods. China also has a vast and increasing need for oil. They can and will do anything necessary to get oil, including halting the purchase of our bonds. This will force the US to raise interest rates on our bonds to attract buyers. The value of the dollar will continue to decline.

· The debt of individuals and corporations in the US is at an all time high. We have no more reserves of cash or savings or any other source of money to finance more consumer buying. In the recent past, we refinanced our houses and spent the surplus cash.

· There has been a tremendous increase of investment in volatile, risky derivatives in the last 5 years. Investors are betting and speculating on every conceivable thing. There is absolutely no regulation or control. Banks and insurance companies are heavily involved, so that our major businesses are at a high risk of failure.

· Any interruption in our oil supply, due to another Katrina, due to sabotage of oil pipe lines, or whatever, will trigger a depression and unemployment

· There are absolutely no plans on the shelf to deal with any of the above, and no public figures, and no substantial voting population with the awareness or consciousness to demand that these problems be dealt with. There is also not enough time.

The wealthy and powerful top 1% rules us. We do not have a democracy. Our votes are almost totally meaningless in terms of controlling our destiny. We have an oligarchy.

By any reasonable standard, this top 1% is uncaring, malicious and criminal so far as we are concerned. It is this criminal oligarchy that is now intentionally causing our economic crisis. This criminal oligarchy controls Bush, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. It is an illusion to think that Bush is the cause, or that we can change things by electing Democrats. This top 1% is behind everything that Bush does, and everything that the Democrats will do or will refrain from doing (like ending the Iraq War).

Who but criminals would:

1. Lie to persuade us to get into a war, intentionally killing and maiming the sons and daughters of the poor, and none of their own kin
2. Give massive tax relief to this top 1%, while intentionally increasing the national debt, both while fighting a very expensive war on credit, thereby placing a crushing future tax burden on us and on our children.
3. Fail to help the poor victims of Katrina, and continue to fail for 15 months after Katrina.
4. Eradicate environmental controls, deny the existence of global warming and peak oil, and do absolutely nothing to save the planet or to reduce or control our total dependence on oil.
5. Give the President (the obedient servant of the top 1%) the power to arrest us, hold us in secret for as long as the President wants, deny us a lawyer or access to the courts, and torture us?
6. Leave health care and drugs under the control of this top 1% to charge us what they please.
7. Throw our money away without audit, without bids, without accountability to Halliburton, Brown and Root and other “contractors.” This is done with no apparent concern that the tasks these firms contracted to do, is simply not done
8. Cancel all SEC and banking regulations that would control their behavior
9. Encourage, sponsor and profit from illegal drugs
10. Ignore and deny the fact of global warming

It is this criminal class, the top 1%, that has as its barely concealed policies of:

1. “Starving the beast” meaning intentionally increasing the debt of the United States so that no government or subsequent Administration will ever be able to come to the rescue of the victims of the above criminal acts in terms of welfare, food stamps, unemployment insurance, health care, old age security, or a “New Deal” a la Franklin Roosevelt, or a “Fair Deal” a la Lyndon Johnson.

2. Intentionally reducing the value of our dollars by inflation. Be very clear: Inflation causes a massive transfer of wealth from us to the top 1%. It is an intentional stealing of our money and transferring it to the top 1%. (In March 2006, the US stopped giving public notice of the M1 money supply. This means the US can print all of the paper money the top 1% chooses and we will never know, except from the rapidly lessening of what our dollars will buy. In mid December 2006 Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernake will again travel to China (they tried and failed in October) to try to persuade China to let its currency float vis a vis our dollar, so as to lessen the amount of goods that our dollars will buy. The top 1% is using the power of the US to reduce the value of our dollars and to cause wealth transferring inflation) Meanwhile, the top 1% can and will hold its wealth in gold or stable foreign currencies, or land. The top 1% will not be hurt by inflation. They desire it. They are intentionally causing it. It is a further transfer of wealth and power to them.

3. Conducting a permanent war against “terror,” a war the top 1% planned and designed before 9-11. The above criminal acts and policies have an adverse economic effect on the whole world. More “terrorists” are created daily. The talk of “getting out of Iraq” or reducing troop levels is a manipulative lie. The top 1% believes that it must control the oil of Central Asia and Iraq. It is building 4 huge permanent bases in Iraq. These bases are like cities with KFC, Burger King Etc; there are more permanent bases in Afghanistan and Central Asia. The war is permanent for our lifetimes and our children’s lifetimes.

The ideology and stories that the top 1% believe and tell themselves to sustain this criminal, reckless conduct are of course false, and harmful even for their own well-being, but they control the media and academic sources that might expose the falseness. They are in a trance, and they keep most of us in a trance.

SO WHAT DO WE DO? WHAT CAN WE DO?

I choose to face the fact at some time in the near future the following will happen:

• Things will become more and more expensive and our dollars will buy less and less. There will be much unemployment and homelessness.
• In the slightly more distant future, food will become unobtainable at any price people can afford. Electricity, lighting and air conditioning will be very expensive, if available at all. There will be millions who are hungry and desperate. Our dollars will be nearly worthless. The probability is that people will “choose” a right wing dictator who promises to make them “safe,” or the Oligarchy will take charge. Congress has already granted the President the power to declare martial law when he chooses, and construction of prison camps is already authorized.
• My own need for caring relationships with spouse, friends and community and strangers will become far more important than money, more than it is even now.

Therefore I am considering the following as the prudent reasonable things to do:

a. Being prepared to hold all spare dollars and cash reserves in gold. The problem is timing. Our dollars need to be invested in liquid investments for as long as is safe.

b. At some time when land prices fall or maybe now, buying fertile land with abundant water where I and others can grow food and survive, and help others. (It is very difficult for me to time these purchases of land and gold. Our cash has to “work” as long as possible. I seek input.)

c. I am thinking of establishing a kind of charitable mission on this land where this could be accomplished.

d. Spreading awareness by encouraging people to read David Korten’s The Great Turning, leading book discussion groups about the book and encouraging others to do the same.

e. Learning how to grow survival foods quickly without petrochemical fertilizers or tractors, and how to save the seeds; how to preserve foods by canning, drying, and in storage cellars

f. Preparing ourselves for civilized mentoring and leading by learning the discipline and moral foundation for the non-violent exercise of power and building small self sufficient communities

g. Be prepared so that when hungry people come to us, we can say: “Join us. We need you. We care about you. You have skills that we can use. We will feed you and give you starter seeds so that you can do the same for yourselves and others.”

h. Visit and copy very aware communities like Ukiah, CA where the entire community is engaged in efforts like the foregoing.

Dated: December 6, 2006

Doug Page dougpage2@earthlink.net