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TechnoratiThe Secret Global Empire(s): Russ Baker & John Perkins
U.S. history has seen many presidents elected on a wave of progressive
promises, only to see them compromise again and again once in office,
caving to the very interests, military and corporate, that they railed
against so effectively. Barack Obama is only the latest to get elected
on a promise to end a war and take care of working people, only to
preside over an administration stacked with Wall Street types and wind
up continuing a war he wanted to wind down. John Perkins is the author
of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." Russ Baker wrote "Family of
Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White
House, and What Their Influence Means for America." They argue the only
weapon we have is public opinion and public pressure -- and we need to
bring it to bear not just on the government, but on the corporations.
32 Comments so far
Show AllGreat Video...
It is true that a president does not have the power we think, but when a president declares "Emergency Powers" they have enormous power.
After speaking with a history teacher about the Constitution, I learned it was set up by rich men so that it was hard for government to do much of anything... for the common people.
CORP IS BORG.
"Information is power" -Russ Baker-
Read this:
“Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
and watch this:
The Empire Of "THE CITY"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4675077383139148549
Comprehensive information, which will change the way you see the world.
A surely important complementary video is the following one, which www.globalresearch.ca posted a reminder on Nov. 17th. It's Prof. Michel Chossudovsky speaking during the opening session of the Perdana Global Peace Forum to Criminalize War, held in Kuala Lumpur, 5-7 Feb. 2007.
"America's 'Long War' From the Truman Doctrine to the NeoConservatives" (36:32)
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5337690562294546168
Readers who view the latter video for the excellent presentation by Professor Chossudovsky, editor of www.globalresearch.ca, and would like to check out videos for the other speakers during the Perdana ... Forum can find plenty, if not all, of these videos in the Videos page at the following website.
www.perdana4peace.org
Do a Youtube search for ""Russ Baker" VINVEEZY" (minus outer quotes) and ""Russ Baker" BudhistPanda" (also minus outer quotes) and you'll get two resulting lists for Russ Baker speaking, I believe, on the book, "Family of Secrets". I don't know if they're from the same talk or interview, but the four videos posted by BudhistPanda are a total of nearly two minutes longer than the four parts posted by VINVEEZY.
For John Perkins, Googling for "video "John Perkins"" (minus outer quotes) provides many hits; including an interview (or two) with Dem. Now! and a link entitled, "Video results for video "John Perkins"", which links to a page worth checking. Some of the videos linked in that page seem to be about his second book on "The Secret History of the American Empire", for which there's also a link to a 1:22:04 fora.tv video for a talk by him on that book.
Some readers emphasised the very good books by John Perkins and I haven't read a single one, but have viewed several videos for some of his talks, including on his second or else third book. The videos are easy to find with a Web search. I checked for videos with Russ Baker on "Family of Secrets" and there are some, including a 65-minute one at C-SPAN (archives) dated March 24, 2009. I could post the links but am again unable to post more than very short text.
A progressive and good looking saxophonist Bill Clinton with a sexy / leftist wife, both with pseudo-rebel "puff the dragon" attitudes and a `70s university backgrounds and now Obama, a semi-black man (of a Jewish mother and a Muslim African) who represents the oppressed slaves of the not so distant past (as well as leading the modern slavery whipped by the multi-billion dollar abusive corporations and their fascistic shareholder policies too) are the American governing body's last hopes imo in showing off the nation as well as the entire world that "the 'system' does really care" and thus to bring some hope however little to the victimized "underpaid / overworked" masses hired as employees and workers with barely a true and happy retirement for most of them in the foreseeable future.
Both scenarios have somewhat failed of course unless the present administration truly does something workable about it `cause the Neo-Cons plans are beyond hopeless even for themselves. (What about any 'alternatives' out there?) And if not, then i really pray that God truly bless America (as well as the rest of the world!) or it will most probably undergo serious troubles that will not benefit anyone, neither the oppressors nor the oppressed!
This is Russ Baker .... Junior??? ....
I avoided his book which has been out some time because
something I read about it originally seemed to be a distortion of what we know now of the coup on JFK --
but, I'll give it a look --
I didn't either read John Perkins book because so much of this seems so obvious without reading a book! However, I'll also give that a look --
Meanwhile, every day that a majority of Americans and citizens of the planet do not understand the seriousness of Global Warming is another day when corporations and their corrupt capitalism succeed. Notice that Earth Day has been so co-opted and overcome as to be almost unheard and unrecognized any longer in our "free press."
Capitalism is exploitation of both the planet and human beings -- and, of course, animal-life. One has only to go to a Mall right now to see the idiocy of shoppers and the Christmas trees on display and "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" playing inside the stores since before Halloween -- !!!
Citizens buy endless crap -- and are totally thoughtless about the planet and pollution because they have been taught to not disturb themselves and that corporations are to be idealized!!!
The first thing we can do is to throw Christmas out into the gutter and all of its crap with it --
Start celebrating Winter Solstice and get back to the joy in NATURE and ourselves.
STOP eating animals -- we are slaughtering 12 MILLION PLUS animals every day!! Where would that possibly make sense to any thinking human being? Further, eating animals is making humans ill. Get back to fresh, raw fruits and vegetables. How is it difficult to understand that we should distance ourselves from violence of any kind?
Demand nationalization of our natural resources --
Most of all withdraw support from patriarchy and its underpinning ... organized patriarchal religion.
You can also begin by turning off your TV's -- !!
Especially the corporate-press "news" -- !!
The PEACE SYMBOL is making a come back in women's jewelry --
Wear buttons of every kind announcing what it is you want --
Whether Medicare for All, PEACE and an end to these illegal and immoral wars,
or bringing down the MIC.
Join with others in new ways to signal which way you want government and corporations to go -- demonstrations don't have to take place in DC on Saturdays
when Congress and the President are NOT there!!
Lights out for an hour once every week is a clear signal --
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
The short text for the video says, "Barack Obama is only the latest to get elected on a promise to end a war and take care of working people, only to preside over an administration stacked with Wall Street types and wind up continuing a war he wanted to wind down".
That's stated as fact, but is only an assumption or belief, at best. We certainly do not know that Obama really "wanted to wind down" the war and there are no real reasons to believe that he did mean these words.
DRAFT! Bring it on with no Cheney deferments. The Military Industrial Complex will have second thoughts about sending their rich brats off to foreign soil to promote and defend the interests of rapacious corporations.
I have read some excellent analysts of the same opinion, but I think it is a mistake.
Of course, the Cheneys manage unofficial deferments, but you mean to close those too.
However, even were that to happen, that becomes a way of getting 1/2 million or so soldiers that standard counterinsurgency analysis suggests would be necessary to quiet Afghanistan.
True, the US would see greater resistance at home and probably serious and critical unrest that might achieve something beneficial. But it would also see something approaching Vietnam-level violence in the Middle East, something it has not yet done.
We have not seen the carpet-bombings and that kind of thing. We have seen forays into Syria, scattered murders and a remarkably perverse proxy-war carried out largely by Pakistanis within Pakistan. But Pakistan has not seen the kind of bombardment that was delivered to the Plain of Jars, to Laotian and Cambodian and Southern Vietnamese peasants.
No. Let them hire Argentines and castoff Venezolanos. They have to loosen things up in the South when they take the thugs away, at least for the moment. And the Americans will get louder as their wallets get hit harder.
Really! Just like they send the George W. Bushes, Dan Quayles, etc.? It's a falacy and a deadly mistake to assume that the draft will bring an end to warmongering when those who create the law also create the loopholes so that their brats don't have to serve. If history tells us nothing else, that is the one thing does tell. Viet Nam wasn't ended because the brats of the rich and politicians were dying there but because the kids of the poor people were dying there and it was them who raised hell and made it stop.
To my mind, Perkins' story is just a limited hangout. He's a former insider who tells some truth, but leaves the essentials out of his discussion. The control of economies is achieved primarily through the control of currencies, via private ownership of central banks like the Fed and the Bank of England. The Fed's owners are raking in more than $400 billion a year off the U.S. economy by virtue of their ownership of the monetary system. They are guaranteed 6% interest on money they loan to the government thanks to the terms of that insidious piece of stealth legislation, The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Furthermore, since any currency subject to interest inherently dooms that economy to terminal debt and monetary collapse, no economic reform short of terminating the Fed and outlawing for-profit central banks will achieve anything in the way of permanent change. Citizen activism that chases myriad issues plays directly into the hands of those with true power - the central bankers. If all activism were to be focused on terminating this privatized monetary system, that might make a difference.
An excellent article about the Fed is "The US Federal Reserve Bank: Dirty Secrets of the Temple" by Stephen Lendman (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2712)
"Control over money creation is an instrument of economic conquest."
Michel Chossudovsky
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."
Mayer Rothschild
actually this is too short a conversation for having both this men at the table, one can easily go couple of hour with both them talking, answering key question.
I think there is video named 'The Secret of American Empire' where John Perkins appears gives detail about whole process of corrupting oversea govt. and overthrowing them.
And Rush Baker gave a talk show for one hour on his book, think it was 'Guns and Butter'.
Its just fascinating, after listening/watching above 2 shows, how irrelevant the voter are when they vote for either of two party.
@jduddy
"Name US Presidents and future Presidents who were in Dallas on Nov. 22nd, 1963. "
LBJ, Nixon, Bush sr. forgot the fourth name...
What was interesting was that neither men were willing to mention the attacks of 9/11..........The same "Shock and Awe" was used on the American People as had been used to catpult the U.S. into war with Spain.....No, there was no attack on the U.S.S. Maine.....The U.S. Government was willing to sacrifice the lives of U.S. sailors and, in essence, commit "Treason" so that a few men could become wealthier.
In Viet Nam, there was no attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, yet 58,000 Americans were sent to their deaths and hundreds of thousands of American Veterans have died from diseases that were caused by contact with: Agent Pink, Agent Purple, Napalm, and Agent Orange.......Over 3.2 million Vietnamese died......And, a few Americans were made very, very wealthy.
So, who made billions from the attacks of 9/11 and why was evidence destroyed and why does the Media consistantly marginalize anyone who goes against "The Official Version"?
Both men know what has been going on! Read "JFK, The Unspeakable" by James Douglass!!
Neither man was willing to mention 9/11 because......
Read below and you will get a picture, which will be extremely hard to swallow, and very painful to digest: “Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
The two documents have just recently been published and are very well researched and referenced (over 400 verified footnotes). The articles are lengthy, some parts not easy to follow and to digest and they need to be read with an open mind. But they are well worth the effort. They provide the most distressing information (some reads like a thriller) you have ever come across.
The implications will challenge how we look at politics, economy, history, finance, war and terrorism. Many persons in the documents are well known; many are right now in pivotal positions of politics and finance. These people do shape OUR life and that of our children right now. The details are stunning. The consequences are BEYOND BELIEF.
Read it. You will be surprised.
As with the other posters: this was a really informative piece. I'll have to read the two books under discussion.
Thanks for this clip -- informative & intriguing.
It underscores the old echo: we've got the government (an alliance of rackets) that we deserve.
It's a shame how quickly Common Dreams cycles important pieces like this off to obscurity while displaying an endless loop of pieces about personalities (e.g. Ralph Nader) who are mere bit players in this huge drama.
This is why even the cognoscenti and not that cognisant.
I am so glad I watched this. The best 20+ minutes of my life to have been informed of some real Big Picture issues. It's one thing to read all the fantastic articles here on CD every day but quite another to see and hear from people that are shown in this clip. People who were there and were in the trenches, economic hitmen, etc.
I wish each and every average American would watch this. It is chilling and hopeful at the same time. Basically these two people, John Perkins and Russ Baker, have identified some enemies and threats to global stability and peace. If we don't move and act now to retain our human freedoms, we will be turned into indentured slaves and serfs.
They've said that, yes, politicians who don't go along with the larger plan of total and complete economic dominance over nature, land, animals and normal people's lives, are ultimately assassinated physically (JFK) and morally (Clinton).
They said some things in this clip that just floored me, to hear it and see them talking about it just really sent chills through my body. They were hopeful in the end by saying that WE THE PEOPLE can turn this thing around. WE are our only hope. I'm really thankful that the internet is helping to expose these bloodsucking parasites (multinationals) who are running our lives and our government into the ground. We must come together and stop them!
"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. 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."
- President John F. Kennedy-the dead guy
"They argue the only weapon we have is public opinion and public pressure -- and we need to bring it to bear not just on the government, but on the corporations."
To that statement I say Hmm. Public pressure seems to be pretty much useless when it comes to the federal government. The huge demonstrations against the Iraq war did nothing to stop it. The majority of people were against the banker bailouts and they went through anyway. And the majority of people want a public option for health insurance and that at this point seems pretty questionable on if they will get it or not.
Some corporations still seem to bow to public pressure, others not so much. The others use lots of PR spinning instead.
So overall I'm not too sure I really agree with that statement.
Public pressure and opinion, how can this be brought to bear on the govt and corporations? Protesting in the streets clearly isn't enough. Voting, elections, could be the solution, but this depends on voters ceasing to vote for evils, including so-called "lesser evils", for evil [is] evil and will NOT bring SOLUTIONS. Getting rid of the rotten politicians through elections is about the only means available to the public, though.
Yes, public opinion and demonstrations are pretty useless when it comes to the federal government. Our elected officials don't care diddly squat for public opinion because they don't have to pay attention to the people of this nation. Our officials know that they can keep their membership in Congress or the Senate of the United States if they have enough money to spend for well produced TV ads. That is what gets them elected---lots of TV ads. These officials also need to identify with one or the other of the two major political parties.
This is where the power of the people could come into play. They need our votes to get elected. If the voters would not be so taken by those pretty pictures and nice music on the ads, and instead studied the voting records of the politicians things could change. We must break free of the two party control of our political system. We must learn to consider not voting by party label, but consider the voting record our politicians. If we do this, the politicians would come to see that they must pay some heed to public opinion and demonstrations.
We need to rate our Representative on his/her degree of corruption. This can be done very easily by checking how they voted on the bailout (which the vast majority of people opposed), on the surge in Afghanistan, which most people opposed (wanting the troops to come home and not more to go to war) and Medicare for all. The people by large percentages in all the polls stated that they wanted the insurance companies not to be in control of our health care system. The big money went the opposite way as did the people.
You must consider how your rep voted. Did he/she go with the people? or with the big money? If they went with the money; don't vote for that person again.
By doing this, we can open up our political system to allow new candidates to step forward and new political parties to form. Democracy could grow in our nation.
Don't forget, the MIC (with the help of Diebold et al) is privatizing the electoral process, too. Makes it hard to change the game.
Public pressure prevented the privatization of Social Security. Rather than decry public pressure it is more instructive to discover the underlying reasons for why and when it does work.
I couldn't agree more that public cries fall on deaf ears.
I never wanted a health insurance public option.
I want health care for everyone.
Russ Baker's "Family of Secrets"
The best non fiction so far this year.
Here are a few questions for you.
Name US Presidents and future Presidents who were in Dallas on Nov. 22nd, 1963.
Can you remember what you were doing when you heard Kennedy was shot?
Which of the above future US Presidents changed his story about his activities that day? Which one had a memory lapse?
Who brought down Richard Nixon?
Which American bank funded the Nazis? Which Bush family member?
Russ Baker has done a great job investigating why the United States allowed George W. Bush to become the 43rd. President. Was George absent without leave? Was George a deserter? What part did George H. W. play while in CIA? How did 41 ensure that 43 survived his rocky past business dealings in his rise to the top?
Readers will find that "born again" George was not always opposed to abortion.
The Savings and Loan debacle and the new financial tsunami have powerful Bush influence; Russ Baker backs up his strong evidence with footnotes.
This book deserves to be required reading in all US and Canadian institutes of education.
"Confessions of an Economic Hit-man" opened the conversation leading to John Perkins next two books. I have yet to read his latest book. I expect it also needs to be required reading for a proper economic and political education.