Chapter 2 -The Politcal System

Identifying and Picking the THEY LIVE Players
by David Michael Beachwood

“Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.” Author Unknown

Most of us have had occasions where our egos have been pumped up. Then we recover and humble ourselves because we understand that in the grand schemes of time no one is really that important. The humbling also keeps us from taking advantage of others. There are those who truly feel that they are so much better than everyone else and that they deserve more than they have been honestly given, so they deceitfully find ways to obtain more. They feel they are unique and therefore deserve it. Their goal is to take advantage of others and often they don’t care who those others are. Saddam Hussein, for example, has been said to have murdered his own family members. For most of us our comfort level for taking advantage of others is not so close to home, it extends much further out into the community and we would not entertain the taking of a life. While we may not consider the idea of taking advantage of family members and friends the further out into the community we go, our concerns decrease. When it comes to those faceless individuals we have never met, it gets easier for us to take advantage of them. Societies with high morals are taught to remember that these faceless people are also faced with the same handicap that we have, that is, they do not know us either. This thought helps us extend our compassion well beyond just the people we know and by doing so, many things are achieved. First, we make efforts to control greed and to work toward a fair level of compensation for others, the rule being, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'' [1] The extension of socialization as such brings our civilization great accomplishments. Instead of having small, fractionated groups of people existing in turmoil with reduced productivity, we have larger groups working together to increase productivity. This is the cultural idea our forefathers wanted to establish and maintain for us. Of course we all know it is much more likely that we will accomplish more by working together than by fighting. During war we possibly destroy valuable members of society who might have added value to our culture. By pooling our resources we have made significant advancements in science, medicine, and technology. Many businesses have come to agree that employees, who are working together, as opposed to individually, accomplish not only more, but they also accomplish it faster. Even during times of war, armies are expected to work together to be effective. Most people would agree that we are better off working together than working against each other. With all this praise for team work I do not wish to exclude the fact that individuals have often contributed greatly to our society. These citizens need to be rewarded appropriately. Before I continue let me admit that there is room in our society for people of great wealth, in fact, that is part of our American Dream and I am very much for it. I am simply against ill gotten gain gathered by deceit rather than by hard work and honest creativity. There are those, who for reasons of greed, seek to divide and separate us by a variety of means. Their deceit often impedes the progress that might have otherwise been gained by working together in a more uniform measure. The main way they hurt civilization is by setting up self-serving teams to carry out carefully designed plans to break-up, disrupt, and confuse the common good. In doing these things they can redirect money in their direction, instead of to more efficient endeavors that would serve the nation as a whole. I am referring to stories you may have heard the ones which detail the misuse of public lands and resources. In order to carry out their plan, they first need to assemble their teams. Their teams, of course, will be loyal toward their ideas and plans, rather than the plans for the greater good. The process as to how they pick their players is interesting, because it is done right in front of us, and somehow nobody questions it. Our special glasses will help, if we are willing to put them on.

The Council on Foreign Relations
There is actually a training school, of sorts, called “The Council on Foreign Relations.”[2] This organization plays a key role in developing US foreign policy. The Council’s name sounds like it’s might be some sort of government agency, but it is not. Remember the government is supposed to be “we the people” meaning the mass of people. This group aims to support the ideas of specific special interest groups, namely corporate or business groups. To be sure, there are similar councils in existence in other countries as well, and yes, they have the same ideas. The way this works is that the council has meetings where the topics of discussion typically are those ideas and goals that our main characters want to achieve. Members are, of course, students in the sense that they learn the ideas and goals by going to these meetings. The agendas are carefully crafted to be sure to fit in with the approved plans and goals. Speakers select and impart discussion of these topics and learning occurs. Guest speakers who do not impart these doctrines tend to go unnoticed by the benefactors of these events. Those speakers who do impart the goals are watched carefully by the ones who walk among us, and if they do well they are rewarded with job opportunities. If they learn and adhere to the goals they are often selected to run for political office. Sometimes potential members of the council get selected because they have a family history of membership. You would be surprised to find that many of the politicians you know have been members of this group. Once again, this council does not champion the goals of the common citizen, but of the special interest sector; you know our main characters. Typically, they champion global free trade, reduced oversight of businesses, open boarders, basically one world order type of ideas. Once the council finds those candidates who are willing to carry their flag, and it’s not the flag of any nation, they encourage them to run for office. This way the business interests have their man or women in place. The People’s Almanac #3 by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace gives a brief summary of this group, which I am sure you will find very enlightening. The Almanac’s report is from 1981, yet this organization is still going strong. For a short Video on the CFR visit: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6601323462503D0B

The Trilateral Commission
You can presumably learn all about this organization from their web site.[3] However, it is important to note that their members are not common citizens, but are comprised of corporate leaders, members of the elite, politicians or political staffers. Amongst conspiracy theorist, members of this organization rank high on the “THEY” suspect list. The important thing to remember is that these are self appointed spokesman for us. We had no say in their appointment, nor do we have a say in their actions. They are not a government agency, but a private organization. Yet what they do affects us greatly.

Think Tanks
Another breeding ground for their candidates is think tanks. This is a good opportunity for aspiring agents to show their mettle, and if those in charge like what they see, the person moves up. The pay is well above the minimum wage and they have a chance to spread the plan to the larger community. Think tanks are funded by many different special interest groups and for a variety of reasons. There are a whole host of them, but to name just a few, at random, there are The Cato Institute, The Brookings Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute.[4] Think tanks are charged with writing the reports that many of our political leaders use to decide various issues. Their influence on elected officials is an important means of steering opinions in the direction of their benefactors. I am not aware of any Middle Class Institute writing directly on our behalf, so if you read any of these reports make sure you wear your special glasses. I recommend that everyone should take some time to listen to C-SPAN when they can.[5] These Cable Media Channels, which perhaps should be socially supported and broadcast as well, will interview representatives from many of these groups. C-SPAN also covers some of the think tank’s sponsored programs of discussions. I think you will find yourself agreeing with most of what they are saying, but then there is usually something that seems to make the whole discussion sour. This often rests on the question as to who are they serving, the common good or special interest. Far too often it is the special interest, but understandably so, because they do want to continue to get a paycheck. Think tanks, I believe, are a good idea but they need to be impartial and publicly supported to make, and keep them, that way. These think tanks should be comprised of a broader spectrum of political views, not primarily from the two main parties. There are large quantities of useful ideas that third party candidates have generated. To limit these people from participation in think tanks, I believe, is a detrimental loss to the common good.

Born Into It
Another way they, those who wish to control, pick their team is by choosing members of their very own families. It often doesn’t matter what background they have or even if they are qualified, as long as they have been indoctrinated with the goals. Of course, living amongst them, one has a hard time not knowing what those goals are. These lifestyles quickly lead a person astray and visions of royalty seem to dance in their heads. As I understand it, our founding fathers dreaded the idea of royalty. They envisioned the leadership of the country being spread across society with frequent changes to involve as many people as possible. Today we often see the same families continually running for office almost as if it were an inherited position. Have you ever wondered why we see the same old faces and family names over and over again? In a nation of over 300 million people one would think there would be more competition.

The ceremonies surrounding these leaders are all too pompous to suit my taste. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we should be able to honor our leaders befitting of their position. However, the spectacles are becoming so magnanimous that it is a close rival to the royalty of Great Britain. Is there really a man or a woman who truly deserves such treatment? I believe our leaders have let some ambitious caterers exceed appropriate limits. Our founders would not have wanted this in my opinion. I believe the founders were fed up with it and found it excessive. Somehow our current leaders seem to be very comfortable with being treated this way. It is unfortunate because they tend to forget that they are supposed to be servants of the people, not the other way around. Their high minded opinions of themselves conjure up images of Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, with their hands in the till calmly saying “because I can.”[6] These sorts of delusional dreams are preposterous and expensive to the taxpayers that have to pay the credit card billings. However, these sort of tell tale events give us insight as to the true nature of our main characters, remember them. Such lavish self-centered attention could only be the finger print of these evil overseers. Humility is not one of their strong points.

Lobbyists
Lobbyists generally come from within their, the people we need our glasses for, system. Many are former political leaders or staffers that have their second careers in what could be called ‘controlled damage,’ as opposed to steeling everything at once. Lately it doesn’t seem as though there is any control of their damage to our society. Lobbyists can also come from other sources, such as think tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations, private colleges, and family members. Outside of these, your chances of being a lobbyist used to be very limited. Today the tremendous growth in lobbyist allows for easier entry into the club. Basically, it seems you just have to be predisposed to selling out your country, should your client ask. I know this sounds harsh, believe me, I do not like to bash people like this, however, one only has only to look at the trade deficits to see that these lobbyist are far more effective for their clients, than they are for their own country. The damage that lobbyists have done to our country is, in my opinion, a leading cause of our demise. Sure the economy is going great for the upper 10% of our nation, but the trade deficits and national debt tell me that the rest of our population is not in such a great position, especially when lobbyists continue to ask for tax breaks for their 10% crowd, that is the elite. This means that it is the other 90% who will be paying that enormous credit card debt they have used to make their economy so great. Lobbyists are pretty diabolical, at least from some of the things I have heard about them. They have proposed many schemes to pervert honest business practices, which have resulted in such things as the Savings and Loan scandal, Enron, Mortgage frauds, and many greater and lesser ills, which we are left to pick up after. They have done this mostly through lobbying for the relaxation of oversight laws.

The CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, ARTICLE 1 Section 9
……… and no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

It has been reported that currently there are a large number of criminal action suits pending against members of our government in Washington DC.[7] This number is likely to rise. Many of these proceedings involve the inappropriate acceptance of lobbyist gifts. The extent of the lobbyist influence is so bad that I am waiting for the lobbyists to push forward a reform proposal that does away with our state and federal representatives. In the representatives place the lobbyists might select representatives from each of the largest companies in the world. In this way there would be a great economy of savings. First, the lobbyist’s clients would save through the elimination of the expense for political favors or payoffs to our elected officials. Secondly, from the termination of their redundant staffs since the lobbyists can and do write many of the bills anyway. Their thinking, eliminate the middle man eliminate the politicians. While I try to jest here, I am afraid that such things might well occur if lobbyist, and their clients, could have their way. Some of our government leaders need to stop feathering their nest and start taking care to protect our Constitution. If these governmental leaders think that they will have enough money to make themselves safe after they complete their deals, they need to think it through. These leaders are allowing world conditions to deteriorate to the point that possibly no place on earth will be safe, including their bunkers.[8] They have not only increased nuclear tensions in many countries in the world, but they may have also hastened the death of the earth itself. This death would be due to their global growth strategies, which have promoted populations to grow through out the world. It appears that these strategies, if not now, would eventually exasperate a possible global warming condition. So if the nukes don’t get them, then earth’s climate might. It is not nice to fool with nature. Then, on top of all of this, there is a measured weakening of the magnetic poles and a possible pole shift that may bring unknown challenges for mankind. All of these conditions have the potential to destroy our populations to the point where civilization, as we know it, would be thrown hundreds of years backward. The very resource they exploited, which is other humans, in order to maintain their lifestyles, might no longer be here to meet their every need. They should rethink their goals and make sure the earth they leave for their children and grand children is as safe and secure as possible. There are balances in nature and they should work toward those balances not away from them, remembering also, that humans are part of that nature. We are all in the same boat, in the ocean of space, as it has been said.

Socialism vs. Elitism
To be sure some members of the Elite will spend a lot of money supporting think tanks which show the errors of people based Socialism. However, they will never really explain Elitism. I certainly agree that most forms of Socialism are measurable failures. One reason is because most forms of socialism usually end up looking like Elitism-type systems, where 10% of the people are garnering the overwhelming percentage of the wealth. These systems usually end up spending a huge amount of the economy on military expenses. The force is required to retain control. There is an argument that our very system of government is Socialism. If we view the way our social programs are distributed we see that the money is generally filtered through some corporation or organization which often ends up making them abundantly wealthy. This is part of what many call Corporate Welfare a form of socialism. Many of us, who sleep, may not know that our government grants tax breaks and incentives to many different organizations and corporations. The new congress of 2007 recently has reduced some of the breaks our government had given or allowed to the oil industry a few years ago.[9] Yet this, I understand, represents a small part of the corporate welfare. Strangely, oil rates went up not to long afterward. Was this just a coincidence? In any event, we can say; ‘so much for governmental control.’

The economic system I will propose in the chapter on Economy will likely be painted as a socialist or communist system. I strongly disagree that it is. I believe it is the capitalistic system that our founders had in mind when they started this nation. True, it would benefit more of society than our current system, but is that really so bad? To our elite handlers any system which threatens their control needs to be smeared. If my proposal really was to be considered, the think tank process would begin. They would paint anything good for the majority as bad for the economy. The News organizations would present these negative views over and over until we learn that they are right, but are they? To protect their greed filled system all methods of control will be unleashed. If need be, a sane person will be painted as an insane person to discredit or humiliate them. Since all of us do stupid things at times it would be easy to make people question our sanity or just humiliate us. Think of the picture of Einstein sticking out his tongue, I hope you all have seen it, if some of our elite wanted to discredit him this is the sort of thing that they might employ. We have all seen the political ads, which take moments of a candidate’s life and present them in an unflattering way. We should, by now, understand that our only defense against this type of campaigning, or tactic, is being forewarned to look for it. We need to understand it for what it is an attempt to humiliate another person. I suppose you may wonder why I should care if Democrats and Republicans humiliate themselves, since many represent unscrupulous corporate interest anyway. We should all care, because this kind of thing lowers our standards of behavior. As I have said, if you have the money, you could make anyone look bad, even the good ones. We should have the will to mark any candidate that employs this technique and reject them outright. Reject them by not voting for them. If we did, we would all be better off.