This is a perfect example of how the following groups can and should work together: environmentalists, 3rd parties (Green Party, Libertarians), anarcho capitalists, crypto currency entrepreneurs and blockchain developers, classical liberals, certain elements of the alt-right, small government conservatives/republicans, Bernie supporters, progressives, and many other groups all over the political spectrum.
I saw a lot of people making videos or posting on social media about taking your money out of Wells Fargo and other banks that are financing the DAPL pipeline in North Dakota.
Here’s a video from Matthew Cooke, who is a pretty prominent leader among Bernie-type progressives. This video has 2.2 million views so far (on Facebook, not Youtube). I saw it shared by a prominent anarcho-capitalist, which helps to prove a point that I’ve been saying for a long time: these groups on far ends of the political spectrum can help each other in a lot more ways than many people realize…
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Now I don't really study environmental issues at all to be honest, so I don’t have a whole lot to say on those matters, in terms of how safe pipelines are, their effect on local environments, or the bigger arguments about fossil fuels and climate change, etc. It’s not that I’m not interested in those subjects, it’s just that I’m focused on a lot of other things and I know it will take a lot of time to form an educated opinion about those issues.
However...
I do spend a lot of my time studying geopolitics. And what I do know is that the oil cartels and the banking cartels are probably the two most corrupt and machiavellian industries on the planet.
Western banks and oil companies have been in involved in the financing of both sides of virtually every major conflict/war of the 20th and 21st Centuries.
It is well known that the most dangerous sects within Islam like Wahhabism and Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda, and the Mujahideen from the 1980s all receive weapons, financing and assistance either directly from Western governments, intelligence agencies and banks… or indirectly through allies like Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, which are in turn backed by Western oil companies, banks, governments, defense contractors and other corporations.
This is not some big secret. I honestly don’t even know why this is still
considered controversial among some people.
However, what is not as widely talked about, is that the exact same kind of behavior and behind-the-scenes proxy warfare has been going on all throughout the entire Cold War as well as World War One and World War Two.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that the largest conventional war in history, World War Two, was not actually a conventional war in the way that people think of it. Rather, it was the largest PROXY war in human history.
It is well known that the United States uses terrorist groups to create regime changes all over the world in countries that do not cooperate with Western government or Western corporate interests (same thing) like Iran, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine and Syria, which results in millions of deaths and refugees, which in turn, creates economic, political and social chaos across entire regions of Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
However, What Is Not As Widely Talked About And Yet Thoroughly
Documented, Is That Just Like The Current War In Syria, The
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 Which Created The Soviet Union And
The Cancer Known As Communism And Eventually Led To The Deaths
Of 94 Million People Worldwide, Was Not A Spontaneous Internal
Popular Uprising…
Just Like Syria, It Too Was A Western Backed Regime Change That
Was Entirely Dependent On Outside Support and Financing From
Start To Finish. It Was In Fact, The Largest And Most Successful
Regime Change In World History
Not only did Western governments, banks and oil companies provide financial assistance to the Bolsheviks throughout the entire revolution, they effectively rebuilt the entire Russian economy during the 1920s after it became clear that Lenin’s economic reforms were a complete disaster and the Soviet experiment was about to fail.
Had the communists not received billions of dollars in loans, investments and industrial infrastructure from the West, it is unlikely the USSR would have even survived more than a decade or so and World War Two would have never happened – because the threat of Russian communism was one of the most central elements of Hitler’s rise to power and support among Germans – and neither would the Cold War.
Western backing of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution went all the way back to the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war in which the British provided the Japanese Navy with ships and Wall Street banks gave over $5 billion (in today’s dollars) in loans to the Japanese. During the war, 50,000+ Russian officers and soldiers were taken prisoner by the Japanese. While being held in POW camps, they were put through an extensive propaganda campaign conducted by George Kennan and Dr Nicholas Russel, which was financed by the New York investment firm Kuhn, Loeb and Company. The Russian POWs were given Marxist literature as well as informal discussions, lectures and classes on communist revolutionary tactics. These 50,000 POWs would then return to Russia and form the core of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Leon Trotsky was a critical component of the Bolshevik Revolution. The United States was responsible for shipping Trotsky from New York to Russia in March, 1917 in order to help Lenin with the revolution.
"Historians must never forget that Woodrow Wilson, despite the efforts of the British police, made it possible for Leon Trotsky to enter Russia with an American passport."
-Jennings C. Wise, former Commandant at Virginia Military Institute and Special Assistant Attorney General for U.S.
But they didn’t just finance and create the Soviet Union.
Western Banks And Corporations Like Ford, ITT, General Motors,
JP Morgan, etc Provided Nazi Germany With Billions Of Dollars
Worth Of Loans, Raw Materials, Machinery And Equipment Both
Before AND During The Entire Course of World War Two
In fact, next to the Rockefellers, the second largest shareholder in Standard Oil of New Jersey was the German chemical giant I.G. Farben. I.G. Farben was by far the most important industrial chemical manufacturer of the German war machine in World War Two. They produced 100% of Germany’s synthetic rubber, methanol and lubricating oil during the war. 95% of Germany’s nickel, 90% of its plastics, 88% of magnesium and 70% of its gunpowder.
In 1934 Standard Oil purchased 730,000 acres in Germany, were they built their refineries which supplied the Nazis with oil. Without the explicit help of Standard Oil, the Luftwaffe would have never even gotten off the ground in the first place. The planes that made up the Luftwaffe needed tetraethyl lead gasoline in order to fly. At the time, only Standard Oil, Du Pont, and General Motors had the ability to produce this vital substance. In 1938, Walter C. Teagle, then president of Standard Oil, helped Hermann Schmitz of I.G. Farben to acquire 500 tons of tetraethyl lead from Ethyl, a British Standard subsidiary. A year later, Schmitz returned to London and obtained an additional 15 million dollars worth of tetraethyl lead which was to be turned into aviation gasoline back in Germany.
“Farben was Hitler and Hitler was Farben.”
-Senator Homer T. Bone to Senate Committee on Military Affairs, June 4, 1943
The Ford Motor Company had numerous factories throughout Axis Europe during World War Two, some of them producing 20 cargo trucks a day for the Nazis. In March 1942 the Royal Air Force bombed the Ford plant at Poissy, France. The Vichy government later paid Ford Motor Company 38 million francs as compensation for damage done to the Poissy plant.
Standard Oil Refineries in Nazi controlled Romania
British owned Royal Dutch Shell railway cars transporting oil from
Romania to Germany in 1940
There are many books and resources you can look into if you want to learn more about this. The main important point here is that if you look back at history as well as current events going on in EuroAsia/Middle East/Africa, the practice of creating and instigating wars for profit and for strategic geopolitical reasons, as well as financing and helping your enemies while simultaneously fighting them is behavior that is absolutely 100% normal for all governments and oligarchs all over the world. It is one of the most consistent behavioral patterns we find in history, not only in the 21st and 20th centuries, but also going back to the 19th, 18th, 17th centuries and even further. This is just simply how these types of entities/organizations operate and it should always be assumed during any conflict or any war that this kind of activity is going on.
The purpose of this article is not to go into great depth on that subject but three books I would recommend putting at the top of your list would be…
#1. A Century of War by William Engdahl – This is a fantastic book by one of my favorite geopolitical analysts. Engdahl explains how control of oil markets and maintaining financial power has driven everything from World War One to World War Two, Central American to South American dictators, Suez to Iran, and Vietnam to Iraq.
#2. Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development by Professor Antony Sutton – This is a massive 1,293 page 3 book series that explains how the USSR was created and built by Western banks and corporations from 1917 to 1965.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Carter, is the man who is known for creating the Mujahiddin (which later morphed into the Taliban and Al Qaeda) in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. However this is a common misconception. The reality is that the Mujahiddin were created not as a response to the Soviet invasion, but rather to INCITE a Soviet invasion. You can read that here:
http://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/brzezinski_interview
Zbigniew Brzezinski meeting with the Mujahiddin and a man who is believed
to be Osama Bin Laden on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border in 1979
In Brezinski’s book ‘Between Two Ages’ he says this about Professor Sutton’s research:
“For impressive evidence of Western participation in the early phase of Soviet economic growth, see Antony C. Sutton’s Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development… which argues that Soviet economic development was essentially dependent on Western technological aid (p. 283), and that at least 95 per cent of the [Soviet] industrial structure received this assistance [from the West] (p. 348)”
In ‘Between Two Ages’ Brezinski also states that “economic investment in
states that subsequently became political enemies was characteristic of
the capitalist era” (p. 135)
And the third book…
#3. Who Set Hitler Against Stalin by Nikolai Starikov – This is an excellent book that explains the rationale and the reasons behind Western investments into Nazi Germany before and during World War Two.
I talk about Halford Mackinder a lot, the father of geopolitics and geostrategy. If you want to understand why the West would finance both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the same time, you have to understand Mackinder’s Heartland Theory. (Here’s a hint: The reason for financing both the Nazis and the Communists at the same time, is the same reason the CIA funded both sides of the Iran-Iraq war).
So what does all this have to do with the North Dakota pipeline?
The business connections between the former USSR, Nazi Germany, 3rd World dictators, Islamic terrorist organizations and Western companies like Royal Dutch Shell, BP - British Petroleum, Standard Oil (now Exxon-Mobil), DuPont, JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, HSBC, Bank of New York, American Express, General Motors, Ford Motors, ITT and countless others can fill thousands and thousands of pages and there isn’t room to list them all here.
And It Is For THOSE Reasons Alone That I Am 100% In Favor
Of Undermining And Taking Power Away From The Banking
And Oil Industries (Along With The State Of Course)
Nevermind the question of environmental issues, which, as I said before I don’t have a whole lot to say about.
I see this as a really good opportunity for progressives, environmentalists, anarchists, libertarians, small government conservatives and other groups I listed above to work together to undermine the banking system and defund the oil industry.
We share many of the same goals.
We have the technology to replace the banking industry with something better. We have the technology to replace much of what the fossil fuel industry does for us.
But by pushing for widespread usage of these technologies from the bottom up at the grassroots level we can satisfy the goals of environmentalists who want renewable/sustainable energies, as well as the goals of anarchists/libertarians who want a decentralized economy and resources.
There are of course, many progressives and environmentalists who want to pursue these goals via the state. But I see more and more people on the left coming to the realization that there are other alternative ways to accomplish these goals and we can do so better on our own through counter economics rather than through the state.
If All Of These Groups Work Together, We Outnumber Them
“Them” meaning the oligarchs, the deep state, the military industrial complex, the oil cartels, the banking conglomerates, the crony capitalist corporations, the establishment media and the fascist mainstream Republican and Democratic parties that support them.
Over 90 million eligible voters did not vote in 2016. National voter turnouts continue to decline every year and are at all time lows. That’s a good thing, that means the 2 party system is dying. It means people don’t participate because they don’t feel like the current system represents them. Which means they are prime prospects for a new system, a completely different way of doing things.
Independents dwarf either of the establishment parties by themselves and very soon, I wouldn’t be surprised if we already do, will outnumber both the Democrat and Republican parties combined.
Also keep in mind, many of the people who identify as Republicans or Democrats in these polls hate their own party and only identify as such because they feel those are the only choices and they just aren’t aware that there are better options.
So going back to Matthew Cooke’s video I posted at the top of this article…
I’ve seen a lot of people on social media talking about pulling their money out of big banks like Wells Fargo and putting their money into credit unions as a way of fighting things like the North Dakota pipeline.
That’s a good start and I’m all for it.
But might I suggest to those people to think even more outside the box and expand their ideas about ways we can fight the system.
Switching To Credit Unions Is Fine, But The Problem Is You’re
Still Using US Dollars. You’re Still Using THEIR Currency, You’re
Still Operating Within THEIR System, Playing By THEIR Rules
That's where they get all their power from, by controlling the currency. As long as they control the currency, they will still control the economy and they will still be able to control the direction that the money flows in the economy.
And the reason that the fossil fuel industry is still dominating, rather than other forms of alternative energy, is because of funding. As long as they control the currency, they will always be able to control which industries receive more funding than others.
So my suggestion to those on “the left” would be to also consider taking things a step further and switching to crypto currencies like bitcoin.
And here’s the thing: The world is moving in that direction anyway. Eventually all currencies will be digital, it’s only a matter of time and it’s probably going to happen a lot sooner than people realize.
So we might as well accept that fact and get ahead of the trend NOW and start adopting decentralized crypto currencies that WE have control over instead of the big banks and the central banks.
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Blockchain is Eating Wall Street - Alex Tapscott - TEDxSanFrancisco
Switch to currencies like bitcoin now before the big banks force you to use their currencies, which they will be able to manipulate in any way they want. If you use their digital currencies, they will literally be able to steal from us with the simple push of a button (they already do) by inflating their digital currencies in any way they want.
I really hope that people on the left grasp this because if they don’t, all of their efforts are going to be meaningless.
You Think Corruption And Crony Capitalism
And Corporate Welfare Is Bad Now?
Just wait until the central banks roll out their digital currencies. I mean that’s basically what the US dollar is now, just digits on a screen. But just wait until they get rid of all physical cash, which is what governments and banks all over the world are working towards. They will be able to shift billions and trillions of dollars around the economy in any way they please, steal money from anyone with the push of a button, move money from one industry to another in any way they want. They will be able to pump billions into the military industrial complex and the oil companies even more than they do now.
Voting is just a temporary, band aid fix that can only slow the tide of massive centralization and concentration of power by the elites.
The only way to truly take power away from these psychopaths is to PHYSICALLY take it away by depriving and starving them of resources, assets and influence.
And that doesn’t mean using taxes or force to take resources away from them.
That Means Building OUR OWN Alternative, Self Sufficient Economy
That Is Independent Of Theirs And Decentralized So That No Concentration
Of Power (Whether Public Or Private) Can Have Too Much Control
You see, as long as you’re participating in their system and using their products and services (ie – their currencies), you are playing on THEIR monopoly board, with THEIR funny money, THEIR game pieces and THEIR rules.
We might gain little temporary victories here and there, they might throw us a few bones every now and then to keep us happy, but as long as they OWN the gameboard, they will always remain in control and they will always win in the end.
The Real Long Term Solution Here Is Not Trying To Change The
Rules Of THEIR game – The Way To Permanently Win Is By
Walking Away From Their Game Altogether And Creating An
Entirely NEW Gameboard Of Our Own With Our Own Rules,
Our Own Economy, Our Own Products, Services And Currencies
Alternative agricultural systems
Alternative legal systems (blockchain based smart contracts)
Alternative energy
Alternative community protection services
Alternative manufacturing systems
Alternative education
Alternative media
Alternative communication channels/platforms
Alternative peer-to-peer networks
Alternative currencies
Alternative organizational structures and value systems: Open source, horizontal bottom up P2P economy and radical transparency vs closed access, top down hierarchy and secrecy
We Can Do All Of This…
But Not In The False Left vs Right Paradigm
The left vs right paradigm is the box that the corporate media wants everyone to operate within. Because fitting everyone into those two boxes is what gives them control.
When we refuse to operate within that paradigm… when we refuse to play by their rules on their gameboard that they setup for us… when we work with other people all over the political spectrum, that’s what gives us power. That’s what makes the corporate media powerless and irrelevant and that's what will allow us to accomplish things like creating a new economy which undermines all their power.
The left vs right paradigm is the box that the corporate media wants everyone to operate within. Because fitting everyone into those two boxes is what gives them control.
When we refuse to operate within that paradigm… when we refuse to play by their rules on their gameboard that they setup for us… when we work with other people all over the political spectrum, that’s what gives us power. That’s what makes the corporate media powerless and irrelevant and that's what will allow us to accomplish things like creating a new economy which undermines all their power.
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If you want to connect with me more, the best way to do so right now is through Facebook:
You might really enjoy this new novel, which I pre-reviewed here.
https://steemit.com/scifi/@plotbot2015/post-scarcity-punk-review-of-walkaway-by-cory-doctorow
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