I received this in my email box today and thought how true these statements are. I would like to know what you think. Your comments are always welcome on this blog.
Thanks,
Adam
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"There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation.
One is by the sword. The other is by debt."
John Adams 1826
"You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong."
A. Lincoln
"When injustice becomes law, then resistance becomes duty."
T. Jefferson
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nobody can beat what they have spoken about because these wise men observed and even experienced it in reality.
Here are a few more wise words, particularly for Lynn who doesn't get what's happening here and conveniently ignored the fact that Congress refused to pass that bill without an amendment stating no existing legal rights of citizens may be infringed by it, which Obama signed. He must kowtow to the same corporate interests running things that Repugs embrace, having long since decided that's the only game in town. They tailored the War on Terror to order. Obama, in contrast, wrinkles his nose and negotiates, with Cheshire cat smile and eyes darting for new holds to try out on the beast.
"...Neither body to jail nor soul to damn." - Lord Edward Thurlow (1731-1806) describing a new British invention, the corporation.
"The directors of such [joint-stock] companies, however, being the managers rather of other people's money than of their own, it cannot well be expected, that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own.... Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company." - Adam Smith (1723-90), considered by many to be the father of our capitalist system.
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." - attributed to A. Lincoln, letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
"The Commission is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, while at the same time that supervision is almost entirely nominal." - Richard Olney, former corporate lawyer, as US Attorney General, circa 1889, re the first US regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.
"To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1912
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power." - FDR, 1942
"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims while incidentally capturing their markets, to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples while blundering accidentally into their oil wells." - John T. Flynn (1882-1964, American writer), 1944
"It is our job to make women unhappy with what they have." - B. Earl Puckett, Allied Stores Corp. 1953
"For the corporation executives, the military metaphysic often coincides with their interest in a stable and planned flow of profit; it enables them to have their risk underwritten by public money; it enables them reasonably to expect that they can exploit for private profit now and later, the risky research developments paid for by public money. It is, in brief, a mask of the subsidized capitalism from which they extract profit and upon which their power is based." - C. Wright Mills, Causes of World War 3, 1960.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
"Madison Avenue is a very powerful aggression against private consciousness. A demand that you yield your private consciousness to public (corporate) manipulation." - Marshall McLuhan (1911-80)
"The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." - Alex Carey, Australian social scientist, 1995
"The greatest threat to democracy is the increasing concentration of major electronic media in ever fewer hands." - Rep. David Price (D-NC)
"The corporation is an externalizing machine (moving its operating costs and risks to external organizations and people), in the same way that a shark is a killing machine." - Robert Monks (2003) Republican candidate for Senate from Maine and corporate governance adviser in the film "The Corporation".
"... leadership begins on Madison Avenue, on the desks and in the offices of people who spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying what will get them ratings." - Norman Lear
"Contrary to popular opinion, the hustle is not a new dance step -- it is an old business procedure." - Fran Lebowitz - "In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy."
"A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship." - Chalmers Johnson (1931-2010) UC professor and analyst for the CIA.
Bravo to Mooo--I would only add "you are entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts". The GOP makes up their own facts !!
There are 2 instruments to correct and punish nations for bad policies in the world today. One is war, and the other, the Bond markets. John Adams recognized that.
Adams' quote was true 186 years ago and still true today. There is absolutely no plan by this President to pay down the debt. He is interested in two things and two things only. Re-election and redistributing wealth.
RE: Fiat money, Debt based economics, and Bankers
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws."
- Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Mr Moooooo
Today Abama signed a paper saying he trumps the 6th amendment and you can be held without a speedy trail or charges for as long as he likes! Smile comrade.
Regards, Lynn
We have become a nation of people with feet of clay
and hearts bent on having our own way.
Freedom without sacrificial responsibility today
has taken us to an sad place of decay.
We are reaping what we have sown
in not caring for our neighbor in our communities at home.
There is no excuse for losing our way,
but going forward we can expect to pay
And pay dearly for conveniently treating truth
as a relative, manipulated source of couth.
The path of truth and love cry out
to be received and acted upon without a doubt..
Ron Paul is running for the last time plz take a look at a true conservative before it`s to late. There are plenty of the Bush Romney types that vote with the wind- sock. But only one Ron Paul.
With regards, Lynn
[Tea Party]
Excellent quotes - thank you Adam!
My BS detector just pegged off the scale, reading all this. There are many wise men who spoke the truth. You can't just take a few words and run where you like with them, so here are many more wise words to consider.
"Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? ... He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly ..." - Micah 6:7-8
"... the ultimate goal of a business is not to make a profit. Profit is just the means. The goal is the general welfare." - Adam Smith (1723-90), considered by many to be the father of the capitalist system
"There is...an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents.... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy." - Thomas Jefferson
"Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind." - John Adams - "The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country."
"If riches increase, they are increased that use them. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate, but kills the owner." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." - Theodore Roosevelt
"If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people He gives it to." - Dorothy Parker
"To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and stay sober." - Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946), U.S. essayist
"The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice." - Mahatma Gandhi
"As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash." - Harper Lee
"Money is the mother's milk of politics." - Jesse Unruh, 1966
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Corporations, which previously had been considered artificial entities with no rights, were accorded all the rights of persons, and far more, since they are 'immortal persons', and 'persons' of extraordinary wealth and power. Furthermore, they were no longer bound to the specific purposes designated by State charter, but could act as they choose, with few constraints." - Noam Chomsky
"It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be." - Warren Buffett
"I refuse to live in a country like this, and I'm not leaving." - Michael Moore
Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget
1981 - 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.
1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.
1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.
2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.
2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.
2001 - 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.
2002: Dick Cheney declares, "Deficits don't matter." Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.
2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama's fiscal irresponsibility.
2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.
September 2010: In Obama's first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama's fiscal irresponsibility.
October 2010: S&P endorses the nation's AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.
November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.
December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.
March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.
July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.
August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.
There have been several instances since the mid 1990s in which I genuinely believed Republican politics couldn't possibly get more blisteringly ridiculous. I was wrong; they just keep getting worse.
"Alan Greenspan has proclaimed himself "shocked" that "the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity" proved to be an illusion... The Reagan-Thatcher model, which favored finance over domestic manufacturing, has collapsed. ... The mutually reinforcing rise of financialization and globalization broke the bond between American capitalism and America's interests. ...we should take a cue from Scandinavia's social capitalism, which is less manufacturing-centered than the German model. The Scandinavians have upgraded the skills and wages of their workers in the retail and service sectors -- the sectors that employ the majority of our own workforce. In consequence, fully employed impoverished workers, of which there are millions in the United States, do not exist in Scandinavia." - Harold Meyerson, "Building a Better Capitalism"], The Washington Post, March 12, 2009. (see URL)
"The more restrictions and prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become. The sharper the people's weapons are, the more national confusion increases. The more skill artisans require, the more bizarre their products are. The more precisely laws are articulated, the more thieves and outlaws increase."
-The Tao Te Ching
The statements made by these wise men reminds me that human nature never changes. Their insightful words rang true in their times and ours as well.
Great thoughts from great men. It is unfortunate that we don't have anyone of that caliber ( from eother party) to lead our country at this critical time. I agree with many of the other posters, We get what we elect! It is time for all of us to take an in depth look at who we are electing and what they can do for our country. There is no easy solution, there must be give and take from ALL parties in order to solve our problems. Blame needs to stop, thinking needs to start and cooperation needs to happen.
Good info, Jim. I agree. We need to wake up before 2012 election and take back our country.
Who continued the bailing out of Wall Street? Obama. What is fair about giving away trillions of the tax payers dollars to save the big banks on Wall Street. Why didn't he just make those checks out in an even amount to each and every tax paying citizen of the U.S.?
Now you want to take from the successful and give to those who do not contribute. How many poor people have employed you?
I do not approve of greed and do not agree with class warfare.
Do you have any idea who pays the greatest percentage of our taxes and who receives the greatest benefits from those taxes?
I couldn't agree more with all three quotes.
The problem as I see it is that both parties only represent the interests of a narrow extreme and simply promise the rest of us what we want to hear. In real terms, they do not represent the collective "US".
This current president is horrible. The Congress is no better.
The Roman Empire developed the Colosseum and Gladiators including lions to entertain the public so they would focus on that and not their decaying nation. We do the same with our sports. The Romans over extended their military which sapped their finances until they started to raid the estates of the nation. We do the same with inflation and the printing of money. Their military got so big that they lost control of it and that sounds like us. Our military is in a cold war against ourselves since we spend more on military than the rest of the world combines. We cannot even define the enemy. We are selling our latest planes to Saudi Arabia, Taiwan etc and of course the technology will soon be available to the highest bidder nation. We left a bunch of hardware in Iraq which one day will be used against us. How stupid.
Governor Brown has or is trying to eliminate the Redevelopment fund to pay for prisoners, the guards and the judicial system. How wasteful. We need redevelopment funds to pay for improve housing and for keeping our neighborhoods clean and up to date. Who wants another Detroit downtown. Forget the Bush motto of "no child left behind." That statement is plain stupid since should be left behind to do manual labor or left behind to become good mechanics, and the trades. Not everyone should go to college.
I believe our finance minister in Sweden, Mr. Anders Borg has read these powerful words above. In US you often talk about the bad things in the Europe economics, but we are many different countries in Europe. Mr. Borg (Castle) started to struggle against the Swedish debt when he got his position. Today we have a better control over our finances, compared to most other countries in the world.
words of wisdom - but who's listening ?
Certainly not the idiots in Congress, and certainly not Boobus Americanus
AMEN,UNFORTUNATELY!!! PJM
The top 5% of wage earners pays 58.7% of all federal employee taxes. The bottom 50% pays 2.3%. Therefore the remaining 45% pays 39% of federal taxes. Look it up on the IRS's web page. In fact the amount paid would even be higher but isn't due to lower rates on capital gains and dividends.
And to quote
"The top 5% of taxpayers (AGI equal to or greater than $154,643) however, still paid far more than the bottom 95%. The top 5 % earned 31.7of the nations adjusted gross income,but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes" Summary Ocober 24,2011 Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact No. 285
Don't pay their fair share? - do your homework - just not true.
timsa.uk is applying tunnel vision to this discussion. The 1929 collapse of the stock market triggered reforms that have since been ignored, circumvented, or abandoned by our Congress. Regan's effort was to reverse some of those trends, - Bush chose NOT to campaign against a Congress driven by Greed, and Obama used his super majority to take over the economy & destroy it We need genuine finance reform, Term limits, and a News media that cannont represent Editorialized news as news.
we have come full circle in a couple hundred years .tea party takes back america and we start over
Like in Old Rome, politicians promise bread and butter and games (Panem et circenses)to keep people busy and not start to think. People always get the games, but where is the bread and butter?
"When you have dug yourself into a deep hole, the first rule is to stop digging."
When you are in debt, the only way out is to temporarily: 1) Reduce expenses
2) Increase income until the problem is under control. I don't care if it's the government or my personal finances, it works the same way.
The country is not being run it is simply continuing to run.
yOU'VE GOT IT RIGHT. HOWEVER,I THINK WE SHOULD REMEMBER THAT MANY OF OUR ELDERLY ,>65 YRS OLD, PAID INTO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY FUND ,WHICH OUR GOVT. STOLE INSTEAD OF INVESTING IT FOR THEIR RETIREMENT. TYRRANY WITH THE SOC. SEC./MEDICARE FUNDS TO PAY FOR "OBAMACARE " & CONTINUED PAYROLL TAX HOLIDAY WITH CONTINUED PAYMENT OF "UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS & FOODSTAMPS" ....ENOUGH SAID...OUR LEADERS ARE IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO FORM A EUROPEAN-STYLE DEBACLE HERE FOR THE U.S.A.
The "Bankers" are not the issue. 200,000 Negroes didn't flee their tribal homeland of Chicago and move to the suburbs because of the bankers. It was because of the mayor Daley regime and its taxation. Other people left for the same reason but also because Daley, who ran out of money to give to city employees and to spend on social programs to buy votes, sold the street parking system to a foreign corporation who tripled and quadrupled parking meter rates. And the rates downtown are worse. He also raised automotive fees and his successor, Rahm Emanuel, is placing huge restrictions and fines for violations of public demonstration laws. Daley also persecuted industry out of Chicago as this working class inner city Irishman decided he wanted to be A euro-twit and travel the world as a leader of a major city in finance and culture. The city and the state are going broke due to pension costs and all corruption which comes from its seat, the city of Chicago and cook county, which were Daley controlled. The core voting groups responsible for this were welfare Negroes (about the whole population including affirmative action hiring), Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, also on welfare or city jobs, and finally, the great mass of older hirelings who got useless jobs to assure they voted Democrat. In addition there are those who merely make money from contracts or from excessive wages and benefits - which is the unions and especially the teachers who are overpaid for the ineffective work they do. As for the bankers, they are usually Democrats and part of the degenerate New York establishment. Any rules to which they are subject are likely to be made or rescinded by the elected officials of Congress, many of whom are put into office for life by the likes of the rabble we have voting in Chicago.
We should elect a president that will cut taxes and start another war! Lets get back on track! Continue to cut taxes for the upper brackets as we have done for the past 40years and watch the debt grow larger! We need more greed!
You should do your homework before a comment like that.
From the IRS's own web page, the top 1% of wage earners pays 36.7% of all wage earner taxes. The top 5% pays in excess of 58.7% while the bottom 50% pays only 2.3%. The reason that the top 5% taxes aren't higher is due to capital gains and dividends. Therefore the remaining 45% of wage earners pays 39% of federal wage earner taxes.
There is no free. Someone always has to pay. Not everyone gets or is entitled to a trophy or a house or the best things in life. It is called competition.
I'm upset with my generation ,the over 50's, in that we allowed the politions to spend and spend basically to get re-elected.
I think like Gral. Custer, but. . . The good politician is the Dead Policitian.-
Don't "COVET" ANOTHER MAN'S WIFE/PROPERTY/GOODS/MONEY!! THE TOP 1% PAYS >40% OF THE TAXES IN THIS COUNTRY NOW WHILE ABOUT 1/2.. 50% DON'T PAY ANY INCOME TAXES AT ALL!!! GET A LIFE ....!!!
New World Order is being implemented at an accelerated pace . We had better wake up before it is too late.
i think Adam is getting at something else. Though he should probably speak for himself.
I remember Adam predicting violence from the OWS crowd. How ironic that ALL the violence has come from the police state serving the 1%. Stephen, you have it right. Anyone who can look at the growing inequality, growing injustice, growing police state that has immerged since Reagans trickle down dogma was first embraced by the oligarchs is either blind or hoping to keep we the people blind.
And to blame Obabma, who seems to be honestly seeking a more fair opportunity for all(in most cases-nobody's perfect)is to deny the single thing that made America great... a fair and just society with opportunity for all. Read Paul Krugman(and many others) to understand that now is the time for MORE investment in education, MORE super cheap debt and MORE investment in the American dream. It's time wake up and acknowledge that GREED is NOT good. Restore the Reagan era tax rates. And tax capital gains at the same rate as your earned income. Stop corporate loopholes. And PLEASE end Corporate welfare.
Doug, you are correct. "We the people" have continued to elect politicians that only care about maintaining their position at the public trough without any concern at all for what is best for the country. Their policies of wealth redistribution have resulted in whole generations of people that are beholden to the government for everything to the point that it has become their "right" to do nothing in life except procreate and wait for their monthly stipend from the government. That, coupled with the expectation of the government to totally protect everyone from everything, has just about destroyed this country. Ben Franklin said it best, "Those that would give up freedom for security shall have neither."
Yours comments are very adequate for Spain .
Great comments Doug and Mark,we are about to become enslaved
by the banksters and it is our own doing. We took the bait.DEBT,DEBT,DEBT
God help the world!
Unfortunately, we can only blame ourselves because "we the people" elected and continue to elect the politicians that have done and are doing this to us. Sadly, too many Americans no longer have any desire to be responsible for themselves and want cradle-to-grave protection from everything. That "protection" comes at a very steep price - loss of freedom. As Ben Franklin so succintly expressed it, "He who would trade freedom for security shall have neither.".
I agree, when the 99% of Americans become permanently indebted to the 1%, and the 1% don't see the reason to pay their fair share of taxes, then resistance is the only remaining option. That is what you were getting at, right Adam?
“When injustice becomes law, then resistance becomes duty.”
T. Jefferson
I like this one most. The first statement has happen to my country; but the second would only be true, mmmmm may be another 2 decades to go.
Time to resist!
Joseph Stalin, "It doesn't matter how people vote. What matters is who is counting the vote." Electronic voting machines have been shown to be easily manipulated.
Until people realize that politicians are just puppets, and address the real problem of who is actually running/ruining this country, (hint: Banksters, Bilderburg group) there will be no change. We are on a slippery slope.
We keep blaming the politicians but I believe that for those over 50, one merely need look in the mirror to find the culprit. We have enjoyed(and not protested) the greatest lifestyle ever enjoyed by a civilization...............created by wreckless spending and unprecedented debt. We would not have, and still won't, vote anyone into office who has the courage to tell the truth.
The greatest enemy is not from 'without'!
Thomas Jefferson was a wise man!
Time to resist!
Shame politicians can't remember the lessons of the past.
We had great forefathers!Their insight and efforts had took nation to its highest level; however our recent deeds are against these sound principals and see what's happening! it is a collective responsibility of American to cling to these insights and uplift ourselves.
Well spoken!!!
We are seeing the same erosion of personal liberties in the UK. It is always couched in terms of 'terrorism' and public safety. Hitler used the same argument from the late 1930s onwards.
Let's engrave this on the White House portico.