Divided States of America: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation
By SPIEGEL Staff
The United States is frittering away its role as a model for the rest of the world. The political system is plagued by an absurd level of hatred, the economy is stagnating and the infrastructure is falling into a miserable state of disrepair. On this election eve, many Americans are losing faith in their country's future.
No System to Protect Against Storm Surges
A Land of Limited Opportunities
A Lack of Strength
- Part 1: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation
- Part 2: Two Hostile Camps
- Part 3: America Falls Behind
- Part 4: The Mother of all Austerity Measures
Click Here to See Personal Page
ROBERT STEELE: There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed, and fixed quickly, by restoring intelligence with integrity to our electoral and governance processes. As Ron Paul himself just stated on Fox, there is no difference between the two candidates and their parties — same wars, same Wall Street policies, same attacks on civil liberaties — and to this I would add — same lack of intelligence, integrity, and imagination. Whoever “wins” this fraud-ridden election inherits a Congress that is totally corrupt, a Supreme Court that has been subverted by Louis Powell and the US Chamber of Commerce, and an Executive that is bloated, overpaid, and devoid of imagination. The first step the President must take is to clear the financial deck.
Part I is the Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax — set at the correct but still miniscule level, this will TRIPLE federal, state, and local revenues while ending borrowing and even paying interest on the illicitly-mounted debt pending execution of Part II. This has the immediate side benefit of neutering Congressional corruption and ending the role of lobbyists in relation to the tax code.
Part II is the Chicago Plan Revisited as being discussed within the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In my personal view, if combined with a broad Presidential pardon of all concerned, a national quit claim against Wall Street, this just might be actualized. Wall Street understands that populist rage is ready to explode — this gives them a self-preservation exit with no down side.
Part III is the selection of a Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with a big brain and straight spine, who can actually manage a Whole of Government PPBS/E process, using the emerging model of 21st Century Public Governance.
Part IV is the rapid creation of the Open Source Agency (OSA), perhaps to be co-located with the Pentagon or at Dahlgren Naval Air Base, such that honest and holistic open source intelligence (OSINT) can be provided to Whole of Government down to the desk and action officer levels, at the same time that the US Government finally gets serious about nurturing all of the opens — “all in” on Open Source Everything (OSE)
Part V is the reconstruction of an effective White House and Cabinet form of government. Who becomes secretary of defense will be critical — I actually believe the same person would be excellent under either candidate, because if the President — whoever that might be — is smart enough to eliminate all other taxes and use the Automated Payment Transaction Tax as a game changer, a strong, sane, simplified Department of Defense, with non-reimbursable funding for waging peace via the Department of State and Agency for International Development, becomes the linch pin for creating 21st Century Public Governance that works–that is imbued with intelligence and integrity. Absent a true transformation (one that is not possible without the APT Tax and ideally also the Chicago Plan), the next four years will be worse than the last four.
