Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Jun 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

I reported that the Pentagon admits that “due to accounting errors,” they LOST $6.2 BILLION! This is nothing new. The Pentagon has NEVER passed even one audit. Money simply vanishes and is often used by the Neocons to undermine geopolitics to further their own agenda. Then there is the sheer price gouging that is mindblowing. There is ZERO accountability EVER when it comes to war.

I have heard the conspiracy theories that this $6.2 billion funded the Russian coup. That is not true. There is a lot more behind the scenes regarding the coup and the Western press is too biased to really report the truth. They would rather portray this is the end of Putin than dig even a quarter-inch beath the surface.

I have not just reconstructed the world monetary system but also included every form of government I have been able to document. Just as I reported that the Peloponnesian War was Sparta v Athens, which was ancient Communism v Capitalism. Sparta never issued any coinage, and they rejected private property. They were the first commune that inspired Marx, the French, and many others. It was Sparta that won against Democracy, which gave people like Schwab hope.

The office of the Inspector General in our governmental system is only a symbolic gesture to the old Roman Plebeian Tribune, Tribunus plebis, the tribune of the people. The Tribune had the power to bring criminal charges against any government official. It was created because the elite’s corruption was unprecedented during the Roman Republic. Thereafter during the Imperial Era, the Emperor would claim to have the Tribucan power to defend the people against the corrupt Senate. We are desperately in need of that power being restored today. I do not support “Republics” or career politicians that can be bought and paid for. There was $2.3 trillion missing, and that was in 2001. Magically, one of the three planes during 911 just so happened to strike the Penago but only the room where all the records were stored. Obviously, the terrorists were trying to prevent the audit of the Pentagon that Rumsfeld swore would take place the day before 911.

The Plebeian Tribune defended the people against the corruption of the government. This was the prelude to Caesar crossing the Rubicon when it became clear the whole system was just too corrupt. The Plebeian Tribune was perhaps the first attempt to stop corruption. This was not a military function but rather a powerful political office. The Tribune had the power to defend the people. This function was called ius auxilii. The body of the plebeian (people) was sacrosanct – the people were Rome, not the politicians. In Latin, the term for this power is sacrosancta potestas. The Plebeian Tribune had the power to veto anything that the Senate tried to enact.

The number of Plebeian Tribunes varied, but in the beginning, there were two appointed to this position when this office was created in 494 BC. This coincided with the First Secession of the Plebeians getting their own assembly. When the plebeians seceded in 494 BC, demanding representation (similar to our not taxation without representation), the patricians granted them the right to have Plebeian Tribunes with greater power than the patrician tribal heads. These Plebeian Tribunes became very powerful figures in Rome’s Republican government. They had the right to veto but even much more. Thus, our Congress is voted by the people, and the Senate was originally established whereby the states appointed Senators. It took a Constitutional Amendment in 1912 to allow the Senate to be subject to election. We can see the original form of the US government was to mirror that of the Roman Republic. The office of the Inspector General became the substitute for the Plebeian Tribunes.

As I have said, hand ANY power to those in government, and they will expand that power endlessly. Once the plebs created a governing body, they too followed that same path of endless expansion. The number of Plebeian Tribunes grew rapidly to five from two. By 457 B.C., there were now ten Plebeian Tribunes. Soon after creating the Plebeian Tribunes, the plebeians were then allowed two Plebeian Aediles. The election of the Plebeian Tribune, from 471 BC, after the passage of the lex Publilia Voleronis, is when we then find that they expanded their bureaucracy and then a council of plebeians presided over by a Plebeian Tribune.

The power of the Tribune grew. That is when a patrician, Publius Clodius Pulcher (93–52 BC), who had a distinguished noble family, actually had himself adopted by a plebeian branch of their family so he could run for the office of a plebeian tribune under the plebeian name of Clodius. He was a populist Roman politician who saw the growing corruption in the Senate led by Cato the Younger and Cicero. He became a political contender during the First Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. He went as far as to stage an adoption by a Pleb to defend them.

As a Plebeian Tribune, Clodius pushed through an ambitious legislative program, including free grain for the poor. This would become a corrupt welfare program in itself for when Caesar came to power, he ordered a census and found extensive corruption to get free grain with multiple fictional people claiming residence in the same small flat. Nevertheless, Clodius is primarily remembered for his feuds with corrupt political opponents, particularly Cicero, whose writings offer antagonistic, detailed accounts and allegations concerning Clodius’ political activities and scandalous lifestyle. Cicero targeted Clodius, who was then tried for the capital offense of sacrilege, following his intrusion on the women-only rites of the goddess Bona Dea. They claimed Clodius intended to rape Caesar’s wife, Pompeia. Clodius’ feud with the fake news author and corrupt Cicero led to Cicero’s temporary exile. Clodius’ feud with Titus Annius Milo (died 48 BC) ended in his own death at the hands of Milo’s bodyguards. In 52 BC, Milo was then prosecuted for the murder of  Clodius and exiled from Rome. His friend, Marcus Tullius Cicero, unsuccessfully defended him in the speech Pro Milone.

Without a Plebeian Tribune with the power to bring criminal charges against anyone on capitol hill, including senators, congressmen, bureaucrats, and even the Attorney General, the corruption in Washington will consume the entire nation like cancer.

Lindsey Graham can promote World War III because of his hatred of every Russian, but the hard facts suggest that the US cannot produce as many munitions as Russia. This corruption is consuming everything! The United States spends over $800 billion annually on defense with ZERO accountability! Shai Assad, former Defense Department contract negotiator Assad said the Pentagon overpays for absolutely everything! What NASA pays under $400 for, the Pentagon pays $10,000. The West is running out of ammunition. Perhaps Lindsey and his Neocon buddies should stop skimming off these contracts and diverting money to overthrow other leaders or to keep the ones they like in power with endless bribes.

For the people, war is only death and destruction. For the Neocon politicians – it’s an endless gravy train for all their clandestine operations.