Prologue
Recall that A. A. Asbury was killed in Scotland while searching for Wire’s teeth and that Boozer met Alice in Wonderland after he fell down a rabbit hole in Saw Mill Hollow. As it turned out, Alice Ann is the twin sister of A. A. and she found that she can communicate with A. A. through a medium. The spirit of A. A. is actually “living” two centuries in the future and he can somehow communicate with Alice in the present. Due to this time anomaly, A. A. is often able to tell Alice of current and past events and tell her of his concern about the possible results of these events. Since A. A. is “living” two hundred years in the future, he already knows the outcomes, but he can’t tell Alice of the results since the future is flexible and can be changed by the actions of the people who reside in the present. The Librarian, who resides in the same domain as A. A. and who is the keeper of all books written since the beginning of time, has indicated to A. A. that the free will of people must be respected. If A. A. told Alice of the results of past and current events, then that would fix the future and he is not permitted to do that. The Librarian indicated that the outcomes of these events are already recorded in the history books in the library, but if the people in the present take different actions and change the outcomes, then the history books will automatically be rewritten to reflect these changes.

A Telephone Call
Boozer received a phone call from Alice, who seemed to be very frightened by something. Alice wanted to meet Boozer at the Big Wheel in Alderson as soon as possible to tell him of something she had learned from A. A..  Boozer and Alice meet at the Big Wheel.

Boozer: Hello, Alice, nice to see you again.

Alice: Same here; let’s find a booth in a back corner. I want to tell you something that I learned from A. A.. I think it’s quite disturbing and I want to see what you think.

Boozer: O.K. How about the booth over there?

At this point Alice and Boozer go to a booth in the back of the Big Wheel.

Alice: I spoke with A. A. last night through my medium and he told me of current and past events that are taking place in America. A. A. indicated that he didn’t think that the people are completely aware of the possible implications of these events. I asked A. A. if he would tell me the results of these events, but he said that he is not permitted to do that. He said that the future is flexible and is determined by the actions of the people in the present.

Boozer: What did A. A. have to say that’s so important?

Alice: Well, A. A. said that there is a fairly large and loosely knit group of mostly “super rich” people in America, whom he called the Controllers, that is trying to determine the direction of our country. He didn’t tell me exactly who the Controllers are. He didn’t say Republican, Democrat, Independent, Tea Party, so exactly who they are is something that has to be determined, probably by the American people themselves. A. A. did say, however, that many of them hold high-level positions in banks, in investment firms and in international corporations and that the actions of the Controllers are, for the most part, directed toward maintaining their “super rich” status. It also very likely that some members of the Controllers are members of our government; they may even be members of congress who have risen over the years to leadership levels and who are willing to do the bidding of the Controllers in order to continue in their positions.

Boozer: Anything else?

Alice: A. A. indicated that a great deal of it began with the protests of the Vietnam War. The Controllers realized that something must be changed if America is to continue to be able to engage in “wars of choice” around the world. College students across America will very quickly object and go “to the streets” to protest a war they judge to be unjust. In fact, many of the mothers and fathers of these college students will also object to their sons and daughters being drafted to participate in such wars. So the Controllers were able to quietly convince the military and the leaders of our government that the draft should be ended and that the military should be a volunteer army.

Boozer: Wars of Choice?

Alice: Yes, it appears that America has, for reasons unknown to most Americans, decided that it must police the world. Most Americans do not know that the military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world. A. A. indicated that this policing policy is very tightly tied to American business interests abroad, particularly to the acquisition of natural resources that will benefit these businesses.

Boozer: The Controllers? I haven’t heard of this group before. Also, if the military is to be made up of volunteers, then how were the parties involved convinced that there would be enough volunteers?

Alice: No, you probably haven’t heard of the Controllers before. I had never heard of them either until A. A. told me of them. It seems that this group works in secret and behind the scenes to try to direct the outcomes of events toward their interests. With regard to enough volunteers for the military, the Controllers decided some years ago to create a permanent underclass of people with low wages and to give the young men and women of this class an incentive to join the military.

Boozer: But how can they do that?

Alice: One aspect of the plan is to slowly make a college education so expensive that it will be mostly “out of reach” of the youth in the underclass and then by using the GI Bill. For example, in the 1950’s the minimum wage was 50 cents an hour while college tuition was about $40 per semester. To see exactly what has happened with regard to the costs of a college education, let’s look at the ratio of tuition to minimum wage. Today, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, so let’s see what the tuition should be today to be comparable to what it was in the 1950’s. If we let X be this tuition, then 40/.50 = X/7.25. Solving this for X gives X = $580. Thus, the tuition today should be $580 per semester if college tuition today were to be comparable to what it was in the 1950’s. However, the tuition at a public college or university is currently somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000 per semester. Let’s split the difference and suppose that the tuition is $3,500 per semester and see what the minimum wage should be today so that the ratio of tuition to minimum wage would be the same as it was in the 1950’s. If X is this minimum wage, then we have 40/.50 = 3500/X. This gives a minimum wage of X = $43.75.

Boozer: O.K. If the parents are in the underclass, then a college education is probably out of reach for their sons and daughters, unless a student performs well enough in secondary school to receive a scholarship of some type. How does the GI Bill fit in?

Alice: Simple. Eliminate government loans and Pell Grants and offer the young people of the underclass a chance at a college education if they serve in the military. The current GI Bill provides financial support for education and housing to individuals who serve in the military for a sufficient period of time. This seems to have worked even with government loans and Pell Grants in place, but it will probably work much better if loans and grants are no longer available. Surveys indicate that most of the “foot” soldiers in the military are from the underclass. These surveys show as well that young men and women have very little incentive to join the military when they come from families with incomes sufficient to pay for their education. The Controllers also know that almost nothing will be heard from Americans in the way of objecting to a “war of choice” when they perceive that the soldiers going to war are volunteers. This is exactly how the Controllers want it and little does the underclass realize that this is exactly how it has been “engineered.”

Boozer: But how can the Controllers create a permanent underclass?

Alice: A. A. indicated that this has taken a bit of time and continues to be an ongoing and mostly successful effort. The following are some of the steps A. A. pointed out that have been taken or are currently taking place to achieve this end.

(1) Keep the wages of the underclass low. This can be partly achieved by eliminating unions from the workplace whenever and wherever possible. This not only helps fill the ranks of a volunteer army but it also helps to maintain the “super rich” status of many of the Controllers.

(2) Eliminate as many as possible of the underclass from the voting rolls. A. A. indicated that this is an ongoing effort in many states with the passage of certain requirements to vote such as photo ID cards, among others. The Controllers know that it is much easier to influence the outcomes of elections if the underclass is unable to vote in large numbers.

(3) Eliminate family planning for the underclass. If family planning is eliminated, then there will be many, many more unplanned births per year among the underclass. This will ensure that cheaper labor will be available for the businesses of the “super rich” and that there will enough young men and women to fill the volunteer ranks in the military.

(4) The “super rich” have a tendency to look upon those who are not “super rich” with disdain. The “super rich” with their mega mansions, their yachts, and private jets view even those with a fairly decent income who can afford to send their sons and daughters to college as poor. The aim of the Controllers is to convince these folks that if they don’t vote in congressional and presidential elections in a certain way, then they will lose “beans from their plates.” This is what the Controllers secretly call the “live poor and vote rich” tactic that they employ. This is at the heart of much of the “information” they been able to continuously have others place before the American people in one form or another. A. A. said that it is unfortunate that many of the people who can afford to send their sons and daughters to college identify with the “super rich” in hopes of conveying to others that they themselves have “made it”, while at the same time not realizing that they have fallen prey to the “live poor and vote rich” techniques used by the Controllers.

(5) Control the outcomes of elections with money and with electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail. Manufacturers of these machines insist that they cannot release the computer programs that run these machines because that would give their manufacturing competitors an unearned advantage. These machines can be programmed so that an election worker can, after the polls close, “flip” the election results toward their candidate by pressing a sequence of keys on the screen, a sequence known only to the election worker.

(6) Eliminate the statistical calling of elections by exit polls. These exit polls have proven over the years to be extremely accurate, except for the flawed and probably corrupt Bush-Gore election in Florida. A. A. says that this election was no justification for eliminating exit polling since it is well known that people in Florida can’t count anyway. The Controllers know that with exit polls eliminated and without a paper trail for the voting machines there will be no way whatsoever to determine whether or not the results on voting machines have been flipped.
 
(7) Keep the underclass and, in fact, the American people scared. If necessary invent a group of evil-doers or an evil country that is perceived to pose a threat to America in order to keep the people on edge. The Controllers know that in such an environment it is much easier to manipulate the people.

These are just some of the tactics that the Controllers are using. A. A. says it’s up to the American people to realize what is going on and insist that it be corrected. If not, he is afraid that American will soon be a democratic country in name only.

Boozer: Alice, I don’t believe a word of this. Yes, it’s clear that some of these things have happened or are currently taking place, but that doesn’t mean that there is a grand conspiracy going on or that the group called Controllers even exists. It may just be that our politicians are ignorant of the harm their actions may cause.

Alice: Well, I’m convinced of it since A. A. knows the future. Boozer, I’m concerned and I need your help. I’m counting on you to help me come up with a plan that will expose the Controllers. Can I count on you?

Boozer: Not really, but when Private Detective Stone Cold returns to Alderson, maybe he will be willing to investigate the Controllers and get to the bottom of the story you have told. For my part, the Mayan Calendar indicates that the world will end on December 21, 2012, so I’m going home, get in my recliner and wait for the Rapture.

PostScript
Recall that Private Detective Stone Cold is a retired CIA agent who recently moved to Alderson. Stone is trained in the art of the silent kill and he holds a Ph.D. in Shape Shifting from the renowned Shape Shifting Institute in Tibet. Stone is currently somewhere in the world investigating the International Brotherhood of Walnut Heads. But if Private Detective Stone Cold returns to Alderson and should he choose to investigate the Controllers, then it is assured that he will get to the bottom of the story told by that apparently liberal leaning Alice and her dead twin A. A. Stone is a “dyed-in-the-wool” conservative and, in fact, he is so conservative that if he were to let his toenails grow long, then they would curve off to the right. However, Stone is a man of unquestionable integrity, so we can rest assured that any report that he might give will be without political basis.