As I See It

By Tall Trees

Here are the problems as I see them:
Bush and his cabinet have succeeded in making his position in the White House the most powerful presidency since FDR and will soon be surpassing that. He has gone from the campaign: "Trust me!" and "I trust the people." to "This information is classified." and "I will create a powerful homeland security" (which will require dismantling civil liberties).

Already due to dismantling of environmental, and worker protectionary regulations, and the weakening of the government as a protectional apparatus for the less powerful and provider of equal opportunities, corporations and wealthy elite now have financial, judicial and political reign over the public. There is no longer even lip service for a guaranteed government of, by and for the people.

The new governing forces are operating with the tried and true formulas for control, not least among them is the formula of:----PROBLEM-REACTION-SOLUTION or CRISIS MANAGEMENT. They have frightened the public into believing we have been attacked by "outside forces." A crisis has been allowed to happen or has been put into play. The public is now willing to allow those governing forces to remove some and then eventually most of our civil liberties in exchange for "homeland security."

As we become aware of unsettling events and unanswered questions and begin to be critical of those governing forces (want investigations of 911, and elections 2000 etc.) and its connections with many large corporations and financial organizations (Enron, WorldCom, Carlyle, etc). the rule of the political game is to create another much more disturbing crisis (perhaps with nuclear or bio-weapon devices) and again blame it on outside terrorists----this, of course, acts as a diversionary and will require much more power and funding for the "homeland security" and extraordinary loss of civil liberties and public rights.

Meanwhile back at the ranch the economic and financial situation which has been seen as "recovering" is actually about to explode its enormous manipulated bubble. The present governing forces have seen to it that any healthy money has been thoroughly removed from public programs and security sources and given to the wealthy and the powerful.

All mainstream media opposition to present governing forces has been suppressed and the public is uninformed and disinformed. We are ready and willing for a new order----a well organized homeland security to take into custody anyone who seems to be a national threat or anyone who has been made to look like a public threat. In this way people who dissent, question, protest or otherwise pose problems can be eliminated and the rest of the public will feel they are being protected. Lovely gates and fences, and appropriate signs will go up to reassure the public that these bad people are contained and being treated fairly.

We are in the same position many naive folks are when the powers-that-be have made arrangements to expand a coup. Our government, as a superpower, has done this many times with smaller nations when it has desired that a certain group take charge (not particularly a democratic power---but rather a group which will provide advantages). There is a well-used manual on how to do this-----COUP d'ETAT: A Practical Handbook, written by Edward Luttwak, a conservative with a long consulting career in the National Security Council and the State Dept. As uninformed as we are, we are sitting ducks.

Most of America is made up of people too young to remember and our school history did not prepare our youth to recognize a dangerous situation such as we are now in. We may console ourselves that concentration camps can't happen here, but unless we are willing to face the fact that Attorney General John Ashscroft has announced that all guidelines to rein in FBI Justice Department activity have been dumped, then that consolation is based on pure naiveté. There are at least 120 camps now located in the United States ready for occupation. They may have windows and even window flower-boxes, but they will definitely have leg-irons.

The present administration is faced with the choice between: 1) abandoning current economic and monetary policy axioms and returning to forthright policies that can get us out of the oncoming disaster, or 2) under the guise of "crisis management," impose a form of brutal bureaucratic fascism on the United States. The definition of fascism includes: "a system of government characterized by rigid one-party dictatorship." The party of the American "left," ordinarily a balancing factor, presently has no organization or funding that compares with that of the "right," and third parties have not been able to finance and organize sufficiently to be heard. President Bush's reliance for policy and staffing decisions on members of key right-wing organizations, notably the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies has put men focused on profit and empire-building into the position of major decision-makers.

The definition of fascism also includes forcible suppression of opposition (such as has been experienced by our many disenfranchised African American voters, and those who have attempted to expose and to protest what is happening in our country). Fascism is heavily militaristic, racist, classist, and sexist, and controls religion for its own purposes. Small family farms and small business enterprises are either eliminated, or placed under a centralized power---not for their protection but for absolute control.-----fascism was first instituted in Italy, and although it is alive and well in many parts of the world, Americans more clearly recognize its example in the Nazi Party of Germany..

What can be expected with a frustrated Bush administration is not a forthright change in monetary policy but a determination to prevent itself from being opposed. This selected administration has not the slightest interest in Democracy. It is interested in "crisis management." Where members of the special-warfare types, of the secret government, the secret police teams, will set off provocations, which will be used to bring about dictatorial powers and emotion, in the name of crisis management.

There will be small wars set off in various parts of the world, which the Bush administration will respond to with crisis-management methods of provocation which "require" more powerful homeland security and military freedom and less civil liberties and Constitutional guarantee.

IT HAPPENED LIKE THIS IN GERMANY. The German folk, who after Hitler was APPOINTED to the Chancellorship in January 1933, sat back and said, "No, we're going to defeat him at the next election." BUT THERE WAS NEVER A NEXT ELECTION---there was just the "jawohl," for Hitler as dictator. Because the Notverordnung of February 1933, eliminated elections.

At present we have an Attorney General who would have no compunctions about throwing out our Constitution. George W. Bush has said no less than three times. "It would be a heck of a lot easier if this were a dictatorship and I was the dictator." In an emergency, THE POWER OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO ACT IN AN EMERGENCY, FOR THE NATION, IS UNIQUE ON THIS PLANET. The President has the power of a dictator under those circumstances. If he is a reasonable and trustworthy individual, the president remains responsible and accountable. But, in an "emergency"---- which is part of a coup and part of "crisis management" plans (such as those now being associated with terrorist attacks) the American President can assume dictatorial powers, can bypass Congress and the people without accountability----and can retain those powers.

FOR YOU WHO FEEL COMPLACENT ENOUGH TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT ELECTION TO DO SOMETHING----THERE MAY NOT BE A NEXT ELECTION.

There are informed people out there working to educate the public before it is too late, but they are under-funded, and bucking propaganda. There are angry citizens and professionals who are speaking out but they are being discredited and ignored. Surveillance systems are permitted and reporting on your neighbors is encouraged. Employees---media people are afraid they will lose their jobs for reporting what they know to be the truth. Everyday, ordinary people have been reported and interrogated for criticizing Bush. Students who protest even quietly during Bush speeches are threatened with arrest, while at the same time they are instructed to applaud vigorously. McCarthyism, defined now (because of Senator McCarthy's brutal methods), as unfounded accusations, sensationalism, inquisitorial investigative methods, and viscous suppression of political opponents has been thoroughly revived and improved upon.

America is wonderful in its diversity, but when it is splintered and confused, its people become bewildered and vulnerable. There are groups working hard to bring people together on major issues of civil liberties and Democracy so that a grass roots movement can have life. Religious freedom is essential for us, but when each denomination assumes that it has the only acceptable doctrine, when members of the Green Party and Democrat Party, even though they both want sound environmental policies, cancel out one another, when some politician has enough money to hire a gang to take over a third party, there is something very wrong. We are being divided and conquered.

There are determined patriots quietly working to make significant changes in strategic places. It is important that we look around and support them. Come together over your kitchen tables, at potlucks, and by the riverside. Talk together and battle out your differences, but get accurate information so that you are working with the right facts. Mainstream media will not give those to you. Be honest with one another, and listen to one another. But also be savvy and be prepared to detect deceit. A Buddhist, an atheist, a Christian, a Jew, a Native American, a reincarnationist and a Muslim, female or male, heterosexual and homosexual, and most anyone else I can think of all normally want responsible freedom----clean abundant water and air, quality food, good health and opportunity to develop into the kind of people they and their children want to be. There is certainly plenty of common ground there! We need numbers to save our country. We need passionate and savvy people to keep our Democracy alive. If we are not interested in working together, we will probably wind up in the same detention camp or maybe on the same killing field together. Only a few have enough money to turn their backs and dig their air-filtered, nuclear-proof bunkers under the mountain.
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