THE (NOT SO) SILENT COUP THAT MURDERED AMERICAN FREEDOM –
From George Orwell to George W. and Osama to Obama.
-By Michael Benjamin
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
-Socrates
“The examined life is painful.”
-Curtis Mayfield
“The easy life is the cursed life.”
-Samurai adage
ECO (NOMIC/LOGIC) DISCLAIMER
My disclaimer to this essay is that, despite how it may sound as we continue, I am not a Marxist. Karl Marx was a dialectical materialist; “Hegel
turned on his head.” Despite Marx (and his philosophic brother Engels’) accurate interpretation of the dynamics spawned in material-levels of
exchange, and their ensuing correct predictions of the imperialistic, worldwide warfare over resources that would result, history has proven
that such a social experiment does not work in adequately fulfilling the needs of the people subjected to such rule. For the exact same reason I
am neither a Capitalist, for while this system has lasted longer than most Marxist regimes (and while this is the system in which I have been
born, grew up, live and still exist) it has proven equally unsuccessful in my opinion. Why?
One, our system is far from being a true “free market.” We actually exist in a bizarre state of “crony capitalism” in which the wealthiest
individuals and corporations in said system give the least back proportionately in taxation, and instead, antithetically, receive the greatest
welfare and handouts from the government, all the while ravaging the earth for its resources in the pursuit of maximizing profits. This is not
some emotional lefty opinion as the bailouts of 2008 should have sufficiently and concretely proven. As we watch the middle class dwindle,
homes falling into foreclosure, Europe ravaged by debt and unemployment, and America not far behind on its weakening heels, we must heed
the warnings of anthropologist Mike Davis in his impeccable sociological work Planet of Slums. As time proceeds, he reports, more and more of
humanity, like billions today, will live in poverty, hunger, and favela/shanties. As a result, more and more oppressive control measures will
have to be implemented by the ruling elite to maintain their hold on what declining resources are left. (Keep this is mind as we proceed, as the
primary purpose of this paper is to show the entangling webs of economics, ecology, and politics that are vastly and rapidly changing the
physical, legal, and noetic landscapes in which we all live).
Two, because, like Marxism or even Monarchy before it, Capitalism does not fulfill what is called in Transpersonal Psychology and Integral
Studies the BMI (Basic Moral Intuition); that is, it does not fulfill the greatest good for the greatest number of Beings, but instead serves the
interests of a very small elite within only one species on the planet; those selfish bi-peds that have come to be known popularly (thanks to the
OWS movement) as the 1%. And I am not referring to the Outlaw Bikers that call themselves such. In light of the 2008 bailouts, Hell’s Angels,
Mongols, and Bandidos have proven themselves much more civilized, law-abiding, and even egalitarian than the bankers and financiers who
have now usurped this infamous mathematical title.
The BMI can be seen as a yardstick, or as a barometer, for measuring the value of a civilization’s culture, economy, and polity in regards to all
that are affected by it. Without such a premise as our guiding principle, it is all too easy for man, especially now in his present phylogenetic
level of mental-egoic development, to degenerate into an Ayn Rand-esque state of abject selfishness where narcissism is raised to Ethos and
greed to Praxis. Witness such political acolytes of this philosophy, like Allen Greenspan, Paul Ryan, and Eric Cantor, and the policies espoused
by such men, and you can see where the essence of current Capitalistic politics is heading. “Capitalism has to have winners and losers,” they
say. It’s just that the current system sets up 99% in the later.
Not only has Capitalism proven itself a failure when judged by the standard of the BMI, it has also proven itself a parasitic force upon the lifesystems of the planet in its premise of unlimited consumptive growth upon Earth’s finite ecosystems. As a result of this rapaciousness in our
consumption, combined with the growing destructive power of our technology when applied to this rapaciousness, along with the exponential
growth of human population, man has been described as a macro-phase event upon the planet by various academic experts (from astrophysics
to biology), by names no less than Carl Sagan, Thomas Berry, and Brian Swimme. This is no award bequeathed to us for our awesomeness, for
in so being a macro-phase event in the course of geologic history, we are essentially no different than an asteroid colliding with the Earth.
Unlike the five prior mass extinction events that have occurred over the course of the past 540 million years, we are the first species to prove
itself a potential (and most likely) cause of extinction, a sixth mass extinction, upon all other animal species extant today; and tragically enough
(should nuclear holocaust be such means and our unholy posterity within this galaxy), than perhaps all plants and even microbes as well. Yes –
humanity has the ability to undo 14 billion years of evolution upon our globe (down to viruses and bacteria) with its nuclear arsenal alone!
(And this does not even begin to take into consideration the many other eco-destructive practices and technologies spawned by our system
that we shall briefly examine). To accentuate the precarious ledge we stand at as a species, in commenting on Man’s possible extinction, this
past June (2012) the Royal Astronomer of England, Martin Rees, a world-renowned cosmologist and astrophysicist, announced humanity’s
chances for survival past the 21st century were a mere 50%.
The lesson to these issues must become crystal clear to all. We must find a different Tao. We must find a new and sustainable way. We are
called today to do no less than midwife a new system that achieves a harmony with the very source of our own survival; our green and blue
Mother.
As the eminent Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef has pointed out, economy and ecology are mutually intertwined, as all that happens in
the economy is rooted in its source – the Earth. All products, all energy, all means and ways for survival come from the life systems of the
planet and what She provides. Yet these are the very supporting systems we destroy through such an economic system in which all things, all
goods rightfully belonging to the mutual commons of Sentient Beings, is commodified.
As Chris Hedges has pointed out, Capitalism ultimately leads to everything and everyone being reduced to a good. Such a system proves not
only parasitic, but cannibalistic. Unlimited growth for maximizing profits is the premise of such a system. But to do so, consumption must
likewise be maximized. In such a system a collective pathology exists. Like a heroin addict who denies that his addiction is ruining him and
therefore can further engage in the very behavior destroying himself and those around him, so too do we deny our destructive effects upon our
environment, and thus ourselves, that are in direct causation from our current civilization.
Mountain top removal for mining that obliterates the tectonic work of ages and the subsequent complex ecosystems and beings that have
ensued from such earthen glory, leaving the adjoining streams poisoned, the air asthma-inflicting upon human youth, causing species diaspora
en masse, is but one easy illustration of this claim. Another is not new, but still pressing. Rachel Carson warned us a half century ago in Silent
Spring about the polluting, poisoning crisis that pesticides posed to the planet. Some, like President Kennedy, listened to her prophetic
warnings and took action, but there are still those today deafened in their ignorance and stupefied in their denial (like Republican congressman
Dana Rohrabacher of California, who in addition to denying Climate Change and over-population in the world on C-Span in June 2012, also
bemoaned the loss of DDT, clouds of which he proudly ran though as a child when they sprayed his neighborhood for mosquitos!).
Today we further our apathy towards the Earth and Her children with the clear cutting of forests that leaves but barren wasteland, the
damming of rivers that stop the salmon from running, the fracking of natural gas deposits that turns well water into poison and fire, not to
mention the deplorable depletion of the seas. Man has overfished the oceans so severely that now no commercial fishing can occur above a 2
mile sea depth. We have so murdered our scaly cousins of the waters in our rapaciousness that we have had to now expand our consumption
to fish once thought of as inedible. Chilean Sea Bass and Orange Ruffy were once known by other names (like “Slimehead”), but since we have
nearly killed off all the wild cod and tuna, such is what we now decide to ravage until there is none left at all.
Truly, man’s ignorance over the earth and our relationship to it is only eclipsed by our utter hubris. Another perfect example of this was in July
2012 when the South Korean government announced it would end a 25-year moratorium on whaling. The reason? Fishermen, they said, are
complaining that growing whale populations are depleting fishing stocks, so the whales need to be thinned out! A laugh out loud would be
apropos if it wasn’t so damned angering.
How sadly accurate is the old Cree Indian Prophecy we have seemed to completely ignore:
“Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you realize
That money cannot be eaten.”
Man’s crimes against nature are so prolific, so commonplace, our language and culture are filled with familiar, well-known examples. Certain
names even resonate with the tragic mistakes we have historically committed against our only home. Single names can be invoked to remind
us of the side-effects intrinsic to our Capitalistic, consumptive ways. Names like Three Mile Island, Exxon Valdez, BP Horizon, and Fukushima
remind us of the risks taken by a global society that consumes ever greater amounts of goods and energy in its exponential growth.
Furthermore, as Max-Neef elucidates, there is no other science or social science that we utilize today in the form it which it existed 2 to 3
centuries ago, except economics! Imagine using the medical or engineering technology of, say 1800, today! Would you? Of course not. It
would be terribly outdated, antiquated, obsolete.
Yet our current system of worldwide global economics (and thus planetary consumption/destruction) is primarily based on the Capitalist
system developed by Adam Smith in the 18th century. Despite the advances we have made in all areas of understanding about the world and
nature; despite knowing we live upon a finite planet that cannot sustain unlimited growth; despite knowing that we will not be miraculously
saved by some angry volcano god and his supposed only son once we frack it all up; and despite having 7 billion people on the planet now
(roughly 6 billion more than in Adam Smith’s time) – we still base our economy on Smith’s system, which he based on an 18th century
understanding of an 18th century world and population! Understand that his economic system was born within and from a cultural worldspace
that still acknowledged Biblical literalism, enslavement of the black race, and the inferiority of women. Madness!
A new and higher synthesis is demanded of us, if humanity is to survive, or even have a biosphere to survive upon. A sustainable economy of
stasis and zero growth must be in our future. Reproductive control, to the chagrin of Catholicism, must be the battle cry for now and
tomorrow’s generations. Less for myself and more for another, must become our new systemic and individual Ethos. Cooperation, not
competition, with each other in the mutual preservation of the biosphere must become the new religion. And above all, humanity’s
consideration of its every future action must be calculated with the deepest concern for not just ourselves, but for all other species.
On this issue, I would like to quote at length a critical insight provided by anthropologist Loren Eiseley in his introduction to Marston Bates’
ecological classic, The Forest and the Sea. How tragic it is of how little we have learned, of how little we have progressed, since this warning
was penned decades ago:
“With one or two exceptions, the 19th century scientists saw man’s evolutionary rise as a natural event impossible to control consciously.
They seemed not able to have visualized the possibility that man himself might direct the life about human a major scale. Not even Darwin
seems to have realized that man was on the point of escaping the forces that dominate the rest of life and was about to alter the face of the
planet beyond recall.
Today indissolvable detergents return to us in our drinking water, we drop radioactive wastes into the seas, oil from ships befouls the wings
of seabirds. Pesticides find their way into our own tissues. The wet lands that nourish wild waterfowl give way to drained and ‘improved’
land as population multiplies, while radioactive strontium from atomic explosions pollutes our milk and enters our bones. Superhighways
increasingly thrust the green world under cement. . .And always, everywhere, as the human swarm proliferates, sanitary engineering grows
more difficult , water more precious, and by the same token, unpolluted water more difficult to come by.
In recent times, however, a persistent few have raised their voices, not alone against the reckless consumption of irreplaceable resources,
but also against the whole philosophy that man can stand totally apart from nature. He cannot array himself against the old green world
that made him and escape unscathed from her embrace. Man, too, is part of nature; he, too, draws his energy from the sunlight on the leaf;
he, too, feels comfort walking under the quiet of the great trees at evening.
It is one of the terrors of our urbanized civilization that within it arises the man totally alienated from nature. Food comes from shelves,
animals are strange things in cages before which one makes faces in the zoo. There is no surcease of noise. Daylong and nightlong, subways
screech, trucks rumble, people shout. Outside is the green world, a world of little sunlit particles which, in every meadow leaf or the wild
pastures of the sea, are turning sunlight into life. Outside is the quiet, the quiet of an old rock in the sun. It is for these things that the
minority has begun to express concern, to say, ‘Man has an ethic toward man, however badly he misuses it at times. He knows good from
evil in human relationships, but toward the dust from which he came, the sunlight in his eyes, the breath that warms his lungs, he has no
ethic.’
Man has lived within nature until now, and taken her for granted. He has lived with nature as an unquestioning child. This is no longer
enough. Man must now face the prospect of destroying nature and, in turn, being destroyed, or he must learn to protect and cherish for
himself and unborn generations this beautiful planet with all its strange lifeways from which he has been granted the privilege of emerging.”
Regarding this new ecological ethic discussed above by Eiseley, I end this section with a quote by the late, great Theologian Thomas Berry from
his ecological classic, The Great Work. In this reflection’s brevity is contained the essence of what we must develop and implement towards all
of nature as our New Ethic if we and our fellow species are to survive our current state of human civilization and consciousness. Berry writes,
“It was an early afternoon in May when I first wandered down the incline, crossed the creek, and looked out over the scene. The field was
covered with white lilies rising above the thick grass. A magic moment, this experience gave to my life something that seems to explain my
life at a…profound level. It was not only the lilies. It was the singing of the crickets and the woodlands in the distance and the clouds in a
clear sky…
…This early experience… has become normative for me throughout the entire range of my thinking. Whatever preserves and enhances this
meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good, what is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good…
That is good in economics fosters the natural processes of this meadow. So in jurisprudence, law, and political affairs—that is good which
recognizes the rights of this meadow and the creek and the woodlands to exist and flourish in the ever-renewing seasonal expression.”
Amen.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TO AMERICA? FROM GEORGE ORWELL TO GEORGE W.
This isn’t the America I was promised as a child –
Not by my parents,
Not by the Church.
Not by my teachers,
Not by our leaders. . .
We are forced from time’s arrow to live life forward, but to only understand it in reverse – hence the need of the historian; that is – the need
for those who do not forget, or who go back to reexamine the past. As Orwell warned us in 1984, Oceania’s great act of propaganda upon its
populace was to change the past, to change history at will to meet the needs of the rulers. And they could do this to their people because the
people were kept ignorant, misinformed, and thus also, easily forgot their past. They were thus primed by their elite to believe anything they
were told. Nations once their enemies were now their friends. Wars once fought where many died for Oceania’s cause no longer existed in
academic books or the news media. Countries once allies were now foes. Facts were changed wholesale to meet the control needs of the
leaders over their people. No one knew truth from the fantasy created by the propaganda of the political, educational, press, economic and
political systems, that had all become one. And if you did, then you were sent to re-education. Does this not sound familiar to anybody? Keep
this lesson in mind as we proceed.
Let us examine some undisputable facts about America that are all verifiable from multiple legitimate sources. If we are patriots, if we are good
citizens of a still free nation, or wish to regain the liberty we have and will continue to lose, then we are bound by honor to pose these queries
to ourselves. For if we do not, we have already risked degenerating into the same sad state lived by those in Orwell’s fictional Oceania.
Regardless of one’s belief over the cause of the 9/11 attacks (whether one accepts the official explanation or believes an alternative conspiracy
theory is irrelevant, as we are concerned with the current effects of this event upon our state of liberty), the facts are this – we entered into a 2
front war over the murders of 3213 innocent people in order to supposedly impose some action of justice upon the perpetrators. While we did
definitely levy significant damage upon the alleged perpetrators (e.g. Al Qaeda), we also (directly and indirectly) catalyzed or caused the deaths
of over 30,000 innocent civilians (mostly poor, hungry, and uneducated) in Afghanistan and at least triple that number in Iraq (if not more).
Even if we, as the most powerful nation in the world, wanted to fall back on the old playground ethic of “they started it” (if they did), can we
really continue to deceive ourselves into believing that what we have done to these countries in the name of 911 is right, just, moral, or
necessary? How good has it been for the richest nation on earth to bomb and ravage one of the poorest? Do we really still think Saddam
Hussein was a threat to world stability? He had no weapons of mass destruction nor was he linked to Al Qaeda and 911 (as admitted by George
W. himself)! And if Obama really got Osama, and all the other Al Qaeda commanders, what’s left to do in our cause of “justice?” Who is left to
kill that was part of 911?
There will always be more terrorists to replace the ones we kill. In fact, the very act of killing them creates more militancy amongst their
indigenous populations and is thus a guarantee that more terrorists will result from such populaces. Our preemptive, offensive military actions
are therefore self-defeating and create a state of perpetual warfare. Thus, we are creating the antithesis of what we contend we are really
fighting for. We say we want peace and security, but our actions are creating a world with the reverse result, with the opposite dynamic. We
are pouring fuel, not water, upon a fire.
Hell, let’s forget justice and morality, for all you GOP members out there, and let’s look at it from a purely Ayn Rand cutthroat capitalist
perspective. Unless you’re a war profiteer like Erik Prince, have the wars been profitable for you or your family’s wallet or bank account? Is gas
cheaper now for you now that we have storm-trooped all over the Mideast? Are you better off now than you were before we dumped trillions
of dollars into these wars? Are our schools better, are our elderly better cared for, are the poor supported and helped out of poverty more
than they used to be? Is America better? Are we safer on our streets? Are the streets even repaved? Are you and your family more
prosperous? Are we as citizens more free
Yeah, offensive words. But ones America needs to hear, for we are far from the only victims in this circumstance any longer, if we ever were.
So I say to the ruffled feathers here, “Boo hoo.” Cry to the innocent Afghani children horrifically burned in white phosphorous grenades or
disintegrated in cruise missile explosions; to the Iraqi provinces polluted with radioactivity from depleted-uranium shells used by the tens of
thousands and the babies born with resulting birth defects; to the unarmed families cut in half in the crossfire of Apache helicopters; to those
mistakenly and wrongfully imprisoned, tortured, and then released who were subsequently acknowledged as totally innocent of any crime
against anyone. Just as Israel has degenerated into a quasi-Fascist regime against the Palestinians, virtually emulating many of the historical
perpetrators that once victimized them, so has America tragically become the number one inflictor of terrorism on untold innocents within the
Muslim world for paradoxically being once-victims of alleged Islamic terror.
Too much? Conservative emotions brewing? That’s an honest reaction, since many of us in this culture grew up being erroneously taught that
such blind faith equaled patriotism. We must transcend this outdated paradigm and come to understand the skepticism and doubt that must
be inherent to true democracy.
If still in doubt, check out these stats, as you can’t argue with simple mathematics. The overall cost of the Iraq War will probably only be known
in some distant time when the cost can be completely calculated. But for now, the total cost as calculated from the beginning until last year
and then divided evenly to give a standard cost per day is as follows:
Right now (as calculated in Spring 2012), the cost for ONE DAY OF THE WAR IN IRAQ IS $720 MILLION. Again – that is for ONE DAY of a war we
have been in for over a decade. For the cost of one day of war in Iraq we could have done one of these following things for America:
*We could have built 84 brand new, fully equipped, state of the art, elementary schools.
*We could have hired 12,478 new high school teachers.
*We could have provided Head Start programs for 75,364 at-risk toddlers.
*We could have given 54,914 complete college scholarships.
*We could have given 423,529 sick people health insurance coverage.
*We could have served 11,538,410 school meals to hungry kids.
Or
*We could have equipped 1,274,336 homes with solar power.
One day in one war, folks. One day in one war.
Still think the wars are worth it? Still feel it was money well spent? Then keep this in mind. . .the Greatest Generation beat the Axis powers in 4
years of American involvement in WWII – without jets, without computers, without missiles, without night vision. . .shit. . .without helicopters
or assault rifles! But here we are today ten plus years into this War on Terror with no end in sight. . .with theaters of operation growing, not
shrinking. . .with its toll on America being worse than the actions that spawned it.
Still don’t believe? Did you know that more military personnel have died this year (as of June 2012) of suicide than in combat? That it is
routine to medicate our service men and women with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety psycho-pharmaceuticals while in warfare to keep them
doing their jobs despite what psychological and emotional effects they may be understandably and justifiably suffering from as a result of
combat? That military servicewomen are 100X more likely than civilian women to suffer a sexual assault at the hands of a coworker? That our
vets come home to unemployment and hard adjustment with little if any official help. Did you know that, tragically enough, other than
children, vets represent the largest growing percentage of homeless in the USA?
Like their Vietnam era brothers and sisters before them, the government is screwing our vets and miserably fails to provide them the support
they need once they come home from combat. Over 35 years after the end of Vietnam and our government has still failed to learn its
responsibility to our heroes. And again, as another tragic illustration of this failure, on 6/29/12 a battalion commander at Ft. Bragg was shot
dead by another soldier who then unsuccessfully turned the gun on himself.
THE WAR BROUGHT HOME – FROM OSAMA TO OBAMA
George W. told us that 9/11 was perpetrated against us because the terrorists “hated our freedom.” (Not more accurately, that “they” hate
our foreign policy which subverts legitimate democratic processes in the Middle East and instead props up the most totalitarian and oppressive
of regimes for our own purposes, including and not least importantly Israel AND Saudi Arabia). Thus, we entered into a ten-plus year war in
which, ironically, our own constitutional rights and liberties were sacrificed and infringed upon at home. In other words, if we are to believe
W., we gave up freedom in response to an attack on our freedom, a perfomative contradiction, cognitive dissonance, of historical proportions.
In the form of the Patriot Act and other further emergency-powers laws and Executive Orders, our government has essentially and successfully
suspended the rule of law by the constitution and has instead secured authoritarian power into the executive branch of government. The
president need do no more than declare you a terrorist, and like the Divine Right of Kings, or transubstantiation, wham bam ma’am by his
Ultimate Word, and it be so. It doesn’t matter if you are an American citizen or not. Due process is suspended if King Obama waves his wand,
and at the tip of his royal scepter the rule of law, the Bill of Rights, the constitution upon which we are established as a nation, are essentially
neutralized. . .terminated with extreme prejudice. . .lynched on a cottonwood.
And once declared a terrorist by the American Emperor (the puppet leader of the bankers and corporations)? What then? Onto the
assassination list you go until one of our drones can find you and missile your hide! As the New York Times reported (in June 2012), King
Obama’s list includes female American citizens as young as 17 who will be blown up if they are found, without ever having a court hear their
case, and without a shred of evidence ever being examined by any objective judge or jury. The day after the President’s hit list was revealed by
the NYT, Obama presented Bob Dylan the “Freedom Medal” at the White House. That’s doublethink on a level even Orwell couldn’t have
foreseen easily.
A coup d’ tat has been committed against us, and with our very consent provided by our ignorance, catalyzed by our sloth, and sealed in our
apathy! Look at the assaults upon our liberty committed today unconstitutionally by our government, assaults designed to desensitize citizens
to their rights. The assaults upon our 1st, 4th and 6th amendments alone are legion. From the establishment of the TSA’s child-molesting,
groping pat-downs, to the militarization and federally-centralized control of civilian police oppressing peaceful protestors with force, to racebased “stop and frisk” policies that reduce every free citizen to a vassal or a serf to those with a badge, to random “safety” check points on
major roads that control routes of passage and harass innocent law-abiders, to surveillance cameras mounted en masse in every major and
minor city essentially ending the concept of privacy, to SWAT team raids upon organic farm coops, to domestic spy satellite programs like
Echelon that listen in on millions of American phone calls, to the detainment of journalists for questioning about their political beliefs. . .Do you
really believe yourself more free as an American than you were before 9/11? Do you feel safer with Americans being treated like sheep to be
herded, the government believing itself our shepherd, and not vice versa as democracy is meant to be?
Peaceful protestors all over the country in the Occupy Movement (and veterans against the wars) have had their first amendment rights
obliterated by jackbooted police all too happy to utilize pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons on those who exercise their freedom of
speech, assembly, or right to have their grievances addressed by the government. Do you really think it is just a coincidence that locally-based
law enforcement all over the nation, run by different mayors and chiefs in different cities and in different states, are all dealing with peaceful
Occupy protestors in the same way? Do you think that Oakland PD and New York PD and Chicago PD are all deciding on their own to suspend
the first amendment for their citizens; that this is a case of different departments all coming to the same unconstitutional conclusion
independently of each other? Wake up sleeper.
We are witness to the fact that the federal government, through Homeland Security, has provided funding, training, equipment, and
instructions to localized and state law enforcement on how to handle citizens engaged in peaceful protest, which is now considered “civil
unrest,” and is dealt with as such; heavy handed. . .violently. In each state has been established a Homeland Security fusion center to
coordinate all law enforcement and military activities against we, the citizens, the new suspects in terror to the feds. As the economy weakens
for the 99% (in half part due to untold trillions wasted in the wars in question, and half part due to trillions wasted on “too big to fail” financial
institutions) more will take to the streets to be heard, as is our right, and in response more drastic draconian measures will be used by the
government through Homeland Security to keep us quiet, to keep us obedient, to keep us oppressed.
Don’t forget that Mayor Bloomberg, Mr. Billionaire big-daddy of NYC (the man who wants to ban big-gulp sodas by law to protect New Yorkers
from their obese selves) bragged last Spring that he ran the fourth largest army in the world (referring to the NYPD) and that he had the
capability to bring down a jetliner if need be! He also revealed that the NYPD has an entire intelligence department with their own agents
stationed overseas. Does this sound to you like local civilian law enforcement in the traditional sense?
In addition to these developments, in the past few years military and FEMA exercises have been carried out all over the country using not only
law enforcement and first responders, but American military troops on domestic soil in direct violation of posse comitatus. Issues of crowd
control, civil unrest, citizen round-ups, disasters, gun confiscation, mass dead, and use of “emergency centers” (i.e. internment camps) have
been officially cited as topics for practice in such exercises. But of course, that could never happen in America. Right? Except, that it once
already did.
Never forget the round up and internment of Japanese Americans in WWII, one of the worst violations of liberty ever committed by America,
nearly on par with the attempted-genocide of the First Nations and the enslavement of Africans. After seizing all of their property and money
following Pearl Harbor, the feds rounded up any American citizen of Japanese ancestry, not just those naturalized after immigration, but even
those born and raised here. All were shipped to internment camps to live for the remainder of the war, never being compensated for their
losses. The only exception were those men of proper age whose only other choice beyond internment was to go and fight the war. They were
the noble and brave Japanese-American soldiers of the 442nd combat regiment, the most decorated regiment in the history of the United States
Armed Forces, with 21 Medal of Honor recipients alone. (So much for the doubts about their loyalty and patriotism!)
As Ralph Nader and Chris Hedges on the left and Gerald Celente on the right have pointed out, we are headed for a neo-techno feudalism in
which the middle class will be relegated to the poor, and the poor to the desperate and dying. Totalitarian regimes, like our government, only
operate by fraud and force. As their fraud is more and more discovered, like the wars and their bogus justifications, and the ensuing erosion of
liberty, such governments have no choice but to resort to more and more force to maintain their hold over their populaces. The world is
becoming one giant plantation and anyone with a social security number, regardless of race or creed, will become a wage-slave under the 1%.
WHILE WE WERE TEXTING OUR BFF AND VOTING FOR AMERICAN IDOL
Freedom in America, as we know it, is officially dead. This is no exaggeration for dramatic effect; no hyperbole for literary sake. This is no
speculation based on wacked-out conspiracy theories. No.
Tragically, it is a concrete fact as expressed by the government’s own documentation as freely provided by the White House’s own website.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you could get on your Facebook page toady and buy a latte at Starbuck’s that you are still
free, American. You are about to be subjugated into a new form of techno/neo-feudalism. You are about to be reduced to a vassal or serf, and
I urge you. . .beg you. . .to PLEASE read on.
A coup d’ tat was committed against the constitution and every American citizen on March 16th 2012, not figuratively, not metaphorically, but
literally. A totalitarian government was established without our consent, was openly constructed and forced upon us with but the stroke of a
pen, without the firing of one gun. It was slipped in right under all of our noses and went nearly unnoticed by the American public and was
likewise virtually unreported in the media (mainstream or alternative). Like most of the liberty-killing laws that the government has spawned
since 9/11, what happened was likewise committed against us in the name of “security.” And to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, he who would
give up liberty for security deserves neither.
The point in question is the Executive Order issued by President Obama on 3/16/2012 entitled “The National Defense Resources Preparedness
Act." It is available on the White House’s very own website under the Executive Orders section. Executive Orders have long been debated as to
their constitutionality, as the president, via such orders, can essentially establish law with the stroke of his pen and without the constitutional
legislative process that is supposed to occur in our political system. Thus, it has likewise been argued that such orders are unconstitutional and
put too much power in the executive office; the precise result our founding fathers wanted to vehemently avoid in the establishment of our
triune-branched system of checks and balance. Nevertheless, presidents have gone unchallenged in establishing these executive orders, and as
time has progressed, each successive president has exercised more power is establishing such orders, power that has eroded the democratic
foundation of our political system, resulting, ultimately in the death of liberty, the death of America as we know it, and in the establishment of
no less than Orwell’s Oceania in the form of the current executive order in question.
SOME PRIOR PIECES OF THE PUZZLE
Prior to looking at the provisions of this act that just went into effect in March 2012, let us also look at a few issues that occurred the prior year
that may be pertinent to this discussion. Keep these details in mind as we proceed.
1). For the first time in American history, the military has established NorCom (Northern Command) to cover North America. Troops have been
sent home from the wars and are officially stationed stateside for the purpose of dealing with domestic civil unrest and emergencies, as
reported by no less than the Army Times itself and also covered by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. It might make sense if these troops
were being used on our borders, especially against the Narco-Terror Wars occurring just to our south. But no. Our troops are carrying out
exercises on our soil under the intent of dealing with domestic, not Mexican, problems.
2). Military troops, in direct violation/suspension of posse comitatus, have been engaged in stateside military maneuvers all over the country
practicing with law enforcement for crowd control, road checks, city patrolling, and even citizen relocation. These exercises have been well
documented in such places as Indiana, Colorado (last summer) and right now (June 2012) are occurring in St. Louis. (And if you believe a lot of
the internet postings from current and former military personnel, one of the main training exercises occurring stateside has been operations for
the door-to-door seizure of privately owned firearms). Note also that the Army’s field manual on civil disturbance operations (on how they will
deal with you, me and the rest of society WTSHTF), is no secret and is posted online at the Army’s website at:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-19-15.pdf
3). Drones used over the Mideast for surveillance and assassination of terrorists are now being used by domestic law enforcement in the skies
of the USA. Even rightwing sources like Fox News have covered this issue. Surveillance apparatus, from cameras to GPS tracking, has infiltrated
every level of our once-private society. Children are indoctrinated into being constantly tracked by the use of I-Phone apps and think nothing of
posting their personal information all over Facebook for any and all to observe. We submit them to TSA gropes and pat-downs getting them
indoctrinated for the soon time when they are to be good little worker bees ready to empty their pockets or bend over and spread whenever
Big Brother says so.
4). To be declared a formal official terrorist in the eyes of the law, the president but need name you one. Then, your constitutional rights no
longer exist, your right to due process is obliterated, and you can be put on the president’s own personal hit list, which includes, amongst
others, female American citizens as young as 17. By Obama’s own admission, he has already assassinated at least one American teenager in
Yemen, the son of also assassinated Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (an American born and raised citizen).
5). The head of NASA, last summer, issued a video warning to all the staff and families of NASA, telling them to make preparations for disaster.
This video is still available on You-Tube. See it here:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=nASA+WARNING&view=detail&mid=8730FB9FBFD6687DBEE08730FB9FBFD6687DBEE0&first=0
Curiously, NASA ended its Shuttle program at the same time, as well as all other programs geared towards manned government spaceflight for
the near future. This was once NASA’s main purpose. Without it, what is their focus now?
6). That same season, (coincidentally?) the door to the Global Seed Vault in Norway was shut and sealed; its purpose being to preserve the
world’s plant biodiversity from any coming planetary disaster.
7). FEMA “emergency centers,” built by Halliburton, have been constructed all over the country in conjunction with the Homeland Security
fusion centers. Last Summer, the hiring of staff for these centers began so that they are now fully operational.
8). To add insult to injury to what our veterans have already suffered in our current wars, 2 years ago Homeland Security under Big Sister Janet
Napolitano released a memorandum to all levels of American law enforcement stating that the biggest threat to American security is not in the
form of Islamo-terrorism, but is rather in the form of domestic terror, such as that posed by disgruntled veterans and constitutionalists!!! So if
you fought in this war on either front and came to know it as an empty cause, or if you believe in the constitution, you are the new threat to Big
Sister.
If this is the case, then why be at war with a foe that no longer poses our primary threat? A war that, according to her, is creating the new
threat to America? Not only is such a statement groundless in the first place, it doesn’t stand up to the scrutiny of basic common sense. This
ridiculous declaration by H.S. caused the legendary patriot and American martial arts pioneer Chuck Norris to respond on his website that the
feds have officially and totally gone insane. Indeed.
9). Lastly, but as a matter of contrasting speculation (yet interesting food-for-thought), the Farsight Institute of Boulder, Colorado (founded by
former CIA remote viewers, the infamous ESP spies of the 1970’s), is predicting a multiple meteor strike into the Earth’s oceans sometime soon,
between this and next summer. These will allegedly create massive tsunamis all over the planet, biblical level flooding on most coastal areas of
the world, massive refugee migrations from the side-effected areas, and global economic collapse, food riots, etc. etc. as a result. While this
supposed prophecy may be pure science fiction and prove total bunk (let’s hope), the following issues to be examined below, unfortunately,
like those prior, are proven and pure fact.
SUMMARY OF THIS EXECUTIVE ORDER
These simple facts (and one creative prediction) now established, let us turn to the document at hand. YOU MUST READ THE ACTUAL ACT IN
ITS ENTIRETY FOR YOURSELF. It can be found at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness
I will summarize and highlight some of the more draconian items covered in this merely 8 page document – 8 pages that spell the death of
American freedom by Emperor Obama and whoever succeeds his corporately bought position. The act and its language are based upon, and
expand an original 1994 order issued by President Clinton (#12919) and are nothing less than chilling. While much of the original framework
exists in the 1994 order, the new Obama order newly places all significant functions outlined therein into the hands of Homeland Security,
removing it from FEMA jurisdiction.
When we consider the actions taken by Homeland Security domestically (as discussed above), and the changed philosophy they now espouse
regarding current domestic threats (i.e. not Islamo-terrorists, but “disgruntled” veterans and OWS are the new threat), combined with the
massively expanded infrastructure, bureaucracy, and apparatus of Homeland Security, this revised order takes on vastly greater import than in
the technologically inferior era of the early 1990’s. In the Clinton administration, for example, there were no IPhones, no IPads, no GPS
tracking, no RFID chips, no A.I., no retinal and facial identification software, no Echelon, no Facebook, no texting, no Twitter. What greater
importance to our lives will this order hold in another few years of rampant technological change?
I caution you. Read on only if you wish to awaken from the political matrix in which we have all been immersed and asleep for too long in
America.
For lack of a more succinct explanation, this order eliminates the concept of private property in the USA and places the control of LITERALLY
ALL MATERIALS FOR LIFE AND SURVIVAL under the auspices of specific governmental cabinet heads appointed under the sole authority of the
president, not the constitution. The government can seize anything it says it needs from the American citizenry for security purposes and use
it in any way it sees fit despite the ownership of said materials.
Furthermore, such provisions are specified not only in times of war and emergency, BUT IN TIMES OF PEACE.
Lastly, and perhaps most chillingly, the act provides for any citizen’s skills and labor to fall under the sole authority of the government. In
other words, for the purpose of “national security” the government now possesses the power to tell you where, when, and how you will work
in times of war or emergency, and in times of peace! The order also accounts for monitoring of workers, and for “education” and “training”
programs for those needing extra help getting in line with the new order.
Why would the government explicitly formulate such plans in actual written word, an actual blueprint outlining the murder of American
freedom, posting it upon the White House website for the world to see if they didn’t intend to implement such measures? The framework is all
in place for America’s complete transformation into a totalitarian police state. The constitution, by this executive order, has been essentially
gutted and suspended; the police are militarized and indoctrinated; the populace is significantly economically depressed; the surveillance and
incarceration apparatuses are in place; the FEMA camps are built and staffed; social security numbers are universally distributed and RFID chip
technology perfected; and our leaders have made themselves above the rule of law. All that is needed now is some catalyzing event – some
disaster, some protest or uprising, another terrorist attack or even a “false flag”/Lusitania-Reichstaag-Tonkin Gulf type of attack, to bring it all
to fruition. Something is coming folks, and you need to get prepared. Time grows short. The flame draws nigh. And this order proves it so.
EXAMINATION OF SPECIFIC ARTICLES WITHIN THE ORDER
While we will not cover word for word the content of the act, let us examine some of the most tell-tale provisions specified therein.
Part I, Section 104 states,
(a) The National Security Council and Homeland Security Council, in conjunction with the National Economic Council,
shall serve as the integrated policymaking forum for consideration and formulation of national defense resource
preparedness policy and shall make recommendations to the President on the use of authorities under the Act.
(b) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
(1) advise the President on issues of national defense resource preparedness and on the use of the authorities and
functions delegated by this order;
(2) provide for the central coordination of the plans and programs incident to authorities and functions delegated
under this order, and provide guidance to agencies assigned functions under this order, developed in consultation
with such agencies; and
(3) report to the President periodically concerning all program activities conducted pursuant to this order.
Thus, all the following activities specified by the order, that we will be examining below, are under the direct auspices of Homeland Security
and its Director, reporting only to the President.
Part II, Section 201 states,
(a) The authority of the President. . .to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders,
and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense, is
delegated to the following agency heads:
(1) the Secretary of Agriculture with respect to food resources, food resource facilities, livestock resources,
veterinary resources, plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment and commercial
fertilizer;
(2) the Secretary of Energy with respect to all forms of energy;
(3) the Secretary of Health and Human Services with respect to health resources;
(4) the Secretary of Transportation with respect to all forms of civil transportation;
(5) the Secretary of Defense with respect to water resources; and
(6) the Secretary of Commerce with respect to all other materials, services, and facilities, including construction
materials.
Interestingly, water, the primary resource for life (save air), is put under the authority of the Secretary of Defense, not the Interior. Chillingly,
Part B of this section starts to reveal the insidious nature of this order:
(b) The Secretary of each agency delegated authority under subsection (a) of this section (resource departments) shall
plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources and establish standards and procedures by which the
authority shall be used to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.
Note the last sentence. “. . .under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.” So every measure stipulated in this order, as we are to
review, can be implemented by the government at any time for any reason, by Presidential or Homeland Security decree alone, regardless of
whether America is in an emergency situation or not.
Section 202 goes on to state:
. . .the authority delegated by section 201 of this order may be used only to support programs that have been determined
in writing as necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense:
(a) by the Secretary of Defense with respect to military production and construction, military assistance to foreign
nations, military use of civil transportation, stockpiles managed by the Department of Defense, space, and directly
related activities;
(b) by the Secretary of Energy with respect to energy production and construction, distribution and use, and
directly related activities; and
(c) by the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to all other national defense programs, including civil
defense and continuity of Government.
The last section of Part II, Section 204 explains:
Chemical and Biological Warfare. The authority of the President conferred by section 104(b) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App.
2074(b), is delegated to the Secretary of Defense. This authority may not be further delegated by the Secretary.
This is truly where all hearts should be beating faster. Section 204 essentially states that the Secretary of Defense is in charge of all chemical
and biological warfare, which seems obvious enough. But the real question is why in the hell would such a stipulation be placed in an executive
order that clearly states its entire purpose as being one of domestic U.S. scope? If you haven’t pissed yourself yet, you’re not listening. And we
haven’t even gotten to the truly Orwellian shit yet.
Part III, Section 308 relates:
The head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense is delegated the authority of the President. . .to:
(a) procure and install additional equipment, facilities, processes, or improvements to plants, factories, and other
industrial facilities owned by the Federal Government and to procure and install Government owned equipment in plants,
factories, or other industrial facilities owned by private persons;
(b) provide for the modification or expansion of privately owned facilities. . .
Read that again if you didn’t get it the first time. Private ownership of business is now under the control of the feds who can now “install
Government owned equipment in plants, factories, or other industrial facilities OWNED BY PRIVATE PERSONS.” And can also require
modification or expansion of privately owned facilities. I wonder just kind of modifications the government would like to make in private
factories? Can you say “surveillance?” How about RFID chips for security and entry purposes or GSP tracking devices on (or in) workers?
Welcome to the new “Plantation America.” Here, race matters not, as anyone with a social security number is already dialed in as a future
federal/feudal wage-slave.
Section 310:
The head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense is delegated the authority of the President. . .to
take appropriate action to ensure that critical components, critical technology items, essential materials, and industrial
resources are available from reliable sources when needed to meet defense requirements during peacetime, graduated
mobilization, and national emergency. Appropriate action may include restricting contract solicitations to reliable sources,
restricting contract solicitations to domestic sources (pursuant to statutory authority), stockpiling critical components,
and developing substitutes for critical components or critical technology items.
Thus, any item or material deemed “critical” by the government is in their complete control to the level that it can be restricted to the public or
even stockpiled by them, whether in war or peace. Now, perhaps, it makes more sense why water has been placed in the hands of the Defense
Secretary. When the feds start hoarding the water, they will need armed troops to defend it from the thirsty masses.
In Part V, Section 501(b) – Employment of Personnel it says:
The authority of the President. . .to determine periods of national defense emergency is delegated to the Secretary of
Homeland Security.
During such a period determined by Homeland Security, the government may then, as stated in Section 502, exercise the following power:
The head of each agency otherwise delegated functions under this order is delegated the authority of the President. . .to
employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation and to employ experts, consultants, or
organizations.
Yes. That order just stated that the Secretaries assigned above by the President in Section 201 above can utilize private citizens or their
companies for the government’s purposes (any time Homeland Security has declared a national defense emergency) GRATIS. . .FOR FREE. .
.“without compensation.”
What exactly do you call someone required to work for free at the behest of authority? Oh yeah. A slave.
Part VI goes on to eliminate a private workforce, or at least the freedom of work, in America.
The Secretary of Labor, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and the heads of other agencies, as deemed
appropriate by the Secretary of Labor, shall:
(1) collect and maintain data necessary to make a continuing appraisal of the Nation's workforce needs for
purposes of national defense;
(2) upon request by the Director of Selective Service, and in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, assist the
Director of Selective Service in development of policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty
in the armed services;
(3) upon request from the head of an agency with authority under this order, consult with that agency with respect
to: (i) the effect of contemplated actions on labor demand and utilization; (ii) the relation of labor demand to
materials and facilities requirements; and (iii) such other matters as will assist in making the exercise of priority
and allocations functions consistent with effective utilization and distribution of labor;
(4) upon request from the head of an agency with authority under this order: (i) formulate plans, programs, and
policies for meeting the labor requirements of actions to be taken for national defense purposes; and (ii) estimate
training needs to help address national defense requirements and promote necessary and appropriate training
programs; and
(5) develop and implement an effective labor management relations policy to support the activities and programs
under this order, with the cooperation of other agencies as deemed appropriate by the Secretary of Labor,
including the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the National Mediation Board,
and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
So note the implications. Where you will work, what you will do, where you will do it, will be decided by the government for purposes of
national defense. Labor needs for America will be determined by the needs of our war effort, that when aimed against a terrorism we help to
create, is inevitably perpetual. Number 2 also suggests a return to the draft to support our war efforts. And am I the only one whose hair
stands on end when I see “. . .promote necessary and appropriate training programs?” Or should that be read as “re-education.” Number 5
places all former federal mechanisms for worker mediation, arbitration, and reconciliation under the authority of those in this act. In other
words, the government’s deck is now even more stacked against the citizen worker.
Section 701 establishes a ruling oligarchy of government heads that will oversee the implementation and exercise of this order. This is the New
Monarchy who, by this order, have given themselves power over all means of resource and production in America, and not just in times of war
or disaster, but also in times of peace under the excuse of “National Defense.” They are the Shadow Government that has established their
rule beyond the bounds of the Triune branches of checks and balances within our political system, and beyond the scope of our very
foundational principles as explicitly detailed in our defining legal document, The United States Constitution. This order creates the ruling
governmental elite of America, called the Defense Production Act Committee:
The Defense Production Act Committee. (a) The Defense Production Act Committee (Committee) shall be composed of the
following members. . .
(1) The Secretary of State;
(2) The Secretary of the Treasury;
(3) The Secretary of Defense;
(4) The Attorney General;
(5) The Secretary of the Interior;
(6) The Secretary of Agriculture;
(7) The Secretary of Commerce;
(8) The Secretary of Labor;
(9) The Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(10) The Secretary of Transportation;
(11) The Secretary of Energy;
(12) The Secretary of Homeland Security;
(13) The Director of National Intelligence;
(14) The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency;
(15) The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers;
(16) The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and
(17) The Administrator of General Services.
In concluding the order (as if to slip it in by its sequential incongruity by adding it at the end), the specific resources and materials put under the
authority of the governmental heads (i.e. the secretaries as specified in Parts II, VI, and VII) are outlined:
In addition. . .the following definitions apply throughout this order:
(a) "Civil transportation" includes movement of persons and property by all modes of transportation in interstate,
intrastate, or foreign commerce within the United States, its territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia, and
related public storage and warehousing, ports, services, equipment and facilities, such as transportation carrier shop and
repair facilities. "Civil transportation" also shall include direction, control, and coordination of civil transportation capacity
regardless of ownership. "Civil transportation" shall not include transportation owned or controlled by the Department of
Defense, use of petroleum and gas pipelines, and coal slurry pipelines used only to supply energy production facilities
directly.
(b) "Energy" means all forms of energy including petroleum, gas (both natural and manufactured), electricity, solid fuels
(including all forms of coal, coke, coal chemicals, coal liquification, and coal gasification), solar, wind, other types of
renewable energy, atomic energy, and the production, conservation, use, control, and distribution (including pipelines) of
all of these forms of energy.
(c) "Farm equipment" means equipment, machinery, and repair parts manufactured for use on farms in connection with
the production or preparation for market use of food resources.
(d) "Fertilizer" means any product or combination of products that contain one or more of the elements nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium for use as a plant nutrient.
(e) "Food resources" means all commodities and products, (simple, mixed, or compound), or complements to such
commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses
to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products
thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. "Food resources" also means potable water packaged in
commercially marketable containers, all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, seed, cotton,
hemp, and flax fiber, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or
agricultural product.
(f) "Food resource facilities" means plants, machinery, vehicles (including on farm), and other facilities required for the
production, processing, distribution, and storage (including cold storage) of food resources, and for the domestic
distribution of farm equipment and fertilizer (excluding transportation thereof).
(g) "Functions" include powers, duties, authority, responsibilities, and discretion.
(h) "Head of each agency engaged in procurement for the national defense" means the heads of the Departments of State,
Justice, the Interior, and Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence
Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the General Services Administration, and all other agencies
with authority delegated under section 201 of this order.
(i) "Health resources" means drugs, biological products, medical devices, materials, facilities, health supplies, services
and equipment required to diagnose, mitigate or prevent the impairment of, improve, treat, cure, or restore the physical or
mental health conditions of the population.
(j) "National defense" means programs for military and energy production or construction, military or critical infrastructure
assistance to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity. Such term
includes emergency preparedness activities conducted pursuant to title VI of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and
Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5195 et seq., and critical infrastructure protection and restoration. . .
(l) "Special priorities assistance" means action by resource departments to assist with expediting deliveries, placing rated
orders, locating suppliers, resolving production or delivery conflicts between various rated orders, addressing problems
that arise in the fulfillment of a rated order or other action authorized by a delegated agency, and determining the validity
of rated orders.
(m) "Strategic and critical materials" means materials (including energy) that (1) would be needed to supply the military,
industrial, and essential civilian needs of the United States during a national emergency, and (2) are not found or produced
in the United States in sufficient quantities to meet such need and are vulnerable to the termination or reduction of the
availability of the material.
(n) "Water resources" means all usable water, from all sources, within the jurisdiction of the United States, that can be
managed, controlled, and allocated to meet emergency requirements, except "water resources" does not include usable
water that qualifies as "food resources."
So what is it exactly that has not been hoodwinked, strong-armed, out-rightly and blatantly stolen from every American as expressed by this
section? Who gave the president and 17 of his personally appointed cronies THE RIGHT TO OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF EVERYTHING, not
only in the commons, but even that which is supposedly privately owned? And if our government, as nearly every decision and action since
2008 has shown, just take their cues from the Global Financiers, the Military Industrial Complex (as Eisenhower warned), and Anational
(amoral) Corporations guided by no Ethos other than the profit motive, than just who really has seized all of our goods and freedom? Who
really has control of it? And what are they going to use it for if their entire philosophical premise is unlimited economic growth based on evergrowing market consumption upon a finite planetary ecosystem with ever more people being exponentially born?
Like a shank to the ribs in the black of the night for a poor man’s tattered wallet after payday, our freedom and the very means of our physical
survival have all been sacrificed, have all been compromised; and obviously, deliberately, and unashamedly – without our consent, without any
constitutional process, and without any legislative representation.
Like many Executive Orders with which I am familiar, as I do not claim to have read them all (as they exist in the dozens under each president
and only continue to grow), this one ends with a special catch-all disclaimer that automatically exonerates all the perpetrators from any
accountability or remediation. The last sentence of this order states:
This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in
equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or
any other person.
What does this legalese mean? Quite simple. No one can sue in court (nor has any other legal recourse) against the United States Government
or anybody specified by this order (or employed by this order) in any action they commit in the exercise thereof, period!
CONCLUSIONS
I have purposely included my name to this essay, even though I fear that anyone writing about such issues will eventually be considered an
enemy of the new government and be placed on their “watch” or “screw” lists. Having renounced the legitimacy of democratic rule by the
people, all totalitarian regimes align themselves against those who know the truth fraud and force being their only tools of control. And as
more citizens wake up to the facts, and the government’s effective use of fraud wanes, force becomes their primary tool of oppression (as Chris
Hedges has pointed out citing economist Karl Polanyi).
The day will soon come when such views as mine and their publication will be punishable in America by at least fine or imprisonment, if not
worse; we free thinkers and dissenters being but one step away from that Scarlet Letter labeling that the government need but invoke to
ostracize and banish us. Like Hawthorne’s adulteress, or like crying “Witch!” in Old Salem, or the bellowing of “Red!” in McCarthy’s 1950’s
Hammerika. . .like some bygone Name Magick from ancient times of aboriginal voodoo, if the President but name thee a “terrorist,” if he but
say ye are a threat to “security,” if he but invoke either of these Power Words, then so mote it be!
I fear a time of the disappearing may be coming; a time when dissenters, when professors, when journalists, when artists, when intelligentsia,
maybe even gentry, when anyone who goes against the official grain of policy simply ends up gone. Such has been the sad lesson of history.
From the Inquisition to Hitler and Stalin; to Chile, Columbia, and Cambodia’s killing fields; to Rwanda and Serbia – tolerance, acceptance,
diversity, and equality have not been the watchwords for most of modern political history and have quickly become passé concepts under
America’s new Shadow Government. Such may seem farfetched in this once “land of the free,” but understand that American journalists and
authors are already being detained and questioned over their book research and also for nothing other than their political beliefs. One need
but review the current work of Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolff, or Glenn Greenwald to be provided ample evidence of such incidences.
As Naomi Wolf has shown in her outstanding analysis The End of America, America has already fulfilled all ten prerequisites for becoming a
fascist totalitarian state:
1). Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy. (i.e. Islamo-extremism, OWS, disgruntled vets, etc.).
2). Create a gulag. (i.e. Gitmo; or even our current American prison system in which we are 5% of the
prisoners).
world’s population with over 25% of its
3). Develop a “thug caste.” (i.e. militarized police, ICE, Homeland Security, private security firms used by the government like Blackwater
during Hurricane Katrina, etc.).
4). Set up an internal surveillance system (i.e. beyond the technological apparatus cited above, as another simple but insidious example of this
point, at my hometown Department of Motor Vehicles is now posted a sign that reads “Report suspicious activity.”).
5). Harass citizens’ groups. (i.e. OWS removed from Zucatti Park, outlaw use of tents for camping out protests as in Denver and L.A., etc.).
6). Engage in arbitrary detention and release (i.e. James Yee, Brandon Mayfield, etc.).
7). Target key individuals (i.e. Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, etc.).
8). Control the press (i.e. over 99% of American media is controlled by only 11 anational corporations).
9). Equating dissent with treason (i.e. this tactic has been used so prolifically in America for so long, from its use against the Black Panthers in
the 1970’s to Bradley Manning today, it seems self-evident that this occurs save to those without basic high school education in political
history).
10). Suspend the rule of law (i.e. executive orders, presidential pardons, “to big to fail,” bailouts for corporate crooks, etc.).
Knowing now that this is our situation, that it is not just coming, but is already here. . .is it not now crystal clear what a joke America’s current
wars have been? Who are the real terrorists in the world? Who is threatening our freedom and our lifestyles? Do we still believe that poor
brown people living in valley hovels, reading their torn Qurans by candlelight, eating a bit of grain and well-water in mountain caves truly
threaten us? No. It is the very ones who promised to protect us who have proven to be the real enemies to our freedom and to our lives. Our
own government, not Islamo-Terrorists, have proven the foes of us all and have proven themselves the real opponents to the founding
principles of America. It is our own government, and our own elected president who promised us “change we could believe in,” who trampled
over and undid the constitution, not Al-Qaeda (though this target was used as the excuse to do so).
The absolute, incontrovertible proof to this accusation is not found in any investigative journalism. It is not in any whistle blower’s memo, nor
in any leaked top-secret document. It is not some anecdotal conspiracy theory uncorroborated by evidence. Nor is it propaganda spread by
those supposedly aligned against America or democracy. The proof is, frighteningly, unhidden and blatant. It is posted for free, for all who
care to look and see.
The proof is in Obama’s own words, signed by his own hand and pen. And unless one is entrenched in complete denial or immersed in utter
illiteracy, there is no way to interpret this document other than in the obvious and explicit way that it is precisely worded. It is the (not so?)
silent coup that killed our freedom and spelled the death of America as we know it.
POST-SCRIPT
I make no pretext of advocating any kind of violence for catalyzing social or political change. I advocate personal, spiritual, consciousness
transformation. “Change can only come from within,” as the Master Eckhart Tolle rightfully tells us. Personal transformation must precede
political change, or else we have put the cart before the horse. As times grow more challenging for more people, we will all need to become
our own Gandhi, our own Christ, our own Buddha, in order to peacefully and nonviolently facilitate positive and progressive change against the
coming oppressions and austerities that we will undoubtedly and increasingly experience. We will also need to learn to be there for each other
in love, kindness, and compassion, regardless of race, gender, nationality, creed, or species.
We must learn to be self-reliant, we must prepare, we must continue to exercise our democratic rights in this representative republic and not
fall victim to the anger or apathy that leads to the negative dichotomy of ineffective and regressive behavior: violent action on one hand and
inaction on the other. We must draw our inspiration from the Saffron Revolution, from the Arab Spring, and from India’s Independence
Movement, and come to realize how much these movements accomplished for their people with so much less (less resources, less money, less
people) than we have. We must emulate their strength, we must mirror their reserve, we must possess their commitment and not now, nor
ever, waiver in our stance of peace.
I end with this one cry to all the good and noble peoples in the US military and law enforcement communities. You took an oath to protect
America and the constitution against all enemies, domestic and foreign. Please understand that the citizens of this country are not that
enemy. Please understand who is, and when the time comes, please defend those who are truly needing and deserving of your protection:
the vulnerable, the unrepresented, the marginalized, and the hungry.
ON THE KARMA OF THY SOULS, PLEASE BE LOYAL TO THY PROMISE HONORABLE WARRIORS,
AND GOD BLESS THEE.
*Michael Benjamin – July 4th, 2012 (Rockford, Illinois)