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Holy Crap, Is THIS Depressing ??? (And Long)

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WillyT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 10:59 PM
Original message
Holy Crap, Is THIS Depressing ??? (And Long)
GODFATHER GOVERNMENT: A Way Of Life Is Not A Scandal

By Carolyn Baker
March 18, 2007

<snip>

Historians study not only the past but using their analysis of the past, speculate about how the future might unfold. However, historians are not psychics; we can’t predict the exact occurrence of events with specificity, but we can analyze past and current events and conjecture likely future scenarios based on those events. In 1937, during the German Third Reich, historian Robert Brady wrote The Spirit And Structure Of German Fascism, one of the most incisive books of the twentieth century, now out of print and deemed “irrelevant” to contemporary events by most traditional historians. In his last chapter, “The Looming Shadow Of Fascism Over The World,” Brady hypothesized that corporatist influences would ultimately come to dominate many of the governments of the modern world, including and especially, the United States.

Certainly, America’s triumphant emergence from World War II and the subsequent institutionalization of the military-industrial complex established significant components of incipient fascism, as throughout the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency fomented anti-Communist hysteria and right-wing coups d’etat around the world. Meanwhile, at home, McCarthyism gave way to consumerism on steroids and the triumph of the American corporation on all fronts—a feat that had its roots in an obscure Supreme Court technicality in the decision, Santa Clara vs. Union Pacific Railroad in 1886, which declared that corporations were “persons” who had the same “civil rights” guaranteed freed slaves under the Fourteenth Amendment.

While most presidential administrations of the twentieth century gave lip service to government regulation of corporations, a new era dawned in the eighties with Reagan’s “war on government.” It was the beginning of the dismantling of government regulation of industry in America, and it was further exacerbated by a momentous Executive Order signed by Reagan. Executive Order 12615 required departments and agencies to “establish full and ambitious privatization goals.” It also created the Office of Privatization within the Office of Management And Budget to oversee the program and established an independent Commission on Privatization to study and recommend opportunities for privatization within the federal government.

According to Chapter 17 of Webster Tarpley’s The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush, Sr. and the research of Catherine Austin Fitts, Reagan’s Executive Order meant that private corporate contractors would no longer have to be accountable for the work they did nor how they used the money allocated to them. As a result, an opportunity for a black budget was created in which government money would be spent without the oversight of Congress and the American people. Clearly, this was a disastrous recipe for fraud and corruption to become standard operating procedure in the federal government.

<snip>

Much more: http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/print_friendly.php?p=opedne_carolyn__070318_godfather_government.htm

I don't agree with all of this, but I sure as hell cannot dismiss all of it either.

:wow:


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Kagemusha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
1. Oh clearly there's a big trend here. Katrina, US occupation, FEMA...
Mismanagement on this scale doesn't happen by accident. It happens by repeating the same mistakes at every turn, knowing that the public will suffer and private corporations will benefit, whether the final result is success or (far more likely) failure.
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catzies Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:12 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. I agree with you on the whole, but I don't think THEY think they make mistakes
To them it is all going according to plan.

They just don't tell us what the plan IS.
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tech3149 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:41 PM
Response to Original message
3. I've read Ms Baker before but she nails it on this one
We've been suckers in this game for more years than I'd like to remember. I'm not sure if we can dig out of this hole but as Thom Hartmann says "dispair is not an option".
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WillyT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Is Drinking An Option, LOL !!!
I ain't giving up a thing here, but holy moley does the task get ever more daunting.

:shrug:
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tech3149 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 12:02 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. drinking isn't an option, it's required
unless you opt for other rage inhibitors that are inhaled or ingested.
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kineneb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 02:19 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. don't drink, but must have chocolate
good dark chocolate, or someone might get hurt...
;-)
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Clark2008 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 07:51 AM
Response to Reply #10
14. I'm opting for that route while I'm pregnant, as well... but I'll go
back to having a nip or two once I give birth and recover! :)
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Lautremont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:49 PM
Response to Original message
5. You really know how to write a grabber of a headline!
Depressing and long! Just the ticket!

(Interesting stuff, though.)
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WillyT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:53 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. LOL !!! - Thanks... I Think !!!
:hi:
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drm604 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-18-07 11:54 PM
Response to Original message
7. K&R
:kick:
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OneBlueSky Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 02:02 AM
Response to Original message
9. "From hindsight we now know that 9-11 was orchestrated by the U.S. government . . .
not only for the purpose of capturing the last remaining recoverable drops of oil on earth, but also as a pretext for sanctioning a pandemic of corruption within the federal government and corporations in the name of “national security” as well as the gradual but unprecedentedl shredding of the Constitution and the civil liberties it ensures. Subsequently, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq corporatized those countries to such an extent that it would be more appropriate for them to fly the flags of Halliburton and Bechtel than the colors of their respective nations. Add to this the Bush Administration’s admission that billions of dollars designated for the Iraq War cannot be accounted for. Why are we not surprised?" . . .

Bingo! . . .
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CrazyOrangeCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 07:09 AM
Response to Reply #9
12. bingo, indeed.
nightmares.
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 05:30 AM
Response to Original message
11. k&r for Monday morning. nt
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leftchick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-19-07 07:41 AM
Response to Original message
13. I can't believe how true Lucky's quote is
especially in reference to the BFEE. I had never seen this before....

"Behind every great fortune, there is a crime."

Lucky Luciano

excellent and scary read. thank you.
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