The final argument of those who say ‘of course Bush is not like Hitler’ is the argument that every repressive regime in history has been a regime of extreme national socialism and no one is more pro capitalist than Bush.
True enough. Except for the fact that he is so pro capitalist that virtually all corporations that supported his election bids are now firmly on the public dole -- the energy companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and above all, the military contractors.
Middle class taxpayers of this and future generations are subsidizing Bush’s largesse and his favored corporations’ greed and waste.
Because of the vast sums of money needed to run a successful campaign, and because of the funds the people who head them lavish on candidates running for political office, corporations have become ever more powerful. Consequently, to quote Ramsey Clark at the Washington anti-war rally in the fall of 2002 – another event ignored by the media -- “This is not a democracy, it is a plutocracy. The people don’t rule here, wealth rules, the corporations rule. They rule the Congress, they elect the President, they run the Pentagon, they own the media.”
Mussolini, himself the father of Fascism, adopted as his own the saying “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” If that is the definition of Fascism, we have been drifting toward it for some time, but under Bush the “drift” has become a gallop, and so can no longer be comfortably ignored. Not by anyone who is paying attention, at least. In a way, I guess you could say "the worst president in history" has done us a favor by forcing us to pay attention in a way previous presidents did not.
The courts have given corporations the rights of people. Unlike most people, they have the money to fight any actions brought against them. Therefore, there is no person whose welfare is more guaranteed -- more socialized in our country than that of giant corporations. Socialism for corporations is paid for by the taxpayers while “regular” people – the people government exists to look out for -- increasingly become poorer and less able to afford and obtain the necessities of life, such as food, housing, and health care.
Additionally, when people feel without hope they self-medicate with drink or drugs. Consequently, crime of all kinds, increases, from using and selling drugs, to domestic violence to robbery to??? In a Fascist state, the solution to crimes brought about by poverty and despair is to build more prisons. More people are in prison in America than in any other country in the world, and Halliburton recently received a contract for $500 million to build “detention centers” for unspecified purposes.
I'm really worried about those detention centers. I have a feeling that the mainstream news sources are not bringing this information to the American people. Once the camps are built, it's only a matter of time before some of us get that knock on the door in the middle of the night.
You may say, "Oh, I can't believe it would come to that." Well, there was a time that I would have said, "Oh, I can't believe we would start a war of aggression" or "I can't believe we would get to the point where torture was considered normal" or "I can't believe we would round up Muslims and detain them without charge or access to legal counsel." We've done all those things and more. All I can say is this: The camps are being built, my friends.
The camps worry me too. I think they might be for "illegal aliens" instead. They'll be finished in time for the elections, and thus for a new round of Hate Week that will propel more Rethugnicans into office. Although thanks to Diebold and purged voter roles, I guess they won't need that.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for Greg Palast and Amy Goodman, though I wish more could read and hear them.
You might be right. They might be for illegal aliens, but it won't stop there. It will then expand to anyone who is deemed a threat to the United States, which will of course be decided by the National Security Agency and/or the president. Detention centers have never been places where rights have been honored--be they human rights or due process rights. These will not be any different which is why we should be so afraid.
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