"How Democracy Ends"

The Intercept recently posted a brilliant piece by Murtaza Hussain titled, "Democracy Dies in the Blinding Light of Day".  It's a commentary and review of Professor David Runciman's new book, How Democracy Ends.

Due to time constraints, I can give only a brief, inadequate summary of the hypothesis, as follows.  Instead of Orwell's 1984 or Animal Farm, Runciman makes a very good argument for the ending of democracy via Huxley's Brave New World, in which Technology smothers democracy in a manner barely noticeable.  There's plenty of past and present evidence supporting that premise.  See Hussain's article.

My only criticism (though not much of one) of Mr. Hussain's piece is this---
He cites John Adams, one of our Founders and the second President of the USA, as not favoring democracy.  Adams:  "There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.".  That is what Adams said, but there's more to the story.  The fact is, the majority of our Founders expressed a palpable disdain for democracy.  They were against that form of government for our new country.  See the second paragraph here---
http://individualsovereignty.blogspot.com/2016/11/latest-count-clinton-has-395000-more.html
In other words, it wasn't only Adams who didn't want democracy for the USA.

This country never has been a democracy.  Elections don't make it so.  That people believe the exact opposite is a testament to the power of Edward Bernays style Propaganda.  This Land's government is a Plutocracy, and it always has been.  Without question, History supports that contention.  It took me decades to come to that conclusion.  C'est la vie.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

George Orwell: the Greatest Political & Social Prophet of All Time

Following are just a few bits of evidence supporting the assertion in the title above.  This all applies throughout the Western World, but especially in the Land I love, the USA.

1.  The word "war" no longer means war.  Instead, it means "leading the world", or "fighting terrorism", or "protecting our allies", or "spreading democracy", etc.  More importantly, war now can be waged at the sole discretion of the Executive Branch in the USA...a direct violation of the Supreme Law of the Land.  They say it's not war.  That's very Orwellian...any time our Gov't bombs another country, anyone with any common sense at all knows that's an act of war.  Congressional approval is no longer sought.  The concept of Unitary Executive Power reigns supreme in our Orwellian Gov't; it has for years & years.  As in Orwell's novel, 1984, the meanings of key words are being manipulated/changed by the highest levels of our Gov't and by other Elites.

Very recently, our President gave an anti-terrorism speech to the Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia.  The extremist Sunni Sect of Wahhabism (adhered to by ISIS & Al Qaeda), which is spread around the world by "True Believers", is Saudi State-sponsored.  Trump then announced billions of dollars in military hardware sales to the Saudis...pretty much on the heels of Obama's similar action when he was President.  Then The Don joined in some kind of silly, celebratory "sword dance" (or something).  All of this is Orwellian to the max.  On top of that, our military is helping the Saudis (logistics, targeting, & equipment) in their devastating war in Yemen.  The Saudis are bombing schools, hospitals, public water facilities, and civilians in general.  The country is on the verge of famine, cholera is spreading, and hundreds upon hundreds of children have been killed by bombs.  This is a Sunni-Shia war; it has little or nothing to do with terrorism, that is to say, the type of terrorism Trump claims to be fighting.

2.  For some time now in the USA, due to CIVIL Asset Forfeiture, a person's property (perhaps certain tools, or a "large" amount of cash, and other things) can be seized by the Authorities without any warrant or arrest just because the items seem SUSPICIOUS.  Law Enforcement people will say, yes, but if everything turns out to be innocent, then you can get your property back.  Try that sometime.  See how much time, effort, and money it takes.  Sometimes the property is auctioned off before your months-long quest to retrieve it is completed.  Often you are stalled in your efforts into infinity, and nothing ever gets resolved.  Local and regional governments are so strapped for income that they resort to exorbitant fines, asset forfeiture, and outrageous fees in order simply to survive.  That's primarily because their manufacturing tax base has moved out of the country.  Local governments often are just as dictatorial as the Fed Gov't sometimes is; that's especially true of County governments.  1984.

3.  Presumption of Innocence until proven guilty, especially in the international arena, is pretty much dead.  One example:  the gassing of civilians in Syria.  It has not been proven that Assad was responsible.  Some people simply assumed it because, by most accounts, the guy is a brutal dictator.  Trump then fires missiles, attacks a sovereign country...an act of war...without any Congressional approval.  By the way, about half the missiles missed the airbase, and the other half hit nothing of critical importance.  Most planes were not hit, the runway was undamaged, and planes flew out of there the very next day.  Nevertheless, none of it should have happened; it was all illegal.  Plus, where's the proof that Assad was the culprit in the gas attack?  The Unitary Executive concept rules.  That's totalitarian absolutism.  Just because it was exercised against a supposedly bad apple does not excuse it.  The President is not above the Law, regardless of what the elite government lawyers claim.

4.  On the domestic front, due process has been disappearing for years.  Without any proper warrant, our private data can be mined, our property sometimes can be seized, and we can be spied upon at will by the Fed Gov't.  Americans don't seem to understand that it isn't only the suspicious people who are being spied upon by the Feds...it's everyone.  Orwellian.  To top it off, high officials such as James Clapper are allowed to lie while testifying before Congress about this spying...with no penalty.  Lying while testifying before Congress is a felony.  Where is the Rule of Law?

In addition, too many people (suspects) are being shot in the back, TASED & then shot, handcuffed & then TASED repeatedly, forced to die of thirst while being held in jail, beaten to a pulp after surrendering, repeatedly harassed for exposing wrongdoing by authorities, arrested on bogus charges which the authorities know will be dismissed, etc., ad nauseam & ad infinitum.  Orwellian.
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If we are to have any chance of overcoming all this, then it seems to me we should consider doing the following.
1.  Start with the premise that most Elites (public & private) are not working in favor of Main Street.
2.  Stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid coming from the Elites on the political Right and Left.
3.  Shun the disastrous, dictatorial, so-called Two-Party political system in the USA.  It's a sham.
4.  Shun Corporatism whenever possible.
5.  Understand that effective Propaganda always has some elements of truth in it.  That doesn't mean any conclusions put forth are accurate or logical.
6.  Think critically.  Don't be gullible, and beware of great-sounding catch phrases.
7.  Hold all politicians not only to the Rule of Law, but to high ethical standards as well.
8.  Speak out.  Be a whistleblower.  Governments are not above the Law...except in an Orwellian world.
9.  Abraham Lincoln once said, "Factions destroy republics.".  Instead of Red or Blue, consider Purple.  Be an Independent.
10.  Boycott.
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

The Powers-That-Be are Lying

The Oligarchs don't lie about everything, but there are several crucial subjects about which they do lie often.  Following are some of those.

1.  Price inflation is stagnant.  The State-Corporate Complex can say this with a straight face because when they figure how much prices have increased, here's what's not included:  the costs of food, housing, and energy.  Those items are not part of what's called "core inflation".  To give credit where it's due, the Powers-That-Be are correct regarding energy costs...even though those are not counted.  Oil has tanked, no pun intended; that's good, but a guy like me drives only about 20 miles per week.  "Low" gas prices don't make up for the constant increases in food and sundry grocery store items.  Manufacturers of those goods either are raising prices outwardly or doing it surreptitiously by shrinking the size of product packages.  Plus, rent for housing in the USA (with a few exceptions) is skyrocketing.  An old dog like me cannot believe how high rental costs are nowadays.

2.  Unemployment in the USA is now 5.X%.  This lie is so egregious as to make one physically sick.  Reputable, credible economists and former Fed Gov't officials all across the political spectrum estimate that the true unemployment rate is somewhere between 20% and 43%.

3.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement will be good for everyday Americans.  The details of that abomination now are finally public; some were released earlier by WikiLeaks, but now we have the entire disaster available for scrutiny.  The critics (such as Lori Wallach of TradeWatch) are saying, "It's worse than we expected.", and they were harsh critics before the full text was released.  I've written about this before, so I won't repeat myself.  The details of this miserable Treaty can be found in lots of places, not the least of which is Citizen.org/TPP.  Promotion of the TPP by many in Gov't, the Corporate Media, and various other Mega Corporations is proof positive that Oligarchs don't give a damn about us.

4.  We are not at War...it's "counter-terrorism"; therefore, Geneva Conventions, Due Process, the Constitution in general, Ethics, and even Morality do not limit us when dealing with "enemy combatants".  That lie is so outrageous and defies Logic so much that I'm beginning to think that George Orwell was the greatest political prophet in all of History...bar none.  The Powers-That-Be are trying to sell us on the concept that the people we're fighting are neither soldiers nor criminals.  Sorry, Oligarchs, they have to be one or the other.  The term, "enemy combatant" is a fiction.  Due Process applies to everyone, even soldiers or criminals.  If it doesn't, we no longer are civilized, ethical beings.

5.  It is necessary to monitor everyone in the National Surveillance State.  Good grief, that is pure, unadulterated Propaganda...it's bullshit to the Nth Degree.  Why people are buying into that is beyond my comprehension.  Have mercy.

6.  We are in an Economic Recovery.  That statement is so blatantly ridiculous it defies not only Logic, but the imagination as well.  All one has to do to see it's not true is take a little time to do a serious, critical study of our economic condition...utilizing a wide variety of credible sources while ignoring Propaganda from the State-Corporate Complex.  The USA, and most of the world, is in a deep Recession and heading for a Depression that very well may be worse than the one in the 1930's.
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It's important to keep in mind that when it's "crunch time", when Institutions are in a bind, any Institution will protect itself rather than individuals or Individual Rights.  Natural Rights, possessed by all people, will be sacrificed by any Oligarchy upon the altar of expediency.  It is Institutions that constantly must be monitored...by us.  Remember the words of an Eastern philosopher:  we be many; they be few.  That is precisely why we are inundated totally with Propaganda from the State-Corporate Complex.  It's important to us and future generations that we think critically, speak out, deny unwarranted power to Institutions run amok, boycott those entities that trash Natural Rights, and do it all peacefully.  Violent actions beget more violence and complete suppression of the individual.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Obama, George Orwell, Propaganda, and War

If I didn't know better, I'd say that Barack Obama is channeling the spirit of George Orwell.  Remember Orwell's classic, 1984?  That book easily could be re-issued with the title, 2014.  In the dystopian 1984, we have "doublethink", the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously... and accepting both of them.  In 2014, we have the Obama Administration one day announcing, "Make no mistake, we are at war with ISIS"; a week or so later, the President claims that it's not really a war.  We the People appear to accept both those propositions as true.

Also in 1984, we have "newspeak", a language with constantly shifting meanings of words, invented by the Totalitarian State in order to limit freedom of thought and any threats to the Regime.  Concepts opposing the policies of the State are "thoughtcrime".  In 2014, as just one example, we have the following.  During the nomination hearings for John Brennan as CIA Honcho, an official Justice Department document surfaced indicating that "imminent"---as in "imminent threat"---no longer means "immediate" or "liable to happen very soon"; the definition was changed to something like "may occur sometime in the future".  That's why the new Boogie-Man threat, the Khorasan Group, could be called an imminent threat.  Another example--- war is no longer war; instead, it's "counter-terrorism".  As to "thoughtcrime", we have the Feds banning Gov't employees from reading anything on the website, https://firstlook.org/theintercept/ .  Apparently if a Fed employee reads anything there, he/she is guilty of thoughtcrime.

In relation to Obama's drone wars, here's why the Feds claim there are almost no civilian casualties--- ANYONE killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a weaponized drone automatically is designated as an EKIA, enemy killed in action. The only way to change that designation is for someone to prove the victim's innocence.  In other words, if you're near the SUSPECTS, then you're guilty until proven innocent.  If that isn't Orwellian, I don't know what is.  [This info came from a Democracy Now! interview today with Jeremy Scahill, author of the book, Dirty Wars.]

Obama not only says one thing and then does the opposite, he also says one thing and means another.  Example of the first--- During his 2008 campaign, "Guantanamo, that's easy... just close it!", followed by cheers from the audience.  The Gitmo prison complex still is open.  Example of the second--- "ISIL consists of brutal terrorists who are attacking Iraq.".  What he means is this:  In large part, ISIS consists of former Baathist Generals & other high-ranking officers who were under Saddam and are trying to re-take their country.  They were, of course, referred to as "terrorists" by our Feds.  Bremer, the Iraq Occupation Czar under Bush, fired all 250,000 Iraqi Army personnel in 2003; by that action, he created a quarter of a million enemies of the USA.  Then the al-Maliki puppet government began discriminating against the Sunnis, further inflaming the former Baathist Generals.  They launched a civil war years & years ago.  It's called Blowback.  ISIS is not new.
[A bit of trivia:  I find it curious that the Obama Administration insists on referring to the rebels as "ISIL" when everyone else calls them ISIS.  The term "Levant" (the L in ISIL) must be especially important to the Administration for some unknown reason.]

Orwell quotes relevant to the current mess---
1.  "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."  [by a "potential terrorist"]
2.  "Big Brother is watching you."  [and today, largely accepted by a propagandized public]
3.  "...politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia."  [enough said]
4.  "All the war propaganda...comes invariably from the people who are not fighting."  [Amen]
5.  "War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."  [a tough sell, but true]
6.  "If everybody believes it, does that make it true?"  [today... apparently so]

It would be unfair to blame only Obama for all this--- the lies, the half-truths, the propaganda, the Gov't-Speak, the policies benefitting primarily the Oligarchy, the killing of innocent civilians (including children), the deceit, the ignorance of foreign cultures, the creation of enemies, the hubris, the failure to abide by the Constitution, etc.  This all has been going on for decades.  That, however, in no way excuses Obama... or the rest of the highest levels of our government.

Not just my opinion.  Be Well