The System is Working

As expected, it didn't take long for the Obama administration to begin looking like its predecessor. From obstructing war crime investigations and refusing to release prisoner abuse photos (1) to refusing to repeal the enhanced, kingly powers of President, ushered in during the Bush/Cheney era (2), and beating the the war drums (3). It all sounds too familiar.

No need to be surprised by what's been happening. Concerned, yes, but not surprised. Government abuse makes perfect sense if we look at how our system was set up. The system is not failing, it's succeeding. This is what is was designed to do. The genius of the United States government, from its very founding, was never its vision of equity and promotion of popular governance. The US Constitution was founded by monied interests and fashioned to protect those interests. The wisdom so often alluded to wasn't a wisdom that envisioned popular participation in the political process. In fact, the framers feared an "excess of democracy." What they envisioned was a very delicate balance which created and maintained just enough opportunity and participation for the masses so that they would be more content. This content would not only minimize the chances of revolt, but it would also improve the collective morale, making society more productive. Things like democratic assembly, civil rights, freedom of religion and a Constitution amendable by the people ... may safely be looked upon as window dressing or well calculated concessions by the overclass, creating the appearance of an enlightened, representative republic, yet still essentially controlled by a demographically narrow power elite, even though this strata had diverse interests of its own. To be fair, not all of the framers felf the same about this. Jefferson expressed a lot more trust in the masses. But it was the view of Hamilton and the Federalists that won out. Their campaign for a central bank also won out, as did their push to have the federal government assume state debts. One doesn't have to look far to see how this manifests today. The people have no substantial voice in politics and the central bank has unimaginable power in money creation, prices and interest rates. The people have absolutely no say in this most fundamental and important issue.

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"The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in the government." Alexander Hamilton

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And strong opposition to popular government - by the overclass - has a strong historical precedent. Ties between government and big business, outright deception of the public, and the idea that it's the noble duty of a privileged, enlightened class to save the lowly masses from themselves are ideas found in Plato's "noble lie", "Machiavellian deception", the framers of the US Constitution, and more recently in political thinkers like Leo Strauss (4), widely considered to be the father of the neoconservative movement, and in PR moguls like Ed Bernays, widely considered one of the fathers of public relations. Bernays argued in his book, "Propaganda", that scientific manipulation of public opinion is necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society. And we see this ethic in the secret meetings - in big business interests meeting privately with one another and with heads of state. The CFR, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, World Economic Forum can fairly be called "secret meetings", since the they have no accountability to the public whatsoever. Why these elite consortiums take place outside the public sphere is self-evident. In 1975, the Trilateral Commission published a report called "The Crisis of Democracy", which actually argued that there is too much freedom in contemporary democracies, and that it is necessary to curtail personal freedoms in order to preserve the governability of democracies. They called for "some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups” (5). So the sentiments of today's elite echo the sentiments of the Founding Fathers, and way beyond.

The connections between the Trilateral Commission and the Obama administration are so numerous it would be futile to attempt to list them all. And that's not even accounting for connections to other prominent round table groups, such as the CFR and Bilderberg Group. But a good starting point would be Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission (along with David Rockefeller...) the self-proclaimed creator of the Jihadi movement. Brzezinski was President Obama's chief foreign policy advisor during the 2008 Presidential campaign. (6)

The ruling oligarchs have promulgated the idea of democracy and self-rule for the purposes of creating a milieu conducive to self-censorship, improved morale and productivity. They similarly promulgated the embarrassingly ridiculous idea of "chosen people" and "manifest destiny." How they get these things to stick remains a mystery to me. By being cheerleaders for these ideas, we are playing right into their scheme, which is far more to their benefit than ours. Many people still cling to their belief that we are "spreading democracy" around the world. But in waving pom poms for "democracy" and "manifest destiny", we become complicit in the inherently corrupt process of dispossessing of millions of third world people around the globe, while knowing this has involved much needless genocide. If you can stomach that, waving your pom poms might work for you - in the short run. But down the road, even you will be disappointed. Global governance represents the ultimate form of power consolidation. This power is being set up to aid and abet corporate power, not check it. Increasingly, you too will find yourself insidiously dispossessed.

So, given the historical precedent, is what's happening really any surprise?

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Notes

"You know, it's not retribution to enforce criminal laws. But it is obstruction to prevent that enforcement, and that is exactly what he's done thus far. He is trying to lay the groundwork to look principled when he's doing an utterly unprincipled thing. There's very few things worse for a President to do than to protect accused war criminals, and that's what we're talking about here.

On the Freedom of Information Act in January, he said we will not allow material to be withheld just because it would be embarrassing to the country, and yet he just did that today... What President Obama is saying today is diametrically against the federal law, and if he succeeds, instead of having a transparent government, he would create this opaque government where you could virtually see nothing, because the government could say this is going to be embarrassing and whatever is embarrassing to us injures national security.

So it's an incredible dark moment for civi libertarians ... it's just more evidence that this administration is becoming the greatest bait and switch in history ... that he's morphing into his predecessor.

Professor Jonathan Turley (George Washington Law School - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG9Nj0OizCA ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4JphqRbT0E&feature=related)

"As long as the AUMF (authorization of the use of military force) remains the law of the land, any change in the legal conduct of our open-ended, undeclared war will be, at most, cosmetic. While it’s true that President Obama appears more reluctant to use these extraordinary powers than his predecessor, he is nonetheless asserting, enthusiastically at times, that he has such powers. And because so much of the American war on terror is conducted in secret, it is difficult to know what Obama is and is not doing to wage it." (http://reason.com/archives/2010/04/06/the-914-presidency/)

"Al quaeda has regrouped. They are stronger than ever before."

"The first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"Let me make this clear: There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. If we have actionable intelligence about high value terrorist targets, and President Musharraf will not act, we will."

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTwUAAmRuNM . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNb-MwQw-i8 )

"President Plans To Deploy 4,000 Additional Troops To War Zone And Increase Aid To Pakistan"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/26/politics/100days/iraqafghanistan/main4895149.shtml

"US Marines have launched a massive offensive into lower Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama unveils a new war plan in the region." http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99585&sectionid=351020403

"He clearly has not changed his own mindset about the use of military force. the war, where we need an immediate withdrawal of troops he asks only a partial withdrawal and seems to want to keep the private contractors there. Furthermore, his peace position on Iraq, if you can call it that, is countered by a “war position” on Afghanistan (he says, bring troops out of Iraq, send troops to Afghanistan!) and also on Iran (”keep our options open”, which means military force must be an option)." Howard Zinn - http://www.trueblueliberal.com/2008/04/03/obama-in-american-history-howard-zinn/

Noam Chomsky believes the Obama administration will probably be like the second Bush administration. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjGIzMN2MZ4&feature=channel)

"UPDATE: Obama wants 26 more Growlers for Whidbey" - http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/wnt/news/83304172.html . Just what the folks of whidbey Island need - 26 brand new "attack aircraft"... Thanks Barack.

4 - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss - under "Noble Lies and Deadly Truths")

5 - (http://www.trilateral.org/ProjWork/tfrsums/tfr08.htm - p. 114 of the pdf file ...)

6 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtuXd-yD2vI ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6iWom6R5Io&feature=related ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZB__Yy_2qQ&feature=related

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