The American Gestapo

I read "Extremism, or The Art of Smearing" in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal today. I came across a paragraph that is worth quoting, because it sums up the main choice of this election:

It is obvious what the fraudulent issue of fascism versus communism accopmlishes: it sets up, as opposites, two variants of the same political system; it elimnates the possibility of considering capitalism; it switches the choice of "Freedom or dictoatorship?" into "Which kind of dictatorship?"—thus establishing dictatorship as an inevitable fact and offering only a choice of rulers. The choice—according to the proponents of that fraud—is: a dictatorship of the rich (fascism) or a dictatorship of the poor (communism).

So there's the choice; not whether Bush or Kerry is the more honest.

Searching CapMag.com I found an article titled The American KGB: The Department of Justice's Antitrust Department by Richard Salsman, CFA. Guess the secret police snuck in under the radar before the year 2000:

In short, the minute you go into business, whatever price policy you adopt, you violate the antitrust laws. You're guilty for being in business as such. You're presumed guilty until you prove yourself innocent, a direct perversion of proper justice. Does this mean every enterprise is prosecuted under the antitrust laws? No. But the wide discretion and limitless capacity to attack anyone, anywhere, at anytime, gives the trustbusters enormous power.

From that article, I can understand why a business would want to move or outsource outside of the US—to be Free.

Showing Kerry's true vision of America.

Bush 2004: Fascism for the 21st century

(If you know the original source of this, email or message me.)

I went to Borders yesterday to get a copy of Ayn Rand's Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. I also picked up a copy of John Kerry's A Call To Service since I happened to see it. Like usual I went over to the computer books, but before I got there I ran into one of their book displays that stand out in the middle of everything. It was dead center of the computer book section, and the selection on it caught my attention. 1984, Brave New World, Slaughter House Five, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a couple of others. I've read three of the ones I listed, but it struck me that 1984 and Brave New World were prominently on display for any geek to see.

Are these just books that geeks like to read? Or are we so [mis]informed that they're reminders of where we're going or where we're at?

At least they still print those books. Then again a totaliterian regime here at home probably would, just to say "This doesn't look like Orwell's 1984 or Huxley's Brave New World." And we'll look around and agree with them, but deep down in our hearts we'll know better.

Is it time for a 2024 to be published? One not to far away into the future, but with the appearance of the present?

Or do we need the anti-thesis. A book showing what Freedom should look like in 20 years? Maybe we need both, sold side by side in black and white.

I was searching for an outliner for my Handspring Visor, and read Drinking the Kool-Aid by Jeff Kirvin that goes along with a couple posts of mine about the Patriot Act and the downward spiral the US seems to be on. Here's a quote to whet your pallate:

;:Fritz refused to listen as my friend and I tried to explain the PATRIOT Act to him. At one point, he shouted, "No! That's not my America! I refuse to believe that!" Hitler once said that people will believe any lie, so long as it's big enough. Too many of the American people have believed the lies of the current administration because they can't face the alternative: accepting that the people are no longer in control, that the major issues of the day are decided by the super rich and their political proxies, and that the dream of American democracy is largely an illusion.

It's kind of scary. I don't even have to try to find examples of the American Gestapo. I just happen to stumble across them.

Tic toc. Tic toc...How much longer until the Thought Police show up at my door?

I read the article [Fascism in a Stetson | http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3816 ] about Nazism, the tobacco industry, and the US on [CapMag.com | http://www.capmag.com/ ]. Here's a notable quote:

;:The tobacco industry was de facto nationalized by the 1998 settlement. It exists by permission of the federal government. The settlement recently brokered in the Senate is the formal nationalization of the industry. Its point man is Senator Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky.

;:There is soft-pedaled socialism -- see the incremental nationalization of medical care for details -- and there is national socialism, its more aggressively virulent brother. It can't happen here? Think again. It is.

Add this to my idea of the American Gestapo.

Risking myself to briefly comment on Stargate SG-1 Information Archive creators legal trouble, I'd have to say that it looks like the US finally has created the laws, the so called "Patriot" Act, to institute a Gestapo.

Quoting Wikipedia.org's page on the Gestapo:

The role of the Gestapo was to investigate and combat "all tendencies dangerous to the State." They had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Party and State.

Well, I think the US has enough statutes to investigate and combat ALL tendencies dangerous to the State now. Time to start Operation American Freedom, because freedom took a big slap in the face.