Future thrills

The US is a young nation, it has been the leader on the world stage for about 60 years. Now how long will this last?

The future of the US nation should be considered, to prepare for what can possibly happen in that ambitious and increasingly stratified country.

The US has been under an official State of National Emergency since Sept 14, 2001 – a state that President Obama last year extended to Sept 14, 2012. The war against terrorism has been going on since then, and is expected to continue. What they have is in effect a martial law situation.

The executive order signed by Obama March 16, 2012, now authorizes widespread federal (and often military) control and manipulation of the national economy and resources “under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” as well as the right to install “government owned equipment” in private industrial facilities.

The US has for many decades now been a warring country, is leaving IRAQ, warring in Afghanistan, preparing for confrontation with Iran, having a military presence all over the world, including 6 big cruisers each with at least 5000 men, about 90 planes and lots of other arms and munitions. The costs of this is hellish, and is carried by US taxpayers.

The US is running the Guantánamo Bay camp in violation of international law. It has been there since 1903. The camp is supposed to have been closed down, but the arrangement goes on. The prisoners are held there indefinitely without charge or trial.

There is a deficit budget in the US, unemployment is high at 8.3%, the economic differences in the country are very high as referenced by the 1% and 99% debate, the military expenses are high, the costs of empire are high, there are numerous industry problems surfacing especially within resources and energy supply.

Many parts of the country are, however, doing well.

There is widespread speculation concerning conspiracy theories in the US about what is going on. Lately there has been reports of FEMA camps being built – concentration camps – in five places and already being set up to be ready.

Militia groups are said to be working in the country with the express intention of safeguarding themselves against happenings, including government action of any kind. Articles about nonviolent civilian defence groups making it difficult for the government to rule have been published.

The legal and formalistic aspects are debated, but more important is what will happen in the near future. The pessimists say the groundwork for a totalitarian state is in place.  Senator Ron Paul is very harsh in his description. The major media are very quiet about this.

Reasonable precautions and preparations should be taken for defense and emergency conditions, preparation of decentralized energy and industrial capacity.

We should ponder the implications for the economy, for democracy and liberty, for international relations like helping friendly dictators or organizing wars against countries who control “strategic materials” that the US want, for the military industrial complex, for the prospects for the nation in the near future.

The President now has widespread power that has been compared to what Hitler had in Germany. Hitler also instigated acts of terror – he burnt the Reichstag – and blamed it on the Communists . Will similar happenings and accusations be produced here? Hitler also had an enabling act allowing him to use government resources like the military according to his wishes – the general laws of the nation being overruled.

The world of Homeland Security, war on terrorism, martial law, arrest by the army, indefinite detention without charge or trial is theoretically possible now.

There is also the possibility of a big spin being played out – say the conspiracy theorists – a situation being created – just like Hitler did. And what did Hitler do after that?

EXAMPLES:
“The president has the power to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense…under both emergency and non-emergency conditions” (Section 201a and b)”

“The president has the power, through his cabinet secretaries, to control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in the civilian market.” (Section 201e)

“The Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of the Interior…are each delegated the authority of the President… to encourage the exploration, development, and mining of strategic and critical materials and other materials.” (Section 306)

“There is established in the executive branch a National Defense Executive Reserve (NDER) composed of persons of recognized expertise from various segments of the private sector and from Government (except full time Federal employees) for training for employment in executive positions in the Federal Government in the event of a national defense emergency. The head of an agency may activate an NDER unit, in whole or in part, upon the written determination of the Secretary of Homeland Security that an emergency affecting the national defense exists and that the activation of the unit is necessary to carry out the emergency program functions of the agency.”  (Section 501a&e)

This definitely does not seem good! The land of “We the people” is going where?

See Tom Atlee

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 2:52 pm and is filed under What humans do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.