Who Can Take This Country Seriously?

Read yesterdays's post Have You Had Enough Yet? if you haven't already done so.
   —Dave

As we enter the final 24 hours of the manufactured debt ceiling "crisis", I'm sure that many of you are having trouble taking the United States seriously. That's understandable because America is not a serious enterprise. A tiny minority of America's citizens stopped taking this country seriously a long time ago. And then there are The Great Unwashed, aka. "consumers", who constitute the vast majority of the citizenry. They are impervious to any development which does not involve Cowboys and Aliens, Miley Cyrus [left] or Keeping Up with the Kardashians. About half of these zombies will vote in 2012.

When I say "the country" I am referring to our Imperial Capital, the grifters who make a dishonest living there, and the co-opted (but serious and self-important) ding dongs who report on their every move. The question becomes who can take America's public life, its politics or its governance seriously?

Yet we are forced to pay attention to those in Washington because of the damage to ordinary folks they are capable of doing, and do do, every day. (Sorry, that was a pun.) The divide between those Inside the Beltway and those dwelling in the hinterlands outside it has never been greater. I do take the lives of ordinary Americans seriously, even if most of them are only keeping up with the Kardashians. These people, such as they are, are our friends and neighbors.

And then there are those in the Tea Party, an interesting group that has caused no end of trouble lately. These people are animated, talking zombies who have been programmed by Roger Ailes to support tax cuts for the rich and oppose entitlements for the elderly. But I digress. Brainwashing is not my subject today.

If you are still wondering whether you should take this country seriously in the sense just described, look no further than the ACLU's recent report Drastic                    Measures             Required — Congress Needs To Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Laws And Increase Oversight Of The Security Establishment. Writing these kinds of reports on what Congress needs to do keeps a few lawyers employed and highlights the inherent futility and pointlessness of all things Imperial.

No analysis is necessary. I'll merely quote from the report.

The President's Secrecy Problem

Secrecy run amok

Excessive government secrecy is obviously not a new phenomenon. Nearly every entity commissioned to study classification policy over the last sixty years, from the Coolidge Committee in 1956 through the Moynihan Commission in 1997, has reached the same conclusion: the federal government classifies far too much information, which damages national security and destroys government accountability and informed public debate. Despite the results of these studies, reform has proven elusive and we are now living in an age of government secrecy run amok:

• According to the Washington Post, there are 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies working on programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security and intelligence , and an estimated 854,000 people hold top-secret security clearances [which is nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C.]


• In 2009, the Government Accountability Office estimated that about 2.4 million Department of Defense civilian, military and contractor personnel hold security clearances at the confidential, secret and top secret levels. Remarkably, this figure does not include personnel at intelligence  agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Intelligence  Authorization Act of 2010 required the Director of National Intelligence   (DNI) to calculate and report the aggregate number of security clearances for all government employees and contractors to Congress by February 2011, but the DNI has so far failed to produce this data


• According to the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), the government made a record 76,795,945 classification decisions in 2010, an increase of more than 40% from 2009. ISOO changed the way it counted electronic records in 2009 so exact year-to-year comparisons are not possible, but this figure is more than eight times the 8,650,735 classification decisions recorded in 2001. One-fourth of the security classification guides the government used in 2010 had not been updated within five years as required.


• Document reviews conducted by ISOO in 2009 discovered violations of classification rules in 65% of the documents examined, with several agencies posting error rates of more than 90%. Errors which put the appropriateness of the classification in doubt were seen in 35% of the documents ISOO reviewed in 2009, up from 25% in 2008.16 A similar analysis was not included in the 2010 ISOO report.


• The cost of protecting these secrets has also skyrocketed over the last several years. ISOO estimated security classification activities cost the executive branch over $10.17 billion in 2010, a 15% increase from 2009, and cost industry an additional $1.25 billion, up 11% from the previous year. A meager 0.5% of this amount was spent on declassification. The government spent only $50.44 million on declassification in 2010, which is $182.74 million less than it spent in 1999. The fact is, there are significant physical costs associated with protecting our secrets, and unnecessary classification wastes security resources.

On January 21, 2009, one day after taking office, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of every executive agency detailing his administration’s commitment to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.” The President declared his belief that increasing the public trust through transparency, public participation, and collaboration will “strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.” The President ordered all federal agencies responding to public requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to institute a “presumption in favor of disclosure,” reversing the so-called “Ashcroft doctrine” that had governed during the Bush administration. The administration funded a FOIA ombudsman and required agencies to release some information proactively and in formats useable by the general public...

Reality has not always lived up to the rhetoric, however. Over the months since this promising start, the Obama administration:

• Embraced the Bush administration’s tactic of using overbroad “state secrets” claims to block lawsuits challenging government misconduct.


• Fought a court order to release photos depicting the abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody and supported legislation to exempt these photos from FOIA retroactively. Worse, the legislation gave the Secretary of Defense sweeping authority to withhold any visual images depicting the government’s “treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained” by U.S. forces, no matter how egregious the conduct depicted or how compelling the public’s interest in disclosure


• Threatened to veto legislation designed to reform congressional notification procedures for covert actions


• Aggressively pursued whistleblowers who reported waste, fraud and abuse in national security programs with criminal prosecutions to a greater degree than any previous presidential administration


• Refused to declassify information about how the government uses its authority under section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect information about Americans not relevant to terrorism or espionage investigations

Moreover, when opportunities for taking bold measures to attack unnecessary secrecy arose, the administration failed to act or chose timid and incremental steps instead.

The O-Man apparently has failed to created an unprecedented level of openness in government. Quelle surprise!

Now, I ask you: after reading these parts of the ACLU report, can you still take this country seriously? Certainly not in the sense I meant above—all this secrecy, corruption, fraud and waste is laughable. Are you safer because there are 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies working on programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security and intelligence?  Of course not. That's silly. Most of these programs amount to legal theft—this nonsense is a form of embezzlement or misappropriation. You can think of it as pigs feeding at the Imperial government's spending trough.

There is however a sense in which you must take this country very seriously indeed. The extraordinary concentration of Power And Paranoia which exists in Washington is a very serious threat to our civil liberties, just as the debt ceiling resolution and the long aftermath to come—the inevitable Austerity—is bound to eventually pose a threat to our economy and standards of living.

An ongoing Threat to the People—that is the common theme of our national politics and public life.

Bonus Video

 

Comments

[Mr. Roboto (formerly Loveandlight)]

What's really starting to get to me is the increasing willful blindness and cognitive dissonance of the Obamabots. It really is becoming a deeply codependent and deeply pathetic spectacle to watch. What will it take to make these folks realize that the fix is in and has been for a long time? I think that their problem is that they think that their lives are entirely without use or meaning if they realize they have no agency over the decisions made in the centers of power. I would call that a vastly sadder existential sentiment than any of the gloomier prognostications and analyses one reads on DOTE.

[Mitch]

I understand your angst toward the voting "zombies", but lets be clear the great majority of voting zombies, and even somewhat informed folks--continue to vote for the status quo. Who do you suggest non-zombies vote for? Did non-zombie voters, vote for the current President last election cycle? The anti-empire candidates-regardless of brand, are all made out to be wasted votes, idiots, marginalized etc. So basically we get Pro Empire status-quo candidates for Rep/Dems. Its more like picking between Pepsi/Coke, some flavor differences, and some large differences in RHETORIC, but in function, they are owned by various interests.

Do you vote for 3rd party types, like Nader etc, or hold your nose and vote for an establishment person? Ultimately, if we have systemic issues, the system needs changed, all anti-system folks--be it B.Sanders, Nader, R. Paul, Kucinich--are all made out to be kooks. So the "sane" choice is more high fructose corn syrup, with a variance in the marketing?

[Dave Cohen]

Mitch --

I assume you are new to DOTE. In past, I have urged people not to vote. It is a futile gesture which only endorses a corrupt political system by raising the participation rate.

I will urge people not to vote in the future. In an ideal situation, the political parties would hold an election and nobody would show up.

-- Dave

[Dgcmagazine]

Dear Dave Cohen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

Do I take this country seriously? YES in a big way. I turn off the TV and don't read blog after blog. I don't get frustrated or upset over the crap broadcast 24/7. I don't watch the Chem Trail videos on YouTube and I basically don't care what's going on in Washington. I have no voice there and no way to change things. My father is buried in Arlington Cemetery, my sister is a State Trooper and I have one brother that graduated from West Point. We all take life in the US very seriously and are NOT willing to give up. Let me give you a few suggestions, you have control over your life and the neighborhood you live in. Turn off your cable news, switch off the PC, go outside and talk to your neighbor. Don't complain to him about how bad things are, offer assistance. Tell him or her that you have some extra free time since you are not watching the phony dreadful news. Ask your neighbor, "can I help you with anything?" "Do you need some yard work done? Can I help around the house? I'm going to the grocery, can I bring you some fresh summer fruit?" Be thankful for what you have to try to help those that don't have. (10 or 20 mins each day out in your community) Make your own America a better place, volunteer, help drive someone to a chemo treatment and return them home, the hospitals always need help. My America begins and ends with the local community around me and I'm always volunteering and helping. You really can't change DC and you'll give yourself cancer worrying about it.:-)

Dave, let me ask you something....have you ever lived in Central America, Mexico or a country in Africa? Don't like America? Try living south of the border for a year, yeah see how fantastic that is.

Turn off your modern day media, leave your blackberry at home and experience the local world, the little slice of America around you. If you don't like which way the country is going, make a small change locally to build a better community and thus a better America. In doing this you maintain control of that which is around you, your world, the America you know and love. By improving your part, you make America better. Or, turn on the news again, watch that BS while the local world rots around you. Close the shades and get in line behind the other 42,948,858 people who write how "can we take this seriously" articles and feel they have done their part to change things. Don't be a quitter Dave, you are better than that...lead by example in your community. Stop pointing out all that is wrong and make America better one block at a time. The secret thought Police can't take that away from you. Don't give up, don't slow down and don't quit. America, your America, the country you grew up in is worth saving.

[Tony Weddle]

There is no America - it's an artificial advertising construct. No country is "worth saving" but the people who live in any region owe it to themselves to construct better, more satisfying and sustainable lives.

You can't save America, just as anyone in any other country can't save their country. As Dave has documented exquisitely, the US can't be saved. Quit dreaming that it can, just because you turn off your TV.

A lot of what you say, DGC, makes sense but don't pretend that fetching groceries for your neighbour is somehow going to make America great again, if it ever was.

[S P]

dgcmagazine:
I like your post, but you can't have it both ways.

Either we go "local" or go American. America is an immense, sprawling country dominated by large corporations, large banks, the biggest military in the world, and huge consumption of oil to power the cars, trucks, and planes. It is quite difficult if not impossible to be pro America and be pro local at the same time.

If you are referring to some sort of idea of America, or Constitutional principles, or something of that sort, that died a long time ago.

[JC]

@dgmagazine - I enjoyed your comments, very impassioned! My sense in reader your words is that you are bothered by "the decline" and have realized that there is really no way out - now you've found a group that believes the same, w/o chemtrails also! (also BTW w/o jobs in this great land :) )

[xraymike79]

Dave Cohen,
Don't stop your muckraking - it truly is a valuable service that adds to humankind's general consciousness of reality.

Here's my rant:

"In the Grand Scheme, Debt Ceiling is Meaningless"

I've studied and researched the "common denominator of history's tragedies" for over 60 years, not for publication, but for my own interest. It has always been the same: Empires grew by stealing resources and energy from others, until they went that fatal last step too far and self destructed, as our system is destroying us now.

The world is urged to become "more competitive" but what the proponents of this crime wave never figured out is that competitive systems need constantly increasing energy demands to survive and stay on top, until they run out, burn out and collapse.

This has been the story of all empires and it is happening now , as we can see, observe and record it.

Now it is on a global scale, with a criminal element in control of the colonization of the world. In the past the rulers have done it with arms and religions, allegedly to "spread the faith". Today it is with the perceived power of imaginary money, used as a pseudo religion, taught in our universities as the religion of "neoclassical market economics", which is leading to the same destruction and ultimate collapse as happened in all ages of history. The problem of Friedman's Chicago school of demand side economics is rooted in the Cornucopia model of unending wealth creation. This form of Voodoo economics, with all its pseudo scientific graphs and calculations, ignores supply of resources, especially energy use and externalized effects.

But our "leaders" and so called "economists" can report constant "growth of the GDP", with phony monetary figures, claiming that everything is A-OK.

The world has always been ruled by idiots and crooks, albeit on relatively small scales, until they self destructed, taking millions of innocent lives with them to the grave, but now they can do it globally, to the whole world.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Chibling#p/a/u/0/1qgtL4o4vPU

[Christopher]

dgcmagazine-

All of what you say sounds very nice, and it may work for you. However, as Dave points out here on a daily basis, the system within which you propose he go out and work in, is broken beyond repair. We do not live in a society that values community over the individual; it is the other way around, and not in a good way. Our capitalist society is about profits, not people, as the saying goes. Until that turns around, all one can do is to try to stay informed in the face of the establishment propaganda juggernaut (big thanks to Dave here at DotE for helping in that regard), and to try to de-couple oneself and those who will listen from the sociopathic system all Americans are born into. Until then, community action such as you suggest is largely fruitless, as it does not truly make the community stronger or more resilient; it is only an exercise in making oneself feel better.

True, lasting change for the better in our communities is much harder and more time consuming than volunteering at the local hospital. I'm talking about learning skills that will strengthen the community as our infrastructure disintegrates and food and energy prices skyrocket. I'm talking about learning self-sufficiency. These things take time, and a fundamental shift away from established societal paradigms.

You seem to be of the opinion that Dave's site is just a way for him to rant. It is, sometimes, but they are informed rants; do you not notice the time he takes to cite his sources, to painstakingly research the information he posts here every day, so we don't have to just take his word for it? This is no blog born out of whimsy. It is a valuable resource for those with the eyes to see that. I think you'll find that if you look around at the various economic and energy-related sites and blogs, that Dave's is one of the most objective and unbiased around.

Knowledge is power.

[Gail]

DGCmagazine, not to pile on but I want to add my perspective to your advice to take someone to chemo at a hospital as a way to effect a positive influence in your community.

It is far more important to me (as the mother of a cancer victim) that we all understand where this cancer epidemic is coming from.

It's largely coming from pollution. So until we as a people demand that the wanton pollution perpetrated by profitable, unscrupulous industries is regulated BY GOVERNMENT - the only alternative being a collective refusal to buy the products sold by the polluting industries, or holding their executives and shareholders legally liable - then there are just going to be more and more people needing a ride to chemo until the health care system is completely overwhelmed, even more than it already is.

I'm not against acts of charity and compassion towards those in need. But it is woefully insufficient to address the magnitude and the core sources creating the need in the first place.