The smoke has cleared, the debris has been removed. On February 27th 1933, the German Reichstag was burned by arson. (The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. Wikipedia) Just two weeks before the German Fuehrer had expressed to Joseph Goebbels his desire to burn the Communists out of Germany. The burning of the Reichstag brought about the enabling acts. The enabling acts effectively voided civil rights in Germany and ended any pretense of a democracy
On September 11, 2001 person or persons unknown hijacked aircraft striking both towers of the World Trade Centers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Ostensibly, according to government theorists, these so called terrorists, so hated America they attacked the World Trade Center as a punishment of America's crimes. Only, why did they strike the Pentagon? What did terrorists gain by attacking the Pentagon? Did they hope to so disrupt the US military hierarchy? So who gained by attacking the Pentagon?
The terrorists gained nothing, dead is dead. The attack on the Pentagon changed the nature of the events of September 11th. The attack on the Pentagon changed the nature of the event from a civilian attack to a military attack. So I'll ask again, who gained from the attack on the Pentagon on September 11th?
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." -- Joseph Goebbels
Within six weeks of the attack, both houses of Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, within two years the United States was involved in combat in two Arab countries. The Bush administration through an intense propaganda campaign implied the direct involvement of Saddam Hussein in the attacks of September 11th. Isn't it strange how these enemies du jour suddenly appeared, strange how the security apparatus suddenly appeared as well, strange how the concept of America and Americanism suddenly changed?
Eleven years later, the wars go on still, the checks are still being written, the body bags are still being filled. Less than 90 day before a Presidential election, an election which will either anoint a man so unsuited and unqualified as to be frightening. Or this country will re-elect the rightist Fascist Barack Obama. After the up coming November election America shall see the real Barack Obama, perhaps for the very first time. Obama will be a lame duck and beyond the reach of the electorate. That in and of itself is a frightening prospect as currently Obama's former chief of staff is fighting the Chicago teachers union. The real issues are not discussed, the campaign is an illusion. Below is the page from the CIA World Fact Book. This is the assessment of the Central Intelligence Agency; this is the government's own assessment of what is actually going on in this country. Read it carefully, it is far detached from anything you will see reported in the media.
{The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $48,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, to lay off surplus workers, and to develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to enter their rivals' home markets than foreign firms face entering US markets.
US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment; their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.
Since 1996, dividends and capital gains have grown faster than wages or any other category of after-tax income. Imported oil accounts for nearly 55% of US consumption. Oil prices doubled between 2001 and 2006, the year home prices peaked; higher gasoline prices ate into consumers' budgets and many individuals fell behind in their mortgage payments. Oil prices increased another 50% between 2006 and 2008. In 2008, soaring oil prices threatened inflation and caused a deterioration in the US merchandise trade deficit, which peaked at $840 billion. In 2009, with the global recession deepening, oil prices dropped 40% and the US trade deficit shrank, as US domestic demand declined, but in 2011 the trade deficit ramped back up to $803 billion, as oil prices climbed once more.
The global economic downturn, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, investment bank failures, falling home prices, and tight credit pushed the United States into a recession by mid-2008. GDP contracted until the third quarter of 2009, making this the deepest and longest downturn since the Great Depression. To help stabilize financial markets, in October 2008 the US Congress established a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The government used some of these funds to purchase equity in US banks and industrial corporations, much of which had been returned to the government by early 2011.
In January 2009 the US Congress passed and President Barack OBAMA signed a bill providing an additional $787 billion fiscal stimulus to be used over 10 years - two-thirds on additional spending and one-third on tax cuts - to create jobs and to help the economy recover. In 2010 and 2011, the federal budget deficit reached nearly 9% of GDP; total government revenues from taxes and other sources are lower, as a percentage of GDP, than that of most other developed countries.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required major shifts in national resources from civilian to military purposes and contributed to the growth of the US budget deficit and public debt - through 2011, the direct costs of the wars totaled nearly $900 billion, according to US government figures. In March 2010, President OBAMA signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a health insurance reform bill that will extend coverage to an additional 32 million American citizens by 2016, through private health insurance for the general population and Medicaid for the impoverished. Total spending on health care - public plus private - rose from 9.0% of GDP in 1980 to 17.9% in 2010. In July 2010, the president signed the DODD-FRANK Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law designed to promote financial stability by protecting consumers from financial abuses, ending taxpayer bailouts of financial firms, dealing with troubled banks that are "too big to fail," and improving accountability and transparency in the financial system - in particular, by requiring certain financial derivatives to be traded in markets that are subject to government regulation and oversight. Long-term problems include inadequate investment in deteriorating infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable current account and budget deficits - including significant budget shortages for state governments - energy shortages, and stagnation of wages for lower-income families.}-- The CIA World Fact Book
This is the truth! This is what your government tells its own employees about what is going on. It is the truth, but it is not what either political candidate is telling you.
Since my arrival in Cleveland, I have visited two grand tombs. The first was the tomb of President James Garfield, a grand tomb displaying the outpouring of a wealthy nation's affection towards its fallen leader. The second tomb is much larger and in its size and grandeur, it tells the story of us all. It is a symbol and a repository of all that is wrong and of all that has been done to us a people.
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