Nothing like eating a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner in the main dining room of a cruise ship with a family of strangers from Connecticut, served by foreigners, while 20 foot waves slide our dishes down the table. At least we won’t have to pass the stuffing. It’ll pass itself. I vowed to Avalon that I would make an uncomfortable situation even more uncomfortable by asking the strangers what they are thankful for. The sun is out, the big waves aren’t due until tonight, so we’ll get one last day of hot tub time. I may have a hard time waking Avalon up. Last night was 70′s Retro Night and that Rasberry Rum was going down real easy. She even got Admin out on the dance floor.
I’m so sorry I won’t be able to participate in Black Thursday Night and Black Friday. But, here is another Thanksgiving tradition. Arlo Guthrie with a tribute to the incompetence of government.
flash says:
Since the bastards that be have taken giving thanks out of the meaning of Thanksgiving and turned it into just another ugly American consumer driven holiday, I’ll take this opportunity to wish admin and all TBPers health , happiness and the wisdom to know when to duck in the near and far flung future.
You’re all special too me.
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22nd November 2012 at 7:58 am
Chas says:
Flash,
You put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. Your’e a freakin poet.
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22nd November 2012 at 9:23 am
sensetti says:
Thanks Flash, same to ya.
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22nd November 2012 at 9:58 am
Eddie says:
My best to everyone. Especially the intrepid travelers. We’ll be eating in the park, and feeding anybody who shows up…expecting about 20 or so. It’s a beautiful day here in the parched Southwest.
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22nd November 2012 at 11:01 am
AWD says:
Happy Thanksgiving you crayon eating bastards….
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22nd November 2012 at 11:39 am
Stucky says:
Thanksgiving …. Crappiest holiday of the year.
We’ll be going to my sister’s house …. she only lives a few miles away and we hardly ever talk, and she never comes to our house, even though she comes to this town to go to Trader Joe’s, a mile away. I fully understand Jon Steward’s joke; — “Getting together with our families once a year reminds some of us why we moved away in the first place.”
She voted for Obama …. twice. Oh, what fucking joy!! I haven’t yet decided if I’ll blurt out, “Fuck that Socialist nigger.” I guess it depends on her; if she bores the living shit out of me with her inane droning about her job as a paralegal for Johnson&Johnson ….. yeah, this tree-hugging , save-the-whales, the earth is warming(!) nutcase is nothing but a hypocritical corporate shill.
She’s also a vegetarian. She’s gonna make tofu turkey, as usual. Go to your garbage can, pull out a five day old piece of soggy paper, drown it in salt and pepper, and then eat it. That’s what tofu turkey tastes like. Ms Freud and I are bringing our own REAL turkey … mostly in consideration for my parents, who prefer M.E.A.T. I am fully prepared to listen to her 30 minute soliloquy about how the poor living conditions this turkey suffered all its life. This, of course, is bullshit. From the moment it was born, that turkey had free food, free shelter, and free medical care. That’s the real reason she likes the turkey – it was an Obama voter.
Speaking of Obama — I wish he would grow some balls. Instead of ‘pardoning’ some goddamn random turkey, what he should do after giving his bullshit teleprompter speech about the importance of family and sacrifice, he should grab that turkey’s neck with one hand and with the other he should cut off the turkey’s head and get blood all over his hands while shouting ‘Allah Akbar, Benghazi turkey!”. The symbolism would be breathtaking to behold.
Does anyone really LIKE Thanksgiving food?? If turkey was that tasty we’d eat it year round. Candied yams … what the fuck is that all about? Stuffing is just gross meatbread. Pumpkin pie isn’t a fucking dessert, it’s a vegetable pretending to be a pie. God forbid if she serves canned cranberry sauce … it’s a fucking miracle of science that this “food” retains the shape of the can … including even the ridges … four actual cranberries plus tons of sugar and gelatin made from horse hooves ……mmm-mmm yummy!
The whole goddamned holiday is based on a pack of lies. Everything you think you know about the “original” Thanksgiving is myth — from the food, to the “Pilgrims”, to the clothes, to the very reasons it was celebrated — all lies. Here’s how to celebrate Thanksgiving the old-fashioned way; invite everyone in your neighborhood to your house, have an enormous feast …. then kill them and steal all their shit. You would be the only honest person in all America.
Yes, George Washington had days for national thanksgiving …. but it had nothing to do with the bastardization we see today. The modern holiday celebrations actually find their origins from the Civil War in 1863 when good old Honest Abe (barf!!!) wanted a way to boost morale and patriotic fervor of the Union Army. “Dear Union soldiers, be happy you ain’t dead yet! Now go kill some fucking Southern rebels! Hip hip hooray!!”. Didn’t know you were celebrating a bloody military holiday … did ya?
But, you cry out, “Grow the fuck up, Stucky! Things have changed! It’s now a beautiful holiday meant to celebrate family and good tithings.”
Bullshit. Even as I write this I am watching the Macy Parade. A gigantic Ronald McDonald’s float just passed by. Worshipping the icons of consumer culture … oh, what joy.
Daily on TBP we complain about growing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, despair, trillions of dollars of debt, multiple imperial wars that kills thousands of American boys and causes suffering for millions of innocents in foreign lands. I should forget all this for just one day and pretend all is well? Ha! The mental gymnastics that requires is beyond my mere mortal abilities.
We defile the very idea of “Thanks Giving” with our overindulgent gluttony and the official beginning of holiday consumerism that now extends to even beyond Christmas.
The modern Thanksgiving holiday is absolutely nothing more than a way to promote more lies and bullshit to the sheeple ….. celebrating our supposed innate goodness and the now total illusion of American exceptionalism, a gross celebration of our faux moral and cultural superiority …. all topped off with the belief that God himself made America special … that, indeed, we Americans have replaced the Jews as “the chosen people.” This is a holiday to subtly glorify wealth and power, while claiming a divine right for even more. Blow me.
I don’t often agree with Free Shitters …… but, I do today.
Oh … by the way ….. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
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22nd November 2012 at 12:07 pm
AWD says:
From the moment it was born, that turkey had free food, free shelter, and free medical care. That’s the real reason she likes the turkey – it was an Obama voter.
Great piece Stuck. It’s amazing what our educational system and MSM have created. Neo-hippie hypocrite earth muffins like your sister, who also happen to be corporate cogs. I’ll bet she’s gonna be gloating about Obama’s victory also. These people won, the sane people lost. I love these people, they weigh 300 pounds, but feel oh so good about themselves because they eat tofu turkeys. The illusion for Americans is gonna end one of these days.
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22nd November 2012 at 12:21 pm
Stucky says:
AWD
Thanks.
Here’s the funny thing …. she and I had the same parents, the same upbringing, and we went to the same schools. It is a mystery to me how she became so fucked up, while I am so damn perfect. lol
I still love her though. That’s an even greater mystery. (She IS my sister, my only sibling, after all.)
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22nd November 2012 at 12:30 pm
sensetti says:
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22nd November 2012 at 1:15 pm
backwardsevolution says:
Stucky – brilliant!!! Good reading for my children when they get home from the factory that grinds young minds into dust. Thank you.
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22nd November 2012 at 1:22 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
I love stuffing.
Other than that, I hate the holiday.
I hate all holidays. Its a combination of bad memories and pessimism.
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22nd November 2012 at 1:50 pm
Novista says:
I’m thankful for the TBP family, the internet, that I’m still healthy and functioning on my own, for Inu the spoodle. He doesn’t talk much but listens well, doesn’t much like my commentary on the news.
Hope it was a good day for you.
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22nd November 2012 at 2:11 pm
Kill Bill says:
I am fully prepared to listen to her 30 minute soliloquy about how the poor living conditions this turkey suffered all its life. -Stucko
I usually ask those types of people if the Earth is a living thing. They say,”O. Yes. Certainly” And I then say Well if the Earth is a living thing, then are trees a living thing? They say “Yes. Trees are a living thing.” And I say, So if a tree is a living thing then are not also soybean plants a living thing? Now they get a worried look on their face and see the trap Im about to spring. I divert, “I like your shoes, are they leather?”
Now at this time take a big bite of Turkey.
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22nd November 2012 at 2:39 pm
Kill Bill says:
Thanksgiving the old-fashioned way; invite everyone in your neighborhood to your house, have an enormous feast …. then kill them…..-Stucko
|_ () |_
I think they called that Saturnalia, but it was in December.
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22nd November 2012 at 2:44 pm
backwardsevolution says:
And let’s not forget to give thanks to the fat-always-rises-to-the-top elite (who are busy robbing you while you eat), the big fat turkey politicians, and the baster full of lies, the media, without which we might actually have a LIFE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9PjWf-grvM&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYnGTXrEdn0&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93A-BG-_z5s&feature=relmfu
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22nd November 2012 at 2:57 pm
ThePessimisticChemist says:
@KB – ““I like your shoes, are they leather?””
If they aren’t wearing leather shoes, here are some more responses:
“No, they are plastic”
A: You realize that most of the plastic that was used to make those shoes was pulled out of crude oil.
“No, they are hemp”
A: There is a global shortage of food, people are fucking DYING of starvation and you are encouraging farmers to plant NON FOOD crops?
“I’m barefoot”
A: I hope you get tetanus and die.
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22nd November 2012 at 3:07 pm
AKAnon, AKA government (non)drone says:
I am thankful for the minority of folks who don’t have their heads planted firmly up their asses. This includes most folks here at TBP, and maybe not many else. Spread the word, regardless of how little good it may do in the big scheme of things. I will celebrate Thanksgiving day off from my gub’mint job by going skiing with my dog. -10F today, a little chilly, but OK. I will be back at work tomorrow, though. I need to find one of those “retire at 50″ gub’mint gigs. Then I’d have every day off next Thanksgiving.
Thanks Admin for the Alice’s Restaurant tradition-that always brings back memories. Arlo Guthrie is scheduled to perform in Fairbanks next April-I plan on getting tickets, assuming there is a next April. The Mayans may have something to say about that. I can hardly wait to squeeze into the auditorium with all those obese baby-boomer hippy types.
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22nd November 2012 at 4:16 pm
Kill Bill says:
Funny TPC =)
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22nd November 2012 at 5:08 pm
Kill Bill says:
An actual photo of admin getting his rasberry cruise grog on
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22nd November 2012 at 5:11 pm
Kill Bill says:
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22nd November 2012 at 5:12 pm
Kill Bill says:
Well phuk u wordpress, really, just phuk u.
http://www.boomerplaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Boomers-dance-1024×759.jpg
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22nd November 2012 at 5:14 pm
Anonymous says:
You never know how many people are by themselves (widows, widowers, couples) with children long far away unless you live in a place like I do… A community of greatest, silents and a few early boomers.
What we do on family get-together days like today is go down to our very nicely set up clubhouse, everyone brings home cooking for 10 people, we buy four big honking turkeys that are cooked to perfection, debone ‘em and —- presto — you’re sitting down to a great meal with a family that’s 200 people wide!
We have to turn away volunteers to set up and clean up as there are always too many to fit – so we try and rotate helpers from supper to supper. We have monthly pot lucks (truly pot “luck” – what shows up is what you eat) and usually there are several groups that stay after and play cards or board games or just sit around over coffee (and – dare I admit – brandy!) and shoot the breeze…
I don’t care if you like holidays or not (I feel free to ignore almost all of them – especially birthdays), you can’t help feeling worth while fixing up to-go meals for those who are homebound or just unable to make it.
We load up a couple of golf carts with styrofoam boxes and make home deliveries – always a blast and always welcome. After deliveries one Christmas dinner, we had a golf cart pilot so potted we had to use a designated driver to get him back to the clubhouse! Hilarious…
So all you monkeys listen up.. If you have to be by yourself – whether you like observing holidays or are like Stucky and just a sour puss – then be sure you put yourself to work doing something for someone else – don’t care what – just do something.. It’ll make your day..
My best to everyone on TBP – even Stucky – (I bet he’s lying about the Tofu Turkey too!)..
MA
(who’s just glad to be here!)
You just can’t feel lonely after doing something like that.
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22nd November 2012 at 7:06 pm
Muck About says:
Word Press is up to no good tonight either! The above missive is mine..
MA
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22nd November 2012 at 7:07 pm
AKAnon says:
Nice, Muck. And I am thankful you are still with us as well.
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22nd November 2012 at 7:15 pm
Ron says:
My dad must have thought about all the food he would eat and had a stroke Tuesday.So most of the day was spent looking at him and wondering what his future well be like.
I went home and my wife had cooked a very tasty turkey and we ate until we were to full and talked about how good life is.
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22nd November 2012 at 9:02 pm
Muck About says:
@Ron: Damn, I’m sorry to hear about your Dad. Timing is never right for something like that, but it seems excessively cruel at this time of year.. My sympathy to you and your family..
There is one thing for sure. When things are at their darkest and the pit seems too close for comfort, all you have to do is look around closely and you will always find someone (or “someones”) who have problems that make yours look like a piker.
That’s what saved me not long ago (last September) when, one day after finishing my first round of chemo and being in the absolute sick and painful pits, my wee yorkie/poo named Widget, who we raised from a pup and fit in my shirt pocket when we got her to a ripe old age of 15 years, had a heart attack and we were forced to put her down. We buried her in the back yard that night and I was so sick I couldn’t help except to scatter some dirt over her box. I cried a lot that night – and the next as well and felt it so unfair that she was lost to us just when I needed her really badly as she was a great joy to both our lives..
The next day, a dear friend lost her husband to a massive stroke. What was my loss next to the loss of a loved one who had been a lover, partner and spouse over 60 years? We cooked the wife dinner and spent a lot of hours with her over the next two days before her kids could get here. It showed me that there were far larger losses than my sweetie and I had experienced and while it didn’t make it much easier to cope with, the loss of our pup shrank back into proper perspective and while still difficult, it became bearable..
I wish you and your family all the best in handling the situation with your Dad. Whatever his future holds, he lucky to have you and your wife standing with him.
MA
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22nd November 2012 at 9:29 pm
flash says:
Thanks MA for putting it all into perspective.
The the calming release and the serenity that follows is the true gift of giving thanks.
And the knowledge that but for the grace of God, there go I.
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22nd November 2012 at 7:56 am
AWD says:
The First Thanksgiving
Many, many years ago, long before white men (and womyn) had even begun to see the errors of their various racist ways, the Pilgrims came from Europe to occupy North America. They were not very FORWARD! in their ways, and as typically happens to a so-called “civilization” when it’s based on capitalism, the Pilgrims began to starve*.
Their peaceful and friendly neighboring Native American collective – in spite of the Pilgrims’ racist encroachment upon their sacred land – took pity upon the starving Pilgrims one Thursday in November and brought them bountiful food and drink (including several turkeys, although the Native Americans didn’t eat the turkeys themselves, due to their being peaceful vegans who respect all Life).
The Native American collective had, of course, more food than they could eat, as is always the case when you spread the wealth around, so they gladly donated some of their bounty to the poor capitalist Pilgrims, who otherwise were in great danger of starving to death.
As the years went by, and the Pilgrims branched out to occupy more and more Native American land – slaughtering the peaceful, harmonious Native peoples as they went – the occupiers nevertheless felt a small twinge of guilt from time to time, and they decided to honor the benevolent Native Americans one day a year (leaving 364 days to slaughter, imprison, encroach upon, infect, and otherwise take advantage of and oppress them). They called the day “Thanksgiving”, to thank the few remaining Native Americans still living for saving their lives** on that cold day one November.
So today we honor the memory of those generous Native Americans and their life saving gift of food to the starving Pilgrims with a recurring national holiday, Thanksgiving. And it is in that spirit – the Great Spirit of the Native Americans – that I here and now wish everyone reading this a Happy Thanksgiving!
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22nd November 2012 at 9:21 am
flash says:
Thanksgiving is just another negative statist bastardization of a perfectly positive word.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/126914.html
William Seward’s Thanksgiving Lies, Diversions, and Blasphemies
Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo on November 22, 2012 08:30 AM
The U.S. government’s Thanksgiving Proclamation creating a national holiday was written by the New York politician William Seward, not Abraham Lincoln. It was then issued under Lincoln’s signature, and contains a number of outrageous lies and a bit of blasphemy.
The Proclamation praises “peace with all nations” while the authors of it were waging total war on their own nation.
It boasts that “order has been maintained” despite the reality of the New York City draft riots in which hundreds of New Yorkers were shot dead in the street by Lincoln’s soldiers four months earlier.
It boasts that the laws have been respected and obeyed, but of course they were NOT by the author or signatory of the document, who had illegally suspended Habeas Corpus, imprisoned thousands of political dissenters, shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, confiscated firearms, and committed treason by levying war upon the Southern states, as prohibited by Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
The document further lies by calling the U.S. government’s invasion of the Southern states and the waging of total war on the civilian population as “national DEFENSE.”
The document blames God for the war, claiming that it was a result of His “anger for our sins.”
Perhaps most outrageously, the Seward/Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation declares the “union” (a.k.a. the D.C.government) as a “Divine purpose.”
Give thanks that there is a remnant of the population still willing to speak truth to the pack of state propagated lies.
Doug Casey on the America That Was – Now the United (Police) State of America
Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator
Recently by Doug Casey: The Inconvenient Truths of US Foreign Policy
L: Doug, after conversations like the one we had last week, we often get letters from angry readers who accuse you of hating America, disloyalty, and perhaps even treason. These people don’t know or understand what I do about you – that you love the idea that was America. It’s the United State it has become for which you have nothing but contempt. Perhaps we should try to explain this to them?
Doug: I doubt it would work; it’s a tough row to hoe, trying to explain things to people who are so set in their thinking that they truly and literally don’t want to hear anything that might threaten their notions. A person who feels threatened by ideas and who responds with emotion is acting irrationally. How can we have a discussion with someone whose emotion trumps their reason? How do we even begin to untangle the thinking of people who will gather this week to give thanks for the bounty produced by freedom and hard work – the famous puritan work ethic – by eating a turkey bought with food stamps?
But we can outline the ideas, for the record.
L: I’ll bring a copy if they ever do put you on trial for thoughtcrime – which is frighteningly close to being real these days and called treason to boot.
Doug: It’s not just close; it’s here. Just try telling an unapproved joke in a security line in an airport these days.
L: True enough. Where to begin?
Doug: At the beginning. America was founded as a confederation of independent countries – that’s what a state is. Or was, in our language. The original United States of America was a confederation of countries that banded together for protection against larger and more powerful countries they feared might be hostile. This is not a disputed interpretation of history, but as solid a fact as the study of history produces – and yet a largely neglected one.
L: We did cover this ground briefly in our conversations on the Civil War and the Constitution.
Doug: So we did… the short version being that the US Constitution was essentially a coup; the delegates to what we now call the Constitutional Convention were not empowered to replace the existing government – only to improve upon the Articles of Confederation between the then-independent states. The framers of the Constitution drafted it with the notion of a national government already in place, but calmed fears of loss of state sovereignty by calling the new government the “United States of America” – a verbal sleight of hand that worked for over half a century. Then the southern states decided to exercise what these words imply; their right to leave the union. While slavery was and is a wholesale criminal activity I object to in every way possible, the southern states did have the right to secede, both legally and ethically. But the question was settled by force, not reason, and the wrong side won.
L: Another coup?
Doug: More like an exposure of the first one for the whole world to see. But by then it was way too late. Despite this, the relative freedom of the US – because it was for many years far freer than other countries – made it possible for artists, engineers, inventors, and businesspeople to flourish and create a society more wealthy and powerful than any the world had ever seen. This is what I call the idea of America – the America That Was.
But the seeds of destruction were already sown at the very beginning – with the Alien and Sedition Acts being perhaps the first highly visible step in the wrong direction. Then came the forceful assertion of one national government, with states reduced to administrative regions via the War of Southern Secession, from 1861-’65. I’m no fan of state governments, incidentally, but at least they’re smaller and closer to their subjects than the federal government. Another major step in the wrong direction occurred with the Spanish-American War of 1898, where the US acquired an overseas empire by force. The next major step downhill was the creation of the Federal Reserve and the income tax, both in 1913, just in time for World War I. It took time for these things to make the system crash, because it was still a fairly free economy.
L: But crash it did in 1929…
Doug: Yes. And it led to the Great Depression of 1929-’46, which lasted so long entirely because of the unmitigated disaster of the New Deal (which we discussed recently). The New Deal injected socialist-fascist ideas into mainstream American thought like a poisonous acid, corrupting the heart of the idea of America that once made the place great. The process was completed with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, which really established the basis of the welfare-warfare state. It truly set the stage for the total ethical, economic, social, political, and even military disaster now unfolding before our eyes.
Still, the beating heart of the idea of America – which is to say both social and economic freedom – took time to corrupt. Like a strong man who doesn’t know he’s headed for a heart attack, American culture didn’t really peak until the 1950s. The bullet-finned 1959 Cadillac is a symbol of this peak, in my mind.
L: Then we had Johnson and his “guns and butter” policy – War in Vietnam and War on Poverty at the same time – followed by tricky Dick kicking the last leg out of under the stool by taking the dollar off an even theoretical gold standard.
Doug: Yes. Nixon was arguably even a worse President than Johnson, with the devaluation of the dollar in 1971 and his creation of the War on Drugs. Things have spiraled out of control since then. In The Casey Report, we’ve written reams about these last decades and how they led to and shaped what’s happening now. But I have to say, the focus has been largely financial.
L: Which is as it should be, in a publication designed to help investors navigate these turbulent times.
Doug: Yes, but the corruption goes way beyond that, beyond even the senseless wars and idiotic foreign policy we discussed last week. America, once the land of the brave and the home of the free, is well on its way to becoming a police state – worse than any we’ve seen in the past, including the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
L: How could it get worse than that?
Doug: Because Big Brother has better technology now, allowing possible manipulation and control of the population that Stalin and Hitler never dreamed of. And because the US used to be such a great place, a lot of people have been tricked into believing it’s the same as it was. But there’s no more resemblance between the America of old and the US of today than there was between the Rome of the Republic and the Rome of the later emperors. Furthermore, most Americans have conflated the government with society. They’re not only different things, but often antithetical.
L: I thought you said you’re an optimist!
Doug: I am. But that’s for the survivors who make it through the wringer the global economy – and every person on this planet – is about to go through. I keep telling you that the coming Greater Depression is going to be even worse than I think it is. You may think I’m joking, but I’m not. I do think that, primarily for reasons we discussed in our conversation on technology, what comes next will not only be even better than I imagine, it will be better than I can imagine… but first we have to go through the wringer. I see no way around it. I truly don’t.
L: Okay, I know you believe that. Can you substantiate the police-state claim?
Doug: Well, rather than give you anecdotal evidence – of which there are masses more each day – let me refer to a rather perceptive blog post by a George Washington law professor named Jonathan Turley, titled 10 Reasons Why the US Is No Longer the Land of the Free. I’m sure I don’t see everything the way the professor does, but the list struck me as quite accurate and very important for people to understand.
L: I’m sure I don’t want to hear this, but okay, shoot.
Doug: [Chuckles] Maybe you don’t, but I know you value the truth. These points underline something I’ve said for years: the Bill of Rights is a completely dead letter. It’s essentially meaningless and rarely even gets the benefit of lip service. Quoting it will result in derision, if not arrest as a dangerous radical.
Frankly, I didn’t think the civil liberties situation could get worse than it was under Cheney-Bush, but it has. Obama has repealed none of what they did – and added more. So, let’s go through the list. First:
Assassination of U.S. citizens: “President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism.”
Of course the very concept of terrorism is highly malleable, with over 100 definitions floating about – as we’ve discussed. But apart from that, it’s now accepted that the president and his minions have the right to kill almost anyone. This conceit will get completely out of control after the next real or imagined major terrorist incident.
L: This reminds me of the extraordinary powers given to government agents to battle the War On Some Drugs – like the RICO statutes – which have now been turned against ordinary citizens who have nothing to do with the drug trade.
Doug: Exactly. Once you give the state a power – for whatever good reason you imagine it needs it – it will use that power for whatever those in charge feel is in their interests. And those in charge are never saints.
Next:
Indefinite detention: “Under the law signed last month, terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism.”
This was a precedent set by Guantánamo, where scores of the accused continue to rot without even a kangaroo-court trial.
Arbitrary justice: “The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, a system that has been ridiculed around the world for lacking basic due process protections. Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice.”
As the government becomes more powerful, it’s completely predictable that everything – including the justice system – will become ever more politicized. And government very rarely relinquishes a power it’s gained. I particularly like the Supreme Court ruling in April 2012 that allows anyone who’s arrested for anything – including littering or jaywalking – to be strip-searched.
L: Note to readers: you can’t hear Doug’s voice, but I assure you that his use of the word “like” is sarcastic.
Doug: Just so. Moving right along:
Warrantless searches: “The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens’ finances, communications and associations. Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obama extended the power, including searches of everything from business documents to library records.”
Privacy is now a completely dead concept, from both a legal and a practical point of view. If you want to retain privacy, you now have no alternative to relocating outside the US.
L: Or any advanced Western country. I’ve read that there are more surveillance cameras per square mile in London than anywhere else.
Doug: I’ve heard that too. The opposite being true in rural Argentina is one of the things I like about it. Back to the list:
Secret evidence: “The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security…”
“National security” essentially amounts to nothing more than government security, which amounts to cover for the individuals in the government. Nazi Germany and the USSR were national-security states. As I’ve tried to explain in the past, once a critical mass is reached, it’s impossible to reform a government. I believe we’ve reached that state in the US.
War crimes: “The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law.”
Torture by field operatives under the stress of combat is one thing; torture as official policy is something else again. But torture is now accepted in the US. Worse, there are far more serious war crimes than torture being committed in the name of the US that are going unpunished.
L: This is, after all, a far darker version of the same US government that deliberately infected black US citizens with syphilis just to see what would happen, and sent US citizens of Japanese descent to concentration camps during WWII.
Doug: Exactly. The next point is:
Secret court: “The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has expanded its secret warrants to include individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group.”
You no longer live in a free country when there’s zero privacy for citizens, but 100% secrecy for the government and those it employs.
Immunity from judicial review: “Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy.”
The government has outsourced some of its functions – not least the use of contractors in war zones. Increasingly, being associated with the government gives you a “get out of jail free” card. In the USSR they called this a “krisha” – a roof.
Continual monitoring of citizens: “The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review.”
Bad as this is, it’s just one example. There’s also the use of domestic drones, and hundreds of thousands of cameras that take pictures of everyone everywhere.
Extraordinary renditions: “The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition, which has been denounced as using other countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, to torture suspects.”
Yes, if someone is kidnapped, there’s plausible deniability if the torturing is done abroad by a third party. And they’re likely to have even fewer compunctions.
L: That’s a pretty depressing list, Doug.
Doug: And this is just the beginning. As I’ve said before, I don’t call the shots – just try to tell the truth as I see it. The point is that you couldn’t assemble a list like this even 15 years ago. But now it’s part of the firmament. Worse, it’s going to grow. As the economy turns down over the next few years, the people – acting like scared chimpanzees – will ask the government to “do something.” And it will. The trend is going hyperbolic.
L: I can’t argue… and I agree it is not likely to be stopped. So if this is a sure trend, are there investment implications?
Doug: This just goes to reinforce what I’ve been saying for some time. As great as a US citizen’s risk is in the marketplace these days, the greatest single risk to their wealth and health is the government. People simply must internationalize to diversify their political risk. I can’t stress that strongly enough.
L: Would you go so far as to say that being a taxpayer in the US now is like being a Jew in Germany in the mid-1930s?
Doug: That’s a good analogy. It’s costly and upsetting to uproot, but the risk if you don’t is unimaginably worse. And I would warn people in other countries to take the same precautions. All of these nation-states are dying dinosaurs that will cause a lot of damage as they thrash about in their death throes. No place is completely safe, but you improve your odds by not putting your eggs all in one basket.
L: Okay, I guess we’ve covered that plenty of times. Is there a “police-state play” – any investments one could make before the new Iron Curtain slams down? Handcuff manufacturers?
Doug: Nah – they have those plastic zip-binder things now; they’re so cheap that I doubt the manufacturer can even make big money in volume. But I do remember a speech I attended in the ’90s given by William Bennett, the ex-Drug Czar, who recommended investing in prisons. I excoriated him as a sociopath at that meeting – but he was right. However, that ship has sailed; it’s hard to believe the US can incarcerate more than the current 2.3 million people. Besides, I find it morally offensive to capitalize what I consider to be criminal enterprises. No, for now the only absolutely crystal-clear imperative is as above: You’ve got t have a Plan B ready in case you need to get out of Dodge – and you need it pronto.
And to those who will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I urge you to remind those you carve the turkey with that it was hard work and the freedom to profit from it that created the bounty the pilgrims celebrated. It was this enterprising spirit and the liberty to exercise it that was the heart of the idea of the America That Was – the idea that made America great. Those corrupt politicians who have been undermining these values for so long, and the willfully ignorant ideologues who support them, are responsible for turning this country into the United (Police) State of America. They should be criticized and opposed at every opportunity.
L: Okay, Doug. Thanks for another challenging but enlightening conversation.
Doug: My pleasure.
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November 23, 2012
Doug Casey (send him mail) is a best-selling author and chairman of Casey Research, LLC., publishers of Casey’s International Speculator.
Copyright © 2012 Casey Research
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22nd November 2012 at 12:24 pm