Monday, October 28, 2013

Congressional oversight of the NSA is a joke. I should know, I'm in Congress

Click here to access article by Congressman Alan Grayson from The Guardian.

Of course, the representative from Florida is correct, and this truth is long overdue to be recognized along with all the other commonly held beliefs about "democratic" government. 

A review of history shows clearly that after WWII, our capitalist ruling class saw a huge power vacuum in the world which they decided to fill, in collaboration with the weakened British imperialists, to pursue a campaign of world domination. But first, they needed to circumvent any vestiges of popular influence over government by establishing secret agencies immune from any significant government oversight. This they accomplished under the leadership of Wall Street lawyers such as Allen Dulles and Frank Wisner Sr. by establishing new secret agencies such as the CIA and NSA and strengthening 14 others already established during and before WWII. 

To accomplish their world domination plans, it is clear that ruling class directors regarded the official bodies of government, whose members were carefully selected and sponsored by major corporations, as a hindrance to such plans because they were too susceptible to popular pressures from the people who merely wanted peace and prosperity. They also saw that the outward  trappings of "democratic" government should be preserved to maintain its legitimacy in the eyes of the public, but it was also necessary to do an "end run" around these institutions by establishing these secret agencies which have evolved into a shadow government. The core of this shadow government consist of major capitalists in financial and large industrial corporations in close collaboration with top military leaders. 

If this state of affairs reminds you of fascism, that is because it is the 21st century's version of the old form of fascism. (The best definition of the old model of fascism remains that of the Communist Third International who in 1935 defined it as follows: “Fascism in power is the open, terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of finance capitalism.”) However, this definition must be updated.

What we now have is the new and improved version dressed up to include official leaders who function as polished public relations officers. They are especially skilled at using Orwellian language: the Empire's use of force against citizens of other countries is portrayed in their media as efforts to make us secure from terrorists whom we must fight in an endless "War on Terror"; when we invade other countries it is for "humanitarian" reasons; and we have a "War on Drugs" which in reality is essentially about militarizing local police forces. The other major changes in the new version of fascism is that it is carefully hidden behind the secret agencies mentioned above and includes a shadow government of key ruling class decision-makers who make all the important decisions. With only a few exceptions the official decision-makers in all branches of government are mainly puppets.


 

Under this regime of the shadow government some of us now see through the fog of propaganda the establishment of a police state whose instruments of violence are used to terrorize citizens who engage in any forms of serious, but lawful dissent.





We are seeing more and more evidence that local police forces are increasingly under the covert control of a centralized agency in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security, which provides generous amounts of military equipment (including surveillance drones), supplies, and training to local law enforcement agencies.