HIJACKED DEMOCRACY / WE ARE NOW A FASCIST CORPOCRACY

Mark Twain once wrote true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time and loyalty to the Government ONLY when it deserves it. Our present corporate welfare state government does not deserve our loyalty for it has not only hijacked democracy but we have become a fascist corpocracy in the process: Allen L Roland

Do you realize that the U.S. military spends a cool $20billion on air conditioning annually in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military forks out a whopping $20.2 billion a year on keeping troops in Iraq and Afghanistan cool, it has emerged. This alarming figure is more than Nasa's entire annual budget and trumps the amount the G-8 has pledged to aid Egypt and Tunisia. It's even more than the clean up cost of BP’s Gulf oil spill. See full report ~

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008422/U-S-military-spends-cool-20billion-air-conditioning-annually-Iraq-Afghanistan.html

The Obama administration not only represents corporate welfare you can believe in but, in the process, we have moved from a democracy toward a fascist corpocracy ~ which millions of Americans patriotically celebrate while still being manipulated by false threats, false promises and nightmares. President Obama's once formidable Main street base has now been replaced by Wall Street's financial elite and an arrogant and greedy corpocracy.

These days I often think of BBC's incredible documentary The Power Of Nightmares which was broadcast on November 3, 2004 and is still more than relevant today.

Mike Conley's transcript said it all ~ " Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life. But now, they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism. A powerful and sinister network, with sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It's a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media."

Manufactured fear, corporate welfare and false patriotism are also some of the 14 key characteristics of a fascist state. Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each ~ and America has virtually all of them;

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need."

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and corporate executives.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion.

9. Corporate Power is protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even fore go civil liberties in the name of patriotism.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media.

So are our present active duty military currently fighting for our nation, a democracy, or an increasingly fascist government corpocracy?

As the Rev Michael Piazza writes in Liberating Word ~ “ When war is profitable, it becomes too tempting to resist. We cloak our attitudes in terms of patriotism and supporting our troops, but the truth is, if war wasn't so profitable our troops might not be so endangered. Is it pure coincidence that the South, which is most economically dependent on military expenditures, is also the region where support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the greatest? Will we ever make truly ethical choices between war and peace if war is so profitable?”

And what has the war (Occupation) in Afghanistan really achieved? The Independent revealed the sordid truth yesterday ~ “At least 60 people died in a suicide bombing just 25 miles from Kabul yesterday. In a few days' time, a report on Afghanistan from the International Crisis Group will say that violence and the billions of dollars in international aid have brought wealthy officials and insurgents together. As a result, "the economy is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen". The negatives column in the Afghan war's balance sheet does not get any shorter. So far, the conflict has lasted nine years, eight months and 17 days, cost the lives of 2,547 coalition troops, and between 14,000 and 34,000 civilians, created millions of refugees, and opened up a black hole in Western economies that has sucked in more $500bn dollars. Afghanistan costs the US around $10bn (£6.3bn) a month; and Britain will pay £4.5bn this year.” http://ind.pn/lE4DZk

A new report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called Afghanistan: The Impossible Transition says that the idea of transition by 2014 is "unrealistic" and warns: "If the transition were carried out, it would provide a considerable boost to the insurgency and, ultimately, the defeat of the Karzai regime." Over the past two years, the security situation has deteriorated in the border provinces, according to the report. President Karzai is showing increasing signs of moving closer to Iran and Pakistan. Please note, the Karzai regime is a U.S. appointed and manipulated puppet government or better yet, another budding fascist corpocracy.

Lastly, World War II air combat veteran and the late historian Howard Zinn, comments on the important difference between the Government and the Nation ~ and how "government" has hijacked patriotism in the service of the highest corporate bidders. As such, when our democratic government becomes a corpocracy and destructive of our founding rights, we have every right to alter or abolish that government or at the very least severely criticize it.

4 Minute must see Howard Zinn Video interview :

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/4188.html

The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been - Mark Twain's Notebook

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/hijacked-democracy-we-are-now-fascist.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

FUKUSHIMA COVER UP CONTINUES / LOOMING WORLD HEALTH CRISIS

Recently President Obama ordered a complete news blackout of the flood ravaged crippled Fort Calhoun, Nebraska nuclear plant which is a symptom of the ongoing world wide cover up ‘of the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind’ ~ Fukushima: Allen L Roland

It’s an election year and President Obama is determined that no bad news or a looming nuclear crisis will undermine his re-election as president in 2012 ~ but the truth has a way of undermining the best of the worst deceptions.

For example, a shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.

According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area. http://www.myweathertech.com/2011/06/17/us-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-nebraska-nuclear-plant/

But that’s small potatoes compared to the on going Fukushima cover up ~ for the Fukushima deception continues unabated and a world wide health crisis is looming. Here are the facts ~ according to the highly credible investigator columnist Dahr Jamail ~ Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public; "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera-English ~ "Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively…. Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting ~ "We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl." In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant ~ The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.” There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specializes in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.” See article~ http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

Gundersen's assessment of solving this crisis is grim; "Units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted core, that has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said. "Somehow, robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor, there is no solution available now for picking that up from the floor."

Gundersen believes it will take experts at least ten years to design and implement the plan; "So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water," Gundersen said. "We are already seeing Strontium [at] 250 times the allowable limits in the water table at Fukushima. Contaminated water tables are incredibly difficult to clean. So I think we will have a contaminated aquifer in the area of the Fukushima site for a long, long time to come."

Note that GE, the maker of the Fukushima plant, owns something like 49% of NBC, which in turn is linked to msnbc.com. And then we have Westinghouse, another nuclear contractor, who owns CBS. My point is, the nuclear industry and the big news houses are interlinked and are not about to rock the boat (especially with their hired hand, Obama, running for re-election.). Remember, Obama received large contributions from the nuclear Industry, and in turn has offered up a $50 billion stimulus package for nuclear construction.

Note also that this article is from Al Jazeerra-English and not the American Main stream press which is not only in bed with the corpocracy but purposely looking the other way. But we can’t afford to look the other way ~ for this looming world health crisis is already upon us.

Bob Nichols, Veterans Today, confirms the same toxic Fukushima radiation aftermath in his excellent update on May 28th, 2011. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/05/28/fukushima-how-many-chernobyls-is-it/

Dr. Helen Caldicott described what's happening at Fukushima as "kind of like a nuclear war with no explosion." She believes the release of nuclides from Fukushima is much higher than has been reported by officials and could, over time, cause millions of cancers. She says. "We're talking about random compulsory genetic engineering for the rest of time. And almost all mutations are deleterious. They cause diseases like cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and dwarfism - there are over 2600 genetic diseases - I could go on and on. So what we are doing is just the most ghastly experiment, not just on the human species but on 30 million other species that cohabit the planet with us."

Let’s make it simple ~ Fukushima Radioactivity is all over the Northern Hemisphere and each and every one of us is already contaminated to some degree ~ particularly on the West Coast where I reside.

Fukushima Equals 3,000 Billion Lethal Doses

Dr. Michio Kaku pointed out on CNN March 18, 2011, Chernobyl involved one reactor and only 57.6 Tons of the reactor core went into the atmosphere. In dramatic contrast, the Fukushima Daiichi disaster immediately involved six reactors and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN Agency) documented 2,800 Tons of highly radioactive old reactor cores.

Looking at the current Japanese meltdown as more than 50 Chernobyls is one way some people are beginning to estimate the disaster. Simple division tells us there are at least 48.6 Chernobyls in the burning old reactor cores pumping fiery isotopes into the Earth's atmosphere. Some are calculating that this all adds up to three thousand billion (3,000,000,000,000) Lethal Doses of Radiation ~ meaning there are 429 Lethal Doses chasing each and every one of us on the planet, to put it in a nutshell.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032761_Fukushima_nuclear_disaster.html#ixzz1Q1R2VS7v

It appears that Orwell is correct ~ for it becomes exceedingly apparent during these days of universal deceit and corporate deviousness that telling the truth is not only a revolutionary act but, in this case, perhaps the only means for human survival.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/fukushima-cover-up-continues-looming.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

FATHER'S DAY THOUGHTS

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and he bends you with his might that his arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable : Khalid Gibran / The Prophet

I got a touching father’s day card today from my youngest daughter Kelly and she told me that I have been an inspiration to her by always being honest and living my life to the fullest. She also thanked me for being her father which reminded me of something I’ve always believed ~ Khalid Gibran’s quote about our children being the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

As such, I am indeed the bow that has sent forth four children, as living arrows, into this imperfect world. I have been far from perfect as their Dad but I have always loved and cherished them on their separate flights.

They may not all agree with that statement ~ but a wise father learns to accept his mistakes and celebrate his triumphs hoping that his children will learn from those failings and be inspired by his victories.

It reminds me of a perceptive quote from Thomas Wolfe ~ Naked and alone we came into this unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?

I have learned that standing alone and singing my song is really belonging ~ I do not see myself as a stranger and alone on this earth ~ and evidently that is a valuable lesson I have passed on to my children.

All my children are adults now and they, in turn, have sent forth five living arrows into this world. They, as parents, are also not perfect but they are launching and cherishing their children on their separate flights.

As a father, I find myself increasingly becoming an interested observer of this family archery for each of my children has seemingly taken my strengths and discounted my failings in becoming a stable bow to send forth their own children.

But what makes a stable bow? Is it always being there for my children? Is it setting goals and principles for them to live by? Is it giving them what my father gave me?

Since I never knew or experienced my father ~ my parents were divorced shortly after my birth ~ I can only draw on what my grandfather gave me during the first six years of my life, and in that sense ~ my children have been blessed.

For my grandfather gave me the gift of himself ~ the joy, exuberance and magic of his presence still lives within my heart to this day.

And I, in turn, have given my children the same gift and hopefully they will pass it on to their children.

As such, the stable bow of fatherhood may well be the honest gift of myself for in having the courage to be inner guided and live my dreams ~ I have not only shown my children the path of the infinite but I have also fully shared the struggles, joy and delight of the flight.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS ESTABLISHMENT TOOL

The establishment controlled Mainstream Media rules America with raving right wing partisans, sex scandals, Sarah Palin and a steady dose of Obama Kool-Aid while the real news can only be accessed through the Internet : Allen L Roland

There is a reason I do not have a television set and seldom read the Mainstream Media. The reason is I’m a truth seeker and truth teller and I, and million of Americans, now realize that we cannot find the truth in the establishment controlled mainstream media ~ and that President Obama answers to Wall Street and the mainstream establishment.

Here’s a perfect example ~ Here is a short synopsis of 5 WikiLeaks 2011 world wide news revelations that the American mainstream media is virtually ignoring, courtesy of AlterNet’s Rania Khalek; "5 WikiLeaks Hits of 2011 That Are Turning the World on Its Head -- And That the Media Are Ignoring “

Let's also take Libya where The Pentagon and its NATO partners are engaged in one of the most obvious and intensive propaganda ploys in their military operations since the days leading up to the "Coalition of the Willing" attack on Iraq.

As Wayne Madsen reports on June 8^th ~ “ There has been no mention by the Western media, in their zeal to promote the Pentagon and NATO line, that some Libyan rebels acceded to the government's offer of an amnesty if the rebels gave up their weapons. After rebels handed over their weapons in Misrata and in the western mountains, NATO increased its bombings of the two regions…Neither is there mention of the disposal of the bodies of the victims of rebel violence: the mass burning of bodies of victims to erase any trace of crimes against humanity committed by the U.S.- and NATO-backed rebel forces…As we have seen in Libya, and before, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank,Darfur, Rwanda, Somalia, and Yemen~modern-day corporate journalists are mere stenographers for their corporate masters who, in turn, control the puppet strings for the marionettes in Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome and Berlin.” See article ~

http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya

Meanwhile, The financial cost of the U.S. campaign in Libya is set to exceed $750 million, according to a leaked Department of Defense Memo. The 'eyes-only' DoD dossier said the U.S. had already spent $664 million in Libya by mid-May - a running cost of $60 million a month since the bombing began in March. At the current rate of spending, the U.S. will have to shell out at least an extra $274 million till the end of the current 90 day no fly zone extension period - bringing total expenditure to a minimum of $938 million.

And why is all of this information available to the world and American public, if they choose to read it?

Because, as Glenn Greenwald ( Salon ) writes ~ “ The reason ~ the only reason ~ we know about any of this is because WikiLeaks (and, allegedly, Bradley Manning) disclosed to the world the diplomatic cables which detail these conflicts. Virtually the entirety of the Post article -- like most significant revelations over the last 12 months,especially in the Middle East and North Africa~ are based exclusively on WikiLeaks disclosures.”

The only antidote for the shameless propaganda and hypocrisy of the Mainstream Press is transparency and the truth ~ which the Obama administration and the establishment continually avoid ~ because Americans don’t demand it or perhaps don't want to hear.

As such, the only Presidential candidate who is a veteran and opposes not only our illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as our now illegal participation in regime change in Libya is Ron Paul. The mainstream press is scared to death of a Ron Paul presidency which is why they ignore him ~ but the American public is increasingly responding to his anti-establishment message.

True conservatives, Independents and even progressives, who are no longer drinking the Obama Kool-Aid ~ such as myself and Justin Raimondo ~ see Ron Paul in a far different light during these turbulent times when truth and transparency are at a premium.

Here’s Raimondo’s take on Ron Paul on June 9^th ~ “As libertarianism becomes more visible, politically, and gains ground in the GOP, the enemies of freedom are poised – on both the right and the left – for the attack. Libertarians have never had to deal with this problem before, in the main because their movement was considered marginal, if it was considered at all. Today, however, the situation is quite different: a wave of “anti-government” (i.e. pro-freedom) sentiment is sweeping the country, and the realization that libertarians were the original tea-partiers – coupled with the electoral success of that populist upsurge – has the Establishment in a panic. What we’re seeing is a two-pronged, left-right attack on libertarians, with the initial forays in the foreign policy realm.

The main thrust of the attack is naturally directed at the leader of the libertarian movement, the man who has done the most to make libertarianism a significant political force in the modern world, and that man is Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Ron has single-handedly raised the profile of the movement way beyond what anyone imagined only a few years ago. A lot of this has to do with Ron’s prescient warnings about the state of the economy, and the bursting of the real estate bubble, which have given him the kind of authority he never enjoyed in all the years spent crying in the wilderness.

However, Ron’s prescience isn’t limited to economics: unlike most conservatives, Ron was clear from the very beginning that our foreign policy of global intervention would blow back in our faces some day, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks confirmed his view in a way that was not, at first, readily apparent. Yet Ron kept making this point, even in the wake of the war hysteria that followed the attacks, and ten years anon – as a war-weary and dead broke America staggers and seems about to fall – his views are seen as prophetic rather than marginal....” See complete article ~

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/06/07/ron-paul-vs-the-gop-establishment/

The mainstream media is on the verge of irrelevance for the truth has revealed that it is mainly a tool of the establishment. The more we seek the truth, the more this discrepancy will become obvious ~ as well as those who misuse it. Wikileaks, as such, is providing tough independent media for those who actively seek truth and transparency ~ establishment and main stream media be damned.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/mainstream-media-is-establishment-tool.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net