V's Version

Monday, October 06, 2008

I am leery of conspiracy theories. I hate chain letters.
I do not, as a rule, consider Chicken Little to be my meteorologist.

But, with that said, I honestly believe that

We are all in trouble.

I have been sleeping. You have been sleeping. But now I am waking up and putting all the crazy pieces together. The economy, the elections, the "conservative agenda", the regulation of press and the deregulation of greed. I have been reading everything I can about the economy for almost a year now. I listened with regretful belief when Amy Goodman described how the press was systematically repressed and detained during the Republican National Convention. I have recently discovered the works of two women, Naomi Wolf and Naomi Klein. They, and so many others, are outlining what has happened and what is likely to happen and what steps we can take to prevent the worst from happening.

The most recent "This American Life" show and this illuminating interview explain the economy of today. PLEASE take the time to understand the US / global economy.

Oh - sure - we knew that Reagan's trickle down economics weren't working but we hoped that things would change. We never even realized that Phil Graham slipped in a deregulation bill on the night before the Christmas 2000 Congressional recess that created (now famous) credit default (or swap) derivatives and the shadow economy. If someone had explained it back then- it would have sounded like science fiction. It kind of still does.

Many of us suspected that the Bush / Gore election was a sham and were pissed when Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. Most of us felt more than a little uneasiness when the Patriot Act was pushed through so quickly after 9/11. We didn't want to go to war but were told that we were either "with us or against us." Maybe we don't have flag magnets on our cars but we don't want to seem like crazy leftist fanatics either. Isn't the ACLU always whining about something? Don't we need to catch the bad guys?

You probably belong to the 73% of Americans who disapprove of George W. but most of us aren't ready to stand up and say what bloggers, economists, politicians and intellectuals are now suggesting:

On October 1, 2008 a coup (or something akin to it) happened and George Bush has taken the final steps to stage what could be called martial law. He has an unregulated treasury at his disposal and a standing army at his disposal (the first armed forces deployed in our own country since the 1800s.) We are told that Bush could conceivably call off the elections and declare martial law. I don't want to believe it. But I think I have to take the threat seriously.