Bad American

InfraGard: Public-Private partnership for the future fascist America 

This is the scariest article I’ve read, perhaps ever, among all the warnings that America is slipping headfirst into fascism.

Matthew Rothschild in The Progressive

The organization is InfraGard - a public private partnership between the FBI and their natural allies in Corporate America — designed to keep its eyes on the number one terrorist threat to the elite - YOU.

The most important part of the article follows, but PLEASE read it all. And just in case you’re not sitting down right now, maybe you should:

One business owner in the United States tells me that InfraGard members are being advised on how to prepare for a martial law situation—and what their role might be. He showed me his InfraGard card, with his name and e-mail address on the front, along with the InfraGard logo and its slogan, “Partnership for Protection.” On the back of the card were the emergency numbers that Schneck mentioned.

This business owner says he attended a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to do.

“The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage,” he says. “From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we’d be given specific benefits.” These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out.

But that’s not all.

“Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted,” he says.

I was able to confirm that the meeting took place where he said it had, and that the FBI and Homeland Security did make presentations there. One InfraGard member who attended that meeting denies that the subject of lethal force came up. But the whistleblower is 100 percent certain of it. “I have nothing to gain by telling you this, and everything to lose,” he adds. “I’m so nervous about this, and I’m not someone who gets nervous.”

Again, note the “if, not when” part of this story.

The way InfraGard has been set up reads like the development of the Mafia including its “made men” and code of Omerta (silence) especially when it comes to speaking to the media. Rothschild is to be complimented for committing great public journalism in writing this article. I’m sure when martial law is declared in this country, he’s on the A list.

Of the highlighted part of the story, the government strenuously denied such plans to allow Rotarians in three piece suits to shoot their disgruntled employees under martial law, but Rothschild got others to confirm it is true.

I don’t doubt it for a second. The Military-Industrial complex or National Security State, whatever you conceive it to be, forms a natural alliance between the government and Corporate America to defend, well, their privileges as masters of the world.

Of course, several such scenarios for a possible declaration of martial law have been discussed here and elsewhere. Anything from another ‘terrorist’ attack to gasoline shortages or financial meltdown could trigger a few strokes of the President’s pen which is all that is needed to place the entire nation under martial law, thanks to several executive orders going back to JFK’s time.

In such a scenario, the government doesn’t have enough soldiers or cops to secure all this vast nation’s infrastructure. You might be thinking of obvious choices like power plants but the story tells us there’s far more included under the rubric of infrastructure.

In any case, this secret Mafia (or Corporate Gestapo, take your pick or make up your own term) of more than 23,000 business executives comes in pretty handy, especially when you let them into the super-secret information channels, make them feel like James Bond and give them ‘license to kill’ authority. Hell, what red blooded American corporate type WOULDN’T want to carry an InfraGard card and a little list of troublemakers in his/her company to take care of when the time comes?

Of course, another important thing to remember is these people aren’t just waiting for the bell to ring. As part of their duties in the Federal corporate block wardens (or blockwart in its original German), you can bet they’re already keeping their eyes and ears opening and reporting on ’suspicious people’ in and outside of their organizations to the FBI.

Mussolini may not have actually said ‘fascism should more properly be called corporatism,’ but in practice, the terminology is correct: what we are seeing is the fusion of corporate and government power in an authoritarian state where the average person is automatically suspect.

Romney quits

and says this:

“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

If Americans are stupid enough to believe this tripe than, as Morris Berman is fond of saying: es gibt keine Hoffnung.

Of course this is a deeply intended insult to all Americans who are either (1) Democrats or (2) support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. And the right accuses the LEFT of polarizing speech! Basically, if you’re a Democrat you hate America.

Actually, I believe quite strongly that Mitt Romney, John McCain and all the other little neocons of the Fascist Party are the true haters of what once was America. They hate those who stand for reason, science, the Earth and peace. They hate all that is noble, good and true. They care only for profit, violence and vainglorious conquest of people they consider inferior.

The Christofascist wing of the Fascist Party is now left with the sinking ship of the Mike Huckabee campaign which should be slipping below the waves any day now. And poor old Ron Paul just makes too much sense for the Fascist Party to stomach. Maybe he’ll run as a third party candidate, but I doubt it.

That leaves crazy old John McCain, warmonger extraordinaire, he of the “100 year war,” to pick up the bloody banner of the Fascist Party and carry it to November. And when I say crazy, I mean exactly that.

But, hell, America maybe crazy enough to vote McCain in. All we need is another ‘coalescing event’ (think 9-11) and the old warmonger will open his arms wide for his terror-stricken children who will flock to the warm embrace of eternal war for eternal peace.

And next time, you can bet your ass they’ll be no phoneyed-up “9-11 commission.”

As if, of course, Hillary would be much better. Her bellicosity reminds one of Margaret Thatcher prior to the Falklands War and I truly believe that she would invade Iran for no better reason than to just show that she could kill Third World people and take their oil just as good as any American man.

As for Obama, the Great Non-White Hope, remember how tied to AIPAC he is and his previous comments on attacking Pakistan, if necessary. He may give you a kindler, gentler occupation (now with Kennedyesque rhetoric!) but, in the end, he knows who he serves. And it ain’t us.

If nothing else today, imagine what Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, et. al. must be going through having to swallow McCain as the presumptive nominee. That, almost, makes it worth it.

Almost. Of course, their bloviating is born of sheer ignorance. McCain means FOUR MORE WARS (at least; he promised!), and what is the Fascist Party’s raison d’etre other than war? What the hell do they really want from McCain? Bomb an abortion clinic? Kick around a few homosexuals? Shoot some illegal aliens? Come on, people, this man is arguably nuttier than George W. Bush and perhaps advancing toward a Reagan-like senility (makes ya feel comfy at night with his finger on the nuclear trigger, doesn’t it?).

He’s the right man for the Fascist Party. Hell, somebody(s) thought enough of him to take his moribund campaign and bring it to life months ago. Makes you kind of wonder who gave the silent nod to McCain in whatever back room this whole thing was decided in. McCain was dead, absolutely stone cold dead in the water just two months ago - broke and with staffers deserting him and then voila! He’s the presumptive nominee. Horatio Alger story?

I don’t think so, anymore than I think Rudy Giuliani could spend $55 million for one delegate. A decision was made at echelons far above Limbaugh that John would be a better figurehead than Mitt or Rudi.

Now all is left is to figure out why.

The smart money says McCain beats Clinton and Obama beats McCain. We’ll see, we’ll see.

What bothers me even more so than that is that Howard Dean seemed to foreshadow this sort of thing yesterday:

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday voiced concern over the prospect of a brokered convention at the end of the party’s White House nominating contests. “The idea that we can afford to have a big fight at the convention and then win the race in the next eight weeks, I think, is not a good scenario,” Dean said according to excerpts of an interview with NY1 television.

In state nominating contests so far, no clear winner has emerged among Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the party’s nomination ahead of November’s presidential vote to replace George W. Bush in the White House.

“I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don’t, then we’re going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement,” said Dean, who failed in his bid for the party’s nomination in 2004.

“Because I don’t think we can afford to have a brokered convention — that would not be good news for either party.”

Either party?

EITHER PARTY?

WTF?

I mean if I wanted the Democrats to win, why not root for the GOP to hew itself to pieces in a bruising convention fight?

In any case, will Dean or other forces within the Democratic Party now apply pressure in some way to bring this whole process to a quick conclusion?

I have a real problem with this.

We talk about the sacred right of voting - one person, one vote - as the hallmark of our democracy. The front-loaded primary system of the Democrats and the superdelegate system was designed specifically to thwart democracy by rolling out a de-facto establishment-anointed candidate early.

And it was widely conceded that this whole scheme was to help Hillary Clinton.

Well, things didn’t work out so cozy. The people are split between Clinton and Obama.

And I have to ask - what is wrong with that?

And are Americans of the Democratic persuasion grown up enough to realize that if this DOES go to the convention with neither candidate having enough delegates to clinch, that the convention, as ORIGINALLY designed, would allow enough horse trading and deals to take place to give the party its candidate?

Conventions originally were not designed to be coronation parties - that’s what our modern two-party duopoly has turned them into. But now the party bosses are terrified that the actual messy work of choosing the candidate the old fashioned way, might look, well distasteful to a public used to PR slickness in choosing candidates the way they would choose new cars.

Personally, I say bring the whole mess on. It’s about time Americans got a good look at just how bad the sausage looks being made. Maybe they’ll learn what a fragile thing a working democracy is.

But I fear that if Howard Dean and his ‘consensus’ buddies get their way, there is going to be a giant screw applied while people in states like, oh, say OHIO, for the first time in anyone’s memory, might actually have a major say in choosing the candidate.

IF that happens, Dean and gang run a very good chance of destroying any remaining faith and goodwill that progressives and fair-minded fans of democracy have for the Democratic Party. I would rather let the blood flow at the convention than to have some kind of ‘deal’ struck to thwart the will of the voters.

BUT - the most likely deal has been the one bandied about on talk shows all over America - a Clinton-Obama (in that order) ticket. I fear that as well because it would make what happened today and what would happen in such a case, smell like a giant set-up from the word go.

Which it may indeed be.

If a Clinton-Obama ticket actually happens, there is little doubt that it was constructed to beat set-up boy McCain and claim the White House.

OK, OK, I hear you saying - got any more conspiracy theories?

But think about it - Romney was by no means dead and a large and powerful segment of the conservative movement fanatically supported him.

And McCain was a dead man walking 2-3 months ago.

Doesn’t all of this smell just a little?