Ignoring the Crisis: Philadelphia Schools Are Crumbling

By Ellen Brown | May 18, 2012 | Truthout

An abandoned School. (Photo: Wout / Flickr)

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“You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised…. 
The revolution will be live.” -From the 1970s hit song by Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”

Last week, the city of Philadelphia’s school system announced that it expects to close 40 public schools next year and 64 schools by 2017. The school district expects to lose 40 percent of its current enrollment and thousands of experienced, qualified teachers.

But corporate media in other cities made no mention of these massive school closings – nor of those in Chicago, Atlanta or New York City. Even in the Philadelphia media, the voices of the parents, students and teachers who will suffer were omitted from most accounts.

It’s all about balancing the budgets of cities that have lost revenues from the economic downturn. Supposedly, there is simply no money for the luxury of providing an education for the people.

The Obama Deception [Running Time 01:53:40]

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Can America’s Descent Possibly Be Reversed?

By Scott Lazarowitz | March 30, 2012 | Lew Rockwell

My articles for LRC have been increasingly difficult and frustrating to write. More recently I have been trying to get people to understand America’s current police state. Yes, I have received some favorable emails when my articles have appeared, but there are also ones from those in denial, who refer to me as “nuts,” “conspiracy theorist,” and so on.

Now, to say that America is becoming like Nazi Germany is not an exaggeration. But too many people glance over such assertions in disbelief, perceiving such things as absurdities. They are in denial, and just do not want to believe what’s going on.

In my article on martial law, I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.

“But we’re at war!” some people cry. No, sorry. Regardless of what the warmongers say, there is no time ever to excuse violations of the people’s rights and their liberty, during war or peacetime.

America is dangerous now, but the reason isn’t because of Islamic terrorists – it’s because of government bureaucrats, central planners run amok.

The problem is that bureaucrats who MUST have war and expanded powers, including suppression of civil liberties, will change the laws to suit their narcissistic needs for more power.

And America is dangerous because too many amongst the general population are no longer raised with a sense of moral values and personal responsibility. Americans seem to get easily swept up into a national fervor for war, for killing and death. Just look at these past ten years of destruction that our government has caused overseas, and the American people’s passive acceptance of it based on the government’s emotion-driven propaganda.

One item of evidence of America’s decline in decency and values is how America’s youngsters are so bloodthirstily drawn to the latest pop culture phenomenon called The Hunger Games, #1 on Amazon.com this week. Because of modern Americans’ craving for war and sadism, and because of their widespread support for the Bush-Obama wars of the past decade, Americans have become even more desensitized to violence.

But this series of books supposedly has an anti-war tone or message. However, I wonder how many people who have read the books (or have seen the movie) are more “anti-war” than they were previously.

In continuing their apparent militantly exceptionalist attitude, and with much ignorance as well (especially of Muslims), many Americans now seem to have an insatiable craving for violence, sadism, cruelty, torture, murder, blood and death.

Fifty or sixty years ago, when America was perhaps a little more decent and moral in general than it is now, in no way would so many parents have let their kids see this movie or read the books.

Like The Hunger Games, America has a corrupt, degenerate central government that has grown into a monstrous Leviathan, consisting of professional bureaucrats and politicians who seem to delight in pitting one group of Americans against another, with class warfare and governmental-provocation of racial conflicts, and struggles between police and civilians. It is as though Washington’s political class wants to see conflicts between armed government agents and everyday civilians, via the drug war, the “war on terror,” and thousands and thousands of needless regulations and laws that could cause the most innocent amongst us to be on the receiving end of a criminal S.W.A.T. team raid.

And now, Barack Obama is taking full advantage of the post-9/11 police state apparatus that the Bush-Cheney Administration set up. This is being used, in the name of “keeping us safe” and along with the massively intrusive ObamaCare in the name of “keeping us healthy and insured,” to gain even more control over the people’s lives, their fortunes, their businesses, associations and contracts.

Recent Unconstitutional Acts by Barack Obama and Congress:

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) gives the President the power to have the military arrest and detain indefinitely anyone the president says is a “terrorist,” or a “terrorist supporter,” without providing any evidence against the accused.

NDAA is a clear and present danger to American liberty, a codification of dictatorship, and a treasonous act of turning the U.S. military against the people. And it is the reason why author Chris Hedges is suing Barack Obama.

Some legislators are claiming that they weren’t aware that in NDAA they voted for such removal of due process of Americans, but in fact, they knew exactly what they were doing.

And just recently, Attorney General Eric Holder defended the President’s self-granted power to assassinate Americans based on the President’s own judgment of guilt, without due process, without presenting any evidence of any kind.

But every human being who is accused of something has an inherent right to require that the accuser show evidence to prove such alleged guilt. No circumstances are too important – not wars, terrorism, and not economic collapse – that the government or Presidents be relieved of their burden to show evidence against the accused.

Infowars.com recently compared these Washington policies to similar police state policies of Chile’s dictator General Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s. The NDAA law could now be considered as Washington’s reactionary and desperate response to political dissent and economic collapse.

Obama’s most recent extreme overreach was his signing the Executive Order, the National Defense Resources Preparedness (NDRP) order, which gives the President complete control over all resources within the U.S. territory including water and agriculture, energy, transportation and food, during war or emergency. But this revised version gives the President such supreme powers in peacetime.

In this new example of totalitarianism the President also seizes control over the nation’s labor forces, and it is not merely a demand to conscript Americans into the military, but to conscript Americans to serve in other non-military labor capacities, and during peacetime as well. (Hmmm. Sounds a little like communism, if you ask me.)

And with the FEMA camps, there is plenty of evidence that the U.S. government either foresees or is planning for some sort of catastrophic event, economic collapse, or civil unrest. In an intensive investigation by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and Alex Jones, the investigators found one “residential center” (video here, starts at about 25 minutes) with locked doors, barbed wire fencing facing the inside of the property, and a children’s playground. Officials at the center refused to give information about what the place was for. Investigators also found stacks of hundreds of thousands of coffins and plans for mass graves. Investigators found plenty of evidence that camps and rendition sites are to be used to deal with possible massive political dissent in America. (more here, here,here, here, here, and here)

Analysis

No doubt many readers dismiss all this as “conspiracy theory,” and FEMA probably has its explanations such as preparations for possible biological warfare, mass epidemics, and so forth. (And we all know, after Katrina, just how competent FEMA is in managing disasters.) That all these acts by federal U.S. government bureaucrats – NDAA, NDRP, the power to detain or assassinate Americans without showing evidence against the accused, the FEMA camps and prison-like facilities – could actually be meant for devious purposes by political power-grabbers is something that most people just would not want to acknowledge. The thought that the U.S. government and U.S. military could be designating the American people as the enemy is a frightening thought.

Now, some people believe that Obama is using his new military dictatorship and detainment camps on behalf of various left-wing groups, such as the Weather Underground, to “transform America” into communist rule. But many of these police state policies and Homeland Security intrusions were begun by the Bush Administration and even by previous administrations, such as Jimmy Carter who first signed FEMA into existence, and the Reagan Administration that included Oliver North acting out of the White House basement and who eagerly called for martial law at the drop of a hat.

However, we also have seen testimony from the 1970s by an FBI agent who infiltrated the Weather Underground, and who described how academic types such as Bill Ayers were allegedly plotting to bring down the U.S. government to make way for foreign communist regimes to occupy America, and that resisters and dissenters would be “eliminated.” Here is a brief video of the FBI agent’s descriptions:

Now, here is what I would say if I were really conspiratorial: I would suggest that the neocons’ aggressions overseas, with invasions and occupations, sanctions, and destroying Muslim countries to create blowback against America and to expand U.S. governmental powers abroad and at home, were to intentionally weaken America’s security and economy to help those leftist organizations. But I’m not saying that. (Although, those incompetent neocon central planners sure have been useful idiots for those leftists, at the very least).

But then, there really could be reason to suspect the neocon architects who screwed up the Middle East as having possible communist sympathies, given that several founding members of the neoconservative movement had been unapologetic “former” Trotskyites who seemed just as devoted to spreading their vision globally as were the communists.

These Cheney-Wolfowitz-Kristol neoconservatives are certainly not “conservative.” Their policies are fascist, with their passion for coveting the wealth and natural resources of foreigners and seizing control over so much property and resources in their own country.

But in my opinion, fascism is really communism with a mere façade of “private property.” Like the communists (and the Nazis), the neocons have been invading country after country (as has been their plan, especially in the Middle East), some covertly. Since 1990 the invasions and occupations have been more overt and for the purpose of expanding U.S. government bureaucracies and military and for U.S. government hegemony worldwide. (Hmmm. They sound like communiststo me.)

Ben O’Neill’s recent article on the West’s economic structure tells us of the government-corporate complex, the breakdown of the rule of law, and how the political elites strive to maintain and strengthen their political and police powers at all costs.

The one major commonality between the neoconservatives and the Obama leftists is that both groups love central planning. But it is central planning that has been the cause for much of the destruction of modern civilization, in the Soviet Union, the current European Union and the United States. The left and the neocons have their utopian views of the ideal society, both being authoritarian, with total government control over the people.

As O’Neill points out, the central planning elites use war and conquest to foment nationalist fervor from the masses to get them to passively accept the elites’ massive intrusions, predations and crimes against them. The latest hysteria is the rush to war with Iran, based on propaganda that the government spoon-feeds the masses, despite Iran’s being completely surrounded by U.S. military bases and Israel having hundreds of nukes.

Obama has taken on the neocons’ warmongering abroad and domestic police state, combined with his seizing control over just about every aspect of daily life in America (e.g. ObamaCare). Now many Americans are leaving the country in droves, even though the government has been making it difficult for the people to leave, just as it was with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

This East German-born woman describes how the communists took everything away from the people and attempted to indoctrinate them to love the communist State. America was not meant to be this way.

Conclusion

The way out of this is to accept the fact that compulsory central planning leads to tyranny, and that we must decentralize America in order to save it. The Soviet Union learned the hard way.

But at least some states are trying to defend themselves from federal tyranny through nullification, of ObamaCare, and now of the NDAA law especially. So at least there’s some hope. (In this video, Hans-Hermann Hoppe explains the dangers of centralization and the advantages of small states.)

In our current situation of de facto martial law, now is a good time to remind governors, mayors, police, national guardsmen and military that any federal orders to arrest or detain Americans without charges or evidence, any suspension of one’s civil liberties and right to due process, are unlawful orders that military, state and local officials are obligated to disobey. If you know you have done nothing wrong, you have a right to defend yourself against unlawful arrest or detainment, and a right to resist being brought against your will to rendition camps.

Scott Lazarowitz [send him mail] is a commentator and cartoonist, visit his blog.

Copyright © 2012 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

The Best of Scott Lazarowitz

Fusion Centers, FEMA Camps and Martial Law: Conspiracy Fact or Theory?

By Mac Slavo | December 4, 2010 | SHTFplan.com

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura recently created an episode to investigate the existence of FEMA camps and Fusion centers throughout the United States. The episode (full episode available for viewing at the bottom of this article) has reportedly been banned for public broadcasting by TruTV without any reason or explanation. It seems some unknown power intervened and has refused to allow the episode from airing.

While some, like Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) suggest that FEMA camps are nothing but a figment of our imaginations, Jesse Ventura and Alex Jones make a strong case that they do, in fact, exist and that they are pervasive, with hundreds of centers and camps already built and operational.

Using a play from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, Rep. Cohen attacks would-be conspiracy ‘theorists’ claiming that only those who believe in little green men and interstellar war would believe such things as the existence of FEMA camps. Most curious, however, is that Rep. Cohen is a co-sponsor of HR bill 645, which clearly mandates that creation of such camps, yet he completely denies their existence.

To give the government the benefit of the doubt, which we think is only fair, one could argue that any country that has an interest in maintaining law and order would take steps to prepare for disasters and emergencies. What we should have learned from events like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and the Haitian earthquake is that sometimes bad things happen and those affected would benefit from some level of government preparedness. Having stores of food, water, medical supplies, emergency chain of command, and even refugee centers in place is not exactly a bad thing. It’s proactive.

However, it is only prudent to look at the flip side of the coin and consider whether or not those in our government have ulterior motives.

How else can one explain programs like Fusion centers located in major metropolitan areas and tasked with collecting information on all aspect of the lives of Americans, be it shopping habits, political beliefs, social networks and location information? These centers are specifically designed to identify threats, whatever that means, and either take action if necessary or categorize, itemize and save that information for a later date. It is not out of the question that in the event of a declared “emergency” Fusion center databases could be immediately utilized to generate lists of those who may be a danger to society, national security or themselves.

Or what about government mandated residential centers (aka FEMA camps) that are designed like prisons with double fencing and inward facing barbed wire? Are we really to believe these are going to house illegal immigrants and their families like one spokesperson indicated – and if so, exactly which enforcement agencies will be handling the rounding up of these illegal aliens considering that any such actions by state law enforcement agencies have led to mass protests not just from immigrants, but government officials who cosponsored legislation to build the centers in the first place. Even if they were designed as emergency refugee centers, it is difficult to imagine this being the case when those in charge refuse to speak about the purpose of the centers and explain why people displaced in the event of an emergency would require being locked inside against their will.

As usual, the “official” story simply does not add up.

Combined with emergency powers executive orders, Congressional legislation, and recent actions by emergency services departments operating under DHS and the military, one can only imagine what these camps are for.

Whether it is conspiracy fact or theory will be left to our readers, but consider that the camps and Fusion centers are only part of a very large equation.

As we reported previously, the Pentagon and US Military Actively War Gaming Large Scale Economic Breakdown and Civil Unrest. These exercises specifically deal with protests, riots and even violent confrontations. Those who are detained during such engagements will need to be housed somewhere. If government agencies were to detain thousands of people, the “residential centers” seem to be one place where they might end up, and considering many are built in close proximity to railroads, it seems suspiciously convenient. Be assured that our government is preparing for just this scenario, as evidenced by regular National Guard Training For Riot Control and Mass Detentions.

The detention camps, Fusions centers, Congressional legislation, executive orders, anti-extremist administrative directives, preparedness programs and regionalization initiatives are real – there is simply no denying this fact.

The question is: what is their purpose?

Watch Conspiracy Theory: FEMA Camps with Jesse Ventura and special guest Alex Jones:

Author: Mac Slavo
Date: December 4th, 2010
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

The Ryan Test: Demagoguery Versus Ideas

August 12, 2012 By John Malcolm Leave a Comment

By Jonathan S. Tobin | August 11, 2012 | Commentary Magazine As John wrote earlier today, liberals are convinced that Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan to be his running mate offers them a golden opportunity to savage the Republicans about the Wisconsin congressman’s budget plans. Predictably, the New York Times delivered one of the first such salvos in its editorial posted […]

Smoking Obama’s Crack and Yearning for the Mud

August 12, 2012 By John Malcolm Leave a Comment

By Vanderleun | August 10, 2012 | American Digest [From 2008. Only the names have been changed because the target has changed.] This downward flight of intellectuals has been going on ever since the Romantic movement began its counter-revolution a couple hundred years ago. No matter how much they flap their lips it’s a fall, not […]