The United States of . . . Orwell???

The inimitable Charles Hugh Smith has written a series of four articles analyzing various aspects of life in these United States. He believes we've turned into the United States of Orwell, with many fundamental aspects of the American way of life overturned and replaced by a quasi-socialist dictatorship.

The four articles are listed below, each followed by a brief excerpt.


Part 1: Our One Last Chance to Preserve the Bill of Rights

Can Congress legalize tyranny by passing a law that says it can? Can Congress shred the Bill of Rights by passing a law that says it can? Well, Congress has passed such a law, and President Obama--the most effective Trojan Horse president in American history, a plutocrat dressed as a "progressive"-- rushed to sign it on New Years Eve 2011 when nobody was looking.

This is not a partisan issue, though various flaks and toadies are attempting to make it so. Here is how the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describes the NDAA: Indefinite Detention, Endless Worldwide War and the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.

Part 2: Law-Abiding Taxpayers Are Treated as Criminals While the Real Criminals Go Free

Not filing a tax return in California even though you moved out of the state 10 years ago, however, is a crime--but as in an Orwellian nightmare, the "law" isn't written down, it is embedded in some bureaucratic rules that are hidden from the taxpaying citizens. It isn't "legal," but since due process has been abolished, who cares what's legal or illegal?

It's actually very simple: whatever the state or Federal government does to you, that's legal. Whatever action you take to protect your rights is illegal.

Part 3: We had to Destroy Democracy in Order to Save It

You see the key point in the narrative: "our way of life" is more important than civil liberties. This is of course an orwellian reversal of what the Founding Fathers had in mind, which was that civil liberties are our way of life.

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Anyone who doesn't believe their government is capable of Police State repression and subversion of First Amendment rights should research COINTELPRO more fully.

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Put simply: the State holds all the hammers, and you know what happens to raised nails.

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I invite all supporters of President Obama to carefully read his recent Executive Order entitled (with a truly Orwellian flourish) National Defense Resources Preparedness.

This Executive Order is chockful of extralegal directives and vaguely defined over-reach, of the sort that will be delineated more clearly when the Commander in Chief executes the broad powers laid out in this order.

The president will also be executing democracy and our civil liberties when he invokes this Executive Order. Even the most starry-eyed naive supporter of President Obama cannot read this document as anything but a blueprint for total mobilization and the destruction of the Constitution, democracy and our remaining civil rights.

If this Executive Order doesn't frighten you, then you're in denial.

It's actually very simple: whatever the National Security State does anywhere on Earth is legal. Whatever action you take to protect your civil liberties is illegal.

Part 4: "Consumer Protection" Just Another Federal Reserve Power Grab

Let's start by recalling that the Federal Reserve is a consortium of private banks. Calling a private consortium of banks the "Federal Reserve" is the original Orwellian misdirection, for there is nothing "Federal" about the Federal Reserve. It is not a government agency.

Now guess who will fund and control this vast new bureaucracy of "consumer protection"? Yes, the private consortium known as the Federal Reserve. "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will be an independent unit located inside and funded by the United States Federal Reserve. It will write and enforce bank rules, conduct bank examinations, monitor and report on markets, as well as collect and track consumer complaints."

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[Quoting a correspondent:] The CFPB represents to me a complete, contained Shadow US Government System established by the Dems and the Fed right under our very noses. One of the profound things I have not completely conveyed is what I see as the invisibility cloak and impenetrable shield the CFPB has for total immunity from evaluation, oversight, attack, etc.

The CFPB is funded by the FED with any amount of money it asks for and is completely unaccountable as to how it uses its ... unlimited funding. The CFPB is answerable to no entity regarding its deliberations, decisions with the full force of law, disclosure of agendas.

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Under the opaque umbrella of the CFPB, all Executive Agencies, formerly accountable to the Congress in some way, will become opaque to the Congress insofar as they are associated with the CFPB. Congress can request info from the CFPB, none has to be given at all.

The CFPB is an autonomous creature of the Federal Reserve, completely cloaking itself with total immunity from any Congressional controlling authority.

I believe that all four articles are essential reading. I submit that our government has long since overstepped its constitutional boundaries, and is now far too close for comfort to becoming the 'Big Brother' of Orwellian nightmare. I don't believe that either the Democratic or Republican parties are the solution to this problem: both of them are too heavily invested in the system, more interested in sharing in the spoils than in offering any real alternative.

We'd better find some independent, competent, honest candidates this year, and elect them to office, so they can oppose (and hopefully begin to dismantle) the 'National Security State'. I don't care whether they're from the Left or the Right - just so long as they're honorable, trustworthy men and women. Those qualities alone will make them stand out from the pack of jackals currently disgracing Congress and the Senate (not to mention the White House) with their presence.

Please spread the word about Mr. Smith's four articles, and forward the links to your friends. Cool, clinical analysis like this should be given the widest possible circulation. My personal thanks to Mr. Smith for some great writing.

Peter