Bad Amerika: No Doughnut

Does it piss you off to see America spelled with a ‘k’?  Why?  What does it mean?  Is it a Cyrillic slur?----Why is it so disturbing? ‘America’ is an iconic visual gestalt for all that is glorious about freedom, democracy, the dignity of the individual, opportunity, and a host of other idealisms that keep us in the mode of patriotism. But, change one letter and the holograph starts to weaken and become unstable. That which was sure becomes alien and disturbing. The metaphor is easily transferred. Think of ’America’ as an armature of law upon which democracy is defined. When the core law adheres to the principles of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments, ancillary documents such as the Declaration of Dependence and two hundred years of refinements ‘America’ retains its authentic identity.

When a ‘unitary’ presidency assumes sole authority to define and change the tenets of the law without democratic process, then without question, tyranny is established. ‘America’ has become ‘Amerika’ and democracy is vanquished to the event horizon of extinction. We now live in a dictatorship impervious to an enfeebled Congress and partisan, corrupt legal system.

Most Americans have heard the phrase, “Bad Cop, No Doughnut.” Its origins are lost in the bogs of urban legend, but the implication is clear: ‘outside the law and corruption.’ But, the implication these days is dire. Once,   cops actually walked a beat , were a trusted integral part of the community family and entitled by friendliness to an occassional free cup of coffee and doughnut. In neighborhoods like the one in which I was raised and escaped, cops wore blue blazers, gray slacks, ties and rode in unmarked cars, so it was probably more appropriate to say, “Bad Cop, No Croissant.” That’s California for you. Faux populist, Lou Dobbs, in defense of his vanished middle class would probably opine, “Bad Cop, No scone,” although it is highly unlikely he has  ever  met a bad cop.  For the working American it's "Bad Cop, No Doughnut. All-in-all, these days it’s accurate to say, “Bad Cop, No Taser.” “Don’t Tase Me Bro!"---- a sign of the times.

“Bad Cop---No Doughnut” is but the comedic surface of America’s advancing police state., which starts with the Commander in Chief and filters down to draconian laws that have destroyed American civil liberties.:

That a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review should speak so, should strike fear into the hearts of all Americans. It gets worse:

Corruption of the law is hardly new, but its systemic poison now makes mockery of any semblance of justice on all levels of the American judiciary, from the Supreme Court to the local traffic court:

Testimony of Alan Dershowitz House of Representatives Judicary Committe December 1, 1998

Rule 1- Most criminal defendants are, in fact guilty.

Rule 2 - All criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges understand and believe

Rule 3 - It is easier to convict guilty defendants by violating the Constitution than by complying with it, and in some areas it is impossible to convict guilty defendants without violating the Constitution.

Rule 4 - Almost all police lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict guilty defendants.

Rule 5 - All prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys are aware of Rule 4.

Rule 6 - Many prosecutors implicitly encourage police to lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict defendants.

Rule 7 - All judges are aware of Rule 6.

Rule 8 - Most trial judges pretend to believe police officers who they know are lying.

Rule 9 - All appellate judges are aware of Rule 8, yet many pretend to believe the trail judges who pretended to believe the lying police officers.

Rule 10 - Most judges disbelieve defendants about whether their Constitutional rights have been violated, even if they are telling the truth.

Rule 11 - Most judges and prosecutors would not knowingly convict a defendant who they believe to be innocent of the crime charged.

Rule 12 - Rule 11 does not apply to members of organized crime, drug dealers, career criminals or potential informers. (And Executive Privilege)

Rule 13 - Nobody really wants justice.

Dershowitz, once one of America’s premier civil rights lawyers, crossed over to the dark side during the travesty of the O.J. Simpson trial and now opines that ‘torture’ is optional, if not applicable:

Rather extraordinary, don’t you think?  It is chilling to read the above statement of a Harvard law professor citing Nazi  precedent in support of American torture? What American would ever have thought to hear laudatory Nazi praise in support of modern precedent for extreme rendition/torture?

Once, comparisons between the United States of America and the Nationalsozialismus of Nazi Germany were sufficient to declare those who might even whisper such analogies, as ridiculous cracked pots. In a roiling American culture determined for decades by the gestalt of nationalist propaganda, manic commercialism and consumerism, the lei motifs of fascist governing paradigms are considered as mere theory attributed to  egghead academics---usually ‘leftist’ when approaching the truth, or conservative Federalism by right wing ideologues,  when polished by myths of unitary power under war time conditions. Perpetual war is the fulcurum of totalitarinism.

Germany’s brief republic, the Social Democrats and the Weimar government (Deutsches Reich 1919-1933), was hardly a democratic tradition in a thousand year old history of the Holy Roman Empire and its autocratic collection of Germanic states. America, on the other hand, has a two hundred year- plus history of democratic institutions with which to stand against the fascist putsch of the Neo-Con revolution now dismantling its Democratic legal foundations. The question must be asked: why are Americans so passive in the destruction of Democracy? The parallels to that which occurred in Nazi Germany are frighteningly similar.

What compels analogy, however, are the paradigms in which republic societies transform into fascism abandoning democratic foundations. The National Socialists were accused of selling out the country. The concept of Dolchstosslegende led many to look at Jews and other so-called 'non-Germans' living in Germany, as having extra-national loyalties, thereby raising anti-semitic sentiments and the Judenfrage (German for the 'Jewish Question'), at a time when the Völkisch movement and a desire to create a Greater Germany were strong. Now, we have populist Lou Dobbs stirring up hysteria about illegal Hispanic aliens destroying our economy and threatening our national security.

The idea of ‘securing’ dissident populations who are 'terrorists’ to the fixture of a unitary ideology, was well established in Nazi Germany, whose disciplined designs and solutions murdered millions of innocent human beings. No Hollywood movie, not even excellent reenactments such as ‘Schindler's List', ‘Sophie’s Choice, ‘'Sunshine',  or ‘The Pianist,’ can begin to express the true horror of the Holocaust. To get a glimpse of what awaits ‘Amerika’, go to the Frontline site and watch the on-line shorts of ’Memory of the Camps.’

For those who think it impossible that such evil could not possibly happen in America, consider NSDP-51.

What is NSDP-51?

Having revoked on May 9, 2007 the nation’s then existing emergency plan for continued national governance without explanation, Bush’s NSPD-51 calls for: 'The Plan shall be submitted to the President for approval not later than 90 days after the date of this directive'. One assumes during this lapse in emergency plans, no emergency was expected----. Since the national media, except one story each in the Washington Post and Boston Globe, have ignored NSPD-51, Bush has not bothered to explain any of this.

The implications are unilateral martial law resting solely in the decision of a unitary presidency:

This almost entirely secret directive can be invoked when the president decides “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions” occurred. Bush alone will decide when he must assume this burden, though surely only upon prayerful contemplation during the time saved not having to consult Congress. In addition, because of a change to the Insurrection Act of 1807, enacted as part of the 439-page 2007 Defense Authorization Bill signed into law in October 2006, Bush need no longer obtain a governor’s consent to take control of a state’s national guard units. This same bill overturns the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which limited the use of US military forces within the United States for law enforcement. In addition, Bush issued an executive order on July 17, 2007 authorizing the government to seize the assets of anyone "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq" under provisions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Could this include critics of the Iraq war, whom Bush has repeatedly accused of undermining the war effort?

Should Bush declare a national emergency and begin exercising the many powers available to him in law, as well as the ever expanding powers he claims by fiat, our nation would cross into a world increasingly difficult to predict, largely beyond our national experience, except perhaps for our revolution and civil war, subject to ad hoc, unchecked decision making, with genuine rule of law no longer an available guide. It would likely become increasingly difficult, in the absence of reliable information, to understand and deal with the originating crisis, however real or contrived. And to distinguish it from the difficulties arising from the declaration of a national emergency itself. However, this sort of thing has sadly occurred in many other countries, with much the same result likely here: a self-sustaining crisis, in which the chief rationales for continuing the national emergency are the effects of the national emergency themselves, compounded by errors in governance and crimes by those who seized power, sustained by their fear for what would happen to them should they give it up. The longer term prospect would likely include national decline and insurrection, with an even more unpredictable array of international consequences starting with a widening war.

In the short term, one can imagine Congress, demonstrating its usual wisdom and courage, expressing concern about the clearly large, though secret, number of American citizens "detained," surprise at the scope of firearm and asset seizures, discomfort with the pace of executions under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and outrage at being locked out of its capital offices due to a classified biological threat of undetermined duration, thus preventing Congress from voting to set benchmarks for Iran and to demand our readmission to NATO. But Congress would likely find some comfort in the "delay" of the 2008 elections, given Bush's decision to allow all incumbents, including those temporarily detained, to remain in office, which many in Congress would praise for its "unifying bipartisan comity," and await the president's determination when it is safe for Congress and the Supreme Court to actually meet again. Just as many in corporate American would appreciate the need to "defer" collecting capital gains and corporate taxes in the interests of helping the economy in a time of national crisis. Besides, how could anyone resist the perfectly Orwellian logic of declaring a dictatorship to insure "Constitutional Continuity" for the “homeland,” while setting aside the actual Constitution of the United States?

For those who think, 'it can’t happen here', take notice of Operation Falcon:

The Justice Department has been conducting mass arrest exercises code named Operation Falcon, whereby thousands of law enforcement officers from federal, state, county and local agencies arrested some 10,000 individuals within seven days, working from lists provided by the U.S. Marshall’s Service, all coordinated to commence across the country simultaneously. Since practice makes perfect, three mass arrest exercises have been conduced: Two national (Falcon I April 4-10, 2005 arresting 10,340; Falcon II April 17-23, 2006 arresting 9,037); and one “eastern half of the country” (Falcon III October 22-28, 2006 arresting 10,733).

What can not be found among these data is mention of any legitimate law enforcement purpose served by these mass arrests. While some arrested were serious criminals, most were of the unanswered warrantee and support payment delinquent sort, soon released. The important element here appears to be getting operational experience and, perhaps most critically, habituating state and local police agencies to conducting mass arrests from lists provided by the federal government. In the eastern regional Falcon III alone, 103 state agencies, 430 county sheriff's offices/departments and 482 police departments did just that according to the U.S. Marshals Service web site. At the current pace, perhaps Falcon IV, for the western half of the U.S., will be the last drill and then the real thing: Operation Falcon V.

So it is likely, when Bush addresses his fellow citizens after declaring the national emergency, many of his critics will be listening most attentively to detention camp loud speakers. As for how detainees will be treated, one can assume every effort will be made to maintain our current standards for indefinite detention without trial and torture assisted interrogation, where little slip-ups under the press of numbers and emergency conditions are likely to be of little consequence. What is certain, should coup d'etat by national emergency take place, is it will be denied even as it unfolds, and this is likely to be followed by assurances it will be temporary, lasting "not one day more than it needs to," followed by accusations the resistors are responsible for prolonging the state of emergency, and finally appeals to turn in others if you want your own relatives released soon from detention or your property/assets returned; all lies to sustain a long planned, permanent state of national emergency.

Martin’s terrible assessment of the current climate in America is not limited to socialist dialectics, as the evolution of  conservative Paul Craig Roberts exemplifies. Alert and informed Americans of diverse and often conflicting beliefs are unanimous in alarm that American democracy is undergoing the greatest threat to its solvency since the American Revolution. We must ask ourselves:

words-of-power.blogspot.com/2007/12/osama-bin-laden-terrorist-is-safe-in.html

Knowing what’s happening is not action; it's only the beginning. The American people must take back their government, or democracy will be history’s most tragic road kill:

Vampire http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/12/familiar-warm-b.html  Deer Hunting with Jesus

We absolutely must know and experience what America has become if we can ever hope to avoid the rise of totalitarianism. For this American, that realization came decades ago, and was particularly highlighted by an unforgettable experience at a candlelight ‘Holocaust Memorial’ march. Before the march, five hundred people gathered in a local church which I then attended. The speaker was ill and could not speak. At the last minute, I was asked to read her notes before those assembled, before the long march down the city’s main thoroughfare. The notes contained:

Arbeitsdorf, Germany

Auschwitz/Birkenau, Poland

Belzec, Poland

Bergen-Belsen, Germany

Buchenwald, German

Chelmno, Poland

Dachau, Germany

Dora-Mittelbau, Germany

Flossenbürg, Germany

Gross-Rosen, Poland

Kaiserwald (Riga), Latvia

Klooga, Estonia

Majdanek, Poland

Mauthausen, Austria

Natzweiler-Struthof, France

Neuengamme, Germany

Plaszow, Poland

Ravensbrück, Germany

Sachsenhausen, Germany

Sobibor, Poland

Stutthof, Poland

Theresienstadt, Czech Republic

Treblinka, Poland

Vaivara, Latvia

Vught, The Netherlands

Westerbork, The Netherlands

After each internment camp was an accounting of the ‘types’ murdered there, the numbers of men, women, and those special facilities for the destruction of children, disabled and elderly. It was not far into the list of statistical children when I felt an agonizing rush of grief engulf me, and openly wept with hundreds of others whose realization of the horror opened up.

The human dimension of the above list is, for us, best expressed by this child's poem left behind at Theresienstadt, before he was shipped off to Auschwitz and murdered:

That bit of filth in dirty walls,

And all around barbed wire,

And thirty-thousand souls who sleep

Who once will wake

And once will see

Their own blood spilled.

I was once a little child,

Three years ago.

That child who longed for other worlds.

But now I am no more a child

For I have learned to hate.

I am a grown-up person now,

I have known fear.

Bloody words and a dead day then,

That's something different than boogie men!

But anyway, I still believe I only sleep today,

That I'll wake up, a child again,

and start to laugh and play.

I'll go back to childhood sweet like a briar rose,

Like a bell which wakes us from a dream,

Like a mother with an ailing child

Loves him with aching woman's love.

How tragic then, is youth which lives

With enemies, with gallows ropes,

How tragic, then, for children on your lap

To say: this for the good, that for the bad.

Somewhere, far away out there, childhood sweetly sleeps,

Along that path among the trees,

There o'er that house

Which was once my pride and joy.

There my mother gave me birth into this world

So I could weep...

In the flame of candles by my bed, I sleep

And once perhaps I'll understand

That I was such a little thing,

As little as this song.

These thirty-thousand souls who sleep

Among the trees will wake,

Open an eye

And because they see

A lot

They'll fall asleep again...

--Michael Flack, 1944

It is essential to come to terms immediately with the human dimension of the disaster soon upon us. A note posted by Fixer, at Alternate Brain, sums it up in a simple elegant thought:

The State is now, and has always been, the greatest threat to human rights and civil liberties. That’s truer today, in our post 9-11 world, than ever before. The State of Amerika is the natural enemy of personal freedom. Its time to revolt. Restore AMERICA!

Benjamin Franklin 

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Thomas Paine, American Revolution

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* A note of special thanks to Robin & Roger at Dharma Bums for the inspiration of this piece