Political scientists and authors have produced volumes of material warning the public about the stripping of freedoms methodically being carried out by those who control the puppet government of America. Not much has been done to prevent the abuses of power, possibly because average Americans have specialized and bordered educations aimed at careers more than general knowledge of political philosophies or the history of other cultures, as is the norm in schools in countries of the British Commonwealth. In the case of poor areas in the U.S. there is only rudimentary education. The citizens are also extremely patriotic and believe that it's their country, right or wrong. This falls in line with the first defining trait of fascism: powerful and continuing nationalism.
Maintaining this fierce nationalism involves parading, constant use of patriotic slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. They have two national anthems, The Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America, which are emoted at length at events that involve a lot of uniforms. Making clothes out of the American flag is common among conservatives these days, yet in the 1960s anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing such a shirt (at that time making clothing out of a flag was illegal and considered disrespectful but are now trailer park chic). Flags are seen everywhere – on lawns, shops, and clothing. The current puppet-president Obama was even criticized for not wearing a Stars and Stripes lapel pin!
The Presidency has become a reality show, with 24-hour news coverage full of diversion - aimed at an audience hungry for entertainment and gossip. Just like in the prophetic 1976 movie "Network" where Howard Beale berated the viewing audience, wailing "You maniacs! The tube isn't reality…we're the illusion! We're in the boredom killing business!" The plot leads up to Howard's confrontation with an executive of the Corporatists who reads him the riot act about who's in charge of the media and lets him know what he's going to say on the air, which turns out to be pretty boring so the network heads have him assassinated on live T.V. which leads up to the movie's punch line from the movie's narrator: "And so Howard Beale became the first network personality to be killed for having bad ratings…"
The second defining trait of fascism is the stripping away of human rights. They do this by creating a fear of outside enemies and the need for security; the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people would rather look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, invasions, etc. In the U.S. this has come to pass in the form of the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act.
The next stage is identifying those enemies (usually scapegoats, since there may be no real threats or enemies) and whipping up the population into a patriotic frenzy. When the terror attacks of the U.S. Marine barracks, the Oklahoma bombing, and the first WTC bombing didn't produce enough dead bodies to galvanize the nation into hating "foreign" terrorists, the secret government of Wall Street bankers and oil barons (represented by Dick Cheney as overseer) set up the demolition of the three main towers on 9/11 so that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq would have public support. The plane assigned to hit Building 7 didn't reach its target so the building was exploded anyway for fear that the demolition termite bombs planted inside would be discovered. People didn't want to believe the obvious: the man in charge of the White House, Dick Cheney organized the attack to protect his future oil interests, and those of the Bush family, Rumsfeld, and Rice – while marching to the beat of the Trilateral Commission members like David Rockefeller, George H.W. Bush, and Dr. Henry Kissinger (who was given the Nobel Peace Prize in spite of the less-than-diplomatic carpet bombing of Laos and Cambodia he carried out as advisor to Nixon). For those who think the U.S. secret government wouldn't bomb its own military bases, consider these quotes from Kissinger:
"Soldiers are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."
Supremacy of the military is the next trait of fascism and this needs little explanation, since those with vast amounts of money and military forces can control the people. Admiration of a leader becomes infectious when peppered with constant and effective propaganda and the masses tend to rally around one individual. Fascist Italy, Spain, and Germany were all military dictatorships. Soldiers and military service are glamorized and considered honorable. The American military has an unlimited budget and it maintains bases in 120 countries, while domestic problems are ignored and the people don't have jobs or adequate health care. The citizens remain patriotic and willingly send their children off to be killed or maimed in return for a piece of bronze on a ribbon.
In most fascist states there is rampant sexism to preserve the male-dominated ideal for further control by the state. Abortion, divorce, and homosexuality are suppressed. This has evolved to allow female participation in the modern U.S. mostly because the Rockefellers realized that they weren't taxing half of the population so the Rockefeller Foundation designed and supported the feminism movement of the Sixties to get "Rosie the Riveter" back to work even in peacetime. The power elite always have multiple objectives when exploiting society…allowing women back to the workplace not only produces more taxpayers but gives more hours per day for women to be out of touch with their children. The children adopt concepts provided by schools and are subject to the increased influence of television, a medium controlled by the corporatists.
Totalitarian control of people is partially achieved via propaganda delivered through mass-media controlled directly or indirectly by government regulation through financial ties with media executives. Major networks employ anchormen who are told what not to say, whether through intimidation or mutual self-interest. Like in the McCarthy witch-hunts of the Fifties, those who go against the powers that be are fired from their media jobs or worse. The fact that giant stories like the Caspian pipeline and the American government's terrible crime against their own people on 9/11 never comes up in the mainstream news (or cable news for that matter) suggests that intimidation is rampant and taken seriously by collaborators posing as liberal journalists.
Two seemingly-intelligent cable political reporters come to mind: Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball segment is a frequent guest on Bill Maher's cable show. If you remember Bill Maher, he is the stand-up comedian who laughs nervously at the end of each joke to cue the audience that this is the point where they should laugh, just in case they weren't paying attention. Both of them state publicly that they believe the 9/11 Commission Report was correct and that the Trade Center buildings exploded into dust simply out of frustration. They ignore all scientific evidence proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that demolition explosives were used, and that no skyscraper has ever collapsed due to fire. Extensive research has been carried out and conclusions have been published by an organization of fairly conservative professionals on their site Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth where many of them who are voting Republicans express disappointment in the fact that the government has covered up the crime and betrayed fundamental principles. Bill Maher calls anyone who believes that a planned demolition took place "an idiot" and Chris Matthews agrees with him. Maher and Matthews call themselves "typical Irish Americans" and engage in humorous banter, discuss the never-ending (and boring) health reform issue, and hold themselves as bearers of the Truth. It smacks of coercion and intimidation, whether from compromised employers or government spooks who are in a position to guarantee retribution beyond simple career interference or character assassination. Bill Maher has been trying to keep a low profile concerning his background for fear of discrimination; he is half-Jewish and living in a low-key homosexual relationship. However, due to the silence of so many people who must know something of the 9/11 operation and won't come forward it can be assumed that physical threats are part of the equation. When an agent of the government assures a person that he and his family will disappear, a secret can be maintained for enough years for the perpetrators to be clear of prosecution.
The seventh trait of fascism is obsession with national security. Fear is used as a tool to control the masses. The 3 World Trade Center skyscrapers blew up on live T.V. and the nation became so paralyzed with fear that they would allow any law to be passed that would protect them from the bearded terrorist in the cave on the other side of the world. The Bush administration rushed to remove all rights under the U.S. Constitution, which he referred to as "just a goddamn piece of paper".
The use of religion to control people is another basic tool of fascist states. The most prevalent national religion is intertwined with politics to manipulate the population. Religious rhetoric is spouted from political leaders, even when the words don't match the actions. America is fervently Evangelical Christian, a rabidly fundamentalist bible-thumping population; George Bush says God speaks through him, and probably has a good laugh in private since he cares more about beer, cocaine, and barbeques than any religious ideas. Everyone remembers the eight long years of the self-centered rambling of Bush sharing his thoughts about himself and reflecting on things about him.
The ninth trait of fascism is the business/government relationship and the protection of corporate power. The industrial powers and business aristocracy are the ones who put the government leaders in power and so the state and big business are one and the same. The origin of the word "fascist" comes from the Latin word "fasces" which means "bundle of sticks" and symbolized power through unity. A stick breaks when it is alone, but the Egyptians bound groups of sticks together with rope to make parts for some of their war weapons. The sticks became incredibly strong when tied in a circular bundle.
In a fascist state labor power is suppressed because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to the regime. For this reason, labor unions are suppressed or eliminated. In the case of the U.S. they have been historically corrupted or infiltrated by mobsters. During Reagan's presidency the Air Traffic Controllers' Union went on a nationwide strike and the strikers were simply fired. The public didn't complain because their vacation plans were more important than curtailing misuse of power. The North American Union so absent from the news includes plans for a superhighway from Texas to Canada right through the center of the continent so that ships from Asia can dock in Mexico in non-union ports, thereby destroying the Longshoreman's Union. The trucks loading the cargo would have non-union drivers. The AFL-CIO would be worn-down by carefully-manufactured recessions and unemployment will end this possible source of resistance and the end game will be a government-manufactured worldwide depression so everyone will be too busy trying to get through each day to act against a lawless government. This most likely is scheduled for the 100th anniversary of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 when the U.S. first gave up control of the national money supply to rich bankers and industrialists. It seems that power is a sentimental game to them since they are carrying on generations-old family traditions, a veritable Cosa Nostra of finance.
In fascist dictatorships there is also a concerted effort to suppress intellectuals, academics, and professors but the U.S. has learned well from the Nazis, who failed to hold onto some very valuable scientists like Einstein, who left Germany when the Jews began to be persecuted. They know that the education system has to be undermined from the bottom up: young people who have been through the American education system know almost nothing about other countries, and precious little about their own country. Yale, Harvard, and Princeton will still exist for the elite, but the general population can barely speak English.
All-powerful states become obsessed with crime and punishment – of other people of course; police agencies are given almost limitless powers to enforce laws. Besides the well-known mammoth bureaus like the CIA, FBI, IRS, DEA and ATF, there are approximately 18,760 separate police agencies in the U.S. and now they have added the Department of Homeland Security – to "Preserve our freedoms". In Bushspeak, this means elimination of freedoms. To get to the truth behind the propaganda spouted by the White House, simply believe the opposite of what they say. Even as the towers were destroyed, Bush was on the airwaves proclaiming "Steps have been taken to protect the American people". This was right out of Orwell's 1984, where the calming voice of Big Brother assured the people that all was well and that the outside enemy was being dealt with.
The new PR man sitting on the White House throne, Barack Obama (a lawyer from the most corrupt political area in the U.S. – Chicago), has been installed as the new improved face of totalitarianism. He was hailed as the squeaky-clean savior that would fix the nation's misery, but instead has confirmed the notion that it doesn't matter if Democrats or Republicans are in power – the 13th trait of fascism comes into play: rampant corruption and cronyism. Groups of business associates and friends appoint each other to key positions and use governmental power and authority to protect each other from accountability. They are above the law, and in most fascist states they plunder resources and national wealth, shown in the sevenfold increase in futures trading on the Chicago Stock Exchange just before the 9/11 closure of the New York stock market. Inside knowledge made fortunes for those betting that airline stocks would plummet. This was one of the many objectives successfully accomplished by the 9/11 event. More recently, the Federal Reserve has simply been taking the money and sending it to Central Banks in Europe. One slush fund totaled 2.2 trillion dollars and when the Fed chairman was questioned by Congressman Alan Grayson as to which banks the money got the money, he refused to answer, first saying he couldn't remember one name offhand.
The situation exists where people like Dick Cheney can commit the most horrendous war crimes, engage in high treason, cause the torture and killing of untold numbers of people and still be above prosecution. He said he didn't recall 71 times when being questioned by the FBI about the Valerie Plane affair where Cheney revealed that she was a CIA agent. He got Scooter Libby to take the fall and Libby's sentence was commuted by the White House. Cheney was never charged or placed under oath in front of a Grand Jury, just as he and Bush were not placed under oath by the 9/11 Commission. Cheney wouldn't let Bush be separated and they spoke with the Commission in private only. They had to keep their stories straight because Junior would never last under questioning and his vice-president knew it. Bush was sweating it out, telling the press outside “I’ve got nothing to hide!” when they asked why they wouldn’t go under oath and testify separately.
Elections in fascist states are rigged – the U.S. included. Disinformation, smear campaigns, and distraction are common tools to sway public opinion. Corruption in the voting system has been long-entrenched in American politics. In the days of Joe Kennedy, he simply had the Mafia help JFK to get elected, since a Catholic would probably lose if some intervention wasn't carried out. Of course, the fraud in Florida that got Bush elected is well-known. A coup was necessary when John Kennedy decided to become a man of the people, disband the CIA, and pull out of Vietnam at a time when the Military-Industrial Complex needed the war to stimulate the steel and arms industries. The assassination became necessary to let the politicians know who was boss. Lyndon Johnson was heard on Air Force 1 saying "it's a plot, they're going to get us all"…immediately after the coffin was loaded onto the plane. That quote never came to the surface until November 2009 in a book containing declassified information.
One more quote from Henry Kissinger is particularly descriptive of the way fear will continue to be used until the people will beg for a police state, just as laid out in the plan for the New World Order. Notice that he said this in the same year as the first World Trade Center bombing:
"Today, America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angles to restore order. Tomorrow, they will be grateful! This would especially be true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing that man fears is the unknown. When presented with scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by a World Government." – Henry Kissinger, 1991
