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Don't Be Fooled By The Political Game: The Illusion Of Freedom In America
Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“The shaping of the will of Congress and the choosing of the American president has become a privilege reserved to the country’s equestrian classes, a.k.a. the 20% of the population that holds 93% of the wealth, the happy few who run the corporations and the banks, own and operate the news and entertainment media, compose the laws and govern the universities, control the philanthropic foundations, the policy institutes, the casinos, and the sports arenas.”—Journalist Lewis Lapham
Being a citizen in the American corporate state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you’re always going to lose.
The game is rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, most stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that their luck will change.
The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. As I make clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the people dealing the cards—the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the citizenry, while milking us of our money and possessions.
It really doesn’t matter what you call them—Republicans, Democrats, the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.
Incredibly, no matter how many times we see this played out, Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that politics matter, as if there really were a difference between the Republicans and Democrats (there’s not).
As if Barack Obama proved to be any different from George W. Bush (he has not). As if Hillary Clinton’s values are any different from Donald Trump’s (with both of them, money talks). As if when we elect a president, we’re getting someone who truly represents “we the people” rather than the corporate state (in fact, in the oligarchy that is the American police state, an elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots).
Politics is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport, and for many devout Americans, a religion.
In other words, it’s a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and fighting over two parties whose priorities are exactly the same. It’s no secret that both parties support endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government and shrinking liberty.
Most of all, both parties enjoy an intimate, incestuous history with each other and with the moneyed elite that rule this country. Don’t be fooled by the smear campaigns and name-calling. They’re just useful tactics of the psychology of hate that has been proven to engage voters and increase voter turnout while keeping us at each other’s throats.
Despite the jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the cameras, they’re a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight, presenting each other with awards (remember when Jeb Bush presented Hillary Clinton with a Liberty Medal for her service to the country), attending each other’s weddings (Bill and Hillary had front-row seats for Trump’s 2005 wedding), and embracing with genuine affection.
Trump’s various donations to the Clintons (he donated to Hillary’s Senate campaigns, as well as the Clinton Foundation) are not unusual. Remember, FOX News mogul Rupert Murdoch actually hosted a fundraiser for Hillary’s Senate reelection campaign back in 2006 and contributed to her presidential campaign two years later. In fact, FOX News has reportedly been one of Hillary’s biggest donors for the better part of two decades.
Are you starting to get the picture? It doesn’t matter who wins the White House, because they all work for the same boss: Corporate America. In fact, many corporations actually hedge their bets on who will win the White House by splitting their donations between Democratic and Republican candidates.
We’re in trouble, folks, and picking a new president won’t save us.
We are living in a fantasy world carefully crafted to resemble a representative democracy. It used to be that the cogs, wheels and gear shifts in our government machinery worked to keep our republic running smoothly. However, without our fully realizing it, the mechanism has changed. Its purpose is no longer to keep our republic running smoothly. To the contrary, this particular contraption’s purpose is to keep the corporate police state in power. Its various parts are already a corrupt part of the whole.
Just consider how insidious, incestuous and beholden to the corporate elite the various “parts” of the mechanism have become.
Congress. Perhaps the most notorious offenders and most obvious culprits in the creation of the corporate-state, Congress has proven itself to be both inept and avaricious, oblivious champions of an authoritarian system that is systematically dismantling their constituents’ fundamental rights. Long before they’re elected, Congressmen are trained to dance to the tune of their wealthy benefactors, so much so that they spend two-thirds of their time in office raising money. As Reuters reports, “For many lawmakers, the daily routine in Washington involves fundraising as much as legislating. The culture of nonstop political campaigning shapes the rhythms of daily life in Congress, as well as the landscape around the Capitol. It also means that lawmakers often spend more time listening to the concerns of the wealthy than anyone else.”
The President. With the 2016 presidential election shaping up to be the most expensive one in our nation’s history, with estimates as high as $10 billion, “the way is open for an orgy of spending by well-heeled interest groups and super rich individuals on both political sides.” Yet even after the votes have been counted and favors tallied, the work of buying and selling access to the White House is far from over. President Obama spends significant amounts of time hosting and attending fundraisers, having held more than 400 fundraising events over the course of his two terms in office. Such access comes with a steep price tag. It used to be that $100,000 got you an overnight stay at the White House. Now it will cost you $500,000 for four meetings a year with President Obama. Yet as Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig asks, “[H]ow does a man, as a person, run the nation when he’s attending 228 fundraisers? And the answer is not very well. It's pretty terrible for your ability to do your job. It's pretty terrible for your ability to be responsive to the American people, because—let me tell you—the American people are not attending 228 fundraisers. Those people are different.”
The Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court—once the last refuge of justice, the one governmental body really capable of rolling back the slowly emerging tyranny enveloping America—has instead become the champion of the American police state, absolving government and corporate officials of their crimes while relentlessly punishing the average American for exercising his or her rights. Like the rest of the government, the Court has routinely prioritized profit, security, and convenience over the basic rights of the citizenry. Indeed, law professor Erwin Chemerinsky makes a compelling case that the Supreme Court, whose “justices have overwhelmingly come from positions of privilege,” almost unerringly throughout its history, sides with the wealthy, the privileged, and the powerful. For example, contrast the Court’s affirmation of the “free speech” rights of corporations and wealthy donors in McCutcheon v. FEC, which does away with established limits on the number of candidates an entity can support with campaign contributions, and Citizens United v. FEC with its tendency to deny those same rights to average Americans when government interests abound, and you’ll find a noticeable disparity.
The Media. Of course, this triumvirate of total control would be completely ineffective without a propaganda machine provided by the world’s largest corporations. Besides shoving drivel down our throats at every possible moment, the so-called news agencies which are supposed to act as bulwarks against government propaganda have instead become the mouthpieces of the state. The pundits which pollute our airwaves are at best court jesters and at worst propagandists for the false reality created by the American government.
The American People. “We the people” now belong to a permanent underclass in America. It doesn’t matter what you call us—chattel, slaves, worker bees, drones, it’s all the same—what matters is that we are expected to march in lockstep with and submit to the will of the state in all matters, public and private. Through our complicity in matters large and small, we have allowed an out-of-control corporate-state apparatus to take over every element of American society.
Our failure to remain informed about what is taking place in our government, to know and exercise our rights, to vocally protest, to demand accountability on the part of our government representatives, and at a minimum to care about the plight of our fellow Americans has been our downfall.
Now we find ourselves once again caught up in the spectacle of another presidential election, and once again the majority of Americans are acting as if this election will make a difference and bring about change—as if the new boss will be different from the old boss.
When in doubt, just remember what comedian and astute commentator George Carlin had to say about the matter:
The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.
They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork…. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. ...The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice…. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on…. It’s called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it.
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The massive wildcard remains, they have failed utterly to disarm us.
Yeah, I have to agree on that point Sir. They fucked up there a bit didn't they? Ooops.
...and the Oathkeepers. Be sure to thank one when you know one. They understand the game afoot.
Which Oathkeepers? The active duty law enforcement Oathkeepers who cherish the Constitution so much they collect overtime for kicking down doors and enforcing the grossly unconstitutional War on Drugs? Those Oathkeepers? Maybe you are referring to the active duty military Oathkeepers who promise not to seize American's guns during the next major SHTF event (which would be suicide) but have no problem committing war crimes around the globe. Are those the Oathkeepers you are talking about?
From where I'm sitting, the Oatkeepers are largely a feelgood circlejerk and a PR front for police and the military... full of hollow promises, just like the Tea Party.
all i see is blacks destroying america, im sure theres more going on behind the scenes.
Who is crazy enough to want freedom. All I need is a FEMA trailor and free health care. Freedom is just an unnecessary headache.
Ha ha - pretty funny. Now go back to sleep and drink up your flouride!
and you would be right (about more going on behind the scenes).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
im quite sure also those behind the scenes pillaging in secret, are more intelligent on an order of magnitude than those 12% in america committing 85% of all violent crime and burning looting and robbing the last remnants of civilization around them.
Nice try with with race-baiting, "Four chan". You seem suspicious.
We MUST all have the same opinion!
Fourchan MUST be punished, use him as an example.
all you see is what TV stations show you.
DANG!
Now I'm probably not going to wear the Oathkeeper hat I sent a donation in for. Why didja have to go and make such good sense?
I do however have a Barrett hat. Won't spend the $$ for one of their rifles.
http://www.barrettrifles.com/c-521-hats.aspx
oathkeeper = religious nut/ sheep to me.
Keeping an oath to The Constitution has nothing to do with religion. But I think The Constitution is dead anyway. We no longer have a large enough of the population that understands the basic concept of it. Thus is died a long time ago.
Religious nut! That settles it.
Yes, thank you. A real "Oathkeeper" would turn in his badge or get discharged and refuse to be an enforcer for an evil, illegitimate government.
Reducing his usefulness to zero.
"From where I'm sitting, the Oatkeepers are largely a feelgood circlejerk and a PR front for police and the military... full of hollow promises, just like the Tea Party."
From where I sit you seem to be a member of the SPLC, since you talk like them. (Southern Poverty Law Center)...The TEA Party has no power and are constantly harrassed by the IRS. The handful of OathKeepers have no power and are probably under similar government harrassment. I don't understand your berating of these groups (often).
Ugh.
Not at all.
You cannot make guns disappear, and most people I know that identify as "R" have one line in the sand, their guns being taken away. Sure rape them with taxes, use the money to kill brown people, shoot unarmed civilians, just don't touch THEIR guns...
Now, these people in power know this, and gun confiscation will not be needed.
Every grocery store works on "just in time" replacement, any supply chain disruption and food will be gone within days.
Most houses have less than a weeks worth of food... How many starving hardline republicans with 9 - 5 jobs and a few guns would willingly give them up at that point, to feed their families? All of the sudden the tough talk goes out the window and "Hey man my kids are starving" kicks in... Want food? Go into these camps, or allow home inspections, or trade guns for food... it doesn't matter what method they use, but FOOD is the real weapon. And I'm afraid most are in very short supply.
How many people do you know with these guns that they would never give up, have a few months worth of food? People will be controlled, and they will love the state.
"How many people do you know with these guns that they would never give up, have a few months worth of food?"
Almost all of them.
you wish.
The number of gun owners in America is estimated to be about thirty five percent of the population. According to ATF numbers, the American population has bought enough fire arms and ammunition to outfit an army of 50,000 men every two days since the President has been elected. This is on top of the 270 million firearms believed to have already been in circulation. There are 488,000 machine guns in private hands along with another two million destructive devices to include artillery pieces, grenade launchers and suppressors.
The current U.S. population is estimated to be approximately 317 million. Better than a third of that population is armed. So, to keep it simple let us say that one hundred million Americans are armed. Let us revisit the idea of the three percent that actively undertook combat against King George. If that number holds true today, slightly better than three million Americans will shoot the man who comes to his home to confiscate their fire arms.
Simply put, gun confiscation is not possible.
You cant hold a fort unless you own the air above it. So if you dont have fighter jets, bombers and drones, you can't have a fort.
You might want to reread Patton. The Germans thought that in WW II. We thought that in Viet Nam. The Russians thought that in Afghanistan. Japan is the only nation on earth to have surrendered to air power. Even if you went nuclear in a civil war the outcome would be up for grabs.
A few thousand SWAT raids are one thing. Droning the population is another. You declare open war on the population and you won’t be able to hold Miami.
That was before they could see you walking around at night and before they could watch you dial a cell phone from 20,000'
https://youtu.be/Bg8A3DQp9e4
Gorilla war means you donut build no forts.
I can make guns disappear. So what? I have no idea what happened to them either. Your point is well taken but if you are talking to me I have a question for you. How much debt do you have? That is all I need to know.
I do agree my wording was not clear. "You cannot make guns disappear" - meaning the people in power cannot suddenly make millions of guns disappear. The task is simply insurmountable to be done through brute force. Like most evil and immoral things it will be done through "voluntary compliance". As already exampled through gun permit laws, gun free zones, and onerous gun regulations in certain states, which for the most part people already follow.
Debt? Zero. No house debt, no car debt, no credit card debt. I am curious how you find this relevant, though.
Astute is the first word that comes to mind. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Luck Dragon!
I agree that food is the lowest common denominator, however food is easily "liberated" or "repossessed" from those who have it. If food becomes dangerously scarce, it will become a "high value target" for the resistance and they will take it by force.
Besides, free countries will help the resistance by airdropping pallets of food to fuel the freedom fighters.
Well, we now know who will be the first in line for their handouts.
"Feed me...I'm a registered Democrat."
(face palm). you really think this is a dem/rep issue? you lived through george w. bush's eight years?
to repeat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
When thins get bad. The only feeding I'll be doing is lead to those in need. Any hot women that need a meal will be selling their bodies for food. So I might serve up a warm plate of rice & beans once in a while... But mostly lead.
I think his point is producer-parasite.
curious as the terms "hardline' and "extreme" only get applied to those on the "right" ... "right" being, leave me the fuck alone, stop trampling on what remains of the constitution and our rights, stop stealing our earnings and labor ...
Political parties will have nothing to do with disarming us when that time comes. It will be done by UN resolution or a multi-national trade agreement that will supercede our domestic Constitutional rights.
The U.S. Army is buying an undisclosed number of riot control CS gas canisters in order for troops to “become familiar with the effects of the agent,” as concerns grow about civil unrest inside the United States.
According to a solicitation posted on August 5, the U.S. Army is looking to secure a five year contract for the procurement of K765 CS Capsules.
“The CS (ortho-chlorobenzylidene malono-nitrile) Riot Control Agent Capsule is used in training scenarios for troops to become familiar with the effects of the agent,” states the solicitation.
The exact nature of the solicitation and the quantity of canisters being purchased remains secret as a result of the “Technical Data Package” that accompanies the order being classified.
“Distribution Statement D means that the TDP cannot be distributed on the Internet,” states the solicitation.
The equipment will be delivered to Army Contracting Command at Rock Island, Illinois, which hosts the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the country.
As we have exhaustively documented, the federal government and the U.S. Army have been preparing for domestic unrest in the United States for a number of years. Jade Helm, a military exercise currently taking place across the country, includes role playing scenarios where troops have to operate undetected in “hostile” territory.
CS exposure has been a part of basic training for years.
Yessir, you called it. And it will all be legal via some clever wording in the:
TPP
TDAP
TPIIGS
TPAIN
TBAG
TWHATTHEFUCKDOWENEEDACONSTITUTIONFORANYWAY...
Likely the reason behind the encroaching police state in the US.
The more that TPTB fear us, the more dangerous they become.
That is true, you may have guns and ammo, but .gov will win for a number of reasons.
Half the population or more won't go along with rebellion, hoping a peaceful 'compromise' will be established.
Some of the population actually agrees with everything .gov does.
If you are in an urban area you can be cordoned off, drones, chemical or biological agents can be used, power, water and food cut off and extensive bombing used to make you squirm if you are fortunate enough to survive. Your guns will mean nothing unless you attack first. Utilizing guerrila warfare stay, stay undetected, you won't be able to trust anyone, steal as many weapons .gov has including planes, ships and weaponry. If that is possible you may have a chance in hell but the odds are against it unless a good portion of the military defects, which is unlikely as they are all brainwashed.
"While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape." - 1Thessalonians 5:3
Replace "brainwashed" with "wife beating alcoholics on welfare" and I might be willing to agree with you, at least in part.
It pays to be a student of history. First off, as in the past, the resistance will not be in the form of some overweight wannabes sitting around in their camouflage underwear playing war games. It will be in the form of a swarm of pissed off patriots who happen to converge at the same place and time just as it was in the American Revolution. You might want to remember the first revolution started when the British shot up a local militia. Shortly thereafter, the British found their march back to Boston to be in the midst of a hornet’s nest with thousands of unorganized farmers shooting at them. The organizational structure of the Continental Army formed up well after the initial British defeat.
It took a long series of insults to civil liberty to spark the first revolution. In the process, the Crown lost its legitimacy in the eyes of a good portion of the American public. We have already reached critical mass. More than half the population sees the system as the play thing of the oligarchs. For them, legitimacy is gone. All that remains is brute force.
U.N. gun confiscation is a wet dream. It will not happen. Foreign troops on American soil going house to house would be little more than targets. Killing a Frenchmen or German coming to get our guns would be infinitely easier than killing an American soldier.
We live in a far more complex and interconnected society than that of 1776. There was no way to interdict the food supplies, or turn out the lights in Boston or Philadelphia at that time. Today, a hand full of determined saboteurs can shut down the grid and with it the mega cities on the east and west coast.
Regardless of what the political hacks may think. This country does not run because of them. It runs in spite of them. Their illusion of control is just that, an illusion. Already the body politic is sensing that the political class is becoming irrelevant. That is the real revolution. Washington will wake up at some point and discover itself being ignored. That will happen when the currency collapses.
Bingo. It will probably be like the crumbling of the Soviet empire. The giant beast will simply not work anymore and fall apart. I could see a civil war run by factions within the oligarchy but not a revolution of the underclass rebeling against the state. The state would wipe them out. Think Boudica and Waco.
The lady and her peeps wiped out 70,000 Romans. She objected to their abuse.
Many variables will be in play. Initial advantage is with the state Then substations go bang with lots of sparks. And tankers catch fire.
This country as it is now is built on cooperation. When people withdraw that it gets interesting.
So if one million of us pissed off white (generally) tax paying males between the ages of 30 to 65 get into our cars and trucks with a weapon and drive to Washington in September - do you think they'd shoot us all?
Armed rebellion in the U.S. is the one thing that will vaporize US and European Stock markets and will bring about a complete collapse of the financial system. The military is not going to follow their orders when it becomes clear they can no longer pay them. Most soldiers will want to tend to their own families. I don't think they are very loyal to these people outside of a paycheck that spends.
Every time I buy 100 rounds of ammo, I buy 100 cans of sardines and a brick of vacuum packed rice.
I'm like most people and I can't shoot straight on an empty stomach.
So when are some white boys gonna get enough balls to kill some cops or bankers or politicians? So far it looks like Black folks finally standing their ground, and the shit ain't even got started yet! There's gonna be some shit to start happening, the toll is coming!
Government needs to disarm the cops to save the country! Yea, the fucking gang with the guns! Rule of Law!
Please....it doesnt matter how many guns we have if we're never gonna use them.
The US is not free because they use the jewish debt-money: The satanic FED-Dollar!
The US is since 1913 under controll of the Synagogue http://www.synagoguerising.com/ MUST READ!
But is is not only the US which belong to the Synagogue, their are more than 150 countries of the world (allmost all), which have to use the satanic FED-Dollar. The only work the US Army (Army of the Synagogue) has to do, is fight world wide for the Synagogue-FED-Dollar.
The Teams (R and D) are private entities. 99% of Americans don't understand this.
They are fraternal twins...and I think more and more a waking up to it.
they're hillary and the coeds. And no we're not going to have a rebellion... the world will though. And then the status quo will be different.
They're not parties, they're political crime syndicates owned and operated by the Corporatocracy - the jumbo insolvent CRIMINAL banks, Big Oil, Big War, Big Medicine. They own the press, which is nothing more than their sock puppets, feeding the sheep a line of crap a mile long. And most of us buy it. That's the tragedy of it all, most of us will continue to buy it no matter how much they take from us, because they've dumbed us down and turned us into unthinking slugs sitting fat and happy sucking our thumbs in the barcalounger watching "reality" TV.
Don't forget the "free market".
Of course, freedom is an illusion in the land of the free.
The Deep State runs everything in America for at least the last few decades, probably since the Kennedy assassination. It is a criminal cabal of bankers, the Military Industrial Complex, and spooks who actually run the country. The NSA spies on the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House and you to ensure total control:
The most extraordinary passage in the memo requires that the Israeli spooks “destroy upon recognition” any communication provided by the NSA “that is either to or from an official of the US government.” It goes on to spell out that this includes “officials of the Executive Branch (including the White House, Cabinet Departments, and independent agencies); the US House of Representatives and Senate (members and staff); and the US Federal Court System (including, but not limited to, the Supreme Court).”
The stunning implication of this passage is that NSA spying targets not only ordinary American citizens, but also Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and the White House itself. One could hardly ask for a more naked exposure of a police state.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/09/13/surv-s13.html
Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State
There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
Who rules America?The secret collaboration of the military, the intelligence and national security agencies, and gigantic corporations in the systematic and illegal surveillance of the American people reveals the true wielders of power in the United States. Telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, provide the military and the FBI and CIA with access to data on hundreds of millions of people that these state agencies have no legal right to possess.
Congress and both of the major political parties serve as rubber stamps for the confluence of the military, the intelligence apparatus and Wall Street that really runs the country. The so-called “Fourth Estate”—the mass media—functions shamelessly as an arm of this ruling troika.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/10/pers-j10.html
The deep state is in deep doo doo.
The things you own, end up owning you.
The worms end up owning me and I don't own any worms.
So you say.
Its metastasizing into a global facist state. It should be weakest right after it takes the form of the destructor.
Be ready.
Bitches.
"This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are." - Plato
"Economic Theory(s)" is a sick joke and merely a Totalitarian control system for recursive scamming of the unmilitarized productive by the militarized empowered unproductive. And, it cannot pass the smell test.
But, through "change", it can be "changed".
http://www.asepp.com/keynesian-fallacy-collapse/
http://verbewarp.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/recursive-game-is-policy.html
MANHOOD of HUMANITY
BY
ALFRED KORZYBSKI
AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND SANITY
An Introduction to Non-aristotelian Systems
Says it all really
Ho hum
George Carlin said much of the above about 40 years ago.
Here's a story about a couple of Kiwi holiday makers recent experience in the land of the free.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11494827
Lisa Scott: Kicked out of the US - 33 hours of hellKiwi journalist Lisa Scott tells of the reality of US border security and how she and her partner were detained, denied a phone call and deprived of their passports.
Jail time courtesy of Homeland Security was not on journalist Lisa Scott's radar as she and her partner travelled to the United States. Both of them had problems securing a visa but those inconveniences were nothing compared with the reality of US border security. From the safety of a plane home, Lisa recounts the full story.
.........
Both myself and my partner had great difficulties trying to get a J-1 visa for his sabbatical.
We decided to get a quick and easy $14 three-month electronic system for travel authorisation (ESTA) visa waiver. No worries!
Childishly excited, dreaming of beer and bicycling around Lake Michigan, we flew from Frankfurt (upgraded to premium economy, a harbinger of good times to come, said my partner), finally making it to Chicago last Monday.
As we entered the arrivals hall, a loudspeaker broadcast an announcement about measures to prevent the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
''Have you been to a bed and breakfast, near livestock? Please see your nearest agricultural officer. We appreciate your co-operation.''
''Hello!'' we said with enormous smiles to the heavy-set lady manning passport control.
''Come with me,'' she said grimly.
It was the beginning of two days of hell at the hands of Homeland Security.
Starting off a pair of cheerful, carefree Kiwis, we'd be gradually de-humanised, turned into wee trembling beasties.
By the time we left, 33 hours later, we were both shaking and traumatised.
Even now, I feel like we only just got out alive.
Sounds ridiculous, I know, but I think it will take me a long time to get over it.
First, we were detained, denied a phone call and deprived of our passports.
Next, hours and hours in the waiting room of the damned: wailing babies, crying women, men being led off in handcuffs, lots of shouting, Alsatian-mouthed guards.
The increased demand for Homeland Security staff meant those normally pushing a broom were now toting a Glock, and didn't they love lording it over the PhD students of the world.
Everyone in the room had come off an international flight, meaning they were already tired and emotional.
An air conditioner deliberately set in the minuses exacerbated this: bones ached, people shivered in summer clothes.
Why didn't you wait and try harder for your J-1? asked our interrogators, armed with guns, mace and rubber gloves.
To begin with, we rolled our eyes, who would think us a threat?
New Zealanders, babes in the world, harmless.
Surely, this was some kind of mistake?
Nope.
Applying for an ESTA after starting with a J-1 was illegal (nice of the US visa website to let us know) and we were being refused entry.
In a state of shock for a couple of hours, it just didn't seem possible that something like this could happen.
Looking back, I made a few mistakes.
I should have said yes to the phone call to the New Zealand consulate: even if they couldn't actually do anything, at least someone would know where I was.
I wasn't in America, I wasn't anywhere.
I had no legal rights: the very act of applying for an ESTA had waived my right to petition the verdict.
Finger-printed, our pictures were taken, then we were left to ponder our fate until midnight, at which point we had been awake for close to 24 hours.
Told we wouldn't leave until the following evening and that we'd be spending that night in a jail cell, I started crying and I never really stopped.
Stupidly, it didn't occur to me that the economist and I would be separated, wrenched apart for one of the few times in our 15 years together: he into the men's cell, me into the ladies' holding pen.
I wept and wept, worrying that someone was hurting him and he was doing the same.
I had been in such a state when they locked me in, he feared for my sanity.
Have you ever been in jail?
The lights stay on all night and there is a lot of noise.
In my American jail, it was caused by speakers set in the ceiling, broadcasting that same foot-and-mouth public message every 30 minutes.
''Have you been to a bed and breakfast, spent time around livestock?''
After a while it stopped making sense and became a strange garbled poetry.
''Spence time lipstick.''
Lying on top of the vinyl-covered mattress, I began to hallucinate.
Shadows lengthened and changed and I thought I heard the officers outside laughing about one of their colleague's good-cop routine: no, that was real.
Time goes very slowly when you lose your liberty and autonomy.
The very fact that I couldn't get out of that bare concrete room filled me with fear.
In addition I didn't know if the person I loved was safe, or even if I was: the only thing to see outside the cell window was a poster advertising a hotline number to report detainee rape or abuse.
Unfortunately, all our cellphones had been taken off us.
Humiliation, sleep deprivation and other Guantanamo themes abounded.
Most of all, though, the isolation: no phones, no email, no idea what was going on.
Driven to the plane in a prison truck with mesh windows, we are flying back to New Zealand in search of a safe place and cuddles, on a wave of Lufthansa love: whose staff recognise fascism when they see it and gasped in horror at our tale.
Well they might, Lufthansa has to pay the fare as the carrier who brought us to America without recognising us for the reprobates we are.
The plane's chief officer rubbed my arm: ''What can you expect from that country?''
Ironic, as the behaviour we'd been subjected to reminded me of something out of Germany in 1941.
The crafting of appealing untruths: It wasn't a jail cell, it was a comfortable room to lie down in.
''I'm so sorry'', they said insincerely as they sent people who'd lived in America for six years back to China to arrange the removal of their possessions from there. It was the brute rule of law without compassion.
Which is why we were so moved to find out later that friends and colleagues-not-to-be at Northwestern were distraught, and hearing of our plight, they tried everything, went to the airport to petition the supervising officer, even called friends in Washington to try to change her mind.
She remained intractable.
Just like the Americans we never got to meet, we detainees were immeasurably kind to each other, sharing gum, food and tissues.
Hugs were freely given.
We were all in this together.
When those twin towers came down, in its grief and rage America lost some of its humanity, its decency.
These weren't good people, shouting and ruining the lives of the poor, tired huddled masses - although I'm sure in their own minds they were protecting their country.
From an economist and a lifestyle columnist, mind.
All this for something that filling out a form would have fixed.
Terrorising to fight terrorism, this is how hate is made.
You have to admit, Osama won.
Friggin megaLOLs at the last sentence. All that suffering, and bitch still believes that some advertised raghead terrizz fuckhead is the cause for her humiliation.
They did not follow through on the paperwork. They have an American embassy there, they should have applied and asked questions.
More proof. END this FEDERAL gov NOW!
Meanwhile the southern border is wide open.
Shameful.
You sound like our law breakers. Back to the land of shoe polish. Stay away. Stop crying.
And yet anyone can walk across the Mexican border with a nuke strapped to their back. WTF?
The training has already started in places like Fergueson and Baltimore, these types of places where most people are only ONE meal away from losing it. The urban poor are their lab rats upon which they will perfect their tactics on how to deal with large groups of citizens in the US. But they're just a stop on the way to the real prize, destroying rural American culture and resolve by declaring war on the "militias".
Snipes: We're safe around here.
Connery: You call this safe?
Snipes: Rough neighborhoods may be America's last advantage,
Rising Sun (1993)
We're all going to have to serve one way or the other.
3% will actively resist and serve to slay the beast. The other 97% * think peopleofwalmart.com * will serve as spectators, informers, useful idiots, and meat shields for the resistance.
That is depressing but +1 anyway. I am getting old here 264 WinMag. I do have a reloading press though.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=500247029
The government "educates" our children. The media, owned by the corporations, "informs" us. The bankers steal from us. The politicians lie to us.
Meanwhile, the people watch the Stupid Box, follow the freakish Kardashians, and generally sleepwalk through life.
The correction is going to be horrendous. Are you ready?
Going long Jiffy Pop.
O'DOYLE! O'DOYLE! O'DOYLE!
Why does campaign spending even matter? Only because a small number of people in swing states have no clue what's going on in the world and will let a couple of dumb TV adverts influence their vote, perhaps?
When the cops shoot you to death , you'd fly away out of body,
Thats freedom
You have a choice. At the end of the day you will vote for the lesser of two evils, welfare or warfare, take your pick.
Freedom has always been just a propaganda mantra. As David Graeber points out, it is difficult to differentiate between the US ideal of freedom and slavery. In both cases freedom is limited to doing the things that you are allowed to do. So why are we told we are free if we are not? Goethe provides the answer " None are so hopelessly enslaved as those that falsely beöieve they are free".
Freedom has always been just a propaganda mantra. As David Graeber points out, it is difficult to differentiate between the US ideal of freedom and slavery. In both cases freedom is limited to doing the things that you are allowed to do. So why are we told we are free if we are not? Goethe provides the answer " None are so hopelessly enslaved as those that falsely beieve they are free".
It's the flipping algorithms and the humans that write them that are in control. It's been going on for years and either the White House is in on it or is too stupid to see it. Have you ever heard Obama say the world Algorithms? I have not.
Operation Perception-Deception is in full swing in the US, with technologies and computer code way above the head and understanding of most consumers and we don't have the tools to battle back at all.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/operation-perception-deception-into.html
The news is rigged as well and 60% of what you read is written by bots so keep that in mind that many of the major media sites (and not Zero Hedge at all) have bots writing articles and taking comments...you might as well be kissing a bot. It makes people mad and rightly so when they find out their comments are all being taken in by a bot, not a human journalist. Work hard and search out the good 40% of there and stay out of the news rigging bot traps too.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/04/news-rigging-has-arrived-astroturf-and.html
It's been going on since people still used a Ticonderoga #2 and that useless shit know as paper.
Maybe is would be a good idea to read Bowart's little testament to the cryptocracy from 1978.
"Operation Mind Control"
Free pdf download on Rense, after you read the forward you may just want to throw it in the digital trash heap, it's a little more than most minds can take.
"Merica" this is my kountry!!
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand
A collectivist tyranny dare not enslave a country by outright confiscation of its values, material or moral. It has to be done by a process of internal corruption.
Ayn Rand
The anxiety-haunted man depends upon the hand-rails provided by society. He is the perfect citizen of the Global Village. He happily exchanges his name for a number, and eagerly exchanges his sovereignty for security.
Michael Tsarion
The masses have never thirsted after truth... Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
Gustav Le Bon (The Crowd)
We are born as originals and die as copies.
Edward Young
I see the illusion with the coverage of Trump.
A smart man would slip the jab and not go for a knockout.
But Trump is a big puncher.
He's in over his head.
http://www.vdare.com/posts/undeported-alien-criminal-is-arrested-for-mur...
Set up, like a bowling pin...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
Nothing to add, George Carlin saw it all and had guts to say it before he died.
Time and again, another political ploy, a phony candidate that “hates” establishment that brought him to prominence and undeserved, wealth will save us and leads us to Promised Land, a pledge to be broken as soon as we cast our votes like sheep. What a shit. How many times may we believe in the same political trickery devoid of merit before we are declared insane or retarded?
Only boycott has any political weight or visible expression in this corrupt system. Let them be elect themselves by 10% of population.
Entire establishment must go!!!.
Let's not prostitute our vote no more!!!
Let's not be corrupted this time around.
Enough is enough!!!
Neither Trump nor well-mannered Greens or anybody who suck tit of establishment won't make any difference if they run or not.
Idea of boycott is the only viable idea to express our political views that are absent from candidates agendas and from the ballots. It was already successfully done before.
Amerika , Love it or Leave it.
I saw the writing on the wall decades ago and it took me 15 years to find a way out of the USA
I wouldn't go back for a million bucks. Not even to visit.
A government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
Massive spending and war funding approved by the fraudulent ass TEA PARTY!
You know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean , you know , I mean. Know wad ahm sayin?
You know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean , you know , I mean. Know wad ahm sayin?
You know, I mean, you know, I mean, you know, I mean , you know , I mean. Know wad ahm sayin?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Anyone notice, how Americans , even half way intelligent ones, use those words over and over in a conversation?
Most people aren't even aware of it. Stop a person when they are into the 'you know'' thing and say ''Excuse me, NO, I don't know'' and you get a blank stare.
Good observation,notice how often they use NEED. I need,you need, this needs fixing and on and on with the needs.
I ''Think'' ''I need to fix that hole in my driveway''' and DO IT!! I don't tell anyone what I NEED to do.
It's a symptom of their mouths operating faster than their brains. Without that conversational filler, they'd sound like the zombies they are.
America has 330 milllion people.
Can you imagine what it would be like if it had a BILLION people like India or China?
THe USSA is a hypocrite & liar - a fake, phoney & fraud, if ever there was one.
To wit - Aldous Huxley:
The quaint old forms—elections, Parliaments, (Congress), Supreme Courts and all the rest will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of totalitarianism.
All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. "Democracy and Freedom" will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial.
Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, police, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.
ALDOUS HUXLEY
Take your SOMA.
Nice shot, man. - Filter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=191&v=o9mJ82x_l-E - A song dedicated to Budd Dwyer
In reference to a US politician framed for bribery and sentenced to 57 years imprisonment. He gave a speech and then blew his brains out on live TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT8lW73jexU
The Final Speech by Bud Dwyer
Yohoo - In the USA, the politicians who are trying to help the country are being murdered or destroyed. If the military members do not act on that, that is enough evidence to suggest your military has been taken over the hostile interests. When killing the opposition becomes necessary, evil is afuckingfoot.
No matter how good they make themself sound, no matter how good their speeches or how big their show. In all my years, I have never had a single politician do anything but take from me.
"It doesn’t matter who wins the White House, because they all work for the same boss: Corporate America."
And there it is. The above is the reason that despite the popularity of Trump's calling out the hacks he is only controlled opposition. Like john stuart and his daily shoe, he is the comic relief for the daily diet of corporate bullshit we are fed..
In the end, despite name calling and dirt slinging, Trump will not call his rivals out on what they truly are, mafia front men. While good at throwing barry, hillary and jeb in the ditch with well deserved insults, he will never call for actual investigations into their dealings let alone their prosecutions.
grateful to see these occassional posts. because lately, it seems the matt drudge Tyler has been winning, posting more and more idiocy "Obama is the anti christ" stupid childish bs. does he sux? sure. the SYSTEM sucks.
no fake elections will save us. voting is merely an illusion of participation.
nothing short of bastille will make any difference.
garcam123- speaks like a true racist. The real question is how long are the Africans going to take from the economy and give nothing back. Those rioters have no idea why they are there except to loot. Why dont they get a job and get off the street, or at least go to school. They are dangerous and violent people who should be put down.....not the police.
Lewis Lapham, another fabulist: "[Lewis] Lapham wrote a September 2004 column for Harper's in which he included a brief account of the Republican National Convention as if the event had already happened and he had witnessed it, "reflecting on the content and sharing with readers a question that occurred to him as he listened", as Jennifer Senior wrote in the New York Times Book Review. But the magazine arrived in subscribers' mailboxes before the convention had actually taken place, as Senior says "forcing Lapham to admit that the scene was a fiction". The columnist apologized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_H._Lapham
I downloaded a torrent file with 156 episodes of ''The Twilight Zone'' (28.12GB)
Wow, did that bring back memories.
Last night, I watched the one ''To serve man''.
If you get a chance watch it.
Well, even if comment posters here keep forgetting it, it doesn't change the fact that when the government decides to sic the troops on the population to disarm them, and the bullets start flying, that video footage is going to cause everyone who isn't a central bank to flee the stock market like roaches when the light is turned on, which will trigger all sorts of ugly financial bombs and cause the Fed to buy ALL shares with thin-air money, which will destroy the financial system and dollar.
Once soldiers realize they can't get paid and their families are back home struggling to eat like everyone else, more than half will walk away. Worse, this situation may bring about a strongman motivated by a desire to save America.
Such a leader in those circumstances will have zero use for the very unpopular politicians who got us to that point or equally as unpopular bankers with no gold or silver that can be used for money. The heavily armed U.S. population is an obstacle the banksters have no safe way to get around.
Bu bu but but...I THOUGHT THE BLACKS WERE THE PROBLEM!!?? - typical zerohedge idiot
The truth should be repeated loudly and frequently.
I think we like to be called "Sheeple" the best. It just fits better - "We the Sheeple...blah blah blah". I read this and was like, well, 'duuuh'. So WTF else is new? Everything everywhere has always been run by the .00001 percent (the king, emperor, etc.) until that glorious day when the sheeple fought for, uh, I forget, but whence came the Magnum Carta! Then everything everywhere began to be run by the .001 percent (the uber riche). So, kinda cool that was almost exactly 800 years ago, anyway, now time has come for Sheeple Carta! Yeah - like that would fucking work. Hah haha ha. Have you ever watched any of that shit on TV when the sheeple have a 'get together'? Normally they call them "riots, revolutions" or in the case of recent St. Louis demonstrations "peaceful gatherings" and "spirited demonstrators" - sheeple are just rude, total assholes. Doesn't anyone remember the french revolution? Or what happened after the russian revolution? The sheeple just start slaughtering EVERYONE! No - I think we just need to be ruled by the lizard people from the dark side of the moon - they are doing the best they can.