Monday, December 17, 2007

What Would a Fascist Do?

I don't believe it. I didn't realize it was this bad. They're robbing us blind. They're poisoning our future. They're even risking the collapse of our civilization. And Americans grumble a little bit and keep paying their taxes. That's not how a democracy works.


Go ahead, ask anybody you know (anybody who doesn't make money through the fossil fuel industry). Ask them if they think the oil companies should continue to get billions of dollars in subsidies? It will be virtually unanimous. Hell no! But the Senate did just that. And not only that, the subsidies were supposed to go for clean energy – and now they won't.


Let me get this straight; instead of helping develop cleaner, safer, and ultimately cheaper energy generation, billions of our dollars are going to line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry. Don't they have enough of our money? Isn't global warming even on these Senators' radar? No terrorist has ever come close to this much damage. Shame on the Senate! Or at least shame on just over half of them. How could they? It's their future too. (Of course, if they had kept the Bill the way the House sent it to them, Bush Jr. would have vetoed it.)


It gets worse. Now, Republican Senator Pete Domenici has slipped a little something into the 2008 Appropriations Bill – 25 BILLION dollars in loan guarantees for the nuclear power industry. And this is after a public outcry forced him to drop the multi-billion dollar give away in a previous Bill.


Doesn't Pete remember Chernobyl? That's got to be the worst industrial accident in history. They told us it was safe back then too. And for Americans to be forced to pay billions of dollars to risk our health even more? Especially when wind/solar/etc. energy is working. Yes, in spite of the fossil fuel industry's unfair subsidy advantage, private investors are developing and building clean power generation – now.


So, “our” government wants to give the nuclear industry a multi-billion dollar unfair advantage also?


When dirty money becomes systematically more important to our "leaders" than the future of our country, the future of humanity, and even the future of life on Earth; this becomes more than just overwhelming corruption. I would call the corrupt politicians who sell out to these even more corrupt corporations whores, but that would be an insult to prostitutes. No, if I'm to stoop to name calling, I'll call them fascists. That's right, I used the “f” word. They're acting just like FASCISTS! Our government has essentially been infiltrated by fascists, who intend to allow the highest bidders to drain us dry - and leave nothing behind. Sure, they'll tell you they're freedom loving defenders of democracy. But did you expect them to tell you?


When we think about fascism, we tend to think about Nazis and militarism. We don't often think about why fascists do what they do. There is a reason. Bullys aren't bullys just to push others around. They have a reason. Usually its that they want something... actually everything. Militarism is a tool, a tool to concentrate wealth in the hands of the greedy. When the greed becomes all-powerful, self-destructive, and effectively insane; we no longer have capitalism. Its getting to the point where we are beginning to have fascism.


Something is terribly wrong when our government ignores the people (and common sense) to enrich the corporations who are raping our environment, our economy, and our future – when better alternatives are right here.


We are witnessing the organized destruction of a part of our future – to make a few people hideously rich. This is worse than monopolistic behavior. This is mean-spirited, self-destructive, oligopolistic behavior... you know, like fascism. Wasn't it Mussolini that said fascism should be called corporatism? Corporations don't even have the vote, but they have vastly more power than us. It appears some corporations even have power over our government officials.


Please Pete, please Congress, prove to us you're not fascists. Do the right thing.


If we don't fix things now, we may as well be fighting over the best seats on a sinking ship.


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