-Caveat Lector-
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NEWSLETTER #29
February 2, 2003
'Conspiracy Theory' Edition Part III/GWB Midterm Report
As I started to say at the end of the last newsletter, we have finally
arrived, at long last, at what initially was the primary purpose of this
newsletter series: shamelessly patting myself on the back as we review
how the Bush administration has measured up to the predictions that I
made for it back in December of 2000, just after the U.S. Supreme Court
overruled the American people and installed George II in the White
House.
(http://davesweb.cnchost.com/Bush.htm)
As readers will recall, after the election fiasco there was much
fretting by the press over what the Bush team would bring to the table
-- which I respectfully, as always, commented on in the opening passage
of the posting:
Will Bush be weakened by the perceived illegitimacy of his
presidency? Will he be stymied by an evenly divided Congress?
Will he be able to reach across the aisle to forge a
bipartisan consensus? Will he be able to heal the wounds of a
fractured nation? Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Nobody knew what the future held for Bush's administration or for the
country -- or so went the media's collective refrain. But some of us
weren't so coy about assessing the situation:
Despite all the hand wringing by the press and pundits over
the obstacles facing the incoming administration, it seems
pretty clear that the Bush team has been emboldened by its
broad-daylight theft of the election, and by the relative
passivity of the American people, and will very likely move
quickly and decisively to promote an exceedingly reactionary
agenda.
That sounds to me like a pretty accurate description, in general, of
what we have seen in the last two years. Further predictions dealt with
more specific aspects of that reactionary agenda (and I will include
everything from the December 2000 posting that could be considered a
prediction, no matter how mundane, lest I be accused of picking and
choosing only those predictions that proved to be compelling. There are
very minor changes in wording, grammar, and syntax from the original
December 2000 posting. This is due to the fact that I am a severely anal
person and am incapable of rereading any of my stuff without 'improving'
it. The substantive content of the original posting has not been
changed):
One of the first things we should look for is that the
shortened transition period will be crassly exploited to ram
through a number of questionable cabinet appointments, who
will of course be perfunctorily confirmed, in the spirit of
bipartisanship, by the hideously corrupt United States
Congress. These appointments will receive, of course,
considerably less press coverage than the early 'diverse'
appointments.
And that is, more or less, what happened -- though it wasn't a real
difficult call to make. Bush's earliest nominees and appointees were
intended to create the illusion of an administration that would
represent all Americans; hence we saw such names as Colin Powell, Condi
Rice and Karen Hughes trotted out. These were, not surprisingly,
followed by such names as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Otto Reich.
This next prediction proved to be inaccurate, though not entirely so:
Expect also to see Little George reach out to Congressional
Democrats, particularly Senators, when passing out Cabinet
posts. Besides the all-important illusion of seeking
conciliation by 'reaching across the aisle,' which the press
just loves to talk about, a much more important purpose is
served by doing so: all Democrats siphoned off of Congress can
be replaced with Republicans.
By doing so, the Republicans can regain their slim majority
hold on both houses, which was largely stripped away by the
election ... The obvious advantage for the Bush team is that a
Republican-controlled Congress will facilitate the advancement
of the Bush agenda -- though this is not to naively suggest
that Congressional Democrats would likely have stood in the
way.
It will, however, be easier for the press to justify in the
court of public opinion the craven complicity of Congress in
green-lighting every reactionary proposal to emerge from the
Bush White House.
What I failed to anticipate, obviously, was that that tragic event known
simply as "9-11" would enable congressional Democrats en masse to stop
pretending that they are a legitimate opposition party, giving them a
free hand to endorse "every reactionary proposal to emerge from the Bush
White House."
And there is certainly no question that Congress has indeed given a huge
thumbs-up to every far-right proposal that has come from Pennsylvania
Avenue.
However, as September 11 inevitably begins to fade from memory,
Democrats will have to put some limited effort into pretending to offer
a different vision than their Republican cronies. Perhaps that is why
the GOP has now quite likely resorted to more dubious political means to
capture/retain control of both houses of Congress: electronic election
rigging.
The next prediction from December 2000 pondered whether "Ollie North and
Co" would once again take up residence in the White House's "basement."
No sign yet of Ollie North, but we have the next best thing -- his good
buddies and co-conspirators John Poindexter, Elliot Abrams, John
Negroponte and the aforementioned Otto Reich. They no longer, of course,
have to operate out of the basement. The dirty work can now be done
right out in broad daylight, which leaves more room in the basement for
Dick Cheney to tend to his duties.
This next prediction was obviously made in jest, due primarily to the
fact that I appear to have seriously underestimated the brazenness of
the incoming Bush team:
Shortly into the new administration, expect a fire to be
staged in the Reichstag, providing the pretext to dissolve
Congress and usurp legislative powers .... Oh, wait a minute
... I was thinking of another head of state that 'legally'
assumed power. Never mind.
Though clearly meant as a joke, this proved to be not too far off the
mark, so I think I'm going to take credit for it, if you don't mind.
Instead, expect Bush's much ballyhooed tax 'reform' to be
prominent on the agenda. Don't worry though; it won't have any
effect on you. Capital gains and inheritance taxes will
undoubtedly be slashed dramatically, perhaps even eliminated
entirely. Income taxes may be lowered as well, though
primarily for corporations and those with stratospheric
incomes. Some savings might even trickle down to you, but
don't count on it.
This has, to no one's surprise, proven to be accurate. Even as I write
this, it has been revealed that the White House is planning a propaganda
campaign to justify substantially raising taxes on lower- and
middle-income Americans
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59577-2002Dec15.html and
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/flat1202.pdf ), even while advancing a new
'economic stimulus' package that primarily entails handing out
additional massive tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.
Expect also a stepped-up 'war on terrorism.'
This proved to be, I think it's safe to say, a bit of an understatement.
So too did the passage that immediately followed those words:
What this really means, of course, is an increased attack on
the human and civil rights of Americans. We will naturally be
told that our lawmakers are striking a balance between the
rights of American citizens, and the need to guard against the
nonexistent threat of international and domestic terrorism. In
the name of protecting us, a wholesale attack on our few
remaining democratic rights will be launched.
Well ... let's see now ... so far Team Bush has given us the USA PATRIOT
Act, the Department of Homeland Security, the TIPS program, the
Information Awareness Office, 'Total Information Awareness,' indefinite
detentions without charges or trials or access to legal counsel, and
secret military tribunals. Not bad for two years.
[W]e are [also] likely to see ... a new omnibus crime bill.
More police, better equipped police, more prisons, more
liberal use of the death penalty, restrictions on appeals,
more behaviors criminalized, greater cooperation between
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies: all of this
and more is necessary if we're to get serious about being
'tough on crime.'
And much of that is what we have gotten, and will continue to get --
particularly so in regards to the merging of federal, state and local
law enforcement agencies, which is one of the stated goals of the
Homeland Security Act. As it turns out though, we didn't need to bother
with the passing of a crime bill, per se, since the "war on crime" and
the "war on terrorism" appear to have been pretty much rolled into one.
Two buzz words to be on the lookout for from Team Bush are
'privatization' and 'deregulation.' For the Bushwhackers, the
more of both, the better. Schools, healthcare facilities and
prisons are prime candidates for privatization, along with, of
course, Social Security and Medicare.
Team Bush hasn't destroyed Social Security and Medicare just yet through
privatization, but they are certainly working diligently towards that
goal. Give them time. They've just gotten started, after all. They still
have six years to go ... ooops, I meant to say two years.
Six years would imply that Bush is guaranteed a second term, which is
something we all know will not be decided for another two years, through
a completely democratic election process that is envied around the
world.
But can there really be any doubt that 'the powers that be' will do
whatever is necessary to keep their boy in the White House? Didn't Al
Gore's preemptive withdrawal from the 2004 race already send a very
clear signal that only the weakest imaginable opponents will be allowed
to challenge Herr Bush?
Sorry ... I seem to have segued there into making predictions, when I am
supposed to be reviewing old predictions. Anyway, as for privatization,
the Bushies have been busily working to privatize nearly 1,000,000
federal jobs. And that's just for starters.
Deregulation could strike anywhere, at any time, touted as a
way to lower consumer costs by increasing competition. Expect
sudden and drastic price increases to follow any act of
deregulation.
Being a Southern Californian, the first thing that comes to mind for me
is the deregulation of the California energy market, which led directly
to looting and pillaging by some felonious energy companies, one of
which was named, if I remember correctly, something like "Enron." This
looting and pillaging led to skyrocketing prices for consumers.
Those in other parts of the country can insert their own favorite
deregulation story. Next up is this prediction:
In the field of foreign policy, look for an increasingly
belligerent attitude towards Poppy Bush's old buddy, Saddam
Hussein.
Any questions?
We may be witness to the world's first deployment of a
'tactical' nuclear weapon. This would most likely occur under
the pretense of destroying alleged Iraqi underground
nuclear/biowarfare facilities.
This remains a very real possibility. There has been increasingly open
talk of utilizing nuclear weapons against Iraq, and there is a very good
chance that this will come to pass before Bush finishes his first term.
Washington is eager to show the world, or parts of it anyway, that
resisting Western hegemony can be a very unhealthy course of action.
Bear in mind, by the way, that this prediction was made well before
there was any indication that the U.S. was going Back to Iraq for
another round of Bomb Saddam. In fact, it was first made in April of
1999 (in the epilogue to my first book), and was then repeated in the
December 2000 posting.
That epilogue also stated that "we will very likely also see the
restoration of the draft in the foreseeable future." And sure enough, I
see that two such proposals are now on the table -- laid there,
bizarrely enough, with claims that a reinstatement of the draft will
make Washington less likely to rush off to war.
Elsewhere on the foreign relations front, expect a new mission
for our men and women in uniform.
I guess I should have said "expect multiple new missions." Or maybe it's
just one big mission -- "The War on Terror." The first leg of that
mission, Afghanistan, wasn't long in coming. How many more there will be
remains to be seen.
It's ... necessary to repeatedly remind all those 'rogue'
nations out there that we are serious about imposing
U.S.-approved markets on every corner of the globe. Opposition
to manipulation and exploitation by the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization
has been known to bring on a case of Sudden Aerial Bombardment
Syndrome.
It has also been known to bring on a recurring case of Transparently
Orchestrated Coup Masquerading as a Popular Uprising Syndrome, as the
good people of Venezuela have recently discovered.
Another thing we can expect from the Bush team ... is a couple
of reactionary Supreme Court appointments.
These obviously haven't come yet, but undoubtedly will before Bush
leaves the White House. It probably wouldn't do to rush into it though.
The president appointing Supreme Court justices too soon after the
Supreme Court justices appointed the president might raise troubling
questions in many people's minds about exactly what type of 'democracy'
it is we are running here.
On the brighter side, one thing we shouldn't expect from the
Bush team is a repeal of abortion rights. Contrary to their
carefully crafted images, the Bush family, and any number of
other 'conservatives' in Washington, aren't really opposed to
the practice of abortion. They just pretend that they are to
insure the support of the Abortion Clinic Bombers lobby.
So far, there have been no serious efforts to restrict abortion rights.
One of Bush's earliest actions as president was to approve legislation
restricting funding for overseas family-planning clinics. This was an
obvious bone thrown to Bush's supposed 'conservative base,' and the new
policy was quietly reversed not long after it was implemented.
There is recent talk of the Roe v. Wade decision being in jeopardy of
being overturned. And Bush has clearly signaled his intent to carry on
the family tradition of pretending to be 'pro-life,' and pretending,
more generally, to have respect for the sanctity of human life.
But Bush clearly has no respect at all for the sanctity of human life.
We are talking here about a man who does not hesitate to cast about for
fabricated justifications for launching an unprovoked attack that will
leave hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead.
This man has absolutely no respect for human life, and also has no
intention of criminalizing the practice of abortion. The Bush family has
long had a keen interest in population control. The more means that can
be utilized to thin the herd, the better. That is why, despite the
posturing, it is very unlikely that any significant changes in abortion
laws will come to pass.
Let's now review some of the more significant predictions: a White House
full of reactionary appointees, including a smattering of Iran/Contra
conspirators, rushing to implement a decidedly far-right agenda; a
greatly stepped-up 'war on terrorism'; renewed hostilities with Iraq; a
new military mission for our men and women in uniform; a sweeping and
unrelenting attack on democratic rights; and hopelessly regressive tax
policies.
Sounds about right to me.
And all it took was about $1,600 in toll charges for calls to the
Psychic Friends Network. Oh shit ... I just remembered that I already
slipped a Miss Cleo joke into this newsletter series. I guess a Psychic
Friends Network joke at this point would be a little redundant. So I
should probably think up something else to use here. But nothing really
comes to mind. Sorry.
All that was really required was a willingness to look beyond the
conventional explanations given for why things happen as they do,
coupled with the ability to connect enough of the dots that a picture
begins to emerge of the hidden forces and patterns at work in this
cancerous impersonation of a democratic state.
So what is the point of all this? I suppose that - in addition to
filling column space with old writings, which comes in very handy since
I've been too busy to write much new stuff - it is to illustrate that
far from being counter-productive diversions, far from being loony,
silly, paranoid delusions, carefully and comprehensively constructed
'conspiracy theories' can in fact aid immeasurably in understanding the
world that we live in.
In fact, it is impossible to make sense of the world if you play by the
rules, utilizing only those theories and those pieces of the puzzle that
are provided by Washington and its media cohorts. There are too many
pieces missing to ever catch even a faint glimpse of the big picture.
You have to be adventurous. You have to travel far off the beaten path,
first through the world of the progressive/alternative media, oftentimes
wallowing nearly neck-deep in putrid disinformation, picking through the
muck to find pieces of the puzzle as you go, being ever vigilant not to
pick up any red herrings, which look deceptively like the real pieces of
the puzzle, and will seem to fit, until you discover that there is
another piece that fits a little better.
Such a journey will give you a better view of the big picture, but most
of what you will read is controlled dissent -- which is to say that you
will come away with a somewhat dimmer view of the country you call home,
but still firmly committed to the erroneous belief that this is the
greatest goddamn country that ever graced the earth, and that overall we
have been a great force for good in the world, though we may have taken
a few missteps.
As you continue to venture further and further away from the mainstream,
you will continue to find pieces of the puzzle, and the picture will
become more troubling. At some indefinable point, you will cross the
line into the mysterious Conspiracy Zone. You must go in. Some key
pieces of the puzzle are hidden in there.
But you must use extreme caution. You never know what you will
encounter.
Various oddities have been known to inhabit this area. You could
encounter UFOs, crop circles or chemtrails. Various forms of alien life
are lurking around every corner. Disinformation runs thick, coating
everything in sight, and giving the entire Zone a noxious odor. Still,
you must persevere. Buried deep in that odorous ooze are some essential
pieces of the puzzle.
The truth is out there. Most of it, anyway. But it is scattered around
in bits and pieces, and you have to find enough of them, and assemble
enough of them in the correct sequence, to create a picture that begins
to approximate an accurate reflection of an objective reality -- which
looks a whole lot different than the manufactured reality.
Of course, if you're not equipped with a good 'bullshit detector,' you
could easily come back from your journey with a new reality that is no
more accurate than your old reality, though it will certainly contain
some interesting new elements.
It's a very large puzzle, with a lot of pieces and any number of
variations of each piece. Everyone puts the puzzle together a little
differently, which is why, as I said at the beginning of this
now-lengthy diatribe, there are as many theories out there as there are
people to formulate them.
I happen to like the way that I have assembled the puzzle, though it is
certainly not yet complete -- and never will be.
I guess I shouldn't say that I like the way that I have assembled the
puzzle. I actually fear and despise it. The picture that I have created
is an ugly one indeed -- far uglier than I ever imagined when beginning
the journey. But what I like about it is that it provides answers. It
allows me to make sense of events as they unfold -- events that never
made any sense when viewed through a manufactured reality.
This, for example, was how 9-11 looked to me on the day of the attacks
(written on September 11, posted on September 12):
Our elected leaders - who are elected only in the sense that
every couple of years we are given a choice between two
interchangeable candidates - will revel in the free reign they
will be given to ram through legislation so appallingly
reactionary that it would have been unthinkable just days ago.
Military spending and the militarization of the country will
escalate to a fever pitch. Welcome to the new and improved
police state -- the largest, most powerful, and most
technologically advanced the world has ever seen.
(http://davesweb.cnchost.com/wtc.html)
And with that, I suppose, I will conclude this extended rant. ... after,
that is, I offer a few comments on The Smirk's State of the Union
address.
What can I say about George the Younger's speech? Watching George, Jr.
deliver a speech is always a singularly unsettling experience, and this
time was certainly no different. All of the standard elements were
there: the crude hypocrisy; the outlandish lies; the piss-poor attempts
to feign sincerity; the transparency of his real motives; the facial
expressions that belie the emotions that he is attempting to express;
and, as always, that trademark smirk.
I can't even begin to catalogue all the lies that rolled off King
George's lips. Virtually everything that he said was a lie. It's quite
possible that Bush set some kind of record for telling more lies in a
single one-hour speech than any politician in American history.
And he knows that. Not only does he know that, but he can't seem to
restrain himself from gloating over it even as he is telling the lies.
That is why he always sports that smirk. What that smirk says is: "Yeah,
I'm lying my ass off, and we both know it, but there's not a damn thing
that you can do about it, and nobody in this room with me here today and
nobody in the media is going to call me on my lies, no matter how
transparent and outrageous they are."
What that smirk means, in other words, is "fuck you."
While Bush's performance was truly appalling, his was certainly not the
only appalling performance on display. No ... pretty much everyone in
attendance turned in a repulsive performance as well -- repeatedly
giving Caligula standing ovations for uttering the most outrageous of
lies and the crudest of threats.
Seventy-three applause breaks in an hour-long speech. That works out to
one every 49 seconds -- which is pretty amazing given that Bush can
normally go for months without saying anything worth applauding.
The Republican side of the chamber, which is normally impossible to
differentiate from the Democratic side, stood out this time due to the
party's decision to punctuate their standing O's with asinine whoops and
cheers, undoubtedly leaving some viewers wondering if perhaps the State
of the Union address had been preempted by a particularly obnoxious
episode of the Jerry Springer Show.
If I had to pick out a defining moment from the speech, I'd have to give
consideration to the moment when the gallery erupted in thunderous
applause in response to Caesar's proclamation that the United States
would not hesitate to act in defiance of world opinion -- shortly after
he had harshly denounced Iraq for, of all things, allegedly acting in
defiance of world opinion.
I would also have to give consideration to the moment when the gallery
burst into deafening applause in response to Bush openly gloating, in
his inimitable frat-boy style, over the assassination of foreign
nationals who are claimed to be 'terrorists.'
And I would have to give consideration to the moment when Bush discussed
his frustration at not finding Osama bin Laden ... except that, come to
think of it, George never actually mentioned bin Laden at all. But that
shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. Osama is so 'last year.'
But I would have to give consideration to the moment when 'Dumbya'
managed to mispronounce the names of all three of the nations that make
up the comic book creation known as the 'Axis of Evil' -- which, if I
remember correctly, was spawned by Captain America's former foe, and the
world's previous arch-villain: the 'Evil Empire.'
By the way, does anyone know exactly where the "Krean peninshula" is? It
must be important, because King George mentioned it twice, but I haven't
been able to locate it on a map.
In the end, there was one moment that stood out above all others as the
defining moment of the speech -- a moment when the Orwellian lies
reached such a surreal level that Bush could be seen struggling, and
failing, to keep a straight face, as if even he could not believe that
he could get away with such a complete, and completely transparent,
inversion of reality.
That moment came when Bush actually said, and I'm quoting here, that
"all free nations have a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic
attacks." He said this not long before reaffirming that his
administration will not be deterred from, of all things, launching a
sudden and catastrophic attack on a defenseless nation that has done
absolutely nothing to justify such an attack.
No one, of course, challenged the comment. No one challenged any of the
lies. And no one will. No one, that is, who is given a platform to speak
to an audience of any appreciable size. That, you see, is how a 'free
press' operates.
I'm sorry to report that, due to continuing problems with my Internet
service, I have little in the way of new links to pass along -- though I
do have a couple here that are particularly compelling. Both are fairly
lengthy expos�s that come from sources that are far off the beaten path
that most researchers follow.
The first is entitled "The Lords of Bakersfield," and comes courtesy of
the tiny Bakersfield Californian
(http://ww2.bakersfield.com/2003/lords/). The second, from The Crime
Library, concerns "The Mysterious Dr. Ford"
(http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/terrorists/larry_ford/1.html).
Both are highly recommended. With a little bit of reading between the
lines, and a little connecting of the dots, these stories reveal many
truths about the world we live in.
Check back next week when we will open the mailbag and revisit the
Pentagon attack, among other things. Until then ...
(Permission is hereby granted for this material to be widely distributed
and reposted, provided that the content is not altered in any way.)
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