It couldn't happen here...

This is the mindset of most people, that ‘it’ couldn’t happen, not here at least. Too many people would oppose it.

It’s almost universally agreed that our nation is currently saddled with the poorest leadership our, or any other generation, has ever seen.

Yet a coup is still unthinkable. Almost as unthinkable as a hurricane wiping out a major US port city and the victims being left to fend for themselves or becoming embroiled in another quagmire just as the kids of those who served in (or protested) Vietnam are coming of age.

Almost

It’s as unthinkable as the Iron Curtain being cast aside in favor of the riches of capitalism…for all the good it’s done them. The Soviets only thought they knew what corruption was, now they have both abject poverty and more corruption than they ever thought was possible.

So, this coup I’m going on about. Is it going to straighten everything out? Not a chance. It won’t be a people’s coup, it will be one arranged by the fat cats.

These hand picked saviors, you know who we’re talking about here don’t you? It’ll be those handpicked men in uniform that managed to pass the Rummy ‘sniff test’.

Those who have displayed unquestioning loyalty to the administration and have proven that their strongest motivation is a lust for power and the riches that come with power.

Those guys.

Ever since the creation of FEMA and the dictatorial powers that act bestows upon the executive office, I had thought that Clinton would be the last president but obviously I was mistaken.

His job was to set it up. Now it’s looking like the Shrub will be the last one. The only question in my mind is will he make a grab to stay in power himself or will someone else grab the reins from him when he makes his move?

The end result will be the same. A state of emergency will be declared, the elections cancelled and the Constitution and Bill of rights will be ‘suspended’ indefinitely if not forever.

What will you, the people do about it?

Nada…not right away anyway.

These guys will call themselves your saviors and you’ll be half inclined to give them a chance, after the Shrub reportedly goes off his rocker and nukes Iran.

Yeah, you’ll be downright happy to see someone else in charge after that happens.

Who will take over? Not anybody we hear about on a regular basis. Like Roberts, this guy has been waiting in the wings with an impeccable resume, waiting for his moment in the spotlight.

You won’t even care that the suspension of the Constitution also means that Congress will be disbanded. Why should the fat cats keep paying three hundred (a simple majority) when they can get away with paying off, say, fifty?

Nope, you’ll be dancing in the streets…until they announce their agenda. An agenda that will be lifted straight from the religious right and shoved down your throat at the point of a gun.

Can you think of an agenda more repressive than one with an official language as well as an official religion?

By this point, given the ‘unthinkable’ nature of what I’m, admittedly, making a wild ass prediction about. You must be thinking I have a few loose screws.

This is an exercise in the possible good citizen and just about anything, unthinkable or not, is possible.

Let’s put things into perspective. We have five hundred some odd elected representatives that answer to what, the top fifty CEO’s in the nation? Maybe it’s as few as twenty, who knows? (What you do know is that ‘our’ representatives don’t listen to us!)

These top exec’s have, for the past thirty years, looted the nation although ‘disemboweled’ is a lot closer to the mark.

We’re just about tapped out. No jobs to speak of, most of our economic activity is buying foreign junk and everyone of us is up to our ears in debt thanks to easy credit and stagnant wages.

Peak oil, which really happened five years ago, is being brought forth as a ‘new’ economic threat.

The coming financial storm will pauperize our nation (all except the investor class) and every one of our national institutions will collapse.

Schools, police and fire departments will be eliminated as the workers whose taxes paid their wages hit the streets wholesale.

Why do I say this? Private enterprise is a ‘for profit’ venture. When the cost of energy puts the price of your products out of the reach of your customers, you don’t make profits.

If you don’t make a profit, regardless of how ‘vital’ your industry is to consumers, you go out of business.

Here we have the one, well actually it’s two but it looks like one, item that can bring private enterprise to its knees.

Energy, without cheap abundant energy our entire way of life grinds to a halt. Not in fits and starts by like the flicking of a switch.

'Poof' it's gone!

No power = no work. If that isn’t scary enough no power also equals no communications.

How does this all tie together?

The export of our heavy industries to the cheaper there has wiped out the working middle class, all that’s left is a white collar equivalent.

Now those jobs are being outsourced.

Next we take the ocean of debt, an ocean that gets deeper every day because price creep has eroded the average worker’s purchasing power. Inflation may be negligible from month to month but it goes up a few percent every year, wiping out the meager raises the investor class hands out.

Now, on top of the phony war, we have an energy crisis. None of which is an accident.

The numbers speak for themselves. One tenth of one percent of the population controls over eighty percent of the wealth.

The wealthy have been grossly outnumbered for a long time but they’ve been successful at maintaining an illusion of prosperity…until now.

The end of cheap energy, something they’ve known about since the seventies, has placed them and their precarious hold on the nation’s wealth in jeopardy, mortal jeopardy.

The solution, in their eyes, is martial law.

Think Abu Gharib was scary, it’s even scarier if you look at it from the perspective that those atrocities were committed as a test to see what soldiers would do when ordered to torture innocent civilians.

The soldiers not only didn’t balk, they willingly participated!

That which is coming will make Saddam look like a saint.

All so a few can be rich.

Once again, I have merely laid the pieces out on the table for you to see. Make what you want of them, or me for that matter.

Not that misery likes company but if it’s any comfort, the rest of the world will quickly and quietly follow suit with brutally repressive regimes wresting power from the hands of the elected…all to preserve the status quo.

The lust for power is a horrible thing but not nearly as horrible as the ruthlessness displayed by those determined to remain in power.

Our society gutted and divided, our children’s future mortgaged to the hilt and ruthless despotism just around the corner.

You have the power to stop it. The question is will you be brave enough to make a stand and refuse them when push comes to shove?

Your children’s future depends on it. Don’t sell them out.

Thanks for letting me inside your head,

Gegner

PS: the ‘other’ thing in those two items I was talking about is money. In a labor driven society, price isn’t a consideration. While energy, fossil fuels, are a ‘finite’ resource their value to society is relative to keeping vital systems functioning until viable alternatives can be established…where again, ‘price’ is no object. Hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen powered vehicles, free.

In the end, it’s all a game designed to keep you in debt, working like an idiot while they do nothing.

Pretty stupid, huh?