"In this particular craft (you can't really call it an art), those who succeed must recognize the moment of bullshit-- the instant where the choice is made not to offer a rational explanation or a thoughtful, honest response, but to sling a load in the face of the problem instead."

Those who toil for Bush, Inc., are master craftsmen in slinging bullshit. They've been at it for many years. If, for historical purposes, one were to identify the prime moment of bullshit for the spokesman of Bush, Inc., marking the end of democracy in the US, it would have to be when Smirk slung it at his dreary inauguration. He swore, before God, under oath, in front of millions to uphold the Constitution. With that flaming moment of bullshit, he began his residency, and it's been downhill since. As the mountain of bullshit grows ever higher, the nation sinks into the muck of never-ending lies. Under the misdirection of Bush, Inc., the increase in bullshit and the decline of the nation are in a perfect inverse relationship. As the bullshit is slung far and wide, the nation implodes.

I'm neither a legal or constitutional expert, but I would think the violation of the inaugural oath would have some serious ramifications. By letting it pass, the nation has given its blessing to bullshit. Of course in bowing to the pile of bullshit called an election in 2000, the herd would naturally accept anything. As a result, we now live in a maelstrom of bullshit. In essence, the true mantra for anyone who still thinks, should be, "Are you for bullshit or against it?" A patriot know the answer.

For pure entertainment value and to see non-stop, highly crafted bullshit, I like to watch the CNBC financial programming. As I write (7.19.02), the Dow is down 293 points, near the low for the day. During trading, the Plunge Protection Team has made several feeble attempts to breathe some life into a terminally wounded market and economy. With an hour and a half left, I wonder if the PPT will be able to prop up the scam and the prime scamsters, Bush, Inc.? It's great watching the paid-for pitch men and women come in to sling a few loads for corporate America. Unfortunately, for them, the bullshit doesn't seem to be sticking anywhere.

Whoa, SEC chief, Harvey Pitt, just came on and slung a major load, saying investors need to have the very best protection. The prime bullshit factor being that he is the person to best serve the investors. Picture Harvey Pitt protecting the investors with a shield of bullshit. The reality is that the Dick and Smirk will skate on fraud, as will Kenny Boy and anyone else close (i.e., major contributor) to Bush, Inc. Another moment of bullshit.

Speaking of pits, the nation has become the equivalent of the La Brea tar pit. Now, however, the medium is bullshit, not tar. There is so much malfeasance in the political/military/industrial/judicial complex that an army of special prosecutors would be mired down for years trying to bring the guilty to justice. But while the prosecutors worked, the bullshit would continue to flow, burying the legal system deeper and deeper in lies, deception . . . bullshit.

This morning, I had a phone conversation with a friend who is diligently working to bring to life a business. He also read the Bing book from which the opening quote was taken. He has become so jaded by the business climate that he said today, "Doing business is so bad now that when someone speaks, it's always bullshit. And the bullshit comes in various gradations from mild to very strong. But it's always bullshit." My friend paused and said, "remember when people had character . . . when their word meant something?" Over the past couple of weeks, my entrepreneurial friend has said to me several times that he hopes the Dow goes to 3000 in order to bring some cleansing to purge the market of bullshit.

Although the Smirkster says he eschewed Alcoholics Anonymous in order to put drunkenness behind him, I doubt that he could put bullshitting in the past without support from reformed bullshitters. I wonder if mindless bible thumpers would pay big bucks for a picture of their leader standing up at a Bullshitters Anonymous meeting? "Hello, my name is George, and I am a slinger of bullshit.

"Wouldn't such a massive infusion of the truth be refreshing? Unfortunately, for the CEO and other executives at Bush, Inc., truth to them is as sunlight to Dracula. They can't handle the truth. Why is that?

A friend gave me a copy of Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People some years ago. Around 1976, Covey was involved in a study of what he called "success literature" in the US for the previous 200 years. Covey found that the literature of the nation's first 150 years linked success to character. However, the related writings of the next 50 years "was superficial. It was filled with social image consciousness, techniques and quick fixes -- with social Band-Aids and aspirin that addressed acute problems and sometimes even appeared to solve them temporarily, but left the underlying chronic problems untouched to fester and resurface time and again."

In contrast, what Covey considers lasting success has a foundation based upon character: "things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty, and the Golden Rule." Well, one thing is certain, no one has integrity when slinging bullshit. And in every person and nation's life, there comes a time when truth surfaces, revealing a persona based upon spin and lies for what it is . . . bullshit. The Smirkster had such a moment when he did his pathetic televised bob and weave to bolster the market a few days ago. The more he slung the bullshit, the faster the market plummeted. The market was separating the sellers from the bullshit. It was a rare and honest moment, a moment of truth.

Today, Friday, the handlers of Smirk and the nation wisely chose to keep the corporate manikin away from cameras and microphones. Instead of the bloodletting resulting in a Dow loss of 390 points and the Nasdaq shedding 38 points, the figures would have been significantly more negative had he bullshitted about integrity. Isn't it hard to believe the polls that supposedly give the usurper high marks, when the market doesn't trust him? One thing is clear, as Covey says in his book, "You can't talk your way out of something you've behaved your way into." Having committed fraud as a corporate insider at Harken, the Smirkster can't speak out of the other side of his mouth about the need for corporate integrity. Well he can, and he did, but in the part of the universe that includes the eternal verities, it just doesn't stick.

This is, of course, a very dangerous moment for the nation and planet. The last time Bush, Inc., was on the ropes, 9-11 was served up. There is the mother of bullshit moments. I doubt and hope there is no concerted effort to top 9-11 for election purposes. But there is ample lunacy, greed, and lack of character in the Bush camp to try anything. We know Iraq's men, women, and children are targeted in order to access Iraqi oil and to complete Poppy's "to do" list. But, outside of the Bush, Inc., inner circle, there doesn't seem to be much real excitement about another undeclared war and preemptive strike against a defenseless nation. There will have to be a trigger event to get the flags waving again. What the next big moment of bullshit will be is uncertain. Whatever, it will likely be linked specifically to Saddam, a biological attack, dirty nuke, something. We can assume that within 30 minutes after the event, the FBI will find evidence clearly marked, "Made in Iraq by Saddam Hussein." This will quickly be followed by a flag draped Smirkster and another tedious sermon about evil. The question is, will it be bought again by a dim witted populace? One would hope that envelope has been pushed about as far as it will go.

Recently, I began rereading a book I first read in the 70s, Whatever Became of Sin, by Karl Menninger. I was interested in what he had to say about bullshitting. In a section called, "Lies, Lies, Lies," there are some interesting comments with application to our circumstances (Pages 161-162). This passage, for example, caught my attention:

"In other words, while one cannot say the event was staged [the sinking of the Lusitania], it was very largely maneuvered and greatly misrepresented and exploited by the British and American governments to induce hatred in the American people toward the German people. In short. we were lied to by our leaders to maneuver our country into a war for political reasons and not to 'save democracy.' By order of president Wilson, the truth about the Lusitania was buried until the time of President Franklin Roosevelt.

"Menninger concludes this section, "For me, lying is a sin in large letters, and lying by leaders is unforgivable." I'm sure Dr. Menninger is long gone by now. What would he have to say, I wonder, about the Bush Bullshit Brigade? "Unforgivable!

"Before closing, it's only fair to say that Stanley Bing, in What Would Machiavelli Do?, tries to make a distinction between bullshitting and lying. But he puts too fine a point on it. He admits that both are dishonest and that bullshit consists of lying. There are big lies and small lies, but they are all lies. Now, we are living at a time when bullshit is more the norm than the truth, and people in positions of power are leading the way.

Here are some examples of the effects of the contagion of bullshit besetting us. As my friend, the entrepreneur, said Friday, "The foxes are not only in the henhouse, they're sitting on the eggs."

• CIA sees Iraq as nuclear danger: "IRAQ'S Saddam Hussein is no more than three years away from developing a usable nuclear weapon, according to the latest assessment by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Before 9-11, Lewis Lapham wrote a classic assessment of the CIA. I didn't know the Harper's editor had been recruited by the shadowy organization. Worth reading through:

• The Boys Next Door [the real CIA]: "Consider the bungled invasion at the Bay of Pigs, where, without the least hint of a plausible reason, the CIA expected a crowd of Cuban peasants to rise from the sugarcane and march gloriously to Havana while singing Broadway show tunes. Marvel at the subtlety of the Agency's plot to remove Sukarno as the president of Indonesia--by releasing to theater audiences in Jakarta a propaganda film entitled Happy Days that purportedly showed Sukarno (played by a Mexican actor wearing a mask) in bed with a Soviet agent (played by a California actress wearing a wig). Dwell briefly on the comedy of what in 1986-87 was billed as the Iran/Contra affair--the Agency thinking to sell an arms-for-hostages deal to the mullahs in Teheran by offering the gifts of a Bible and a cake, depositing $10 million in the wrong Swiss bank account, hiring drunken aircraft mechanics in El Salvador, and dropping munitions into the wrong jungles in Nicaragua. Pass lightly over the fact that prior to the Gulf War in 1991 the Agency confidently informed the Pentagon that Saddam Hussein meant to attack Saudi Arabia, not Kuwait. "Couple the existing spook agencies with Bush, Inc's Byzantine Homeland Security boondoggle, and what will we have?

• Bush sets out security strategy: "President Bush yesterday unveiled a comprehensive strategy for national security, with a warning ringing in his ears that the whole plan threatens to become a bureaucratic nightmare." And:

• King George Creating East-Bloc Amerika: "As details emerge regarding his new Department of Homeland Security, we discover that Bush and his band of belligerent brothers have begun the process of turning the federal government into a gargantuan police state not seen since Hitler's Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Union. "While Americans don't seem to mind giving up the Constitution and Bill of Rights, losing their retirement savings, pensions, ands jobs might just wake them up.

• Whose bubble burst?: Excerpt: "HERE'S THE TV image I intend to freeze-frame for my 'Summer of '02' album: an earnest George Bush assuring an Alabama audience that 'our economy is fundamentally strong' while the streamer below him follows the stock market down the graph and into the tank." Golly, why would investors sell while the resident is encouraging them to sit tight and to buy? It might have something to do with this:

• Bush Signed Letter Promising Not to Unload Harken Stock Before He Sold Shares: "Two and a half months before George W. Bush sold his stock in a struggling Texas energy company where he was a director, he signed a letter promising to hold onto the shares for at least six months, internal company documents show." Verbal or written, a Bush promise is always a moment of bullshit.

• Bush's praise could damn Cheney: "'I've got great confidence in the vice-president. He's doing a heck of a good job. When I picked him, I knew he was a fine business leader and a fine, experienced man,' Mr Bush said. Others are also confident that Mr Cheney will be exonerated by the SEC, but that is largely because it is run by a Bush appointee, Harvey Pitt, who has already been criticized for his lax approach towards corporate fraud." But should we be worried about corporate fraud just because the resident and vice resident are crooks?

• Slaughterhouse: Will the Stock Market Crash?: "It is the same pitch that Wall Street and the corporate media broadcast in 2000 and 2001. Their rhetoric was deceitful then, and it still is. This is an ongoing swindle of the American people. Hard-earned retirement accounts and pension funds are being obliterated. The faith of average citizens in Big Business is being rewarded with poverty." A swindle here, a swindle there, is it really going to hurt anything?

• What Happened to Harken?: "Now a tiny, highly leveraged company, Harken has dozens of operating subsidiaries and a tangle of financial statements. Despite the company's notoriety, it's hard to find anyone who follows Harken these days. 'We dropped coverage [of Harken] two years ago,' says Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Fahnestock & Co. 'Because you get sick and tired of 'the check is in the mail'. They promise but they don't deliver. You cannot have a company go to investors and tell them just go to the next well and then the next well is dry and then they say wait for the next one.' The company did not return repeated calls for comment." Hearken and hearken well. What happened to Harken is happening to the US. The only thing Bush, Inc., delivers is bullshit. Consider the following:

• Sleeping giant of a scandal: "THERE IS another self-wounded behemoth out there, hiding from the international financial world in the accounting shadows, hoping the hemorrhaging will go unnoticed. This one has a credibility problem that would make even WorldCom blush, a record of dishonesty about its prospects not seen in its line of work for a decade. The behemoth, of course, is the federal government." But there are checks and balances to prevent serious problems, aren't there?

• Treasury circumventing Hill on tax breaks: "In a series of little-noticed executive orders intended to ease the tax burden on corporate America, the Bush administration has implemented a number of new policies that will provide corporations with billions of dollars in tax relief without the consent of Congress." Gosh, doesn't the government need these tax dollars to provide needed services for its citizens?

• Wall Street plunge swells US government deficit: "Last year the Bush administration pushed through a $1.35 trillion tax cut that assumed huge increases in revenues from a booming stock market. Even now, with the fiscal debacle already apparent, congressional Republicans are pushing for the adoption new accounting rules — known as 'dynamic scoring' — which would incorporate the fictions of supply-side economics into budget estimates, allowing them to declare that a $1 billion tax cut for big business is not really a $1 billion tax cut because it will supposedly produce economic growth and generate additional tax revenues." But no American administration would be that greedy . . . that corrupt.

• Investment Espionage And The White House Bush Administration Links To Pre-9/11 Insider Trading: "There is growing evidence that the FBI and other government intelligence entities are more closely linked to the documented accumulation of pre-9/11 insider trading profits than was originally thought. But thus far the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee has not publicly referred to prior knowledge of the attacks as it relates to stock transaction profits, while also failing after nine months to publicize the critical Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 'control list' report tracing what in effect were stock trading profits of death." If this is all true, shouldn't something be done?

• Next 'vast conspiracy' is headed Bush's way: "So now the corporate marauders, these updated robber barons, are being proved to have learned nothing from the scandals of the past. And the party of business, our very own Republicans, soon will be asked not to fall on its own sword, but to use it on its own kind with the same degree of obsession as when its members tried to bring Clinton down, to get even for Watergate, to throw a Democratic rascal out. That seems inevitable now, even though Kenneth Starr turned the nation against special prosecutors." Wouldn't that be something? But given the theocratic lunatic fascism of the Ashcroft led Justice Department, I just don't think so.

• E-mails bare cover-up: "The Justice Department apparently didn't tell the whole truth when it denied that new curtains were meant to hide a bare-breasted statue that loomed over Attorney General John Ashcroft's news conferences." Bullshit will prevail . . . until, it doesn't.

• Correction: In the July 8 Weekly J., I said that Nixon was impeached. He quit before he was fired.

Since the news this past week highlighted corporate and state corruption, I'm torn between writing about that or fascism. Oh, they're the same thing . . . never mind.

At the top of the corruption pile is Bush, Inc., with both the CEO and COO, Bush and Cheney, under fire for shady corporate practices, fraud in both cases. If the people who didn't vote for them, the majority, were on the board of directors, both culprits would be gone. In true corporate fashion, there'd be no trial, no year long investigation, no need for the definitive smoking gun. Just the evidence at hand would be enough to send them packing. The board would know the stench of corruption could only hurt the country, I mean, company. Apparently the Bush inspired CEO analogy stops at the accountability he insincerely wishes to reestablish. Bush and his corporate officers fully intend to drive the country into the ground before their term is up. And, given their success, it won't take four years to do so.

Even before the 2000 coup, many writers were comparing the Bush cadre to fascists. If one had any sense of history, there was a foreboding that something evil this way comes. If you didn't live during WWII, you probably were alive during Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle. And if you were also awake during that period (simply breathing doesn't count), like a startled animal, you raised your head at the names, Bush/Cheney, and thought, "Uh-oh." And you were right.

Is it fair to label Bush, Inc., and the Bush empire as being fascist? By chance, I came upon a book a few weeks ago, Fascism, by Richard Thurlow (Cambridge University Press, 1999) that helped me sort through the difficult to define term. Difficult, because to different people, it means different things. Personally, I accept Benito Mussolini's definition of fascism as given in one of last week's links and also cited by Lewis Lapham in an editorial in the January, 2002, Harper's, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."

Why do I give credence to Mussolini's definition? Because he is the founder of Italian fascism, and fascism emerged in Italy (Thurlow, p.24). Although, Thurlow doesn't cite the above quote, he does say that under Mussolini,

"State and entrepreneurial interests furthermore proved to be extremely close, even-when there were attempts to differentiate between the two. In practice, having destroyed worker resistance, the Fascists gave manufacturers a free hand with which to manage industry. The Fascists state also encouraged big business through state investment and government contracts." (P. 33)

Sound familiar?

On the other side of the Atlantic, an early contemporary of Mussolini, Theodore Roosevelt, warned against the power of corporations, "There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done. ("A New Nationalism," President Theodore Roosevelt, Ossowatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910 ) More to the point, another Roosevelt and contemporary of Mussolini, FDR, warned, "The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power." (Cited by Molly Ivins, 6.29.01) Of course, FDR was right; we're living the reality for having tolerated private power; liberty of democracy is gone, because democracy is gone.

In Fascism, Thurlow discusses several theories of generic fascism. One is the Marxism theory that relates to Mussolini's description of the term and seems to fit our current situation, "Fascism was regarded as a form of reactionary political terrorism, manipulated by capitalist forces as their agent, whose function was to destroy the labour movement and all forms of democracy, thus ultimately leading to the dictatorship of capital." (P. 3) I'm not a Marxist, but what doesn't fit with the Bush, Inc., position against democracy at home and abroad while favoring corporate capitalism uber alles?

Thurlow devotes the majority of this small book, 114 pages, to Hitler and the Nazis. A number of passages struck me as relevant to our own fascist regime. For example, "Fascism was a revolutionary doctrine whose aim was to create a 'new man' and a 'new order'--an aim which remained a fantasy as far as those fascist movements outside Italy and Germany were concerned."

My first thought was, new man, new order = new world order. I was reminded of a chapter (24) from the book, George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin. In the chapter there is this passage from a speech given by Poppy Bush at the UN, September, 1991:

"First, Bush made clear what the developing sector could expect in the postwar world: 'The world has learned that free markets provide levels of prosperity, growth, and happiness that centrally planned economies can never offer. . .Here in the chamber we hear about North-South problems. But free and open trade, including unfettered access to markets and credit, offer developing countries the means of self-sufficiency and economic dignity. If the Uruguay round should fail, a new wave of protectionism could destroy our hopes for a better future.'"

The authors continue,

"Bush's peroration reverted to the theme of the Single Empire, the Anglo-Saxon New World Order: 'Finally, you may wonder about America's role in the new world that I have described. Let me assure you, the United States has no intention of striving for a Pax Americana. However, we will remain engaged. We will not retreat and pull back into isolationism. We will offer friendship and leadership. And in short, we seek a Pax Universalis built upon shared responsibilities and aspirations.'"

Aside from the Bush family's genetic penchant for lying, this new world order rhetoric is interesting in relation to the family's strong ties to Nazi Fascism.

"On October 20, 1942, the federal government seized the Union Banking Corporation in New York City as a front operation for the Nazis. Prescott Bush was a director. Bush, E. Roland Harriman, two Bush associates, and three Nazi executives owned the bank's shares. Eight days later, the Roosevelt administration seized two other corporations managed by Prescott Bush. The Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, both managed by the Bush-Harriman bank, were accused by the US federal government of being front organizations for Hitler's Third Reich. Again, on November 8, 1942, the federal government seized Nazi-controlled assets of Silesian American Corporation, another Bush-Harriman company doing business with Hitler."

The Bush family treason was no small matter, because their aid to the Nazis was considerable :

"Among the companies financed was the Silesian-American Corporation, which was also managed by Prescott Bush, and . . . George Herbert Walker, who supplied Dub-a-Ya with his name. The company was vital in supplying coal to the Nazi war industry. It too was seized as a Nazi-front on November 17, 1942. The largest company Bush's UBC helped finance was the German Steel Trust, responsible for between one-third and one-half of Nazi iron and explosives."

Putting it in terms that have some bite, there are many people living in the US today who lost relatives in WWII thanks to Bush family treason. Given that mind set, could Bush, Inc., be part of 9-11 if it served their interests, their "trifecta" interests? I think so. And you might also if you read Carla Binion's essay, "Nazis and Bush family history: Government investigated Bush family's financing of Hitler". Referencing Christopher Simpson's Blowback, Binion states that the CIA gave subsidies to Nazis after World War II to "build a far-right-wing power base in the U. S. These Nazis assumed prominent positions in the Republican Party's 'ethnic outreach committees.' Simpson documents the fact that these Nazis did not come to America as individuals but as part of organized groups with fascist political agendas. The Nazi agenda did not die along with Adolf Hitler. It moved to America (or a part of it did) and joined the far right of the Republican Party."

In practical terms, Binion says that forty plus years after the end of WWII and just "before the November 1988 presidential election, a small newspaper, Washington Jewish Week, disclosed that a coalition for the [Poppy] Bush campaign included a number of outspoken Nazis and anti-Semites. The article prompted six leaders of Bush's coalition to resign."

Relying upon the research of journalist Martin A. Lee, Binion indicates that a fellow named Harold Keith Thompson was the main representative for the remaining Nazis and SS members in the US. In this role, "the wealthy Thompson gave generously to Republican candidates Senator Jesse Helms and would-be senator Oliver North. Thompson's money gained him membership in the GOP's Presidential Legion of Merit. Lee says Thompson also 'received numerous thank-you letters from the Republican National Committee.' Those letters are now in the Hoover Institution Special Collections Library."

Revolutions, whether democratic or fascist in nature spring from something; they have a history. Just a few years ago, we had the Gingrich Contract on America. It was stillborn, but its seeds were planted during the Reagan years, which were preceded by the Nixon years. And some of the current Bush cadre have been honing their right wing, fascist ideology since the 60s. However, by placing Bush, Jr., in the context of his family, we can trace the ideology to his father, Poppy, to Preston Bush, and George Herbert Walker. It was in the early 30s, 70 years ago, that George Herbert Walker found fascism to his liking.

The Bush family is value driven; therefore, the progeny of Poppy doubtless trace their avarice and criminal behavior back to, not only their parents, but to their grandparents as well. They learned and learned well.

Poppy made his millions in the 40s in, what else? Oil. Some say he was involved in the 60s with the CIA and may have had a hand in the death of JFK. He was the director of that organization from 1975 to 76. And from 1981 through 1993, both as VP under Reagan and later, as president, he worked closely with the cast of characters currently guiding Bush, Jr., and the world toward a train wreck.

Before we leave Thurlow's book, Fascism, there are a few sentences about events in Nazi Germany that gave me pause, bearing a possible relationship to our times. For example,

* "Indeed, the method by which legal processes were subverted and brought under Nazi control provides a textbook demonstration of how a state can be brought under totalitarian domination by means of co-ordination, infiltration and the establishment of parallel agencies. SA [Sturmabteilung] as 'auxiliaries' to the police in Prussia between 1932 and 1933, the rapid expansion of the Gestapo in size and influence and the establishment of concentration camps from 1933 was paralleled by the willingness of the legal authorities to compromise their judicial independence by failing to question the dubious new criteria for the basis of Nazi legislation, as well as the blatant undermining of civil liberties and the rule of law by the Nazi state."(P. 49)

How do you say," The Patriot Act" in German? Wouldn't Scalia and the other four right wing justices have fit in perfectly in the Third Reich? Won't the proliferation of parallel secret police forces in the upcoming Homeland security legislation create a Kafkaesque police state Himmler would envy?

* "Hitler attacked the Soviet Union without making any declaration of war and the Wermacht disregarded the Geneva Conventions from the outset." (Pages 87-88) Afghanistan. Iraq. Our new stated policy is to strike first. And the US has killed enough civilians to warrant a war crimes investigation and has, at the same time, resisted all legal consequences with the vigor of the guilty.

* "Racism and extreme nationalism have not disappeared - as long as the fabric of society is not torn apart by socio-economic tensions they just remain dormant." (Page 97) Could it be that the blatant, seemingly irrational destruction of the economy is planned? Does it lay the groundwork for a full-blown fascist state to blossom . . . or fester? I don't know . . . just wondering.

* "Indeed, it could be said that the true threat to humanity is not likely to come from revolutionary nationalism but from other, even more destructive sources, such as a modern economic system that is blind to the necessity of protecting the ecosystem in order to ensure the long-term survival of the world's inhabitants." ( P. 100) Lucky us, we have the extreme nationalism of the far right coupled with a vendetta against the environment. Two destructive forces operating in concert. Pity the children and helpless creatures.

* Finally, and most important, "For this reason, it is everyone's duty to reflect on what happened. Everyone must know, or remember, that when Hitler and Mussolini spoke in public, they were believed, applauded, admired, adored like gods . . . The ideas they proclaimed were not always the same and were, in general, aberrant or silly or cruel. And yet they were followed to the death by millions of the faithful . . . Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions . . . ." (P. 100)

• US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies: "The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report 'suspicious activity'."

Thurlow (P. 54) has this to say about the Nazi version of TIPS, "The evidence suggests that much of the work of the Gestapo was dependent on the active collusion and testimonies of many Germans, who informed on members of their families, friends and neighbours often for the most personal of motives." The Fourth Reich . . . we're almost there.

Two more links have stayed with me for several days. Both have a bearing on this essay:

• Bush to woo donors with $10K photos: "President George W. Bush will woo Minnesota Republican donors Thursday with nearly 100 of them paying $10,000 per person to have their picture taken with the commander-in-chief as he raises campaign funds for two key Republican candidates." Do these people have the mental capacity to operate a vehicle, let alone participate in the democratic process?

• Feeding at the same trough: Sorted by contributions from Baby Bells (BellSouth, Qwest Communications, SBC Communications and Verizon). Long distance refers to AT&T, Sprint and Worldcom:

John D. Dingell (D-Mich)
Baby Bells: $70,104
Long Distance: $5,600
Totals: $75,704

Dennis Hastert (R-Ill)
Baby Bells: $70,049
Long Distance: $20,500
Totals: $90,549

David E. Bonior (D-Mich)
Baby Bells: $62,600
Long Distance: $750
Totals: $63,350

Rick Boucher (D-Va)
Baby Bells: $60,499
Long Distance: $3,000
Totals: $63,499

Roy Blunt (R-Mo)
Baby Bells: $58,000
Long Distance: $10,750
Totals: $68,750

Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio)
Baby Bells: $50,000
Long Distance: $14,500
Totals: $64,500

W. J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La)
Baby Bells: 46,450
Long Distance: $13,000
Totals: $59,450

Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va)
Baby Bells: $44,000
Long Distance: $2,500
Totals: $46,500

Edward Whitfield (R-Ky)
Baby Bells: $44,000
Long Distance: $1,000
Totals: $45,000

Martin Frost (D-Texas)
Baby Bells: $43,000
Long Distance: $3,500
Totals: $46,500

The need for a principled opposition party is the key to resisting fascism. It won't happen when both parties have the same paymasters. What are the chances Worldcom execs will be found guilty of wrongdoing and face appropriate penalties? Zero. What are the chances more oppressive, anti-constitutional legislation will be passed? 100%.

For personal reasons, I am making a change in the Daily J. It will become the Weekly J. For 18 months, I've been sending links and quotes to, first, friends, and then to others via quip/comment based references to the news. For the latter, I want to thank the Highwaters for their generosity in moving my stuff to its own spot on the home page and then to a separate page.

In some ways, what I've done on this site has been selfish, because the experience has been a form of catharsis -- an outlet for outrage against all things Bushian. Recently, however, I've come to believe that recounting the steady, relentless acts of Bush, Inc, malfeasance is taking its toll on my psyche.

Some years ago, in a workshop, the facilitator threw out a one-liner, "We tend to become like that which we resist." There was no explanation or discussion of this. But the comment has stayed with me for about 15 years. Recently, I've concluded two things about the meaning of the statement as it relates to "Life with Bush," or "Death with Bush." Take your pick.

Bush, his functionaries, and his supporters, while having a serious, make that deadly, impact on the planet, are minor players in terms of substance. They are the kind of people one shuns in the day-to-day, e.g., criminals. Put more simply, they are to be avoided in case you get any on you. For an engaged, outraged person, it means risking a narrowing of one's life and focus upon the meanness that created the outrage in the first place. Much like an ex-spouse who dwells upon the sins of the former partner to the point where he/she doesn't have a life. And with Bush, Inc., there are so many "sins," the recounting becomes a full time job. In just a couple of hours before writing this, I came across 15 to 20 links that came as body blows, and each link could be commented upon at length.

The second thing, closely related to the first, is how does one become closely enmeshed with the life of another without risking a form of folie a deux, or madness of two? I am sure there are many people who have trouble keeping the anger they feel towards Bush, Inc., from spilling over into other areas of their lives. I know it is happening in mine, and I don't want to spend the rest of whatever remains of my life seething at the injustices created on a daily basis by a crime organization. I mean, institutionalized organized crime in all branches of the government? If that doesn't make a sentient being seethe, what would? Yet, how to deal with it -- to have a life and still be part of the solution and not the problem?

For me, it means a change. I am more interested in the causes than the effects of where we are today. Because it is in understanding the causes that we can change our paradigms. At least, that's what works for me. Going after the symptoms changes nothing in the long term. Nixon was impeached, and we have another Nixon 30 years later. Between Nixon we've had Reagan, Poppy, and Smirk. And when Smirk goes away, unless there are fundamental changes in the nation, something worse will emerge in the future.

The good news in all of this is that our "lessons," as a new age person might put it, are coming faster. For example, as the climate responds to our human misuse of the planet, remaining unconscious is no longer an option, unless we want to die early and badly while passing along to future generations potentially unsolvable problems. If you believe in reincarnation, that could be a bummer.

As life circumstances change rapidly for everyone, people like Bush will be caught in their lies more quickly. Living outside the realm of both natural laws and viable man made laws (thosein tune with universal laws) the Moments of Bullshit will become obvious sooner and to more people. In other words, the time for a change is ripe. That's the good news.

The New World Order is producing chaos, creating the potential for something better to emerge. And that's what we want to be in front of, to help create. Otherwise, we could become the victims, once again, of our apathy. Criminals like Bush come and go, but if we're awake, the criminals' actions are indicators of what must be rectified, and we can use that knowledge to our advantage. In every problem there IS a silver lining. And we have the intelligence to initiate effective change. All that is lacking is the will.

Our system of government no longer works. Both parties are, in varying degrees, owned by the corporations, doing the bidding of the largest cash donors. The Republicans get most of the gravy, but the Democrats want and get their share too. And significant numbers in all branches of government are on the take. This is not acceptable. We also know that corporate capitalism, as it is now practiced, is detrimental to life on the planet. Capitalistic expansion, as it is touted, is in direct conflict with the realities of a finite system.

On a weekly basis, I'm going to attempt to broaden my understanding by putting into words what it is I see and feel. My goal is to come to grips with the big picture. Along the way, I'll try to indicate what I believe can be done to resolve the problems that appear to be so overwhelming. Remember, there are more of us than there are of them; we're smarter, and we're (hopefully) more ethical. We don't speak with one voice, as does the far right, and we shouldn't. However, we do need to come together for the common good.

Below are some current links that, for me, address quite fully the key issues the US and planet are faced with. In the coming weeks, I will attempt to coherently address fascism, leadership, exclusion and inclusion, and sanity. Stay tuned. I'll do my best, and if it doesn't work for you or for me, then that will be that.

• The ticking bomb: "True peace and security for the 21st century will only come about when we find a way to address the underlying issues of disparity, dislocation and dispossession that have provoked the madness of our age. What we desperately need is a global acknowledgment of the fact that no people and no nation can truly prosper unless the bounty of our collective ingenuity and opportunities are available and accessible to all." This is why the exclusion-inclusion issue is important and worth exploring at some length. Just doing one thing, being inclusive, would create a positive shift. And to bring the ticking bomb point home, read this:

• Earth 'will expire by 2050': "A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life." Thats' why I said, "We also know that corporate capitalism, as it is now practiced, is detrimental to life on the planet." The head in the sand or up one's ass routine is no longer an option. Well, it is, but it's not a good option.

• Hitler's Playbook: Bush and the Abuse of Power: "When most people hear the word 'fascism' they think of racism and anti-Semitism, the hallmarks of the totalitarian regimes of Mussolini and Hitler. But do not forget there is an economic policy component of fascism known as 'corporatism,' an essential ingredient of economic totalitarianism (DiLorenzo 1994). This is why corporate leaders played key roles in financing Hitler as Chancellor and George W. Bush's run for the White House." I've frequently used the term "fascism" to describe Bush, Inc. That's because it does.

• The Global Economic Meltdown: "How many Moral Majority types have seen the equity in their 401-K's and IRA's diminish? And how many are smart enough to realize why? Self-deception is the biggest problem in those who consider themselves to be Christians, yet continue to support Republican fraud by voting for leaders who betray them again and again. You need to be on Prozac to live under the weight of such self-delusion." Al Martin is always interesting. Before I read this, I was wondering why the stock market would go up so much on Friday? Then, I began wondering if it was a Wall Street Moment of Symbolic Bullshit. A waving of the flag, as it were, to bolster their guy in the White House. So, I did a little semi-scientific analysis. On Friday, the Dow was up 324.53 points, the first 300 point day in 9 and 1/2 months. Twenty-nine of the 30 stocks making up the DOW average went up. Why? On the NYSE, there were 34 new highs and 32 new lows, 50/50. On the AMEX, there 7 new highs and 85 new lows, not good. And the NASDAQ was up 68.19 with 22 new highs and 57 new lows. Does that smell right? Among the 1941 mutual funds, give or take a few either way, 253 were up, and 1688 were down. This doesn't look like a strong up day, i.e., 87% of the funds were down on Friday. A few weeks ago, there was a link saying that when things get rocky in the market, they send in the "Plunge Protection Team." As more and more news comes out about Bush's crooked stock deal with Harken, would corporate America want to do what it takes to prop up their cheerleader and booty distributor? I think so. Particularly on a low volume day. Shortly after writing this comment, I came upon this on Online Journal:

• Is Greenspan manipulating the stock market?: "Could it be the work of the much talked about, but never seen, Plunge-Protection Team? There is a belief fast gaining ground that this team represents a powerful and secretive hand that is ready to act at any time the Dow looks ready to tank big-time. It is reputed to consist of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, the US Treasury Secretary, and select insider Wall Street brokerages, including Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch along with bankers like Citigroup. When needed, so the theory goes, funds are pumped into stocks and futures to derail any market panic." Bev Conover says the "Team" was first brought to light five years ago in the Washington Post. It would be helpful if the millions who've lost billions on their 401k's had plunge protection teams of their own. J.