Fall of
the American Empire: Part One
(Excerpt
from chapter 6 of “The Middle and Working Class Manifesto” by
Rev. Paul J. Bern)
The
fourth updated edition of this book will be available this fall
In
my previous postings I have outlined the problems of the US middle
class, and how it is slowly being obliterated by the top 1% of the
financial pecking order. The end result of this is that the country
is being ruined, literally from the inside out. Our only hope
remaining is to protest, boycott, strike against and Occupy
America every way we can. Not with an armed revolt, but a rather
massive amount of organized passive resistance.
The
plight of the American people is that we are experiencing the
systematic confiscation of our wealth and prosperity, and with it our
way of life. Many of our jobs, our savings and pensions, our housing
and transportation, and our access to higher education and
preventative health care, are evaporating before our eyes, and this
social injustice will continue unabated until we as a united people
rise up as one in a chorus of peaceful revolution. I am convinced
that if we do not, the next battle front being entrenched by the top
1% will be against our very freedom. In fact, this latest round of
class warfare being thrust against us has already begun, and it has
become known as the 'prison-industrial complex'. Record numbers of
people, many of whom are either wrongfully convicted or are harmless
substance abusers in need of professional help, are being locked up
systematically, and the process is slowly getting worse.
The
United States, according to the New York Times, has 5% of the World's
population and 25% of all people incarcerated on the planet!
Currently in the United States, one in every hundred people are in
some kind of incarceration. Incarceration is very big business in the
United States. Private corrections companies such as Wackenhut, CCA
and others charge either the States or the federal government from
$65 to $160 a bed per night to warehouse all these people. In 2007,
according to the National Association of State Budgeting Officers,
states spent $44 billion in tax dollars on corrections. That is up
from $10.6 billion in 1987, a 127 increase adjusted for inflation.
With money from bonds and the federal government included, total
state spending on corrections last year was $49 billion. By the end
of 2018, the report said, states are on track to spend an additional
$65 billion.
The
United States ranks first in prison population. Where did we get all
of these criminals? Well the answer comes from the reckless and
costly War on Drugs, the new prohibition that makes convicts and
criminals of those who are classified in more enlightened countries
such as Portugal and the Netherlands as having a medical problem. In
2000 there were 74,276 drug related prisoners. In 2008 it was 95,079.
In 2010 it was 99,205. As of 2017 that number is estimated at 56% and
it continues rising unabated). We house those with substance abuse
problems with professional criminals. What will we get when these
people are released after serving an average 55 months in prison?
This is
what capitalism has done. People are now profiting by locking up
other human beings. And the longer people are are locked up, the more
profitable the industry is. Should we be proud that we imprison more
people than any nation on Earth? Have we outsourced so many
industries along with their factories that we need a giant prison
system to keep people employed (or locked out of the job market –
literally!)? If we continue to allow such a disproportionate number
of poor and minority citizens to be locked up, released without
rehabilitation, and locked up again, modern slavery will continue to
thrive. We are supporting a modern form of slavery if we do not, at
the very least, lessen the punishment for drug offenses, do away with
the unconstitutional "three strikes" laws and offer
education and rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. If
we retrain prisoners by paying for their vocational education, we
give them a trade. If we simply incarcerate them and release them,
all we get are more prisoners.
Remember,
this “prison-industrial complex” is bought and paid for, and
brought to you by the same "government" that has brought
you: The FBI, the DEA, the BATFE, the only Atomic
Bombs
ever used in War, Three mile Island, Area 51, the Bay of Pigs
invasion, Vietnam, Watergate, Iran Contra, Ruby Ridge, ID., Waco,
TX.,
Grenada, Nicaragua, Somalia, FEMA disasters and the Patriot Act. Oh,
and let's not forget the wars in Iraq I and II, and now Afghanistan,
Yemen, Somalia and Libya. All of this has been and will be done in
the name of “National
Security”.
When the American war machine finishes its conquests overseas to
“acquire” Middle Eastern oil, the final step will be to bring the
troops home so the “new world order” can turn their weapons on
its own people. The
final step, you see, will be the conquest of the Untied States. Only
then will the domination and control over everything and everybody by
the top 1% be secured by the Shadow Government and the New World
Order.
American
citizens have a patriotic duty to dissent and to speak out when it is
apparent their government is creating policies and taking actions
that are in conflict with the best interests of the people and the
laws of the land. The right of patriotic dissent has been a part of
America since those days that brought us our independence. Yes,
anyone can and should exercise the right to dissent when the
situation requires it. We find ourselves living in a
world where the next terrorist attack could kill everyone in your
city or town, where the cost of fuel could skyrocket into the
stratosphere with the next conflagration in the Middle East or the
next natural disaster, and where you can become the next crime
statistic on less than a moments notice.
And as
all these things are taking place, the solution being offered by your
government, your political and economic system, your media outlets
and even your churches are for more security by way of less
individual freedom and personal liberty. I think it is high time that
“we the people” rose up to challenge this erroneous notion that
security is preferable to freedom. And I think it's high damn time to
correct the perception of the top 1%, making them understand that
people are not expendable, nor are we a commodity to be exploited. We
need to take matters into our own hands if we hope to get anything
done, and we need to directly confront our terrible economic
situation if we hope to get things moving back in our favor. The
system is broken, and it's up to us to either fix it, bypass it, or
replace it altogether. Anything less amounts to slavery.
The end result of the hijacking of our political and economic system by the top 1% is that the country has been run into the ground. In my opinion, and based on quite a bit of on-line research and a library of saved Internet postings and articles, it is severely damaged but it may be repairable. In the meantime, here is what America is faced with in the short term.
Seven Reasons Why Capitalism Can't Recover Anytime Soon
- Central Banks are Dumbfounded. The usual tricks that U.S. and European central banks use to avoid recessions are long-exhausted.
- Trade War. For a global economy to grow, global cooperation is needed. President Trump is doing exactly the opposite – imposing tariffs without negotiation.
- Military War. Foreign war is a good symptom of economic decay. $57,000 a minute – that's how much the United States spends on military adventures overseas, and that's just the ones we know about.
- U.S. Economy at a Standstill. The most important consumer market in the world, the U.S. is a nation of nearly bankrupt consumers. Over twenty million Americans are unemployed or underemployed.
- Bailout Capitalism. First it was the banks and other corporations that needed bailing out, and now whole nations. Western nations bailed out their banks by falling into the massive debt that they are now drowning in.
- Bailout Repercussions. All western nations -- including the U.S. and England -- are grappling with their national debts. Rich bond investors are demanding that these countries drastically reduce their deficits, while also demanding that the deficits be reduced through hidden taxes on working families, instead of rich investors.
- The Far Right Emerges. To deal with working people more ruthlessly, the radical right is being unleashed. In normal times these bigots yell furiously but no one listens. But in times of economic crisis they're given endless airtime on all major media outlets.
Six more startling facts about the decline of the USA.
[1] In
2000, USA was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2017,
USA fell to seventeenth.
[2] USA
has lost approximately 42,400 factories and 32 percent of
manufacturing jobs since 2000. In 1959, manufacturing represented 28
percent of economic output. In 2018, it represents 11 percent.
[3]
Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is lower in
2018 than it was in 1985.
[4]
America's trade deficit with China increased 300 percent in last ten
years,which could eventually cost half a million jobs this year
alone. Half a trillion dollars yearly leave America due to trade
deficit.
[5] US
15-year-olds do not rank in the top half of all advanced nations in
math or science literacy.
[6] The United States
has the third worst poverty rate among all the advanced nations.So where are US resources being directed? Towards war, of course!
QUICK FACTS ON WARS AND DEFENSE SPENDING
- The National
Security Adviser says there are less than 100 Al Qaeda operatives in
Afghanistan and we have over 100,000 troops and probably as many
mercenaries chasing them.
- Maintaining one
American soldier in Afghanistan for one year costs one million
dollars. This expenditure could be for twenty jobs at home with a
salary of $50,000 each.
- There are now
over 90,000 battlefield casualties from the Iraq and Afghanistan
Wars. Over 500,000 veterans patients from the two wars have flooded
into VA hospitals and clinics. That's one new war casualty walking
into a VA medical facility every five minutes of every day---about
9,000 new patients every month with no end in sight. Also, one third
of all returning veterans from these illegal wars wind up on
psychiatric disability. They will never work again. That's what war
does to people, so why do we continue?
- The Iraqis still
don't have a government and Christians are being ethnically
cleansed.
- The cost of the
Iraq war alone was more than three trillion dollars according to
Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel winning economist.
- 190,000 AK-47s
handed out by the US Army to Iraqi security force recruits vanished
and wound up in the hands of ISIS militants.
- The total DOD
budget for the current fiscal year is over $700 billion. It is an
amount just under what the entire rest of the world spends for
defense and most of them are allies.
- The Defense
Department spends in a few hours more than al Qaeda spends in an
entire year.
- According to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, 36 million Americans, including one
out of every four children, are currently on food stamps. In the
richest country in the world, this is inexcusable.
Some
people think the Federal Reserve banks are United States Government
institutions. They are not Government institutions. They are private
credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for
the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers; foreign and
domestic speculators and swindlers; and rich and predatory money
lenders..... But I don't believe for one instant that this will be
the end of the line for the USA. The country itself, the land and its
people, its infrastructure, the commercial structures and all the
houses, most of the businesses and everything related to them, will
all still be here. It will be up to us, the working people of this
country (employed or not) who keep things going, to change the system
from the bottom up.....
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