Protectionism is not a dirty word

Back in the Old West, when the wagon trains were attacked someone had the good sense to yell, “Circle the wagons!” which is probably the best example I can give for advocating protectionism.  It isn’t a dirty word.  It isn’t the attack of the commies, the pinko’s, the socialists, the Marxists, the any ‘ists” that litter the language of those who seek to secure for them selves some safe haven in the current global roiling or those who anticipate profiting while destroying the lives of so many others.  Welcome to globalism.

 

Whether Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, right or left or fence riding in the middle, we have a total lack of representation in either house of congress and a new president who has made it plain that he intends to continue us on the same path of destruction as the previous president.

 

We are a country whose own government has declared war on us.  We need to circle the wagons.  We are under attack, not from some vague and undefined terrorist group, but from those who swore to represent us; those we elected to speak for us in government. 

 

Our [federal] government was incorporated in 1871.  That’s a fact.  As a result, codes and statutes were enacted; that’s a fact too.  Then we got [administrative] courts to administer codes and statutes to enable the government to avoid constitutional protections and inalienable rights for the free and sovereign citizens of the states. 

 

In 1913 under the Federal Reserve Act, our national treasury was abolished along with the Treasury Secretary’s cabinet position.  All our revenues from any source have been deposited in the World Bank and administered by the International Monetary Fund since that time.  The Treasury Secretary then became a [governor] who works as liaison between this private banking cartel known as IMF and the US government [operating as a corporation.] 

 

Soon after this came the creation of agencies and these agencies were in 1946 under the Administrative Procedures Act, given “rule-making” authority.  This just means that congress ceded its constitutional authority to make laws to unelected bureaucracies who proceeded to conduct themselves as isolated and unaccountable mini-dictatorships.

 

Conducting the country’s in-house business in this manner allowed the government to implement laws (rules) which many times would have resulted in political suicide had they been introduced as legislation and by-pass those pesky constitutional provisions again. 

 

During the Nixon administration we got a highly touted program called “fast track”.  Supposedly, there were trade deals and other highly suspicious instruments that were so pressing the president needed uncontrolled and unaccountable authority to enter into them simply on his own; no congressional oversight, no adherence to the constitution.  The corporate US government was suddenly kicked into high gear but of course no one mentioned this little known change in the character of the federal government.

 

The United States of America a.k.a. Then United States, is listed on Dunn & Bradstreet along with every alphabet agency ever created and the Supreme Court of the United States.  Of course, “we the people” are not. 

 

Fast track went on unabated through Ford, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2.  It finally was ended in 2006.  But the damage was done and congress didn’t end this program until it was abundantly clear that our sovereignty had been so compromised by illegal trade agreements, unregulated financial systems, and corporate raiding and pandering, there was nothing left to sell off, trade off or give away. 

 

Our manufacturing base has been dismantled and millions of jobs lost.  We have nothing to sell, nothing to trade.  Supposedly we are now a “service based economy” which simply means about the only jobs we can get are those paying minimum wage with no future.  It seems it never occurs to those who promote this insult to American workers that if we have no jobs, we have no money.  If we have no money……what services will we be buying?  Can you say “depression”? 

 

We are being driven to the edge of a cliff.  It has taken many generations and lots of future planning and I suppose in the thinking of some, it has taken far too long. 

 

We need to adopt a protectionist attitude if we are to survive in any form even remotely resembling the country we once thought we had.  The illegal trade agreements need to be scrapped.  Corporate influence and access to our government needs to end and every person currently holding a seat in either house of congress needs to be booted out.  We need to start over with a clear message that America is first and foremost.

 

Protectionism is not a dirty word.  It is the only way we can survive.  We have had our economy imploded intentionally, our rights stripped under false pretenses, our borders left unsecured by those who see the influx of slave labor as something to be desired, and a congress now intent on subjecting us totally to unconstitutional and non-US regulations and laws.

 

We are under attack.  If someone doesn’t call for the wagons to be circled soon, we may as well just cut the mules loose and throw our hands up in surrender.

 

© 2009 Marti Oakley

 

While Congress Fiddles and Hums…….

While congress fiddles and hums and comes up with ever more ways of wasting money and time, and taking away more of our constitutional protections, not one of those jackass’s has made any relevant effort to clamp down either on Wall Street or (god forbid!) the oil companies.  While American taxpayers get raped at the pump, the oil companies…..the corporate whores that they are….are raking in billions in profits while also availing themselves of unneeded and unnecessary tax credits and subsidies.  Congress, acting like a collection of submissive pimps, just can’t find the spine to slap them down.

While MSM sings the tale of woe about how those damned enviromentalists are the cause of high gas prices, and clueless right wing hacks sing the praises of globalism and free trade, American consumers whether left or right are paying the price.  Maybe at some future date when gas prices approach $5.00 per gallon, and food is unaffordable it will dawn on those remaining individuals out here that free trade amounts to a free ride for corporations and the wealthy.  For you and me, free trade is a one way ticket to economic hell.

I have to ask this: 

With another 450,000 jobs lost just in June due to outsourcing, offshoring, business downsizing or closings……and rising gas and food prices along with almost every other item that affects our daily lives……do you still think that unregulated free trade is a good deal?  How many of us have to lose our homes, our jobs, our health coverage and everything WE have worked for before it occurs to us that this method of operation is killing us off?

Free trade has one objective; the economic destruction of virtually every economy in the world.  The current inflated price of oil, even as supplies have remained steady should have been the proverbial slap to the head for those who still cling to the idea that somehow, regulating trade to protect our economy and our future as a nation, is a bad idea.  How badly do you have to be squeezed before you can admit supply side economics is a national disaster?

Just today on MSM there were reports of test programs that allow people to “lock in” gas prices at the current level by paying in advance.  IF the prices go up which I can assure you they will, this could be a good deal.  If they go down…not so much.  Here’s the clinker in this which seemed to pass by the reporters altogether:  If gas prices can be locked in at a specific price……why can’t gas be capped at a certain price?  After all, if the oil companies can afford to allow advanced purchasing of gas at what might be a price lower than that at the pump…wouldn’t that indicate that all the price hikes are actually cases of price rigging?  And not necessarily due to whether or not they can drill in someplace other than the 68 million acres they already have access to, known to have deposits? 

Its bad enough that there are still people out here who, even when faced with impending economic collapse of our country, still beat the free trader drum.  The incessant ramblings of paid political hacks who masquerade as “broadcasters” while pumping the public full of misinformation and propaganda seems to never end, most likely because they still find people gullible enough to buy into the false notion that free trade is benefiting anyone other than the elite.

Congress, while voting to fund the bailout of corrupt mortgage companies, voting to give immunity to telecoms and the Bush administration, voting time after time to pass amnesty against the wishes of the majority of Americans, voting to continue funding the war in Iraq, voting for anything and everything except protecting what is left of the middle class and taxpayers, doesn’t seem to realize that if we go down, we will have no use for them.  There won’t be a congress.  Frankly, I believe we have reached the point where congress has become such an enemy of the people that it should be done away with altogether.  It no longer functions as it was intended, and no longer represents the American people.

We have to realize that if we are to survive as a nation, as a viable economic force in the world, we cannot continue to allow corporate free trade pillaging of our country.  I hear so many disparage protectionism and it seems to me that if we do not engage in protectionism we will cease to exist as a nation.  At some point we have to circle the wagons and decide to protect ourselves.  We can’t allow trade deficits, or for multinational corporations to artificially create windfall profits because so many of us have been suckered into thinking that regulation is not conducive to capitalism. 

With all the free trading that has gone on in the last seven years and the devastation it has brought nationwide including the growing recession, how can anyone still support this malignant line of thinking?  Think about that when you pull up to another gas pump and pay through the nose for enough gas to get you to work while subsidizing the oil cartels and while congress fiddles and hums.

Marti Oakley (c) 2008