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BlackCommentator.com: Dry Bones, Dry Bones, Rise: EFMS is Fascism in the Making! - Represent Our Resistance - By Dr. Lenore J. Daniels, PhD - BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

   
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[T]he United States must be prudent in how it exercises its power. But we cannot safely avoid the responsibilities of global leadership or the costs that are associated with its exercise. America has a vital role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. If we shirk our responsibilities, we invite challenges to our fundamental interests.
-“Statement of Principles, The Project for the New American Century, June 1997

 

If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
-Vice President Henry Wallace, New York Times, 1944

BC Question: What will it take to bring Obama home?In the valley of dry bones, loud speakers blast warnings:

Those still able to call themselves “workers” could become a minority among the men, women, children, and elderly on the pavements beneath the beaks of vultures.

The socialization of corporate think nullifies critical thinking skills among high school and college students, precluding the resurrection of human values - any time soon.

No one can tell if the endless fields of dry bones are Black, Red, White, Brown, or Yellow, but the all the bankers on Wall Street and their financial clones, the CEOs at corporate institutions, the Cheneys and Wolfowitzs are golden.

In the valley of dry bones, the grateful and chosen craftsmen and women continue carving golden calves to honor the gods while priests, preachers, politicians, and civic leaders hold facsimiles of the golden calves before the dry bones.

The Ezekiels were killed, others incarcerated, still others silenced by the socialization of injustice.

In the valley of dry bones, only the imperialist-minded, with ambitions to acquire estates of gold while expanding the golden Empire, need apply for positions among the chosen. Only the most dedicated, the most ruthless need apply for the tasks of keeping dry bones dry while the pursuit of profits drains the Earth of life.

Democratic, Republican, and opportunistic hypocrites, no longer in demand in the valley of dry bones, stand in awe of the golden power. The day for supreme transparency has come, America: EFMS in every state and municipality is here to relieve the burden of that little idea called democracy.

The law empowers governors (Rick Snyder of Michigan and Scott Walker of Wisconsin) to implement Emergency Financial Management System (EFMS) because the good people who devised the law knew the day would come when the U.S. Constitution had to be circumvented and the idea of democracy had to be dissolved.

Diane Feeley reports that in the State of Michigan, the State House plans to review a “a series of Emergency Financial Manager bills” granting the “State Treasurer general powers to take over villages, townships, cities, counties and school districts that are considered ‘financially distressed’” (cited in “Calling All Workers and Retirees,” Gregg Shotwell). (Urban renewal swept up Black and poor homes and rental apartments along with the Black and poor. Black opportunists stood by the golden boys and smiled. Gentrification was on its way).

This legislation, writes Shotwell, “EXPANDS what an EFM can do: not just negotiate union contracts, but terminate them.” “You can see where this strategy leads,” he adds, “All working people will be impounded into servility” ([email protected]).

An activist and retired Michigan auto worker, Shotwell is right to point to the language used to identify dissenters. He writes, “When individuals organize to support their rights and bargain collectively, Republicans call it communism, socialism, or fascism…” But corporate organization is promoted, he argues, and defined as “the American Way. “The American way is the Corporate State.”

The corporate powers are using the EFMS law as a first step in the “dissolution” of democratically elected city governments and school boards (Democratic Underground, April 16, 2011).

It is no accident that The Emergency Financial Management Systems (EFMS) include expanding the mechanisms to control the future: Programmed teachers programming students.

We are in the transitional stages, moving toward the institutionalization of fascism.

Nothing ever happens once (Faulkner)...

Those who rule here in the U.S. refuse to learn that the fundamental issues that brought fascism into the world were never confronted but only dismissed as foreign apparitions of the past. It can’t happen here!

The dreams of the Cheneys and Wolfowitzs are becoming a reality, ordering the land in the image and likeness of the corporation.

As author and public commentator, Tom Hartmann notes fascism in the U.S. would mean “a government of, by, and for the most powerful corporate interests in the nation” (“The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: ‘It Can Happen Here,’” Common Dreams.org, July 2004).

The corporate take over of municipalities is happening and not only in cities with pre-dominantly Black populations such as Benton Harbor. Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker has been given the green light by the corporate powers to institutionalize fascism. “[T]he Walker legislation would empower the governor to insert a financial manager of his choosing into local government with the ability to cancel union contracts, push aside duly elected local government officials and school board members and take control of Wisconsin cities and towns whenever he sees fit to do so,” (Forbes cited in Raw Story, April 19, 2011).

In other words, duly elected politicians are replaced with appointed managers. Thank you, Democrats; your services are no longer needed.

Do not expect the corporate president at the White House to challenge these installments of corporate control. As a proud promoter of the “free market,” Obama’s work has been to provide the financial, legal, and military enforcement of corporate domination (Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy, metanoia-films.org/compilations.php).

If you happen to work, be warned: The Koch Brothers are on their way to your state and these golden boys recognize only the right of free speech (free thought) for the corporations (“Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch,” The Nation, April 20, 2011).

If you can recall the Declaration of Independence

…That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness…

These are the days of the last call to dry bones!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory. Click here to contact Dr. Daniels.

 
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Apr 28, 2011 - Issue 424
is published every Thursday
Est. April 5, 2002
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD
Managing Editor:
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BC Question: What will it take to bring Obama home?
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