Vessol, the government effectively Godwin'd itself in 2001 with the establishment of a department to "secure the Homeland".
Remember that just a bit to the south in Mexico, the government
has declared martial law and suspended civil rights in order to "fight the disease". Think ours isn't going to do the same if it feels justified?
Let's look at recent events here: (crossposting this from another thread)
* With no HHS in place, with the position being taken up by the Homeland Security Secretary, we have a possible pandemic flu outbreak (which last broke out 33 years ago at a military base; in 1976,
more people died from government vaccines that from the disease), which conveniently wipes out news of torture memos, government corruption, demands for government accountability, and the financial crisis that will lead to a collapse of the dollar.
Mexico was on the edge of revolution against their government, and now people are huddling in their homes while troops patrol the streets.
* The Homeland Security Secretary has the authority to close down flights and ports to prevent the spread of disease, but
doesn't. In fact, people are merrily flying back and forth between here and Mexico. Our borders remain open.
* The President himself goes to Mexico,
to the very heart of the outbreak, shakes the hand of a man who dies 24 hours later, comes back home and goes
golfing.
* People also won't complain when they see "sick" people being forcibly isolated from the general population in quarantine camps, and they won't question mass deaths, or mass graves, because they can be attributed to viral disease and disease prevention.
* Take into account how many cases have been publicised, and how many of those people have
actually died, to warrant this "sudden" plan for mass decontamination, mass observation, mass containment and mass "fatalities disposal" at "safe refuge sites". All of this after having labeled rumors of FEMA camps, plastic coffins and mass graves as "conspiracy theories".
* The
threat of infection (note:
not actual infection) also stops people traveling, stops them gathering in public (and allows the govt to justify forcibly breaking up public protests), makes people suspicious of one another, allows the President to declare a state of emergency and assume dictatorial powers, makes people accept vaccines without question, and makes people dependent on the federal government for aid.
* The same government
which is well known for using crises and fearmongering to further its political agendas, no matter who is in office.
So why would I trust a government that regularly uses crises as a way to further its schemes? And that every time a crisis hits, it does very little to deal with the situation, instead electing to remove more and more civil liberties and expanding its control over the civilian populace.
* The same government that within the last few months, has become more and more openly fascist, moving to merge governmental and corporate powers and issuing legislation to expand its control over food and firearms.
* The same government that has recently released at least two reports
classifying millions of its own citizens as "extremists" and "potential terrorists". Look at how that government treats extremists and terrorists when it assumes powers of martial law; look at Gitmo, Bagram and Abu Ghraib.
* The same government (barring a different Administration), with the same operating procedures and structures, sat on its hands during the worst domestic disaster in US history. And when it did get involved, blockaded a city and disarmed its citizens.
* The same government that recently brought a brigade of soldiers home to "help maintain civil order".
* The same government that during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, has done NOTHING to help people keep their homes and businesses open, instead granting trillions to its corporate partners.
* The same government that over the period of the last few years, has introduced gradually more and more totalitarian legislation, related to disasters and states of emergency, all in the name of national security - which when enacted, will radically change the nature and structure of the US government, effectively establishing a dictatorship in America. For example:
Bush Executive Order No. 13375 said:
Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases
Ex. Ord. No. 13295, Apr. 4, 2003, 68 F.R. 17255, as amended by Ex. Ord. No. 13375, § 1, Apr. 1, 2005, 70 F.R. 17299, provided:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 264 (b)), it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1.
Based upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the “Secretary”), in consultation with the Surgeon General, and for the purpose of specifying certain communicable diseases for regulations providing for the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of suspected communicable diseases, the following communicable diseases are hereby specified pursuant to section 361(b) of the Public Health Service Act:
(a) Cholera; Diphtheria; infectious Tuberculosis; Plague; Smallpox; Yellow Fever; and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (Lassa, Marburg, Ebola, Crimean-Congo, South American, and others not yet isolated or named).
(b) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is a disease associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, is transmitted from person to person predominantly by the aerosolized or droplet route, and, if spread in the population, would have severe public health consequences.
(c)
Influenza caused by novel or reemergent influenza viruses that are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic.
Sec. 2. The Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, shall determine whether a particular condition constitutes a communicable disease of the type specified in section 1 of this order.
Sec. 3.
The functions of the President under sections 362 and 364(a) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 265 and 267 (a)) are assigned to the Secretary.
Sec. 4. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit enforceable at law or equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or any other person.
Sec. 5. Executive Order 12452 of December 22, 1983, is hereby revoked.
* Then consider Directive 51, which allows the President to shut down the government and assume sole powers of authority during a state of emergency that only needs to be defined with their say so, lasting for an undefined period only decided upon by the President; with Continuity Annexes that still remain secret even from Congress, classified as being pursuant to "national security".
The presidential directive says that, when the president considers an emergency to have occurred, an "Enduring Constitutional Government" comprising "a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President," will take the place of the nation's regular government, without the oversight of Congress.
Forgive me for saying this, but taking all of this into account, I don't feel that its paranoid to assume that the government considers protecting people's Constitutional rights and their physical wellbeing as its highest priorities.
In fact, I'm fairly sure that "continuity of government" is Number One on its list, with the mantra of "national security" as its enabling act. I'm starting to see that phrase as really meaning "state security" - protection of the Government.
Here's the beauty of this from the perspective of government:
They can enact these laws if a) its a legitimate pandemic, b) if its a sporadic outbreak, c) if its a bioweapon attack, d)
if they "believe" its going to be any of these things.
Regardless, I think we are hovering on the edge of a very dark time indeed.
