{"id":249407,"date":"2016-06-12T20:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T20:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=249407"},"modified":"2016-06-12T20:12:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T20:12:47","slug":"how-corrupt-america-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/how-corrupt-america-is\/","title":{"rendered":"How Corrupt America Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The best reporting on the depth of America\u2019s dictatorship is probably that being done by Atlanta Georgia\u2019s NBC-affiliated, Gannett-owned, TV Channel \u201c11 Alive,\u201d WXIA television, its \u201cThe Investigators\u201d series of local investigative news <\/i>reports, which show, up close and at a cellularly detailed level, the way things actually work in today\u2019s America. Although it\u2019s only local, it displays what meets the legal standards of the U.S. federal government in actually any<\/i> state in the union; so, it exposes the character of the U.S. government, such that what\u2019s shown to be true here, meets America\u2019s standard for \u2018democracy\u2019, or else the federal government isn\u2019t enforcing federal laws against it (which is the same thing as its meeting the federal government\u2019s standards). <\/span><\/p>\n

The links to three of these local TV news reports will be provided, along with a summary of each of the videos; and then the broader context will be provided, which ties the local picture in with the national, and then the resulting international, picture. So: this will be like a zoom-lens view, starting with three selected close-ups, and then broadening the view to wide-angle, showing the context in terms of which what\u2019s happening in that fine detail (those close-up views) makes sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

The central video will be the second of the three, which deals with the impact that the national organization called ALEC plays in creating the entire situation in the U.S., and which ties the Georgia-state reality in with the reality of the U.S. federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are the three videos, and their respective summaries:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

VIDEO #1:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.11alive.com\/news\/investigations\/transparency-should-apply-to-lawmakers-too\/197258289<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Georgians are prohibited from seeing Georgia\u2019s laws unless they pay over $300 to buy the lawbooks. (Thus, for example: Georgians get arrested, then charged, then judged, then perhaps imprisoned, according to laws they can\u2019t even so much as see<\/i> beforehand.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

VIDEO #2:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.11alive.com\/news\/local\/investigations\/legislators-and-corporate-lobbyists-meet-in-secret-at-georgia-resort\/130357915<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s laws are written in secret by the Kochs\u2019 and other billionaires\u2019 \u2018charity\u2019 (like NGOs but operating only<\/i> within a nation, not<\/i> internationally) called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which pays legislators to approve the laws that it writes, and which requires them to pass these laws (or else they\u2019ll lose their legislative seats as being \u2018representatives of the people\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

NOTE regarding #2:\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps because of the explosive nature of news reporting such as this, that TV station prohibits the Web Archive, web.archive.org, from archiving their investigative reports, but this particular TV report was also recently posted by someone to youtube:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oBZ2V9LMeDk<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This TV report\u2019s transcript also was once available at another of Gannett\u2019s Georgia TV stations, and that station didn\u2019t block web-archiving, so this transcript, though no longer online, was web-saved and will thus permanently be available there:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20150526173309\/http:\/\/www.wsav.com\/story\/29143529\/legislators-allegedly-meet-with-lobbyists-in-closed-door-savannah-meer<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

VIDEO #3:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.11alive.com\/news\/local\/investigation-41-of-georgians-report-surprise-medical-bills\/190007567<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Georgians have no way of knowing who or what will be charged to them on their medical bills. Patients who have a medical emergency are especially flying blind into deep indebtedness and possible bankruptcy, over which they\u2019ve got no control.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

CONCLUSION & RAMIFICATIONS<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This is \u2018democracy\u2019 in the nation that dictates to other nations\u2019 governments what they must do in order to be at least minimally acceptable as constituting a \u2018democracy.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas the medical patient (as shown in the third video) has no control over what he or she must pay, and basically (as shown in the first of the three videos) isn\u2019t even allowed to know what the laws are that govern this, the ALEC employee (as shown in the second of the three videos) is allowed to call over an armed \u201cSheriff\u2019s deputy\u201d who has been standing guard near him, so as now to threaten, perhaps to jail, but certainly to remove from the hotel, the TV station\u2019s reporter, when that reporter has asked one-too-many follow-up questions of that ALEC employee. Not only don\u2019t the operatives who work for the remote and unseen individuals who actually create and shape the laws have no need to explain to the public what they\u2019re doing and how they\u2019re doing it, but the government itself works for them and physically threatens anyone who tries to impede what they\u2019re doing, or who merely tries to report to the public what they are doing. And whereas ALEC\u2019s expenses are tax-deductible to the billionaires who fund it, the reporter and even his employer are fully liable and will have no legal recourse if and when they subsequently become called upon to pay medical bills that might result from their resisting this \u2018democratic\u2019 government. Instead of enjoying tax-exemption, the victims \u2014 the public \u2014 must pay the taxes that fund this government: they must pay for the police, prisons, judges, and lawmakers, that represent not really<\/i> the public, but instead<\/i> those remote if not invisible rulers; and this is called \u2018democracy\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the concluding passage from the transcript of the middle video (the second one), where the ALEC agent finally had had enough of the reporter\u2019s questions; this is the passage that ends the middle one of the three videos that are linked-to above:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

He signals to the Sheriff’s deputy.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m a guest of the hotel sir.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Not for long, not for long.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m here \u2013 I’m a paying guest of this hotel sir.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We’ll take care of that.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Let me escort you up to your room to get your things.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Did we violate some law or something? I mean, are we violating a law here? \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

WXIA Reporters say they filed half a dozen open records requests with Georgia legislators including the speaker of the house \u2013 asking for\u00a0receipts and reimbursements to alec events \u2013 but had their requests denied because the general assembly exempted themselves from the\u00a0Georgia Open Records law.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

This, then, is the reality in the nation that now is trying to impose upon the entire world the same corporate type of government that already exists in America<\/span><\/a>. This is what, in the West, is now the reality of its \u2018democracy\u2019. It is Newspeak<\/span><\/a> \u2018democracy\u2019, not what used to be called \u201cdemocracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And, so, it was with remarkable honesty, courage, and frankness, that the best-known living Georgian, America\u2019s former President Jimmy Carter, said recently of the U.S. government<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members. So, now we\u2019ve just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody that is already in Congress has a great deal more to sell.<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what we just now saw in practice at the state level, in that middle video.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former President Carter was describing there the \u2018democracy\u2019 that now presents itself to the global public as being the model that the entire world must copy \u2014 or else! <\/span><\/p>\n

According to this government, the nations that resist, do it because they are \u201ccorrupt\u201d and \u201cnot democracies.\u201d America, and NATO, and its allies (including Saudi Arabia etc.?), demand to be obeyed, on that basis \u2014 as being the world\u2019s opponents of corruption and of dictatorship. For this, their enemy nations (e.g., Iraq, Libya, Syria, and \u2014 via a coup in February 2014<\/span><\/a> \u2014 Ukraine) are being invaded, to impose compliant governments: millions are killed, and tens of millions are forced to flee and become unwanted refugees. And America and its allies then blame other nations, especially Russia<\/span><\/a> (their favorite bogeyman), for that. By contrast, \u2018the West\u2019 is supposed to stand for clean government, \u2018transparency\u2019, and \u2018democracy\u2019<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So: how corrupt is America? It\u2019s become corrupt enough to threaten to take over the entire world<\/span><\/a>. And, perhaps soon after the NATO Summit on 8-9 July<\/span><\/a>, we\u2019ll know whether or not the national aristocracies that are subordinate to the U.S. aristocracy, are, indeed, willing to join the American aristocracy\u2019s willingness to use nuclear weapons to achieve the objective. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org The best reporting on the depth of America\u2019s dictatorship is probably that being done by Atlanta Georgia\u2019s NBC-affiliated, Gannett-owned, TV Channel \u201c11 Alive,\u201d WXIA television, its \u201cThe Investigators\u201d series of local investigative news reports, which show, up close and at a cellularly detailed level, the way things actually work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":249408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[30,551,96,804,49,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-249407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-big-brother","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-cover-up","11":"tag-politics-2","12":"tag-usa-news","13":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}