Musings: The Sky is Falling?

My alarm clock today was Koko, flying out of bed, small feet narrowly missing my head, intent to get outside where a chicken was making a particularly blood-curdling cackle.

By the time I indulged her, having had to first write down a dream, brush my teeth and get dressed, the chicken was nowhere to be seen or heard, but another soon came rocketing out of the bushes, running for its life, or so it seemed from its loud and frantic cries, which had Koko tugging sharply on her leash and even roused the neighbor’s cat from his sunbath and sent him off in hot pursuit.

I would have thought that discretion would have more surely guaranteed safety, but instead it was if the chicken was putting itself in greater danger by crying out, “look at me, look at me, I’m in trouble.” It was not unlike the headlines on the neighbor’s morning paper that screamed: Economic Meltdown, followed by bold print announcing the IMF prediction that the world economy will slow dramatically, led by the U.S.

It wasn’t until the fifth paragraph that the story reported:

The IMF's projection was made before the Federal Reserve and other major central banks from around the world slashed interest rates Wednesday in an attempt to prevent a financial crisis from becoming a global economic meltdown.

So we still don’t really know how this whole thing will shake out, but folks are bailing like mad to keep the boat afloat and the fear alarm is ringing madly.

It made me think of a comment that farmer Jerry made the other day about how the baby boomers — and he’s solidly one of ‘em — mistrusted government and the system, and now it’s obvious that they were right. Because they’re the ones who are gonna get screwed as their retirement funds evaporate in this volatile market.

And that got us talking about what lured the once distrustful baby boomers to Wall Street, a place they once viewed as the evil spawn of the industrial-military complex, the dreaded domain of the suits? What got them speculating on real estate, when they once talked about living off land held in common ownership?

The answer, it seems, is the desire for security. Somehow even the free-wheeling, free-loving boomers got caught in that trap, which so often causes people to abandon their best interests and stay in bad marriages, bad jobs, bad investments, fervently holding on to the hope — the myth — that somebody or something’s going to take care of them.

That’s an attitude that folks had better snap out of quick, according to author Naomi Klein [correx: Naomi Wolf], who is now sounding the alarm that the government essentially staged a coup when it sent armed troops to patrol American streets. In a YouTube interview, she makes some pretty compelling arguments about how the nation is sliding into facism.

Among them are the mass arrests of immigrants, which she called practice for large-scale detainments, threatening Congress with martial law if it didn’t pass the bailout bill, the recent arrest of journalists (ahem) and fine print buried in the bailout bill that gives the Prez total authority over $1 billion. And now he has own personal army, as he has sole control over the 3,000 to 4,000 troops now training for domestic operations in America.

In a Democracy Now! interview, Army Col. Michael Boatner claimed the troops won't be used for law enforcement:

The primary purpose of this force is to provide help to people in need in the aftermath of a WMD-like event in the homeland.

And even though the 3rd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat unit has spent three of the last five years in Iraq in counterinsurgency operations, and will be armed with Tasers and rubber bullets, Col. Boatner assured us they won’t snap in domestic situations:

So, I would say that our soldiers are trustworthy. They can deploy in the homeland, and American citizens can be confident that there will be no abuses.

There’s quite a lot more to the interview, including the fact that every member of the National Governors Association signed a letter that said, “This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors…to the federal government,” so I’d encourage you to read it, and also watch Naomi’s video and make up your own mind about what’s going on in America.

It seems so far away, but let’s not forget that Hawaii is the most heavily militarized of all the states and the only one to have experienced martial law.

I’ll leave you with this olelo noe'au, which was sent to Andre Perez of Oahu when he turned himself in yesterday on a trespassing warrant stemming from the Aug. 7 protest at the Naue burial site:

Eku mai la mamua ka `ino -- said of one who is courageous and stands firm amongst the forces before him.