The plan for One World Government.

Dear Friend and Reader:

THIS WEEK, a friend sent me one of those YouTube videos about the rise of fascism in America. We've all seen them, right?

The video said that Mexico , the United States and Canada had formed a secret allegiance and were planning to abolish their respective currencies and introduce the amero, akin to the euro. Then, North America would be under one government, Europe would be under one government, an Asian alliance was forming and all of Asia would be under one government, same with Africa, and then all of these would be combined into One World Government, following a plan more than sixty years in the making! (Actually, I think it goes back to around the time of the Old Kingdom of Egypt.)

Now, for background, I'm one of those conspiracy nuts -- the real thing. This is mainly because I've documented so many plans by government and industry to do mean things to people and defraud them in the process (the two usually come together). I have a most impressive document collection (unfortunately, it's in storage in Winnipeg or someplace). I believe that Sept. 11th was done by the shadow government, that Bush stole both elections, that Dick Cheney is Satan and Ronald McDonald is his cousin. Therefore, I am sympathetic to any theory or proposition that is willing to look at the connections between seemingly separate things (i.e., a conspiracy theory) as long as there is a little evidence to back up the notion.

I don't doubt that such a thing is possible or even in the works, but I had to laugh at this very Pluto in Capricorn-styled video. Pluto enters Capricorn today for the first time since the era of the American Revolution, and we're going to be hearing a lot about this kind of issue because Capricorn is closely associated with governments, while Pluto is associated with obsession and power. They may be a little late, but we're going to see a movement of concern about the rise of Big Brother and his cousins.

Why did I laugh? Why am I not concerned about the rise of the One World Government?

But of course: EZ-Pass.

Most people who think about totalitarian regimes and the loss of civil liberties worry about traditional forms of oppression, i.e., coming from the government (perhaps in the style of Hitler or one of his friends). As Pluto enters Capricorn, I am worried about EZ-Pass. This is the "prepaid toll collection system" that is storming the highways and byways of our land: the digital highwayman.

Here is my story. Over the summer, Chelsea (the world-renowned Planet Waves office manager) informed me that I had allegedly run a toll on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey and that EZ-Pass was trying to collect $25 from us. This seemed weird, in part because at the time I was not an EZ-Pass subscriber. And I don't skip tolls; it's stupid -- they have 10 cameras and a DNA sampler pointed at you. Also, it violates my motto, "Don't steal less than $1 million." Chelsea called them up and schmoozed me out of it. We paid 35 cents instead; she wrote them a check and they went away.

EZ-Pass express lanes in Delaware, allowing tagholders access to part of the road that others cannot drive on.

A couple of months later, EZ-Pass was after me again. It seemed they thought I had run another toll. I sent them a letter and a check for 35 cents, which they accepted (it was on a different license tag than the rental car I was driving the first time, so I was still a "first offender").

Then a month later, I got a notice that I had run yet another toll, and again I sent a letter and a check for 35 cents, which they refused to accept this time.

The first two times it was weird. I assumed they had altered the timing of their toll plaza cameras to create these violations as a kind of marketing effort for their "service." The third time I was pissed off. I started by Googling the name of one of the state senate leaders in New Jersey for name-dropping purposes and future use.

Then I called EZ-Pass. I was polite but firm. I don't run tolls. What's your issue?

The guy on the phone was articulate, educated and politely robotic. He explained that, according to his records, I had taken an express lane (driving at 51 miles per hour) that was reserved for EZ-Pass customers only. I had not run a tollbooth -- I drove in the wrong lane. No toll plaza; no barrier; no flashing lights. "There are signs alerting you to this," he said, and I should have seen them. He explained that this EZ-Pass lane was a convenience for tag holders.

I was incredulous and incensed in that deep, organic and patriotic kind of way. This had struck the center nerve of my civil liberties detector. But I kept my cool with the guy and -- for no good reason, since he couldn't do anything -- I explained the issues. Then I called Senator Leonard Lance's office in New Jersey and explained the issues to his legislative aid.

1. My grandparents paid for the construction of the interstate highway system. Our abundant federal taxes, vehicle fees and tolls pay to maintain it. It's also part of the national defense infrastructure; all interstates must meet certain specifications for the movement of military equipment. It is outrageous that a portion of a public highway would be designated off-limits to ordinary citizens and reserved for a special class of citizen -- subscribers to a private service. This is like saying a certain sidewalk in Chicago is reserved exclusively for people with Verizon cell phones; anybody else pays a $25 fine for putting their feet on the ground there.

2. A private company has been contracted by the state not only to do the state's business (sometimes called privatization), but to create a false jurisdiction. Vehicle and Traffic Laws of all states already exist in a constitutional gray zone. This is because a traffic infraction is neither a criminal nor a civil matter. They exist halfway between, in an admiralty jurisdiction that you enter "voluntarily" when you sign your license or registration application. (With a few requests, I'll do a story on this.) While New Jersey could not suspend my out-of-state driver's license for allegedly not paying the allegedly unpaid toll or the fine, they could report me to a credit bureau, affecting (for example) my future ability to buy or rent a house, purchase food, etc. All for driving in the wrong lane!

3. Because jurisdiction over a vehicle and traffic matter has been delegated by the state to a private corporation, the alleged perpetrator has no rights. You are presumed guilty, there is no way to appear before a judge, you have no opportunity for a trial, and no opportunity for discovery (reviewing your opponent's testimony or documents). There is no witness to your alleged violation, just a picture; there isn't a cop who has to show up and testify against you and collect vacation points if he or she gets a conviction. This is another country than the one where you are presumed innocent and have the right to face your accuser.

This is what we have to worry about with Pluto in Capricorn: the rise of the corporation as the supreme power in our lives, the supreme violator of liberties and privacy, and the piper we pay to walk out of the house. Yes, this issue has been there for a while, but now paraphrasing the Six Million Dollar Man, "we have the technology." Technology makes this all a lot easier. But now, here is my question: do you care? Does anybody?

You really need to care. Sinclare Lewis once said that fascism would come to America wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross. This is poetic. I say it's already arrived, sporting the American Express logo and a corporate security ID tag.

Fact or fantasy? The amero.

In a 1988 book called Toward an American Revolution, author Jerry Fresia makes a good point. The United States has a workable constitution that protects some of our rights, but it doesn't apply to corporations. Rather, corporations are guaranteed the rights of individuals, but they don't have to protect the rights of people.

This is why you can get fired for mentioning your job in your blog. As an American citizen, you have the right to free speech, but only as far as the government is concerned. A corporation sets its own rules, while keeping all of its First Amendment rights intact. In other words, a company says and does what it wants, while dictating what you can say and do. This is fine as long as a company does its thing, such as sell Coca-Cola. t's not fine when it takes jurisdiction over the public highways and airwaves, removing any recourse that we might ordinarily have through a legitimate government entity.

I will give you one last example for now. This is going to be a long discussion as Pluto works its way across Capricorn, and we will unfortunately have many examples. Over the summer, truthout.org discovered that Microsoft and AOL were blocking emails to subscribers, presumably because they did not like the content of truthout emails (reprinting newspaper articles which take a "liberal" position, i.e., expose issues about the Iraq war and civil liberties). They learned this because numerous readers reported the problem.

It turned out to involve AOL, Hotmail, MSN, WebTV and also Yahoo. "We can learn from this that 'FREE' is a farce," wrote truthout's executive director Marc Ash. "And when it comes to AOL, when they are your Internet provider, they are your mommy."

By Sept. 20, Ash wrote, "It looks like AOL has lifted their ban. While it's still pretty early, it looks like we convinced AOL that you do have the right to read what you want. Microsoft and Yahoo are still interfering. Microsoft is dug in and blatantly refusing to deliver messages, that's Hotmail, MSN, WebTV and who knows what else."

Yahoo was still sorting all truthout mail to junk folders even though readers were attempting to designate the posts as desirable mail.

I could give hundreds of examples of this kind of problem. Each on its own seems a trivial annoyance, or like it potentially has another explanation. None directly involves the government, but rather, corporations deciding what you can read and thus deciding what you can think, and in the case of EZ-Pass, dictating where you can physically go or be subject to a fine for a violation you have no idea you're committing. But if you add up the many thousands of seemingly minor incidents, you will see that the issue is threatening to subsume reality as we know it. Any time I use an "off-color" word in Planet Waves or so much as mention s-x, a bunch of our emails are caught by company censorship filters, and I am informed that my content is inappropriate to reach my recipient.

Private internet rating companies sometimes rate our website as "occult" because we write about astrology (which I discovered in a hotel lobby one day) or "pornography" because I also do nude fine art photography. Recently, when I complained to one provider of wireless services to a coffee house chain, our rating was promptly changed from porno to "arts and culture," presumably a big difference. Were they being friendly and honest, or were they concerned they might meet my legal team? To call Planet Waves pornography, and block it from readers, is indeed slander, and I could enjoy a hefty damages settlement if I could establish that in court. Fortunately, I did not have to take it that far.

The problem as I see it is twofold; part one is that we are "getting used to the bullshit," and part two is that most people are ignorant to the issues and their deeper implications. Most of us have done a sufficiently good job of surrendering our curiosity to not want to look at the problem. It takes energy to care, and even more energy to act. Most people, unfortunately, are not creative enough to care that somebody is trying to stifle their right to know something, or to say something. Freedom is a big responsibility. To take up that responsibility, you really do need to be passionate about being free, and you can't do that if you already think you're not free.

One of the reasons I'm not concerned about "One World Government" is that just about everyone who gets to a certain level of power fancies themselves a tin pot dictator or petty fascist of some kind or another, and corporate chiefs (and political types) are famous for this. This partly explains the policies of companies scanning your email for naughty words. People, countries and companies are naturally competitive and, try as we may, we're not ants in an ant farm who rally round one queen. Who is going to be the ruler of the One World Government? Well, surely not the other guy.

Among the self-actualized, progressive and awake people in the world, there are few who want any part of dictatorship and are doing their part to build a fair world. But for the most part, these people are few and far between -- the promise of individual power and autonomy for its own sake, not for the collective benefit, is currently the most popular mental poise, once you get past 24-hour entertainment.

Meanwhile, we are quickly falling for the mentality that in the New World Corporate State, Big Brother is reading your email and blocking some of it, and while he or she is at it, keeping a copy forever. We think that Blackwater Security just might show up one day, making us long for the quaint days when we grumbled about police radar traps. And hey -- I got tired of getting violation notices and subscribed to EZ-Pass. Most people simply do not care.

And in that case, we have met the enemy -- and it is us.

 Yours & truly,


PS, here is a video that I found troubling.

Continued at this link...