If memory serves me right, I've been trying to warn people about this day for about 12 years or so. Of course, way back when, it seemed like the only choice I had was which kind of tin-foil hat would fit me better, judging by the typical reaction of most people.
The scary thing is that, aside from the fact that my wife sometimes tells me I can be a "little arrogant," I really don't consider myself that much different than the average Joe-six-pack, regular guy, but for a long time now it has been very obvious that we were heading towards becoming a corporate fascist state.
Greece, Italy, Spain, and other European countries are on the brink of financial collapse. That is also true of the U.S. The reasons are pretty obvious: the inter-generational criminal Wall Street financial cartel built up a house of cards which is about to fall, as all ponzi schemes do.
The ravenous and rapacious capitalist system is about to collapse, incapable of continuing the pillaging, plundering and exploitation of both, natural and human resources, at the the same rapid pace.
A government of the people could handle this situation by nationalizing certain industries, especially the criminal TBTF banks, once they implode. But we don't have a government of the people; it's a Wall Street/Corporate government, and even thought they've been hiding behind our feeble political system thus far, they have been putting into place the fascistic infrastructure they will need to deploy once the crash happens.
Why? Because the only way they will be able to extract the last drop of labor and wealth and power from the population will be by pressing down, really hard, using the jack boots of the military, to press on our necks and keep us down.
This is how Chris Hedges describes the situation in his truthdig article, The NDAA and the Death of the Democratic State:
The [NDAA] section [1021(b)(2)] permits the military to detain anyone, including U.S. citizens, who “substantially support”—an undefined legal term—al-Qaida, the Taliban or “associated forces,” again a term that is legally undefined. Those detained can be imprisoned indefinitely by the military and denied due process until “the end of hostilities.” In an age of permanent war this is probably a lifetime. Anyone detained under the NDAA can be sent, according to Section (c)(4), to any “foreign country or entity.” This is, in essence, extraordinary rendition of U.S. citizens. It empowers the government to ship detainees to the jails of some of the most repressive regimes on earth.
The fascist infrastructure has been carefully and deliberately put in place during the last 10+ years. It includes a wholesale undermining of our constitutional rights; the implementation and widespread deployment of a total-information-awareness police state; the use of state houses to legalize previously illegal actions (by the rich and corporations); a slew of state laws that turn the legal system into an instrument of oppression against the population; conceal-carry and stand-your-ground laws, which actually serve a subterfuges for arming would-be right wing thugs which will eventually be used to intimidate social justice activists.
Hitches further warns us:
If we lose in Hedges v. Obama—and it seems certain that no matter the outcome of the appeal this case will reach the Supreme Court—electoral politics and our rights as citizens will be as empty as those of Nero’s Rome. If we lose, the power of the military to detain citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military prisons will become a terrifying reality. Democrat or Republican. Occupy activist or libertarian. Socialist or tea party stalwart. It does not matter. This is not a partisan fight. Once the state seizes this unchecked power, it will inevitably create a secret, lawless world of indiscriminate violence, terror and gulags.
This is no fiction, or something that may happen in the distant future. This stuff is developing right before our eyes--for those who are willing to see.