SUNSHINE PATRIOTS

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country"...THOMAS PAINE (1776)

When I was younger, we began every morning in grade school with the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a ritual designed to instill a sense of loyalty in the country. But as I got older, and lived a little, I learned very quickly that while many mouthed the virtues of patriotism and the love of one's country, this  loyalty appeared to be conditional on whether that patriotism intruded on one's pursuit of happiness. History has recorded the wealthy's odd fascination with the most fascistic and authoritarian regimes of their day. (See The Business Plot of 1934 ) Newspaper mogul William Randolph Hurst got an audience with Adolf Hitler and wrote favorable articles on his behalf throughout the 1930's. During World War II, Henry Ford's German plants manufactured military vehicles for the Nazis in massive numbers while decreasing production of vehicles for the U.S. Government. The Grandfather of President George W. Bush, Prescott Bush managed financial investment accounts for Nazi sympathizers. These accounts were initially seized by the Government but later returned to the war with no penalties or sanctions imposed on anyone. Ford & General Motors would later sue the government for the loss of plants that occurred as a result of bombing raids by allied aircraft during the war. They were awarded full restitution.  Allen Dulles, working as an attorney for the powerful law firm Sullivan & Cromwell offered financial services to the 3rd Reich after war was declared by the U.S., through an entity known as The Bank of International Settlements. This bank was involved in the massive looting and plunder of many of Germany's successful Jewish citizens and business leaders. This kind of collaboration has been left out of the textbooks. Any reference to these facts are greeted with the steadfast, hostile denials and the now time honored slur: conspiracy theorist.

Today, the flight of capital to foreign shores is the new form of hollow patriotism. Under-developed countries have become labor camps for oil companies, manufacturing plants, and financial interests seeking to avoid taxation, government oversights of working conditions and minimum wage requirements.  Such interests employ private security firms such as Academi (Formerly known as Blackwater), for protection of their personnel and property. Unsurprisingly, shootings and atrocities are rarely, if ever, punished as these interests are unanswerable to the countries where they conduct these operations. It would seem that Americans would be up in arms at the present state of affairs, but the truth is that the American public does not seem to care about these issues as they are not involved in the consequences of their actions. However, the real truth is much darker. Americans have replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with another pledge this is eerily similar to the Nazi Salute as displayed recently by Laura Ingraham's hitlerian slip at the Republican National Convention.

 It goes like this: "I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the trans-national corporations of America, to the death of the republic, for which it stands, multi-nations under fraud, with no liberty and injustice for all."

Global Capital is no respecter of sovereignty; especially of its' home country. There is no true patriotism, only the bland conformity of predatory capitalism. No love of God, only worship of the high lords of finance. No devotion to the Bill of Rights, only the cultural appropriation of colonial mythology in pursuit of profit.

Till next time, this is the Red Hornet signing out.