Do You Remember Monica Lewinsky?

(First in a series of short articles on the events leading up to the Bush Presidency and the ascendency of corporate control of USG) 

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Vanity Fair will publish an article by Monica Lewinsky in it's June issue. Ripples of commentary have already begun on the now 40 year old woman who earned a Master of Science degree in December of 2006.

For the last eight years Monica has tried to keep her name out of the news. Today, she is again useful to the Clintons and their corporate sponsors.

While the source of her notoriety titillated, consider why her emergence matters one way or another. It doesn't, you know. This is hype, orchestrated to impact the 2016 election.

Lewinsky was persuaded to write the essay for Vanity Fair because her life has been on hold. Every job she has gotten pivoted on the events from July, 1995, when she was turning 22, to the failure to impeach Bill Clinton by Congress on February 12, 1999.

The Washington Post touts her return as a positive for Hillary Clinton's run for the White House. This surge of media attention focuses on Hillary as a secondary victim. It distracts us from what should, finally, be asked about the Clintons. They did well for themselves. Today Monica is still defined by the words, “cigar,” and “blue dress.”

Some of these questions are:

Why was Hillary ever positioned as a victim? We learned early on she had assisted in cover-ups of Bill's womanizing from the time he entered politics. Hillary showed no concern for the damage done to the women involved. Political advantage trumped telling the truth, the impact on victims, and accountability, for Hillary.

When the trial ended in Congress the Clintons were drained of money. Yet by 2004 they were doing well, entering the embrace of the 1%. The Clintons had become intimates of Bush Co., and were not speaking out against a war which had originated in another set of carefully orchestrated lies by Bush and his NeoCon cadre. What else was happening while these relationships were forming?

What might we have learned if we had demanded accountability when Bush jovially looked under his desk for WMD? What if Saddam had not been hurried into the silence of death?

Following the money and connections always answers questions far more revealing of secrets than are sexual dalliances.

The answers are there. Don't let Monica be used as a tool of distraction. Forget those nine incidents of sexual dalliance and demand answers to real questions.

The CorporaState that Ate America

What would Thomas Jefferson say to those who evoke his words to install fascism in America today?

“Why can't you see?

We just want to be free

To have our homes and families

And live our lives as we please.”

Dana Rohrabacher

West Coast Libertarian Troubadour (1973)

(From David Friedman's, “The Machinery of Freedom.”)

Today is the 264^th Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. A lot has happened in America in those years but most importantly a lot is still happening that Americans fail to understand. We need to connect ALL the dots.

In California a Federal Maritime Officer, Lt. Eric Shine, is fighting charges he is depressed; although they have argued he is employed within the proceedings they refuse to pay him or give him his benefits; that means he receives none of his due medical benefits or legal aid. Catch-22. Very useful to those suing him, which includes the US Government, Homeland Security, and the US Coast Guard. The powers that be pretty much ignored Shine and the charges he had leveled of toxic waste dumping, graft, and corruption until he began to write letters to Congress. They then slammed him with continuous litigation and decided he was depressed. If he wasn't he should be.

Who 'they' is goes to the Dot question. If the US Government, Homeland Security, and the Coast Guard weren't enough Shine has gotten the attention of others who are perhaps even scarier. One of these is The Carlyle Group and their friends and associates. This included George W. Bush for a while; the senior Bush is still believed to be associated.

The Carlyle Group, a corporation that handles investments for the well connected, including alumni of the Reagan, Bush Administrations and Saudi Princes, acquired General Dynamics, for which Eric Shine's father worked as Vice President of Engineering in 1992. Seeing what was happening to America 's military through the acquisition of General Dynamics in that year gave Eric the insight he needed to understand what was happening to the Merchant Marine. At the time Eric had no idea how 'Six Degrees of Separation' the world really is.

The Carlyle Group acquired General Dynamics, which produced electronics for the military, in 1992. They purchased the electronics division, located in San Diego, according to William E. Conway Jr., a Carlyle managing director, in an, “all-cash deal was for less than $100 million.” Carlyle Group, named for the hotel where the founders met, was founded in 1987.

Moving from investment in restaurants Carlyle Group began assembling a portfolio with a very different focus at the beginning of the HW Bush Administration. General Dynamics was expected to make $300 million when it was acquired, according to Conway . According to a specialist in the market consulted for this article that price was, “a steal.” We will follow those dots in a later article.

According to the Wikipedia, “Carlyle deals in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer & Retail, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecommunications & Media, and Transportation. The Carlyle Group's investments are focused on East Asia, Europe and North America, with most investment money coming from the

United States (65%), Europe (25%), Asia (6%), Latin America, and the Middle East . Defense investments represent about 1% of the group's current portfolio — though this translates, for example, into a 33.8% ownership of QinetiQ, the UK 's recently privatized defence (sic) company.”

A shiny new Ensign in 1991, Eric Shine began what he assumed would be a career carrying out the duties of an officer in the Merchant Marine and Naval Officer. As part of his training he had become familiar with the statutes and regulations that had governed the existence of the Merchant Marine since 1791. Shine had not yet heard the term 'privatization,' it would soon become frighteningly familiar to him.

The term, 'privatization,' as it is used by those in power today bears as much resemblance to the original as Anna Nicole Smith does to Mother Theresa.

The term, 'privatization,' was first used by Dr. Robert Poole, founder of Reason Foundation in his book, “Cutting Back City Hall,” in the mid 70s. The idea of converting services provided by government into services provided through private, for profit business, became a byword for efficiency over the next three decades. But efficiency had not been the point. The issue was giving people back control of their own lives.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The idealism of the 70s was harvested for the benefit of the greedy.

The issue of privatizing began with trash collection, proposed by Bob Poole and then Social Security. was first posed for a position paper written for the campaign of Ed Clark, Libertarian presidential candidate, in 1979. The 'white paper' later appeared in much the same form under the sponsorship of Cato Institute, founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, III, Charles Koch, and Murray Rothbard. During this time things changed. Ideas are useful tools for achieving your goals; this idea proved to be fertile ground.

In 1981 Rothbard, a stalwart Austrian School Economist, was ousted from the Cato Board. In his newsletter, Libertarian Review, Rothbard said Cato, "revealed its true nature and its cloven hoof. Crane, aided and abetted by Koch, ordered me to leave Cato's regular quarterly board meeting, even though I am a shareholder and a founding board member of the Cato Institute." Austrian economists do not approve of Congress fiddling with the economy.

Cato began providing regular briefings for Congress on how to minimize their costs and optimize their profits in the 90s when the Contract on America swept into office.

Privatization and outsourcing had found applications that lead to consequences none of the Libertarians who had originally supported the ideas expected.

Lt Eric Shine had seen continuous and troubling violations of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 through the first six years of his career. Shine had witnessed blatant dumping of toxic waste, violation of safety regulations, and other wrong doing. Because he was doing his due diligence, ironically Shine gained a reputation as a trouble maker. He persisted in reporting these through avenues that had been truncated, leaving active Federal Maritime Officers with no recourse. It was as if the rules he had learned had been canceled.

Congress had mandated that at majority of American shipping must sail under America 's flag. They had done this to ensure that ships would be available in time of conflict and peace so that standards for safety and the wellbeing of the seas and our nation would be maintained. These ships, Congress said, would be manned by Officers of the US Merchant Marine. When Lt. Shine began his career the 10,000 ships under the US flag at the close of WWII had shrunk to less than 200, reducing the protections to America intended by Congress and the jobs available to Federal Maritime Officers.

In 1998 Shine began work in Hawaii for the Navy. What Shine saw at Pearl Harbor was the application of American ingenuity to the dissolution of the Navy Installation that had been a hub of strength for decades. Under the mandate of privatization services were being transferred to private companies. Graft, corruption, and thievery were systemic. Serving as a project engineer Shine could find no one who would listen to his objections. There was too much money to be made by remaining silent. Privatization and cost reduction were the rhetorical devices that filled the air.

What Shine was witnessing was the birth of the Corporation as its own nation in its nascent form. Having extended corporate leverage through the use of government to wage war, to realize profits through war and through income streams flowing into their pockets from Americans, Corporations were now looking at how to further their portfolios by clamping Americans into place forever. The means were the various Grids that had become the core of their holdings; Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer & Retail, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecommunications & Media, and Transportation,

The next step was to bolt in place those missing links to nationhood. Corporations, including those owned by Carlyle, have now begun to assert extraterritoriality, ignoring laws through manipulation, payoffs, and restructuring. American maritime law says that foreign ships cannot engage in commerce between two American ports; they corporations are now chipping away at this limitation. The rules exist only for others and where they augment profits. Sea Launch, a ship that puts satellites into space, harbors at Long Beach and has extraterritorial status. Corporations have become nations, with all the power and money and none of the accountability. Anyone who got in their way would be toasted.

In 2001, Lt. Shine filed a grievance in the hopes someone would finally listen. Again he was ignored. Then, he began writing letters to Congress and the reaction was swift. Shine was astonished to find himself detained charged with being 'depressed.' He had not been aware that even if he was depressed this could be deemed a cause for denying him medical benefits. For the CorporaState the rules are made anew every day as needed.

Why would Eric Shine persist? He could have gotten on the Corporate dole, accepted the lavish stipends offered from his probably intentional placement with the military industrial complex. That goes to who he is. The answers are in his origins.

Sally Shine, now 80, remembers her son, Eric, “as a good boy,” who, “made her proud.” “Eric,” she said, “was president of his graduating class in High School.” Eric Shine was poised to live a life of accomplishment when he graduated from King's Point, the Academy for the USS Merchant Marine in 1991. Life is full of surprises.

One of five children from a close-knit and loving Catholic family, he had attended St. Columba School in San Diego, moving on to what is now Cathedral Catholic High School while participating in the local scouting program with Troop 272. Shine was the first member of his troop in a long time, according to his mother, to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. His Court of Honor was held February 15, 1977. During the Court of Honor the Scout receiving his Eagle Badge renews the oath taken when he became a scout; that oath includes the promise that of, “Living honorably reflects credit on his home, his church, his troop, and his community.”

In the experience of those who know him best, Eric Shine takes life seriously. He did so when he chose as his Eagle Scout Project to organize donations of food and clothing for a poor village in Mexico and he did the same when, as newsletter editor at King's Point, he insisted on publishing an article that uncompromisingly told the truth, despite pressure to do otherwise.

Those were the values he had learned and then lived. Those values stayed with him when he went on to a career in the Merchant Marine. Career was another thing the Shine family took seriously.

Eric's father attended West Point, as many other family members, going on to a career with General Dynamics for 30 years. He retired as vice president of engineering and director of ethics. Hard work and doing the right thing were values strongly inculcated in the Shine home. Eric was sure that this whole thing could be cleared up if he just persisted.

Each of us sees the world through our own place in that world, and Eric Shine began his career in the Merchant Marine hearing from his father about General Dynamics, where the elder Shine had spent most of his life, and about doing the right thing. Unfortunately, that does not square with the birth of the CorporaStates.

The stark images of returning veterans at Walter Reed Hospital and elsewhere are still alive in the minds of Americans, demonstrating what privatization and 'cost reduction' really mean. Those and other techniques for lowering costs have been used since the Vietnam War with deadly results. Veterans needing treatment and benefits were, and are, forced to wait while their symptoms are dismissed as 'emotional problems.' Those in need are simply waited to death. Dealing with Shine was just a matter of using the same methods that worked to lower other costs.

According to Philip Meskin, founder of the Veteran's Party, the treatment meted out to Shine exactly parallels the treatment of Veterans after all American wars since Vietnam .

“Same old business as usual,” he said. Meskin, added that, “300,000 veterans died after the Vietnam War of Agent Orange and other diseases related to cancer, cell degenerative conditions, and other undefined causes.” “They were depressed, too,” he said wryly. Social workers are notorious for rendering opinions that deny benefits to veterans based on such causes as 'depression.' “There are no limits to what they will do to cut costs. They let people die every day,” said Meskin.

So the same technique that eliminates costs in caring for veterans can in the case of Shine make it impossible for him as a whistle blower to find help.

So many are involved. So many, like Dana Rohrabacher, who were once singing the praises of freedom, have found cozy lives elsewhere. Following the money, connecting the dots, always brings us the answers, however unpalatable those may be.

Next week Lt. Shine will face yet another round of court dates, again without counsel. Detained without pay, he is now without any resources – but he continues to speak out. Eagle Scouts don't give up and Shine is no quitter. One man left standing against the CorporaState, unless others help. David and Goliath was nothing to this.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson!

(To contact Lt. Eric Shine go to his website. He will be grateful to hear from you.)

A Tour of the Bush Library: BushLand

With a budget of half a billion dollars and little need to provide space for the perusal of documents the Bush Center has decided on a novel approach to ensure that the work of the Bush Junior Presidency takes its well-earned place in history while also guaranteeing that the public understands the President as a man and policy innovator. Also on the agenda; just a little bit of profit to offset those hefty salaries paid out to Karl Rove and other long time loyalists.

The facility, in partnership with Disney, will provide a walk and drive through environment that links together the high octane points of the Bush years, connecting these to how significant moments then provided the content for policies that make the Bush – Cheney Administration different from any other in American history.

Visitors will queue up for the tours in groups of not more than ten, to keep it personal. As they wait, the group will hear the historic words of the past president as he used a bull horn to address the media and onlookers at Ground Zero in New York. Then the doors, that are designed to look like the Twin Towers as they settle into a pile of dust, will open to reveal a long corridor and the visitor will be greeted by an android that looks exactly like George W. Bush dressed as he was when he landed his Air Force jet and announced the “mission accomplished” moment. The dying sound of the jet engine will fill the background.

The group will follow the President into the corridor, which will light up as the group advances. On both sides they will see jail cells that light up, revealing scenes now familiar to us through the Abu Ghraib photos. These will illustrate the deep trauma experienced by guards doing their duty to their President and their Country as they perform essential pre-interrogation routines. Sound effects are reported to be very realistic and exciting.

The Bush simulation will then wave and shake hands passing the group on to another figure that history will always associate with the Bush Presidency, Lynndie England. Here, the presentation grows more serious as Lynndie explains why Bush was driven to propose essential softening up routines as a means of ensuring that the suspected terrorists who were incarcerated at Abu Ghraib Prison and elsewhere provided information needed to save American lives.

As we now know, Lynndie, was actually a deep agent who was pardoned by Bush in the final moments of his presidency along with himself and his entire administration and some members of his family. The high volume Xerox machine used for this purpose sits in the small museum near the information desk along with other significant items, for instance, a small wooden box that Karl Rove hid in and around the Oval Office occasionally on which is carved, “Weapon of Mass Destruction.” Plans to substitute similar boxes for the traditional Easter Eggs for that Hunt were scotched by Laura Bush but are available in the gift shop at the end of the tour.

Visitors will be able to step across puddles of blood and see how the most ordinary of implements can be adapted to this purpose. This presentation is followed up with the handing out of CDs and DVDs wherein Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld explain the grave necessity that renewed the use of torture as a weapon essential for fighting terror. More such interesting and educational items can be purchased in the Library – Policy Center Store.

Visitors will then understand that this was necessary for the survival of America.

As the group proceeds down the corridor, now riding in golf carts that have been refitted from the Dallas Country Club, the group exchanges Lynndie for another android guide, Jeff Gannon. This portion of the tour will take our visitors to a news conference taking place in the media room of the White House. There, visitors will see another simulation of Gannon asking the hard questions that won him the respect of the President and drew him into a confidential relationship with the most powerful man in the world, George Bush.

This portion of the tour ends at the door of the Lincoln Bedroom, where the wall opens up and visitors find themselves in a room watching the high points from the movie DC 911, the movie produced by Lionel Chetwin in 2003 to show Americans the real story of how George Bush spent his time from the moment he came out of the slight fog in the school room in Florida, where he confronted subjects too esoteric for ordinary people to consider, until he addressed the American people. At some point in the future, perhaps five generations from now, the documents relating to this will be available.

Visitors will then sit through a presentation on American events by a real child who learned that history in a public school in Texas that ensure that no Child was Left Behind. The presentation will take the visitor through a recitation of how the Bush Walker family saved the United States by ensuring free trade with China during the Opium Wars, did behind the scenes work during the Nazi Regime in Germany, and then with the Soviet Union as they ensured that Americans would have a continuing supply of petroleum. Then, they will hear the story of how Bush Senior worked to make sure that America was not destroyed by women and environmentalists and helped Ronald Reagan end the Cold War. As proof, they will see Bush Senior and Junior hammering out pieces of the Berlin Wall. These can also be purchased in the Store. Visitors will then understand why and how a faltering Bush Senior handed off this heroic duty to his oldest, beloved, son, George Junior.

The seated visitors now exit the theatre, guided by the android of Karl Rove who leads them into the Bush vision of the future. Here they see a shiny super highway that knits together the whole of North America. The super highway, as wide as two football fields, is a hub of activity and commerce that allows for free and open access to American's heartland. The stream of vehicles are no longer using petroleum. Instead, they are using ethanol which is available at only $3.00 a gallon, far less than Americans paid for gasoline in 2008. They see happy people from all across the world working hard at jobs that used to be held by Americans who now have new opportunities for leisure and different job opportunities. They see smiling police and cameras on every corner, reminding them that now they are secured and the lovely rolling hills of the Dallas Country Club come alive as George Bush drives his own gold golf cart across the verdant scene and waves happily.

As they exit the theater they enter the gift shop that sells Bush Golf Clubs with the Presidential Seal, pens, photos of the Greatest President, simulated exact reproductions of Barbara Bush's two strand pearl neckless and other memorabilia. Also included are DVDs and CDs that teach eager tourists how to train their dogs to intimidate suspected terrorists and special implements to be used only when following the instructions included. They see an American flag that has the names of various corporations printed on the stripes. They can buy one of those, too.

Tickets are only $200.00. Call the White House to pre-order today.

This is your opportunity to imagine. Imagine a world where the policies of George Bush receive the respect they deserve.