Replace one bad idea with another.

I have commented on the lunatic theory of the “North America Union” conspiracy. And I was pleased to see AlterNet taking on this paranoid delusion. As with much you find at AlterNet it is some good and some bad. And I thought I’d mention what they had to say and respond.

First, they poo-poo the idea of an international plot of “globalists” to set a transnational government. And they are right when they say it is “an offspring of the John Birch Society right, with its attendant xenophobia and paranoia.” The conspiracy theory of the Birchers is bizarre.

First, the founder Robert Welch, went on about the Communists “conspiracy”. Now he was fairly solid ground except in thinking that there was a monolithic agreement among Marxists. There never was. The Soviets did present a problem and were a monolithic government which did do some horrific things. But the Left was not in lock step with the Soviets.

Welch got even more bizarre when he wrote that President Eisenhower was a communist agent controlled by his brother. Welch did have many loose screws.

Then in the mid 60s the Birchers latched on to the ideas of Dan Smoot that the Council on Foreign Relations was involved in a plot to merge the United States with the Soviet Union and to establish a one world government. He laid out his theories in his book The Invisible Government which was published by the Birchers. Smoot presented himself as an FBI expert. He did serve as a field agent in the FBI but the Bureau was rather unhappy with the quality of his work and he left under a cloud. He was reprimanded on several occasions. Smoot also claimed he was an “administrative assistant” to J. Edgar Hoover but the FBI says this was entirely false.

The Birchers, however, moved on. Now they started looking at the “banking conspiracies” espoused by various groups, especially by anti-Semites who argued the bankers were “Jews”. At this point Welch started concocting a grand conspiracy theory tying all this strands of conspiracism together. Welch was reading the wacko conspiracy books about Freemasons and such and came across the idea that an obscure order, the Illuminati, was involved. Eventually they became the main culprits controlling, from behind the scenes, all the other conspiracies.

Normally one would say: “And the rest is history.” But very little of what the Birchers claims holds up well when scrutinized. One ends up on an endless loop of conspiracy claims using the books of other conspiracy nuts to back up the book being read. Along the way there is a conspiracy for everyone. If you hate Catholics you can find books documenting the Vatican’s involvement with the plot. Hate Jews and there are hundreds of books you can turn to for “proof”. If you hate Protestants you can find Catholic conspiracists arguing that the Protestants are part of the conspiracy. Some argue the Mormons are and others argue the Mormons are good guys.

So out of this jumble of bad history and delusional thinking has emerged the “conspiracy” to merge the US with Canada and Mexico. That’s today. Tomorrow the world.

AlterNet, however, goes off the deep end as well. They pull in their left-wing obsessions. They argue that people are attracted to such wacko ideas as “an entirely logical reaction to the process of corporate-driven global integration that feeds in Americans’ very real and wholly valid economic anxieties.” This would be a good time to throw up.

The movement for free trade is often opposed by corporations who don’t want the competition locally. Everyone wants to be able to sell abroad and to have a protected market at home. So many corporations are leaders pushing for protectionist measures to limit their own competition.

But the really asinine comment is that the fears of the public are “real and wholly valid economic anxieties.” That is just garbage. It is mostly based on fallacies and economic illiteracy. It is not true and the economists of the world are pretty much in agreement on the benefits of free trade.

To back up the claim that these economic fallacies are legitimate the author of this piece resorts to counting heads informing us that 46 percent of the public thinks free trade deals are bad for America. And they believe they lowered wages -- in spite of rising wages to the contrary. Yet the same site laughs hysterically went Right-wing nuts pull out public opinion polls against evolution.

So the author realizes that the conspiracy theory is fringe material but is convinced that his own fringe economic theory (at least among professional economists) is absolutely valid. And he finds the fault to be the very thing he himself hates: free trade. How convenient. He speaks in way that implies he was one of “those” “who have spent years in trying to raise awareness of what’s really going on in the movement to blanket the earth in “free trade” deals...” In fact the author sounds like a nutter when he says: “Make no mistake, I’ve shed blood opposing corporate trade deals like NAFTA and the Free Trade Areas of the Americas, and there are very real and very significant problems with the push toward harmonization.....”

By the way harmonization is not the same thing as free trade and it is not good. It is a means by which bad policies are imposed on nations that have decent policies to limit competition. For instance the old EU countries are lumbering dinosaurs unfit to survive the modern world. They face stiff competition from the rising stars in Eastern Europe. So the old countries, instead of reforming their failed policies, are trying to impose the same burdens on the emerging markets in order to stifle their growth and make them less attractive.

The major difference between the AlterNet author and the lunatics he sets out to debunk is that he wants them to concentrate on his favorite hate group: corporations. He hates free trade, corporations and I would guess he isn’t found of free markets in general. And he wants the lunatic fringe on the Right to adopt his targets. I’m glad to see him debunk some of the lunatic conspiracy theories that he does. I’m disappointed to see him replace those Right-wing wacko theories with Left-wing wacko theories of his own.

Bungling bureaucrats and crazy conspiracy theories.

It is looking like the federal government is going to delay their attempt to force Americans to purchase passports in order to visit Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. This plan of King George is party of his fortress America mind set where he strips Americans of civil liberties on the premise that by attacking his own people he will prevent terrorists from doing so.

But don’t assume any of this was done out of a concern for freedom. They are coming. Already these requirements are in place for air travel and the result has been utter chaos. The issuing of passports under the Bush administration is about as efficient as their handling of Katrinia. Disastrous.

People who have filed for passports months ago are still waiting. Money spent on vacations, hotel books, air flights, etc., have gone down the toilet due to the chaos that is imposed on everything George Bush tries to fix. Surprised? Why? After all this is a man who mismanaged every business enterprise he ever touched. Bush is the Peter Principle in action.

That says that an individual is promoted to his level of incompentence. So naturally with someone as incompetent as George Bush he became president of the United States. And, by his actions, dreams of even higher levels of incompetence.

The State Department still is forcing Americans to get their government papers permitting them to travel. They are only delaying aspects of it. Every American still has to have state permission to get on a flight out of the United States. But those who applied months ago and haven’t received their permits can now fly out but ONLY if they show the travel Nazis a receipt proving they applied for permission. But even this “relaxation” is temporary with the original new regulations going into effect on October 1.

The real problem was going to hit when the passport requirements to drive into Canada or Mexico came into effect. Land and sea travel traffic is far heavier. If the bumbling bureaucrats can’t cope now that regulation will be an even worse disaster.

I’ve crossed over into both countries numerous times myself. I’ve never been able to come into the US with less than a two hour wait at the American border. And the way Bush is handling things it would appear that people will need to put aside half their vacation time just trying to get back into their own country -- though it causes me to wonder why they bother coming back.

This is all part of that bait and switch tactic of authoritarianism used by Bush. It’s going to make America safe! 9/11 you know. Never mind that not a single one of the men involved in 9/11 crossed the US border from Mexico or Canada. Never mind that every one of them passed through US passport control. Somehow this is supposed to be related. Just trust the Fuhrer.

A similar bait and switch was used for his disastrous war. A small group of men connected with Osama bin Laden committed grotesque criminal acts within the United States. Bin Laden was headquartered in Afghanistan. But somehow, and with some process of convoluted Bush logic, that means the US has to go to war in Iraq. The net result is that Bush more than doubled the number of American dead. Great move moron! And that’s only the beginning. He’s made an unstable region of the world even less stable. And that bin Laden fellow? No worries, the US is so mired down in the march toward fascism that he’s still free.

Personally it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to discover bin Laden has been dead for a couple of years. But you need the Bogey Man to scare the children into taking orders. Don’t forget 9/11. Shred the Bill of Rights. Don’t forget 9/11. End your freedom to travel. 9/11 you know. Just keep saying it over and over and kiss liberty good bye.

One last point about this lunacy, and that is to deal with lunatics on the other side. Just because Bush is a dangerous moron doesn’t mean everyone who opposes him has a lick of sense. There are some real daft opponents of Bush.

There is circulating a lot of nonsense from fringe Far Right anti-Bush crazies. Some even oppose Iraq. Their insanity is not due to opposing Bush but due to their delusional obsession with conspiracy theories concocted by people who are neither smart enough nor honest enough to understand reality.

At the top of the list is the absurd rumor that there is an attempt to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into one larger nation -- a North American Union with a common currency, the Amero.

The far Left doesn’t have a monopoly on fools.

One hallmark of such a union, such as the European Union, is the ease to cross borders within the Union. But Americans are finding that harder and harder to do.

This passport debacle clearly shows the US is not moving toward a North American Union but is actually moving further and further away from anything remotely resembling one. Of course that is logic and I’ve yet to meet a conspiracy advocate I thought was being logical. Most just strike me as mentally unbalanced and intellectually challenged.

Most Canadians would rather eat glass than join the United States. And the politicians can’t even agree on what to do about the Mexicans who already live in the United States. Then we have THE WALL that is being built to keep Mexicans out, or Americans in, take your pick. And yet the loony fringe is breathlessly telling us that its part of the One World plot by.... Well, just insert your favorite scapegoat there.

Here’s a hint. If you hear someone going on about the North American Union, the Amero, the NAFTA Highway, the globalists, the international bankers, etc, then you are dealing with someone whose eleveator doesn’t quite reach the top floor. Most of them are harmless so just nod knowingly and look for the nearest exit.