Smell the Fascism

Just follow along with some bits and pieces from Wikipedia and other internet sites. First, a quotation to consider:

“The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the ‘ruling class’. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate statism. In each instance the ruling class relies on academics, scholars and ‘experts’ to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses.” — Ed Crane

The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group is an American-based global asset management firm, specializing in private equity, based in Washington, D.C.. The Carlyle Group operates in four business areas: private equity, real assets, market strategies and fund of funds, through its AlpInvest subsidiary.

Carlyle’s private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyout transactions over the last decade, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Since its inception, Carlyle has completed investments in such notable companies as Booz Allen Hamilton, Dex Media, Dunkin’ Brands, Freescale Semiconductor, Getty Images, HCR Manor Care, Hertz, Kinder Morgan, Nielsen and United Defense.

As of December 31, 2012, Carlyle had $170 billion in assets under management across 113 funds and 67 fund of fund vehicles. The firm has more than 1,400 employees including 650 investment professionals, with offices in 33 countries globally. Carlyle has investments in over 200 companies and more than 250 real estate investments. Carlyle’s portfolio companies employ more than 650,000 people worldwide. The firm has over 1,500 limited partners in 75 countries.

According to a 2011 ranking called the PEI 300 based on capital raised over the last five years, Carlyle was ranked as the third largest private equity firm in the world. Carlyle had been ranked first in the 2007 listing.

So the Carlyle Group is much like Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital.

Booz Allen

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (Booz Allen) is an American consulting firm headquartered in Tysons Corner, Fairfax County, Virginia, with 80 other offices throughout the United States. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious technology consulting firms in the world and one of the best consulting firms to work for by Consulting Magazine. Bloomberg Government ranked Booz Allen as 16th in its listing of industry leaders in the government sector in 2013. Founded in 1914 by Edwin G. Booz, the company is one of the oldest management consulting firms in the world.

Booz Allen Hamilton is engaged in providing management and technology consulting services to the United States government and commercial services. Booz Allen’s services include strategic planning, human capital and learning, communications, operational improvement, information technology work, systems engineering, organizational change efforts, modeling and simulation, program management, assurance and resilience, and economic business analysis.

As of August 2008, what was formerly Booz Allen Hamilton’s parent company (which used the Booz Allen name itself) divided in two. The Booz Allen Hamilton moniker was retained by the half focusing on U.S. governmental matters, with Booz & Company taking sole control of its commercial strategy and international portfolio. Booz Allen Hamilton is majority owned by private equity firm The Carlyle Group, while Booz & Company is owned and operated as a partnership. On November 17, 2010, Booz Allen’s shares of common stock began trading at the New York Stock Exchange.

So Booz Allen Hamilton is the go-to consulting firm for the Federal government. Finally a current top news story is:

NSA revelations put Booz Allen Hamilton, Carlyle Group in uncomfortable limelight

The Carlyle Group has spent years attempting to shed its image as a well-connected private equity firm leveraging Washington heavyweights in the defense sector. Instead, it nurtured a reputation as a financially sophisticated asset manager that buys and sells everything from railroads to oil refineries.

The recent disclosures involving National Security Agency surveillance on U.S. citizens by an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia consulting firm that is majority owned by Carlyle, has thrust two of Washington’s most prominent corporate entities uncomfortably into the limelight, bound by the thread of turning government secrets into profits.

Booz Allen employee Edward Snowden was fired Tuesday after he confessed to being the source of stories about NSA data collection programs. Federal investigators are examining how Snowden, who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii and had also worked for the CIA, was able to gain access to sensitive information. …

After the split, the new Booz Allen Hamilton established an incentive-based compensation structure that gave the remaining partners a stake in the firm’s success. In effect, said one person close to the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly, “you got to eat what you killed.”

The incentives helped spur profits.

That’s a lot to swallow but roll it around in your mouth and consider that the security and well-being of the country is being outsourced to a for-profit corporation: the privacy of all American citizens is being turned over to the corporations. What we are approaching, if we are not already there, is the replacement of a somewhat democratic government by fascist rule. All progressives and conservatives should be horrified by this no-longer subtle takeover of the United States. And for all the ultra-conservative gun-nuts out there, it is not the government that is the enemy. Ever since Ronald Reagan the Fascists have been lying to the citizens of this country: government is not the problem, the corporations are the problem. Call them what you want—the one-percent, the rich, the privileged, plutocrats, Fascists, big business—they have stolen the country and slaughtered the American Dream for greed and profit.

And a final note:

“I wouldn’t call it fascism exactly, but a political system nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be described as democracy either.” — Edward Zehr