Article: State of the Union

I felt a sudden empathy, a deep understanding of how cleverly they had trapped this very bright, ambitious man into taking the rap for the impending financial collapse. I felt his tremendous desire to live up to his campaign claims and the hopes and dreams of his supporters, but the Establishment-the Beltway culture that always operates "off mike"--had convinced him that he had to follow the orders of the Big Boys, as all presidents have since Reagan gladly followed orders. I wasn't sure whether, having read only half of the book, he naturally didn't believe nationalizing the Fed and the banks would solve anything, or whether he understood, thanks to what I'd told him and by reading half the book, but lacked the courage to go against the Establishment. Whichever, I had to speak up.

As he was about to say something, I stood up with Ellen Brown's Web of Debt in my hand. I spoke slowly, haltingly at first, about what he was going through.

"Sir, I fully understand... the situation you find... yourself and the country in... Bush has given you... planet Earth at the start of the greatest economic and financial collapse in human history. You don't see a way out. I know that you have no reason to trust me... when I say there is a way out. So trust Lincoln. Here's what he accomplished by doing exactly what I'm suggesting you do." I read from Web:

"His government built and equipped the largest army in the world, smashed the British-financed insurrection, abolished slavery, and freed four million slaves. Along the way, the country managed to become the greatest industrial giant the world has ever seen. The steel industry was launched, a continental railroad system was established, a new era of farm machinery and cheap tools was promoted, a system of free higher education was established through the Land Grant College System, land development was encouraged by passage of a Homestead Act granting ownership privileges to settlers, major government support was provided to all branches of science, the Bureau of Mines was organized, governments in the Western territories were established, the judicial system was reorganized, labor productivity increased by 50 to 75%, and standardization and mass production were promoted worldwide." I paused and added dryly, "Not bad for one term, huh?" I returned to my chair.

The President, suppressing a grin, didn't speak for a moment, chuckled and said, "You know how to hit a guy right in the solar plexus, don't you? You know, I remember that list well and... I wish it were that simple... ah, his problems aren't mine and mine aren't..." He didn't finish as he shook his head and looked off into space. A moment or two passed, and then he looked at me as if sizing me up, figuring something out as he looked at me. This went on for twenty seconds before he broke the silence.

"You noticed, Ed, there are no minders here... in the room, no security. It's the first time I've been one-on-one with a guest in this office since I became President." I was dumbfounded and no doubt looked it. "I had to be firm with my staff to get this one."

"Excuse my ignorance, but who's in charge here?" I said a little too quickly, almost flippantly, and I softly added, "I don't understand. Surely they're not..."

"No they aren't, but I'm boxed-in in ways that are invisible to you, that you don't know about. It's a very big system, the U.S. Federal government, and I'm still not fully in charge and I know it. It takes time. That paragraph about Lincoln... it's ironical that you should bring it up because that is the ideal, what I would like to do. And though I haven't finished the book, I've read enough to know I'll go greenback. But if I were to announce tomorrow that I plan to abolish the Fed, which is what I really want to do, and nationalize all the banks... and then re-charter them with very strict charters... I'd be gone by the end of the week."

As he spoke, he was looking around the room and occasionally at me, but as he finished, he was looking right at me, eyeball-to-eyeball from eight feet away.

"Wow," escaped me almost without my knowledge. "I do appreciate what you are going through, sir, and if it is impossible now, any idea how long it will be before you can... take charge completely, do the right thing? Get organized. And as a reminder, I do think our top five problems are momentarily superseded by our financial emergency."

He just shook his head, paused, and faintly shook it again. "No predictions on anything by me right now. I have to take each day as it comes and no promises."

As he paused, I felt the urge to ask him why he bothered to invite me, but held my silence.

"What would you do about EMP," he asked suddenly.

I was surprised but prepared and responded quickly, "First, trace and check out all high-altitude rockets built for and sold to non-governmental organizations and individuals for the last several decades. Don't make it a big deal, but we need to make sure that all rockets, missiles, and their parts don't fall into the wrong hands. Eliminate large nukes first when we begin to make reductions. The only way to truly eliminate nuclear EMP is to solve the problem. Portable EMP is a very grave danger because all high-tech civilizations are extremely vulnerable to high-tech weaponry."

He nodded. "Next on the list... nuclear waste. What about Yucca mountain?"

"Sucks. Forget it; it would take at least 16 Yucca mountain repositories to house our high-level nuclear wastes, and Yucca itself is unstable. A dozen larger repositories in every fourth state will suffice if done right and if we bring nuclear energy to a close within ten years. We must eliminate all except medical."

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