In a response to a comment of mine to Craig’s post “Bayleaf” offered up a little known piece of information on our fast eroding freedoms. Bayleaf reported that, “Re. the plundering of personal data, the UK government has quietly used the Coronavirus Act 2020 to authorise the “Retention of Fingerprints and DNA Profiles in the Interests of National Security” It’s been done via a Statutory Instrument, so bypassing any parliamentary scrutiny. What other mission creep towards a harsh totalitarian agenda has whistled by us unnoticed as the public was wilfully distracted by the compliant BBC and Mainstream Media offering bucket-loads of ‘Handyfloss’ on safe bets for holiday getaways no one can afford? The Handyfloss on the minutia of Jonny Depp’s dirty dobie was sickeningly copious during weeks of tawdry hearings, but Assange extradition determining the ultimate demise of press freedom globally and the criminalization of investigative journalism to obscure atrocities committed by an all powerful state goes unreported.
Where are we going to? Look to history for a very strong clue! “The Enabling Act gave Hitler plenary powers and followed on the heels of the Reichstag Fire Decree, which had abolished most civil liberties and transferred state powers to the Reich government. The combined effect of the two laws was to transform Hitler’s government into a legal dictatorship.” Tories never let a good crisis go to waste; the plan was to exploit crash-out Brexit chaos, but Covid 19 has proved just as opportune a moment to consolidate power. The Pandemic was Johnson/Cummings’s ‘Reichstag Fire moment to impose draconian rules and penalties to keep the populous in check while they plundered state funds. Those innocuous sounding ‘statutory instruments’ will sneak in new laws by stealth without debate or Parliamentary consultation; these ‘Henry the eighth powers’ represent the Johnson/Cummings Enabling Act. But, the similarities with the strategy that facilitated the rise of Europe most infamous Dictator do not end there.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) outlines how Hitler seized power. They state that, “The Enabling Act allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany’s parliament, laying the foundation for the complete Nazification of German society. The law was passed on March 23, 1933, and published the following day. Its full name was the ‘Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich’.” Johnson/Cummings have chosen a briefer, but equally deceptive propaganda pitch with their lies about an agenda of ‘levelling up’. USHMM say the Enabling Act, “it became the cornerstone of Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. The act allowed him to enact laws, including ones that violated the Weimar Constitution, without approval of either parliament or Reich President von Hindenburg.” The really frightening thing about comparing the radical authoritarian actions of Hitler with the situation we now face here in Brittan is that we do not even have a written constitution in the UK!
The USHMM Website states that, “On the day of the vote on the so-called Enabling Act, the Nazi leadership sent SS troops into the makeshift Reichstag building, formerly the Kroll Opera, to intimidate other political parties.” They say that, “Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used intimidation and persecution to ensure the passage of the law.” So what did that require? USHMM report that, “They prevented all 81 Communists and 26 of the 120 Social Democrats from taking their seats, detaining them in Nazi-controlled camps.” Following the fake ‘landslide victory’ in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election the Johnson/Cummings Dictatorship do not need to resort to such drastic measures. Under the fraudulent guise of a legitimate Government they need only intimidate and threaten their own Tory MPs into complying with their will or having the Whip removed. Despite strong opposition to corrupt laws, like the one enable them to break an International Treaty, it only takes a simple majority to force toxic legislation through Parliament.
The votes needed for Hitler to pass his Enabling Act required extreme measures, “Since the passage of this law depended upon a two-thirds majority vote in parliament, Hitler and the Nazi Party used intimidation and persecution to ensure the outcome they desired. They prevented all 81 Communists and 26 of the 120 Social Democrats from taking their seats, detaining them in so-called protective detention in Nazi-controlled camps. In addition, they stationed SA and SS members in the chamber to intimidate the remaining representatives and guarantee their compliance. In the end, the law passed with more than the required two-thirds majority, with only Social Democrats voting against it.” Johnson/Cummings did not even enlist the help of Gavin Williamson and his pet tarantula to coerce the rebels into line. Johnson had sacrificed his own Commons majority to enforce his will before the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, but the theft of postal votes complemented by Cummings’s weapons grade PsyOps had secured his win.
According to the USHMM in 1933 Germany, “The Supreme Court did nothing to challenge the legitimacy of this measure. Instead, it accepted the majority vote, overlooking the absence of the Communist delegates and the Social Democrats who were under arrest. In fact, most judges were convinced of the legitimacy of the process and did not understand why the Nazis proclaimed a ‘Nazi Revolution.’ Erich Schultze, one of the first Supreme Court judges to join the Nazi Party, declared that the term ‘revolution’ did not refer to an overthrow of the established order but rather to Hitler’s radically different ideas. In the end, German judges—who were among the few who might have challenged Nazi objectives—viewed Hitler’s government as legitimate and continued to regard themselves as state servants who owed him their allegiance and support.” The heavy bias of the BBC and Mainstream Media convinced the British public that the totally unfathomable 2019 result was legitimate, but it requires robust investigation.
In reality Hitler faced a far tougher challenge than Johnson/Cummings because in Germany it was necessary to get a two thirds majority in the Reichstag to amend the Constitution; sorry for repeating this important point The UK doesn’t even have a written constitution! Taken from the USHMM Website and “Translated from Reichsgesetzblatt I, 1933, p. 141. – The Reichstag has enacted the following law, which has the agreement of the Reichsrat and meets the requirements for a constitutional amendment, which is hereby announced: Article 1 In addition to the procedure prescribed by the Constitution, laws of the Reich may also be enacted by the Reich Government. This includes laws as referred to by Articles 85, Sentence 2, and Article 87 of the Constitution.” The PM didn’t need to debate or consult Parliament before ditching DfID, but there was no way to protest the demise of Public Health England in the middle of a Public Health crisis either, because the Johnson/Cummings Dictatorship is now all powerful.
USHMM report that in the Enablement Act, “Article 2 Laws enacted by the Reich Government may deviate from the Constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain undisturbed.” Hitler needed to design a way to circumvent the German Constitution, an inconvenience our PM doesn’t have to consider. Hitler then added his stamp of supreme authority with “Article 3 Laws enacted by the Reich Government shall be issued by the Chancellor and announced in the Reichsgesetzblatt. They shall take effect on the day following the announcement, unless they prescribe a different date. Articles 68 to 77 of the Constitution do not apply to laws enacted by the Reich Government.” Any attempt to reign in Hitler’s absolute power was prohibited. Johnson/Cummings do not even feel obliged to give the public more than a few hours to absorb and adhere to their dictates, unless the PM sees a commercial reason for postponement.
USHMM report that in the Enablement Act, “Article 4 Reich treaties with foreign states that affect matters of Reich legislation shall not require the approval of the bodies concerned with legislation. The Reich Government shall issue the regulations required for the execution of such treaties.” Even Tories who are drastically opposed to the latest Johnson/Cummings threat to the EU Brexit negotiations, authorizing the violation of an International Treaty signed just a few shots months ago, feel helpless to derail it. The stolen majority of THE Covert 2019 Rigged Election and the treat of being booted out of the Tory Party keep this crooked cabal in power and that power is growing by the day. USGMM include, “Article 5 This law takes effect with the day of its proclamation. It loses force on April 1, 1937, or if the present Reich Government is replaced by another.” It ain’t over until we say it’s over! Here in the UK there is nothing to stop Johnson/Cummings proroguing Parliament again, postponing or rigging the next election.
It might seem shockingly harsh to compare our Government with that of Nazi Germany, but all of the indications are that we are moving rapidly in that direction and we have even fewer protections in place at the onset. With the new “Rule of Six” our basic freedoms are being controlled even more drastically. Groups larger that this can work together, children and students can study together, we can travel on packed public transport and please keep spending money no matter how packed the venue. The elite are excluded as we cannot curtail their blood sports like thirty at a grouse shoot, but family get together are out. And we are encouraged to ‘shop’ our own neighbours. If your family of four or five casually come across another similar sized family in the open on the street and you stop to socialize Priti Patel wants to charge you with the crime of “mingling!” This draconian lopsided clampdown will target minorities and the working poor when not slaving for a pittance, but protests can be shut down too.
Gagging the press is an early priority for any rising Dictatorship so the Julian Assange trial is an opportunity to clamp down on Whistleblowers as we do the bidding of the US. I was appalled to discover that the Blair era 2003 Anglo-US Extradition Treaty, “allows the US to demand extradition of UK citizens and others for offences allegedly committed against US law.” According to Peter Hitchens, “This is so even though the supposed offence may have been committed in the UK by a person living in the UK.” He rightly argues, “Do we really want the hand of a foreign power to be able to reach into our national territory at will and pluck out anyone it wants to punish?” This extraordinary overreach comes at a time when the US have refused to extradite a woman who falsely claimed diplomatic immunity to escape to America after negligently killing one of our citizens. The UK continues to rant about independence from the EU while it remains week and servile towards US dominance, so where will we stand in a trade deal?
In a Spiked Article entitled, “Julian Assange: the press-freedom trial of the century,” they say, “America’s attempt to treat journalism as espionage poses a terrifying threat to the free press. Assange’s publication methods were certainly radical – he and Wikileaks became famous for their attitude to transparency, publishing vast quantities of classified documents, unfiltered by the usual editorial choices made by journalists. But had he worked for a mainstream outlet, many of his methods for obtaining information might have been understood as normal practice for investigative journalists.” They say, “what he is accused of amounts to his attempts to cultivate a source, to get more information out of them and to keep them anonymous. A key question for the current hearings is whether the extradition attempt is politically motivated. Extradition for political purposes is expressly prohibited in the most recent UK-US extradition treaty, signed in 2003. This surely is political.”
Spiked report that, “It is no secret that Assange is loathed by the US security state. He has been under investigation for 10 years now. In 2010, Wikileaks published its most significant leaks, including the ‘Collateral Murder’ footage, the ‘Afghan War Diary’, the ‘Iraq War logs’ and the US State Department’s diplomatic cables. These generated an enormous number of stories. Practically every news outlet in the free world has covered some aspect of what Assange made public, causing enormous headaches in Washington. At the time of those leaks, the Obama administration considered using the same Espionage Act to take down Assange, but in the end it declined to prosecute him. In the words of one Justice Department official, doing so would mean it ‘would also have to prosecute the New York Times and other news organisations and writers who published classified material, including the Washington Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper’.” It is a great pity so few of them are vigorously defending Assange now.
I was excited about voting for Obama, but I have felt deeply let down by some of his decisions in office. Spiked report that, “The Obama administration was no friend of leakers and whistleblowers – it prosecuted three times as many whistleblowers under the Espionage Act as every prior administration combined. But it at least recognised the disastrous precedent prosecuting Assange would set for publishers and journalists, who uncover and publish classified information as a routine matter.” Spiked say, “the next administration took a different view. In 2017, Mike Pompeo was appointed as director of the CIA by Donald Trump. In April 2017, he delivered a menacing speech branding Wikileaks a ‘hostile intelligence service’. He attacked Assange as a ‘fraud’ and a ‘narcissist, who has created nothing of value’.”
Spiked report that, “Assange, Pompeo said, would have been on ‘the wrong side of history’ in the 1930s and 1940s. In a blistering attack on the First Amendment, Pompeo declared: ‘We can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free-speech values against us. To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now’.” What if conscientious journalists had relentlessly reported the needless loss of life during the Bengal famine, forcing the Government to act would they or beloved Winston be on the wrong side of history? “Pompeo has since risen to the role of secretary of state. A week after Pompeo’s tirade of smears, Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said that arresting Assange was a ‘priority’ as part of a broader crackdown on government leaks. Within hours of this announcement, the authorities began to prepare the charges. Can Assange expect a fair hearing given these pronouncements of hostility from on high?”
Spiked are equally scathing of our UK Judiciary saying, “The British state has behaved no better. Recently, it allowed the US to move the goalposts in the middle of the hearings. The first stage of the hearing began in February, though it was paused for the pandemic. In the interim, at the 11th hour, the US issued a brand new, wider indictment. Though it contained no new charges, it included additional accusations that Assange had recruited hackers and had conspired with hacking groups. His defence team was given just weeks to respond to the new allegations before the hearings resumed. The US Justice Department, in contrast, has had 10 years to get its story straight. The setting of the first half of the hearing spoke volumes as well: Woolwich Crown Court is adjoined to HMP Belmarsh and is usually used to try terrorists. Before any verdict had been delivered, it seems as if the UK was happy to give the impression that Assange was an enemy of the state. (The second half is taking place in the Old Bailey.)”
Spiked point out that, “You could be forgiven for wondering why there has been so little press coverage and commentary over what could well prove to be the most important press-freedom trial of the century so far. Wikileaks once provided journalists with a rich treasure trove of stories, and Assange’s conviction would pose a terrifying danger to press freedom.” They say, “at the same time, Assange’s leaks did not only expose the wrongdoings of governments and state agencies – in a way, their also exposed the journalists who had propagandised on governments’ behalf. These ‘official truth-tellers’, says veteran journalist John Pilger, were ‘exposed as collaborators’. Indeed, those journalists who continually bang the drum for the latest Western war against whichever foreign country the dartboard lands on probably ought not to fear the strong arm of the state. But journalists who are interested in exposing the lies and the wrongdoings of their governments should fear the precedent which could be set by Assange. If the US succeeds, it could turn investigative journalism into an act of treason.”
The alarming comparisons with the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany are intended to shock because we are marching steadily in that direction. The authoritarian dictates and harsh restrictions, lies, propaganda, ‘othering’ in a blame to avoid accountability massive misdirection of public funds, manipulation of the press, prohibiting protest this will all turn ugly very soon. When the deprivation of unemployment and mass evictions due to Covid 19 are compounded by the food shortages of crash-out Brexit we could see rioting on the streets. The Tories are prepared to draft in the army to hit back hard. Good democratically elected socialist Governments have lifted millions out of poverty; Tyrants have been responsible or actively killed tens of thousands and clung on to power for decades. The injustice faced by Assange should worry us all, who will be next? We must overturn the Covert 2019 Rigged Election because the only way to derail the deadly Tory Government agenda is to force them out of office. DO NOT MOVE ON!