American fascism and the death of the West

Dateline: Dana Point, California

This isn’t a destination where you’ll see me regularly.

In fact, it takes a lot these days to get me to show up in The Land of the Free. A suite at the St. Regis in Orange County (which is excellent, by the way) and seeing a close friend was my price of admission this time.

You know I’m no fan of doing business in California. In fact, I recently called it the worst place in the world to start a business.

The government is literally running on all cylinders to fight any kind of innovation or entrepreneurship.

Then, when some guy like Mark Zuckerberg creates something of great significance — not because of, but in spite of, the draconian business climate — all of the government mucky mucks get together to pat each other on the back and launch the “open for business” propaganda.

If you’re an American, you’ve been sold a dream that “America” is the best place on earth; and that if you leave, things will be really, really bad.

Let’s examine my trip from Nicaragua to California.

Despite flying hundreds of thousands of miles on United Airlines over the past several years, they still managed to misplace my bag coming into Houston. The audio on the seatback TV was broken, and the guy next to me got a hamburger that was practically welded to the plate.

In Houston, the TSA did their usual voodoo. In every other country on earth, bags are inspected at the point of departure. The US, however, doesn’t trust anyone other than itself, despite the fact that it has just about the world’s worst track record of foiling terrorist attacks. That means you and your bags get screened (again) in some of the longest security lines on earth.

Despite having TSA “Pre-check” status, I was “randomly” sent through the slow line. Funny how, when dealing with government, things not in your favor always happen “randomly”. Such as my 100% “success” rate in having the TSA goons “randomly” inspect my checked luggage in the last year.

They used to claim going through the naked body scanners was “random”. Funny how they send everyone through one of these radiation traps these days. Unless you want a guy who used to make your fries at Wendy’s feeling your crotch, you have no choice.

Government sold you this great “security” by saying it was employed randomly. Now, they’re doing everything from swabbing your hands in the security line to laughing at pictures of your genitalia in a back room. Nothing random about it.

On my flight to California I counted the number of times the excessively statist flight attendant told us something was “required”. Total count: 21. Air travel in the US is among the worst experiences on earth, largely because big airlines are a bunch of wusses who goose step along with whatever the FAA, TSA, and French Revolution-sounding Department of Homeland Security demand.

Oh, and once you get to your final destination, the airport gestapo shout at the person picking you up for “lingering” while you put your bag in the trunk.

And as you drive out of the airport, you pass a police checkpoint (perhaps another “random” occurrence), a not-so-friendly reminder that the police state is in full bloom.

You can say this is all whiny. After all, you’re not going to flee the country (or declare the death of the West) because some guy in First Class got a bad cheeseburger.

But the constantly escalating police and surveillance state in the US — all under the banner of “your safety” — is proof that you’ve been sold a bill of goods. The idea that your country has even a modicum of freedom is a complete and total lie.

Where you’re treated better

The fact that I received better service on a Cambodian airline than most American flights only highlights the horrible infrastructure and lack of investment by businesses in the United States.

Airlines in the Middle East, Singapore, and elsewhere, don’t tend to have broken TVs on their planes, precisely because companies invest in their business to benefit from a growing economy. The fact that First Class passengers get served rubbery cheeseburgers is only proof that the country is broke. Poor people don’t demand as much customer service.

This is why I believe so strongly in the free market: it never lies.

Politicians can lie and tell you and your children you live in the freest country on earth.

They can trot out manipulated statistics that show that the economy is growing by leaps and bounds, even though it’s not.

But they can’t change the fact that anyone that makes observations on a global level can easily see that the United States is not only a fascist nation, but it’s flat broke.

In fact, just today I saw that a Cambodian casino is starting their own charter service to bring all of the rich Chinese gamblers to Phnom Penh to gamble. Las Vegas isn’t doing that, and I suspect that (as just one example of the dwindling significance of the US) all of the world’s most fervent gamblers will skip the US entirely in the near future.

If Singapore Airlines served crappy food, they’d be out of business. If Singapore as a nation subjected tourists and citizens to abysmal treatment, they’d be a third world banana republic.

Somehow, the United States thinks it has some magic pixie dust that exempts it from the reality of the free market that we always talk about here: people will eventually go where they’re treated best.

The places that respect freedom and capital are doing well. The United States is not. Which is why many are declaring the death of the West. If you have money or a business based on American soil, it’s only a matter of time before the gestapo gets its hands on that, too.