Disloyal Americans fit for internment?

Did retired US Army Gen. Wesley Clark really say “disloyal” Americans should be thrown in some kind of detention or internment camps?

Damn right he did.

Interviewed recently on MSNBC in the aftermath of the shootings of military personnel in Chattanooga, Tenn., Clark said: “If these people are radicalized and don’t support the United States, and they’re disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle, fine; that’s their right. It’s our right and our obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict.”

If that were said at any point in time when America stood on higher moral ground, rooted in its constitutional-given right to exercise free speech, the backlash over such an outrageous, un-American and power-drunk statement would be swift and definitive.

But living under the “I don’t care” megatrend we identified in the summer of 2014 — and defined by a culture “beaten down by and, so far, defeated by the chronic deception, lying and self-serving guile of our leaders” — the backlash was impotent and vague.

That’s the undercurrent of this trend, succinctly summed up as “where has the outrage gone?”

How could a decorated four-star general, who once ran as a Democrat for president, actually suggest that expressing opposition to US foreign policy and the dictates of Washington should land law-abiding citizens in confinement until the threat to our security has passed?

Without outrage, he can get away with it.

Where are the protesters? Where are all the defenders of the Bill of Rights?

The “beaten” and “defeated” mentality has the masses largely muted and feeling powerless. The moral and constitutional tenets that comprise the DNA of this country are largely forfeited. And it is not only a military mindset that has created this trend; it is economic, too.

A couple of generations ago, could anyone imagine a high-ranking, powerful Federal Reserve official saying the following in defense of cheap money-pumping policies? “If we ever did find ourselves not able to use powers, which are inherent in the institution of a central bank, because someone decided we should manage without that because it creates moral hazard, for example, I think we pay a very high price. I don’t want to throw away things that could be useful because I am worried about this, that or the other.”

That’s how Stanley Fischer, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, was quoted in the Financial Times this month. Those backroom rigging deals created during the Panic of ’08 will stay the course, grow if they have to and exert even more control.

The Clark-Fischer parallel line plays out every day in the halls of power structures across the globe. Running scared in the age of terror and fear that powerful politicians and military leaders created, the masses have turned to mush.

The “I don’t care” trend line identified earlier has become “I don’t know how to care” and “I don’t want to know.”