Atlas Drugged by Stephen L. Goldstein

Author:Stephen L. Goldstein [Goldstein, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781555717100
Publisher: Hellgate Press
Published: 2012-06-10T16:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Excoriate, Bloviate, Celebrate

SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 10 A.M.: THE WHITE HOUSE, EAST ROOM. President Cooper agreed to meet with his Corporate Council, fifty heads of the nation’s major corporations and his de facto bosses, who demanded he meet with them. The usually quiet, staid group is noisy. People have congregated in threes and fours. Some are shaking their fists. Others are shaking their heads, lips pursed, brows knitted. They ignore the president when he comes in, until he taps the microphone at the podium and asks them to take their seats.

“These are difficult times for all of us, I know,” he begins.

“You said it!” someone yells from the back of the room.

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” Cooper continues, trying to ignore the interruption. “I invited you here to assure you face-to-face that we have everything under control.”

“Mr. President, Mr. President, I’m Jonathan Smythe of Consolidated Industries,” a tall, totally bald man in his early fifties says as he pops up from his seat in the front row. “Mr. President, first of all, with all due respect, we asked for this meeting—not you. Second, it appears to us as though you and your administration have lost control. You’re looking like impotent fools, with all due respect. And you’re making us look like a bunch of idiots for supporting you. Something’s gotta give. You’ve gotta keep a lid on things for us. You need to protect our markets. Can’t you control a bunch of malcontents? Frankly, I’m beginning—almost all of us are beginning—to think that John Galt, and everything he stood for, is dead, just like all those fuckin’ antigovernment banners are saying. And we’re coming to the conclusion that you’ve killed him. At least that’s what everyone’s thinking, even if they’re not saying it.”

“Mr. Smythe, I don’t take your comments personally,” Cooper answers dryly.

“Well, you should!” Smythe snaps back. “Who else do you think they were meant for?”

“Obviously, you’re upset and you have every right to be,” Cooper continues. “But you’re just plain uninformed and misinformed. So, let’s set the record straight. Anyone who thinks like you is simply falling for the terrorist propaganda that the media love to pick up and throw in our faces. You know who runs this country now—and who has for sixty-seven years. You know that all the power is on our side everywhere—at the national level and in the states, right down to cities. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed. It took us a while, but we’ve got the courts sewn up with people who think like us. There hasn’t been a ruling against corporate interests in decades— and there isn’t going to be. We’ve got what’s left of the Congress and state legislatures in our pocket. And you know my White House is always on your side. There may be grumblings from time to time from loudmouths and troublemakers stirred up by outside agitators. But we’ve been able to crush them in the past and we’ll do it again. Only this time, we’ll put them out of business for good!”

“But Mr.

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