Have I told you how much I hate these people? - Mike Malloy. It is every thinking person’s responsibility not to side with his or her executioners. - Albert Camus. Popular democracy anywhere threatens fascism everywhere. - The Scallion. A fascist junta of neocons using George W. Bush as its shill has taken over America by bloodless coup. What will it take for us to stage a revolution and take our country back? - Dot Calm. Drive a hybrid. Leave a lighter footprint on the planet. - Dot Calm.
Like Granny D, I have watched my own beloved country change, and I am angry beyond words about what I see. I grew up seeing America as the equivalent of the movie good guy, the hero in the white hat who came to the rescue of those in need around the world. I have watched in silent horror as the corporations, the captains and the kings of industry, used a comparatively small outlay of cash to buy the Republicans to use as their shills. George W. Bush is the puppet cowboy-king of shills, the proverbial emperor with no clothes. Every day, I watch these evil men legalize, legitimize, and institutionalize robbing the poor to pay the rich. They are carving up America like a giant carcass and doling out choice chunks of its meat to themselves and their cronies. Since the Democrats have been sipping at the same corporate teat where the Republicans have been gorging for the past generation, the fascists are free to do their worst; there is no longer any opposition. There is no one left to stand up for the rights of the American people, the Constitution, or the democracy, which I fear will be replaced by a fascist dictatorship in my lifetime. Wake up, America: we need a REVOLUTION NOW!
Sixty million people died in World War II, but fascism
won. It didn’t win on the battlefield. It didn’t win right away. It won
because the same fears, the same greed, the same hatred that fueled its
growth in the first part of the twentieth century never went away. The
symbols of fascism became anathema, but the causes … went deep. And
gradually, slowly, one step at a time, all those vices became first
tolerated, then treated as virtues, and then as the only acceptable
view.
Godwin’s Law—the contention that any argument will eventually come
round to warnings about Hitler—is twenty-five years old, but for much
longer than that, we’ve been taught that the use of that ... f-word ... is
not to be taken seriously.
Sure, every government program, new or old,
is open to accusations of communism and warnings of a slippery slope
toward some failed dictatorship. That’s expected. But to even
acknowledge our long, stumbling lurch to the right; the building force
of corporate power; the relentless need for war; a police whose power of
enforcement is divorced from law; a preening nationalism that rewards
the full rights of citizenship only to those who fit an ever-narrower
mold … You can’t call it fascism. People will only laugh.
It was French poet Charles Baudelaire who said “the
finest trick of the devil is to persuade you that he does not exist."
The finest trick of the modern fascist? The same. Nothing is ever
fascist. It’s just “very conservative.” And this week’s very
conservative, is next weeks middle of the road.
After all, what politician could be taken seriously who didn’t accept
the completely middle of the road position that we should value the
safety of the populace over the preservation of rights? Forget that
oath. The top job of the president is to keep the American public safe, no matter what that takes.
It looks like the American people are waking up. They know
that electing a Commander-in-Chief to keep America safe, so that we
remain free, is what the 2016 election is all about.
“Republicans and Democrats came together in a veto-proof
majority to respond to the will of the American people and do our
primary job to keep them safe,” said Representative Richard Hudson of
North Carolina, a Republican, who co-sponsored the bill with Homeland
Security Chairman Michael McCaul of Texas.
That drive for safety über alles means that we must
surrender our privacy to the state censors who read everything we write,
listen to everything we say, view every transaction we make, without a warrant and keep doing it even when they say they’re not. It means that we have a police that makes use of tanks and other military gear to invade the homes of ordinary citizens, and where police take more property than criminals without convictions or even charges.
There are a thousand definitions for fascism, most of them concocted
simply to show that what you’re doing isn’t a step in the direction
of fascism, but what that other guy proposes certainly would
be. But I’m not saying we’re moving toward fascism. I’m saying we
started that drift a long time ago, and now we’re well across the line.
We started by labeling minorities in our own cities as "welfare queens" and
constructed a mythology that drove a wedge through our nation. We
started by equating democratic action with sure failure and elevating
capitalism into a cause. We started … and we kept going.
We went there when we turned greed—the kind of sick, envious greed
that makes people value the rich over the poor and corporations over
individuals—into not only a virtue, but a cornerstone of our nation
cemented in place by repeated Supreme Court rulings that certify the preeminent position of wealth and corporate power.
We went there when we turned nationalism—blind prejudice against
those who don’t conform to the image of “us”—into a flag-waving
patriotism that’s expressed in calls to enforce state religion and turn even those born here into “other” if they don’t have the right skin tone.
We went there when we used that nationalism to fuel unwarranted invasions that
destabilized huge portions of the world and directly drove the
terrorism that we’re now using to fuel yet more nationalism and more
attacks and more terrorism and more nationalism in an insane,
self-reinforcing loop.
We went there when we turned fear—quivering, knock-kneed jittery
cowardice—into the illusion of “being tough” by throwing our freedoms
away in double handfuls. It was that fear (and keen lobbying from
defense contractors) that caused us, with no justification whatsoever,
to begin funneling military equipment into our police forces, and to replace "protect and serve" with "dominate and control."
This is a year in which not only the leading candidate for the GOP nomination, but all major candidates have favored building a "permanent border wall" separating America from neighboring nations and justifying this wall on the basis of racist caricature of immigrants. A year where the idea of internment camps isn't restricted to the GOP. It’s
a year in which protests have been met by tanks. In which reason is
decried as weakness. In which we’ve taken all our worst instincts and
held them up proudly.
This is who we are.
This is who we are.
This is who we are.
This is who we are.
This is who we are.
Sinclair Lewis never actually said “When fascism comes to America, it
will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” but he should have.
And he should have mentioned that no one would dare speak its name.
"Our American values are not luxuries but necessities—not the
salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and
just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength
abroad—greater than the bounty of our material blessings." — Jimmy Carter
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. — Ronald Reagan
“In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger.” — George W. Bush
According to information released by the San Antonio Police
Department, 44-year-old Manuel Lopez parked in front of his neighbor's
home on Elvira Street on Sunday afternoon.
That's when investigators say 74-year-old Franklin Martinez came
out of his home and began yelling at Lopez about where he had parked.
When Lopez said he would not move his car, police say Martinez shot Lopez in the head.
That seems reasonable.
Manuel Lopez is in critical condition. Franklin Martinez has been charged with with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney accepts his award at the U.S. Capitol
I'd like to wipe that smarmy smirk offa his face...!
“US doesn't prosecute its war criminals. It honors them” — Glenn Greenwald
The truth in Greenwald’s quote, and the sentiment, is felt around
the world as former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored Thursday. A
white bust was created that now sits at the U.S. Capitol, bought and
paid for by the American people.
The event brought out Cheney’s (poignantly) true “partner in crime,” former President George W. Bush. Sarah Lazare at Common Dreams remarks:
The ceremony was the first public appearance of Cheney and Bush
together since Jon Meacham's biography of George H.W. Bush was released
in November. Bush Sr. is quoted criticizing Cheney for
being "hard-line," "iron-ass," and "knuckling under to the real
hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get
our way in the Middle East."
Bush Jr. made light of the comments about the former vice president, who has recently used
his considerable media platform to rail against the nuclear deal
between world powers and Iran, declare he is unapologetic about the 2003
invasion of Iraq, and call for military escalation towards ISIS.
Former President George W. Bush makes jokes at the Dick Cheney ceremony
I'd like to wipe the smarmy smirk offa his face, too.
Lazare reports that when Bush Jr. told his father about the Cheney
ceremony, Bush Sr. said “send my best regards to old iron-ass."
All of my spirituality leaves me when I think of Dick Cheney. The world
damage he created, and the lives he destroyed is beyond forgiveness,
much less worthy of an honor. Shame on U.S. for allowing this man to
walk free.
Before the unveiling of the Dick Cheney Bust (L-R: Paul Ryan, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney)
Perhaps the Dick Cheney bust unveiling should have looked more like the photo below? I’d give that a yes.
Exactly what I was thinking--great minds!
Demonstrator protesting Guantanamo Detention Camp
Here are just a few comments found under the Common Dreams piece:
coliXXX
Nice satire. That is satire, right?
madaXXX
So what's the message here. "War Criminals Are Good and Whistleblowers are Bad"
organicXXX
I just want to throw-up! no one else makes my skin crawl like this mtF! bernie would jail him!
N30XXX
I'm calling dibs when I'm reincarnated as a pigeon.
