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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
 Posted - 04/24/2007 : 10:41:57
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Fascist America in ten easy steps:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html?=rssc
quote:
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody
1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 11:27:13 [Permalink]
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| I wonder if they got that from "V for Vendetta"? |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Orwellingly Yurz
SFN Regular
USA
529 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 12:17:40 [Permalink]
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YO: Having been a little boy during WWII and seeing lots of Hollywood anti-Nazi propaganda movies, I refer to the fascistic
steps mentioned above as the ever-growing and synchronous sound
of jackboots thudding up the street.
I've noticed them getting louder of late. Klump, klump, klump.
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"The modern conservative...is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
--John Kenneth Galbraith
If dogs run free
Then what must be,
Must be...
And that is all
--Bob Dylan
The neo-cons have gotten welfare for themselves down to a fine art.
--me
"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."
--J. Paul Getty
"The great thing about Art isn't what it give us, but what we become through it."
--Oscar Wilde
"We have Art in order not to die of life."
--Albert Camus
"I cling like a miser to the freedom I lose when surrounded by an abundance of things."
--Albert Camus
"Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes."
--Oscar Wilde |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 15:07:12 [Permalink]
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I went down that road earlier, Gorgo, with my "secret dictatorship" speculations. Though I agree that there are many of the hallmarks of fascism in the Bush presidency and the NeoCon movement, they are also lacking certain vital elements. The fact that the November 2006 votes were counted in a generally honest manner, and that Democrats thus took back control of both Houses showed me my error, and prompted me to withdraw the hypothesis.
Also, missing elements: A powerful rightist paramilitary force, mass rallies of the Nuremberg type, effective or at least charismatic leadership. Now the NeoCons are failing, their moment of greatest power having passed. None of this means they are not dangerous, or are not carrying out fascist policies, but full-throttle fascism has either failed, or was not seriously attempted. We have a long way to go in bringing back the degree of democracy we had, pre-9/11, however.
The NeoCons may have tried for a fascist putsch. But if they did, they chickened out when it came to the crucial step of preventing an electoral defeat last November.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 04/24/2007 15:07:43 |
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Rubicon95
Skeptic Friend
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 15:10:36 [Permalink]
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Oh you are talking about Venezuela right or was it Iran or Zimbabwe??
Gorgo,(sorry Dude mea culpa) we have alooooonnnngg way to go before that happens. Do a little research on US history pay attention to a particular phase called the Red Menace and the Palmer raids?
In the early 1900's, violent anarchists were wreaking havoc. The gov't cracked down with illegal surveillance, people being deported, seditious presses broken, etc.... Not to mention homegrown domestic terror groups and pogroms of Black Tulsa and Rosewood. With all that coming down we should have had a Fascist takeover. Jack London, an ardent socialist and damn good writer, wrote of Fascism coming to the US in the IRON HEEL.
But somehow through that strife and economic disparity, it didn't happen.
We still we have a representative democracy.
The Road to Serfdom has not taken place.............yet.
PS. one these days I am going to learn how to post properly.
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| Edited by - Rubicon95 on 04/24/2007 15:17:16 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 15:19:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I went down that road earlier, Gorgo, with my "secret dictatorship" speculations.
I know. I should have posted in your honor.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 15:43:06 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Gorgo
quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I went down that road earlier, Gorgo, with my "secret dictatorship" speculations.
I know. I should have posted in your honor.
No problem, Gorgo. Anyway, "A secret dictatorship?" was less a thing of honor than a cautionary tale of my connecting dots, however tentatively, to create a pattern that didn't exist. I try it remember it so that I do not repeat that error too often.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 16:52:50 [Permalink]
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Half said:
quote:
Also, missing elements: A powerful rightist paramilitary force,
Who says that is missing?
Look into the private security contractors we have operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 16:54:02 [Permalink]
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and:
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
A large right-wing oriented private military.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2007 : 18:34:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
Half said:
quote:
Also, missing elements: A powerful rightist paramilitary force,
Who says that is missing?
Look into the private security contractors we have operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/
Okay, I worry about those, but so far there's been no placing them on our streets to crack heads. Breaking up an anti-war demo would be such an example. They remain a dangerous potential, along with such a the Minutemen and various rightist militias (though the latter seem somewhat diminished these days).
Look, in my opinion, the NeoCons failed the "Fascist Purity Test" when they didn't prevent or rig the Novemeber elections. They had most of the ingredients for a fascist state, but they had no Triumph because they lacked the Will. I think this means this lot will always back off from taking the last fatal steps. But "political science" ain't science, and anyone would have to be crazy not to be at least a little paranoid these days.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Fascist America in 10 easy steps
