Fascism Rising

It is not just me: Upping the ante — Recipe for a Revolution

A linky good post. Read below the fold...

I went out of town on vacation in early November and when I returned, I decided to go hang out on Alternet for awhile. I had been told that it was a "center-right" site, but I didn't believe it. Well, I'm here to report that it is, indeed, a center-right site and might even qualify as a right-wing site, since there are so many Paul-, Rand-, and Obama-bots over there. I canceled my subscription to Alternet this morning, after posting a farewell message to one of the posters. I'm sure I won't be missed - a few will be shouting, "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out", no doubt. Read below the fold...

‘Twas the week before extra-constitutional detention legalization and all through the House and Senate, hardly a rat-bastard, pimped-out-by-the-oligarchy, political or media creature was stirring, not even my own NY senators and rep!

I am away on vacation, despite remnants of the flu, lower back stress and a job that is thin-ice, one part-time day at a time precarious. I desperately needed a vacation since this bottom rung corporate job is as empathyless-ly and amorally run as our country. I am happy at long last to be around long-distance family. Nonetheless I am having fitful dreams along with bouts of insomnia about the deterioration of what used to be the American republic. Read below the fold...

This is a re-post from 1-10-11. Almost a year ago. With the ever-increassing militarization of our government Gitmo as of this month has become all the more profoundly entrenched and revitalized. Conveniently useful now for internment of our own most heroic citizens of conscience who can (and will) be declared "belligerent" on the "say so" of someone in the administration and then efficiently and unconstitutionally (but that doesn't matter to the President and the vast majority of Congress) "disappeared" there (or elsewhere) forever without right and access to legal support and protection.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read below the fold...

Bill Quigley has taken a hard and well-researched look at Obama’s continuation and escalation of what Quigley terms the “draconian domestic civil liberties intrusions pioneered under the Bush administration” (involving freedoms of speech, of assembly of association, to privacy, to a fair trial, of religion, etc.).

Quigley's article is a strong rejoinder to so much of the myopic, Obamacrat hype about Obama being the lesser of two evils. He only appears to be the lesser of two evils in the hypocritical talk Obama talks and guaranteed will be talking much more of in his ever-intensifying “Lucy and the football” campaign mode. Read below the fold...

[Re-post from 11/10/2010]

The Bush and Obama regimes have made Swiss cheese out of the U.S. Constitution. Now it’s apparently time to say goodbye to the First Amendment and a big hello to the United Police States of America.

They say the final stage of the slippery slope -- the fast hardening of soft fascism -- escalates really fast. (Incidentally, Jon Stewart, why should I use my “inside voice” while I am being raped of my civil liberties?)

Ron Jacobs in CounterPunch makes the chilling comment: Read below the fold...

Land of the free.

It sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Just don’t try to exercise said freedom. That can come with serious helpings of intimidation and punishment. Pepper spraying, clubbing, incarceration.

Actually, thanks to our United States Senate this week -- with a stunning bipartisan vote of 93 to 7 -- you now can get efficiently and LEGALLY “disappeared” for exercising your HERETOFORE constitutional freedoms. Free speech. Assembly, etc.

Meanwhile, the REAL terrorists continue to get plenty of mileage out of the faux-War on Terror. It comes in handy for removing the rights and securities of any citizenry, even ours. Read below the fold...

Did you know that Wells Fargo is a major financer and investor in private prisons?

The DC community—with Occupy DC—is organizing to confront the toxic links between Wall Street, the growing Private Prison Industry and Mass Incarceration. Join us Friday the 2nd from 4pm to 6pm at the Wells Fargo branch at 1901 7th ST, N.W. (between Florida and T) to protest, educate and urge those with holdings at Wells Fargo to take their money out!

Wells Fargo is the major financer for the Rivers Correctional Institution in North Carolina, where thousands of D.C. residents are incarcerated…for profit!

Read below the fold...

Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. John McCain have set in motion bill S. 1867 in the upcoming “defense authorization bill”.

Glenn Greenwald distills the bill's 3 main provisions: 1) it mandates that all accused Terrorists be indefinitely imprisoned by the military rather than in the civilian court system INCLUDING U.S. CITIZENS ON U.S. SOIL ACCUSED OF “TERRORISM”; 2) it renews the 2001 “Authorization to Use Military Force” (AUMF) against anyone who SUBSTANTIALLY SUPPORTS Al Qaeda, the Taliban or “ASSOCIATED FORCES”; 3) it “imposes NEW RESTRICTIONS on the U.S. Government’s ability to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo “

According to Tom Carter of wsws: Read below the fold...

Here's How Your Senators Voted on Udall Amendment to Strip Out War and Imprisonment Power Grabs

NAYs ---61 (Occupy their front yards with all-night drum circles.)

Read below the fold...

Susie has the details. It seems there was a conference call. But why couldn't the mayors have simply said no, we are not going to do that? Read below the fold...

Muammar Gaddafi’s barbaric murder on October 20, 2011 was a war crime. It violated the Third Geneva Convention of 1929 and it violated the UN Security Council Resolution #1973 of 2011.

Will it be seriously investigated and prosecuted? Probably and tragically not. Or maybe a “short-lived” (pun intended) kabuki investigation. But I am guessing not even that.

So when did American presidents and secretaries of state stop caring entirely about international law?

So when did most of America, in fact, stop caring entirely about international law? Read below the fold...

Ohio voters last night voted overwhelmingly against both Republican and Democrat corporate-favoring policies in a referendum. Senate Bill 5, passed by the Republican-dominated legislature and signed into law by Republican governor John Kasich, was shot down by sixty-one percent, too large a margin for the GOP to rig the vote count in its favor. Read below the fold...