Just now I've heard Tucker Carlson's read out of the Jan. 6 papers he's been bequeathed by the numbskull who sold his soul to become Speaker. How does either of them sleep at night. 1/6 was a perfect example of the American way says Carlson with folks just looking around inside the Capitol. Sinclair Lewis had it right: It definitely can happen here. And has.
Thom's view is 100% consistent with my own. The basket of deplorables Clinton mentioned cost her the White House because it was so rude and crude - even though it was too accurate. Dems as a rule still conform to civil society norms. The GOP, in contrasts is now openly uncivil and disrespectful. Many like Boebert and Greene are examples of Stalin's "useful idiots." Where as people like Tucker Carlson are idiotic useful idiots. Tucker seems at times to view himself as the 2nd coming of Goebbels.
I am a liberal conservative. That is not an oxymoron. Liberal means being open to considering new ideas. Conservative means being slow to change in order to minimize any negative unintended consequences of new ideas. The GOP fascists are neither liberal nor conservative. They only promote fear (of grooming) and loathing (of the groomers) with no insight that THEY are the groomers grooming a fascist dictatorship while still boasting of being patriotic and loyal to the constitution they actively try to incinerate. They do not even seem to notice how oxymoronic they are.
Thom, it isn’t just the enlisted ranks that they have infiltrated. The officer ranks as well, failed Arizona Senate Candidate Martha McSalley was a Col, a Squadron commander of A-10 (Warthog) pilots, and there is Gen Charles and Micchael Flynn. It started not too long after the Air Force Academy graduate its first 2d Lieutenant in 1959.
Colorado Springs became infested with mega churches. The Air Force has what can be called a chapel guide program, In enlisted basic training, one member of the flight is selected as chapel guide, and his or her job is to keep abreast of religious services and “march” the flight to church.
The Air Force Academy is no different, and here is whare it got ensnared by Dominionism, the Academy has been pumping out Dominionist 2dLt’s who become Colonels and Generals. And the Academies cross fertilze each other, I have no doubt that Dominionism has infiltrated WestPoint and Anapolis.
Charles Flynn is the brother of Michael Flynn, the pardoned traitor. He was sitting at his desk in the Pentagon, where the emergency phone sits, that was receiving panicked calls from the Capitol on Jan6th, and he being a loyal Trumpist, and a subordinate to Christopher Miller, the acting Sec of Defense appointed just weeks ago by Trump, did not answer the phone, thus allowing the insurrection to proceed.
Yet President Biden in his “wisdom” saw fit to promote Charles Flynn to four star general and then assign him commander of Pacific Forces.
There is indeed a deep state and it is Trump’s,. I can only hope that Canada relaxes it’s immigration policies and requirements Costa Rica looks good too, there is a significant ex Pat community there.
Dominionism is an ecumenical cult founded by R J Rushdoony and Rafael Cruz, the father of Senator Ted.
It is also known as Christian Reconstruction, Its goal is to turn America into a theocracy, ruled by Mosaic Laws (those found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy), with the exception of those laws they find inconvenient.
There are sever penalties, stoning because rocks are free, for adulterers, gays, rebellious teenagers, less than faithful Christians, what Islam calls murtadd or apostates. And in Islamic countries are dealt with by, in Saudi Arabia, losing your head. Winen who aborted, even naturally a child, would be guilty of murder, contraception would be a crime, and I imagine Viagra would flow freely.
https://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/royal_race.htm, The Chalcedon foundation,(Dominionist) aware of the damage done by the above site, created their own site with the same name for a google search and it shows up ahead of the Sullivan County site. Always vigilant these fascistic anti humans.
We should never accept the idea that America has died, no matter what. It is ill, and may get sicker, but we should always work toward recovery. We thought that the Confederacy was dead, but it's not. We thought that Naziism was dead, but it's not. We thought that Royalism was dead, but it's not. We thought that Fascism was almost dead, but it's not. Democracy should never give up, either.
This was a refresher of Naomi Klein's book "Disaster Capitalism" that I read in 2006 and thought it never could come here but George Bush brought it closer and now we live as you described AND IT CAN HAPPEN HERE! Scary Stuff
Actually Chile wasn’t normal before Pinochet took office. I was in the country about a month earlier, experienced the hyperinflation and incredible stress the people were feeling and knew exactly what was coming. I got out of there fast. Nixon’s later statement to David Frost about how he (and the unmentioned and unmentionable Kissinger) had stopped a “Red Sandwich” from eating South America between Chile and Cuba was simply the icing on the cake.
And I’m not sure what would have happened if Pence had gone along with Trump’s plan. Liberal state and city governments might well have refused to recognize the new regime and some generals and admirals could also have disobeyed orders from it. The situation may have then been like Vichy France, with on one side the collaborationist government which was internationally recognized after the country surrendered to the Germans in 1940. But at the same time there were Free French forces in and out of the country, waging a steady and ultimately successful opposition to it.
So perhaps we would have had a civil war or maybe just a quick slide into Fascism, with refugees fleeing across the Mexican and Canadian borders. But either way it wouldn’t be the America that we knew. And or one thing’s for sure: Putin would be sitting in Kyiv and quite possibly Xi in Taipei too.
It can be difficult to get these concepts across to the average citizen who often believes what he learned in school about the U.S. government and its stability. And this includes those with some assets who are busy with their own affairs and simply cannot imagine the nation going down this route. In fact, when Allende was elected I’d predicted to such people exactly what would happen and they didn’t believe me. While perhaps these days perhaps folks are more cynical about the government, Fascism could still be a step too far for them—the term associates with Nazi Germany, which isn’t really right (any more than Socialism means Marxism). In any case, “It can’t happen here” is an easy response to give. We know better.
If you look at how ecosystems react they can be stable for a long time until a significant point is reached. It can be removing a keystone species, crossing a temperature threshold or any of a number of other single or cumulative stresses that makes it unstable. Then a rapid “Jenga” collapse can occur and the result is a new system. What appears is usually one that is far more impoverished and less friendly to life. There’s no reason to believe that human institutions are any more immune to such fast changes.
Maybe.... I think it's simpler than all this. As General Milley said, "We're the guys with the guns." And, the guys with the guns are runnin' and gunnin'. Bunch of crazy idiots running around the woods with Ar-15's playing war games. And don't underestimate the addictive power of social media; that's how all of this gets started. Trump is running out of money (thank God), probably because he uses campaign funds for living expenses. The jerk is broke. The rest all boils down to fear-mongering and when we're afraid, we get real stupid and myopic in our thinking.
And they are aided and abetted by fools (polite word) who travel to Atlanta and shoot off fireworks, throw projectiles at police. Acts like that turn public opinion in favor of monstrosities like "Cop City" and further harden the us-vs-them mentality of the cops themselves.
This isn't 1968 anymore, and what the hell did 1968 get us? Richard Nixon
Yes, that's exactly how it happens - you've spelled it out clearly. The nation of Israel has known about this for centuries - they were advised by Solomon, in a poem about love, to "Catch for us the foxes— the little foxes that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in bloom." (Song of Solomon 2:15). They know it's the little foxes they need to keep the upper hand on, and they also know this isn't about an actual vineyard, but is symbolic. G-d planted a vineyard, and it came to be known as Israel, so the "little foxes" are those who try to do to the "vineyard" what domestic terrorists are trying to do to America.
There are two kinds of fascists. The very rich fascist and the very poor fascist. Very rich fascist only care about having more money and more power, while the army of poor fascist want to torture and kill everyone they don't like. The very rich fascist will even hire poor people the very poor fascist want to exterminate. Brand of fascism is more about classism than racism but both will be going on at the same time.
Putin and his buddies have control over the oil in Russia that finances their destruction of civilization. Before Reagan, the Russian citizens had all the oil. Looking at Saudi Arabia and about 500 billionaires in China, the autocrat dictators have made themselves wealthy and turn the poor against each other, and now it is America's turn to experience living in a living hell. I can't help but think it started with the JFK assassination. And I think the Reagan democrats are in on it also and they make up about half the Democratic party or more, including Garland and Biden. The time to defend democracy was over two years ago.
With overpopulation and planet destruction, eventually the religious hordes will kill themselves in the not too distant future as well.
If America has a chance it must vote out Biden and put in a younger idealist and not a sadist.
Reagan Democrats, aka Third Way, aka New Democrats, aka Democratic Leadership Council, aka Democratic National Committee, DCCCC, DSCC. We the people need to reclaim the reins of the Democratic Party. It has to be a grass roots effort. The Fascists took over the Republican party by starting at the precinct level, but they also had the funding from the Kochs, and the other right wing foundations and think tanks. I don't know if there is time for us to catch up, all I know is that the Democratic party has been sitting on its arse, the only contests they have been interested in is the Presidential race, and the DCCC and DNC spend their time and money on Primary contests to defeat progressives.
Pinochet was inspired by and had the blessing of Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, of Comparative Advantage. I am old enough and I remember well. No doubt that his coup was assisted by the CIA, always ready to do the bidding of their corporate masters.
All of this is very well described and very scary. The thing I try to do is focus on the opposition party and consider what they are doing to counteract it, and what could be done to counteract it. And that's what I see the biggest failings because I see them playing right along, buying into the myths about Social Security, refusing to reconsider the exemption for hedge funds that blown out to gigantic size by nsmia in '96. We are familiar with the quote from fdr, the question is, who would say this now and what would be the result? Mainstream media doubles down every day on normalizing the radicals and distracting from what they do. If you watched any of the live impeachment sessions, or other live sessions, you would see that Jordan and his cohorts literally have no interest in what's going on in the Congress - that they are just there making a segment for later use on Fox TV. We have all these "revelations" about fox - so which democrats are moving to revoke its license or to change how fox gets 20 dollars from every cable subscription? The basic, practical steps of opposition are just not being taken.
Yep. But in Chile they actually refer to it as “9/11.” September 11, of course…
Just now I've heard Tucker Carlson's read out of the Jan. 6 papers he's been bequeathed by the numbskull who sold his soul to become Speaker. How does either of them sleep at night. 1/6 was a perfect example of the American way says Carlson with folks just looking around inside the Capitol. Sinclair Lewis had it right: It definitely can happen here. And has.
Thom's view is 100% consistent with my own. The basket of deplorables Clinton mentioned cost her the White House because it was so rude and crude - even though it was too accurate. Dems as a rule still conform to civil society norms. The GOP, in contrasts is now openly uncivil and disrespectful. Many like Boebert and Greene are examples of Stalin's "useful idiots." Where as people like Tucker Carlson are idiotic useful idiots. Tucker seems at times to view himself as the 2nd coming of Goebbels.
I am a liberal conservative. That is not an oxymoron. Liberal means being open to considering new ideas. Conservative means being slow to change in order to minimize any negative unintended consequences of new ideas. The GOP fascists are neither liberal nor conservative. They only promote fear (of grooming) and loathing (of the groomers) with no insight that THEY are the groomers grooming a fascist dictatorship while still boasting of being patriotic and loyal to the constitution they actively try to incinerate. They do not even seem to notice how oxymoronic they are.
Thom, it isn’t just the enlisted ranks that they have infiltrated. The officer ranks as well, failed Arizona Senate Candidate Martha McSalley was a Col, a Squadron commander of A-10 (Warthog) pilots, and there is Gen Charles and Micchael Flynn. It started not too long after the Air Force Academy graduate its first 2d Lieutenant in 1959.
Colorado Springs became infested with mega churches. The Air Force has what can be called a chapel guide program, In enlisted basic training, one member of the flight is selected as chapel guide, and his or her job is to keep abreast of religious services and “march” the flight to church.
The Air Force Academy is no different, and here is whare it got ensnared by Dominionism, the Academy has been pumping out Dominionist 2dLt’s who become Colonels and Generals. And the Academies cross fertilze each other, I have no doubt that Dominionism has infiltrated WestPoint and Anapolis.
Charles Flynn is the brother of Michael Flynn, the pardoned traitor. He was sitting at his desk in the Pentagon, where the emergency phone sits, that was receiving panicked calls from the Capitol on Jan6th, and he being a loyal Trumpist, and a subordinate to Christopher Miller, the acting Sec of Defense appointed just weeks ago by Trump, did not answer the phone, thus allowing the insurrection to proceed.
Yet President Biden in his “wisdom” saw fit to promote Charles Flynn to four star general and then assign him commander of Pacific Forces.
There is indeed a deep state and it is Trump’s,. I can only hope that Canada relaxes it’s immigration policies and requirements Costa Rica looks good too, there is a significant ex Pat community there.
Dominionism is an ecumenical cult founded by R J Rushdoony and Rafael Cruz, the father of Senator Ted.
It is also known as Christian Reconstruction, Its goal is to turn America into a theocracy, ruled by Mosaic Laws (those found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy), with the exception of those laws they find inconvenient.
There are sever penalties, stoning because rocks are free, for adulterers, gays, rebellious teenagers, less than faithful Christians, what Islam calls murtadd or apostates. And in Islamic countries are dealt with by, in Saudi Arabia, losing your head. Winen who aborted, even naturally a child, would be guilty of murder, contraception would be a crime, and I imagine Viagra would flow freely.
https://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/royal_race.htm, The Chalcedon foundation,(Dominionist) aware of the damage done by the above site, created their own site with the same name for a google search and it shows up ahead of the Sullivan County site. Always vigilant these fascistic anti humans.
We should never accept the idea that America has died, no matter what. It is ill, and may get sicker, but we should always work toward recovery. We thought that the Confederacy was dead, but it's not. We thought that Naziism was dead, but it's not. We thought that Royalism was dead, but it's not. We thought that Fascism was almost dead, but it's not. Democracy should never give up, either.
This was a refresher of Naomi Klein's book "Disaster Capitalism" that I read in 2006 and thought it never could come here but George Bush brought it closer and now we live as you described AND IT CAN HAPPEN HERE! Scary Stuff
Actually Chile wasn’t normal before Pinochet took office. I was in the country about a month earlier, experienced the hyperinflation and incredible stress the people were feeling and knew exactly what was coming. I got out of there fast. Nixon’s later statement to David Frost about how he (and the unmentioned and unmentionable Kissinger) had stopped a “Red Sandwich” from eating South America between Chile and Cuba was simply the icing on the cake.
And I’m not sure what would have happened if Pence had gone along with Trump’s plan. Liberal state and city governments might well have refused to recognize the new regime and some generals and admirals could also have disobeyed orders from it. The situation may have then been like Vichy France, with on one side the collaborationist government which was internationally recognized after the country surrendered to the Germans in 1940. But at the same time there were Free French forces in and out of the country, waging a steady and ultimately successful opposition to it.
So perhaps we would have had a civil war or maybe just a quick slide into Fascism, with refugees fleeing across the Mexican and Canadian borders. But either way it wouldn’t be the America that we knew. And or one thing’s for sure: Putin would be sitting in Kyiv and quite possibly Xi in Taipei too.
It can be difficult to get these concepts across to the average citizen who often believes what he learned in school about the U.S. government and its stability. And this includes those with some assets who are busy with their own affairs and simply cannot imagine the nation going down this route. In fact, when Allende was elected I’d predicted to such people exactly what would happen and they didn’t believe me. While perhaps these days perhaps folks are more cynical about the government, Fascism could still be a step too far for them—the term associates with Nazi Germany, which isn’t really right (any more than Socialism means Marxism). In any case, “It can’t happen here” is an easy response to give. We know better.
If you look at how ecosystems react they can be stable for a long time until a significant point is reached. It can be removing a keystone species, crossing a temperature threshold or any of a number of other single or cumulative stresses that makes it unstable. Then a rapid “Jenga” collapse can occur and the result is a new system. What appears is usually one that is far more impoverished and less friendly to life. There’s no reason to believe that human institutions are any more immune to such fast changes.
Maybe.... I think it's simpler than all this. As General Milley said, "We're the guys with the guns." And, the guys with the guns are runnin' and gunnin'. Bunch of crazy idiots running around the woods with Ar-15's playing war games. And don't underestimate the addictive power of social media; that's how all of this gets started. Trump is running out of money (thank God), probably because he uses campaign funds for living expenses. The jerk is broke. The rest all boils down to fear-mongering and when we're afraid, we get real stupid and myopic in our thinking.
And they are aided and abetted by fools (polite word) who travel to Atlanta and shoot off fireworks, throw projectiles at police. Acts like that turn public opinion in favor of monstrosities like "Cop City" and further harden the us-vs-them mentality of the cops themselves.
This isn't 1968 anymore, and what the hell did 1968 get us? Richard Nixon
Our Republic is not an effective governing body. It is already dead. Unfortunately, nobody seems to realize that fact.
Can it be restored? That's the real question. I am no longer hopeful. I've been here too long.
Thom, I was just able to read your post yesterday, and make a comment there. Perhaps you could take a look?
Your daily writings are light in the darkness.
Thank you.
Yes, that's exactly how it happens - you've spelled it out clearly. The nation of Israel has known about this for centuries - they were advised by Solomon, in a poem about love, to "Catch for us the foxes— the little foxes that ruin the vineyards— for our vineyards are in bloom." (Song of Solomon 2:15). They know it's the little foxes they need to keep the upper hand on, and they also know this isn't about an actual vineyard, but is symbolic. G-d planted a vineyard, and it came to be known as Israel, so the "little foxes" are those who try to do to the "vineyard" what domestic terrorists are trying to do to America.
There are two kinds of fascists. The very rich fascist and the very poor fascist. Very rich fascist only care about having more money and more power, while the army of poor fascist want to torture and kill everyone they don't like. The very rich fascist will even hire poor people the very poor fascist want to exterminate. Brand of fascism is more about classism than racism but both will be going on at the same time.
Putin and his buddies have control over the oil in Russia that finances their destruction of civilization. Before Reagan, the Russian citizens had all the oil. Looking at Saudi Arabia and about 500 billionaires in China, the autocrat dictators have made themselves wealthy and turn the poor against each other, and now it is America's turn to experience living in a living hell. I can't help but think it started with the JFK assassination. And I think the Reagan democrats are in on it also and they make up about half the Democratic party or more, including Garland and Biden. The time to defend democracy was over two years ago.
With overpopulation and planet destruction, eventually the religious hordes will kill themselves in the not too distant future as well.
If America has a chance it must vote out Biden and put in a younger idealist and not a sadist.
Reagan Democrats, aka Third Way, aka New Democrats, aka Democratic Leadership Council, aka Democratic National Committee, DCCCC, DSCC. We the people need to reclaim the reins of the Democratic Party. It has to be a grass roots effort. The Fascists took over the Republican party by starting at the precinct level, but they also had the funding from the Kochs, and the other right wing foundations and think tanks. I don't know if there is time for us to catch up, all I know is that the Democratic party has been sitting on its arse, the only contests they have been interested in is the Presidential race, and the DCCC and DNC spend their time and money on Primary contests to defeat progressives.
learned about this "technique" recently:
"Sea Lioning"
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/5/2156451/-Critical-Thinking-Bootcamp-Sea-lioning
Book marked. A public service Ron, Thanks for the link An excellent catalog of logical fallacies,.
Interesting. Thanks Rod.
“It was “the other 9/11.” Everything seemed normal until General Pinochet declared he was taking over the government of Chile on September 11, 1973.”
Sounds like it was also the other 1/6 with the overthrow coming from domestic terrorists not civilians being killed by international terrorists.
Pinochet was inspired by and had the blessing of Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, of Comparative Advantage. I am old enough and I remember well. No doubt that his coup was assisted by the CIA, always ready to do the bidding of their corporate masters.
All of this is very well described and very scary. The thing I try to do is focus on the opposition party and consider what they are doing to counteract it, and what could be done to counteract it. And that's what I see the biggest failings because I see them playing right along, buying into the myths about Social Security, refusing to reconsider the exemption for hedge funds that blown out to gigantic size by nsmia in '96. We are familiar with the quote from fdr, the question is, who would say this now and what would be the result? Mainstream media doubles down every day on normalizing the radicals and distracting from what they do. If you watched any of the live impeachment sessions, or other live sessions, you would see that Jordan and his cohorts literally have no interest in what's going on in the Congress - that they are just there making a segment for later use on Fox TV. We have all these "revelations" about fox - so which democrats are moving to revoke its license or to change how fox gets 20 dollars from every cable subscription? The basic, practical steps of opposition are just not being taken.