We need a public info campaign with civics refreshers, including how our constitution is designed to protect us from our common, human weakness -- the appetite for power.
Check these infographics about Pinochet's Chilean dictatorships and visualizing what Trump's deportation camps might look like based on what happened when U.S. citizens fo Japanese descent were rounded up.
Honor Those Who Serve And Protect The U.S. Constitution.
This is definitely a frightening prospect. All the more reason for the rational central moderates, to join the liberal progressives to prevent a fascist take over of our country.
Yes. Trump will fire generals. Promote “his loyal patriots”. We will see “prison camps” and “unfriendly” networks lose their licenses. Riots in cities will be bloody.
The best way to stop this is get rid of the rediculous VOLUNTARY MILITARY. It is unfair and unjust and is a beacon for the right-wing radicals. Look at Flynn and while we are looking why is his now COMPROMISED borther, also a General, still in the military? It is time every AmericaN met their citizenship responsibilities and one should be serving in the military. I give you Israel as a great example. There are plently of jobs in the military that are not combatant and should be filled by military personnel, not contractors that are overcharging us for their services. Get rid of mercenaries like Prince. There is a host of things we can do but getting rid of the all voluntary military should be our first step. Right after HS and before college, 2 yrs service and reserves until 35 yrs of age, that would give us an active force at the ready for disasters, other emergencies and ,if necessary war.
Excellent idea Marilyn. We could go back to a 2 year service required of all from 18 to 22 years of age, either military, "peace corps", community service, conservation corps or others similar services - exception only for the disabled (and most of the disabled people can render positive assistance) Even the wealthy would need to be included.
With the rise in authoritarian politics under the Trump administration, lying became a major pillar of Trump’s leadership philosophy. Historically, authoritarians have displaced the existing truth and replaced it with their truth. They create a following that sees the leader as the paragon of truth, while all others, outside the clan are seen as charlatans. A massive truth schism is formed, with both sides claiming victory in the truth war. Authoritarians push the idea that feelings are more accurate than facts (post-truth) and that objective truth should be discounted (postmodernism). The fact that 40 million Americans believe that Trump won the election, is evidence that the truth has become intangible, and fact and fiction have become indistinguishable for a large faction of our society. This is no accident, as this is how authoritarians throughout history have worked. When a person can be convinced that the most ridiculous things are true, then it is just as easy to convince that person that the truth is ridiculous. We are losing the truth war, as many have sided with fallacy, including many of those in the armed forces. We have a serious gullibility problem. As long as fear-based propaganda is used to drive sentiment, we will have a dangerous post-truth environment.
Folks are correct to be worried about extremism in the armed forces. Writers like Chris Hedges have shown that Christian fascism has been a significant player in armed forces extremism. And Hedges has commented that the Christian fascist right is growing.
I too worry that some of our leaders may be too complacent about the authoritarian threat, being unable to imagine that this "exceptional" country could be vulnerable to such forces. Jeane Kirkpatrick, ambassador to the UN under Rondald Reagan, had the arrogance to suggest that "benign dictatorship" in South America was just fine as long as it kept conditions stable -- stable for the US. Such minds fail to realize that this sort of authoritarian logic is capable of drifting back on those who use such political tactics, infecting political minds in the homeland. If Trump and Co. is not clear proof of that, I do not know what is.
There is some evidence, however, that some leaders are taking the authoritarian threat very seriously. President Biden has acknowledged as much when he says that he is fighting for the soul of this nation, its democratic and humanistic soul.
That fight is real and ongoing. The Proud Boys are back in Oregon, carrying out their dangerous thug-street theater with belligerence and paintball guns, influencing the gullible and disaffected to join in. This last weekend in Portland some 65 year old man, sympathetic to the Proud Boys' cause. fired his illegal pistol during a demonstration in downtown Portland, luckily hitting no one.
The political street theater continues to stay hot. We ignore this persistent heat at our peril.
From what I've read I think that is true. At the same time, I am also wary of other sorts of true believer, left and right. Any mind filled with horrible certainty and conviction is capable of fascist tendencies. As the poet Roethke observes "it is fatal to woo yourself/no matter how graceful the posture."
Proud Boys and their ilk never have left Oregon, John. Since it’s founding in the mid 1800’s, Oregon has been a haven for white supremacy and authoritarianism (a KKK governor elected in 1920’s) … remember the Bundy family Malheur Bureau of Land Management stand-off in 2016? Now, all over rural Oregon (with occasional mass rallies into the big urban areas) they drive their terror trucks around towns, barely concealing guns, in the pickup beds, proudly desecrating the US flag with confederate, 3%er and trump rags
You are correct. The Proud Boys never left. There was just a lull in public awareness. Such extreme political elements are probably always with us to some degree or other, popping out whenever conditions are ripe for them.
My questions include - why hasn’t Flynn been recalled and court-martialed? Why haven’t the signers of that letter? Why hasn’t trump been charged for quite deliberately and clearly fomenting violence against our government? Why hasn’t he, at the least, been banned from holding any office ever again?
Where are the consequences?
Where is justice?
Nothing will change for the better until there are clear and swift legal consequences for illegal behavior - no matter who commits it.
Nasumii, good questions; perhaps the elephant in the room adage applies. One reason might be, blame may fall, on US Atty Gen Merrick Garland, who was recommended to bi-partisan Joe Biden by Utah’s right-wing former Senator Orrin Hatch.
“In Search of Spring” by Zita Cabello-Barrueto is an amazing book about life after the coup in Chile and the long-ranging effects of it on the author, her family, and society. Her brother was taken as a political prisoner and killed by the Caravan of Death days after the coup, and years after escaping from Chile she tracked down over 100 witnesses to the COD killings across Chile. She and a pro-bono legal team won a landmark human rights case in a US federal court, bringing the officer who killed her brother to civil justice. Highly recommend it.
Kristen, thanks for recommending “In Search of Spring.” We need to learn what life has been like under fascist leaders, what wannabe dictator trump plans for us in the event he wins the 2024 elections; an increasing likelihood if Biden continues his complicity in Apartheid Israel’s genocide in Occupied Palestine.
I recommend “Missing: The chilling true account of a young American’s disappearance,” by Thomas Hauser (1982. ) The book morphed into a “scorching” film, both about journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman who came across evidence of CIA involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup.
Ironically, the newly elected socialist Chilean president Allende unwittingly helped Pinochet rise to a position high enough to make the fascist coup possible. I wonder whether Biden has made somewhat similar fatal mistakes; trusting the enemy. Biden appointed a Republican recommended to head DOJ. Biden unconditionally embraced and supported fascist Zionist Netanyahu’s genocidal massacres and the starvation of Palestinians. Biden fist-bumped the Saudi prince who murdered the WaPo reporter, who he campaigned promising making the butcher a pariah.
We’re making a mistake seemingly unconditionally supporting Biden while in denial of these and other fatal mistakes that suggest unfitness for public office. Placating and empowering the enemy is always contraindicated. Allow me to add: Biden’s disparaging students and their heroic protests, made at great sacrifice, was another fatal mistake. Ours silence and his complicity in genocide threaten our democracy. We owe our fealty to the constitution, not the president especially when his VP seems more competent. Our democracy is in peril, as was Chile’s in 1973, by fatal mistakes and by being wedded to them.
Pinochet was a sociopath and as such, had no conscience. He had many people killed and the US seemed to support the man as long as he was a friend to the US. Many of our coups ended in dictatorships. Our oligarchs probably want the same thing here in the US; Prescott Bush and Henry Ford sure did.
Steve, well said. I fear Biden is making a similar mistake; on the wrong side of history with respect to Apartheid Israel even in spite of the genocide against Palestinians. Ironically, Bibi favors trump.
Netanyahu's leadership is a departure from previous Israeli leadership. His sociopathic aggresiveness has caught our leadership flat footed. Biden has been slow to realize who Netanyahu really is. The Israeli people see it.
Bibi likes tRump because he sees a kindred spirit in him. A red flag.
Are Lloyd Austin and the other generals in charge at the pentagon and defense department up to the task of rooting out extremist elements within their own ranks? Do they sufficiently recognize the threat of dangerous extremists loyal to Trump like Flynn and others? Do they have enough 'healthy paranoia' to suspect threats, plots and plans for more possible violent attacks from those who seek to "take their country back" ? I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment and believe they're watching, monitoring, and even surveilling in some cases various actors they believe are threats to the rule of law and the constitution of the United States.
Are there traitors, armed right wing militia groups lurking amongst us, who believe they're patriots, who seek the violent overthrow of the government in order to protect their country from being taken over by what they see as radical left wing communists who are stealing elections? Constant sustained propaganda leads to polarization and polarization leads to survivalist mentality. These folks are locked and loaded!
Absolutely, Gary … locked and loaded… that’s part of the messaging of intimidation and terror as they drive their flag-waving terror trucks around town …. still looking for ways to push back on these bullies now collectively, before the only resistance is individually recreating the almost futile resistance of the 1989 Tienenem tank man
Thank you for addressing this issue. I don’t feel it has been talked about enough and many are unaware of the potential dangers faced in the near future from these nefarious actors
The DoD must also act to bring retired general officers like Flynn to heel. The longer he is out running around spouting conspiracies about Q and about Trump, the more dangerous he is. Austin should recall him to active duty and either court martial him immediately, or assign him to command a radar station on Eniwetok island until he spouts his nonsense in uniform, then court martial him and send him on vacation to Leavenworth.
We need a public info campaign with civics refreshers, including how our constitution is designed to protect us from our common, human weakness -- the appetite for power.
Check these infographics about Pinochet's Chilean dictatorships and visualizing what Trump's deportation camps might look like based on what happened when U.S. citizens fo Japanese descent were rounded up.
Honor Those Who Serve And Protect The U.S. Constitution.
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/05/27/honor-those-who-serve-and-protect-the-american-constitution/
This is definitely a frightening prospect. All the more reason for the rational central moderates, to join the liberal progressives to prevent a fascist take over of our country.
Yes. Trump will fire generals. Promote “his loyal patriots”. We will see “prison camps” and “unfriendly” networks lose their licenses. Riots in cities will be bloody.
The best way to stop this is get rid of the rediculous VOLUNTARY MILITARY. It is unfair and unjust and is a beacon for the right-wing radicals. Look at Flynn and while we are looking why is his now COMPROMISED borther, also a General, still in the military? It is time every AmericaN met their citizenship responsibilities and one should be serving in the military. I give you Israel as a great example. There are plently of jobs in the military that are not combatant and should be filled by military personnel, not contractors that are overcharging us for their services. Get rid of mercenaries like Prince. There is a host of things we can do but getting rid of the all voluntary military should be our first step. Right after HS and before college, 2 yrs service and reserves until 35 yrs of age, that would give us an active force at the ready for disasters, other emergencies and ,if necessary war.
Excellent idea Marilyn. We could go back to a 2 year service required of all from 18 to 22 years of age, either military, "peace corps", community service, conservation corps or others similar services - exception only for the disabled (and most of the disabled people can render positive assistance) Even the wealthy would need to be included.
With the rise in authoritarian politics under the Trump administration, lying became a major pillar of Trump’s leadership philosophy. Historically, authoritarians have displaced the existing truth and replaced it with their truth. They create a following that sees the leader as the paragon of truth, while all others, outside the clan are seen as charlatans. A massive truth schism is formed, with both sides claiming victory in the truth war. Authoritarians push the idea that feelings are more accurate than facts (post-truth) and that objective truth should be discounted (postmodernism). The fact that 40 million Americans believe that Trump won the election, is evidence that the truth has become intangible, and fact and fiction have become indistinguishable for a large faction of our society. This is no accident, as this is how authoritarians throughout history have worked. When a person can be convinced that the most ridiculous things are true, then it is just as easy to convince that person that the truth is ridiculous. We are losing the truth war, as many have sided with fallacy, including many of those in the armed forces. We have a serious gullibility problem. As long as fear-based propaganda is used to drive sentiment, we will have a dangerous post-truth environment.
Folks are correct to be worried about extremism in the armed forces. Writers like Chris Hedges have shown that Christian fascism has been a significant player in armed forces extremism. And Hedges has commented that the Christian fascist right is growing.
I too worry that some of our leaders may be too complacent about the authoritarian threat, being unable to imagine that this "exceptional" country could be vulnerable to such forces. Jeane Kirkpatrick, ambassador to the UN under Rondald Reagan, had the arrogance to suggest that "benign dictatorship" in South America was just fine as long as it kept conditions stable -- stable for the US. Such minds fail to realize that this sort of authoritarian logic is capable of drifting back on those who use such political tactics, infecting political minds in the homeland. If Trump and Co. is not clear proof of that, I do not know what is.
There is some evidence, however, that some leaders are taking the authoritarian threat very seriously. President Biden has acknowledged as much when he says that he is fighting for the soul of this nation, its democratic and humanistic soul.
That fight is real and ongoing. The Proud Boys are back in Oregon, carrying out their dangerous thug-street theater with belligerence and paintball guns, influencing the gullible and disaffected to join in. This last weekend in Portland some 65 year old man, sympathetic to the Proud Boys' cause. fired his illegal pistol during a demonstration in downtown Portland, luckily hitting no one.
The political street theater continues to stay hot. We ignore this persistent heat at our peril.
It is an easy transition to make from Christo-fascism to political fascism. I know a few of these people and they are incredibly bigoted and arrogant.
From what I've read I think that is true. At the same time, I am also wary of other sorts of true believer, left and right. Any mind filled with horrible certainty and conviction is capable of fascist tendencies. As the poet Roethke observes "it is fatal to woo yourself/no matter how graceful the posture."
Proud Boys and their ilk never have left Oregon, John. Since it’s founding in the mid 1800’s, Oregon has been a haven for white supremacy and authoritarianism (a KKK governor elected in 1920’s) … remember the Bundy family Malheur Bureau of Land Management stand-off in 2016? Now, all over rural Oregon (with occasional mass rallies into the big urban areas) they drive their terror trucks around towns, barely concealing guns, in the pickup beds, proudly desecrating the US flag with confederate, 3%er and trump rags
Much of that in Manchester, NH as well.
You are correct. The Proud Boys never left. There was just a lull in public awareness. Such extreme political elements are probably always with us to some degree or other, popping out whenever conditions are ripe for them.
My questions include - why hasn’t Flynn been recalled and court-martialed? Why haven’t the signers of that letter? Why hasn’t trump been charged for quite deliberately and clearly fomenting violence against our government? Why hasn’t he, at the least, been banned from holding any office ever again?
Where are the consequences?
Where is justice?
Nothing will change for the better until there are clear and swift legal consequences for illegal behavior - no matter who commits it.
Nasumii, good questions; perhaps the elephant in the room adage applies. One reason might be, blame may fall, on US Atty Gen Merrick Garland, who was recommended to bi-partisan Joe Biden by Utah’s right-wing former Senator Orrin Hatch.
I agree
“In Search of Spring” by Zita Cabello-Barrueto is an amazing book about life after the coup in Chile and the long-ranging effects of it on the author, her family, and society. Her brother was taken as a political prisoner and killed by the Caravan of Death days after the coup, and years after escaping from Chile she tracked down over 100 witnesses to the COD killings across Chile. She and a pro-bono legal team won a landmark human rights case in a US federal court, bringing the officer who killed her brother to civil justice. Highly recommend it.
Kristen, thanks for recommending “In Search of Spring.” We need to learn what life has been like under fascist leaders, what wannabe dictator trump plans for us in the event he wins the 2024 elections; an increasing likelihood if Biden continues his complicity in Apartheid Israel’s genocide in Occupied Palestine.
I recommend “Missing: The chilling true account of a young American’s disappearance,” by Thomas Hauser (1982. ) The book morphed into a “scorching” film, both about journalist and filmmaker Charles Horman who came across evidence of CIA involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup.
Ironically, the newly elected socialist Chilean president Allende unwittingly helped Pinochet rise to a position high enough to make the fascist coup possible. I wonder whether Biden has made somewhat similar fatal mistakes; trusting the enemy. Biden appointed a Republican recommended to head DOJ. Biden unconditionally embraced and supported fascist Zionist Netanyahu’s genocidal massacres and the starvation of Palestinians. Biden fist-bumped the Saudi prince who murdered the WaPo reporter, who he campaigned promising making the butcher a pariah.
We’re making a mistake seemingly unconditionally supporting Biden while in denial of these and other fatal mistakes that suggest unfitness for public office. Placating and empowering the enemy is always contraindicated. Allow me to add: Biden’s disparaging students and their heroic protests, made at great sacrifice, was another fatal mistake. Ours silence and his complicity in genocide threaten our democracy. We owe our fealty to the constitution, not the president especially when his VP seems more competent. Our democracy is in peril, as was Chile’s in 1973, by fatal mistakes and by being wedded to them.
Yes it's a great book
Pinochet was a sociopath and as such, had no conscience. He had many people killed and the US seemed to support the man as long as he was a friend to the US. Many of our coups ended in dictatorships. Our oligarchs probably want the same thing here in the US; Prescott Bush and Henry Ford sure did.
Steve, well said. I fear Biden is making a similar mistake; on the wrong side of history with respect to Apartheid Israel even in spite of the genocide against Palestinians. Ironically, Bibi favors trump.
Netanyahu's leadership is a departure from previous Israeli leadership. His sociopathic aggresiveness has caught our leadership flat footed. Biden has been slow to realize who Netanyahu really is. The Israeli people see it.
Bibi likes tRump because he sees a kindred spirit in him. A red flag.
Are Lloyd Austin and the other generals in charge at the pentagon and defense department up to the task of rooting out extremist elements within their own ranks? Do they sufficiently recognize the threat of dangerous extremists loyal to Trump like Flynn and others? Do they have enough 'healthy paranoia' to suspect threats, plots and plans for more possible violent attacks from those who seek to "take their country back" ? I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment and believe they're watching, monitoring, and even surveilling in some cases various actors they believe are threats to the rule of law and the constitution of the United States.
Are there traitors, armed right wing militia groups lurking amongst us, who believe they're patriots, who seek the violent overthrow of the government in order to protect their country from being taken over by what they see as radical left wing communists who are stealing elections? Constant sustained propaganda leads to polarization and polarization leads to survivalist mentality. These folks are locked and loaded!
Absolutely, Gary … locked and loaded… that’s part of the messaging of intimidation and terror as they drive their flag-waving terror trucks around town …. still looking for ways to push back on these bullies now collectively, before the only resistance is individually recreating the almost futile resistance of the 1989 Tienenem tank man
Thank you for addressing this issue. I don’t feel it has been talked about enough and many are unaware of the potential dangers faced in the near future from these nefarious actors
The DoD must also act to bring retired general officers like Flynn to heel. The longer he is out running around spouting conspiracies about Q and about Trump, the more dangerous he is. Austin should recall him to active duty and either court martial him immediately, or assign him to command a radar station on Eniwetok island until he spouts his nonsense in uniform, then court martial him and send him on vacation to Leavenworth.
Yes, it's all connected.