Fascism!

Malaysian lovers fined
four buffalo and a pig
for illicit affair.

I remind you once again of Mussolini’s concept of fascism (in its simplest form): When corporations and government come together as a single authoritarian party to manage a country (that is not very precise but close enough). If you don’t like that definition, look up fascism in the dictionary or read Mussolini. I believe there is no longer any reasonable doubt that the U.S. is far along in substituting fascism for our democracy. Indeed, the fascists are now so confident of their control over our affairs they believe they can make any outrageous decision they want. Consider that the Supreme Court recently formalized their control by handing down a ruling so outrageous it violated a hundred years of precedent. Corporations can now donate as much money as they wish to political affairs, and as the people cannot possibly match these massive donations their voice will be muted. If that decision was not outrageous enough, a high level judge has now declared that the two lawyers responsible for “legalizing” waterboarding and other forms of torture merely made “a mistake in judgment” rather than any serious violation of the law or constitution, and hence will avoid punishment of any kind. This includes the notorious Yoo, who, apparently when asked if it would be legal for a young man’s testicles to be crushed in front of his parents, replied that it would if that is what the President thought fit (if this is true, Yoo should not be criticized for a mistake in judgment, or even disbarred, he should be confined to an institution for the psychotically deranged).This merely confirms the decision apparently already made by the Obama administration that our (confessed and other) war criminals will not be investigated, prosecuted, or brought to justice; after all, what’s about a million or so innocents dead and four million displaced). If the American people do not rise up soon and demand these outrageous decisions be reversed, and take back their democracy, it may be too late.

And speaking of “The American People,” just who are they? I hear politicians on both sides of the aisle often claim that the American People believe such and such, or want so and so, or are fed up with something or other, and so on. As far as I know Americans have never agreed upon anything, so using the phrase “the American People” is simply nonsensical. When a politician says this it is at best wishful thinking and at worst a flat-out lie. The American People didn’t even agree completely on WWII, and they certainly can’t be said to agree on anything at the moment. I bet if politicians were fined every time they used this silly phrase they would soon stop using it.

Barney Frank, bless him, has come right out and said it, the reason we are broke is because of the “wars.” This has always seemed perfectly obvious to me, but somehow no one ever mentions it, preferring instead other excuses for why we don’t have enough money to do anything useful for ourselves, like health care, education, superstructure, or whatever. And bless Pelosi also for insisting the military cannot be exempt if there is going to be a freeze on funding. Our military budget is so bloated and mostly useless for whatever threats may be coming our way, it should be cut probably at least in half. If we stopped these senseless “wars” and trimmed our military and pentagon budgets we could actually eventually get out of debt and start rebuilding our own economy and country. Obama mentioned common sense the other day, but he doesn’t seem to have any more than anyone else. Of course you rarely hear anyone blame Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy mentioned either, but at least Obama has the good sense to let them expire (I think he has little choice now that our debt is so great).

I think a good example of this apparent lack of sense might be seen at the moment in what is apparently a rather massive buildup of our missiles, missile defenses, and military presence in the Persian Gulf. This is said to be in answer to a potential missile threat from Iran. I am not privy to our intelligence operations or any inside information about national defense, but I believe the threat of an Iranian missile attack is absolute bullshit. If anything our actions are probably designed to provoke Iran into doing something that we can then use as an excuse to start still another “war.” Don’t forget how Bush/Cheney tried to provoke Iraq to do something that would give them an excuse. I hate to sound like a broken record, but, again, let me say Iranians are not stupid, nor have they attacked anyone for two hundred or more years (can the U.S. say that?). For what conceivable reason would Iran (with a military budget around one percent of ours and nowhere near that of Israel) launch a missile attack against such overwhelming odds, and what would be the purpose? If there are any warmongers in the Middle East they are clearly Israel and the U.S., and as long as Israel is allowed to conduct torture and genocide against the Palestinians, as well as continuing to steal Palestinian land and water, there will never be peace in that part of the world. U.S. Foreign policy under the Obama administration seems to be virtually unchanged from that of Bush/Cheney, and as long as it continues that way we will remain broke and beggarly as well as engaged in permanent “war.”

LKBIQ:
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
The life span of a Canadian Lynx is 15 to 21 years.