Re: America's Fascism

26
featureless wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 12:00 pm We're in serious trouble. I'm not really seeing a way out of this without eating a giant shit sandwich and dealing with the subsequent indigestion.
Shit, I'm surprised we've made it as long as we have.

My son, who is about the wisest person I know (must be spouse's doing, because ...) observes that this country is simply too damn big. We've people from Florida, 3000 miles away, who must have been dropped on their heads as infants, sitting in a legislative branch of government making decisions that directly affect me, in Oregon. And I reciprocate...

Except, I've a paltry 5 reps (6 next year), Florida has 27. So Florida has 5 times the impact in congress than Oregon. I could go off on the senate too; like there's all of 14 people living in Alaska and they still have 2 senators. I don't like that many palins having anything to say about my world...

The point is simple. I've nothing in common with Floridians or whatever people from Ohio, or Iowa, or Alabama call themselves, and especially Texans, Jesus especially Texans.

Nor they with me.

The intellectually - philosophically sound principle of strength in unity / weakness in division, works only, it seems, if we've a common foe. Except when we did, in the form of covid, we still couldn't get our heads out of our asses. And there was that week following 9/11 where we might have pulled ourselves together...but, the moronic sock puppet in the WH at the time had difficulty spelling his own name without the help of the dick, who saw opportunities for his stock portfolio.

Those who would prefer to see the union substantially weaker are thoroughly enjoying themselves in what we've become. And...I just don't see us ever coming together. Thus, it seems time the states dis-unite. We are just too fucking big. Perhaps there's room for three or four counties here. Maybe more.

Just don't join Oregon with California. Better California be with Arizona and Nevada than with Oregon and Washington. Maybe we could join Canada?
Subliterate Buffooery of the right...
Literate Ignorance of the left...
We Are So Screwed

Re: America's Fascism

27
We are not too big for the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Human rights is a thing, and no matter which state we live in, those right should be the same within cultural and regional margins of error. The biggest problem is that narcissistic people tend to shy away from messy terms like equality before the law. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments also are things. For example, California has recently passed two voter initiatives, one concerning education for the undocumented and the other denying marriage equality. Both were tossed by the SCOTUS.

Democracy is a messy business, but it is not a spectator sport. GOTV for November.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: America's Fascism

29
Another interesting rivet into the armor of authoritarianism, which is the kissing cousin with benefits to fascism, is a SCOTUS ruling allowing further immunity from civil prosecution for federal agents who do bad things while being cops.
Federal courts in both cases agreed with what may sound intuitive: Both Weyker and Lamb violated clearly established law. They are thus not protected by qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that can make it difficult to sue local and state actors when they violate the Constitution. But because they were working for the federal government, they are protected by absolute immunity, the courts said, and their victims—Hamdi Mohamud and Kevin Byrd, respectively—may not sue them for disgracing their positions.

"Today, on the 51st anniversary of Bivens, the Supreme Court overturned Bivens," says Anya Bidwell, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, the public interest law firm representing both Mohamud and Byrd. "They are not explicitly saying it, but they are effectively doing it."

The explicit part of that puzzle came two weeks back when the high court ruled that a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer—who allegedly assaulted the owner of a bed and breakfast and then sent the IRS after him for lodging a complaint—cannot be sued for violating the First and Fourth Amendments. This overturned a lower court decision that came to the opposite conclusion and etched in stone that immigration agents are, in some sense, above the law.

But neither Weyker nor Lamb were acting in a context that remotely resembled immigration enforcement. By demurring at hearing those cases, the Supreme Court has upheld the decisions giving both officers absolute immunity for committing transgressions while policing domestically. "Today's rulings are basically saying that you can never sue federal officials, period," notes Bidwell.
https://reason.com/2022/06/21/supreme-c ... precedent/

I find it fascinating that America lets "conservatives" claim law and order while continually and blatantly working to undermine law and order in order to support those in financial and legislative authority. May the fleas of one thousand rabid weasels infect their nether regions.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: America's Fascism

30
highdesert wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:09 am What major US cities or states do fascist groups currently control, none. When fringe groups start winning elections and controlling cities, counties and states in the US, then I'll talk about a potential threat.
I hope you aren’t really this ignorant and naive. Texas, where I live, is run by a governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general who are nominal Republicans but are fascists in practice. The state attorney general, who is under indictment, sued the federal government to overturn Trump’s defeat. There is no precedent, no firmly established federal law, that they aren’t trying to wipe out to keep their christofascist regime in power — voting rights, desegregation, freedom of speech, separation of church and state, you name it. They’re banning books! In Florida you can’t let kids know that some people are gay. If you’re so deluded as to believe today’s “Republicans” aren’t fascists hiding in plain sight, I suggest you check into postwar political history a little more.

Wake the hell up.

Re: America's Fascism

31
! In Florida you can’t let kids know that some people are gay.
Doesn't anyone remember 6th grade through high school?
Kids know about sex and gay people before parents even thought about telling their kids about sex or phys ed class.
So stupid to think that kids aren't talking about it.
Least thats the way it was in the 60's to 70's.
And now every kid has access to the intrrwebs.
Republicans are dumb asses.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: America's Fascism

32
highdesert wrote: Tue Jun 21, 2022 10:09 am What major US cities or states do fascist groups currently control, none. When fringe groups start winning elections and controlling cities, counties and states in the US, then I'll talk about a potential threat.
I cannot agree. When GQP dominated state houses blatantly gerrymander, remove a Governor's power (Wisconsin, Kansas, North Carolina) and deliberately remove unbiased election monitoring and counting to replace it with only THEIR chosen "counters"--you have a fascist state. Stalin stated that who counts the votes is more important than who gets the most votes. We have ALREADY seen, in this primary season, votes "magically" disappear for Democratic candidates. This is no accident.

The VAST majority of cases of vote (not voter) fraud was by Trump supporters in 2020--including a mail carrier who discarded mail-in votes from a largely Democratic neighborhood. We even saw the Post Master General try to make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for mail-in votes to arrive in time.

Yes, fascism is HERE, NOW, in Florida, Texas, and many other states.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: America's Fascism

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tonguengroover wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 7:56 pm
! In Florida you can’t let kids know that some people are gay.
Doesn't anyone remember 6th grade through high school?
Kids know about sex and gay people before parents even thought about telling their kids about sex or phys ed class.
So stupid to think that kids aren't talking about it.
Least thats the way it was in the 60's to 70's.
And now every kid has access to the intrrwebs.
Republicans are dumb asses.
Well said.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: America's Fascism

34
Republicans lose touch with reality, believe in “alternative facts” to feel good about themselves, and then try to gaslight children into following them over the cliff.

Yeah, good luck with that. Life will go on without them.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

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