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Post by Scoutpilot on Dec 10, 2020 6:26:18 GMT -5
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace. -THOMAS PAINE
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Post by m38mike on Dec 11, 2020 2:00:36 GMT -5
Here is an interesting read. I think the author understands where we are headed.
Chris Hedges: The Collective Suicide of the Liberal Class (As seen on Scheerpost) — Liberals who express dismay, or more bizarrely a fevered hope, about the corporatists and imperialists selected to fill the positions in the Biden administration are the court jesters of our political burlesque. They long ago sold their soul and abandoned their most basic principles to line up behind a bankrupt Democratic Party. They chant, with every election cycle, the mantra of the least worst and sit placidly on the sidelines as a Bill Clinton or a Barack Obama and the Democratic Party leadership betray every issue they claim to support.
The only thing that mattered to liberals in the presidential race, once again, was removing a Republican, this time Donald Trump, from office. This, the liberals achieved. But their Faustian bargain, in election after election, has shredded their credibility. They are ridiculed, not only among right-wing Trump supporters but by the hierarchy of the Democratic Party that has been captured by corporate power. No one can, or should, take liberals seriously. They stand for nothing. They fight for nothing. The cost is too onerous. And so, the liberals do what they always do, chatter endlessly about political and moral positions they refuse to make any sacrifices to achieve.
Liberals, largely comprised of the professional managerial-class that dutifully recycles and shops for organic produce and is concentrated on the two coasts, have profited from the ravages of neoliberalism. They seek to endow it with a patina of civility. But their routine and public humiliation has ominous consequences. It not only exposes the liberal class as hollow and empty, it discredits the liberal democratic values they claim to uphold. Liberals should have abandoned the Democratic Party when Bill Clinton and political hacks such as Biden transformed the Democratic Party into the Republican Party and launched a war on traditional liberal values and left-wing populism. They should have defected by the millions to support Ralph Nader and other Green Party candidates.
This defection, as Nader understood, was the only tactic that could force the Democrats to adopt parts of a liberal and left-wing agenda and save us from the slow-motion corporate coup d’état. Fear is the real force behind political change, not oily promises of mutual goodwill. Short of this pressure, this fear, especially with labor unions destroyed, there is no hope. Now we will reap the consequences of the liberal class’s moral and political cowardice.
The Democratic Party elites revel in taunting liberals as well as the left-wing populists who preach class warfare and supported Bernie Sanders. How are we supposed to interpret the appointment of Antony Blinken, one of the architects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supporter of the apartheid state of Israel, as Secretary of State? Or John Kerry, who championed the massive expansion of domestic oil and gas production, largely through fracking, and, according to Barack Obama’s memoir, worked doggedly to convince those concerned about the climate crisis to “offer up concessions on subsidies for the nuclear power industry and the opening of additional U.S. coastlines to offshore oil drilling” as the new climate policy czar? Or Brian Deese, the executive who was in charge of the “climate portfolio” at BlackRock, which invests heavily in fossil fuels, including coal, and who served as a former Obama economic adviser who advocated austerity measures, to run the White House’s economic policy? Or Neera Tanden, for director of the Office of Management and Budget, who as president of the Center for American Progress raised millions in dark money from Silicon Valley and Wall Street while relentlessly ridiculing Bernie Sanders and his supporters on cable news and social media and who proposed a plank in the Democratic platform calling for bombing Iran?
The Biden administration resembles the ineffectual German government formed by Franz von Papen in 1932 that sought to recreate the ancien régime, a utopian conservatism that ensured Germany’s drift into fascism. Biden, bereft like von Papen of new ideas and programs, will eventually be forced to employ the brutal tools Biden as a senator was so prominent in creating to maintain social control – wholesale surveillance, a corrupt judicial system, the world’s largest prison system and police that have been transformed into lethal paramilitary units of internal occupation. Those that resist as social unrest mounts will be attacked as agents of a foreign power and censored, as many already are being censored, including through algorithms and deplatforming on social media. The most ardent and successful dissidents, such as Julian Assange, will be criminalized.
The shock troops of the state, already ideologically bonded with the neofascists on the right, will hunt down and wipe out an enfeebled and often phantom left, as we saw in the chilling state assassination by U.S. Marshals of the antifa activist Michael Reinoehl, who was unarmed and standing outside an apartment complex in Lacey, Washington, in September when he was shot multiple times. I witnessed this kind of routine state terror during the war in El Salvador. Reinoehl allegedly killed Aaron Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer during a pro-Trump rally in Portland, Oregon in August.
Compare the gunning down of Reinoehl by federal agents to the coddling of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of killing two protesters and injuring a third on August 25 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Police officers, moments before the shooting, are seen on video thanking Rittenhouse and other armed right-wing militia member for coming to the city and handing them bottles of water. Rittenhouse is also seen in a video walking toward police with his hands up after his shooting spree as protesters yell that he had shot several people. Police, nevertheless, allow him to leave. Rittenhouse’s killings have been defended by the right, including Trump. Rittenhouse, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for his legal fees, has been released on $2 million bail.
We stand on the cusp of a frightening authoritarianism. Social unrest, given a continuation of neoliberalism, the climate crisis, the siphoning off of diminishing resources to the bloated war machine, political stagnation and the failure to contain the pandemic and its economic fallout, is almost certain. Absent a left-wing populism, a disenfranchised working class will line up, as it did with Trump, behind its counterfeit, a right-wing populism. The liberal elites will, if history is any guide, justify state repression as a response to social chaos in the name of law and order. That they, too, are on the Christian Right and the corporate state’s long list of groups to be neutralized will become evident to them when it is too late.
It was Friedrich Ebert and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, siding with the conservatives and nationalists, that created the Freikorps, private paramilitary groups composed of demobilized soldiers and malcontents. The Freikorps ruthlessly crushed left-wing uprisings in Berlin, Bremen, Brunswick, Hamburg, Halle, Leipzig, Silesia, Thuringia and the Ruhr. When the Freikorps was not gunning down left-wing populists in the streets and carrying out hundreds of political assassinations, including the murder of Walther Rathenau, the foreign minister, it was terrorizing civilians, looting and pillaging. The Freikorps became the antecedent of the Nazi Brownshirts, led by Ernst Röhm, a former Freikorps commander.
All the pieces are in place for our own descent into what I suspect will be a militarized Christianized fascism. Political dysfunction, a bankrupt and discredited liberal class, massive and growing social inequality, a grotesquely rich and tone-deaf oligarchic elite, the fragmentation of the public into warring tribes, widespread food insecurity and hunger, chronic underemployment and unemployment and misery, all exacerbated by the failure of the state to cope with the crisis of the pandemic, combine with the rot of civil and political life to create a familiar cocktail leading to authoritarianism and fascism.
Trump and the Republican Party, along with the shrill incendiary voices on right-wing media, play the role the antisemitic parties played in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th century. The infusion of anti-Semitism into the political debate in Europe destroyed the political decorum and civility that is vital to maintaining a democracy. Racist tropes and hate speech, as in Weimar Germany, now poison our political discourse. Ridicule and cruel taunts are hurled back and forth. Lies are interchangeable with fact. Those who oppose us are demonized as human embodiments of evil.
This poisonous discourse is only going to get worse, especially with millions of Trump supporters convinced the election was rigged and stolen. The German Social Democrat Kurt Schumacher in the 1930s said that fascism “is a constant appeal to the inner swine in human beings” and succeeds by “mobilizing human stupidity.” This mobilized stupidity, accompanied by what Rainer Maria Rilke called “the evil effluvium from the human swamp,” is being amplified and intensified in the siloed media chambers of the right. This hate-filled rhetoric eschews reality to cater to the desperate desire for emotional catharsis, for renewed glory and prosperity and for acts of savage vengeance against the phantom enemies blamed for our national debacle.
The constant barrage of vitriol and fabulist conspiracy theories will, I fear, embolden extremists to carry out political murder, not only of mainstream Democrats, Republicans Trump has accused of betrayal such as Georgia governor Brian Kemp and those targeted as part of the deep state, but also those at media outlets such as CNN or The New York Times that serve as propaganda arms of the Democratic Party. Once the Pandora’s box of violence is opened it is almost impossible to close. Martyrs on one side of the divide demand martyrs on the other side. Violence becomes the primary form of communication. And, as Sabastian Haffner wrote, “once the violence and readiness to kill that lies beneath the surface of human nature has been awakened and turned against other humans, and even made into a duty, it is a simple matter to change the target.”
This, I suspect, is what is coming. The blame lies not only with the goons and racists on the right, the corporatists who pillage the country and the corrupt ruling elite that does their bidding, but a feckless liberal class that found standing up for its beliefs too costly. The liberals will pay for their timidity and cowardice, but so will we.
Written by Chris Hedges | Scheerpost.com | Republished with permission
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Post by Scoutpilot on Dec 11, 2020 5:45:53 GMT -5
Chaos is coming.
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Post by grumpy on Dec 12, 2020 8:37:54 GMT -5
Unfortunately you may be right. Texas is talking secession, i think others might follow, it could get ugly. There is a lot at stake with the Georgia special election.
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oilleaker1
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Post by oilleaker1 on Dec 13, 2020 9:16:43 GMT -5
The reaction of the crowd at the Army-Navy game when trump entered said it all. I wonder what the reaction would have been if Biden had walked in?
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64cj5
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Post by 64cj5 on Dec 13, 2020 10:24:04 GMT -5
'Arbeit Macht Frei' was on the gate to Dachau. Work will make you free. I think we are in fore a bumpy ride.
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oilleaker1
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Post by oilleaker1 on Dec 23, 2020 7:10:21 GMT -5
Bloomberg sees Texas as his next gun control state to spend his Chinese money in. He got the governor in Virginia to cave so is Texas the same?
The Covid Relief Bill proves we have the dumbest bunch of monkeys in history running congress. We sure need to send money to Pakistan instead of our own folks. Yeah right. Hard working Americans are not taking this lying down. Education for the monkeys is soon to come.
51 % of the USA is occupied by NON AMERICANS.
Foreigners see their chance and are already forming up a new caravan to storm the border again.
Anyone feel like your pants have been pulled down?
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Post by m38mike on Dec 23, 2020 15:24:28 GMT -5
I think we're seeing the take over of the US in this election. American representatives are on the chi-com payroll. The chinese have learned that money talks in this country, and that they can buy their way into the decision process in our government. They took our industries by underselling us, often with inferior products. Now they're taking our representatives away from our interests and replacing our needs with theirs. makes me wanna shoot someone.
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athawk11
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Post by athawk11 on Dec 23, 2020 19:17:16 GMT -5
The damage to our country during the 20 years prior to Trump was too much for him to overcome. He thought there was a swamp to drain. Turns out it was more like an ocean. What he did was expose it for all to see. Now that we all know it's this deep, it will be interesting to see how we Americans react. Unfortunately, I think it still needs to get much worse before we reach the tipping point. What I do predict in the next few years is a pretty severe breakdown in larger urban areas. Much more severe than we've seen so far. I'm thinking... body bag shortage severe.
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Post by m38mike on Dec 24, 2020 7:01:22 GMT -5
Hawk, I think you're right. If you need to run somewhere, we've got room.
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oilleaker1
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Post by oilleaker1 on Jan 1, 2021 8:03:36 GMT -5
Just about the time I get back into a decent mood, I forget and go watch the news, you tube, and read up on the clowns that are our administration. If nothing else, Trump showed us what they have been doing. We are in a sad state of affairs. I think we need term limits and some cleaning out of career politicians that forget what they are supposed to do. Instead it's like a bunch of babies wanting all the money.
Staying informed is important so you can see the bullet, attack, invasion coming. I liken where we are at to Custer's last Stand. That's old terminology. They now have changed the names to be politically correct. Indians here-----the Sioux that were bad to everyone, other Indians included, want all federal lands given back to them and Mount Rushmore Memorial removed. They should turn it into another tax free casino eh? The white conservative race is being slowly replaced by foreigners who want the same benefits without earning them.
People who work hard, pay their taxes, and try to improve themselves are not too inclined to just give their money to those that don't. That's exactly what the Democrats think is the way. Buy votes with that money, and never give up their freebies and position they hold.
With Covid 19, and "orders" to close your business without a care for you or your employees is back in the heavily populated states and cities. The people are beginning to understand more and more how dumb their liberal leaders are. O"biden's tax increases will help pay for their continued program. Sooner or later, their plan is going to fail. We all will have to start over. This isn't going away and won't be fixed by itself. I was looking forward to 4 more years of swamp draining, but "they" won. Hang on to your britches.
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Post by m38mike on Jan 1, 2021 8:17:37 GMT -5
"They" haven't won yet. Court is still in session. I read where they flipped AZ for Trump. Hard to know what to believe anymore. So much propaganda sold as "news". But I remain hopeful that the coup will be exposed in court and those responsible will face prison.
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oilleaker1
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Post by oilleaker1 on Jan 1, 2021 9:29:22 GMT -5
Been watching videos of this flip. Bottom line is it isn't official. Sounds pretty hard to dispute evidence wise, which they now are digging into Georgia, then Pennsylvania. They are saying 1 in 5 votes are bogus. That's huge. Mike Pence who is the president of the Senate can also decide which electoral votes are to be counted on Jan. 6th. He alone has the power to flip the election. Stay tuned, it might get a bit hot in Washington. They say 96% of democrats believe Biden officially won due to "polls" again. I don't like how this election was run. I know some voted legally with absentee ballots and had to prove their identity and get it mailed in by a certain date, but the rest of the mail in ballots suck. In person, with photo ID is my way of thinking. There was way too much exposure for election fraud. Wild times just might be fun.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2021 10:01:21 GMT -5
There is much going on behind the Trump Curtain 😮 The Media (pretty much all of it) only broadcast their Left Wing Liberal opinions in an attempt to brainwash the sheeeple of this country, if I stumble upon a broadcast it generally only lasts a second as I can’t stand the utter bullshit..... The right side says things will happen on the 6th, 5 days out! 😮 seems there may be smithing to it as commialla Harris has not given up her congressional seat yet, Sleepy Joe referred to her as presidential election the other day in an interview..... The Left will go ballistic no doubt, bomb blast in Nashville used to cover up destroying an AT&T communications center, south of me 15 miles 4 were arrested attempting to destroy another AT&T facility, bet you seen nothing on that in the news 😮😬......
Lee😉
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Post by m38mike on Jan 2, 2021 8:37:22 GMT -5
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