Saturday, September 19, 2020

Yanis Varoufakis — Why we need a Progressive International that must plan for today and for beyond capitalism

Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a Twin Authoritarianism in whose wake the vast majority of humanity experience unnecessary hardship and the planet’s ecosystem suffers avoidable climate destruction.

I am not asserting that the president is a fascist, but I do think that neo-fascism is on the rise under the rubric of nationalism and populism. This how Mussolini and Hitler's rise to power began and it should be a wakeup alarm that all is not well in the world.

I don't lay blame on either US political party for this since it began some time ago, and its roots can be traced to the Truman Administration and the establishment of the CIA under Avery Dulles. After leaving office, Truman admitted it was the worst mistake he made.

This has progress to vast inequality in wealth and concentration of power at the top, which factions of the elite are now fighting among themselves over. To protect this distortion of liberal democracy, a totalitarian surveillance state with global reach has been established through "five eyes" (the combined intelligence services of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NZ under US leadership.

The US domestic security force has been militarized and coordinated under a "department of the interior" called DHS. The US never had a department of the interior similar to other repressive states previously. The dysfunctionality is revealed by the incarceration rate, the conviction rate, extra-judicial "justice," and the privatization of prisons, turning justice into a for-profit institution. Add a double-stand of justice to this, and you get the picture. It's not pretty.

Perhaps most seriously from the political vantage is the suspension of constitutional rights and civil liberties since 9//11 in a supposedly ongoing emergency. That is almost twenty years ago. Add that to endless undeclared war by war power granted to the president and the US is most of the way there in the slippery slide to neo-fascist dictatorship.

Fascism was defined by Mussolini as corporate statism. With corporate control of the government through state capture by legalized bribery, along with the growing power of the military-industrial complex about which Ike warned, the US has reached this mark as well.

Moreover, this is a bipartisan syndrome that affects both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Therefore, there exists no viable alternative at the voting booth that would challenge the status quo, and there is no coalition on the horizon with the popular support to do so either.

In addition, the existence of a strong administrative state coupled with the "deep state, which are committed to preserving current policy, makes any significant change difficult to impossible under present conditions.

This is a disturbing trend that has lead to the potential for an authoritarian regime to take power in the US and in effect terminate the republic, as happened in Rome. "

It can't happen here," should now be changed to, "don't let it happen here."

Econospeak
The Danger Of Fascism With The Death Of RBG
J. Barkley Rosser | Professor of Economics and Business Administration James Madison University

also

The latest in "crowd control." Chemical is apparently either insufficient or outré. Tear gas is illegal for military use based on the Geneva Protocol of 1925 that the US signed on to in 1975, but with qualifications. One of the exceptions is for domestic crowd control. Talk about twisted logic.

Zero Hedge
Military Confirms It Mulled Deploying Experimental 'Heat Ray' To Protect White House
Tyler Durden


2 comments:

Matt Franko said...

“ revealed by the incarceration rate, ”

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/09/man-arrested-twice-in-12-hour-span-for-starting-fires-near-i-205.html

You must mean the rate is too LOW correct?

Peter Pan said...

Business as usual in the US. Ruling class haven't even taken off the gloves yet.
Trump was good for entertainment, and not much else.