Fascism arrives in full swing (was The most important thing right now....)

is that we have Federal secret police in Portland.

Kind of what Tom Cotton asked for.

Have to hand it to them, Hong Kong police never kidnapped Hong Kong residents in rental cars.  US +1 on fascism.  

should secret police be capitalized?

drummerboy said:

should secret police be capitalized?

No.

I think its inappropriate to capitalize an unofficial secret police organization. Should capitalized be when its an official agency, such as were the Geheime Staatspolizei, Tonton Macoute, Stasi, KGB. When official, even if not yet given a formal name, it should be referred to as our Secret Police.

All these agencies have one thing in common, official or not. Its not the following of the rule of law. Its the following of orders from your superiors.

I tend to agree.

{I wondered if there was also an economics joke in there?} I’m back to reading, mainly. We have enough happening here. Wish you could join us. 

joanne said:

{I wondered if there was also an economics joke in there?} I’m back to reading, mainly. We have enough happening here. Wish you could join us. 

 er, what?

Re ‘capitalism’. Editing joke. 
(it’s  late, we’re still dealing with the fallout of state secrets from 1975, and streakers at a packed football match the other night. I’m going back to playing word games and maybe sleeping. 
I hope there will be a state funeral)

We thought right wing nut jobs were warning us about this for years.  Turns out they were actually planning it.

Klinker said:

We thought right wing nut jobs were warning us about this for years.  Turns out they were actually planning it.

is there going to be a civil war that isn't going to be state against state, but the federal government against cities?  Trump is apparently threatening invasions of Seattle and Chicago as well.  This was the story a month ago, and today it's gone from "mulling" to doing.

Trump Mulls Declaring an Insurrection and Sending Military Into Cities

If Trump loses, I suspect the Second American Civil War will be more like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than the The Civil War or WWII.  IEDs, mass casualty bombings and the like.  Extremists on the right have been stockpiling arms and munitions for decades in preparation for the conflict to come.

If, on the other hand, Trump wins through flagrant cheating, I would hope that at least some of the Blue States would secede.  If that were to happen, we might see something closer to a traditional conflict although states like California could probably assemble some sort of rudimentary nuclear weapons within a week or two and that might act as a deterrent to GOP aggression.  Of course I may be overly optimistic in this hope and it may be that the states will bow to an illegal tyranny and the long course of freedom and democracy in the central part of North America will come to a sad end.

Let's just make sure that doesn't happen by overwhelmingly beating him and taking the Senate too. Do whatever you can, and get people to vote on November 3.

Klinker said:

If Trump loses, I suspect the Second American Civil War will be more like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq than the The Civil War or WWII.  IEDs, mass casualty bombings and the like.  Extremists on the right have been stockpiling arms and munitions for decades in preparation for the conflict to come.

If, on the other hand, Trump wins through flagrant cheating, I would hope that at least some of the Blue States would secede.  If that were to happen, we might see something closer to a traditional conflict although states like California could probably assemble some sort of rudimentary nuclear weapons within a week or two and that might act as a deterrent to GOP aggression.  Of course I may be overly optimistic in this hope and it may be that the states will bow to an illegal tyranny and the long course of freedom and democracy in the central part of North America will come to a sad end.

 I have frequent secession fantasies. When I tire of those I imagine massive blue state boycotts of red state products. 

But secession is definitely on my list of daydreams.

oh goody

This is very disconcerting.   That being said, Portland has been out of hand for a long time.  There has been an element of the protests in Portland that no reasonable person would consider peaceful.  

And it does make you wonder in an election year.  Is some of this allowed to happen to make the sitting president look weak?  Then does this become an invitation to a crackdown?  Perhaps, a self fulfilling prophecy.  I never thought that Trump was the fascist the corporate media made him out to be.  Perhaps now he'll show us what he's made of. 

terp said:

And it does make you wonder in an election year.  Is some of this allowed to happen to make the sitting president look weak?  

 Or are people just sick of the police murdering people?  We have had decades of uncontrolled violence on one side, a summer of response is not necessarily disproportionate. 

terp said:

This is very disconcerting.   That being said, Portland has been out of hand for a long time.  There has been an element of the protests in Portland that no reasonable person would consider peaceful.  

And it does make you wonder in an election year.  Is some of this allowed to happen to make the sitting president look weak?  Then does this become an invitation to a crackdown?  Perhaps, a self fulfilling prophecy.  I never thought that Trump was the fascist the corporate media made him out to be.  Perhaps now he'll show us what he's made of. 

 Wow.

Are you effing kidding me? Allowed to happen?

And sorry you didn't see Trump as the fascist he is. It was pretty obvious many years ago.

And what does this mean?

Perhaps now he'll show us what he's made of.

He has deployed secret police, and plans on doing it nationwide.

That's what he's made of.

What has he done to establish himself as a fascist many years ago?

oh, I dunno. How about how he sucks up to fascist leaders around the world?

good article in the NYT with a Portland journalist who's been covering the protests there. Not surprisingly it seems as though law enforcement is responsible for escalating a lot of the violence there.  Seems like all over the country it's the police who are the violent actors, and the protesters not so much.

50 Nights of Unrest in Portland 

Robert Evans of Bellingcat says the city “is being used as a bellwether to see what this administration can get away with.”

drummerboy said:

oh, I dunno. How about how he sucks up to fascist leaders around the world?

 his "Central Park Five" NYT ad 30+ years ago was pretty fascist.  

terp said:

What has he done to establish himself as a fascist many years ago?

We can argue whether he fits the technical definition of fascist all day. He is clearly a wannabe despot, and the Portland action is consistent with what he's been saying and doing for years.

What would you call him? And why do you give him so much benefit of the doubt? Which you've done since his election.

I really don't get it.

A real fascist or despot wannabe would have played this card en masse weeks ago.

And for the record, just because I don't agree with your interpretation of the events does not mean I like him.  

Which leads me to the question... why would a self-proclaimed Libertarian publicly promote Trump the wannabe-fascist-leader for president? Does she want to be in his cabinet?

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/508041-why-steve-bannon-would-fuel-donald-trump-toward-victory

ml1 said:

good article in the NYT with a Portland journalist who's been covering the protests there. Not surprisingly it seems as though law enforcement is responsible for escalating a lot of the violence there.  Seems like all over the country it's the police who are the violent actors, and the protesters not so much.

50 Nights of Unrest in Portland 

Robert Evans of Bellingcat says the city “is being used as a bellwether to see what this administration can get away with.”

 As if the "protestors" would ever provoke.

terp said:

A real fascist or despot wannabe would have played this card en masse weeks ago.

 this makes no sense. He's not a wannabe despot because he's not on your schedule?

terp said:

A real fascist or despot wannabe would have played this card en masse weeks ago.

 That’s because he’s a wannabe....his entire life he’s been a wannabe. I will repeat myself again, anyone still supporting or defending trump is a racist. End of story 

terp said:

A real fascist or despot wannabe would have played this card en masse weeks ago.

That's because he is an incompetent fascist and despot. He even sucks at being bad.