How American Oligarchs Are Pushing America to the Brink of Fascism

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-american-oligarchs-are-pushing-america-brink-fascism

As the American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Well, it it may well on our doorstep. And the oligarchs are plotting their final takeover by using their economic dominance to capture governmental power - specifically, the governmental power which sets the rules for the very marketplace that provides the oligarchs with such massive wealth.

Once the American corporate barons own the institutions that are meant to regulate them, it’s game-over for both rational capitalism (including competition) and for democracy.

Last week, at David and Charles Koch’s annual winter meeting near Palm Springs, California, it was announced that the Koch Brothers’ political organization would spend close to $900 million on the 2016 election. If this goal is met, the group of corporate leaders will spend far more than the Republican Party and its congressional campaign committees spent, combined, in the 2012 campaign.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Just because the defintion fits the circumstances 100% is no reason to use the word.

And do not forget that the media willingly em"bedding" themselves with the Koch Party is nothing to worry about.

Please, look away, as the media does, nothing to see here.

We can all trust the media, right Brian W., my RPG man!?

NBC and MSM...high five for the guardians of truth and democracy am I right? Not like the MSM has ever cheerlead the country into false and disasterous wars before that the whole world is still paying for to this day, am I right?

Stay calm, carry on, they do not have control of the military, and never will.

The fascists in America are hopelessly doomed, they lack at least three vital things, a crumbling economy, an unpopular head of State and control of the White House. Too fucking bad, because none of those things is going to change any time soon.

My only real worry is they somehow change all the rules of democracy and sneak into control of the military by the back door to the White House, via the dusty passageways of the Electoral College that SCOTUS could unlock.

[navarth]

2. Saying we're at the brink might be optimistic

...I've felt that we've crossed over that brink since Saint Reagan.

With all due respect to the American Heritage Dictionary, I also take note of the wording of Benito Mussolini, who after all was the inventor: 'The merging of corporate and state interests'. (This according to Thom Hartmann.)

[BlueMTexpat]

6. Unfortunately, like you,

I believe that the brink has long since been passed. If it hadn't been, the Citizens United decision would have been the final tipping point.

We literally will have to climb up, over and back if we ever hope to have even a facsimile of democracy.

Per T.S. Eliot,

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

It may even be too late to "bang" ....

[zeemike]

11. I agree, the brink has passed.

But the brink came slow and in the shadows so we never noticed it.

[gregcrawford]

13. Il Duce...

... also preferred to call his form of government, "corporatism." I would urge today's corporatists to reflect on how that pompous peacock met his end.

[hifiguy]

29. Ronnie Raygun built the framework.

Slick Willie and the smirking chimp finished the job. It was largely over ten years ago, and Citizens United just lowered the casket into the ground and threw the dirt on top.

[niyad]

42. you are correct, we crossed over a long time ago.

[woo me with science]

47. +10000

We're there.

[Madmiddle]

3. Here's great

idea, how about another petition drive. Yeah, petitions will stop them. Nothing like 5million signatures on your door step. So cool to watch how they scare billionaires to death. The last petition drive really worked like a charm. Damn I love petitions.

[Alkene]

14. Petitions are so effective.

Nothing stops a fascist dictatorship in its tracks like a sternly worded petition. And, of course, it's an opportunity to supply your contact information, always useful for list gatherers.
I might also suggest that a harsh e-mail in all caps is certain to alter the course of history. That, and the uploading of a pretentious manifesto.

[BubbaFett]

33. You can always call your congressman

[hunter]

23. If you bundle these paper petitions up really tight, build a trebuchet...

... and send them through the roofs of the oligarchs' castles, I'll bet they'd notice that.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. K and R

[Octafish]

5. Why so negative? Fascism is pro-Wall Street.

Helps "achiever" types get ahead.

No leechers: only those who work get to eat.

Trains run on time.

Nation knows its place on top of the world.

The People respect Authority.

Lots of good things.

[JEB]

24. Silence pesky whistleblowers.

Single narrative channels through compliant media.
Unfettered exceptionalism.
Unprecedented security.
Heaven on earth.

[navarth]

25. Oh Ocatafish, why do you want to punish success?

No sarcasm tag needed, I think

[hifiguy]

31. Concise, elegant, 100% true and perfect.

[Drahthaardogs]

48. Actually, if you look at history, fascism is a rebellion from the middle class - it fails

and then, the follow on is Socialism. If we follow course of Spain, Italy, Germany, we too will have a fascist phase. Hopefully it is short.

[PartoftheFirstParty]

7. Time to Make a Stand/New Party?

Democracy's not dead yet -- (maybe not even born yet)

Have come to see the Democratic Party not so much as the solution, but as part of the problem. Would really like to see a new party spring up, and the venerable (and only slightly less corrupt than the Greedy Oligarch's Party) old donkeys put out to pasture.

[ieoeja]

22. A lot easier to take over a party. See: Teabaggers and Republican Party. n/t

[PartoftheFirstParty]

45. Green Party may not deserve takeover... Maybe "1st party" status(?), though

[tblue]

8. "it it may well on our doorstep"???

It's passed the doorstep, ransacked the house, burned it down, then dug a grave in the backyard and is filling it with bodies.

[appalachiablue]

35. +10. Dems. & liberals venerate justice, equality, tolerance & more. But dang, our reaction

time is horrendous- 30 years late. Such a shame.

[arikara]

44. It sure is

its alive and thriving. Try to offer an opinion differing from the acceptable mainstream version on particular topics and watch out for the hysterical screaming that ensues. Post a link that isn't MSM and get dogpiled on, or some have said they were even hidden. There isn't allowed any critical thinking or looking at other sides of an issue other than the acceptable version.

[brooklynite]

9. And yet, here you are, able to publicly complain about it...

[Bigmack]

15. You think the oligarchy worries about chin-music from the peasants? nt

[brooklynite]

17. Having lived in an dictatorship for five years? Yes they do.

[hifiguy]

30. All due respect to your experience,

but American oligarchs know they have a substantial majority of the sheeple sedated and dumbed down, by way of the media they control completely, to the point where some cranks on the intertubes - like us - will have ZERO effect. It's cheaper and easier to brainwash the idiots - and idiots and near-idiots make up a clear majority of the populace - than it is to track down and lock up the dissenters.

Just make them disappear from the media they control and poof! they no longer exist.

[appalachiablue]

36. Correct. The left's dismissal of RW media control never ceases to amaze me.

[hifiguy]

41. Yep. As a for instance, in any European country Noam Chomsky would be

a rather prominent public intellectual.

In the United States of Media Oligopoly he does not exist save for us left-wing cranks who seek him out. He might as well be on one of the outer moons of Jupiter.

[appalachiablue]

43. With the Kochs in charge now Chomsky will never exist. The noticeable loss of intellectualism

in this country is simultaneous with the death of the liberal class obviously, as Chris Hedges wrote in one of his books several years ago. Watching Charlie Rose on PBS interview entertainers and global policy wonks like Richard Haas and Tom Friedman is about as enlightened as it gets today in M$M. In addition to Heritage, Cato, ALEC and many other RW stink tanks, the Kochs fund the business and sociology departments of more than 100 US colleges and universities from Princeton to FSU (FL State Univ.). Europe's intellectuals and political parties like the left and the greens look like they're from another planet anymore.

[gregcrawford]

19. For now...

... The fascists are very patiently arraying their forces. This is a protracted strategic battle. Constriction of free speech has been slowly tightened, and Constitutional Rights systematically stripped. A grotesquely corrupt judiciary sets dangerous legal precedents that allow police to trample civil rights with impunity. Unspeakably evil demagogues exploit the inchoate fear and resentment of the lowest common denominators of the social equation, Pox News viewers, and the soulless sociopaths on the Dark Side of the aisles in both Houses of Congress revile the victims of extra-judicial excesses and wipe their butts with the Bill of Rights. The recent victory in the Net Neutrality debate is heartening, but this war is far from over.
They're perfectly content to let us squeak our protests, because we are impotent in the face of their unlimited wealth and power. For now...

[bigtree]

21. Citizens United

...Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (criminalizing writing which deviates from official versions of events and government interpretations of their actions)

”The existence of both domestic and foreign conspiracy theories, we suggest, is no trivial matter, posing real risks to the government’s antiterrorism policies, whatever the latter may be,” Obama’s administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein, wrote in a paper entitled “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures.” Sunstein proposed infiltrating “extremist groups” – the alternative media – that deviate from the official narrative on 9/11 and other other official narratives.
http://www.infowars.com/doj-make-it-a-federal-crime-to-lie-on-the-internet/

SOPA would allow government to restrict access to sites they choose, curtailing access to information, chilling free speech...

The escalating war on whistleblowers...

This war on internet users is being waged under the guise of protecting business interests and intellectual property. They're Trojan horses which threaten the very foundations of our free press...but, enjoy your 'freedom', some say...while you are still able.

[jwirr]

34. I wonder if there will ever be a group of allies that are big and strong enough to stop us like we

and our allies did the Nazis? I certainly hope so. But I also doubt it because what they are doing to us was already accomplished around the world years ago.

[tridim]

10. Brawndo is what plants crave!

They are certainly going for it all right now, but IMO it wont be allowed to happen unless they manage to shut down the Internet.

[gelsdorf]

12. But what about the electrolytes? n/t

[The CCC]

16. How American Oligarchs Are Pushing America to the Brink of Fascism

Game, Set, and nearing the end of the Match.

[INdemo]

18. It's not just the rich

but some racist working class that are jumping on the band wagon.I found it unbelievable that some union members I know are now drinking the right wing nuts cool-aid have bought into the propaganda.
Check out the early 30's with the rise of Facism. It is following the same pattern here as it did in Europe in the 30's and even before.

[rhett o rick]

20. I don't think there is a question that we are well down the path.

Last edited Fri Feb 6, 2015, 05:15 PM - Edit history (1)

We don't need a dozen Princeton studies to tell us that we no longer live in a constitutionally controlled democratic republic. But only a minority recognize this or are willing to recognize this. Many Americans have been lulled into complacency by the circuses. However, many Americans are aware that something is wrong but I fear their fears will be misdirected with Corp-Media propaganda like pre-WW II Germany. The Oligarch-Fascists will convince a good share of the population that the cause of their troubles is ________. If the O-F can create a civil war between the progressives and the conservatives, they can divert attention from their ambitions. The important thing for the O-F is not to let the lower classes unite against them.

The progressives have a tough road ahead. As we can see on this message board, there are a number of people that claim to be progressive (because they believe in same sex marriage and the legalization of pot) that will side with the O-F. They won't admit it but their actions of disparaging journalists, protesters, and whistle-blowers give them away. Progressives must get the message out that the responsibility for the lack of DECENT paying jobs, a crumbling infrastructure, the high poverty rate, the high infant mortality rate, etc. is the Oligarchs. This is a daunting task with the Corp-Media working against us.

Thanks for the post.

[jwirr]

37. But first we will have to teach them what Oligarchy means. I agree completely that they are going

to blame this all on the weaker groups just like they did in Germany. Minorities, progressives, gays, disabled, elderly and poor. The attacks started with rayguns welfare queens.

[rhett o rick]

39. Yes, I agree. nm

[Trillo]

26. I guess this article just tries to give hope.

hope that maybe somehow it can be turned around, that it isn't already too late.

[hifiguy]

32. It's already too late. The New Fascists control all the levers of power

including the voting machnies and they pre-vet anyone and everyone running for national office. Only the ones who won't threaten their position are allowed on to the ballot.

The New Fascism won't look like German Fascism. Culling the herd will be done passively by cutting segments of the populace off completely from access to health care/food/energy. There won't be smokestacks. People will just disappear, one by one. The remainder will either be well-paid servants of the New Fascist/tenth-percenter elite or will be firmly pushed into a modern serfdom.

Sadly, it's gonna have to run its course. Which it will, as all things in history do.

[jwirr]

38. Disappear one by one. As they did so many South American countries.

Last edited Fri Feb 6, 2015, 05:07 PM - Edit history (1)

[rhett o rick]

40. That's why it was sooo very important to find out who the leaders of OWS were. nm

[think]

27. May those that are uber well to do be kind and benevolent to others

as they realize the blessing bestowed upon them.

May love conquer fear and mutual understanding produce a peaceful & prosperous society.

I realize I've made similar statements before and still cling to the hope for such things......

[raouldukelives]

28. With the assistance of millions more than happy to share in the proceeds. nt

[KingCharlemagne]

46. With one of the two mainstream parties now irredeemably fascist (the Republicans), I think

we should all be scared shitless at the prospect of that party consolidating control of all 3 branches of government in 2016 (retaining the Congress and gaining the Presidency). Granted, the Democratic Party is thoroughly bourgeois, but it still honors pluralism and egalitarianism in no small measure. Some of the more radical of those fascists would have little or no compunction about forcing all of us who post here into internment camps, make no mistake.

2016 will prove of immense importance as to whether fascism consolidates its control of the machinery of government.

As compromised as Hillary may be around this issue, she is still a friggin' capitalist, not a fascist. I hope everyone will consider that truth when making decisions about what to do WRT 2016.