Reagan was wearing the Flag, Falwell was carrying the Bible
Anyway this shit went down.
So yet another example of what some might call the creep of Fascism or fascistic tendencies has slithered over the transom, but before we move along let us take a gander of some of what might constitute a fascist situation .
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
Check
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
Check
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
Check
4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
Triple Check.
5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
Push
6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
Check
7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
Klaxon’s yelling Check
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
Push
9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
Check. And check for the ones that follow as well.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Liberty Forum
http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_constitution&Number=642
109&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1&t=-1
So we got at the very fucking least 12 of the criteria checked off. Nice. So back to the current example of the creeping menace…
San Francisco’s public defender has released a video showing police arresting a deputy public defender outside a courtroom for intervening in an interaction between police and her client.
The video shows Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson refusing to step aside as a man identified as San Francisco Police Inspector Brian Stansbury tries to take a cellphone picture of Tillotson’s client in a hallway at the Hall of Justice on Tuesday.
White defense attorney (not sure why I used the qualifier) arrested in the hall of a courthouse for defending her African American client (oh wait, maybe that’s it)for defending her client. All of it caught on tape. Is it possible that the decision in the Garner case might have given somebody some ideas?
The video shows Deputy Public Defender Jami Tillotson refusing to step aside as a man identified as San Francisco Police Inspector Brian Stansbury tries to take a cellphone picture of Tillotson’s client in a hallway at the Hall of Justice on Tuesday.
“I just want to take some pictures, ok? Then he will be free to go,” says Stansbury on the video. Tillotson refuses and Stansbury then tells her she can either step aside or be arrested for resisting arrest, according to the subtitles on the YouTube video.
Tillotson, an 18-year veteran of the public defender’s office, is calm throughout the video and does not resist officers. She continues to assert she is representing her client as she is led away.
“I just want to take some pictures”?!?!? What the fuck? Why? Presuming the client of the public defender has been arrested and awaits or is already involved in the Judicial process there should already be at the very least a “picture”.
It would seem that “resisting arrest” has a heretofore unknown scope which seems to include “breathing while not being an authoritarian”.
Unless of course you are an African American Police Officer.
A San Francisco police officer has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, saying he was racially profiled, choked and wrongfully arrested during a traffic stop by several colleagues who ignored him when he said he was an officer.
Lorenzo Adamson, 43, said he was stopped in his Honda Accord by a field training officer on Lane Street in the Bayview neighborhood about 8:15 p.m. May 30 for not having a license plate.
Officer Brian Stansbury immediately asked Adamson if he was on probation or parole, a question that made Adamson believe he was being racially profiled, according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Adamson is African American and Stansbury is white.
Adamson, a 15-year veteran who is on disability leave for a back injury he suffered while on the job, objected to Stansbury’s question and told the officer, “What does not having a plate on my car have to do with being on parole or probation? Shouldn’t you be asking for my license, registration and insurance?” the suit said. Stansbury replied, “That’s what we do out here,” according to the suit, filed by civil rights attorney John Burris.
One thing I noticed is that between these two events Stansbury, who in the former case was an officer only a little over a year ago is in the current case referred to as a Police Inspector, which I presume, indicates that he has had been promoted in the interim. He must be doing something right, or more importantly, satisfying an agenda.
{Update}
Could this possibly be related to my point?
h/t Adam_Hominem
One of the aspects of fascism not fully present in the US is our leaders wearing military uniforms. Although, I admit, W’s flight suit moment on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln was 100% fascist.
I’ll be following this case. This is outrageous. Good thing she has a video. A judge ought to throw out the charge. That’s an unlawful arrest in any state.
“Then he’ll be free to go,” says one of the officers. The clear implication is that until “then” (whenever it is), the fellow having his picture taken is NOT free to go. Which would make him under arrest, no?
A judge may or may not throw out the arrest; the police will cover their rumps by dropping all charges now that they have what they want, pictures of the guy standing in the hall.
This is a favored tactic of a police state. For example, a group of citizens assembles peaceably to protest the presence of a government official, but they are sequestered far away in a designated “First Amendment Zone.” The citizens are assured that any present violation of their rights can be redressed months or years later in a court of law. But the chance to directly petition a government official about their grievance has passed, probably never to come again.
The police officers who have committed these offenses against citizens’ rights don’t get brought to justice, don’t suffer any black marks on their record, and indeed probably advance through the ranks because of their willingness to short-circuit the Constitution in favor of the ruling elite.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
Push
You might want to read these:
The defence of freedom begins in the military
The United States Air Force Academy has been pushing its Dominionist Christian beliefs onto its personnel. (17 Mar 2013)
“We’re Dealing with a Christian Taliban”
Interview with Mikey Weinstein (07 Sep 2007)
Why We Fight – Christian Dominionists Are Dead Serious About Overthrowing Democracy (Updated)
George Grant and the Christian Dominionist Movement (02 Jun 2012)
Bughunter, tnx. razor blade push, both of them actually.
Gratuitous, yep to all.
Get back when not on fone, one fingering.
Cheers all .
…
It cannot escape one’s notice how these trends have accelerated in the post 9/11 era, although admittedly, the era of ‘apple pie fascism’ started with Ray-gun.
what should scare the fuck out of us all is that none of this shit comes as any sort of surprise.
Also, can confirm Dallas is a fucking hell-hole.
“arrested for resisting arrest”
Kafka logic, “We are going to arrest you for a crime you won’t have committed until we arrest you.”
Yep, it’s fascism. The Conservatives love it, since they are still angry that they lost WWII.
Paxton’s definition of fascism is still the gold standard:
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion
“Obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood,” “compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity,” and “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective cooperation with traditional elites,” if nothing else, all sound like a resume of the Tea Party Movement.
(Heck, even the name itself fits to a tee. All about claiming the heritage of a badly remembered, long-dead past to legitimize the present movement).
Meanwhile, in NYC, two members of a Bronx organization which provides legal defense were involved in a rap video which depicts anti-cop violence, and it looks like the entire organization is going to be defunded just because of it.
Seriously, this has been all over the local news, and the media is making it out to be “Liu/Ramos Assassination 2.0”.
Also, can confirm Dallas is a fucking hell-hole.
I’m sure there is a seemly corner or a block or two within which cool shit is going on….
Only driven through that place so only vantage point being the interstate, the first time at night so didn’t really make out anything. on the way back it was daytime and all I could see for miles and miles between exits, was black roof after black roof on house after house in cookie cutter subdivisions, and given that they seemed reletively new construction then, i cant imagine what that shit has become in the intervening 24 years.
I couldn’t imagine settling down there then.
…
The only thing to stop a bad toddler with a gun is a good toddler with a gun…
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/3-year-old-finds-gun-handbag-shoots-both
I think the facism indicators in your article are more of an identification system for opponants of authoritarianism.
I also think it’s instinctual. So It doesn’t need to be codified… Conservatives instinctually use these technics to identify and separate out “others” who are, or may be, opponants.
Later… sad
new one