The authoritarian state response to OWS was profound in it's nature. The police really flirted with police brutality and ignoring protestors Constitutional Rights when OWS had some momentum a few years ago.
We can protest all we want as long as it's splintered and disorganized, the minute we appear to be actually effective at organizing a larger cohesive movement, that's when the militarized police with their eardrum exploding sound cannons and mace and pepper spray and rubber bullets and illegal choke holds will incite riots and whatever else to crush the dissent.
The great Chris Hedges has covered revolutions in Eastern Europe - his observation is that if ONE PERCENT of the population is engaged in revolutionary causes, it will trigger a revolution.
And right now I'm afraid to participate in protests for fear of physical harm and getting snagged in our stasi-like criminal justice system. Even among family and friends I'm starting to really feel like "I have to watch what I say."
The Oligarch's are turning the dial to eleven on quelling social unrest and dissident voices. Painful, because from my 60's baby boomer public education, I know a lot about the principles our country was founded on an it's painful to see our elected officials bulldoze over many of our former Constitutional Rights. They're perfectly comfortable stating on national TV that "Torture works and I'd do it again in a minute." Which speaks to the utter contempt they have for the rule of law and The Constitution that they took an Oath to uphold. I wonder what Oath's these people have taken that they actually follow? Is there a secret Oath taken by the leaders of the Military Industrial congressional Surveillance complex we should know about? Is there a Secret Oath to our DEEP STATE parallel government accountable to nobody but themselves?
It CAN happen here and IT IS happening here.
I think one of the few hopes left is collective action, which I think is impossible because there are so many special interest variants trying to fight the spread of Oligarchy - should I join the green party, should i join greenpeace, OWS, move-on and all the other hundreds of groups committed to social justice?
We need a Teddy Roosevelt for our times - somebody that will BUST THE TRUSTS effectively and for real. Well, we need a whole bunch of other things, cuz the wealthy authoritarians have been chipping away at Democracy at least since the Powell Memorandum of 1971 and then got going in full force once Reagan was in office.
Eizabeth? Bernie? And if they bail how about Alan Grayson?
-90% jimmy
= new reply since forum marked as read