McCarthyism + Watergate + Vietnam = Bushco!

[DistressedAmerican]

People talk a lot about political calculations. When I sit down and look at where we are today that equation always comes to my mind.

McCarthyism + Watergate + Vietnam = Bushco.

We are see elements of all three reprehensible events in American history all rolled up in this administration.

We hear both liberals and muslims demonized much as "reds" were during the McCarthy years. The political corruption that we see attached to Bushco far exceeds anything we saw under Nixon. And the parallels to the quagmire in the jungles of Vietnam are clear.

How does this happen? How has the system become so unbalanced that even looking down the barrel the combined power abuses of this administration, people are not moved to act?

Is the system still a self correcting balance of three branches? If it is, how long do you think it will be before the balance is restored?

The balance of powers is the key to political accountability. When do you think we see some accountability? Ever?

--

[laststeamtrain]

1. Correct! Good math.

All the worst in skull-duggery combined in one crooked administration.
Worst President ever=GWB.

[tk2kewl]

2. + Reaganomics + S &L Scandal + ....

the list is virtually endless

[emulatorloo]

3. I would add "Iran-Contra" to your calculation too

but I am too lazy to do the whole calculation on the blackboard like you have.

Thanks for your post. . .

[tk2kewl]

4. I was just about to go back and edit my post to add that one too

;)

[intheflow]

5. You're forgetting to add in the "Moral Majority" and

the rise of the religious right that started under Reagan. But other than that, your math adds up perfectly.

[whatever4]

6. Gosh, that sounds just like what I said

I was musing about that a few months ago, a similar thought to yours. I thought our situation was a bizarre mix of Nazism, Civil War and McCarthyism.

The mistrust of our fellow Americans, encouraging spying by folks like mailmen and others out and about...what was that program called, started even before 911, TIPPS? We've got secret service stuff all over the damn place, cameras for traffic, for security, for anything. You cannot walk in public anymore and expect to NOT be photographed, whether or not anyone ever looks at the pictures...they're there. Along with our records, library books we read...mail...email...on our jobs we have NO rights to privacy in ANY of our personal affairs. Further, those suspected of...anything...can be carted off, with no access to lawyer, or even family. Gone, just disappeared. And only if you're LUCKY, not to be sent overseas, for some unfortunates.

The nationalism of Hitler, blaming another nation and another peoples for our "problems" of national security, saving our precious "way of life". If we can just "fix" the middle east...we'll be okay. Sure. We've run over these people like trash, and how we've ruined the environment of their land is...permanent. As if they are the source of all evil, as if they are less than human, as if, because we're a presence in their nation, any that stand against us deserve nothing but death. And their families. Their wives. Their babies. ANYONE home.

Yeah, plenty of middle easterners have terrorized and ruined MY life. NOT.

The internal strife of a civil war, because we have more of our citizens in prison right now than ANY other nation. Even China has nothing on us, on this, though their human rights is laughable, and their population far exceeds ours. By any measure, we have, what was it, one twenty fifth of the world population, but account for one forth of it's prison inmates. By percentage, per capita, and by sheer numbers as well, the Unites States is a prison nation. WE have so many of our citizens in prison, it's where a black man can fairly well EXPECT to wind up. It's not a fear, it's a realistic probability.

Now in my mind, THAT equals legal slavery, no matter how you slice it. It's a situation that has been building for many years, ever increasing, while crime numbers go down; without real crimes, the drug war incarcerates people. A prohibition targeting minorities. As the prohibitions always have. The history of it is undeniable, we have words of congressmen from the 1930 to illustrate this fact.

It's not a situation that can continue indefinitely, there has to be a stopping point. Black culture and blacks in general have been put down in ways us whites don't understand and frequently just don't see. Out of sight, out of mind. In a prison, down the road from YOU. As with the nazi prisons, they just aren't seen. Oh, big surprise American, look. And , they'll say...we just didn't know. We didn't realize.

And I'm thinking...that excuse didn't help the Germans much. And the south isn't exactly proud of it's history of slavery.

For us...it's our entire damned nation now. Not just the south.

No, it's just nuts, trifecta from hell for sure, and what I CANNOT see is how so many Americans seem to be falling for it all. With a will; NATIONAL SECURITY!!

They forget, always, who it is they really need to fear. The monsters closest to them, those that stand to gain. The profit. Follow the money.

I am bewildered.

[Greeby]

7. Cool Time cover

Wish I'd been around to see that one come out

[rman]

8. Plame + DSM + Sibel + Indira + Iran-Contra + BCCI + WTC '93 = ?

Some call it "terror economy", which, as far as i can gather, refers to the notion that with drugs and weapons one can buy terror.

[krkaufman]

9. Yes, they're the Neopolitan ice cream of malicious government n/t

On edit: I'm thinking "malignant" might better capture them.

[DistressedAmerican]

10. Afternoon kicker.