I expected a benchmark event to happen when fascism started taking

[Horse with no Name]

hold in this country...but it is creeping in so quickly and quietly that many aren't sitting up to take notice.
I used to think that "if Roe v. Wade were overturned", now I think in terms of "when Roe v. Wade is overturned."
It's not going to take another terrorist attack (something which I believed for a long time), the one we had has never ended.
911 was just the first wave initiated by Al Quaeda...then Bushco took over and we have all been terrorized ever since.

Seems like the lyrics "let freedom ring" should be replaced with "let terror reign".

[MadMaddie]

1. This is exactly how it happened in Germany...

What the * cabal has done is Treasonous....I don't know how it's going to be stopped!!

[mattclearing]

2. Is that all you had to say? n/t

[Betsy Ross]

3. I need to upgrade my prayers.

I usually pray for an administration that will make peace, care for its citizens, respect our planet. I should be praying for impeachment, treason trial, World Court trial for crimes against humanity. Can I pray for these things? Is it praying for something negative or positive?

[Lindsay]

4. That's a prayer for justice.

Surely that's positive.

[cali]

5. Fiddle dee dee

I don't think things are great, but they're nowhere near as bad as your description.

Roe is not in any immediate danger. There's still a 5 vote majority to uphold.

Yes bushco has gotten a ton of mileage out of 9/11, but we're still relatively free. You may be terrorized. I'm not.

Pendulums swing, and we're in mid swing right now. Consider bushco's poll numbers.

[valerief]

6. What difference do poll numbers make when there is no legit

vote in the US? Diebold owns the vote.

[cali]

9. interesting meme but

not one i'm convinced is true.

[valerief]

10. You will be in due time unless you swallow the Kool-Aid.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. And when one more sick old man retires?

Pat Robertson has promised that there will be a new justice by the end of the year. And he should know - god talks to him over his morning coffee.

Over the years I was pissed at Nixon and his crooks, but I was never fearful for our country. I was aghast at Reagan and his simplistic jingoism pushing the nuclear clock up to 2 minutes to 12, but always believed we could turn things around.

This bunch is more crooked, more militaristic, more autocratic and arrogant than any administration in our history, and they have fixed things so that it will be nearly impossible to turn things around -- they have the congress, the courts, the intelligence agencies, the newly grown KGB .. I mean DHS, and worst of all, they control the companies that control the counting of the votes. They will not be uprooted in a single election - they've made systemic changes that will direct the course of this country for two generations.

I am NOT complacent.

[cali]

8. The threats that confront us in the present

are, by their very nature, scarier than past threats, whether they're actually more significant or not. Of course it will be hard to turn things around, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done. We'll see whether or not the voting's hopelessly compromised in November. 2004 was inconclusive. Sorry, but I can easily believe that more people voted for bushco than Kerry. It's pretty clear they don't have the entire government as firmly as you state. If they did, you wouldn't have so many leaks or the number of ex-officials and military speaking out against the admin. This administration is massively unpopular. That hinders their ability to get things through and makes it more difficult for them to get away with power grabbing.

As far as the retirement of Justice Stevens goes, it's my understanding that he's pretty hale and hearty- plays singles tennis 3x a week. I doubt he's going to retire. In addition, we stand a good chance of picking up Senate seats in PA, MN, ND and a couple of other states. None of the dem Senators seem to be in serious jepordy. Even if we only pick up 2 or 3, bushco will have a terribly hard time pushing through a wingnut like Alito if we do see a retirement.

[Ufomammut]

11. Psychological "avoidance"

Tough to say. The eradication of Native Americans. Remember, this country was founded upon saying one thing while doing the complete opposite ...slave owners who wanted equality for all men.

Benchmark, in regards to the right wing, shadow government ...hmm, JFK ...the whole thing, really, it's all a charade. All of the lies we're taught and indoctrinated into believing as we're raised here, exposed to constant institutional influence which blinds people to the ugly truth about the brute power of America. Call if "friendly fascism," except, depending upon who you are, which class you fall into, and where on planet earth you live, it's not very "friendly" per se.

That's what makes all of this so dangerous: because so many people are seriously delusional in how they've been conditioned to see it, enabling the corporate pirates to do whatever they want over the backs of the weak, the poor, the systematically fucked over, and as long as the boob tube sells the appropriate movie script to disguise evil deeds so blatant that a child's deductive reasoning skills should suffice in determination, people remain morally indifferent. How the collective conscious in America has been so subverted and corrupted, that's the real determing factor...otherwise, this admin would've been torn to pieces by "we the people's" bare hands long ago.