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Thursday, January 1, 2015

In 2014 America Abandoned Its Constitution And Devolved Into a Fascist Theocracy




more from Rmuse
 
Thursday, January, 1st, 2015, 9:48 am



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It is usual at the end of another calendar year to look hopefully at the New Year, but at this point, and judging by the events of 2014, there is very little to look forward to in America in 2015. In fact, it is getting extremely difficult to look ahead at the coming year with anything other than dread and despair as America devolves into a theocratic, racist, and fascist police state that the government cannot, and apparently will not, even attempt to stop. It is not that 2014 was devoid of good news; quite the contrary.  But no amount of jobs, Wall Street profits, economic growth, or falling gas prices can counterbalance the distress Republicans, racists, and religious Supreme Court justices have wrought on this sad nation with no end, or hope, in sight.

First, it is noteworthy that the only good developments of 2014 were at the hands of President Obama and his executive actions; particularly acting on the existential issue of “global” climate change and his landmark agreement with China. The President’s action on immigration enforcement was long overdue, but in his defense he did wait patiently for House Republicans to adopt, or at least consider, the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill to no avail. What his action did was reveal why 2015, like the past six years, will be depressing for Americans who will watch a Republican-controlled Congress waste taxpayer time and money in a crusade to undo a valid executive order the GOP has deemed unconstitutional; despite the conservative Roberts Court already ruled the President was well within his constitutional authority like every Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. But that is the price Americans have to pay for living in a nation with a party so steeped in racial animus for a  Black President that they have deemed his entire Presidency is unconstitutional.

Maybe more than anything, seeing the U.S. Constitution treated like an afterthought, if not a worthless comic book, by conservatives, evangelicals, law enforcement, Republicans, and the Supreme Court is all the proof a reasonable human being needs to realize America is doomed. Republicans claim anything President Obama does in unconstitutional at the same time they attempted to pass legislation authorizing approval to build a foreign corporation’s tar sand pipeline across America. That decision is the exclusive right of the Executive Department and yet, one of the first actions a Republican Congress will undertake to repay their Koch debt will be patently unconstitutional and no-one will dare utter a complaint any more than they will over the Republican drive to enforce Vatican rules banning all forms of birth control with personhood legislation; more on that in another article.

Republicans in state after state were hastily passing legislation abolishing other Americans’ 14th Amendment rights due to their adherence to bastardized American Christianity and empowerment by the Vatican contingent on the Supreme Court. History will show that it was in 2014 that 5 conservative Catholics on the Highest Court in the land deconstructed the religious clauses in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution to expedite evangelical Christians and the United States Council of Catholic Bishops’ ascendance to wield ironclad authority over the religious freedom of the rest of the population. Through it all, not one politician had the courage or conviction to inform the American people that every dirty attempt to deny women the right to make their own health choices, or gays to marry the person they love, was founded in an archaic religious text because they were, and still are, terrified of committing the mortal sin of speaking out against or opposing theocracy. Speaking of mortal sins, the past six months have revealed that there is no greater sin than speaking out against out-of-control and murderous law enforcement officials doing their due diligence to eviscerate the Constitutional protections afforded all Americans.

If racist police officers were not gunning down unarmed African Americans with impunity  ending their Constitutional right to life with approval of the judicial system, they were threatening Americans opposed to fascist police tactics complete with battlefield gear. Instead of supporting and defending the U.S. Constitution, they took great pleasure in denying Americans their First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly. All, by the way, with approval and support of Republicans and conservatives as blatantly racist as the police abusing African Americans whether civilians or fellow police officers.  Law enforcement was also complicit in aiding and abetting, through direct support, a seditious  white man and his well-armed Oath Keeper, Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Officers Association (CSPOA) militia intent on initiating a second revolution; with impunity and ardent support of conservative media and Republicans with no more regard for the Constitution as they do African Americans, poor people, elderly Americans, Veterans, or children.

America may have been an exceptional nation at one time, but the country began its downward spiral thirty years ago when Republicans and conservatives decided, and convinced many Americans, their mortal enemy was the federal government; a federal government created by the U.S. Constitution. Now, that very Constitution has all but been rendered null-and-void either by government fear of opposing sedition, or an all-powerful evangelical movement with avid support of the conservative Catholics on the Supreme Court.

Throughout history, other peoples have sat idly by and watched their freedoms eroded, and finally abolished, by fascist religious, corporate, and military-style enforcers, and America is rapidly heading in the same direction with the same results. One would like to say this country is at a crossroads, or nearing a tipping point, of which there is no return, but according to what this nation has suffered throughout 2014 at the hands of fascist police, armed militias, evangelical fanatics, and a theocratic Supreme Court, the scales are tipped. America is on the same course as 1930s Nazi Germany and the Koch brothers are more than happy to fund this country into oblivion. If 2014 is any indication, 2015 is not going to be a Happy New Year.




In 2014 America Abandoned Its Constitution And Devolved Into a Fascist Theocracy was written by Rmuse for PoliticusUSA.
© PoliticusUSA, Thu, Jan 1st, 2015 — All Rights Reserved

Connection Revealed: Eat Fast Food, Vote Republican


Who Hijacked Our Country

 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Connection Revealed: Eat Fast Food, Vote Republican


Fast/processed/convenience “food” not only has the health risks we already know about — obesity, heart disease, diabetes, et al.  In addition, too much fast food affects your brain.  And not in a good way.

According to a recent study published in Clinical Pediatrics:  “Our findings provide evidence that eating fast food is linked to another problem: poorer academic outcomes.”

That's sugarcoating-speak for “It makes you dumb.  Upid-stay.”

Think there's a connection between the mass overconsumption of fast food, and the fact that millions of voters keep getting conned into voting against their own interests?  Let's have a look:

1. Tens of millions of Americans have spent years — decades — clogging their brains with boatloads of high fructose corn syrup, pink slime, white flour, and hundreds of “additives” your high school chemistry teacher never heard of.

2. Tens of millions of Americans believe:
A) Clean air, drinkable water and renewable energy sources are just phony excuses for Barack Hussein Osama, the U.N. and the Trilateral Commission to Seize Our Property;

B) The aforementioned villains from the previous sentence are also planning to take away our guns the minute we let our guard down.

C)  The economy is being strangled by too many cumbersome regulations.  As soon as we eliminate these intrusive laws that coddle workers, consumers and the environment, millions of new jobs will be created so fast our heads will be spinning.

D) The Great Crash of 2008 was caused by labor unions, non-profit organizations, too many Wall Street regulations which straitjacketed the banks so they couldn't do their jobs, and millions of greedy homeowners who just couldn't wait to buy a house they couldn't afford so they'd get foreclosed and lose everything they had.

E) There's no such thing as global warming; it's just God hugging us closer.   Etc.

Connect the dots.


posted by Tom Harper @ 12:49 AM

10 of the Worst GOP Outrages of 2014



From rancher Cliven Bundy to the war on voting rights, this list will make you tear your hair out.


With 2014 coming to a close, it's worth remembering all the stuff we want to leave behind as we embrace the new year. Among these things are a whole host of outrages from the Republican Party. We present 10 of the worst and most outrageous political acts by the GOP this year:

1. Exploiting Police Deaths To Attack Democrats: Shortly after the tragic killings of two police officers in New York City, former Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani used the murders to accuse current mayor Bill de Blasio and President Obama of inciting the murders by criticizing police.

2. Astroturfing Minority Support: Rather than alter their policies to better the lives of racial minorities, several Republican candidatesdecided to use stock images of African Americans in their campaign advertisements to create the impression that the party doesn't have a white Christian male problem of narrowing support from diverse groups.

3. Promoting Bigotry Under Guise of Religious Freedom: Republicans in state legislatures nationwide promoted bills they claim were designed to advance “religious freedom” but were really about the right for businesses to use religion as a shield for refusing services to marginalized groups like gay Americans. In most states, these bills failed, but one did pass the Michigan House though it was not signed into law by the Senate.

4. Waging War On Voting Rights: As part of their 2014 push, Republicans across the country continued to push for disenfranchisement-promoting voter ID laws and attacks on early voting. One Georgia county even killed early voting because officials worried it was “just a way to wring out every last vote.” It wasn't all bad news, though. In Montana voters chose to keep election-day registration.

5. Holding Government Hostage to Deregulate Wall Street: In a last-minute showdown over a government spending bill, the GOP inserted a provision to deregulate a section of the Dodd-Frank rules on Wall Street. Despite a defiant stand by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) the GOP's hostage-taking succeeded as Senate Democrats folded to their demands.

6. Calling For Crippling Flight Bans to Combat Ebola: Despite protests from virtually the entire medical community, GOP pols exploited panic about Ebola to call for flight bans to all of West Africa. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) even said Obama was trying to import Ebola into the U.S.

7. Defending An Extremist Who Squatted on Federal Property:Although much of the right is mum about today's police brutality protests, they championed the cause of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, whose fans took up arms to keep the federal government from removing him from federal property. Leading Republican politicians such as senators Dean Heller (NV) and Rand Paul (KY) defended Bundy's revolt.

8. Continuing to Deny Climate Change: The GOP continued its long history of resisting any change to climate policy. Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney said the whole thing was a hoax and “the greatest deception in the history of mankind.” A long string of Republican pols responded to questions about global warming by saying “I'm not a scientist,” somehow believing this exempted them from having to give an opinion on the matter.

9. Electing the Senate's Newest Right-Wing Extremist: In Iowa, Republicans succeeded in electing Joni Ernst to the Senate. She touts United Nations conspiracies to take Iowan farmland, believes the president is a dictator, wants the federal minimum wage to be abolished, and thinks states can just nullify federal laws they dislike.

10. Trying Tt Prolong Our 50-Year Embargo on Cuba: While President Obama earned broad bipartisan praise and approval from the public and some GOP lawmakers for his Cuba move, some on the right lined up to pile on him, saying he rewarded tyranny and was practicing appeasement. For these Republicans, 50 years of a bad policy wasn't enough.

What were your top GOP outrages of 2014? What do you think we will have to endure next year?

Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet contributing writer. Follow @zaidjilani on Twitter.