Letters to the Editor
tempus
Published Letters: 469 Editor's Choice: 8
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Oh by the only god Zeus
[Read the article: Jay Rockefeller's unintentionally revealing comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]PLEASE let there be largescale civil unrest!
Or maybe they think investigating the Bush administration is a loser politically, (another myth they appear to believe), or, more likely, they fear some sort of exacerbation of the already extreme political polarization in this country, leading to -- God forbid -- some sort of civil unrest?
I WANT massive, widespread and uncontrolled civil unrest. I WANT to totally collapse the house of cards that is our current unsustainable war "economy". I WANT to totally collapse the system of government as it now stands. Simply voting for DLC dems (ie, the rightwing of the GOP) or Republicans (the Reichwing of the GOP) will NOT change anything. "Working within the system" CANNOT work because the system itself is corrupt and broken. You cannot turn a corrupt politician (or Congress, White House, and Judicial branch FULL of corrupt criminals) good by polling or phoning or faxing him/her. You can only fix things by UN-seating them all, which can't happen because the voting system is corrupted as is the candidate selection process. That leaves massive civil unrest and collapsing the whole shebang.
Sure, it will hurt but what comes out of it could/would be BETTER. ANYTHING that hurts them ALL (Bush, Cheney, Hadley, McConnell, Hatch, Rockefeller, Reid, Pelosi, Emmanuel Leahy, Schumer, Feinstein...the entire lot of them...is a good thing in and of itself.
Please please please can we FINALLY have much-deserved and long overdue civil unrest? As far as I can see it really is the only way to actually have a chance of actually changing ANYTHING.
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@mona
[Read the article: Jay Rockefeller's unintentionally revealing comments]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ah, yes, I understand the sentiment. However, it is easy to get caught up in the current apoplexy-inducing times while failing to realize there have been others.
The difference is that the state now has at its disposal technological tools to do what was previously impossible. Total surveillance of ALL people ALL the time. Worse, it is setup to be handled largely by computers that are improperly programed to call "out of mainstream" or "out of DC-acceptable" political views as terroristic. Opposed to the Iraq war? You are a possible terrorist and subject to constant spying. Opposed to the corporations that run the country? You are a possible terrorist and subject to constant spying. You are opposed to righwing attempts to force Jesus down your throat? You are a possible terrorist and subject to constant spying.
The closest that any country has managed to get to an over-arching full-scale surveillance of citizens is former East Germany with its Stasi. To do it required a LOT of actual living, breathing spies to watch those around them and make notes. Now, with the technology available, this same thing can be done (and to a large extent IS being done) with a fraction of the number of living, breathing criminal fascist monsters doing the spying. Computers. Databases. AI. Cameras all over the place. Face recognition software. All of it was unavailable even 10 years ago.
This time we see the start of a period wherein the attack and destruction of liberty and freedom becomes permanent because it is just so easy to pull off now. The door to that realm must be slammed shut and not even allowed to open a crack. THIS time, once liberty is gone it is possible that it will never come back. The tools to predict, respond, and identify ALL actors fighting for liberty are in the hands of the fascists. That is the danger here.
I suggest you read "No Place to Hide" by Robert O Harrow. He goes into great detail the construction of the surveillance police state we are now entering. The government is taking advantage of spying powers available to corporations (which they NEVER should have been permitted), powers that are becoming ubiquitous and impossible to avoid, to do their dirty work. They gain from the unregulated and wild west of corporate spying on citizens without having to worry about pesky warrants. They are outsourcing the Police State.
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@kovie
[Read the article: More disruptions to the Cheney/Rockefeller plan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We may or may not win this one, but to declare it a lost cause from the start is, I think, just plain stupid and lazy, and more indicative of some peoples' mindset and character than of reality.
I still tend to be one who thinks (and sometimes states) that this is a lost cause but am NOT a defeatist. I think the Dems are so corrupt, so in bed with corporations, powerlust, the same as the GOP, that they will truly do anything they can to push through immunity in spite of the clear wishes of the majority of the American people. That said, I STILL fight this with every fiber of my being. I look with favor upon Don Quixote and his attacks on windmills. I am a sucker for a desperate, last-breath battle. I will not stop fighting until I have expended all ammo, broken my knife on one unyielding rib too many, then broken all the bones in my hands from the blows, and then expelled my last breath as the Dictators finally step on my throat. I will then await the bastards in Hell and begin my attacks upon them anew before they realize they've arrived.
There are at least 3 camps among the lost-causeers. The already defeated lost-causers that simply throw up their hands and do not fight at all, the lost-causers that believe we will likely fail but fight anyway. and those that believe it is likely to fail but that we just might pull a win in the end. It seems that GG falls into the middle group. I waver. I spend time in the second and third group but am constitutionally incapable of simply giving up without fighting at all like those in the first group. In fact, I insist that if I am to lose on something truly important, then I want to try my best to make the "victory" for the Dictators or other scum a pyrrhic victory.