Freedom to Fascism - Part the Tenth (Finale!)

https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/happy-john-lennon/

America *nods, so as to acknowledge your presence*...

Here we are, eh?  Finally.  The last of the month-long ten-parter that really only lasted 10 actual days, and that with 2 intermissions.  But I think we accomplished what we were after, did we not?

If you feel we have NOT as yet, well then:  For your consideration.  The last and final check marks.

Check Mark #25.  The Transfer of Power From the Legislative to the Executive branch.

Well, of course, we have to have a common understanding of the difference in the two branches, right?  So here we are then:  The Legislative Branch consists of Senators and Representatives, and all are our law-makers.  The Executive Branch is the President, and his cabinet.  Pretty simple right?  That is, until the lines get blurry...then I wonder.

Is there a shift of power?  Well, let's go back to that bit I wrote on Executive Orders, shall we?  Where was that again???  Oh yeah...This series, Part I, remember?  Considering that Executive Orders seem to just breeze by what we and Congress as a whole want without a second thought, then I'd say "When does our Legislature get its vote on this", or "When do we American Joes and Janes get OUR say?"

And really, if the President wants it that way, he can do whatever he wants to, as long as he stays on that line....the one between Democratic and UN-Democratic, between Constitutional and nnnnnot so much, and doesn't cross it.

Bills that go before our Legislature are signed into law (or vetoed) once the debate on whether they're a good thing or not is over.  I have to seriously believe too, after reading the wording on these bills, that most the time, the President probably only half-way looks at them anyway.  He probably just reads the title and the first couple of paragraphs to get the gist of them, then signs them into law or vetoes them depending on how he feels about that particular subject.  I don't think I'd get past the first couple pages after so many hundreds would have crossed over my desk.  I definitely can't say I envy his job, where that's concerned.

The Legislative Branch of our Government represents "We the People"...or at least it's supposed to.  If we bypass that part of the process on anything, we Americans will have less and less say in any matter.  It'll be up to the Executive Branch to decide.  That's when we'll lose our country, kids.  Moving right along...

Check Mark #26 - Assassinations of Popular Public Figures

There seems to be a fine line between being Popular, after a fashion, and being TOO popular in this country.  With the exception of our current President, it would seem that certain key figures, when their voices get too loud or too angry, tend to magically attract some lunatic, then get shot by him/her.  Funny how that works.  If we like them too much, or if they want too much reform, they just disappear.  John F.  Martin L. King.  John Lennon (I'm STILL trying to figure this one out...I'm thinking maybe he just wanted too much peace or something).  I'm certain if I attract too many people with my way of thinking, well, I just might mysteriously get bombed in my own home, or something similar.  Oh, you'll notice for a minute...then you'll just shake your heads and say "He was a good man...it's really too bad, isn't it?  Then within a year or two, you'll forget all about me.  How convenient.

It's OK though.  I figure, enough people get how I think, and then go..."Ooooooooooooh...He'd best be careful sayin' that!!"  Then I go missing?  I'm OK with the possibilities of Martyrdom.  If it gets others to question things, I'm OK with that, really.  I'm not afraid of it, not at this point.  I've had a nice full life.  No problemmo muchacho/muchacha.

Check Mark #28 - The President Claims the Right to Make War Whenever He Wants.

This is one of those that just drives me batty.  I wish I could remember where I saw this, but there was an article I read not too long ago that said "Obama believes that, as long as he doesn't use the word "War", then Congress won't have any say on the matter." (Congress must agree when it comes to war, whether we do or we don't participate).  I think that's what others have done with some of our wars as well.  Vietnam was a "Police Action"..See?  It's not a war, so it's OK!!  Huh???

So, therefore, we no longer seem to need the Legislative Branch in deciding whether we go to war or not, at least not in this administration.  Now I can't rightly lash out and give you a good example...but who needs one?  Once is more than enough.  By the time we realize we're at war with someone, and we never heard the word to let us know it is one, then it won't matter at that point anymore.

*****************************************************************************

So America?  Whaddya think?  Pretty scary huh?  Lots and lots of check marks...I truly with there were more empty boxes, believe that.  Maybe this is too much of a list, I've seen others that only sport 7-10 lines, but I'll admit that it needs to be ripped apart and discussed on every level, not just a few.  Just pay attention, this isn't a lot to ask here.  Keep your eyes and ears open kids, and let's not let this get too far away from us, OK?  We love America and all it has to offer...in particular, it's freedoms.  Don't roll over when they start disappearing.  Keep our country..our democratic people ridden, freedoms of this and that...safe from Fascism, communism, socialism.  We've seen these at work, and they aren't fun.  Till tomorrow, when we're back doing random things.  I'm glad to have this one over with!!

Freedom to Fascism - Part IX

http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/16300.html

Hey America!!  I think I finally figured out what to do with this series.  You see, I ended up not bein' truly crazy about the fascism list I was using.  A lot of the checks were the same things, just re-worded...and the rest were things I could write two or three posts on, and in some cases, already have.  So here's what I've decided to do with the rest that I haven't covered as yet.

I'm going to investigate the checks I have left.  Of the important ones, I'm going to combine three important checks on this post and a final three in my final post of the series, due on the first of June.  Sounds good, right?  Well then?  What are we waitin' fer?  Let's get it ON!!

Check Mark #21 - Increasing Government Control Over Private Behavior.

I don't believe I'm  going to have to expound on this one at all.  I think the majority of us are fully aware of how much the government is sticking their nose into our business (as well as in the business of those in other countries).  On the other hand, I realize that a lot of you are just here to look at the pretty pictures and scoff at the rest, so, I guess I might have to hammer it out a little, then re-late, re-iterate, and re-peat, from all of my previous articles, along with a few new ones you might not yet believe in or know about.

I can't even start to tell you the number of articles I read daily, about the easy time people have tracking other people.  From your device usage to your Internet usage, to the usage of cameras, used for traffic control, in finding stolen vehicles and criminals.  And if all that fails, well, Google Earth can give anyone in law enforcement a tour of your living room while you're not home.

You ever notice when these miracles of technology come into existence, that they only tell us the good things these inventions can be used for, and never the bad?  Hey, you can catch people speeding with these traffic cameras, and make extra money for the city to balance the budget!!  ("Oh, and it might cost you a couple hundred when you get your tickets, when YOU get caught speeding more often, and, we can find you via your vehicle when you haven't paid the ten tickets you've already received, thanks to the same cameras"...kinda gets omitted.)  Or...These new X-Ray satellites give us the ability to see things about the galaxy, concerning make-up, etc., and give us more information about the moons and planets of our solar system ("Oh, and we kinda spaced off telling you, that, in an emergency situation, we could just as easily turn them around and use them to find those people that are opposing and hiding from the government that we've been trying to find for over a month now, considering the fact that these things see through walls like they're not even there.)

Just the fact we have a minimum of 2 cameras on or around us at all times (cell phones, laptop web cams, pads, traffic corners, security networks, stores, etc.) should be proof that we can be found anytime someone wants to.  By the way, for those of you who don't believe for a moment that store and business security cameras can't a.) be hacked or b.) aren't able to be used at anytime for spying on you, then think again.  They oh so most definitely can.  And it's already been proven plenty that cell phone and computer cameras can be used or hacked to do the same thing.  There's a huge piece of black electrical tape covering the laptop cam, believe it.  If you can only get your hands on masking, then take your Sharpe and black it out.  Remember too that all of these devices also have microphones built in, so, take another extra minute to block the sound on those (not that your device can't be remotely controlled, long enough to turn them on when needed, then off when whoever's doing it is finished and they have what they want....they can!)  It probably won't do a lot of good, concerning the microphone, but at least you can say you did your best, right?

But really, what this check mark concerns is not cameras, it concerns the government saying what you can and can't do with your body, your time, your job, your money and your family.  Slowly but surely, the walls of the room are closing in on us, America...can you feel it?  More and more, the government comes up with new ways to take over your lives.  Pretty soon, we'll be another socialist country, where they tell us what jobs we can work, how much the government intends to pay you for that job, how many kids you're allowed to have, etc.  It's not too far off now, really.  Every box I've covered up to this point has a humongous double- outlined blaring red check-mark in it.  And they don't stop there either.  Hence, our next subject:

Check Mark #22 - Lack of Legal Recourse to Stop Illegal Government Actions

This one very largely resembles another check mark we had, in part VII I believe, concerning the government excluding itself or declaring itself immune to our laws.  There is a small difference here, however, and that's this:  If our government loses all sense of reason, and gets out of hand, what can we Americans do about it?

Not much I'm afraid.  With the exception of the fact that every American has an average of 2 guns in their homes, and, if we wanted to, we could protest against that action, utilizing the media frenzied in-fashion way of shooting up a bunch of people in order to get our point across; or march right up the Capitol steps waiving those same guns against the tyranny of the establishment (not that this would do us any good, really -  one good ol' fashioned viral infection that's mutated and deadly, and delivered to us via "Pepper spray" would take care of any of that kind of behavior).

Just remember, you 2nd Amendment fanatics and activists, that those guns you've been storing in the basement, in order to tout and brag that you still have your right to bear arms?  Those little guns aren't gonna do a damn bit o' good against satellites, x-ray or other, drones, tanks, sophisticated missiles and their launchers, etc.  The government, as it stands, is GONNA DO WHAT THEY WANNA DO, and there ain't gonna be a damn thing you can do to stop it, legally, OR illegally, for that matter.  We've handed over too much of the reigns, and we're trained sheeple.  We'd never succeed in standing up to our current government, and they know it.

And finally, for today, we have:

Check Mark #23 - Prison Without Trials and Arrests Without Charges.

I will not be delving too far into this particular check mark, people.  I think we know that this already happens a plenty.  If you aren't convinced, don't expect me to explain it to you, in this case.  I refer the lot of you to places like:

www.copblock.org    (make sure and stop at the video checkout counter there, found at the bottom under videos -----------> Archives)   and   www.thefreethoughtproject.com  (Under badge abuse).

Video is oh so much more effective than any single word I could utter, or write about for that matter.

June 1st, and we finally reach the finale in our series!!!  Check it out, it's gonna be the capper, fo sho!!

Freedom to Fascism - Intermission Deux

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638049/7-dead-drive-shooting-near-UC-Santa-Barbara.html

DISCLAIMER:  Keep in mind, that this post is full of conjecture, as well as one writer's opinion, and involves a lot of analytical discussion on a very delicate and offensive (to some, if not half of our population) subject matter.  If you are strong on the subjects of women's rights and women's liberation, you may not want to not read this post!!  Keep in mind that I am a firm supporter in women's equality.  I am, however, forming my own version as to why crimes against women, like this one occur.  It does not, by any means, mean I'm sexist (I am not), or in firm belief of the views expressed here (I'm only expressing and analyzing THIS view in an attempt to fathom what causes this sort of behavior in men towards women).

Hey kids.  Yeah, grab some snacks, cook up some popcorn and grab a soda; it's time for another intermission in our little series.

I just have to say it:  I've tried this one before.  Oh yes, I wrote an article not too long ago concerning the very thing I plan to discuss.  Something, somehow, is different this time around.  You see, I took the other article down, mostly because a.) I didn't quite have enough ammo to back it up, and b.) because I'm just really apt to say the wrong thing when I discuss things like this.  I have a solution, however.  My moderator has decided to join forces with me today, and I'm feeling pretty confident for a re-write.  And yeah, she's a lady!

So, on we go, eh?

Here we have Elliot Rodger.  For those of you who haven't heard it 100 times by now, the story goes like this:

Boy meets girl, girl throws rejection in boy's face, boy then meets 100 other girls, and they all throw rejection in boy's face to follow suit, then boy writes death itinerary, then stabs his roommates, fires through a sorority house in Isla Vista, then shoots through a deli filled with college-aged kids, then boy takes his own life.  A classic American tale, no doubt.

The thing that gets me here, folks, is this:  Everyone is blaming gun control for this.  Or, that we didn't get there in time....or, quite possibly, that there was a goodly portion of mental instability here.  OK, I'd have to agree that all of these things came into play, for sure.  But I don't believe any of this to be the root of the problem here.  The root of the problem, as some of you have already guessed, is simply this:  Rejection.  I think we can even go with the mental thing, and add in rejection resulting in mental instability.  Or, even better, we could throw some social awkwardness in, mix in a couple of labels like ODD, chemically imbalanced, top it off with some anger issues, and whaddya get?  Poof!!  Instant Sociopath!

No, I don't really plan to attend this meeting.  Let's shoot for a different way of thinkin'...hmm?

Let's start where we should have, from the beginning.  What's wrong with this kid?  Well, according to the better part of his manifesto, he's sexually frustrated, is he not?  He's 22, and still a virgin.  He's been asking women to go out with him, and they all say no.  Isn't this the entire problem then?

Now granted, who are we to pin on this kid what we think the problem is.  Nobody.  Granted also, just because a person SAYS that girls and their rejection of him are the issue, doesn't mean it actually is the core problem.  Unfortunately, the guy's dead, his roommates are dead, and I'm sure his parents are just as lost as we are.

But hold on.  Let's ASSUME that the kid knew what he was talking about.  That the thing really buggin' him WAS rejection, and that all his anger stemmed from where he said it did.  This, I've discovered, is something we don't really care to talk about.  And do you want to know why we don't want to talk about it?  Because it's inconceivable.  And not only is it that, it will cause half of my readers to fly straight off of the handle.

If you have no clue where I'm going, you should.  When was the last time you got in an argument with your wife?  What happened?  Who ended up being right?  Let's see if you know where I'm going now.

What I'm trying to say is, if I were to present, to the female population of America, that the real reason Elliot shot up the deli was due to a line that leads back to the actions of woman-kind leading back to the women's rights movement, I would more than likely be wrong.  The more logical of women-kind would first ignore, then would highly dispute this fact, then disregard it, maybe some would present other reasons for it, then put their feet down and turn up their noses, stalk off, and say "you're WRONG!!"...and that'd be that.

Just for fun, I conducted a RANDOM survey.  Some would call it biased...mostly some of my more stubborn female friends.  It's most certainly not biased, nor is it not random.  I asked 50 women, and 50 men this question:

In the last argument you had with the opposite sex, when the argument was over, and the dust cleared, who was right and who was wrong, in your opinion?

Here, by sex, were my answers:

Men:  70% - She was.  22% - You're kidding right?  2% - Are you serious?  4% - A smart man wouldn't answer that question.  2% - I was.

Women:  68% - I was, of course.  12% - I'm not gonna answer that.  8% - It's programmed.  Women are always right, men are wrong.  6% - That's not a fair question. 4% - that's a loaded question.  2% - That's a biased question; I won't answer it, it's not valid, go back and learn how to take a survey. The last 2% was from a girl that I've known since she was 19...about 20 yrs.  She's taking a loooooong break from speaking to me, after we argued over the validity of the question for over 2 hours.  When the argument ended, though, guess who was right?

Are you starting to get the idea yet?  We have to make this about gun control or mental illness, because its NOT OK for us to talk about the other possibility, especially if it has to do with women's liberation.  We've accepted it, and it's wrong to question it.

Well, I'm not sure about the rest of you men, but I'm getting a little tired of more than likely being wrong.  Please, ladies, if you will, open your minds, and read on, willya please??  Maybe, just this once, I'm right about something.

In order for me to say what really happened here, I'm going to have draw a logical line.  What I would really have to say is Elliot shot people because he was mad at women.  If I had to guess why he was mad at women, I'd have to say it was because he was rejected by women.  And if you were to ask me why he was rejected by women, I'd have to say it was because of years of former rejection leading to his becoming creepy, and getting rejected later on for that reason.  And then if you ask me why he suffered rejection before, I'd have to guess that it was due to a possible bunch of other things that, unfortunately, may also include a little defiance exhibited by no less than the liberated woman of our time.

We'll never be able to put our finger on just how much sex crime there was before women's liberation, because a lot of it was not reported; just like we'll never be able to put our finger on it today, for the same reasons.  But I can say this:  The more sex is withheld, for whatever reasons...the more you tease a man, then don't give up what you're dangling in front of him, the more you reject, and reject, and reject...the more you gather up men to get what you want, knowing full well what THEY want, well, it's gonna keep happening, and it's only going to get worse.

Is every man, when rejected, going to go out and kill people?  Nope.  Is every man, when turned down for sex, going to murder, rape or sexually abuse women?:  Definitely not.  But is the possibility that the same normal man may someday snap, or that an already mentally imbalanced male may go on a killing spree because he's still a virgin at 22 likely to occur?  Oh yeah.  I'm all for your rights ladies, trust that.  I'd never go as far as any of these criminals.  It's wrong.  I know that.  But watch yourselves.  Every time you tease a guy with something you never intend to give him, don't be surprised if you flip the wrong switch someday.  Tone it down some, or you may end up with a monster on your hands.

I will say that I disagree with only ONE thing where today's woman is concerned.  A man's first urge out of the box is to have sex.  If you believe in the bible, it's our first command, and our most basic instinct.  If we had our way, we'd have sex every day of our teens and 20's, with about anything we could.  When you take that and make it a privilege instead of a base right, you're going to bring with that, some serious problems.

Give up something here ladies.  Let the men have their I-porn...let them have legalized prostitution.  GIVE MEN AN OUTLET, or sex/sex related crimes will never go away.  Be liberated, I insist.  Just give up something in return, OK?  For your sakes, really.  If this guy, shown below isn't enough to convince you, remember that, before they are 18, one of three women will be sexually abused in some way.

****************************************************************************

ADD-ON UPDATE!!

I have just two more things on this post; for one, after rejection, the number one thing most people have said to me is this:  This kid was obviously mental.  It's been said, however, by someone who was prominent in Elliot's life, that he had never exhibited any behavior that presented itself as mental issues.  He'd never been in trouble, had never been seen for anything like this.  A lot of people are saying this is a pretty messed up kid...and yet, a lot of folks are stepping up and saying the opposite as well.

We MUST remember something else that's huge here people.  The media sensationalizes this kind of thing, they have been for DECADES now.  None of this was the norm...until Columbine.  Then EVERYBODY started doing it.  WHY??  10 seconds of fame.  Your footprint in the sand.  If you make this big of a deal of it, people start doing it because they know they're going to be guaranteed a spot in history!!  Stop talking about it on every station for months, and maybe it won't happen as often!!  This one's just one more in a long line since Columbine.  CUT IT OFF!!  Stop it now!

Freedom to Fascism - Part VIII

http://www.federalobserver.com/2012/08/23/arming-the-government-against-americans/

Whassup?  Here we go....AGAIN, with yet another big installment of Freedom to Fascism!  You know, I started this, originally thinking I would do four or five checks at a time, but it sure didn't take me long to realize that just about every check was a post in and of itself.  I then decided it was likely to last a month.  After I annnouced that, however, I found that some checks were a little redundant, some were already covered in previous posts, and some there just wasn't much to say about.  So after announcing it would last a week, then a month, it seems now that it might be over in 2 weeks.  I can't really decide, but you'll know how long it'll last, about the same time I do...

Here's that link to the list we've been using:

http://prorev.com/fascisthints.htmhttp://prorev.com/fascisthints.htm

 I'm thinkin' we were on....

Check Mark #15 - A growing number of citizens being jailed for a growing number of offenses.

Well, I'm not too sure about the number of offenses thing...but if you count all the stuff that's been added after 9/11, I suppose this could be the case.  Homeland Security added a great deal of add-ons where jailable offenses are concerned.

As for the growing number of citizens being jailed, it doesn't take much but a good look at how many prisons we have, as opposed to, say, 50 years ago.  About 2.2 million Americans were in the prison system in 2012.  That's very nearly .7 percent of all America.  That number is quadrupeled from the decade of the 1960's, the most jailing decade we'd had up to that decade.  Much to our dismay, it hasn't ceased or declined since...it only grows exponentially.

Now granted, there's a lot more people here in American than there was.  The 1960 U.S. Census back in 1960 weighed our population in at 180,000,000.  The current day population is around 306,000,000, so of course, there's going to be a growth in imprisoned people as well.

The weirdest part of all that, though, is that crime is steadily dropping.  So what the heck is happening???  How is it possible to have a higher number of imprisoned people?

Most disturbing, and the figures that concern the meat of this post are these:

In 1910, there were 113,000 people in jail.  In 1970, we had 335,000 people.  In 1980, there were 474,000.  Then in 1990, that figure jumps to 1,149,000...almost triple the amount.  Now?  Last we checked?  There's 2.2....MILLION people behind bars....(source:  http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/00-05_rep_punishingdecade_ac.pdf).  What the heck is happening??????????

Do we put a check in the box for this?  OHHELLYES!!  We really  need to do our homework here, kids.  Something funny's going on, and we need to find out what, and fast.  Let's move on.

Check Mark #16 - Massive use of cameras to spy on citizens.

I think we all know I've covered this one PLENTY (See "The Right To Privacy", X-Ray Satellites, Video Ticketing, etc.).
CHECK!!!!

Check Mark #20 - Disarming of Citizens

Now for those of you that are paying attention?  Yes.  I just jumped right on over checks 18 and 19.  Don't worry.  Those are two that I have every intention of getting back to.  They deserve their own posts.

This one is great to finish this installment up with.  This, by the way, has not been FULLY implemented...yet.  Have you noticed they're kind of working on it though?  Now, I hate guns.  I despise the use of them, I despise hunting, I hate war....I'm a pacivist.  And that Elliot kid's business?  I'm going to write a whole post on him too.  It's coming on the next intermission, probably on Wednesday.  2 days from now.

My stance on the NRA and guns is quite obvious.  My stance on war, even more so.  I don't believe the 2nd Amendment applies to our time.  On the other hand, I'm all for them, but only under this condition.  Martial Law.  Martial Law is the safeguard that our government has to rally the troups and use them against us, in order to protect themselves against a dissident uprising against them.  And the government, I believe, seriously believes in the existance of this uprising, or at least the beginnings of it.  You wanna know how I know?  They've already called a vote America.  It's on the way.

Here's a good one for ya.  Check this out:

http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/obama-goal-disarming-of-all-americans/

Oh he's GOOD, isn't he?  Yes, Obama wants to disarm America kids, make no mistake about it.  Oh, but it doesn't stop there.  Oh no.  All you gun rights folks?  Check through all the stories on the right as well.  Mr. Obama would love to see the lot of you without guns.  Not for your safety.  Not because he doesn't wanna see anybody else get hurt either.  No, Mr. Obama is afraid, after all the stuff he's been pulling, that you might do something stupid, like try to oust him from the Oval Office.  He's right of course, but never fear, his time is almost done, and you've been warned about him plenty.  I may hate guns and what they do, but I hate Presidents who have an agenda even more.  We WILL NOT be a fascist country folks.  Let them try, I say.  Sure, we're a nation of sheep.  But we're not THAT dumb yet....are we?  Let's hope not.

Now, let's take it a step further.  Not only would Mr. Obama like to disarm America....OTHER countries would love to see us disarmed at well!!  There are people that are, at this moment, attempting to get the United Nations to whomp in and take our weapons from us.  Seriously!!??  Wow.  And if you don't believe me, here you are:

http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/world-citizen-asks-united-nations-to-disarm-america-the-world-cannot-stand-idly-by_09232013

Again, I say wow.

Now, I've been pretty lax on keeping up with posts of late.  I apologize, really.  Whaddya say I make up for it by posting so much in the next few days that you get SICK OF ME!!  See ya, real soon even!!

Freedom to Fascism - Part VII

Hey America, so sorry about the lapse for a day, I had much to do.

Hmm....where were we?  Ohhhhyeah.....Check #12, I believe.

Check Mark #12 - Government Agencies or Officials Declaring Themselves Exempt From Portions of the Law or Constitution

Well, well and well again.  I think we've experienced this one a-plenty, hmmmm?

Some folks are automatically exempt from just about everything.  Long ago, we made it impossible (or nearly so) for us to take out complaints, suit, or judgement against those in power.  We can't do much about  the President or his Vice, I know this much.  Oh sure, eventually we could feasibly get an impeachment, if the wrong is great enough, and Congress is upset enough.  We certainly can't complain much about those in charge of making our law.  And we certainly can't do much about certain public officials:  Judges and Lawyers, a prime example, to be sure.  If a lawyer doesn't do the job we hired him to, or garners a judgement we didn't like at all, well, we're just screwed.  If a judge over-rides the verdict of the Jury, well...that's the way it goes.  Nothing we can do about it.  Oh, we can appeal, but for the judge who ruled against us, there's no way to get him back for his possible one-sidedness or prejudice.

Some of this is perfectly understandable of course...If we could sue judges and lawyers, most of us would be in court almost every month for some sort of lawsuit, and the court system, already way over-booked, would be 5-10 yrs. behind schedule as opposed to six months to a year on average, depending on where you live.  New York city criminal courts can sport wait times of 2 years or better.

Recently, Obamacare raised rumors that Congress was trying to pass (or did get passed) legislation that would exempt them from Obamacare.  This was never true, as a matter of fact, there are more problems for Federal employees then there are for the common man.  It's too bad it didn't happen, really.  I think it would have been cool as heck to catch them red-handed trying to change the rules in their favor on something as big as Obamacare.

The Legislature is, as well as most Government, immune to OSHA, which is pretty big in and of itself.  Evidently, there are other major laws that don't apply to Government either.  Record keeping for workplace injuries and illnesses.  Having to train employees about workplace right and legal remedies.  Having to post notices of worker rights in offices.  The Freedom of Information Act.  Protection against retaliation for whistle-blowers.  Investigatory subpeonas to obtain information for safety and health probes.

There should never be a reason that Government is immune to what we are held to by law.  Congress isn't special, anymore than we are.  These people represent us, so should, reasonably, be held accountable on these things like we are.

Let's do another one, shall we?  I mean I did miss a day, right?

Check Mark #13 - Creation of Watchlists, no-fly lists and other exclusionary documents.

You  know, I just have to think that the long term affects of 9/11 were much more disasterous than the event itself.  Homeland Security, Airport security, spying on citizens, and, more importantly, watch lists and no-fly lists have literally made things that were already bad even worse.  And thanks to the internet, which we all know is greatly monitored and has been for some time, every little word you and I publish is suspect.

The red flag list is pretty large, and is sectional, of course.  I'm sure just my articles on Drugs alone in this blog have already landed me a party box seat in our national security agencies.

Here, you can find the list of words you should avoid stringing together in sentences, if you're not big on Big Brother watching over you:

http://lifehacker.com/5913945/words-to-avoid-online-if-you-dont-want-to-join-the-governments-watch-list

Check Mark #14 - National ID's.

Now, this one's not exactly in play....as yet.  However, expect the move soon enough, as the technological age progresses by leaps and bounds.  By not EXACTLY in play, ID's might just as well be national.  They're more identical then they were once upon a time, to be sure.  I'm sure that they have national standards at the very least for the stated purpose of preventing fraudulent attempts to create them.  The mag strips found on all state ID's was a big move in the National ID up and coming...any state law enforcement agency across the country is able to scan and read these in order to get the skinny on you.

Of course, forcing Americans to carry their ID's is quite another thing altogether.  This really scares me though, because as more and more states adopt this law, and, because of it, less and less people carry them, the next logical move by lawmakers, instead of national ID's might just be that futuristic thing I see more and more in the movies everyday.  It wouldn't surprise me, if someday, the ID chip didn't make its way around the bend.  Then truly would you know what's happening America.  Oh, we'll fight it tooth and nail...for appearance sake.  But the day it even smells like something might happen in this country, I'm hightailin' it to a deserted island somewhere, and I'll take my chances with the box-jellyfish and the land-sharks.

Til tomorrow America.  Sleep well...or give it your best shot, huh??

Freedom to Fascism - Part VI

Hey kids...(as he loops his fingers into the top of his jeans, pulls them up, and gives a good look around)...yeeeeeup....it's good to be back (not that I ever left or anything)!

Yes, it's time, once again for Part Six of Freedom to Fascism.  Let's do a few checky marks today, shall we?

Check Mark #9 - Courts that support Presidential use of unconstitutional powers

Well, we kinda covered this one already...See the check mark that talks about Secret Courts...Part III in our series.

Check Mark #10 - Massive spying on citizens, especially those involved in Political Dissent

OK, now it's starting to get a little repetitive...I'm thinking I should have read through this list and lumped a few check marks together better, huh?  It's OK though.  Since this one's being discussed quite a bit, I think I can add to what I've done on it a little more.

Remember my "Former" CIA official, mentioned back in "Employer Discrimination and Former CIA Operatives?"  Oh yeah...he's still "following" me...I'm sure his purpose is exactly what I think it is too.  Just another agent sent out to make sure I don't say anything too treasonous.  Just like the rest of them having the same issues:  Tea Party folks, AP Reporters, conservative groups, you name it.

I remember, not too long ago, reading an article comparing the things Nixon did back in his infamous Watergate days, with Obama's current actions.  The news is disturbing at best, America. I give credit to this article, if you'd like to see it for yourself.

http://paradshift.net/tag/irs/

In this comparison, you will quickly see that Obama's power over the people of America is currently 50x worse than Nixon could have ever dreamed, believe you me.  Mr. Obama, of course, also has the added benefit of having the world at his fingertips, and can simply categorize his opponents by search keywords. Believe also paradshift.net, and anyone else.  Do NOT disregard these things as the rantings of certain conspiracy theorists...these "conspiracy theories", of late, have had this awful habit of coming true, or at the very least, have had some truth backing them up.  I remember back when we chalked a lot of stuff up to CT's, that we later found out were not only true, but were glaringly so.  Granted, some were just plain silly, but methinks that to take anything heard about our current government and it's Executive Branch, should never be brushed off lightly.  No, better than you should file these away for future reference, folks.  I'm finding out, rather quickly, that some of the things I never believed an American President would ever try and pull on his/her people are all coming to bear.

Keep your eyes peeled America.  Don't you DARE roll over. You are citizens of the greatest free country in the world...KEEP IT THAT WAY, WILLYA?  Add your voice to Congressmen in favor of the transparency of Government actions.  Better yet?  Let's suggest that, Bob or Chuck (anyman/anywoman, U.S. citizen) over there, be allowed to accompany Grassley's oversight of the secret NISA court.  Let's put an intelligent UN-elected representative in there as well.  I mean, really...maybe Grassley just needs an excuse for being in the court that can be explained to Iowans, so he won't get in trouble for being spotted in that direction, how do we know?  I say, let the people oversee the overseers to make sure all is good and pure in Washington...

On we go then, with:

Check Mark #11 - A government that uses words like democracy, freedom and peace, while engaging in acts that are dramatically at odds with such words.

Kind of like using the word "Change" a lot, then changing nothing that we wanted to be changed, and changing things we wanted to stay the same, isn't it?

This one too, is pretty obvious.  It's political double-talk...or as us lower class citizens like to refer to it: "Talkin' out of both sides of your mouth".  Or as an even LOWER class of people (or, as some of us tend refer to them sometimes anyway...I myself like to think of them as a Hell of a lot more enlightened) once said it, "White man speak with forked tongue".  Saying one thing, doing another, the left hand knowing not what the right hand doeth...you get the picture.

I can't tell you how much I hear the word free or freedom, usually followed immediately by seeing or hearing about people being imprisoned...for pretty much nothing.  The right to free speech giving shadow to someone being taken to jail for opening their mouths a little too widely...or better yet, "accidentally" dying off, or getting shot by some "fanatical lunatic".  Peace being discussed as we bomb the hell out of someone, and of course, my favorite, democracy being introduced (by us, mainly...of course) into nations that want no part of it. Another one of my favorites is using the words "In slow and steady recovery" to describe our economy, while, upon close inspection, nothing is getting better in any way.  I think you know what I mean.  Telling us we're fine when we couldn't be any closer to disaster without being on the other side of it.

We shall continue.  And, as long as I suffer no permanent (and, according to Obama's administration, perfectly legitimate and legal!) jailing by our current administration, I shall continue to open your eyes.

Freedom to Fascism - Intermission

     Just when these American Citizens (speaking in reference to the 110,000 Japanese-Americans who

     were put into internment camps back in 1942) needed their rights the most, their Government took

     'em away, and rights aren't rights if someone can take 'em away; they're privileges; that's all we've

     ever had in this country, 'The Bill of Temporary Privileges"...and every year, the list gets shorter

     and shorter and shorter...

- George Carlin          

I'm going to take a small break in this series...an intermission, if you will...in order to accomplish two very important things. First, I'd like to give massive respect to a man who, inadvertently through comedy, has influenced much of what I feel and think; about the U.S., about we as human beings, and about the world we live on and/or in, as well as Mother Nature and her creatures, with whom we share this planet.  How much longer we'll be allowed to share it with them, of course, is in serious doubt.

To be perfectly honest, if the man had presented himself as a wise man or a prophet rather than a comedian, I would have more than accepted him as such.  If, after his death, someone had held up his book, "Brain Droppings", called it "The Word" and started a new religion called Carlinism, I would have been the first to join, and would have probably gone as far to self-anoint myself as that religion's first High Priest.

It's impossible to listen to George Carlin (may he rest in pieces - I think, for the most part, he was an atheist...no real surprise there) in his later years, and not only laugh til your sides ache...but also, more than likely, suffer the common side effect of plopping down hard in your seat and saying to yourself, "Yeah...he's got some really thought-provoking takes on this stuff!!"  He honestly did personally subscribe to almost everything he made jokes about in his later years, and presented it then, to us, in a way to make us digest it hungrily, regardless of the fact that we've become brain-washed naive sheep and roll-over-ish patriots who are stubborn in our beliefs, firm where we stand (wherever that is, exactly) and have falsely pledged our allegiance to a country and its government that is slowly turning us into a fascist nation without our knowledge, or our consent.  No, if you listen to us, we're the greatest nation on earth, and "There's no trouble here!"  Take a look around and put toothpicks in your eyelids America.  We WERE great...once upon a time.  But we've moved a whole lot of pegs in the down direction ever since, believe it.

I believe you're not really a whole human being unless you watch (or listen to) any routine George did from 1992 on.  His thinking influences a lot of my opinion, even though the better part of it is my own.  His way of thinking was, in this writer's opinion, way ahead of its time.  If you follow this link, you'll come across a menagerie of his best stuff over his career.  Someone really had it together when they combined this collection of video.  It's very much worth the time to watch.  It included more serious interviews he did along the way, and just listening to him, you can see he had a wisdom I wish I could find in more people today. I already miss the guy something fierce; he left a pretty big gaping hole in my life when he died in 2008.  He very wisely adopted his role in this country as a spectator, though, if he had tried harder, he could have been so much more.  The United States lost its favorite "Should have been" statesman as well as his well-informed and very outspoken voice that year.

To George...a moment of respectful silence, America, if you will

Check it!!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_zwB6GLpo4

Second, I'd like to include a contribution, submitted by one of my readers.   This reader of mine fears fascist practices in this country just like I do, and, even though there are some things in the article we don't agree on, he makes some valid points, and, since I am the open-minded guy I claim to be, I don't like to voice my own opinion in order to talk over yours.  Here then, is his contribution:

*********************************************************************************

The State

 “Present Society With One Improved Unit, Yourself.” - Albert Jay Nock

Today we have two political institutions, the Government and the State. The Government is our ally, the State is our enemy. Government maximizes your ability to pursue personal goals when the law is designed to secure the individuals domain and protect your inalienable rights to life liberty and property and the pursuit of happiness. Government is an instrument of justice and a necessary component to a free society, true liberty only exists when there is true justice consisting of law and order.

The State is when the law is perverted so as to legally disadvantage some for the benefit of others and therefore it is the common enemy of all decent human beings. Government aims at true justice while the State aims at what is today fashionably called social justice. Social justice is not real justice it's perverting the law so as to legally disadvantage some for the benefit of others, this happens also quite clearly with crony capitalism. For example when taxpayers who work at Ford Motor Company have to subsidize their competitor General Motors through a government bailout. When you subsidize failure you should always expect there to be more.

If we eliminate the State altogether and leave only the Government, which minds it's own business only to protect man against his neighbors and nothing beyond it, providing only Freedom and Justice. Government's whole duty is to abstain from any positive regulation on the individual's conduct and second to make justice easily available for all. In society the State creates crisis where it doesn't exist, then creates a plan to address the issue which always means more power for the state, and less power for society. The state has economic advantage to dispense and pressure groups and special interests organized to take advantage of it’s give aways which then becomes part political and part private when using public power for private advantage. In Society the only losers are the normal folks among us who are the peaceful and productive members of society.

The Superficial distinctions of fascism, Communism, Hitlerism the serious student sees in them only the one root idea of a complete conversion of social power into State Power and at the Root of all them we find the same deadly formula: The State Incarnates the divine idea upon Earth. By getting into the charity business, the State creates an enormous mass of subsidized voting power and enormous resource for strengthening the state at the expense of society. If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul's vote. Every intervention from the state enables another intervention by the state and so on. There may be times where the state recedes a little under different leadership but the tide is always rising, this is also commonly known as the ratchet effect, the state is screwing with us and at each turn of the ratchet only tightens the strangle hold.
When it comes to the implementation of Social Security back in 1913 I can't help but notice the rank and file Americans are reconciled to the idea of absolute State; living for the state is a condition of servitude to the state; slavery is still slavery even if it is voluntary. We furnish the means by which we suffer, the surrendering of our liberties to the state has been going on for quite a long time, and usually people have to be conquered before they are made slaves. The origin of the state is one group of people conquering another with the aim to economically exploit the conquered. Every revolution or regime change has merely been exchanging one set of rulers for another but the nature of the state doesn't change each class using the force of the state to advantage themselves by legally disadvantaging the other.

If History tells us so clearly it is why this keeps occurring and why nobody is stopping it. There are two ways to satisfy human needs and desire the first is to employ economic means which involves the society to work, I'm sure you would agree that going to work isn’t fun, the desire to have the least amount of work possible is why almost automatically everyone gravitates towards political system to satisfy their economic wants and needs. The State is the sinful desire to live off of others. Part of the problem is the prestige of the state, because it permits each person to persuade himself that the state is in part his creation an extension of himself, he thinks it expresses him, when it is glorified he is glorified.

Lincoln's phrase “of the people, for the people, and by the people” was probably the best piece of propaganda for the forge of the state. People look on the state like they do their children giving it a special code of ethics and always with the expectation that it will learn from it's mistakes sadly on nearly every page of history this wish is proven to be an illusion and fatal. A lot of us want something for nothing or at least something for less and so we create the state in our own image and only a moral transformation will change that image and nothing short of this will topple the state.

- Contributed by BostonKid9096 from Google +

*********************************************************************************

Thank you for your contribution!!

If you would like to contribute an article or do an interview on this series, please feel free to email me.  My email address is cbstraighteight@gmail.com.  I would fully accept any and all contributions!!  You may either submit your contribution anonymously, or if you ask me to give you credit, that's fine too.  Make sure to sign your contribution, and then write your name again, legibly, so that I can give you the proper credit for it (as well as protect myself in case you accuse me of trying to steal your material).

If you have any comments, either on my stuff, or on a contributors work, please remember that your comments are most welcome, but that they are subject to moderation.  If you feel the need to swear in your comments, I may decide to blank it out and leave the comment if the swearing isn't god-awful and the comment phenomenal.  However, excessive swearing at or the abusive behavior of, either of America in General, my contributors or myself will absolutely NOT be tolerated, period.  The comment will be deleted for good to start, and if the abuse continues, you will be barred from comments.  We're all adults here, and you can catch more bees with honey.  :D  We continue our series tomorrow!!

Freedom to Facism - Part V

http://www.businessinsider.com/jenn-ackerman-pictures-of-the-mentally-ill-in-prison-2013-10?op=1

Top o' tha day tooya lads 'n lassies.  Here we are again, in Part V of our new series.  Now, just to keep you going and interested (I'd like to think I can do that anyway, without any outside help!), I'd like to say that I have plans for the inclusion of other people's writings, facts, and opinions on this subject as well.  I mean my stuff does tend to get kind of one-sided at times, and that does put a reader or two (or 100...who knows for sure?) off, on occasion.  I am an open-minded, fair and kind of intelligent guy who doesn't mind butting heads with someone.  Like I've said many a day, I enjoy a heated debate, whether in words OR in person. And if it makes for interesting or intellectual reading, then bring it on!!...I say.  I really do miss "Point/Counterpoint" and shows like that...

Yeah, sorry....shiny objects again, you know....

So I believe we were on check mark #8 (the links to the document we're referring to are in Parts I and IV, thus far...try and keep up, willya?)?  Annnnnnd, the lucky check mark of the day IS:

Check Mark #8:  Use of Torture on Prisoners.

OK, this one's gonna be a little tricky.  I might have to dance on a few eggshells, as well as tread lightly in your freshly planted gardens.

Y'all remember Abu Ghraib, right?  Yes, we Americans were exposed as torturing, humiliating, raping and yes, even killing the Arab people over in Iraq...and these weren't even terrorists.  They were merely citizens.  This was one of Saddam's notorious torture chambers, and we used them like they were our own, after his down-fall, and we were over here, stateside, talking like we were their liberators and saviors.  They were freed, and would never have to suffer at the hands of someone like Saddam again.  Uh huh.  So instead, we chose to fill Saddam's empty space with our own personal version of good ol' American torture.

Yeah, but I'm not really talking about this kind of prison torture.  No, I'm afraid I'm referring to torture right here in our beloved 50 states, just on the other side of that thar brick wall over yonder.

BBC Channel 4 did a 50 minute expose on Texas and Florida prisons just a year after Abu Ghraib, where prisoners were tortured using dogs, chemical sprays and cattle prods.  The expose was called "Torture Inc., Americas Brutal Prisons."  and can be seen here:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm

No longer institutes meant for rehabilitation, now inmates are pretty much abandoned or forgotten, and treated no better than animals, regardless of their crimes.  And this was in the days our Government still regulated them exclusively.  I can imagine that prisons these days are even worse, as businesses, independent of Government regulation.

The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) put out a bid in 2012 to buy up all state run prisons in the country.  Do NOT let this happen America, (thank GOD no one accepted their offer!!)...this company, as well as others like it, want a guarantee of anywhere from 80 to 100 percent occupancy.  In these contracts, the state is made to pay if crime is low and beds are empty.  That means sheriffs and local police will be forced to arrest people just to keep these prisons full and making money.  If they aren't, payers of state taxes will be hit with the bill instead.  Crime rates have dropped dramatically around these prisons, and yet the rates for people jailed around them tend to go up.  I'd have to say that if all prisons are privatized, all prisoner rights will go out the window right along with the conversion.  I would even have to say that current torture of prisoners by the state will be a distant nightmare compared to what they'll be getting away with in private prisons.  It's bad enough that we torture, starve and kill off our animals, but to do the same to prisoners is murder.

And guess who holds the pistol?  You got it.  By turning our backs on our prisoners, we become no better than inmates ourselves.  We Sheeple continue to let it all happen.  We look the other way and write it up to "They shoulda thought about it before they committed the crime, right?  Who cares?"

Hey!!  Back over here America...lemme rub your face directly into this:  The CCA makes 1.4 Billion dollars off of sick inmates.  They cut expenses at the safety of their staff.  They hand them radios with dead batteries and empty gas cans and tell 'em to do their best...fake it if things get dicey.  They even cut staff so badly once, there was one guard to watch over 300 inmates..by himself!! They sell themselves, conning the locals into thinking it'll be a blessing in jobs, if naught else...then don't even lift a finger to back them up when they're assaulted by inmates.  The inmates, often, only attack guards in response to horrid treatment and shortage of food and other basic needs.  A 24 yr. old guard was attacked and killed once, and his supervisor knew full well he was on the prisoner hit list that day.

Remember our shock of Abu Ghraib...now imagine it happening here...in every single way, similarly.  No shock there, huh?  What's up with that?  As the Government turns more and more things it used to regulate over to privateer for-profit owned business, it's essentially saying "Here...go ahead.  I couldn't do a damn thing with 'em.  Good luck with that."  Besides, we're on 'em like stink when they torture prisoners, and they know it.  Why do you think they want nothing more to do with them?  "Here, give it over to this company, pretty soon they'll be BEGGING us to take them back again."

Personally, I don't think Government should have EVER had anything to do with prisons.  Under their rule,

it's estimated that 1/2 of all sexual abuse done to prisoners is done by state hired guards.  20,000 people at any given time are said to be locked up in solitary confinement for 23 hours out of the day in prisons all over America.  But to just toss them and the prisoners they hold over to the nearest greedy investor without any rules or regulation couldn't be outdone on a scale of irresponsibility or dismissal.  The CCA and privateers threaten to bring back racist practices like inmate leasing, a practice not heard of since the 1800's, just to maximize profits.  There was a reason for it's expulsion in the early 20th century folks, prisons aren't a business, and private ones should NOT exist.  Prisons were originally put in place to reform today's criminals, not to make someone a dollar.  And really, if there was no better way to ensure that prisoner mistreatment and torture take place, it's privatization, for sure.  :D

Freedom to Fascism - Part IV

http://consciouslifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/FTM_PYRAMID.png

Well kids...here we are, and the check marks continue...

For those of you who haven't seen what this series refers to, we're going on this link:

http://prorev.com/fascisthints.htm

We're on Check Mark #7, as I remember...

Check Mark #7:  A Government Subservient to the interests of the country's largest corporations

Well, no matter what the situation, or the industry, I think we all know, that as capitalists, our leaders tend to lean towards making our large and successful corporations happy.  We're afraid to operate any other way.  We give them all the tax breaks, we let them take jobs overseas to save money, we let them get by with poisoning or killing off the population, and at no small cost either.  Our economy suffers, our ecology suffers, nature suffers...and when all of these suffer, naturally, we as citizens suffer.

How many times have you heard of natural resources, like water and air, being poisoned by toxic dumping or air pollution?  Oceans and the life they carry killed off by oil spills?  Entire areas affected by nuclear waste?  Dump sites in general, affecting the wildlife in the area...or worse yet, US!!  Well, we, as individuals, have probably not, each one of us, heard of them all.  Oh sure, we hear about the major ones...but I don't think we have nearly a clue about even half.  Some are covered up by our Government, mainly to save face.  Some are, I'm sure, are not even reported.  A lot are bought off, no doubt.  Let's see if we can find some figures and examples.

Upon investigation, kids, I don't see a list that tells all.  I can tell you though that, with the help of a list at:

http://list25.com/25-biggest-man-made-environmental-disasters-in-history/

containing the top 25 worst man-made disasters, our biggest industries and major corporations who cause the better part of these disasters, whom we hail and support, tell a pretty grim tale.  These are, evidently, the 25 we couldn't possibly keep secret.  Too big to hide.  It's very sad, really, how we treat our home, at the expense of the world's (and our country's, of course) citizens.  I won't go into them...not only couldn't I, without lengthening this post about 12 more web pages...but someone else (see the aforementioned website) has more than amply done so for me.  The point is, it's because we back up our big money corps, and give them the chance to do so much damage to us and the earth without accountability...because we're worried about losing the jobs they represent, or the taxes they pay as countable income...whatever the reason, it's the WRONG reason.  Usually, we come along the things they do wrong well after the damage is more than done.  I mean really, just something as simple to consider as "everything affects something else affects something else..."...I mean this is more than enough to realize we have big problems here, with our government coddling these corporations.

Millions upon millions of people have died from tobacco use, utilizing one of our better known examples...and when did our government finally step in?  After the numbers were huge, and all the money possible made, and America tired of losing relatives, friends, spouses and children to cancer-related deaths from tobacco and nicotine, it's primary killing ingredient.  It came to the  point where the nation just finally put their feet down on the whole shebang...THEN the government, in an effort to not piss us off, finally turned a sympathetic ear to our way-too-late plight.  Remember, and never forget America, that no matter how much our government caters to our current way of thinking, and even though it appears to back our recent campaign to help us "kick the habit", that tobacco is STILL a government regulated commodity.  I don't care how many campaigns against tobacco are begun, the corporations that produce cigarettes are still very much alive and still raking in tons of cash at the expense of the lives of Americans and any country they export to, as well.

As to the subject of sending jobs, or allowing corporations to outsource employment overseas to countries where the mainly unemployed are a problem, in a major effort to save money or show bigger numbers in their profit column...well you know my stance on this one already.  In this writer's opinion?  If you want to save money by sending American jobs overseas, why don't you just pack up your headquarters and go with them?  I figure, if you care that little about contributing to the job market of the country that made you great in the first place, all because you want be able to buy yourself a new Porsche next year with all the money you saved, then we don't want you here anyway.

It's a lot like giving our money to countries in need.  This to me is definitely, in a general sense, very philanthropic in nature, as a whole.  I don't see a lot of this, however, when done by government, as something that's done solely out of the kindness of our hearts.  Almost always, it seems that a lot of our generosity is done with something more sinister at its roots, or to pacify the people when the outcry gets too loud.  In the case of a natural disaster in another part of the world, for example, it's often hard for me to believe that the first thought running through our President's head is "Oh my God!!  We gotta hurry up and help those folks!!"  Anytime I see the President address the nation after any one of these disasters, the only thing I see crossing his mind and his face is "BROWNIE POINTS!!  ELECTION VOTES!!"

Mostly though, the thing I have to say on this is what I've ALWAYS had to say on it.  If we're in no shape to help, then we shouldn't be helping!!  And we are most DEFINITELY not in a position to help!!  Our debt is in the Trillions.  We ourselves have our own smaller scale disasters.  Our people are sick and not being healed (without major cost), homeless and not being housed, and hungry, and not being fed!  How can we give our money (which, as the experts say hasn't been our money since the early 1900's) to others in need, when we're in need ourselves!!  OK, there was a time when we were prosperous...but we're in a major recession!!  There are obviously nations in the world in better shape (like the ones that are forever lending US money) that should be stepping up instead!  But because it's been expected of us since we began doing it decades ago, now it's our job to do it?  NO!!  Maybe when unemployment is back down to 3%.  Maybe when the better portion of us are NOT on welfare.  Maybe when foreclosures aren't as frequent as the current divorce rate...then MAYBE.

Check Mark #8 follows close behind.  Stay tuned.

Freedom to Fascism - Part III

http://blogs.artinfo.com/artintheair/2013/06/27/shepard-fairey-likes-those-nsa-themed-remixes-of-his-obama-hope-poster/

For those of you are just completely lost as to what's going on (I'll be repeating this, of course, during the course of the month, many times), we are currently running down the checklist of ways to figure out whether your country is going fascist.  It was going to be only a week long, but noting the number of checks, and the massive amount of material covered here on each and every check, well....it looks like we're going to run this for a MONTH, instead of a week.  For the list we're referring to, check back to Freedom to Fascism - Part I, and you'll have it.  Once a week, I'll be re-posting the link.  I think, since these are all linked together, and easy to cover, we're going to do 4 check marks at once, OK?

Todays Check mark is:

Check mark #3 - The President, as well as other Governmental Officials, regularly lie to you...

Wow.  I don't believe I'm even writing about it...but OK, just to make some of you happy, I'll address this.

Its almost a GIVEN that our Presidents lie to us.  Obama does it daily anymore.  G.W. didn't have a clue how to tell the truth.  Half the time, he didn't even know what he was saying, let alone whether it was a lie or not.  Clinton, although one of my more favorite Presidents, was a rather famous liar.  Reagan was pretty much the same as G.W., as was George Bush the First.  Nixon?  Notorious for it.

As for the rest, as well as any candidate for president, senator, governor, mayor, as well as school board member or class president?  It really doesn't matter.  The day they utter the word "candidate" in order to express their intended move on any governmental seat, that person begins to lie, even if he never ever lied to anyone in his life before.  We Americans consider it 2nd nature for anyone affiliated with power.  Do you notice, when the President decides to speak to the nation, or when a campaign ad comes on, that we generally either turn it down, change the channel or turn it off?  That's because there's nothing that this person says that we intend to believe anymore.  Say what you want, Obama, but the minute your lips start to move,  I'm tunin' you out buddy.  Stands to reason, if you're running for office, you're going to say whatever it is that we wanna hear, in order to win the vote, not what you really plan to achieve...no, we find THAT out when you take office, after the votes are counted.

Speaking of this, we're also going to mention, in this post, check mark #4, only because I've discussed this more times in this blog than I care to admit, and really have nothing more to say on the matter.

Check Mark #4 - Fraudulent Vote Counts.

If you're not quite sure this is a problem, then see my post of "Elections and the Electoral College"...I believe it was under Day #5 of the first 26 of America's Deadly sins we listed.  Let's move on then!

Check Mark #5 - Government Monitoring of Letters, Emails, Phone Calls and Checking Accounts.

See "The NSA" debacle., as well as Check Mark #6 below.  Man, this is gonna be an easy day for me!!

Check Mark #6 - Secret Courts.

Hmm...not sure bout this one...OK Alex, I think I know...What is the FISA??

DING DING DING!!

Yes, the FISA...Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.  Under this act, a secret court was established to authorize government wiretaps in intelligence investigations in foreign countries.  Since its inception, it has expanded its means of obtaining its information in ways that, little by little, are steadily infringing on individual rights.  This court's procedures demand that all taps remain secret, including the information that's garnered from them.  Hearings and decisions are also secret, concerning this court, as well as the way it operates.  Several agencies, including the ACLU and Congress have demanded transcripts of what happens in this court, but the DOJ refuses to release this information - repeatedly.

Charles Grassley (Yes, he actually DOES do something after all!!) R-IA and Senator Leahy, D-VT have introduced the need for an oversight committee on this court.  Please, before things get worse, help your senators get this legislation passed!!!

Oh...I'm afraid we're just not quite finished, as yet.  Stay tuned kids.  There's tons more to come.  :D

Freedom to Facism - Part II

http://gideonspeaks.com/?tag=search-and-seizure

Check Mark #2:  Massive Warrant-less Searches.

It's my belief that this particular box has been checked for a very long time.  There are, naturally, exceptions to the Fourth Amendment that allow for this.  Can't survive as a nation unless we have exceptions to our rights, now can we?....riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

1.  Consent.  Now this is huge people.  Please, please, PLEASE remember that you are NEVER obligated to give your consent to a search without a warrant, where your home is concerned, because, "Well, it's the police!  They're gonna come in anyway whether you want them to or not, right?"....WRONG!!  If they come in anyway, and they do not have a warrant, then your rights are BEING VIOLATED!!  Here's another thing, anyone the police think have a right to be there, whether it's a roommate in your home, or a co-worker in the general area where your cubicle is, say across the aisle, and that person says "Sure, you can look, no problemmo!", then they're gonna search your area, using the Consent exception, and they will win whatever case you decide to bring against them.  BE SURE AND TELL YOUR CO-WORKERS AND ROOMMATES THAT THEY ARE NO TO GIVE CONSENT TO A WARRANT-LESS SEARCH OF YOUR HOME/APARTMENT OR OFFICE/CUBICLE SPACE!

Now, remember, if you will, that the police are sometimes very devious, and may try to pull a fast one on you when you arrive in court, armed with a complaint that they just waltzed in and looked anyway, regardless of your answer of "NO!" to a search of your home.  If you answer the door to the police, and stand at your door to talk to them with the door open, or step outside to talk to them while leaving your door open, this can be misconstrued in court as "an open invitation" and can be ruled as consent if the police decide to pull that on you, in order to get inside without a warrant.  To avoid this, if the answer to "Who is it?" then extracts an answer of "The Police", grab your house keys, step outside and pull your door shut.  There is, then, no misinterpretation of your intention where consent is concerned.

2.  Administrative Searches.  The Government (Not law enforcement, mind you) can pull out of their hat, a reason to do a search called the Administrative Search, involving, usually, a fire inspection or to search for building code violations ("All of this is for your safety, of course!").  Court authorization is required for Administrative searches, but standards governing these are considerably low, therefore, the warrants are more easily issued.  They will, however, not need a warrant for things that involve businesses that are involved in highly regulated industries, such as those that produce things like nuclear power, liquor, tobacco, etc.  Remember, AGAIN, that where your home or business office that ISN'T involved in anything government regulated, that you do not have to let inspectors into your home or office without a warrant!!

3.  Exigent circumstances.  One of my favorites, exigent circumstances are emergency situations where, if law enforcement were to wait for a warrant, they might lose key evidence or persons if they don't move quickly; and therefore are allowed to enter without one.  Examples of this can (and usually do) include drug sales or manufacturing (if they wait too long, the people involved might see the police and flush all their drugs down the toity before the warrant arrives), theft (we may decide to quickly file serial numbers off of the things we stole) or unknown fleeing criminals or fugitives (we might warn them to hide or quickly shove them out the back door and set 'em on fire so they run faster).  If a criminal is running from the police and sees your door open, then opts to go for it, then enters your home, the police can and will come in right behind him without needing a warrant to do so.  If anything you have lying about the house is in plain view, like the ounce of pot you just bought, they can grab that after they get done grabbing the fleeing felon...which of course, brings us TO:

4.  Plain View.  In the example above, when there are Exigent circumstances, and the police are looking for the drugs they busted through your door for, if they happen to come across a counterfeiting machine in "plain view" they can confiscate (seize) this as well during the same legal entry.

This doesn't mean that, if the police see drugs sitting on your kitchen table through a window, that they can enter the house without a warrant and seize it, but if they see you noticing the police, then grabbing some drugs, then running through the living room holding a bag of weed, and it looks as though you're making a mad dash for the toilet in order to flush it to get rid of the evidence, then they can burst through your door without a warrant, because these circumstances are then considered exigent.

5.  Martial Law.  The last and final exception to your Fourth Amendment Rights is one I hope we are never fortunate enough to experience, Martial Law.  I discuss Martial Law in this blog, under "The Right to Privacy (Sorry...the Expectation Thereof)", so at the risk of repeating myself, I won't go into this further.  Read the post, you won't be disappointed.  Below is the direct link to it, in case you don't feel like doing a search:

http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-right-to-privacy-sorrythe.html

OK, so what does all of this have to do with the post, you might ask?  I rattled these things off, mainly, because it was important that you know what are considered exceptions to a warrant search; in order to give you our check mark for the day.  If a knock on your door turns out any other way than what we discussed, America, your rights are being violated, and you have an equal right to bring suit against the police department, governmental or state agency at fault.  Of course, usually by the time something like this gets to court, the damage is more than done, and is, as well, irreversible.

If you Google warrant-less searches in America, there are 461,000 results, America.  Ten results are too many.  Youtube comes off with around 1700 videos relating to it.  One is entirely too many.  But the biggest offender of this, of course, is the NSA, the Federal Government agency in charge of our National Security, and their countless warrant-less searches they've performed on our private phone calls and conversations, as unveiled JUST RECENTLY in the Obama Administration.  Do...NOT...STAND FOR THIS!!  Don't roll over...AGAIN!  Don't let this one get by us kids; because if there is ever an event in our history that will accomplish more for Government Transparency, and force it and our Government into accountability, it's this one event.  If we roll over on this one, you can surely believe that a fascist nation won't be far behind. Stay tuned, there's oh so much MORE to come!!  :D

Freedom to Fascism - Part I

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/TWA800/clintoneo.html

OK, OK...so we went bust.  We screwed up.  We fell and/or washed out.  Because Opensource.com decided to do what I had intended to,  Government Transparency is NO MORE (as well as duly covered instead by Opensource.com, of course).  Oh, it's all good America.  Why, you ask?  Because I'm about to save the day.  There might be a Government Openness Week...but, I'm betting NOBODY has an "American Freedom to Fascism Week!!"  And so it begins...

You may remember...waaaaaaay back.  If not, just close your eyes...look at your eyelids...that's good.  Now remember...remember...there was a post, ages ago.  Day #15.  Obaaaaaama.  Now you got it.  I gave you a link to a list of ways to tell if your country is going fascist.  If you just can't get with me on the whole eyelid thing, it's OK, really.  I brought the link with me, have no fear:

http://prorev.com/fascisthints.htm

So, what we're going to do, is write about each.  And every.  Single.  One of the check marks.  You know, self-diagnostics, as it were.  Oh, we'll have facts.   We'll have figures.  We'll have charts, graphs, photos, examples, witnesses, interviews...yes, it just might rival everything I promised you the other would be, but was not meant to be, in this blog.

SO LET'S GET STARTED ALREADY, SHALL WE?

Check #1 - Your president ignores the law passed by legislation.

OK, let's take a look at that one.  Probably the most glaring example of any Presidency, where ignoring the law is concerned, is a favorite of mine:  the ability to write Executive Orders.  I didn't have a clue about these (mostly because I didn't ever hear about these little gems) until my late 40s.  Why is that, you might wonder?  Oh, these were a HUGE secret...evidently.  I then discovered that, no matter what we want, no matter what congress wants, we have a little loophole our Presidents love to exploit called the Executive Order.  If all else fails, we can override EVERYTHING no one wants, and with a flick of the pen, we can sign into law just about anything our little President can think of.  It's un-"Veto"-able, un-revocable, and Un-Constitutional kids.  Something we should have NEVER agreed to allow or let happen.

The National Archives keep a running record of all executive orders, back as far as 1936. So I took a look, and I found a big commonality to each order that just drives me into a frenzy.  These new, "I'm right, you're wrong" immediately enforceable laws are now unchangeable, once signed by our residing President, whichever one we have serving at the time.  They might later be amended, and parts may be laid to rest...but the damage is often done before these orders are fixed by anyone.

Worse, even, is the fact that, depending on the President, we just went hog-wild.  The American Presidency Project (www.theamericanpresidencyproject.com) lists each and every President's Executive Orders, and what they said.  We won't go into each President, but we will take a look at the upwards trend in the number of Executive Orders.

Executive orders stayed in single digits from George up to Jackson.  Jackson had 12.  From Jackson to Grant, they stayed in the double digits.  Grant had 217 of these little orders.  He started the trend upwards.  Through the great (?) Theodore Roosevelt, Executive Orders sometimes numbered into 3 digits.  Mr. Roosevelt the First's number? 1083 of 'em.  Wow.  Oh, but it doesn't stop with him.  Woodrow Wilson's number was 1800+.  Franklin D, probably the largest offender?  3.  Thousand.  500.  22.  You have GOT to be kidding.

From there it weaves up and down from 4 to 3 digits and back again.  I think you get the picture though; it's become a serious problem since the Roosevelts.  Every one of these orders is a finger in the face of America.  Some are very damaging to everything we stand for as a free nation with rights.  It essentially says that no matter what we think or believe, want or need, it can be whisked away with any one order.

Ratification or the revocation of these orders HAS to be implemented, or one day there might just be an Executive Order stating that you are no longer allowed to wear your cherished tighty-whiteys, or to abolish your right to buy two cell phones in a year from the same company.  This is easily the most socialist tool we allow our Presidents to use, and I have the feeling the numbers may easily go up from here.

Then, there's that little thing that we had, where Obama just wants to completely bypass the Amendment that controls how many years a President can serve over our country, which, in this writer's opinion, just goes against all Constitutionality, as well as serving as a shining example of a man trying to establish a little totalitarianism.

Join us tomorrow.  We shall continue!!