[Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Tom Lord]

  http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html


The facist right has managed to promote a message of fear and
governmental paternalism to such an extent that it is now "on the
table" -- i.e., something that can be proposed with a straight face
and taken seriously -- to empower the SS (aka dept. of homeland
security) to postpone federal elections (in particular the
presidential election).

They are decorating this indirect call for a declaration of de facto
martial law by calling it prudent planning for "doomsday scenarios".
(Personally, I have enough faith in the American people that I'd
rather leave these edge cases unhandled.  We'd do better in the long
run if our strategy for the edge cases our systems can't handle is:
"reboot".)

The pigs raise the spectre of Spain and warn that terrorists hope to
disrupt and influence elections.

Apparently the terrorists are making great progress on disrupting
USian democracy: they've won allies on the right and in the current
administration.

Plans for the suspension of democracy in the US in response to attack
are old hat, dating back to the cold war and probably earlier.  What
is new here is the ambition of empowering the executive branch to
enact such suspension on its own authority in situations when,
otherwise, democratic processes could still more or less continue.
This is, of course, operationally indistinguishable from granting the
executive branch dictatorial authority over the operation of
government.

I'm fairly confident that the proposal to extend this authority to the
executive will fail.  So why worry?  Because:

That it is taken seriously will leave its mark, nonetheless.  That it
is being promoted is a symptom of an ambitious and truly facist
faction in our government; unfortunately one that is essentially in
power.

How convenient it is that Diebold and friends have horked our election
system.   Now that the "sometimes you just have to override the
election process" meme is out there, when the upcoming presidential
election goes down in flames due to questionable counts in many
states, it is all too possible that:

  ~ no such power will be granted to the SS/homeland security, however:

  ~ the elections will be horked by voting system failures;  any 
    terrorist activity around this time will just be icing on the cake

  ~ riots will ensue in several cities

  ~ this time, unlike 2000, the senate _will_ agree to reject the
    electoral college results

  ~ bush will clearly lose the election; but the election will be 
    ruled illegitimate

  ~ the next president will be appointed by the legislature and will,
    regardless of who it actually is, represent an effective
    continuation of the current administration.   Probably it will be
    someone other than the current two candidates -- it will be,
    superficially, a compromise appointment.  DeLay/Gephart, anyone?

    Whoever it is will be a figurehead.  The bureaucrat's will be in
    charge much more than they currently are.

  ~ violent popular uprisings will follow but fail.  they will end in
    mass arrests in such large numbers that there will be an
    initiative to construct internment camps to imprison true
    americans.   The internment camps will be promoted as a prudent
    and humanitarian means to cool off the conflict until things can 
    be sorted out (which they never will be).


-t