Slouching Towards Nuremberg -- America's Descent Into Darkness

[Octafish]

Something else the press dares not mention:

America's Descent Into Darkness

Slouching Towards Nuremberg?

by MORRIS BERMAN
CounterPunch
July 25, 2012

Strange things are happening in the United States these days, and every day seems to bring additional scary news. The similarity to the erosion of civil liberties in Germany during the 1930s is a bit too close for comfort. Many will regard this statement as hyperbole, and, to some extent, it is. But let’s take a close look at what is going on before we dismiss the comparison out of hand.

SNIP...

It is no accident that Chris Hedges entitled a recent article “First They Come for the Muslims” (see below, Item IV). God forbid something like that might happen in the U.S., but the signs of a gradual slide towards Nuremberg, and concomitant citizen apathy, are very much present in the current political milieu. Let’s have a look at what has been going on in the decade since 9/11. I’m going to discuss the following topics:

I. The creation of a political climate in which the police are out of control, arbitrarily free to intimidate anyone for virtually anything

II. The persecution of whistleblowers, protesters, and dissenters

III. The dramatic expansion of the surveillance of American citizens on the part of the National Security Agency (NSA)

IV. The corruption of the judicial system by means of show trials of Muslim activists

V. The construction of political detention centers, also known as Communication Management Units (CMU’s)

VI. The shredding of the Bill of Rights by means of the National Defense Authorization Act

VII. Future scenarios: The “disappearing” of intellectual critics of the U.S. government?

SNIP...

VII. Future scenarios: The “disappearing” of intellectual critics of the U.S. government?

This leads me to my final point. The distinctive characteristic of American democracy, from 1776, was the protection of the individual and the preservation of individual rights. That no longer exists. Anyone is a potential terrorist now; anyone can be persecuted, prosecuted, and in effect, destroyed. Democracy is only possible if dissent is not only permitted, but also respected. This too is finished. What does this mean for someone such as myself?, is something I lay awake nights thinking about. I have published three books, and half a collection of essays, showing where we have gone wrong, predicting our eventual collapse—indeed, this repression is part of that collapse—and arguing that the U.S. no longer has a moral compass; that it is spiritually bankrupt. I run a blog that is anything but polite: it says the U.S. is finished; that it is essentially a corporate plutocracy, run by a gangster elite; that the American people are basically morons, with little more than fried rice in their heads; and that anyone with half a brain and the means to do so should emigrate before it’s too late. I’m not really a threat to the U.S. government, largely because I am not a political activist and because it’s not likely that more than 74 people out of 311 million regularly read my blog (it’s probably more like 24, in fact). But as the definition of terrorism widens in this country, what is to prevent the creation of a category known as “intellectual terrorism” from arising, and putting folks like myself in that category? What is to prevent the government from calling such activity a clear and present danger to national security? As must be obvious by now, the government can do anything it wants to; as in Nazi Germany, we now have a government of men, not of laws. Indeed, the “laws” are little more than a pretext for whatever the government wishes to do.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/25/slouching-towards-nuremberg/

Is this America when the place acts like its run by NAZIs with boatloads of money?

Much of DU has been on to their gangster arses since Selection 2000, but will We the People get hip in time?

[PDJane]

1. This is something that worries me.

It's something that I've been warned about years ago by a friend who left Germany with her British Parents when the Holocaust was in its first stages. She is dead now; long before she died, she said that the US was going the way of Nazi Germany, and that it didn't need a charismatic leader to start, just ignorance and nationalism.

[Octafish]

9. We should listen to those with firsthand experience.

Instead, too many of us act in the exact same manner as those who thought nothing was amiss during the rise of the NAZI state.

Of course, many of the same families from then are so, eh, influential today, in all matters where finance and government -- money and power -- intersect.



Now THIS guy, I wish had spoken up:

From "The Secret History of the CIA" by Joseph Trento:

Within the confines of (Angleton’s) remarkable life were most of America’s secrets. “You know how I got to be in charge of counterintelligence? I agreed not to polygraph or require detailed background checks on Allen Dulles and 60 of his closest friends... They were afraid that their own business dealings with Hitler’s pals would come out. They were too arrogant to believe that the Russians would discover it all. . . . You know, the CIA got tens of thousands of brave people killed. . . We played with lives as if we owned them. We gave false hope. We - I - so misjudged what happened."

CONTINUED...

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSangleton.htm

I am so grateful that your late friend spoke up when she saw the return, Operation PHOENIX like, of the fascist state.

[whatchamacallit]

2. If the deranged Greenwald hate is any indication

the "intellectual terrorism" classification could be popular on DU.

[el_bryanto]

4. So people at DU who disagree with Greenwald are guilty of intellectual terrorism?

Bryant

[whatchamacallit]

5. 180, it could be popular with the Greenwald haters

[Octafish]

10. It was so embarassing, I took a poll.

Glenn Greenwald vs. Cass Sunstein -- Battle Royal, in their own words!

Fact: 85-percent of DUers in the survey agree that Glenn Greenwald has more integrity than Cass Sunstein.

Here's why I think so, too:

Among the most important things to discuss in a democracy are matters or war and peace; and financial matters, such as taxation and fiscal policy. Today, billions and trillions of dollars in business is conducted in complete secrecy. These areas have become the perview of Wall Street and their handmaids in Washington, resulting in three decades-plus of Reverse Robin Hood.

The process for prosecuting presidents is the same as for anyone else: A law is violated. The crime is reported, investigated, and prosecuted. The officials involved in the investigation, prosecution and trial are not, obviously, the same as those who investigate the Rovewannabe who steals 100 lawn signs the week before a primary, but the principle is exactly the same as when lying the nation into an illegal, immoral, unnecessary and, apart from Big Money, disastrous war -- No one is above the law.

In the present case, Greenwald vs. Sunstein 2008, we had two approaches to dealing with a "president" who lied America into war. The facts are there: Bush and his cronies lied openly and often to the American people. From torture to indiscriminate bombing of civilians, U.S. and international laws were violated.

WAR CRIMES ACT OF 1996

18 U.S.C. § 2441 : US Code - Section 2441: War crimes

Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

CONTINUED...

Dusty Foggo, Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff show the corruption to be rampant, if not systemic. So, given the choice between Greenwald's "too much information" and Sunstein's "no need to worry about that" I choose the former. I think that requires backbone, or what I define as a character with leadership qualities and utmost integrity. That kind of person demands that no one is above the law, whether a traitor, partisan, citizen or crook.

Consider the "president" George W. Bush, who lied America into an illegal, immoral, unnecessary and disastrous war by tying the terror attacks of September 11 to Saddam Hussein. After no connection was ever found, let alone WMDs, Bush said: "Money trumps peace" and then laughed. And the press with not even a single follow-up question did zilch about it. Congress, for whatever reason, did zilch. So, it's up to We the People. That is hard for us to do because, apart from DU, most know zero about it.

So, yeah. I absolutely agree, regarding the deranged Greenwald hate.

[Zalatix]

3. Nice to see that someone besides me sees this extreme end coming.

People here keep saying the Plutocracy is motivated by ignorance and carelessness.

These fuckers are up to something much worse, and Morris Berman gets it.

[hifiguy]

6. Thanks, Octafish. Morris Berman is

ALWAYS worth reading. K'n'R

[Liberal_Dog]

7. K & R

Americans have been trained to not care when their leaders break laws and commit heinous acts.

I don't see any way that the descent can really be stopped at this point.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Morris Berman is someone who Chris Hedges respects and often quotes.

Dissenters from many ages have been silenced...remember Socrates?

[bobthedrummer]

11. K&R n/t

[xchrom]

12. Du rec. Nt