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What Kind of Country Are We, Really?
Townhall.com ^ | October 8, 2021 | Laura Hollis

Posted on 10/08/2021 8:49:22 AM PDT by Kaslin

Our ruling classes are infected with arrogance, egotism and condescension. So convinced are they of their inherent superiority that their desires – whether motivated by purported altruism or blunt self-interest – are subordinated to nothing; not even the most fundamental principles of American society like truth and due process.

They are doing immeasurable damage to this country and its people.

The Biden administration, its puppetmasters behind the scenes, and its willing warriors in Congress and the press, are all engaged in a full-blown propaganda war against ordinary Americans. This started with absurd accusations against former President Donald Trump, but quickly expanded to include anyone who voted for or supported him.

One buzzword of this campaign is “racist,” of course; that’s been the Left’s go-to smear for at least the past 40 years. But this administration has turned it up to 11; yesterday’s “racists” have become today’s “white supremacists” and – most significantly – tomorrow’s “domestic terrorists.”

These false accusations are not only being used as obfuscation to win elections (even blacks like California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder can be smeared as “white supremacists” as long as they’re political conservatives); they are being used to purge the military of patriotic men and women, to justify weaponizing federal agencies, and to deprive Americans of basic due process rights.

Exhibit A is the confabulated hysteria around January 6th. The people who went traipsing through the Capitol were cast as “insurrectionists.” Those who were arrested were thrown into prison without bail or bond and held in solitary confinement; some, for months. One such prisoner, Jonathan Mellis, was denied the right to attend his father’s funeral. This despite the fact that none of the accused had a weapon, and there has been no evidence of any coordinated “plan” to attack members of Congress, much less overthrow the government.

The United Nations considers solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days to be a form of torture, and has codified this principle under the “Mandela Rule,” named for the former leader of South Africa who was imprisoned for nearly three decades. There is ample evidence to support this conclusion; prisoners subjected to long periods of solitary confinement suffer extreme physical and mental illness, including heart disease, depression and suicide.

This is nothing more than political persecution. Non-violent Trump supporters are imprisoned in solitary for months, while Antifa and BLM rioters who lobbed explosives, looted, burned and destroyed throughout 2020 have their bail paid (if they are arrested at all) and charges dropped against them.

As further evidence, the Biden Justice Department is now going after parents and families who object to the imposition of racist, Marxist, anti-American indoctrination like Critical Race Theory, into public school curricula. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement this week announcing that Justice Department and the FBI would be implementing measures to address a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidating and threats of violence” against teachers, administrators and school board members.

If walking around the U.S. Capitol unarmed is an “insurrection,” one can anticipate that vehement, vocal disagreement at a school board meeting can easily be characterized as “harassment” or “intimidation.”

None of this can be properly understood without recalling key provisions of the PATRIOT Act, passed immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The PATRIOT Act allows law enforcement to bypass important due process protections in circumstances where “terrorism” is suspected. Under the PATRIOT Act, law enforcement need not submit evidence of probable cause to a judge before an arrest warrant can issue. (Of course, the Trump/Russia collusion farce revealed that the FBI lies even when prior judicial review is required.) They no longer have to suspect someone of being an agent for a “foreign power” to conduct surveillance. They no longer need a search warrant to seize any and all property of the suspected “terrorists.” Those accused are forbidden from discussing with anyone what’s happening to them.

Most relevantly, the PATRIOT Act created the crime of “domestic terrorism,” and its definitions thereof sweep political protests into that definition; something the American Civil Liberties Union had – at least until recently – been hollering about.

That’s why it is so significant that Biden and his goons are characterizing those who oppose their political agenda as “domestic terrorists.” Once lumped into that category by the Justice Department and the FBI, Americans can lose the due process protections they are entitled to and find themselves in a legal nightmare: arrests without probable cause, searches and seizures without warrants, indefinite detentions without writs of habeus corpus, extracted confessions. (One federal judge declared parts of the PATRIOT Act unconstitutional in a 2007 case involving the FBI’s unlawful surveillance and arrest of attorney Brandon Mayfield.)

Last week I wrote that the federal government is outsourcing to private corporations powers of censorship and surveillance that would subject the government to lawsuits alleging unconstitutionality if they did it. This administration - aided and abetted by a politicized Justice Department, out of control FBI and unaccountable federal agencies - is now criminalizing political disagreement.

As bad as this is, it can be made much worse by Democrats' support for the "Defund the Police" movement. Just as they are calling for eliminating state and local police forces, the fabricated hue and cry over tens of millions of so-called “white supremacists” is being used as a lead-up to calls for a federal police force - one which (much like the Capitol Police) would do the bidding of the party in power in Washington DC.

I will say this as often as I must: the horrific human rights abuses that have taken place in other countries can happen here. If we permit the erosion of every principle upon which America was founded, we will suffer consequences every bit as atrocious as those we’ve seen elsewhere.

Those of us who love America are facing powerful headwinds in our efforts to engage in serious inquiry and communicate facts. But we must make a choice. Are we willing to watch the continued attack on America’s most fundamental principles? Or are we going to fight to defend them?

What kind of country are we, really?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: attygeneral; bidenadmin; crt; doj; residentbiden
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1 posted on 10/08/2021 8:49:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Anyone see the ads for some new “special series” on racism, hosted by Soledad O’Brien? The title: “Disrupt/Dismantle”


2 posted on 10/08/2021 8:57:04 AM PDT by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Kaslin
What Kind of Country Are We, Really?

The Mob Rule kind.

3 posted on 10/08/2021 8:58:36 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (Celebrate Decivilization)
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To: Kaslin

Oligarchy.


4 posted on 10/08/2021 8:58:48 AM PDT by BusterDog
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To: Kaslin

Fascist , basically.


5 posted on 10/08/2021 8:59:40 AM PDT by stockpirate (Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God., Where Justice Ends Tyranny Begins)
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To: Kaslin

Right now we are a very dysfunctional country and our national values and ethos are far, far away from the underlying beliefs that made this country great.

Unfortunately we have already been transformed into a socialist country with a massively overbearing government that controls, regulates, taxes, and influences every aspect of our lives.

The country is a mess and in dire need of serious leadership.


6 posted on 10/08/2021 9:00:37 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Kaslin

Trump broke them. Permanently.


7 posted on 10/08/2021 9:06:13 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: Sicon

A country cannot long endure with such unchecked dissension, dysfunction, lawlessness, and corruption. We are a mere shell of the country we once were.

We’re in deep trouble.


8 posted on 10/08/2021 9:06:31 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Starboard

“Right now we are a very dysfunctional country and our national values and ethos are far, far away from the underlying beliefs that made this country great.”

I would say:

Right now we are a very dysfunctional country and the values and ethos of the power elite that the media are pounding into the American psyche are far, far away from the underlying beliefs that made this country great.

The question is how much of the population will wake up.


9 posted on 10/08/2021 9:07:05 AM PDT by Rennes Templar (Come back, President Trump.)
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To: Kaslin

A very stupid one.


10 posted on 10/08/2021 9:08:00 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Kaslin

We are a NATION OF MEN, get over it

We used to be a Nation of Laws, but in 1964 We made Participation Trophies for being citizens a fact of life, Welfare!!!


11 posted on 10/08/2021 9:10:36 AM PDT by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: Kaslin

We are a ‘country’ in geography only.


12 posted on 10/08/2021 9:11:18 AM PDT by Altura Ct. (We should mint )
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To: stockpirate

Fascist arcing towards socialist

Already socialist in plenty of areas


13 posted on 10/08/2021 9:12:36 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Sicon

Yes...seen the ads...obviously propaganda


14 posted on 10/08/2021 9:15:11 AM PDT by goodnesswins (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolyution." -- Saul Alinksy)
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To: stockpirate

Yes, a Fascist Police State.


15 posted on 10/08/2021 9:15:30 AM PDT by laplata
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To: Kaslin

Good article.


16 posted on 10/08/2021 9:16:15 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: Rennes Templar

The question is how much of the population will wake up.

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

It takes a LOT of fear and pain to wake people up. Just saying. People generally resist change unless they’re forced to, usually be some kind of external events.

There’s nothing on the horizon, save for a possible economic downturn, that would get people’s attention. Most citizens just go about their daily lives and grouse about the things but rarely do anything to actively demand positive change. Countless people don’t even bother to vote.

Maybe some extraordinary leader will come along at some point and inspire and motivate people, but those kind of guiding lights are very rare.


17 posted on 10/08/2021 9:16:39 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Kaslin
These 2 quotes say it all where America is

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.” - Ayn Rand

and this oldie but goodie

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president." - Prager Zeitungon, a Czech newspaper."

18 posted on 10/08/2021 9:17:00 AM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: Kaslin
Winston Churchill used to day: "Americans will always do the right thing - after they tried everything else".
I guess we're not done trying "everything else" yet.

19 posted on 10/08/2021 9:17:24 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

Sort of a cross between a Stalinist and a Hitlerite one. I see clear elements of both nightmare regimes.


20 posted on 10/08/2021 9:18:01 AM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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