Aye, indeed. See it and been telling you about it. It is a pendulum swing. An overcorrecting swing to the Left may follow and hopefully we will settle somewhere in the middle after that.
The opposite, it stops in the middle when no force makes it swing left and right. Should make us think. The pull of gravity is straight down.
This post was edited by O-uknow at February 11, 2017 3:35 PM MST
Fascism is a poorly defined term. Even people who think they know what it means can not agree on one meaning.
A government represents ... somebody. And a government has to be supported by ... somebody. Corporations exist only by the government's permission and protection, so of course corporations support the government and of course the government protects its source of support. The only other thing necessary to qualify as fascism by anybody's definition is military force to stamp out opposition to the will of the government.
But we the people still call the shots. No matter how bad things get, a majority of the people insist they want it to be even more so. This continues right up until the wheels fall off, because it is not physically possible to support a society that way. Then comes a dark age, and then the people rebuild, making all the same stupid mistakes all over again.
Yes. ever since I started paying attention to politics as Chelsea's Dad became President.
Fortunately now we have a change. Those loyal to the Democratic party will deny how bad it has been in the past, just as loyal Republicans would do if one of theirs was in office, but it is time to break up the Oligarchy.
For the first time in history, someone strong enough to not be bought by large corporations is president and it scares so many Americans because half are invested in these corporations, Are you?
Nice seeing you back again. Another of those remarks posted to provoke, and then left alone when people get back with their critical responses? Lets have a look at his breaking up oligarchy...
Department of State Trump’s pick: Rex Tillerson Background: He’s an oil executive. Tillerson has been the CEO of Exxon Mobil for the last decade after working his way up the ranks since 1975. It’s the only company Tillerson has ever known; the Texas native started at Exxon after graduating from college. He’s also an Eagle Scout who served as a past president of the Boy Scouts of America.
Department of the Treasury Trump’s pick: Steven Mnuchin Background: He’s a banker. Specifically, Mnuchin is a former senior executive at Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund manager who bought the failed mortgage lender IndyMac from the government in 2009. He spun it off into OneWest and sold it for a huge profit five years later. Mnuchin is also a Hollywood producer whose credits include Avatar, American Sniper, and the X-Men movies.
Department of Defense Trump’s pick: General James Mattis Background: Mattis is a four-star Marine Corps general who led U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013. He commanded forces in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Mattis also worked with General David Petraeus to produce the field manual on battling counterinsurgents in Iraq.
Department of Justice Trump’s pick: Senator Jeff Sessions Background: Sessions has represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years, building up a record as a staunch critic of illegal immigration and expanded legal immigration. He’s been a conservative all around, opposing the Obama administration at nearly every turn. Before his election to the Senate, Sessions served as a federal prosecutor and then Alabama attorney general. He might have had a lifetime appointment to the federal bench had the Senate not rejected his nomination in 1987 over allegations that he made racist comments and praised the KKK while criticizing the NAACP and the ACLU.
Department of Homeland Security Trump’s pick: Retired General John Kelly Background: The military. Like Mattis, Kelly is a veteran of more than 40 years in the Marine Corps, having served as commander of the U.S. Southern Command for the final three ending in January. The jurisdiction included South and Central America, as well as the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Kelly also has the sad distinction of being the highest-ranking military officer to lose a child in Iraq or Afghanistan. His son, Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, was killed after stepping on a land mine in Afghanistan in 2010.
Department of Health and Human Services Trump’s pick: Representative Tom Price Background: The deeply conservative, six-term Georgia congressman is chairman of the House Budget Committee, a leading critic of the Affordable Care Act, and an architect of Republican proposals to replace the health law. Before entering politics in the 1990s, Price was an orthopedist for 20 years in Atlanta.
Department of Housing and Urban Development Trump’s pick: Dr. Ben Carson Background: The conservative former Trump rival for the Republican presidential nomination has no formal experience in housing policy. He’s a retired neurosurgeon renowned for pioneering a procedure to separate conjoined twins. But what Carson would bring to HUD is the personal experience of having grown up poor in Detroit. He has written and spoken extensively about his upbringing, saying that his hard work and passion for reading, along with the firm encouragement of his single mother, helped him to escape the poverty of the inner city.
Department of Energy Trump’s pick: Former Texas Governor Rick Perry Background: Perry served three-and-a-half terms as the governor of Texas, succeeding George W. Bush after he became president. He then ran for president twice, failing to win the Republican nomination in 2012 and then again in 2016. His experience in energy-rich Texas would, on the surface, seem to make him a natural fit, but the Energy Department is actually more of a national security agency that’s responsible for designing and protecting the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons. The last two energy secretaries were award-winning scientists.
Department of Labor Trump’s pick: Andrew Puzder Background: Puzder is best known as the chief executive of the parent company for Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., the fast-food chains. He worked his way up in the business world originally as a lawyer and general counsel, the position he first held at CKE Restaurants. He’s also a frequent conservative commentator and a critic of minimum-wage laws and the Obama administration’s overtime rule.
Department of Transportation Trump’s pick: Elaine Chao Background: As labor secretary for the full two terms of the George W. Bush administration, Chao brings more civilian experience in the federal government than anyone else in Trump’s Cabinet. Before that, she directed the Peace Corps and led United Way. During the first Bush administration, Chao also served as a deputy secretary in the department she is poised to lead.
Department of Education Trump’s pick: Betsy DeVos Background: DeVos is a longtime philanthropist and Republican donor and the former chairwoman of the state party in Michigan. She’s been a major advocate for education reform centered on expanding charter schools and private-school vouchers. She led the advocacy group, American Federation for Children, that pushes for increased school choice for parents. The New York Times reported on her successful effort to kill legislation in Detroit that would have imposed tougher accountability standards on charter schools.
Department of the Interior Trump’s pick: Representative Ryan Zinke of Montana Background: Zinke is a Republican member of the House who was just reelected to his second term in November. He had been expected to run for the Senate in 2018, but at least for now, he’s headed for Trump’s Cabinet. Zinke served for more than 20 years in the Navy Seals before entering politics, earning numerous medals. In Congress, he has opposed the sale of federal lands but supported mining and drilling on them.
Department of Commerce Trump’s pick: Wilbur Ross Background: Another billionaire, Ross is the chairman of a private equity firm that he founded and later sold. For 25 years, he led Rothschild Inc., where he made a reputation as a turnaround specialist who bought up and restructured steel, textile, and mining companies, among other industries.
Department of Agriculture Trump’s pick: Sonny Perdue Background: Perdue is the former governor of Georgia, having served two terms ending in 2011. An immigration hawk, he grew up on a farm and earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine.
Department of Veterans Affairs Trump’s pick: Dr. David Shulkin Background: The only Trump pick currently serving in the Obama administration, Shulkin is now the under secretary for health at the VA. He’s previously served as a top executive at hospitals in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City.
Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency Trump’s pick: Scott Pruitt Background: Pruitt is the attorney general of Oklahoma, and in that position he has led the conservative legal fight against the Obama administration’s agenda to combat climate change. Along with other Republican attorneys general, he sued to stop the administration’s climate rules—a case that is still pending in federal court. Like Trump, he has voiced doubts about the science behind climate change and its connection to manmade activities.
Ambassador to the United Nations Trump’s pick: Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina Background: Haley has been considered a rising Republican star ever since she won election as governor of South Carolina in 2010. She gave her highly sought-after endorsement to Marco Rubio in the GOP presidential primary last year, and she was seen as a likely vice presidential pick if Rubio had won the nomination. But Rubio didn’t, and Trump’s early selection of Haley as his nominee for U.N. ambassador was a bit of a surprise. She has no formal foreign-policy experience, but her background as the conservative daughter of Indian immigrants undoubtedly appealed to Trump.
Director, Office of Management and Budget Trump’s pick: Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina Background: Mulvaney is a hard-line conservative in the House and a founding member of the Freedom Caucus. He was a frequent critic of former Speaker John Boehner and voted for budget and debt proposals that called for steep spending cuts across discretionary and entitlement spending programs. The question is whether his support for overhauling Medicare and Social Security and his resistance to major increases in defense spending will conflict with Trump, who took opposing views on the campaign trail.
Director, CIA Trump’s pick: Representative Mike Pompeo of Kansas Background: Pompeo was elected to his fourth term in the House in November and served on the Intelligence Committee. He drew wider attention as a member of the House Benghazi Committee and for his aggressive questioning of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 11-hour testimony in 2015. Before running for Congress, he served as an Army captain and then started a company that manufactured parts for commercial and military airplanes.
They sure are a bunch of the finest representatives we'll ever find, and we won't find anyone better working for the ordinary people in America. #saracsm
As for early signs of fascism I'd like tyou to elaborate on your claims of identifying them during the Clinton administration, thank you.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 13, 2017 2:44 AM MST
This confusion arises because people firmly believe they can build a perfect society if they can just write a clever enough constitution. They miss the fact that the battle is not between one ism and another ism, it is between centralized government and individuals.