Source: ACLU blog "The Patriot Act 10 Years Later" |
In the 90's I was a public school teacher in central Maine who was told that, to keep my job, I needed to give up my fingerprints to the FBI's database to prove that I wasn't a child molester. No one had accused me of being a child molester, and I knew that most suspected child molesters are encouraged to resign and move far away to spare superintendents the pain of an ugly public relations fiasco. Thus their fingerprints were not in any database of convicted child molesters.
I had been a busy working mom with little time for political action. Then my 9 year old was fingerprinted at school even after I expressly forbid the school to do that. These experiences radicalized me and I began working against the educator fingerprinting law in Maine. Twice we managed to have the law overturned, and twice the governor vetoed it. I resigned over the issue and moved to California to earn more money while I had two kids in college at the same time.
allowed to happen.Then Joe Biden's Patriot Act passed with breathtaking speed, curtailing our civil liberties and giving sweeping surveillance powers to the federal government because "terror" had frightened us. Then the never ending "war on terror" began for control of energy resources and shipping lanes, and we still go without universal health care to pay for it.
Then I moved back to Maine and got fingerprinted because I needed the health care for my family.
It wasn't a surprise attack at all but was well-publicized in advance.
Whether Capitol and DC municipal police opened the fencing to allow the MAGA mob in to the Capitol grounds, or simply failed to defend the line when the mob pushed into them, seems like a moot point. (Remember when the National Guard teargassed peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in Lafayette Park so the occupant of the White House could walk to a nearby church and pose with a Bible? Remember how the Guard were directing traffic Jan. 6 while legislators were under attack?) Via AP |
Cue the new even more repressive laws the public has been led to believe are needed because "domestic terror" has frightened us.
My prediction: we will continue to go without universal health care to pay for more policing and spying on ourselves.
Australian Caitlin Johnstone as usual is seeing things with a clearer eye from Oz:
The narrative managers' ability to move liberals and progressives from "Defund the police" to "MOAR POLICING" in just a few months was even more impressive than their ability to move them from "Believe Women" and #MeToo to "Tara Reid is a lying grifter".
My family member points out the danger to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color:
We have a long history of institutional racism. So when you talk about expanding anti domestic terrorism powers it’s a pretty safe prediction that it’s going to carried out in a racist way and in service of capital.Also, say a Biden admin handles it as well as possible, what does the next republican administration do with those expanded powers? It’s Pandora’s box. You don’t open it and then see what happens, once you’re there it’s too late.
Also, I'm guessing another purpose of allowing violent intruders with handcuffs at the ready to break into the Capitol was to discourage Medicare for All candidates like me from running for Congress.
And about that man dressed all in black with the bouquet of plastic zip-ties whose photograph is being circulated widely? Perfect set up for right wing propagandists to make the false claim that Antifa was behind the MAGA crowd.
It looks like another event is being planned for January 17.
Impeaching the current occupant of Camp David will not solve our problems, and many argue it's a waste of time at this point, but it should be done anyway to keep the grifter off the public dole and unable to issue any more pardons.
For those wondering if it’s worth impeaching him this time, it means he:
— Ben Costiloe (@BenCostiloe) January 8, 2021
1) loses his 200k+ pension for the rest of his life
2) loses his 1 million dollar/year travel allowance
3) loses lifetime full secret service detail
4) loses his ability to run in 2024
People who think the Biden administration is going to save us from any of this are not paying attention. Or, possibly, they are too young to remember what Senator Obama did directly after receiving the nomination of the Democratic Party.
He voted to grant immunity to the big telecom corporations for spying on all of us after 9/11.
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