I had to take a break for a few days. I heard a story on NPR Frito be day morning that was profoundly disturbing. And my anger It came through in my posts to MMFA on Friday, it came through in my work / in the office, and even my wife noticed it when I got home. So I had to take a breather. And you know what? A few days later, and I don't feel any less repulsed by it.
As if the Citizens United decision wasn't bad enough, NPR did a story about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. To put it gently, it's a non-profit that hooks up corporate shills and legislators for the purpose of getting really awful legislation passed, and obfuscating where it comes from, and just who's buying the legislator in question. And because it's a non-profit, and they provide all the "scholarships," (an utterly Orwellian term that almost makes me throw-up in my mouth to use,) any disclosure the Legislator does make just say "ALEC." NOT the corporation who's really buying them. And what's more? Unlike with lobby groups (HOW the HELL is this not a lobby group?! WTF?!) Corporations actually get a TAX WRITE-OFF for their donations to ALEC!
So how does this make u s"Nazi's?" Am I just being melodramatic? I don't think so. Not anymore.
Do you know where the new, controversial Arizona immigration law came from? Well, it came out of an ALEC conference. And who else was in attendance at that conference? Why, the largest private prison company in the country: the Corrections Corporation of America. So follow me for a second here...
In case you were wondering, YES, they are a for-profit company. They're traded on the NYSE. You can look it up. We actually have for-profit incarceration in this country! Maye I'm just a little slow, but I didn't know that. Of course, it's sold as a cost-cutting measure for states - just like everything else we should never even CONSIDER privatizing. And sure enough: it's cheaper. Problem is? If the prisons aren't filled to at least 90-95% capacity, they don't make a profit.
So.... What to do... What to do?
Well... what they DID do was to craft a bill/ law specifically designed to get MORE PEOPLE thrown in prison! That's the Arizona Immigration law, requiring police to arrest ANYONE who can't PROVE they're not in this country legally, ON THE SPOT. And, putting aside the whole "innocent auntil proven guilty" implications, of course anyone with two brain cells to bounce together (which excluded most Conservatives apparently) realizes that this is a law aimed primarily at arresting Mexicans.
Now... normally a law like this might meet with some public backlash, so what to do... what to do... Well... The politicians could take to the airwaves, making up all kinds of nonsense and slander to turn public sentiment against Illegalls, yes, but also against Mexicans as well as Immigrants in general. (Hey: That fits right in with thier anti-Muslim agenda anyway, right?)
So... You've got politicans using the media to vilify an already small and unpopular minority group, with few rights, and no means to recourse, spreading all kinds of false information about them and the affect they have on our society - much of it 180 derees divorced from reality - all to drum up support for a bill designed to do nothing else but to get as many members of this very minority group carted off to prison as possible.
Um... How is that NOT Nazi, exactly? The only separating this from the gas chambers? Is the GAS!
And you know what? Putting aside that we're not actually KILLING them - fair enough - from a certain POV, we're actually WORSE than the Nazi's. Yeah, seriously. Stay with me now... You see... Hitler, in his own perverse way, actually believed that what he was doing was right. As despicable, and unimaginably inhuman as it was? His "final solution" was being done for purely idealistic reasons: to "save" Germany. Of course... his ideals were utterly monstrous. But why are WE doing the same thing? Sure, the politicians would have you believe that it's all to "save" America. (Sound familiar?) And in that way it's every bit as misguided as Hitler's persecution of the Jews was. But the fact is? That's all bullshit. I almost wish they were being that twistedly idealistic about it. The REAL reason we're vilifying and incarcerating Mexicans?
Is so that a for-profit corporation can make more money.
That's it.
And that's beyond fascist... that NAZI territory, plain and simple. I've taken some time to try and view this from any other perspective and I just can't see one. We're fucking Nazi's. Congratulations America, you now incarcerate minorities for no greater, misguided "ideal" than INCREASED CORPORATE PROFITS.
And you know what? Goebbels would be utterly HUMBLED by what the Right has managed to do to OUR media. HE had to at least make an EFFORT! OUR Right-Wing scumbags? Have Fox News cheerleading for them, propagandizing for them, as a matter course, no longer even bothering to keep up the PRETENSE of doing otherwise... and MAKING A PROFIT DOING IT!!! And the rest of the media follows suit for fear of being branded as "Liberal biased!" They've turned the media against their opposition, either vehemently or passively (which is far more effective anyway) and they didn't have to spend a single Penny of government money to do it! Goebbels's could certainly have learn a thing or two from Murdoch, Ailes and company. He had to make an effort. The Right in this country? Has made it the natural default perspective!
Anyway, I'm done.
For awhile, actually.
Seriously.
I'm going to take a little break. I have to. You can't wake up to the realization that your country incarcerates people for profit, and that politicians use the media to market the policty, FALSELY vilifying the people in question, and yet only one, single arm of this so-called "liberal media" (NPR) is even talking about it...and think that anything you can do or say is going to accomplish ANYTHING. This story just... crushed me. It swept away my last hope that this country even has a soul left to save.
George Carlin once said that fascism would not come to America in Brown-Shirts and Jack-Boots, but rather wearing Nike's. Well... it's not about Nike, but the point was positively and prfoundly prophetic. And it will simply not serve my mental health to keep railing against such utter hopelessness. I need a little time to recharge my batteries. Find a different direction to take this in. So... we'll see how it and where it goes.
Oh, ad uh... BTW...
There's an election tomorrow. So, vote. I guess. It's supposed to be important... or something.
And just like Glenn Beck, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. Honestly, I don't really think it matters anymore anyway. But UNLIKE Glenn Beck, I'm going to give you this advice: WHATEVER you do, don't vote for
As three wise men once said...
"All we have to fear, is fear itself!" ~Franklin Roosevelt
"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." ~Yoda
and, perhaps the most important lesson for these spineless, useless Democrats to learn:
"Given a choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, they'll choose the Republican every time" ~Harry Truman
...
WHY, with 20th Century icons like Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson to draw inspiration from, do they decide instead to take their lead from the likes of BILL CLINTON?
WHY?!
