Old News: The USA Has Been A Police State Since 1787

Amazingly, less than a month after my most recent, there's another new post on my blog!

It starts this way:

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Last week the FBI raided the homes of anti-war activists in multiple states simultaneously, prompting Paul Craig Roberts to write a searing column called "It Is Official: The US Is A Police State".

I caught excerpts from Roberts and comments on his work from Chris Floyd, in "Domestic Disturbance: FBI Raids Bring the Terror War Home".

I don't disagree with anything Roberts or Floyd wrote about this story, and I would recommend both columns. But neither of these very fine writers approached the idea that struck me hardest when I saw Roberts' headline.

What's new about the USA being a police state? Why is it suddenly official now?

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You can read the rest here and/or comment below.

Comments

Why is it suddenly official now?

Ummm . . . . because if it has been this way all my life and there for me to see all along, then either I'm stupid or complicit . . . or both.

Living with reality

Of course, Paul Craig Roberts has been a little more complicit than most. He has lots of company. The most egregious of his fellow travellers in the past, to me at least, have been the Christian religious leaders of all denominations.

In my wanderings I have come across an excellent article which points this out. And much else, too. It is called "Living With A Kingdom Consciousness" which means to me the same as seeking the truth and living with, and by, that Reality.

I am reminded of that immortal line in "Saturday Night Fever". "If you don't deal with Reality, son, Reality will deal with you". And ain't that the truth?!

It is a longish article but worth the time if you have some and are feeling reflective.

It's a Ward Churchill refrain

Something I can't quote exactly, but "How many cops do you have to see around you before you know it's a police state?!"
(smelly snark:)
Though, now, they don't want you to film them, and you might be tased if you try -- and your comments are going on file until needed to justify your terrorist soul!
Remember "Brazil," everyone? Just look around! Just how are they going to lock down the dissidents? Feed them to the "repthuglican" security police--same as the donk police-- peace by peace...
You know, first they came for the clockers, but I wasn't one...
then the muslims, but...
then the hackers, but...
then the active peace-niks, but...
then the ....
please improve the litany
(Don't tase me, bro! Tase her!)

Questions Nobody Asked

The piece "Old News: The USA Has Been A Police State Since 1787" has been linked to [thanks] and even reposted in full in several places [thanks again], and it has drawn comments here and via email ... and nobody anywhere has asked

What about **1789** ??

It is certainly true that the Constitution was ratified in 1789, and the year 1787 is not usually afforded any historical import (at least in this context). So what happened? Was it an error? And if so, how did it slip past so many people.

Perhaps those readers who noticed the error were too kind or too busy to point it out; perhaps nobody noticed the error; or perhaps those who did notice thought it wasn't an error at all. Who's to say?

Well, I can say. It was a typo, at first. But the longer I looked at it, the more sense it made, because the counter-revolution -- the one that overthrew the Articles of Confederation -- had been in the works for at least a couple of years before its founding document was ratified.

Thus in one short and tumultuous decade, either [1] America shifted from "all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights" to "for the purposes of representation, a slave shall be counted as 3/5 of a person", or [2] the latter was always the case and the former was always window-dressing.

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