Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Jim Marcinkowski
We fought the Soviets and I fought the Soviets because they had a fatally flawed, intolerable system of government where (and think about this):
The Soviet Union- A people’s paradise where the people were in control of their state - but we here in America knew better and we fought the Soviet system with everything we had because we could not endure a Soviet style system here in the United States.
Since 1995 the Republican Party and its friends in the American corporate structures that so vigorously contribute to and support them have---in the space of a decade---created in this country more than the beginnings of a system that this country spent 50 years trying to dismantle. More...
- The government was always right and never apologized;
- Any dissent was suppressed, ridiculed, banned or worse;
- Secret prisons were denied and never acknowledged or spoken about;
- The torture of captives (in Lubyanka) was condoned;
- State incarceration was not subject to the checks and balances of a legal system;
- Economic plans, like for oil, were established/determined in closed sessions between politicos, commissars and production managers, far outside public view, and where government claimed privilege in so doing;
- Wages were set at the lowest common denominator, no matter what Bloc country you were in;
- Government agents had access to your medical records, your library records, your telephone, and your e-mail.
- A place where judicial power and judicial review were proclaimed concepts, but simply ignored in application;
- Where criminal records of young adults were closed to all but the military;
- Where a Constitution was a mere facade and ignored by state actors.
- Any dissent, debate and protest were deemed unpatriotic;
- The public media was bought, paid for, and provided by the state;
- The military clandestinely and shamelessly influenced the national media and public opinion;
- A place where wrong was declared right;
- Where tapping a phone was like tapping a pencil;
- Where lying was considered a patriotic skill;
- The extraction of natural resources was paramount to any concern for the environment and the impact on the health of its people;
- Where the use of “state secrets,” (those things embarrassing to the government) were confused with legitimate issues of “national security”;
- A place where "secrecy" and "national security" were used to control debate;
- Where legitimate secrecy, was subject to political use and abuse;
- Where "legislators" were mere mouthpieces for and rubberstamps of whoever was in power;
- Where you lived and died with the permission of the government;
- A place where foreign policy was more important than domestic concerns;
- Where fear was used as a political weapon and an acceptable means of control;
- Where the best medical care was reserved for the influential;
- Where wealth was concentrated in the top 5%;
- A place where there was no middle class - just a small economic and political elite, and the working poor.
The Soviet Union- A people’s paradise where the people were in control of their state - but we here in America knew better and we fought the Soviet system with everything we had because we could not endure a Soviet style system here in the United States.
Since 1995 the Republican Party and its friends in the American corporate structures that so vigorously contribute to and support them have---in the space of a decade---created in this country more than the beginnings of a system that this country spent 50 years trying to dismantle. More...
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