The destruction of the rule of law, an action essential to establishing an authoritarian or totalitarian state, began long before the arrival of the Trump administration.
Chris Hedges discusses the deep rot that infects American journalism with reporter Matt Taibbi.
Tracie Harris & Clare Wuellner
Back when I still wore the uniform of a U.S. Army officer, and well before many of my former brothers in arms labeled me a traitor, I taught freshman (“plebe”) history at West Point. I loved asking my cadets provocative questions, the sort of queries they never heard in high school Advanced Placement U.S. history courses. Consider just one. At the end of the class on World War II, I always asked: “What is the moral difference between flying three planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon—killing 3,000 civilians—and using hundreds of U.S. planes to firebomb Tokyo on March 9, 1945—killing some 90,000 civilians?” Suffice it to say that most cadets didn’t like this question at all.
In this passionate call to action, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg explains why, in August 2018, she walked out of school and organized a strike to raise awareness of global warming, protesting outside the Swedish parliament and grabbing the world’s attention. “The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions,” Thunberg says. “All we have to do is to wake up and change.”
While on a working vacation in Cancun, I had to respond to a couple of State Senators in the Hoosier state pushing a bill to promote Creationism as an alternative to reality in public schools.
Dec[ember] 25 is not [Jesus’ — or Joshua’s for those people who like to be historically correct] birthday. Biblical scholars have debunked the blind belief that Jesus was born on Dec. 25 time and time again. Instead, through scientific, historical and astrological calculations, they’ve pinpointed September of the year 3 B.C. as a more accurate date. . .
Many people are familiar with the Winter Solstice, and for those who are not, it’s when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky on Dec. 21, actually appearing to stop moving for three days, then rising again on Dec. 25. With just a cursory examination, one can understand that the “Birth of the Son” is actually the “Return of the Sun.”
The idiots take over in the final days of crumbling civilizations. Idiot generals wage endless, unwinnable wars that bankrupt the nation. Idiot economists call for reducing taxes for the rich and cutting social service programs for the poor, and project economic growth on the basis of myth. Idiot industrialists poison the water, the soil and the air, slash jobs and depress wages. Idiot bankers gamble on self-created financial bubbles and impose crippling debt peonage on the citizens. Idiot journalists and public intellectuals pretend despotism is democracy. Idiot intelligence operatives orchestrate the overthrow of foreign governments to create lawless enclaves that give rise to enraged fanatics. Idiot professors, “experts” and “specialists” busy themselves with unintelligible jargon and arcane theory that buttresses the policies of the rulers. Idiot entertainers and producers create lurid spectacles of sex, gore and fantasy.
There is a familiar checklist for extinction. We are ticking off every item on it.
Always Question Authority 