home.social

#brutality — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #brutality, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Official misconduct and abuse by goons towards people detained in the immigration detention system is more likely than ever to go unpunished by the Trump Administration:

    "Trump Administration Closes Watchdog Office For Immigration Detention Abuses. The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman is in the process of removing all its public signage and ending its inspections":
    huffpost.com/entry/immigration
    #ICE #lawlessness #brutality #injustice #politics

  2. Christiane Amanpour: "Israeli settlers continue to attack Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. CNN Producer Abeer Salman reports from Umm al-Khair, where razor wire has blocked Palestinian children from going to school."
    #HumanRights #ethics #brutality #Israel #racism #values #education #politics

  3. "Brno court [...] sentenced a former police officer to three and a half years in prison for a brutal assault on a Vietnamese national which took place in January 2009. The man later died of serious internal injuries" -- "if he had received timely medical attention, he could have survived despite having a ruptured spleen and severe internal bleeding" -- "what the police thought was heroin were actually packages of starch" -- "yelling that he hated the Vietnamese" -- "abuse of power" -- "died the next day of serious injuries" -- "“[...]did not provide any medical attention"" -- "Two other policemen, who were standing by but did not interfere, landed conditional sentences. "

    2010, english.radio.cz/ex-policeman-

    I feel

    e x t r e m e l y ​ ​ s t r o n g ​ ​ c o n t e m p t

    towards the Czech regime.

    I better not buy starch now! Are there any other foodstuffs that I should avoid buying if I don't want to be IMO killed by brutal assault by the brutal Czech regime? Flour? Sugar? Baking soda? Salt? Now a citizen is afraid to buy basic foodstuffs! I believe that is called terrorism!

    The inclusion of the following hashtags is not meant to represent a relation to the content or topic of the reply or post and may or may not be only loosely related or based on loose, indirect or multiply indirect, logical, emotional, impressional or subconscious associations or a combination thereof, or completely unrelated:

    #regime #policebrutality #policekilling #racism #racialhatred #falseaccusation #drugparanoia #paranoia #victimblaming #brutality #statebrutality #czechregime #czechRepublic #policerepression #repression #staterepression #xenophobia #perpetrator #police #policeman #deprivation #medicalneglect #vietnamese #brutalregime #terrorism #stateterrorism #terroristregime #terroriststate

  4. A quotation from Horace

    The Rash, the Lazy, Lover, none’s so wild,
    But may be tame, and may be wisely mild,
    If they consult true Vertue’s Rules with care,
    And lend to good advice a patient ear.
     
    [Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator,
    nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
    si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.]

    Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
    Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 38ff (1.1.38-40) (20 BC) [tr. Creech (1684)]

    More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/78567/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #advice #anger #brutality #character #coarseness #culture #degradation #drunkenness #envy #faults #gluttony #lust #moralcharacter #norms #reform #rehabilitation #selfcontrol #selfimprovement #sloth #society #temperament #vice #virtue #wisdom #wrath

  5. A quotation from Horace

    The Rash, the Lazy, Lover, none’s so wild,
    But may be tame, and may be wisely mild,
    If they consult true Vertue’s Rules with care,
    And lend to good advice a patient ear.
     
    [Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator,
    nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
    si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.]

    Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
    Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 38ff (1.1.38-40) (20 BC) [tr. Creech (1684)]

    More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/78567/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #advice #anger #brutality #character #coarseness #culture #degradation #drunkenness #envy #faults #gluttony #lust #moralcharacter #norms #reform #rehabilitation #selfcontrol #selfimprovement #sloth #society #temperament #vice #virtue #wisdom #wrath

  6. A quotation from Horace

    The Rash, the Lazy, Lover, none’s so wild,
    But may be tame, and may be wisely mild,
    If they consult true Vertue’s Rules with care,
    And lend to good advice a patient ear.
     
    [Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator,
    nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
    si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.]

    Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
    Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 38ff (1.1.38-40) (20 BC) [tr. Creech (1684)]

    More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/78567/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #advice #anger #brutality #character #coarseness #culture #degradation #drunkenness #envy #faults #gluttony #lust #moralcharacter #norms #reform #rehabilitation #selfcontrol #selfimprovement #sloth #society #temperament #vice #virtue #wisdom #wrath

  7. A quotation from Horace

    The Rash, the Lazy, Lover, none’s so wild,
    But may be tame, and may be wisely mild,
    If they consult true Vertue’s Rules with care,
    And lend to good advice a patient ear.
     
    [Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator,
    nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
    si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.]

    Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
    Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1 “To Maecenas,” l. 38ff (1.1.38-40) (20 BC) [tr. Creech (1684)]

    More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/78567/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #advice #anger #brutality #character #coarseness #culture #degradation #drunkenness #envy #faults #gluttony #lust #moralcharacter #norms #reform #rehabilitation #selfcontrol #selfimprovement #sloth #society #temperament #vice #virtue #wisdom #wrath

  8. “They voted for #impunity for themselves & #authoritarian #brutality directed at everyone they hated. Lesbian feminist bitches, dirty job-stealing immigrants, evil perverted trannies, on & on & on,” Katherine Alejandra Cross writes of Trump’s implicit bargain in *Liberal Currents*. “The brutality of #StateViolence was supposed to only ever be directed at their ideological foes. And in exchange, the #Trump voter would never again have to live with the mortifying ordeal of #responsibility.”

    #law

  9. Very disturbing videos being shared by both Iranian government and opposition sources abroad about the brutality and the extent of the violence in the organized riots on Jan 8 and Jan 9 across Iran.

    I can not verify the authenticity of these videos, so I will not share them on my telegram channel, but the patterns are similar to those of ISIS in Syria and Iraq from a decade ago.

    #Iran #IranProtests #IranRiots #ISIS #Mossad #Pahlavi #Basij #Brutality #Video

  10. Perdition Temple – Malign Apotheosis Review

    By Mark Z.

    Since coming to prominence as the guitarist and primary songwriter of Angelcorpse in the 1990s, Gene Palubicki has been tearing a burning warpath through the extreme metal underground, scorching eardrums with projects like his (sadly defunct) death-thrash band Blasphemic Cruelty and his current collaboration with Morbid Angel’s Steve Tucker and Origin’s John Longstreth1 in the death metal supergroup Malefic Throne. My favorite of Gene’s post-Angelcorpse projects, however, is Perdition Temple, probably because it sounds the most like Angelcorpse. In fact, as noted by the great Al Kikuras years ago in his review of the band’s 2015 sophomore album The Tempter’s Victorious, the band’s 2010 debut Edict of the Antichrist Elect was originally intended to be the fifth Angelcorpse album. Ever since Mr. Kikuras’s evocative prose turned me on to Perdition Temple, I’ve slowly become a salivating fanboy for them, going from trying to make sense of what the fuck I was hearing to scaring soccer moms in my neighborhood by walking around in a hoodie adorned with the album art of The Tempter’s Victorious (with inverted crosses on the sleeves for good measure).

    After Tempter‘s, Gene stripped the band down to a power trio consisting of himself on vocals and guitar, Alex Blume (Ares Kingdom, ex-Blasphemic Cruelty) on bass, and Ron Parmer (Malevolent Creation, Brutality) behind the kit. This lineup appeared on 2020’s Sacraments of Descension (which was an enjoyable album that I probably underrated at the time) and 2022’s Merciless Upheaval (which was really more of a glorified EP, given that half of its eight songs were covers). Now, this same crew is back with 2025’s Malign Apotheosis, another firestorm of an album with just enough of a different approach to still feel fresh.

    Of course, Perdition Temple are the sort of underground band that are never going to stray too far from their signature formula. And indeed, this album’s scalding blackened death metal approach is largely similar to what Perdition Temple have always done. The opening track, “Resurrect Damnation,” shows Gene’s trademark six-string attack leading the charge as well as we’ve ever heard it, with the song crammed full of supercharged Morbid Angel riffs, rapidly churning tremolos, lightning-speed solos, a vaguely thrashy midsection, and a quick devilish motif that just barely holds everything together.

    “Quick” actually turns out to be apt description for these eight tracks as a whole. While Perdition Temple have always been fast, prior albums often incorporated notable slower moments to add some memorability and variety to the mayhem. Here, only “Kingdoms of the Bloodstained” really slows down for any decent amount of time, with its abrasive mid-tempo bridge sounding like Immolation reforged in the fires of blackened death metal. Most of these tracks instead take the approach of the follow-up song, “Purging Conflagration,” which maniacally barrels forward on violent, pounding chugs and squawking notes without ever stopping for air. The end result is perhaps the most relentless and vicious album the band have yet released.

    That’s not to say there’s nothing memorable or noteworthy here. The title track, for example, strikes especially hard by incorporating its addictive, staccato main riff between bouts of sludgy Morbid Angelisms. Likewise, the closing track, “Fell Sorcery,” shows that Gene’s reunion with John Longstreth in Malefic Throne may have caused some Origin influence to bleed over into here, as the song climaxes with an explosive laser beam riff that could have easily been pulled from a tech death album. Through it all, Gene’s raspy vocals sound more biting and scornful than ever, while Ron Parmer proves once again to be the perfect fit for this project. The man wisely refrains from using constant blast beats and instead beats the hell out of his kit in a way that has surprising finesse, matching the momentum and frequently morphing nature of Gene’s riffing. Perhaps this album’s most notable trait, however, is the production, which is more raw than the band’s prior work and recalls the unpolished sound of Behemoth‘s The Apostasy. While this makes the sooty guitars feel a tad subdued, the drums more than make up for this by punching through everything with satisfying clarity.

    A lot of bands tire out with age, but Perdition Temple apparently just gets dirtier and more relentless. Malign Apotheosis may not dethrone the band’s first two albums, but it’s a surefire win for fans of the band, and another reminder of how great blackened death metal can be when it’s written by one of the wildest riff-writers in the business.

    Rating: 3.5/5.0
    DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
    Label: Hells Headbangers Records
    Websites: perditiontemple.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/perditiontemple
    Releases Worldwide: November 28th, 2025

    #2025 #35 #americanMetal #angelcorpse #aresKingdom #behemoth #blackMetal #blasphemicCruelty #brutality #deathMetal #hellsHeadbangersRecords #immolation #maleficThrone #malevolentCreation #malignApotheosis #morbidAngel #nov25 #origin #perditionTemple #review #reviews

  11. A quotation from Wendell Berry

    Surely the idea of a “limited war” is one of the most dangerously self-deceiving verbal gimmicks ever invented. For though war makes use of reason, as a weapon, it is not reasonable in nature. Its nature is the nature of pride and anger. It follows the brute logic of violent emotion, which points directly toward the use of the greatest available power.

    Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
    Speech (1968-02-10), “A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft, University of Kentucky

    More info about this quote: wist.info/berry-wendell/79838/

    #quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #wendellberry #anger #brutality #ego #emotion #lethality #limitedwar #power #pride #selfdeception #unreasoning #violence #war #warfare #irrationality

  12. Monday, May 26, 2025

    China supplying Russian military factories with chemicals, gunpowder, components — Russia ‘categorically’ rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks — Russians mock US and peace process with latest attacks on Ukraine, EU ambassador says — Putin is not interested in peace; German FM calls for additional sanctions following large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025

  13. Monday, May 26, 2025

    China supplying Russian military factories with chemicals, gunpowder, components — Russia ‘categorically’ rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks — Russians mock US and peace process with latest attacks on Ukraine, EU ambassador says — Putin is not interested in peace; German FM calls for additional sanctions following large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025

  14. Monday, May 26, 2025

    China supplying Russian military factories with chemicals, gunpowder, components — Russia ‘categorically’ rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks — Russians mock US and peace process with latest attacks on Ukraine, EU ambassador says — Putin is not interested in peace; German FM calls for additional sanctions following large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025

  15. Monday, May 26, 2025

    China supplying Russian military factories with chemicals, gunpowder, components — Russia ‘categorically’ rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks — Russians mock US and peace process with latest attacks on Ukraine, EU ambassador says — Putin is not interested in peace; German FM calls for additional sanctions following large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025

  16. Monday, May 26, 2025

    China supplying Russian military factories with chemicals, gunpowder, components — Russia ‘categorically’ rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks — Russians mock US and peace process with latest attacks on Ukraine, EU ambassador says — Putin is not interested in peace; German FM calls for additional sanctions following large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine

    activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025

  17. URGENT: According to the Prisoners Media Office, Attorney Ghaida Qasem from #Nazareth visited Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in "Ofer" prison after over 70 days in detention, including 14 days in the notorious "Sde Teiman" detention center.

    She reported that Dr. Abu Safiya was first held in "Sde Teman" for 14 days in isolation, then transferred to "Ofer," where he spent another 25 days in solitary confinement.

    His longest interrogation lasted 13 consecutive days, with each session spanning 8-10 hours. He endured severe #abuse, #torture, and relentless #brutality throughout.

    Before his arrest, Abu Safiya’s son was martyred in Gaza and buried temporarily near Kamal Adwan #Hospital. His first question during the visit was whether his son had received a proper and dignified burial. He was also deeply affected by his mother’s passing 10 days after his arrest.

    Qasem noted: "He had no idea that his case had gained such widespread local, Arab, and international attention. Prisoners are almost completely isolated inside the prison, and they do not know what is happening outside, nor are they aware of developments in Gaza."

    Regarding the torture and repression Abu Safiya recounted, Qasem said: "If we are talking about 'Sde Teman,' it is a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word. The torture, violations, and starvation there are unprecedented. We are talking about prisoners who have been shackled for 10 months, prisoners with amputated limbs without medical care, elderly detainees who are bound and blindfolded, detainees who have lost 70 to 90 kilograms of weight. In addition, there is the extreme cold—prisoners are held in open cages, exposed to the wind and rain, forced to sit on the ground at all times, forbidden from speaking to one another, praying, or reading the #Quran."

    She continued: "In addition to the physical torture, there is psychological torment, as intelligence officers inform prisoners that their entire families have been martyred."

    The occupation authorities attempted to charge him but, after 45 days of interrogations and torture, failed to find any evidence. His case was reverted to "unlawful combatant" status, stripping him of all legal rights, including representation and formal charges, allowing indefinite detention.

    Despite his suffering, Abu Safiya remains in high spirits. He emphasized: “A person is their history, and their history is a stance that is taken and studied.”

    Last month, zionist media aired footage of Abu Safiya, shackled and visibly exhausted, in a Channel 13 interview—the first since his arrest on December 27, 2024. This followed the occupation's decision to classify him as an "unlawful combatant" and reports of his torture, mistreatment, and medical neglect.

    #DrAbuSafiya #NotATaeget #Hostage #FreeDrAbuSafiya
    #Gaza #SaveGaza #StopIsrael #SanctionIsrael #BDS
    #palestine #Israel #Politics #Genocide #PeaceNow #StopTheWar #CeasefireNow @palestine @israel

  18. It’s Happening Now But People Don’t See It - Zack de la Rocha on Challenging The System

    youtube.com/watch?v=9raTwE8-12

    An eye-opening and powerful speech from American singer, songwriter Zach de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine, on challenging the system.

    “I think every revolutionary act is an act of love." Zach de la Rocha

    #SystemChange #ZackDeLaRocha #documentary #oppression #TheMachine #colonialism #frustration #ClassWar #Brutality #USA #Empire #Genocide #Slavery #OpulentClass #Profit

  19. Israel went from the majority on its side to become an international pariah. For decades, they’ve promoted themselves as a democracy in the Middle East. The right true side has now been shown through the brutality in Gaza that has forced the world to open its eyes. Instead of victims, they are now seen through the eyes of its victims.

    #Israel #brutality #Victims #warcrimes #eyeopener

  20. Israel went from the majority on its side to become an international pariah. For decades, they’ve promoted themselves as a democracy in the Middle East. The right true side has now been shown through the brutality in Gaza that has forced the world to open its eyes. Instead of victims, they are now seen through the eyes of its victims.

    #Israel #brutality #Victims #warcrimes #eyeopener

  21. Israel went from the majority on its side to become an international pariah. For decades, they’ve promoted themselves as a democracy in the Middle East. The right true side has now been shown through the brutality in Gaza that has forced the world to open its eyes. Instead of victims, they are now seen through the eyes of its victims.

    #Israel #brutality #Victims #warcrimes #eyeopener

  22. Israel went from the majority on its side to become an international pariah. For decades, they’ve promoted themselves as a democracy in the Middle East. The right true side has now been shown through the brutality in Gaza that has forced the world to open its eyes. Instead of victims, they are now seen through the eyes of its victims.

    #Israel #brutality #Victims #warcrimes #eyeopener

  23. Israel went from the majority on its side to become an international pariah. For decades, they’ve promoted themselves as a democracy in the Middle East. The right true side has now been shown through the brutality in Gaza that has forced the world to open its eyes. Instead of victims, they are now seen through the eyes of its victims.

    #Israel #brutality #Victims #warcrimes #eyeopener

  24. A World of Slaves:
    Most Americans haven’t seen what’s coming.

    Nancy MacLean notes that when the #Kochs’ control of the GOP kicked into high gear after the financial crisis of 2007-08, many were so stunned by the “shock-and-awe” tactics of #shutting #down government, #destroying #labor unions, and #rolling #back #services that meet citizens’ basic necessities that few realized that many leading the charge had been trained in economics at Virginia institutions, especially George Mason University.

    Wasn’t it just a new, particularly vicious wave of partisan politics?
    It wasn’t.

    MacLean convincingly illustrates that it was something far more disturbing.
    MacLean is not the only scholar to sound the alarm that the country is experiencing a #hostile #takeover that is well on its way to radically, and perhaps permanently, altering the society.

    Peter #Temin, former head of the MIT economics department, INET grantee, and author of "The Vanishing Middle Class", as well as economist Gordon #Lafer of the University of Oregon and author of "The One Percent Solution", have provided eye-opening analyses of where America is headed and why.

    MacLean adds another dimension to this dystopian big picture, acquainting us with what has been overlooked in the capitalist right wing’s playbook.

    She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like #privatization.

    Efforts to “reform” #public #education and #Social #Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree.

    Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, #weakening pro-public forces and #enhancing the #lobbying #power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to #dismantle #democracy and make way for a return to #oligarchy.

    The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

    MacLean argues that despite the rhetoric of Virginia school acolytes, shrinking big government is not really the point.

    The #oligarchs require a government with tremendous new powers so that they can bypass the will of the people.
    This, as MacLean points out, requires greatly #expanding #police #powers “to control the resultant popular anger.”
    The spreading use of pre-emption by GOP-controlled state legislatures to suppress local progressive victories such as living wage ordinances is another example of the right’s #aggressive use of #state #power.

    👉Could these right-wing capitalists allow private companies to fill #prisons with helpless citizens—or, more profitable still, right-less undocumented #immigrants? ☑️They could, and have.

    👉Might they engineer a #retirement #crisis by moving Americans to inadequate 401(k)s? ☑️Done.

    👉Take away the rights of consumers and workers to bring grievances to court by making them sign #forced #arbitration agreements? ☑️Check.

    👉Gut #public #education to the point where ordinary people have such bleak prospects that they have no energy to fight back? ☑️Getting it done.

    👉Would they even refuse children #clean #water? ☑️Actually, yes.

    MacLean notes that in #Flint, Michigan, Americans got a taste of what the emerging oligarchy will look like — it tastes like #poisoned #water. There, the Koch-funded Mackinac Center pushed for legislation that would allow the governor to take control of communities facing emergency and put unelected managers in charge.
    In Flint, one such manager switched the city’s water supply to a polluted river, but the Mackinac Center’s lobbyists ensured that the law was fortified by protections against lawsuits that poisoned inhabitants might bring. Tens of thousands of children were exposed to #lead, a substance known to cause serious health problems including brain damage.

    Libertarian economist Tyler #Cowen has provided an economic #justification for this kind of #brutality, stating that where it is difficult to get clean water, private companies should take over and make people pay for it. “This includes giving them the right to cut off people who don’t—or can’t—pay their bills,” he explains.

    To many this sounds grotesquely #inhumane, but it is a way of thinking that has deep roots in America.

    In "Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative" (2005), Buchanan considers the charge of #heartlessness made against the kind of classic liberal that he took himself to be.

    MacLean interprets his discussion to mean that people who “failed to foresee and save money for their future needs” are to be treated, as Buchanan put it, “as #subordinate members of the species, akin to…#animals who are dependent.’”

    Do you have your education, health care, and retirement personally funded against all possible exigencies?
    Then that means #you.

    ineteconomics.org/perspectives

  25. A World of Slaves:
    Most Americans haven’t seen what’s coming.

    Nancy MacLean notes that when the #Kochs’ control of the GOP kicked into high gear after the financial crisis of 2007-08, many were so stunned by the “shock-and-awe” tactics of #shutting #down government, #destroying #labor unions, and #rolling #back #services that meet citizens’ basic necessities that few realized that many leading the charge had been trained in economics at Virginia institutions, especially George Mason University.

    Wasn’t it just a new, particularly vicious wave of partisan politics?
    It wasn’t.

    MacLean convincingly illustrates that it was something far more disturbing.
    MacLean is not the only scholar to sound the alarm that the country is experiencing a #hostile #takeover that is well on its way to radically, and perhaps permanently, altering the society.

    Peter #Temin, former head of the MIT economics department, INET grantee, and author of "The Vanishing Middle Class", as well as economist Gordon #Lafer of the University of Oregon and author of "The One Percent Solution", have provided eye-opening analyses of where America is headed and why.

    MacLean adds another dimension to this dystopian big picture, acquainting us with what has been overlooked in the capitalist right wing’s playbook.

    She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like #privatization.

    Efforts to “reform” #public #education and #Social #Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree.

    Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, #weakening pro-public forces and #enhancing the #lobbying #power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to #dismantle #democracy and make way for a return to #oligarchy.

    The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

    MacLean argues that despite the rhetoric of Virginia school acolytes, shrinking big government is not really the point.

    The #oligarchs require a government with tremendous new powers so that they can bypass the will of the people.
    This, as MacLean points out, requires greatly #expanding #police #powers “to control the resultant popular anger.”
    The spreading use of pre-emption by GOP-controlled state legislatures to suppress local progressive victories such as living wage ordinances is another example of the right’s #aggressive use of #state #power.

    👉Could these right-wing capitalists allow private companies to fill #prisons with helpless citizens—or, more profitable still, right-less undocumented #immigrants? ☑️They could, and have.

    👉Might they engineer a #retirement #crisis by moving Americans to inadequate 401(k)s? ☑️Done.

    👉Take away the rights of consumers and workers to bring grievances to court by making them sign #forced #arbitration agreements? ☑️Check.

    👉Gut #public #education to the point where ordinary people have such bleak prospects that they have no energy to fight back? ☑️Getting it done.

    👉Would they even refuse children #clean #water? ☑️Actually, yes.

    MacLean notes that in #Flint, Michigan, Americans got a taste of what the emerging oligarchy will look like — it tastes like #poisoned #water. There, the Koch-funded Mackinac Center pushed for legislation that would allow the governor to take control of communities facing emergency and put unelected managers in charge.
    In Flint, one such manager switched the city’s water supply to a polluted river, but the Mackinac Center’s lobbyists ensured that the law was fortified by protections against lawsuits that poisoned inhabitants might bring. Tens of thousands of children were exposed to #lead, a substance known to cause serious health problems including brain damage.

    Libertarian economist Tyler #Cowen has provided an economic #justification for this kind of #brutality, stating that where it is difficult to get clean water, private companies should take over and make people pay for it. “This includes giving them the right to cut off people who don’t—or can’t—pay their bills,” he explains.

    To many this sounds grotesquely #inhumane, but it is a way of thinking that has deep roots in America.

    In "Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative" (2005), Buchanan considers the charge of #heartlessness made against the kind of classic liberal that he took himself to be.

    MacLean interprets his discussion to mean that people who “failed to foresee and save money for their future needs” are to be treated, as Buchanan put it, “as #subordinate members of the species, akin to…#animals who are dependent.’”

    Do you have your education, health care, and retirement personally funded against all possible exigencies?
    Then that means #you.

    ineteconomics.org/perspectives

  26. A World of Slaves:
    Most Americans haven’t seen what’s coming.

    Nancy MacLean notes that when the #Kochs’ control of the GOP kicked into high gear after the financial crisis of 2007-08, many were so stunned by the “shock-and-awe” tactics of #shutting #down government, #destroying #labor unions, and #rolling #back #services that meet citizens’ basic necessities that few realized that many leading the charge had been trained in economics at Virginia institutions, especially George Mason University.

    Wasn’t it just a new, particularly vicious wave of partisan politics?
    It wasn’t.

    MacLean convincingly illustrates that it was something far more disturbing.
    MacLean is not the only scholar to sound the alarm that the country is experiencing a #hostile #takeover that is well on its way to radically, and perhaps permanently, altering the society.

    Peter #Temin, former head of the MIT economics department, INET grantee, and author of "The Vanishing Middle Class", as well as economist Gordon #Lafer of the University of Oregon and author of "The One Percent Solution", have provided eye-opening analyses of where America is headed and why.

    MacLean adds another dimension to this dystopian big picture, acquainting us with what has been overlooked in the capitalist right wing’s playbook.

    She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like #privatization.

    Efforts to “reform” #public #education and #Social #Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree.

    Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, #weakening pro-public forces and #enhancing the #lobbying #power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to #dismantle #democracy and make way for a return to #oligarchy.

    The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

    MacLean argues that despite the rhetoric of Virginia school acolytes, shrinking big government is not really the point.

    The #oligarchs require a government with tremendous new powers so that they can bypass the will of the people.
    This, as MacLean points out, requires greatly #expanding #police #powers “to control the resultant popular anger.”
    The spreading use of pre-emption by GOP-controlled state legislatures to suppress local progressive victories such as living wage ordinances is another example of the right’s #aggressive use of #state #power.

    👉Could these right-wing capitalists allow private companies to fill #prisons with helpless citizens—or, more profitable still, right-less undocumented #immigrants? ☑️They could, and have.

    👉Might they engineer a #retirement #crisis by moving Americans to inadequate 401(k)s? ☑️Done.

    👉Take away the rights of consumers and workers to bring grievances to court by making them sign #forced #arbitration agreements? ☑️Check.

    👉Gut #public #education to the point where ordinary people have such bleak prospects that they have no energy to fight back? ☑️Getting it done.

    👉Would they even refuse children #clean #water? ☑️Actually, yes.

    MacLean notes that in #Flint, Michigan, Americans got a taste of what the emerging oligarchy will look like — it tastes like #poisoned #water. There, the Koch-funded Mackinac Center pushed for legislation that would allow the governor to take control of communities facing emergency and put unelected managers in charge.
    In Flint, one such manager switched the city’s water supply to a polluted river, but the Mackinac Center’s lobbyists ensured that the law was fortified by protections against lawsuits that poisoned inhabitants might bring. Tens of thousands of children were exposed to #lead, a substance known to cause serious health problems including brain damage.

    Libertarian economist Tyler #Cowen has provided an economic #justification for this kind of #brutality, stating that where it is difficult to get clean water, private companies should take over and make people pay for it. “This includes giving them the right to cut off people who don’t—or can’t—pay their bills,” he explains.

    To many this sounds grotesquely #inhumane, but it is a way of thinking that has deep roots in America.

    In "Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative" (2005), Buchanan considers the charge of #heartlessness made against the kind of classic liberal that he took himself to be.

    MacLean interprets his discussion to mean that people who “failed to foresee and save money for their future needs” are to be treated, as Buchanan put it, “as #subordinate members of the species, akin to…#animals who are dependent.’”

    Do you have your education, health care, and retirement personally funded against all possible exigencies?
    Then that means #you.

    ineteconomics.org/perspectives

  27. A World of Slaves:
    Most Americans haven’t seen what’s coming.

    Nancy MacLean notes that when the #Kochs’ control of the GOP kicked into high gear after the financial crisis of 2007-08, many were so stunned by the “shock-and-awe” tactics of #shutting #down government, #destroying #labor unions, and #rolling #back #services that meet citizens’ basic necessities that few realized that many leading the charge had been trained in economics at Virginia institutions, especially George Mason University.

    Wasn’t it just a new, particularly vicious wave of partisan politics?
    It wasn’t.

    MacLean convincingly illustrates that it was something far more disturbing.
    MacLean is not the only scholar to sound the alarm that the country is experiencing a #hostile #takeover that is well on its way to radically, and perhaps permanently, altering the society.

    Peter #Temin, former head of the MIT economics department, INET grantee, and author of "The Vanishing Middle Class", as well as economist Gordon #Lafer of the University of Oregon and author of "The One Percent Solution", have provided eye-opening analyses of where America is headed and why.

    MacLean adds another dimension to this dystopian big picture, acquainting us with what has been overlooked in the capitalist right wing’s playbook.

    She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like #privatization.

    Efforts to “reform” #public #education and #Social #Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree.

    Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, #weakening pro-public forces and #enhancing the #lobbying #power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to #dismantle #democracy and make way for a return to #oligarchy.

    The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

    MacLean argues that despite the rhetoric of Virginia school acolytes, shrinking big government is not really the point.

    The #oligarchs require a government with tremendous new powers so that they can bypass the will of the people.
    This, as MacLean points out, requires greatly #expanding #police #powers “to control the resultant popular anger.”
    The spreading use of pre-emption by GOP-controlled state legislatures to suppress local progressive victories such as living wage ordinances is another example of the right’s #aggressive use of #state #power.

    👉Could these right-wing capitalists allow private companies to fill #prisons with helpless citizens—or, more profitable still, right-less undocumented #immigrants? ☑️They could, and have.

    👉Might they engineer a #retirement #crisis by moving Americans to inadequate 401(k)s? ☑️Done.

    👉Take away the rights of consumers and workers to bring grievances to court by making them sign #forced #arbitration agreements? ☑️Check.

    👉Gut #public #education to the point where ordinary people have such bleak prospects that they have no energy to fight back? ☑️Getting it done.

    👉Would they even refuse children #clean #water? ☑️Actually, yes.

    MacLean notes that in #Flint, Michigan, Americans got a taste of what the emerging oligarchy will look like — it tastes like #poisoned #water. There, the Koch-funded Mackinac Center pushed for legislation that would allow the governor to take control of communities facing emergency and put unelected managers in charge.
    In Flint, one such manager switched the city’s water supply to a polluted river, but the Mackinac Center’s lobbyists ensured that the law was fortified by protections against lawsuits that poisoned inhabitants might bring. Tens of thousands of children were exposed to #lead, a substance known to cause serious health problems including brain damage.

    Libertarian economist Tyler #Cowen has provided an economic #justification for this kind of #brutality, stating that where it is difficult to get clean water, private companies should take over and make people pay for it. “This includes giving them the right to cut off people who don’t—or can’t—pay their bills,” he explains.

    To many this sounds grotesquely #inhumane, but it is a way of thinking that has deep roots in America.

    In "Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative" (2005), Buchanan considers the charge of #heartlessness made against the kind of classic liberal that he took himself to be.

    MacLean interprets his discussion to mean that people who “failed to foresee and save money for their future needs” are to be treated, as Buchanan put it, “as #subordinate members of the species, akin to…#animals who are dependent.’”

    Do you have your education, health care, and retirement personally funded against all possible exigencies?
    Then that means #you.

    ineteconomics.org/perspectives

  28. A World of Slaves:
    Most Americans haven’t seen what’s coming.

    Nancy MacLean notes that when the #Kochs’ control of the GOP kicked into high gear after the financial crisis of 2007-08, many were so stunned by the “shock-and-awe” tactics of #shutting #down government, #destroying #labor unions, and #rolling #back #services that meet citizens’ basic necessities that few realized that many leading the charge had been trained in economics at Virginia institutions, especially George Mason University.

    Wasn’t it just a new, particularly vicious wave of partisan politics?
    It wasn’t.

    MacLean convincingly illustrates that it was something far more disturbing.
    MacLean is not the only scholar to sound the alarm that the country is experiencing a #hostile #takeover that is well on its way to radically, and perhaps permanently, altering the society.

    Peter #Temin, former head of the MIT economics department, INET grantee, and author of "The Vanishing Middle Class", as well as economist Gordon #Lafer of the University of Oregon and author of "The One Percent Solution", have provided eye-opening analyses of where America is headed and why.

    MacLean adds another dimension to this dystopian big picture, acquainting us with what has been overlooked in the capitalist right wing’s playbook.

    She observes, for example, that many liberals have missed the point of strategies like #privatization.

    Efforts to “reform” #public #education and #Social #Security are not just about a preference for the private sector over the public sector, she argues. You can wrap your head around those, even if you don’t agree.

    Instead, MacLean contends, the goal of these strategies is to radically alter power relations, #weakening pro-public forces and #enhancing the #lobbying #power and commitment of the corporations that take over public services and resources, thus advancing the plans to #dismantle #democracy and make way for a return to #oligarchy.

    The majority will be held captive so that the wealthy can finally be free to do as they please, no matter how destructive.

    MacLean argues that despite the rhetoric of Virginia school acolytes, shrinking big government is not really the point.

    The #oligarchs require a government with tremendous new powers so that they can bypass the will of the people.
    This, as MacLean points out, requires greatly #expanding #police #powers “to control the resultant popular anger.”
    The spreading use of pre-emption by GOP-controlled state legislatures to suppress local progressive victories such as living wage ordinances is another example of the right’s #aggressive use of #state #power.

    👉Could these right-wing capitalists allow private companies to fill #prisons with helpless citizens—or, more profitable still, right-less undocumented #immigrants? ☑️They could, and have.

    👉Might they engineer a #retirement #crisis by moving Americans to inadequate 401(k)s? ☑️Done.

    👉Take away the rights of consumers and workers to bring grievances to court by making them sign #forced #arbitration agreements? ☑️Check.

    👉Gut #public #education to the point where ordinary people have such bleak prospects that they have no energy to fight back? ☑️Getting it done.

    👉Would they even refuse children #clean #water? ☑️Actually, yes.

    MacLean notes that in #Flint, Michigan, Americans got a taste of what the emerging oligarchy will look like — it tastes like #poisoned #water. There, the Koch-funded Mackinac Center pushed for legislation that would allow the governor to take control of communities facing emergency and put unelected managers in charge.
    In Flint, one such manager switched the city’s water supply to a polluted river, but the Mackinac Center’s lobbyists ensured that the law was fortified by protections against lawsuits that poisoned inhabitants might bring. Tens of thousands of children were exposed to #lead, a substance known to cause serious health problems including brain damage.

    Libertarian economist Tyler #Cowen has provided an economic #justification for this kind of #brutality, stating that where it is difficult to get clean water, private companies should take over and make people pay for it. “This includes giving them the right to cut off people who don’t—or can’t—pay their bills,” he explains.

    To many this sounds grotesquely #inhumane, but it is a way of thinking that has deep roots in America.

    In "Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative" (2005), Buchanan considers the charge of #heartlessness made against the kind of classic liberal that he took himself to be.

    MacLean interprets his discussion to mean that people who “failed to foresee and save money for their future needs” are to be treated, as Buchanan put it, “as #subordinate members of the species, akin to…#animals who are dependent.’”

    Do you have your education, health care, and retirement personally funded against all possible exigencies?
    Then that means #you.

    ineteconomics.org/perspectives