As Long as Capitalism Exists, The Threat of Fascism Exists, by Pete Dolack

Image by Ivan Radic via Flickr

by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Jan. 10, 2022
January 11, 2022

Six years is an eternity in politics. Consider what was common opinion at the start of 2016: That changing demographics in the United States favored the Democratic Party; it would soon be impossible for Republicans to win a national election unless they sharply changed from their primary strategy of sending dog whistles to their base of conservative white people, a dwindling percentage of the U.S. population.

The Language of Violence and Avoiding a Potential Reign of Terror, by Kenn Orphan

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
January 8, 2022

On May 22, 1856, Preston Brooks, a Democrat from South Carolina, beat Charles Sumner, a Republican from Massachusetts, with a walking cane on the floor of the US Senate. Brooks was a pro-slavery lawyer with a history of violent altercations. Sumner was an outspoken and passionate abolitionist.

Beyond Passive Resistance: Against Democratic Surrender in a Time of Fascitization, by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street, Dec. 16, 2021
December 27, 2021

Sixty percent of the U.S. populace backs Roe v. Wade and just 27 percent back its undoing even as the nation’s right-wing Supreme Court is strongly predisposed to reverse the decision by next summer. Where is the call for millions in the streets to defend women’s right to control their bodies over and against this anti-democratic outrage? Where is the uprising against a government structure and social order that permits this and numerous other forms of authoritarian insanity? It’s shocking to hear liberal talking heads say (basically) “oh well there goes Roe v. Wade for a generation, until we can get the votes and a better court back some day.” Are these shrugging accommodationists aware that the nation’s right-wing Minority Rule party is actively and effectively working (in the name of “stop the steal”) to permanently suppress and nullify votes and elections and policies that don’t go their patriarchal, white-nationalist way? How do they not understand that, as the leading feminist and communist Sunsara Taylor notes:

Hapless Biden Administration Is Weimar Republic on Way to U.S. Fascism, by Finian Cunningham

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by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Ireland
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation
November 23, 2021

The soaring economic inflation and social woes under the Biden administration point to a disastrous outcome awaiting the United States.

Reflections on Political Violence and Terror, by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street, Nov. 4, 2021
November 14, 2021

Political physical violence and the threat and capacity to use such violence, enforce ruling class power and other and related forms of domination and oppression. Ideological indoctrination and informational bias to “manufacture consent” matter a great deal of course, but we should not forget the significant role of force.

America’s Instinctive Fascism Creeps On, by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street, Nov. 4, 2021
November 7, 2021

Recently Norman Ornstein told Salon’s Chauncy de Vega that the United States is mired in a crisis of democracy that shows parallels with Germany’s descent into Nazism during the 1930s. Ornstein is right to worry about the nation’s ongoing lethal rightward drift beyond “normal” bourgeois democracy. That is how the United States’ political life is shaping up. The signs are ominous indeed. As de Vega writes, “the coup attempt of January is only a prelude to similar events in the future, when Republicans and their allies fully intend to overthrow any election they lose, and therefore deem illegitimate.”

Chris Hedges: Undercurrents of American Fascism

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Sep 16, 2021

On January 6, 2021, a mob incited by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, stormed the U.S. capital in an attempt to halt the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Within the mob, as the scholar Gabriel Rockhill points out, were many current members of the military and police. Some of the leaders of the organizations involved, such as Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio and Joseph Biggs, had direct ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, having served as FBI informants. Only one fifth of Capitol Police were on duty that day, and they were unprepared and under-equipped, even though the U.S. national security state had advance knowledge of the plot. Capitol Police were seen opening barricades and fraternizing with the mob.

Joe Biden’s Hollow Resistance: Words vs. Deeds, by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street, Aug. 8, 2021
August 10, 2021

“The president is increasingly at odds with leaders of the voting rights movement, who see a contrast between his soaring language and his willingness to push Congress to pass federal legislation.” — New York Times, July 22, 2021

No Time to Relax: Dark Clouds in Biden’s America, by Paul Street

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street, June 5, 2021
June 7, 2021

The sense of relief that came over many Americans after the malignant pandemo-fascist Donald Trump’s removal from power seems increasingly misplaced. The feeling of relaxation is understandable. The pandemic is in significant retreat inside the U.S. as summer dawns, thanks in part to the Biden administration’s vaccination efforts. The improved U.S. health outlook combined with Biden and the Congressional Democrats’ large opening stimulus package to spark some modest economic recovery and hiring expansion. Significantly vaccinated fans, shoppers, diners, vacationers, drinkers, entertainment seekers, and gamblers have returned to American major league baseball, basketball, and hockey games, beaches, bars, restaurants, hotels, casinos, movie theaters, concerts, and shopping malls.

America’s Political Illiteracy Sustains the Two-Party Tyranny, by Finian Cunningham

Image by Joe Flood via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Ireland
Crossposted from Strategic Culture Foundation, Mar. 7, 2021
March 10, 2021

The superficial distortions propagated by many American politicians and pundits only serve to sustain the status quo of oligarchic tyranny.

Paul Street: Is Trumpism Fascism? + Paul Jay: Trump’s Treason and McConnell’s Mayhem

Image by duncan c via Flickr

with Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
February 22, 2021

theAnalysis-news on Feb 22, 2021

Paul Street argues that it’s wrong to call January 6th an “insurrection”; this wasn’t a grassroots rank and file populist uprising by the people, it was instigated from the top down and part of a larger organized fascist effort.

Riots Don’t Change Systems, by Pete Dolack

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by Pete Dolack
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Systemic Disorder, Feb. 3, 2021
February 4, 2021

You say you want a revolution? There are no “lessons” for anyone on the Left to draw from the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol building in Washington.

Kenn Orphan: No Going Back to Normal

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by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
February 3, 2021

Radio Free Sunroot on Jan 31, 2021

…and why would we want “normal” anyway?

Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky: The State of the American Empire

Image by Jagz Mario via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Jan 23, 2021

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to Professor Noam Chomsky, the pioneering linguist, prolific author of numerous seminal political works, about the state of the American Empire.

The End of the American Brand, by Kenn Orphan

Image by Amaury Laporte via Flickr

by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
January 20, 2021

After far right fascists and supremacists stormed the Capitol this month, it is little wonder that the American Empire would ramp up the security state. It is on steroids now, with more troops in DC than there are in Iraq. But whatever one might think of the necessity of increased security at the Inauguration tomorrow, it should seem pretty clear by now that, although democracy never really existed in any true form in the US republic, the very pretense of it is now officially dead.