New Brownshirts

Yeah, that. Not content with the department of homeland security he wants to build a civilian army/militia and fund/equip it equal to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Factcheck.org lies and says oh, that's not what he means. Uh, yeah he does. The Black Panthers standing security around polling places were just the shreds of the beginning.

Now I don't know how scary to find all this - the guy has promised such immense, nonsensical impossibilities in such high numbers (and is finding out he doesn't even really have a clue how to actually do ANY of them - he might be reduced to simply reversing every executive order signed in the last 8 years, and that's fine with me) - but if he manages to get some momentum these things are going to have to be fought every step of the way. It's going to be upon the sane among us to STOP shit like mandatory servitude to the country in brownshirt operations before they ever get off the launching pad. It's going to be up to us to be watching with hawk-eyes peeled, for any SIGN that these things are being begun quietly, without going through proper channels (what is the proper channel for setting up a US Schutzstaffel/KGB, by the way? He's gonna have to make new channels - another thing we're going to have to watch out for.)

It's going to remain to be seen how frightened we should be - clearly this guy MEANS to dismantle every institution and system we have had in place for 200 years and replace it with a communist utopia, but intent without know-how or intelligence may not get someone too far; especially when the bar is set so impossibly high. Remaking a country in your image? That isn't easy, even if all the circumstances converge (the way they did for Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini et. al.) and you have a dumbed-down, willing populace (check) and a charismatic Dear Leader (go ahead and tell me he's charismatic, but all I see is a jug-eared, weird-looking guy who's speech patterns get right the fuck on my nerves every time, and a smirk that makes me want to slap it off his face - so yeah, I don't see the draw.)

A civilian security force as well-funded and armed as the armed forces. Involuntary servitude. Central planning you can believe in!

While we're on the subject, Jim Treacher has a piece up about it. Enjoy. (November 16 entry.)