George Monbiot: ‘Try to stop me’ – the mantra of our leaders who are now ruling with impunity
It is not a sufficient condition for fascism to take root, but it is a necessary one: the willingness of political leaders not only to break the law but to revel in breaking it is a fatal step towards the replacement of democracy with authoritarian terror.
We see this at work in the United States today, where the Republican party’s blatant disregard for the constitution will allow Donald Trump to escape impeachment. If Trump is elected for a second term, he will test to the limit the potential for wielding unconstitutional power. But the phenomenon is not confined to the US. Several powerful governments now wear illegality almost as a badge of honour
John Feffer - The Threat of Political Climate Change
Fascist and prefascist governments share, among others, two linked characteristics: they proudly flout the laws that are supposed to restrain them while introducing new, often unconstitutional laws to contain political opponents or oppress minorities. In Brazil, outrages against indigenous people, opposition politicians and journalists are encouraged and celebrated at the highest levels of government. Jair Bolsonaro won the presidential election with the help of a judicial coup in which due process was abandoned to secure the imprisonment of the frontrunner, Luiz Inácio da Silva (Lula). Bolsonaro has been photographed embracing two of the suspects in the murder of the leftwing councillor Marielle Franco, and has sought to block corruption investigations into his son Flávio, who allegedly has close links with members of the paramilitary gang accused of killing her.
In response to democratic protests, Brazil’s economy minister has threatened to impose martial law. Bolsonaro has called for the police to execute suspected criminals: “These guys are going to die in the streets like cockroaches – and that’s how it should be.” His racist comments about indigenous people, and curtailment of the agencies supposed to protect them, could help explain a new spate of murders by loggers, miners and ranchers. Human rights groups are urging the international criminal court to investigate Bolsonaro for incitement to genocide. The investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has published explosive reports about corruption and crime in Bolsonaro’s government, and his husband, the leftwing congressman and Guardian columnist David Miranda, have received repeated death threats, containing details about their lives that only the state could know. Greenwald has now been spuriously charged with cybercrimes.
The far-right Bolsonaro movement wants us dead. But we will not give up
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after discovering that his alleged association with the 2002 Gujarat massacres no longer appeared to tarnish his name, is laying the foundations for a vicious ethno-nationalism. His new citizenship law deliberately denies rights to Muslims and could render millions of people stateless. People protesting against this act are brutally attacked by the police. Police and armed gangs have raided two Delhi universities, randomly beating up students, to spread generalised terror. In Uttar Pradesh, political opponents are routinely imprisoned without charge and tortured....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/try-to-stop-me-the-mantra-of-our-leaders-who-are-now-ruling-with-impunity
see also
JC Kumarappa's Gandian economics
The politics of nostalgia by SAMUEL EARLE
We see this at work in the United States today, where the Republican party’s blatant disregard for the constitution will allow Donald Trump to escape impeachment. If Trump is elected for a second term, he will test to the limit the potential for wielding unconstitutional power. But the phenomenon is not confined to the US. Several powerful governments now wear illegality almost as a badge of honour
John Feffer - The Threat of Political Climate Change
Fascist and prefascist governments share, among others, two linked characteristics: they proudly flout the laws that are supposed to restrain them while introducing new, often unconstitutional laws to contain political opponents or oppress minorities. In Brazil, outrages against indigenous people, opposition politicians and journalists are encouraged and celebrated at the highest levels of government. Jair Bolsonaro won the presidential election with the help of a judicial coup in which due process was abandoned to secure the imprisonment of the frontrunner, Luiz Inácio da Silva (Lula). Bolsonaro has been photographed embracing two of the suspects in the murder of the leftwing councillor Marielle Franco, and has sought to block corruption investigations into his son Flávio, who allegedly has close links with members of the paramilitary gang accused of killing her.
In response to democratic protests, Brazil’s economy minister has threatened to impose martial law. Bolsonaro has called for the police to execute suspected criminals: “These guys are going to die in the streets like cockroaches – and that’s how it should be.” His racist comments about indigenous people, and curtailment of the agencies supposed to protect them, could help explain a new spate of murders by loggers, miners and ranchers. Human rights groups are urging the international criminal court to investigate Bolsonaro for incitement to genocide. The investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has published explosive reports about corruption and crime in Bolsonaro’s government, and his husband, the leftwing congressman and Guardian columnist David Miranda, have received repeated death threats, containing details about their lives that only the state could know. Greenwald has now been spuriously charged with cybercrimes.
The far-right Bolsonaro movement wants us dead. But we will not give up
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after discovering that his alleged association with the 2002 Gujarat massacres no longer appeared to tarnish his name, is laying the foundations for a vicious ethno-nationalism. His new citizenship law deliberately denies rights to Muslims and could render millions of people stateless. People protesting against this act are brutally attacked by the police. Police and armed gangs have raided two Delhi universities, randomly beating up students, to spread generalised terror. In Uttar Pradesh, political opponents are routinely imprisoned without charge and tortured....
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/05/try-to-stop-me-the-mantra-of-our-leaders-who-are-now-ruling-with-impunity
see also
JC Kumarappa's Gandian economics
The politics of nostalgia by SAMUEL EARLE
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