torture states love deciding who isn't a person today

[solarbird]

Warrantless wiretapping will extend to email, web browsing, file transfer - basically, they aren't going to even be pretending there's a 4th Amendment anymore. But that goes along with everything else - torture, extraordinary rendition, "disappearances," elimination of habeas corpus, the "unitary executive," executive rewriting of legislation via so-called "signing statements," and all the other kinds of crap I used to write other countries complaining about on behalf of Amnesty International. I'd ask how the hell we became one of those countries, but why? I already know. I should, I've been fighting it my whole life.

And hey, while I'm still digesting the full legal opinion - I was planning on posting about it, but I don't know whether I'll bother - you should know that pending appeal to the Supreme Court, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Gitmo prisoners aren't even - for legal purposes - persons. That includes the ones eventually let go because even the military admits they weren't terrorists at all. That's real important because the bill doesn't say they aren't persons; the court just made that up themselves. For bonus points, torture is a "foreseeable consequence" of any military detention and somehow there's no way you as a member of the armed forces or other government branch could know it might be illegal, so the "we were just following orders" defense is not just back, but affirmed in Federal court, baby! Champaign for everyone! At least, everyone in the government.

So hey, Americans, don't think you have a Constitution, or a government with limited powers, because you don't. That's over. A Constitution the government doesn't even pretend to follow isn't a Constitution at all, and you aren't citizens, and this isn't a Republic. You can still flap your pie hole all you want - it's not like they need to care about that - and it's still reasonably democratic in theory.¹ But unlike a lot of parliamentary systems, the system isn't architected for this kind of game, so don't expect the "goddamn piece of paper" to provide a lot of resistance if someone decides to take a swing at that part sometime down the road from now. Really, though, they won't - there's no need. Why do that, when things are working so well now? They do whatever the hell they want and the New Court at Versailles dances merrily along, at least, until it can't.

Me? I'm sick to death of it. I'll still be keeping an eye on things and throwing up occasional notices of the latest travesty of justice, but frankly, the noise merchants have managed to convince most of the people who vote that nothing will ever happen to them, so why should they care? Trust The Government, By Which We Mean the President, And We'll Keep You Safe. The pathetic cowards who buy into that deserve what they get - I'm just bitter about those of us who get dragged along against our wills. And for most of the the rest of the active voters, politics has devolved to petty tribalism, so I'm not going to look for much there. The independent activists - well, the government has learned (partly as a response to Vietnam) that for the most part, we can be safely ignored.

So when you go out, don't forget your internal passport, "citizen" - or, if you prefer, your state-themed national ID Card, now available in a wide array of security measures and decorator colours. Enjoy.

---

¹ and PS: ("Don't blame me - I voted for Kodos!")

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

The one thing about it is, this too shall pass, it's just how painful is it going to get before it does. For the French, it took a bloody revolution, two wars of conquest that they started, and two wars of conquest that the Germans started, before finally settling into something that, for the moment, seems stable... and all that took 150 years. Not a heck of a lot of time when you consider the history of France... OTOH, that's a hell of a long time for an American.

And it *is* up to us to make sure it doesn't become totally intolerable. I doubt there'll be any wars of conquest; Mexico doesn't have the military, the Canadians have no such desires, and nobody else has the blue-water navy to get here except maybe Britain, and they don't want us. It's the civil wars and the endless infighting and the total fucking lack of privacy that scare me and cheese me off.

And if it gets too bad and I'm otherwise in decent shape, if they wanna make me an outlaw... well...

Well, Mountie Bob he chased me, he was always at my throat
He'd follow on the shoreline 'cause he didn't own a boat
But the cutbacks were a-comin' and the Mountie lost his job
So now he's sailing with me and we call him Salty Bob
A swingin' sword, a skull-and-bones, and pleasant company
I never pay my income tax and screw the GST (Screw it!)
Prince Albert down to Saskatoon, the terror of the sea
If you wanna reach the co-op, boy, you gotta get by me! (Arr!)

But for now I think the Vaclav Havel approach that you and I are doing is about the best we *can* do... if the fix is in with Diebold again we're gonna get screwed in the elections. At least, it seems, that so far they're not inclined to waste lead on anyone, at least not of our, umm, caliber.

Thanks for keeping up with this crap. I have neither the time... nor the stomach.

[adularia.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the citation about that insane ruling that the prisoners aren't legally persons. I read that yesterday from craigp, but he didn't cite it, and it seemed too horrible to contemplate. (yep! it is.)

Your posts often leave me slightly queasy. This is way more than slightly.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I find myself increasingly doubtful that elections will even be held this year. I really feel like I should be looking at immigration requirements for various other countries soon.

[solarbird]

I find myself increasingly doubtful that elections will even be held this year.
Oh, I think there are too many power groups who want their turn. I could be wrong. I sincerely hope not, obviously. But it's genuinely not in the interests of the political class to bounce elections outright. It's certainly true that enough pieces have been put into place to make it easy - from the bills that federalised the National Guard to the evisceration of the Posse Comitatus Act to endemic surveillance to the above-the-law President to the detention and torture policies to rulings about personhood; the pieces you'd need are all in place. And that's more than bad enough. (I suppose, arguably, having that sort of thing ready is in the political class's interest.)

But I don't think they feel remotely threatened. Without that fear, there's no need to pull triggers. If and when that fear develops, then you might see something like that happen. But I don't think you'll see it before.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

That's a really good point that I hadn't considered. It really is in their best interests to preserve at least the appearance of democracy. And that gives us rather more chance of preserving the real deal. Thanks!