Mike Malloy: Remember, Remember, the 5th of November...

by Mike Malloy
October 23, 2008 at 18:02:42

So how does the US prepare for a presidential election here at the beginning of this already exhausted, near bankrupt, blood-soaked new century? Why, the same way it's done in Zimbabwe, Burma, Egypt, and Cameroon. Not to mention scores of other countries that receive billions in lethal military aid from the US taxpayer: By placing elements of the military on alert; by militarizing the local police departments; by placing the State Police on active stand-by; by declaring a preemptive state of emergency; by suspending whatever pretend civil rights might still be in play -- assembly, speech, habeas corpus, due process, probable cause -- and by notifying the general public there is the distinct possibility of massive civil disorder if the wrong candidate wins, the wrong candidate being either one of the two running.

Alexandra Bolton, writing at http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/police-prepare-for-unrest-2008-10-21.html">TheHill, describes how the various authorities are preparing for the possibility of what is being called "Post-Election Unrest." This would all be so funny, so slapstick ridiculous -- like the Marx Brothers in Freedonia -- except it isn't. It's deadly serious. Already the right-wing psychopaths are clogging the Web with cowardly, half-assed threats of their beer-bellied violence should the black guy "steal" the election.

Christianist fundamentalist radio hosts and whacked-out preachers are telling their arm-waving, eye-rolling congregations that this could be it! This could be that moment! when Jeebus returns! when the righteous shall rise in the air like duck feathers! when the streets are awash in the blood of the unrighteous! and the Lamb of God descends to enjoy the mess! And all because it says so in, what? Jeremiah? Ezekiel? Daniel? Mad Magazine? The Onion?

Where are we? Philosopher/astronomer Carl Sagan framed it best not long before he died. We live, he said, in a demon haunted world. While his reference may have been focused primarily on the anti-scientific religious bullshit in which the planet now finds itself neck-deep, he also may have been warning his readers about the sick, twisted, political leaders scattered across the planet as well, leaders who are in no danger of losing their power since the inability of those they control to think, to resist, to rebel, has been excised, burned away, by -- among other forms of control -- the now almost global fear of "terrorism."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Remember-Remember-the-5t-by-Mike-Malloy-081023-899.html">Continued here.